I cried when I saw this:

This year’s procession is dedicated to our friend Brother Blue

This year’s procession is dedicated to our friend Brother Blue, beloved storyteller, who died on Nov. 3, 2009. This will be the first First Night ever without him. A fixture in Cambridge and Boston for many years, Brother Blue was loved and admired and will be missed. He personified the spirit of First Night.
- firstnight.org

I remember Brother Blue in Harvard Square telling his rhyming stories, barefoot and dressed in blue with ribbons and rainbows, butterflies and bells. But before that, I remember Brother Blue on the radio. I used to listen to Eric play jazz on WGBH. I learned about jazz from Eric. The program started at midnight. Sometime between 2 and 3 A.M. Brother Blue would come into the station and Eric would let him tell his stories of beauty, and rainbows, and wonder. I would sometimes set an alarm so I wouldn't miss Brother Blue come on the air. His stories are still with me. I used his storytelling style when I worked with a developmentally disabled population.

I ran into Brother Blue in Central Square in 2001. He would have been around 80 years old. He was with his "Lady" wife, Ruth, who was watching out for him. I didn't know he had passed away until I read the statement on Boston's First Night web site.

http://www.firstnight.org/FirstNight2010/Events/Procession.aspx

I have an old audio tape of Brother Blue that I recorded. One day I'll get that tape out of storage and post it. Here (in the video below), he is doing King Lear the style I remember. There are several videos of him now, but this is Brother Blue in his last years. He was still going in his 80's, speaking the truth as he always did: "Beauty cannot die; We are in a sacred order."

Youtube link to Brother Blue clip as King Lear and for once, it is worth reading the comments on a youtube video.

Speak as though you are under ultimate power in the ultimate spirit in the universe...Listen with your entire being to these people.
- Brother Blue

Various people attempted to make a documentary film of Brother Blue, but it never happened. I think it was meant to be that his legacy is left with the people, to post what was recorded of him, live on the streets and stages where they found him.

Also, there is www.brotherblue.com.