I Could Not Believe It

“What I love about this ‘potent historical artifact of Black youth,’ as Brontez Purnell describes it in his introduction, are its notes of uncertainty, lack of pretention and its persistent faith in tomorrow.”
—Andrew Durbin, Frieze

Sean DeLear (1965-2017) was an influential member of the “Silver Lake scene” of Los Angeles’ 1980s and 1990s before moving to Europe. In Vienna, he became part of the art collective Gelitin and devised a solo cabaret show, Sean DeLear on the Rocks. DeLear was a cultural boundary breaker whose work transcended sexuality, race, age, genres, and scenes. As Lina Lecaro wrote in the LA Weekly, “Sean DeLear epitomized everything that ever made me want to write about Los Angeles nightlife … He was Los Angeles royalty.”

Brontez Purnell is a writer, musician, dancer, filmmaker, and performance artist. He is the author of a graphic novel, a novella, a children’s book, and the novel Since I Laid My Burden Down. The recipient of a 2018 Whiting Writers’ Award for Fiction and the 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award, he was named one of the thirty-two Black Male Writers of Our Time by T: The New York Times Style Magazine in 2018. Born in Triana, Alabama, he’s lived in Oakland, California, for more than a decade.

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