Sama’an Ashrawi Profile picture
Jun 5, 2022 15 tweets 6 min read Read on X
My Grandpa Dave told me he was sure he was gay when he was moving into his dorm room freshman year of college and there was a boy “with the prettiest eyes;” after Grandpa passed, I learned from my mother who that boy was.
His name was John Kander. After college, John, along with his partner Fred Ebb, would go on to compose two of the greatest Broadway musicals of all-time.
One was called ‘Chicago,’ and the other was ‘Cabaret.’
John wrote the music and Fred wrote the lyrics.
They also wrote the theme song for a 1977 Scorsese film called ‘New York, New York;’ originally sung by Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra would immortalize it a few years later.
I always thought that was so cool, that grandpa and this guy Kander were in love, but during the pandemic I noticed something on a bookcase.
It was a bookcase I walked by a dozen times a day, maybe more. Why had I never noticed this 7” vinyl poking out of one of the shelves? I pulled it out. It was a custom pressing and written in pencil was: “Our Boy,” the year, “1951,” and the composer’s name: “John Kander.”
My mom told me it was a song John had written for Grandpa 🥹

I put the record on and listened… some very moody piano solos, it sounded theatrical. I needed to know more.

I went online, was John even still alive?

To my amazement, the answer was yes! 94 years old.
I already knew I wouldn’t be able to find an email for John so I got in touch with a relative of his and a few days later I had an email from the man himself.
He told me the record we have isn’t just a song, it’s a whole entire one-act musical called ‘Our Boy’ that he wrote at the age of 22; and not only that, he wanted my grandfather to be the lead 🥹🥹 It was a play about a boxer grappling with the existential feelings of defeat.
Then John sent me some photos of my grandfather that we’d never seen before. There was my grandpa, Dave Fisher, in his shiny boxing shorts, looking young and curious and serious all at once. How incredible 😭😭😭
In New York just recently, my family (minus one sister) went to meet up with John, now 95, in person. My mother hadn’t seen him since she was a child.
Over lunch (and an Arnold Palmer) John opened up about their relationship. “We were honest with each other,” John told us. “Not in terms of not lying, but honest about who we were and who we were becoming. [Your grandfather] was a great gift to me.”

The End! (for now 🔮)
You can hear this story in more detail as well as hear excerpts of “Our Boy” on the @elis_audio app 🤲🏻

Thanks for reading!

spaces.elis.io/spaces/ef27712…
here's a better link for folks wanting to hear this story, the music, and more detail.

thank you, @elis_audio !

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Sama’an Ashrawi

Sama’an Ashrawi Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @SamaanAshrawi

May 18, 2021
Seeing the families of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem face colonization in real time, and push back against it, has me thinking about our family home — also in Jerusalem — which you can see just over my shoulder here.
My grandparents, Salwa and Sama’an (my namesake), were both from Nazareth, which is where they met and fell in love and were married in 1946. They eventually saved enough money to move to the big city, West Jerusalem. Soon they had a daughter, Naifeh.
One day in 1948, they were told by the British that Zionists were coming to kill the Palestinians and that they should flee (with the promise of being able to return) My grandmother grabbed what she could, they took refuge in the basement of Christ Church.

Salwa + the church 👇🏻
Read 7 tweets
Sep 22, 2020
I don’t usually do threads but today I wanna tell y’all why these 20 seconds of footage of a kid in a blue and red jacket stage diving at a Bad Brains concert at CBGB’s in NYC in 1982 are important. Then I wanna tell y’all this kid’s story.
This footage is important because it might be the earliest documentation of a Palestinian kid engaging with American culture (or more correctly, counterculture.) That kid’s name is Najeeb “Geeby” Dajani and he’s my new hero. He was already a legend before ‘82, tho.
In 1979, the year after The Clash first sang “standing in Palestine lighting the fuse,” Geeby’s graffiti tag, ME62, was immortalized in the cult classic film ‘The Warriors.’ Not bad for an 18 year old, right?
Read 10 tweets
Aug 12, 2020
might f around and wish upon a shooting star 🥺
saw two tonight, how bout y’all?
it’s too cloudy tonight y’all i don’t think i’m gonna have any luck smh
Read 5 tweets
Aug 2, 2020
this show is so incredible please watch it 😭

esquire.com/entertainment/…
ps ty @three_six_nadia for putting me on 😩🙏🏻
okay who watched episode 9????
Read 5 tweets
Jul 20, 2020
the first word i heard out of Drake's mouth the second day i got to be around him was "astaghfurilah"

i knew this day was coming 😭🤧
😭😭😭😭

BREAKING: artwork and tracklist released for Drake's upcoming Arabic language album Image
Read 4 tweets
Jun 22, 2020
started last of us 2 last night and i’m 😭😭😭
gonna cry 🥺😭
finished it tonight and im still 😩🥺😭
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(