Sufjan Stevens Dedicates New Album ‘Javelin’ To His Late Partner Evans Richardson

deadline.com:

In a rare comment on his personal life, singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens posted a lengthy social media message dedicating his new album Javelin, out today, to his late partner Evans Richardson, the Chief-of-Staff of the Studio Museum in Harlem who died on April 30 at the age of 43. “This album is dedicated to the light of my life, my beloved partner and best friend Evans Richardson, who passed away in April,” Stevens writes (see the Instagram post below). “He was an absolute gem of a person, full of life, love, laughter, curiosity, integrity, and joy.

He was one of those rare and beautiful ones you find only once in a lifetime – precious, impeccable, and absolutely exceptional in every way.” Stevens’ new album chronicles the loss of a romantic relationship, with the single “So You Are Tired” referencing a longterm relationship (“So you are tired of us/So rest your head/Turning back fourteen years/Of what I did and said”).

The social media dedication marks a rare, perhaps unique, declaration by the intensely private Stevens on the subject of his romantic life, a shift from the reticence that has led to considerable speculation over the years by fans and music reviewers alike.

Stevens, who first gained attention on the indie circuit in the 1990s and had his mainstream breakthrough with 2005’s song “Chicago,” has typically declined to discuss his personal life in interviews, though he did open up about his strained relationship with his mother after addressing her death on the 2015 album Carrie & Lowell.