In late 1981 or early 1982, the composer and vocalist Julius Eastman was evicted from his apartment in New York City. City marshals placed his belongings on the sidewalk, including all of his scores, and Eastman walked away, leaving everything behind. After years of drifting in and out of homeless shelters and bumming money from friends, he died in a hospital in Buffalo in May of 1990. The first obituary, by Kyle Gann in the Village Voice, appeared nine months later.


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