Spinning Lady Gaga

From Kenyon News - November 7, 2013

Author and DJ Brendan Jay Sullivan ’04, who befriended Lady Gaga early in her career and wrote about it, visits Kenyon on Wednesday, Oct. 16, to discuss his book Rivington Was Ours: Lady Gaga, the Lower East Side, and the Prime of Our Lives.

The free lecture takes place at 6 p.m. in the Gund Gallery Community Foundation Theater and will be followed, at 10 p.m., by Sullivan’s free DJ performance at 10 p.m. in the Horn Gallery. His lecture is called “Lady Gaga, Life on the Road, and What I Wish I learned at Kenyon” and his DJ performance, as DJ VH1, is called “The Dance Party Party.”

In 2006 Sullivan witnessed the transition from go-go dancer Stefani Germanotta to pop icon Lady Gaga. His memoir paints a portrait of the friendship Sullivan forged with Gaga, describing the pursuit of their dreams while navigating the nightlife culture of New York City. Sullivan appears in a cameo in the Gaga music video for “Just Dance.”

Sullivan has gone on to national and international DJ work as well as a freelance writing career, with stories published by Esquire and Interview magazines. His appearance at Kenyon is sponsored by Student Lectureships.

“I think (Sullivan) wanted to return to Kenyon for a while and saw this as a way to visit and see former professors for a bit and also promote his work and his new book,” said Max Rappoport ’14, of Oakton, Va., the co-president of Student Lectureships. “We don't usually collaborate with the Horn, but this appears to be a great way to link together two worlds at Kenyon that don't normally interact.

“Hopefully we'll see people go to both the talk and the performance, but I think either one will be a worthwhile experience.”

By Nina Zimmerman ’14