We shared many interests, especially in the arts. Over time, we attended classes in American Sign Language, Counseling workshops, and counseled each other in peer counseling sessions.

George was was always devoted to music and liberation issues.

George Fulginiti-Shakar Cambridge, MA - August 27, 1978 image: Demian

When I was between apartments, I became a sub-tenant, in the beautiful home George rented. This lent itself to many late night discussions. Later, I got a small apartment on Broadway, in Cambridge, Mass, and for reasons I don’t remember, I wound up storing his big Hammond (B3?) organ, with the two keyboards, large pedals, and huge Leslie speaker. Altogether, the organ and speaker took up about one quarter of the living room. I loved to make up tunes, and “mood music” on it. George and many friends played on it when visiting.

I maintained a friendship, and communicated with George, for many years past the time I lived in Cambridge. He and Willie paid a visit, after I had moved to Seattle, on July 30, 1994. George visited one last time, on August 15, 1999.

Willie Sordillo Cambridge, MA - August 27, 1978 image: Demian

In the late 70s, George’s good friend Willie Sordillo, was organizing a music collective of men, who where committed to addressing social issue such as sexism, and working with other men and women in non-competitive ways.

Part of the collective included Willie Sordillo, Michael Hussin, George Fulginiti-Shakar, and Kenny Arkin. After they performing at a fund-raising event, and performed for many long-houred, recording session days, they met at Willie’s apartment in Cambridge, on August 27, 1978, to be interviewed by me. This group was simultaneously exuberant, and exhausted. I brought my tiny tape recorder, and my camera.

The Walls to Roses: Songs of Changing Men album is ripe with political thought. It is emotionally and musically full and satisfying. The album presents us with several firsts and a dramatic departure from traditional male musical groups.

While women’s recordings have been collectively done for some time now, i.e. Lavender Jane, Berkeley Women’s Music Collective and various Olivia recording artists, this is the first I’ve known of a male music collective. More importantly, it is a collective aimed at producing music that speaks to issues of sexism, and to men who are growing and changing and supporting women’s struggles. It strives for a more positive vision of masculinity.

The song “Are You Karen Silkwood?” not only addresses the danger of nuclear energy and corporate/government ties and lies, but also frames the issue so as to express how Karen had to step out of the oppression of being a woman and a worker in order to collect evidence.

Several songs on the album claim the right to give and get emotional support from other men. Non-gay as well as gays sing of helping each other’s struggles. ”The Matador” shows the folly of rigid male heroism. “Walls to Roses” soars with exuberance over learning to be friends with father, women and other men. ”Sensitive Little Boy” satirizes the labels that are forced on gay men and speaks out against role-playing. “Gay Spirit” is a celebration of future times of open love throughout the land.

The musical styles run from folkie and night club, to rock and jazz, with traces of Richie Havens and Jimmie Cliff in two numbers. It is always fresh, invigorating and thoughtful. The voices and lyrics are diverse. The total resulting sound has an impressive cohesiveness and emotional power that makes an enviable first album.

Kenny Arkin, Michael Hussin George Fulginiti-Shakar Cambridge, MA - August 27, 1978 image: Demian

To raise money for recording and transportation, the collective put on two concerts in Cambridge last year. I enjoyed the first benefit on April 1, 1978. The second concert, on August 17, immediately following the taping of the album, impressed me even more.

The interpersonal energy of the performers was warm and friendly. This was the first time I’d ever heard and seen men playing for each other. I’d felt this occasionally among the women performers at women’s concerts, but never before among men. The energy, support and love given and accepted between members of the collective put them into high gear, and was an inspiration for the audience.

The collective credits the women’s and gay liberation movements for leading them to examine the meaning of masculinity in our culture. They trace their immediate history to the “Third National Gathering on Men and Masculinity” in Des Moines, Iowa, in March 1977. Willie Sordillo and Geof Morgan (who has been distributing a cassette of his music) had played music there that spoke to the issues of sexism, men changing, and men supporting women’s struggles. They informally contacted others after the conference in an effort to make this kind of music more widely available.

Willie, and various conferees, speculated forming a men’s arts task force, partly aimed at producing a record. Jeff Langley offered enthusiasm and encouragement. It wasn’t until almost a year later that Moses Asch, at Folkways, said that they’d press and distribute an album if the collective produced the tapes. Eventually, there was support from Joe Martin, who hosted the radio show, “Closet Space” on WCAS, Boston’s “Gay Community News,” and especially their writer, the liberation activist, Eric Rofes,

Largely through Willie’s letter writing and persistence, the men’s music collective began. There were finally 17 members from all over the U.S., and the Collective combined efforts with six women to create the album.

Willie
The first time I think any of us acted as a collective was in putting together the April 1st concert. The people in Boston worked cooperatively, men and women, putting that together.

Demian
You knew a record was in the works, and the concert was mainly to make money for it?

Willie
Yeah.

Michael
And arouse interest in it and get more support.

Willie
Raise consciousness also.

Demian
How did you all meet?

Willie
I met most of the collective members through ads, but I introduced myself to Michael. Michael was the only male musician I’d seen in concert who addressed specifically the issue of sexism. In between songs, he had made some statements about what it meant to him, as a man, to be playing music with feminist women.

Demian
What is the main purpose of the collective? The philosophy? Why do the album?

Michael
We’re firmly committed to overthrowing the patriarchy. [general laughter] In about a year or two. [more laughter]

George
We started out, the first time we’d all seen each other, with a general discussion of goals. But it wasn’t like “Let’s agree on goals.” It was just, “What are each of our goals?” There was a piece of paper on the wall which was filled with peoples’ ideas.

George Fulginiti-Shakar Cambridge, MA - August 27, 1978 image: Demian

Kenny
I think through the whole process there was a lot of growing of peoples’ politics. For me that’s the test of a good collective process; one that I see as having a lot of political input, as well as getting something accomplished.

I’d never played with other people. I’d just never thought of it. This changed everything. Thinking of myself as part of a whole and not feeling isolated. I’m taking it more seriously, I’m putting more energy into it, so the quality is better.

Demian
Anyone else find that happening to them too? A change musically, or personally?

Michael
I know that the whole process of being involved with both women and men, playing feminist and anti-sexist music, has made me more confident and safer about playing in front of audiences. ’Cause l feel a great deal of support, caring and love, rather than competition.

People I’m performing with seem more interested in me, than what I can “cut” as a musician. As they give me more support for being a human being, my musical abilities will just flow out of that. As I relax I get more imaginative.

When I performed in high school, in male rock bands, I was getting squashed all the time. I was scared to death, ’cause it was a case of whether you could “cut it” or not. My father was a musician and that was his attitude too: “Can you cut it?”

Kenny Arkin, Michael Hussin Cambridge, MA - August 27, 1978 image: Demian

Kenny
Something really important happened, along that same line, for me. One of the many reasons why I wasn’t enthusiastic when first joining the collective was that I was afraid that a lot of people were going to be better than me. Every time I heard someone play, either I went ”whew” or "uh-oh.”

That pretty much disappeared, for a lot of the reasons that Michael was just saying, because there was support and there was encouragement. I felt at the end that I was standing as an equal with every other person. I haven’t felt that in the past … with men.

Willie
The collective process came home strong to me at the recording, choosing the songs. It also helped me with evaluating what kind of musician I want to be, and how I can best achieve my goals. It’s given me energy to move in directions I wasn’t moving in before. To reach out with forms of music that are listenable to large numbers of people.

George
The recording process took place Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Sometime Tuesday I noticed that I would look back at what was going on, and feel that I was about to cry. I hadn’t worked with a group of men before who individually cared so much about what they were doing. The real personal motivation reflected in the quality of the way we interacted.

I, and other people, were consistently putting our energy right there. We had long meetings, over-extensions and too many rehearsals. Through it all, people would agree on what they needed to do, give each other hugs and strokes, remember how important this was, and go back and do it again.

My respect for every single one of the people that I worked with is incredible. It’s superlative. I don’t think I’ve seen such dedication to an idea, to a cultural ideal, before, as I have with this group of men. I felt so supported.

George Fulginiti-Shakar Cambridge, MA - August 27, 1978 image: Demian

Michael
I know how long it usually takes to put together ten songs. Sometimes you’d work on one song all day. We not only put together ten songs with 15 people who never met before, but we had to go into a studio and record it. Which means there were no opportunities for mistakes.

I think the fact that we had such a strong purpose, a strong goal, took us to a higher level of ability. It didn’t feel like a drain to me. There were times when I felt tired out, but I got by on four or five hours sleep, for five days.

Willie
I think our inexperience is actually an asset, because people who I talked to, who have more experience, said what we were going to do was impossible.

We didn’t know it was impossible. Also being sort of fresh, we wanted badly to get our best down on the record and capture the spirit of what we were feeling.

Kenny
Very important to this recording experience was the work and how I sometimes envision the future; how I’d like things to be working together with people for a purpose that I believe in. Most days of my life I don’t have the constant support of people who I love and who care about me surrounding me. I don’t have the constant vision before me of something I’m trying to create. Both were part of this experience.

Michael
That’s exactly what work should be about.

Kenny
One other time I felt this was the first occupation of Seabrook [nuclear power electricity station with numerous safety concerns], two springs ago. There were 2,000 people on the site who were all there for a common purpose. This is what it could be like, we’re doing this together,this is what life could be like all the time. There was a time out on the porch when we all took the picture of the whole collective. We all started dancing and singing.

Willie
One of the things we sang out on the porch was a line from Charlie King’s song: “You’re life is more than your work, and your work is more than your job.”

Michael Hussin, Kenny Arkin George Fulginiti-Shakar Cambridge, MA - August 27, 1978 image: Demian

Demian
Were there other issues that came up besides work?

Kenny
What was really important to me was working with a Third World man. First time I ever did that. It was a step forward for me, cutting through my own racism. It made a big dent, and that feels fine to me. The support that many of the non-gay men showed toward gay struggles made a big impression on me. In collecting material for the record Willie and several other non-gay men said why they thought it was important to include gay material relating to the experience of many of us growing up and feeling like sissies.

Michael
About 75% of the collective were gay-identified men who were out and strong about that. The experience of being with them was important for me. I felt very close, and opened up parts of myself that I don’t think could have been opened up in any other context.

Kenny
Working with women felt easy, l didn’t feel like there was a lot of struggle. I didn’t feel timid. l felt proud of who l was and what I was doing with this group of men.

Willie
Got a nice letter from Ginny Bales, who played electric bass on the album, talking about how good she felt working with the men in the collective. She wrote that she felt there wasn’t overt or subtle sexism, and that was good to hear.

George
A collective decision was made to actively recruit women for positions that we thought women were not usually given, traditionally exempt from, like producer or sound studio technician. Also as paid back-up musicians. Mostly through Willie’s efforts women were contacted who could do those jobs and will be paid out of the advance orders.

Michael
Originally there was some thought about having the album with just men on it. We discussed that and the women we knew felt that didn’t seem appropriate. Since this album was in support of women’s struggles, it didn’t make sense to not have women involved in the production.

Willie
I feel that their actual involvement in the album was a much stronger statement than any song could have made in support of women.

Willie Sordillo, Kenny Arkin Cambridge, MA - August 27, 1978 image: Demian

Michael
I think what we’re doing is pointing to a direction in the future. Men and women, straight and gay men, straight and gay women, working together to enlarge our vision of what human beings are and what we are capable of. I’m looking forward to continuing the process around this album. I see that when the album is on the streets, and people start listening to it, there’s going to be a whole new process set in motion. I hope we get feedback and criticism. l’m sure there’s going to be criticism. l’m looking forward to all that. I see the album being the beginning of something.

Walls to Roses Album Cover images: Ken Rabb, Ellen Shub, Calylah Booklet    design: Robbie Rosenberg, Michael Hussin, Ted Clausen    Walls to Roses: Songs of Changing Men A Men’s Music Collective Distributed by Folkways for $5.50, in 1979. Now available as disc or downloads via Smithsonian Folkways

A Men’s Music Collective (1976-January 1, 1984)
Originally conceived by Willie Sordillo, who was inspired by singers Geof Morgan, Holly Near and others. The Collective, which began as Men Against Sexism, really existed only for the purposes of creating the Walls to Roses album. It continued to exist in order to donate profits to organizations doing equality justice work. 50 percent of profits went to the making of the film “Before Stonewall,” which was co-directed by Collective member Robbie Rosenberg. 50 percent was set aside to support the cultural wing of the anti-sexist men’s network, with George Fulginiti-Shakar as acting caretaker.

Folkways Records (1948-1987)
The record label was founded by Moses Asch. It primarily documented folk, world, and children’s music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of
         Smithsonian Folkways.

Willie Sordillo (May 2, 1951)
An acoustic guitarist and alto sax player, Willie has recorded and toured, nationally and internationally, as a solo performer, and as a member of bands. He specializes in folk, jazz, blues, Latin, rhythm & funk, and gospel. His original compositions have been recorded by many other artists, and appear in several song and text books.
         williesordillo.com

Michael Hussin (July 9, 1951)
Acupuncturist for more than 30 years. In 1985, Michael co-created one of the first integrated, complementary medicine health care centers in the U.S. Continuing to practice in Boston until 1995, he joined the Hadley Health Center, and lives in the Pioneer Valley area. Michael continues his political activism, locally and nationally.

Kenny Arkin (1955-September 30, 1990)
Following Walls to Roses, Kenny and Willie performed, as a duo, on a number of occasions. Kenny was a nurse, and received specialized training, dedicating himself to AIDS nursing care.

George Fulginiti-Shakar (May 9, 1947-June 21, 2020)
Musician, Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Music Director, Vocal Coach.
George won the 2007 Helen Hayes Award: Outstanding Musical Direction, Resident Production - “Cabaret” for music direction. And in 2011, he won the Helen Hayes Award: Outstanding Musical Direction, Resident Production - “Oklahoma!” for music direction.

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