3 August
Lenny Bruce is dead but his ghost lives on and on _ Never did get any Golden Globe award, never made it to Synanon. _ He was an outlaw, that's for sure, _ More of an outlaw than you ever were. _ Lenny Bruce is gone but his spirit's livin' on and on.
‘What does it mean to be found obscene in New York? This is the most sophisticated city in the country … If anyone is the first person to be found obscene in New York, he must feel utterly depraved.’ Lenny Bruce
Comedian, writer and social critic, Lenny Bruce died today in 1966. Most well know for his conviction in 1964 under New York’s obscenity law, after using words such as ‘cocksucker’ and ‘motherfucker’ during his act at the Cafe Au Go Go nightclub. Bruce was to die of an overdose four years before his conviction was reversed and it took another 37 years for him to receive a posthumous pardon.
‘One last four-letter word for Lenny: Dead. At forty. That’s obscene.’
Dick Schaap, Playboy
Red Pepper in print
Subscribe to get the latest issue of the magazine
#229 No Return to ‘Normal’ ● Sir David King blasts the government ● State power, policing and civil rights under Covid-19 ● Hope and determination in grassroots resistance ● Black liberation and Palestine ● The future of ‘live’ ● Pubs, patriotism and precarity ● Latest book reviews ● And much more!
And you choose how much to pay for your subscription...
Red Pepper by email
Get the latest articles and updates in your inbox
Am I a modern slave?
Lyn Caballero describes her experiences as a migrant domestic worker and explains why domestic workers are campaigning for immigration policy change
Political blackness and Palestinian solidarity
The question of Palestine has become a black political litmus test, argues Annie Olaloku-Teriba, defining the very nature of black identity and politics
After the virus: no return to the old economy
As the Covid recession hits, Adam Peggs lays out alternative economic proposals the Labour left should be demanding
In and against, and outside, the party
Following major defeats, the left on both sides of the Atlantic must urgently get stuck into community organising, movement building and political education, argues Joe Guinan
A tribute to Mike Cooley
Co-creator of the Lucas Plan, Mike showed how the immense talent of workers could be deployed for social use rather than private profit, writes Phil Asquith
Build small, think big
Phillip O’Sullivan looks at the role of community energy groups in disrupting the energy status quo
