Quick Facts
Biography
Doron Braunshtein (born May 2, 1976), better known by his pseudonym Apollo Braun, is an Israeli-born musician, author, and former owner of two boutique shops in the Lower East Side of New York City, both named Apollo Braun. The provocative, politically charged slogans of his self-designed T-shirts brought his boutiques public attention on numerous occasions before the eventual closing of his second boutique in 2009. He released his debut album in 2001 and has since released many more. His song "Party in My Pants" appeared in the film Religulous. In 2015, Apollo appeared on the Israeli TV show HaKokhav HaBa (English: The Next Star), where he sang two original songs. Braunshtein's music consists primarily of spoken word, and often references or sexualizes celebrities, politicians, and religious figures. He began writing books in 1999 and has since published 7 books in English, and 5 more in his native language Hebrew. The content of his writing includes philosophical essays, plays, poems, and frequently concerns sexuality (Braun is himself openly biseuxal).
Boutiques
In 2003, Braun opened two self-named boutiques in the Lower East Side of New York City. One at St. Marks Place closed in 2004, while the second on Orchard Street remained open until 2009. The boutique garnered attention for its flamboyant provocativity: NYMag described it as a "wonderland for the sexually (and stylishly) uninhibited."
In 2008, Braun released a series of T-shirts with highly provocative slogans concerning presidential candidate Barack Obama, including "Obama = Hitler," "Obama is my Slave," "Jews Against Obama," and "Who Killed Obama?"
In July 2008, Metro New York ran a cover article about a 25-year old Manhattan graduate student who was allegedly assaulted by a group of four teenagers while wearing Braun's "Obama is My Slave" T-shirt. When Braun refused to allow the student to return the $69 shirt, she threatened to bring Braun to court, but never did. The media outlet Gawker later questioned the veracity of the story.
In 2009, Braun closed his last boutique. He denied having financial difficulties, instead telling Racked New York he was "fleeing endless death threats" and that he is "just terrified from big black penises and [is] sure that Obama has a huge black penis."
Music
Braun's music, which he creates under his birth name Doron Braunshtein, is mostly spoken word poetry. However he also created instrumental and vocal tracks in his earlier music. His poems often focus on American celebrities, satirizing the obsessiveness of American Pop culture. Some poems consists of blatantly false news stories about celebrities, such as "Jenna Jameson Dead." Other poems sexualize celebrities in surrealist ways, such as "Questions - And Answers - About Amal Alamuddin's Vagina."
Braunshtein's poetry also frequently toys with the subject of Judaism, his own religion, as well as Nazism and Adolf Hitler. In doing so Braunshtein creates strangely autobiographical poems. One such poem states "If I Wasn't a Jew, I Would be a Nazi. Or not!"
Another common theme in Braunshtein's music is the phrase "after all," which often acts in lieu of a rational justification for a surreal statement. An example of such a usage comes his poem "Michelle Obama's Last Words," which states "After all, Jesus was black too!"
Braunshtein's most famous poem is "Obama is My Nigger," which has amassed 15,000 plays on Spotify as of March 2017. In the poem, he states "In 2012, the meaning of the word 'freedom' is in the word 'nigger'."
Discography
- Sex With the Ex (2001)
- I Love You (2002)
- Apollo (2003)
- Hava Nagila (2005)
- Number 1 in Iran (2006)
- Dance In Tel Aviv! (2008)
- Mein Kampf (2009)
- Michelle Obama (2011)
- (Between Me and Allan Ginsberg) (2011)
- The Obsessive Poet (2011)
- Sophie's Two Dads (2012)
- The Divine Desperation of the Human Condition (2012)
- Words Are My Home (2012)
- Modern Haiku for the Ancient People, Vol. 1 (2014)
- Modern Haiku for the Ancient People, Vol. 2 (2014)
- Modern Haiku for the Ancient People, Vol. 3 (2014)
- Modern Haiku for the Ancient People, Vol. 4 (2014)
- Modern Haiku for the Ancient People, Vol. 5 (2014)
- Jesus: Songs of Peace and Love (2015, under the name "Jesus")
- When You've Got Nothing to Hold On To, You Hold On To What You've Got (2015)
- I am Dada (2015)
- Doron Braunshtein is my Father or: The Rules of No-Rules (2016, under the name "Jesus A.")
- The Lost New York Diaries (2016)
- The Meaning of Abstract (2016)
- I love you (the same as you love me) (2016)
Books and plays in English
- America, my whore (2006, book)
- Artist vs. Landlord (2007, play)
- Opposites Do Not Exist (2009, book)
- Oh My Josh! (2009, play)
- The Divine Desperation of the Human Condition (2009, book)
- Love Counts on the Inside (2009, book)
- Sophie's Two Dads (2012, book)
- The Gay Dating Rules (2013, book)
- Bread Vs. Water (2014, book)
- Ego and Homosexuality + The Misconception of the Definition "American" + The Philosophy of the Artist = Three Philosophical Essays (2014, book)