I always enjoy skipping a long line to do something I’m really looking forward to and on February 9th the line outside of the Fayetteville Town Center was long indeed. Holding my camera like a Disney fast pass I strolled right past the hundreds of people waiting to see the University of Arkansas’ Distinguished Lecture Series Guest. Being free and open to the public, seats were already filling up so I made my way to the production area in the back of the room and got set up to monitor our live stream.
It wasn’t long before people had settled into their seats and introductions were being made. The crowd rose in a mass to a roaring applause as the evenings speaker made his way to the stage and I caught my first glimpse of the fabulous Tan France. With perfectly styled hair like pure spun silver, the spotlights illuminated his already larger than life look. Wearing a cream-colored sweater, blue jeans and a pair of polished brown boots with gold chains, he took his place alongside the evening’s moderator, Ren Pepitone – an assistant professor of history specializing in cultural history and the history of sexuality in the 19th and 20th centuries.
France began his lecture – and let me pause here because typically when someone hears the word lecture, they picture a monotone professor attempting to teach the masses that, in their minds, are anywhere else but the classroom. THIS was NOT that type of lecture. From the moment this radiating figure opened his mouth, he had the entire space in complete captivation. The Wardrobe Wiz started out by telling everyone how beautiful they looked just before he did the most adorable “Hog Call” I have ever heard (If you weren’t there, do yourself a favor before the video has to be removed from the channel on March 11 and check out the replay of the livestream on University Productions YouTube Channel at the link below – His hog call is right at the nine-minute mark).
France expressed the difficulties of being born and raised in England as a gay Muslim man with brown skin, even if it is a “gorgeous shade of brown.” His anecdotes of aggression and “being beaten to a pulp” almost every day of his life from the age of 5 until 17 were heartbreaking, but turned to inspiration after hearing how he was able to overcome such atrocities and become the “glowing ray of sunshine” that he is now.
France followed up his coming-of-age stories with tales of his adult life – the ideas of masculinity and what it means to be a man; the concepts of being happier once you’re able to be yourself and even though coming out of the closet may be the hardest thing someone has ever done, once they do, they will never want to go back in. He strutted through the hearts of the audience and came to the subject of his husband’s family and how people can be so much more than what you expect them to be. France paints his husband as a white cowboy from Wyoming who’d grown up on his conservative family’s ranch. When meeting his future father-in-law for the first time, France admitted that this man seemed scared and had never really spent time around a person of color – especially a gay British Muslim who was about to marry his son. While I was worried about the ending of this story, it turns out I was worried over nothing. France tells about how this man chose love over hate and that he chose to ask questions and get to know him, the person his son was in love with. Over a couple of visits with each other, the father-in-law had understood enough information about France to see first and foremost, the humanity inside him and how their relationship blossomed into a thing of beauty and magic. So much in fact, that his father-in-law asked if he could be the one to give France away at the wedding (for the record I was not teary-eyed at this point).
He moved on to talk about his experience being on the Netflix series reboot, Queer Eye and how the show is so much more than just new clothes; it’s about real-life issues, changes and acceptance on all sides. He spoke about his relationship with the other cast members and how he didn’t think he had what it took to do the show but that in the end it was his husbands voice that helped him through it; telling France “You have always said one of the hardest parts of adjusting is that no one seems to care about your stories, but Netflix is saying that they do care and that you might be the person who gets to tell the perspective of a South Asian Muslim.”
After an eye-opening presentation and a rapid-fire Q&A with University students, the sold-out crowd filed out into the night with a smile on every single face that I saw – including my own.
I must say how impressed I am with The Distinguished Lectures Committee and the efforts they put in to bring such dynamic and pertinent speakers like Tan France to the University of Arkansas. The committee is made of students with staff and faculty advisors. In the past the DLC has also brought speakers such as John Legend, Jane Goodall, Bill Nye and His Holiness the Dalai Lama and I am so proud to have been able to attend some of these. These speaking engagements are always compelling and completely free to all students and the public so be on the lookout for whoever they might bring next!
We have permission from France to keep the Lecture video on YouTube for 30 days. The video will be removed Friday, March 11. View it here on the UA Productions YouTube Channel. The lecture starts at about the 7-minute mark.
Photos: Shane White