Reginald Lamar Cox (born May 29, 1972), known professionally as M Lamar, is an American composer, performer, and artist. He is an operatic

countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a ...

and pianist whose work incorporates film, sculpture, installation, and performance. Lamar is the identical twin of actress

Laverne Cox Laverne Cox (born May 29, 1972) is an American actress and LGBTQ advocate. She rose to prominence with her role as Sophia Burset on the Netflix series '' Orange Is the New Black'', becoming the first transgender person to be nominated for a ...

, and played his sister's character pre- transition in two episodes of the

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

show ''

Orange Is the New Black ''Orange Is the New Black'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''OITNB'') is an American comedy-drama television series created by Jenji Kohan for Netflix. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoir '' Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Pr ...

''.

Early life and career

Lamar was born in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

, and as a child he sang as a soprano in his church's choir. He studied painting at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

and attended

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

for graduate school in sculpture before dropping out to focus on music. He moved to New York primarily to pursue vocal training with Ira Siff, founder and lead soprano of La Gran Scena Opera Company. In 2014, Lamar participated in an open dialogue with authors

bell hooks Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks (stylized in lowercase), was an American author, theorist, educator, and social critic who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Be ...

, Marci Blackman, and

Samuel R. Delany Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ; born April 1, 1942) is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexual orientation, sexuality, and ...

called "Transgressive Sexual Practice" as part of hooks’ work as scholar-in-residence at

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

. He has cited the writing of hooks and

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically accl ...

, as well as operatic composer

Diamanda Galás Diamanda Galás (born August 29, 1955) is a Greek American musician, singer-songwriter, and visual artist. She has campaigned for AIDS education and the rights of the infected. Galás's commitment to addressing social issues and her involvemen ...

’s '' Plague Mass'', as inspirations for his work. One Archive and the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

commissioned Lamar's ''Funeral Doom Spiritual'', which premiered in 2016 as both a performance and multimedia installation with objects, videos, and prints. The work is loosely based on the life and death of

Willie Francis Willie Francis (January 12, 1929 – May 9, 1947) was an American teenager known for surviving a failed execution by electrocution in the United States. He was a convicted juvenile sentenced to death at age 16 by the state of Louisiana in 1945 ...

, a Black American charged with having murdered a 53-year-old white man at the age of 15; Francis's case only received significant attention when he survived an attempted execution by electric chair, after which the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

spoke with him and learned the two had been in a sexual relationship. This event led to further development of ''Funeral Doom Spiritual'', which had its conceptual origins in Lamar's studies of representations of blackness, black masculinity, interracial desire, and the intersection of

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

’s work on the

panopticon The panopticon is a design of institutional building with an inbuilt system of control, originated by the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. The concept is to allow all prisoners of an institution to be ...

with

Frantz Fanon Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961) was a French West Indian psychiatrist, political philosopher, and Marxist from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have become influential in the ...

’s writings on internalized racism and the white gaze. In 2016, Lamar received a grant from

the Jerome Foundation James Jerome Hill II (March 2, 1905 – November 21, 1972) was an American filmmaker and artist known for his award-winning documentary and experimental films, one of which won him an Academy Award. Career Hill was the child of railroad executiv ...

to compose the work ''Lordship and Bondage: The Birth of the Negro Superman'' for the Living Earth Show. The work's libretto includes quotes from

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Ja ...

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in comple ...

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest pro ...

, and

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

. Lamar coined the terms "Negrogothic" and "doom spirituals" to describe his aesthetics and work. Exceeding his own "goth" style, Lamar says the Negrogothic "circulates horror genres with colonial-racial questions" and is "about horror and romance together, the condition of black people in the American project." These rhetorical innovations are related to his valuing "self-construction", specificity, and illegibility as means of preventing the reduction and appropriation of African American art. In 2022, Lamar appeared on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

show '' Claim to Fame'' under the pseudonym "X". He was eliminated in the third episode when his celebrity relative was guessed.

Discography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamar, M 1972 births American male composers 21st-century American composers African-American artists American male artists Identical twins Twin musicians Living people Musicians from Mobile, Alabama American twins 21st-century American male musicians American heavy metal singers 20th-century American male opera singers 21st-century African-American male singers 21st-century American male singers African-American male opera singers Operatic countertenors African-American pianists

Early life and career

Discography

See also

References