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Offered here are a variety of works by gay men of African descent. By no means is the list complete. Help from those familiar with other writers of African descent will be greatly appreciated. Just leave a comment about the book or name of the writer. The list does not represent any personal tastes and preferences on my part. But, it is an acknowledgement to the diversity of black gay writers, visual artists, theater and film.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
A
Dayne Avery
I Wrote This Song
Details
John Amaechi
Man in the Middle
Sundiata Najja Alaye'
Empty Promises, Private Pain
Ahmad Al-Tifashi
The Delight of Hearts: Or What You Will Not Find in Any Book
B
Belasco
The Brothers of New Essex: Afro Erotic Adventures
Keith Boykin
Beyond the Down Low
One More River to Cross
Respecting the Soul: Daily Reflections for Black Lesbians and Gays
Joseph Beam
In the Life:A Black Gay Anthology
James Baldwin
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Another Country
Giovanni's Room
Just Above My Head
Randy Boyd
Walt Loves Bearcat
Bridge Across the Ocean
C
Stanley Bennet Clay
In Search of Pretty Young Black Men
Looker
Cyrus Cassells
Soul Make a Path Through Shouting
Beautiful Signor
More Than Peace and Cypresses
Brent Dorian Carpenter
The 21st Century Chronicles of Thugg the Barbarian King
This Time Around
Bald Ambition
Man of the Cloth
Countee Cullen
Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Black Poets of the Twenties
Color
Steven Corbin
A Hundred Days from Now
Michael-Christopher
Living the Life
From Top to Bottom
Unspeakable
Anatomy
V.B. Clay
Friends, Lovers, And Roses
D
Christopher David
I'm On My Way
Melvin Dixon
Vanishing Rooms
Rashid Darden
Lazarus
Herndon L. Davis
Black, Gay, & Christian
Samuel R. Delany
Dhalgren
Dark Reflections
Hogg
The Mad Man: A Novel
Atlantis: Three Tales
Dark Reflections
Owen Dodson
Boy at the Window
Larry Duplechan
Blackbird
Terrence Dean
Hiding in Hip-Hop
Cleon T. Day
Grand Prize: Lookin' for a Winner
F
Steven G. Fullwood
Funny
Shawn Forbes
Everything Comes Around
When Worlds Collide: A Novel
Roderick A. Ferguson
Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique (Critical American Studies Series)
Men Like That: A Southern Queer History.(Review) (book review): An article from: The Mississippi Quarterly [HTML] (Digital)
Kenyon Farro
A house of our own: drag balls spark a movement to create safe spaces for queer youth of color. (Intelligence Making Change). : An article from: City Limits [HTML] (Digital)
Letters from Young Activists: Today's Rebels Speak Out (co-author)
G
Thomas Glave
Whose Song? And Other Stories
Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent
Horace L. Griffin
Their Own Received Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gay in Black Churches
John R. Gordon
Black Butterflies
Skin Deep
Warriors and Outlaws
Peter J. Gomes
The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart
Chris Grice
The Strand Comic
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James Earl Hardy:
B-Boy Blues: A Seriously Sexy, Fiercely Funny, Black-on-Black Love Story
Love the One You're With
A House Is Not A Home2nd Time Around
If Only For One Night
The Day Eazy-E Died
Lee Hayes
A Deeper Blue Passion Marks II
Passion Marks
Messiah
Flesh to Flesh (editor)
Reginald L. Hall
Smoking Cigarettes
Memoir: Delaware County Prison
In Love With A Thug
Essex Hemphill
Conditions
Ceremonies
Brother to Brother
E. Lynn Harris
I Say A Little PrayerAnd This To Shall Pass
Anyway the Wind Blows
If This World Were Mine
Invisible Life
Just As I am
Not a Day Goes By
Abide With Me
A Love of My Own
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir
Randall Horton
Fingernails Across the Chalkboard: Poetry and Prose on HIV/AIDS from the Black Diaspora
Langston Hughes
Collected Poems of Langston Hughes
Short Stories of Langston Hughes
Best of Simple
The Ways of White Folks
Not Without Laughter
Charles Harvey
When Dogs Bark
Coming Home Tomorrow, an Amazon Short
Lyle Ashton Harris
Lyle Ashton Harris
Reginald Harris
10 Tongues: Poems
Victor Hodge
Black Gay Boy Fantasy
J
Trent Jackson
At This Moment
Full Circle
Brian Keith Jackson
Walking Through Mirrors
The View From Here
The Queen of Harlem
Vu d'ici
Isaac Jackson
Freedom in this Village
Ken Jackson
Reconcilable Sacrifices
As If We Never Met
Colorful Matters
Jonathan W. Jones
Get By: A Survival Guide for Black Gay Youth
G. Winston James
Damaged Good
Nathan James
In His Court
The Devil's Details
E. Patrick Johnson
Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity
Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South
Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology
L
Glenn Ligon (artist)
Glenn Ligon: Unbecoming
Glenn Ligon: Some Changes
Alain Locke
The New Negro : Voices of the Harlem Renaissance
Whitfield Lovell (artist)
The Art of Whitfield Lovell: Whispers from the Walls
Whitfield Lovell (Note Cards)
Rodney Lofton
The Day I Stopped Being Pretty
M
Alphonso Morgan
Sons
W.M. Moore
What I Hate I Do
Internal Chaos
Antonio Le Mons
How to Ruin a Perfect Child
Damon Murphy
Sons Like Me
Claude McKay
Banjo
Home to Harlem
Selected Poems
Jaime Manrique
Latin Moon Over Manhattan
Our Lives Are the Rivers: A Novel
Dwight McBride
Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch: Essays On Race and Sexuality
Adarro Minton
Gay, Black, Crippled, Fat: A Collection of Short Stories
Bryan Mell (photographer)
Black (Provocateur calendar)
N
Clarence Nero
Three Sides to Every Story: A Novel
Richard Bruce Nugent
Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance
Gentleman Jigger: A Novel of the Harlem Renaissance
O
Durrell Owens
Song of a Manchild
Olu Oguibe
The Culture Game
Robert O'Hara
Insurrection: Holding History
P
Blair R. Poole
Breathe
Canaan Parker
Sky Daddy
Color of Trees
Joe Phillips
The Adventures of a Joe Boy! Vol. 1
Boys Will Be Boys - extended edition
Arthur Prodigy
A Place Where I Lost My Jesus
Robert Reid-Pharr
Once You Go Black
Carl Phillips
Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems, 1986-2006
Cortege: Poems
The Rest of Love: Poems
Riding Westward
Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry
Jonathan Plummer
Balancing Act (with Karen Hunter)
R
J.E. Robinson
Skip Macalester
L.M. Ross
Manhood
The Long Blue Moan: A Novel
The Moanin' After
Cal Robertson
Lullabies of Mercy
Chuma Whahid Rasal (aka Christopher Hicks)
The Affectation - Overcoming Shame and Removing The Mask
The Third Eye of a Butterfly
Alden Reimonenq
Hoodoo Headrag
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Frederick Smith
Down For Whatever
Right Side of the Wrong Bed
Doug Cooper-Spencer
This Place of Men
Assotto Saint
Here to Dare: 10 Gay Black Poets : Arthur T. Wilson, John D. Williams, Robert Westley, Harold McNeil Robinson, Craig A. Reynolds, Steve Langley, Car
Stations
Milking Black Bulls: 11 Black Gay Poets (Conceived by Assoto Saints)
Reginald Shepherd
Wrong
Angel Interrupted
Fata Morgana: Poems
Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry
Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries
Some Are Drowning
The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries
Otherhood: Poems
Lyric Postmodernisms: An Anthology of Contemporary Innovative Poetries
Benn Setfrey
DON'T SHOOT! I'm Coming Out ~ How to "Man-Up" and Set Heterosexuals "Straight"
Darieck Scott
Hex
Traitor to the Race
Best Black Gay Erotica
Roy Simmons
Out of Bounds: Coming Out of Sexual Abuse, Addiction, and My Life of Lies in the NFL Closet
Leo Shelton
Rhythms
T
Kevin E. Taylor
Jaded
Elliot Torres
Five Years of Solitary
Undaunted: A Poetic Journey
Wallace Thurman
Infants of the Spring
Blacker the Berry
The Collected Writings of Wallace Thurman: A Harlem Renaissance Reader
Phil Michael Thomas *
Panels
* denote ? to writer's sexual orientation
V
Dwayne Vernon
My Man My Boyz
Vega
Into the Light: Out of the Darkness : The Art of the Black Male (Paperback)
Phoenix Rising
A Warm December
Men of Color
Into the Light...
The Tranquil Lake of Love
Postscripts
W
Bill Wright
Sunday You Learn How to Box
Marvin K. White
Last Rights
Nothing Ugly Fly
Tim'm West
Red Dirt Revival: A Poetic Memoir in 6 Breaths
Flirting
BARE: notes from a porchdweller
George C. Wolfe
The Colored Museum
Jelly's Last Jam
Spunk
Michael Whitley
Who is Sean?: a collection
Kai Wright
Drifting Toward Love: Black, Brown, Gay, and Coming of Age on the Streetsof New York
Fred Wilson (artist)
Fred Wilson: Speak of Me as I Am: 50th Venice Biennale
Fred Wilson: Black Like Me
Kehinde Wiley (artist)
Black Light (with Brian Keith Jackson)
Kehinde Wiley: The World Stage Brazil (with Brian Keith Jackson)
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Academia & Other
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Black Like Us
Voices Rising
Black Gay Man: Essays
Shade: An Anthology of Fiction by Gay Men of African Descent
Just Between Us
Besame Mucho
The Greatest Taboo: Homosexuality in Black Communities
The Homoerotic Photography of Carl Van Vechten: Public Face, Private Thoughts
Carry the Word: A Bibliography of Black LGBTQ Books
Friday, April 27, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Black Gay Cinema
*Blueprint
*LOOKING FOR LANGSTON (Region 2-the SUPERIOR DVD)
*Looking for Langston (Region 1 distributed by Strand Releasing is not recommended)
*Brother to Brother
*B Boy Blues
*DL Chronicles
*Rag Tag (British)
*Dakan (or Destiny) [Guinean (African)/French]
Note: Dakan is available here through California Newsreel but restrictions apply. Also, check region 2 dvd here from Amazon.fr.
*Finding Me
*Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom (due out on dvd 2/3/2009)
*Young Soul Rebels (British)
*Christopher Street
*The Closet
*Ski Trip
*That's My Face
*Tongues Untied
*Kevin's Room 1 & 2
*After Nine (South African)
*Black Beulahs (South African)
*Just Between Us
*Young Soul Rebels (British)
*Christopher Street
*The Closet
*Ski Trip
*That's My Face
*Tongues Untied
*Kevin's Room 1 & 2
*After Nine (South African)
*Black Beulahs (South African)
*Just Between Us
*Loa
Short Films on the Net:
**Float (Bahamian; NOT BROTHERS LOVING BROTHERS) by Kareem Mortimar
Documentary Film:
***Woubi Cheri (Ivory Coast/French)
Produced by persons of non-African descent. First film to document same sex/gender attraction among Africans over continual protest that such desire is a foreign import.
***James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket
***Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
***Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story (not produced by gay Afro American)
Coming Soon
*******From Robert Philipson, director of Ma Raineys’ Lesbian Licks, is a future documentary about gays (mainly about black gays?) in the Harlem Renaissance. Ma Raineys' Lesbian Licks is to be part of the documentary.Taking Note
***Honorary Mention: Spike Lee is mentioned here due to his inclusion of two characters in his mainstream film Get On The Bus that were Afro American gay lovers. Lee is perhaps the first black heterosexual director/writer to portray black gay men without parody. These two characters were written as multi-dimensional and self-confident men who just happened to be gay.
Special Mention: The Boys In The Band is the first gay mainstream film for a general audience to include a black gay character. The Band is based on the play of a white gay playwright with film being directed by, of course, a white man. The film's lone black character set the framework for how gay men of African descent continue to be portrayed in mainstream gay film today, continually desiring, longing, preferring, and loving white gay men almost exclusively. White gay screenwriters and directors have virtually shown a disinclination to stray from this sexual paradigm as they will also often cast the lone black gay character in the role of comic relief.
With some irony because of artistic and perhaps sexual temperament, a number of gay screenwriters and directors of African descent continue to solidify stereotypical portrayals of African diasporal men as incapable of finding one another sexually, intellectually, and spiritually viable as a partners.
Special Mention #2: Strange Fruit by Kyle Schickner is a half black cast film by a white director. The reason the film is being mentioned here is because Schickner had difficulty with the distributors who took issue with the black on black story not involving a white romantic co-lead. Though commendable, Schickner does not entirely avoid white gay gaze.
Special Mention#3: The Wire. HBO (Home Box Office) made television (or cable television) history by presenting the first openly gay black male character who actually love and desired other black men, the last season or two being a disappointing exception. The character Omar Little also challenged the stereotype over who is and isn't gay on desperate levels of black general culture. As written, Omar was drug dealing Robin Hood with a conscious.
Special Mention#4: Together Brothers (1974). Together Brothers came into being and was part of genre commonly referred to as "blaxploitation cinema." Stereotyped as "bad guys," the film feature two offbeat, eccentric gay characters who are "married." One of the two men is a murderer of a good Afro American cop. His partner adorns the wardrobe of a woman and pushes a stroller with dolls supposedly representing and indicating their wish for children--a family. The home life of the gay couple attempts to imitate traditional heterosexual life. Though offbeat and offensive by today's political correct standards, Together Brothers is the first film of an era to show brothers loving brothers!
Note: Except for Rag Tag, Woubi Cheri and Dakan, all films listed here are by gay men of African descent. The Bayard Rustin documentary was executive producerd by Afro American Sam Pollard. Some of these films have yet to be released on DVD. Others may never be released because of their black male on black male gay storyline. In the case of Looking for Langston distributed by Strand Releasing, DVD casing and the inclusion of a short film playing to prurient fetishistic interest marred the overall integrity of the film on the region 1 DVD.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Theater
Scott O'Hara
Insurrection: Holding History
Donald Jolly
bonded
David Rousseve
dancer and choreographer
Alan Sharpe
Family Business & Auld Lang Syne
Clips of these works and others at YouTube
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