Rick Shur papers, 1949-2016, bulk 1970-2003

Rick Shur (1953-2016) was a New York City video artist, gay activist, English as a Second Language teacher, and cultural critic. As "Rick X," he hosted The Closet Case Show (circa 1984-1994), a popular Manhattan cable access TV show featuring safer sex gay "edurotica" along with commentary on culture and politics. Shur attended Columbia College from 1971 until 1975 and Teachers College from 1977 until 1979, and led the Gay Alumni of Columbia organization through the 1980s.

Richard Allen Shur was born in 1953 in the town of Port Washington on Long Island, New York. A precocious child with a passion for theater and interests in philosophy and politics, he excelled in school and served as student body president at his Port Washington high school, while writing poetry, stories, and musical theater works. During his senior year in 1970-1971, he studied abroad in Coatepec, Mexico, an experience he would remember as significant throughout the rest of his life, during which his lifelong interest in foreign languages solidified.

In 1971 Shur enrolled in Columbia College. His undergraduate years included his first sexual experiences and his coming out as a gay man. He studied philosophy, foreign languages, and psychology, served as the 1972 Freshman Class President, and participated in anti-war and gay activism on campus. In 1973-1974, Shur conducted two surveys about sexual behavior and identity, the first of fellow male students, both heterosexual and homosexual, in the Carman Hall dormitory, and the second comparing the experiences of gay men in New York City on and off Columbia's campus. The latter was written as a psychology course paper and later revised and published by Gay People at Columbia-Barnard as "A New Gay Survey," offering insight into gay life, identity, and sexuality during the period.

After a period working as a professional actor and radio producer, Shur enrolled in Teacher's College from 1977-1979, focusing his studies on teaching English as a second language. After graduation, he found employment as an English as a Second Language instructor at LaGuardia Community College in Queens, where he would work for nearly three decades until his retirement. Beyond the classroom, his interest in ESL extended to co-authoring textbooks on language instruction, consulting, and creating computer software for teachers and for language learners, which he sold commercially and used in his classes.

Shur's interest in media technology expanded to computers and video in the 1980s. Under the auspices of his company, Heights Media, he offered commercial computer and video services, with discounted rates for the gay community, and worked as a videographer documenting Pride marches, activist events, and other community functions. In 1984, he conceived of a cable access show called City Heights that would document gay and other subcultures in New York City. Launched on Manhattan Cable Access, the show would evolve into The Closet Case Show, and would become a prominent and influential part of the gay media landscape.

The Closet Case Show combined erotic performance and explanation of safer sex information–which Shur dubbed "edurotica"–with clips from mainstream and pornographic movies, discussion of gay social and political issues, local community event announcements, and interviews with cultural figures. As its pseudonymous host Rick X, Shur's offscreen narration provided sardonic humor, political commentary, cultural criticism, and participated in or directed erotic activity. The show attracted a considerable local following and national interest, and hundreds of viewers wrote letters and contributed content. The show's material appeared in art exhibitions and film and video festivals in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the United Kingdom, and beyond. On multiple occasions, the cable access channel attempted to censor or refuse to play episodes or to cancel the show, which Shur contested legally and through soliciting community pressure. The show aired until 1994.

Shur's gay community involvement extended to his role as a Columbia alumnus. In the early 1980s, he mentored campus gay activists, collaborating on campaigns around the ROTC's anti-gay discrimination. In 1985, he founded Gay Alumni of Columbia and served as the group's lead organizer, connecting campus and alumni gay advocates and networking with gay alumni groups from other universities. Through his leadership role in GAOC, Shur developed a close friendship with Stephen "Donny" Donaldson, aka Robert Martin, the founder of Columbia's Student Homophile League in 1966 and a prominent LGBTQ and prisoner rights activist; the collection also contains correspondence and personal materials from Donaldson's life.

Beyond Columbia, Shur's involvement in gay community activism included years as a volunteer on the Gay Switchboard in the late 1980s. He briefly served as Listings Editor for the progressive gay magazine Outweek, though he would resign in protest in 1990 over the publication's acceptance of what Shur viewed as politically problematic corporate advertising. From 1993-1997, Shur co-hosted a gay talk radio show on WBAI, interviewing many prominent members of the LGBTQ community.

Rick Shur died of heart disease at his Morningside Heights apartment in 2016.