1943—2021
A memorial will be held Sunday, March 27, 3 p.m. at Grace Cathedral, 1100 California Street in San Francisco, for Red Jordan Arobateau, who died November 25, 2021. He was 78. According to an obituary on Nightboat Books, Mr. Arobateau, a painter and author, is remembered for his fiction, erotica, life writing, poetry, and visual arts. The bisexual transgender artist was featured in the Bay Area Reporter in 2019 when he moved into an apartment at the Openhouse senior housing complex at 95 Laguna Street.
According to Nightboat Books, Mr. Arobateau first self-published dyke novels and poetry in the 1970s, and over the years used small presses, gay and lesbian publishers, lesbian bars, and varied forms of self-publishing to share his voluminous writing. Chronicling gay and lesbian street life, his novels celebrate sex workers, butch and femme couples, transsexuals, and the radical poor in explicit and uniquely musical prose. These books are available through Lulu.com, while his paintings can be viewed at Fine Art America, the obituary stated.
Nightboat will publish two volumes of Mr. Arobateau's writing in the coming years: "My Continuing Journey Into Artistic, Spiritual, and Revolutionary Thoughts," followed by a collection of stories and excerpts selected from Mr. Arobateau's numerous novels, story collections, and journals.
People interested in attending the memorial need to register in advance and can do so here.
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