Profiles: Black LGBTQ People in History
Profiles: Black LGBTQ/Tofauti People in History
Lorraine Hansberry: Playwright
Even though Lorraine Hansberry's life was cut short by cancer, she is considered one of America's more important playwrights, having written three plays, one, the historic 'A Raisin' In The Sun', thereby giving birth to modern African American theater.
Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. She wrote A Raisin in the Sun, a play about a struggling black family, which opened on Broadway to great success. Hansberry was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. Throughout her life she was heavily involved in civil rights.
Playwright, author, activist. The granddaughter of a freed slave, and the youngest by seven years of four children, Lorraine Vivian Hansberry 3rd was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Hansberry’s father was a successful real estate broker, and her mother was a schoolteacher. Her parents contributed large sums of money to the NAACP and the Urban League. In 1938, Hansberry's family moved to a white neighborhood and was violently attacked by neighbors. They refused to move until a court ordered them to do so, and the case made it to the Supreme Court as Hansberry v. Lee, ruling restrictive covenants illegal. Hansberry broke her family’s tradition of enrolling in Southern black colleges and instead attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison. While at school, she changed her major from painting to writing, and after two years decided to drop out and move to New York City.
In New York, Hansberry attended the New School for Social Research and then worked for Paul Robeson’s progressive black newspaper, Freedom, as a writer and associate editor from 1950 to 1953. She also worked part-time as a waitress and cashier, and wrote in her spare time. By 1956, Hansberry quit her jobs and committed her time to writing. In 1957, she joined the Daughters of Bilitis and contributed letters to their magazine, The Ladder, about feminism and homophobia. Her lesbian identity was exposed in the articles, but she wrote under her initials, L.H., for fear of discrimination. During this time, Hansberry wrote The Crystal Stair, a play about a struggling black family in Chicago, which was later renamed A Raisin in the Sun, a line from a Langston Hughes poem. The play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, and was a great success, having a run of 530 performances. It was the first play produced on Broadway by an African-American woman, and Hansberry was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. The film version of A Raisin in the Sun was completed in 1961, starring Sidney Poitier, and received an award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1963, Hansberry became active in the Civil Rights Movement. Along with other influential people, including Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and James Baldwin, Hansberry met with then attorney general Robert Kennedy to test his position on civil rights. In 1963, her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, opened on Broadway to unenthusiastic reception.
Hansberry met Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish songwriter, on a picket line, and the two were married in 1953. Hansberry and Nemiroff divorced in 1962, though they continued to work together. In 1964, the same year The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window opened, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She died on January 12, 1965. After her death, Nemiroff adapted a collection of her writing and interviews in To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which opened off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre and ran for eight months.
Lorraine Hansberry was also a member of The Daughters of Bilitis, an early group for lesbian rights and was an early defender of LGBT rights. In one piece in 'The Ladder', the group's journal, she wrote: “Homosexual persecution has at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma...”. Unfinished works shows that she had even begun to present same gender loving (SGL) characters in her plays.
Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. She wrote A Raisin in the Sun, a play about a struggling black family, which opened on Broadway to great success. Hansberry was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. Throughout her life she was heavily involved in civil rights.
Playwright, author, activist. The granddaughter of a freed slave, and the youngest by seven years of four children, Lorraine Vivian Hansberry 3rd was born on May 19, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Hansberry’s father was a successful real estate broker, and her mother was a schoolteacher. Her parents contributed large sums of money to the NAACP and the Urban League. In 1938, Hansberry's family moved to a white neighborhood and was violently attacked by neighbors. They refused to move until a court ordered them to do so, and the case made it to the Supreme Court as Hansberry v. Lee, ruling restrictive covenants illegal. Hansberry broke her family’s tradition of enrolling in Southern black colleges and instead attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison. While at school, she changed her major from painting to writing, and after two years decided to drop out and move to New York City.
In New York, Hansberry attended the New School for Social Research and then worked for Paul Robeson’s progressive black newspaper, Freedom, as a writer and associate editor from 1950 to 1953. She also worked part-time as a waitress and cashier, and wrote in her spare time. By 1956, Hansberry quit her jobs and committed her time to writing. In 1957, she joined the Daughters of Bilitis and contributed letters to their magazine, The Ladder, about feminism and homophobia. Her lesbian identity was exposed in the articles, but she wrote under her initials, L.H., for fear of discrimination. During this time, Hansberry wrote The Crystal Stair, a play about a struggling black family in Chicago, which was later renamed A Raisin in the Sun, a line from a Langston Hughes poem. The play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 11, 1959, and was a great success, having a run of 530 performances. It was the first play produced on Broadway by an African-American woman, and Hansberry was the first black playwright and the youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle award. The film version of A Raisin in the Sun was completed in 1961, starring Sidney Poitier, and received an award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1963, Hansberry became active in the Civil Rights Movement. Along with other influential people, including Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne and James Baldwin, Hansberry met with then attorney general Robert Kennedy to test his position on civil rights. In 1963, her second play, The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, opened on Broadway to unenthusiastic reception.
Hansberry met Robert Nemiroff, a Jewish songwriter, on a picket line, and the two were married in 1953. Hansberry and Nemiroff divorced in 1962, though they continued to work together. In 1964, the same year The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window opened, Hansberry was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She died on January 12, 1965. After her death, Nemiroff adapted a collection of her writing and interviews in To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which opened off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre and ran for eight months.
Lorraine Hansberry was also a member of The Daughters of Bilitis, an early group for lesbian rights and was an early defender of LGBT rights. In one piece in 'The Ladder', the group's journal, she wrote: “Homosexual persecution has at its roots not only social ignorance, but a philosophically active anti-feminist dogma...”. Unfinished works shows that she had even begun to present same gender loving (SGL) characters in her plays.
Luther Vandross: Legendary R&B Singer, Composer
Luther Vandross (1951 – 2005) was one of the most successful R&B artists of the 1980s and '90s. Luther’s big break came in 1975 when rocker David Bowie invited him to provide his musical talents for David’s album Young Americans, resulting in the smash hit of that year by David Bowie, Fame, with Luther providing background vocals. That same year, an early composition by Luther, Everybody Rejoice (A Brand New Day) was adapted for the Broadway musical, The Wiz and later used for the film version. Also, in 1975, he provided his talents as background singer for Stephanie Mills, and worked on Broadway as vocal arranger for Bette Midler. His relationship with Bette led him to Atlantic Records where he provided background vocals for a variety of artists, including Bette Midler.
In 1978, he appeared on albums by Carly Simon, Quincy Jones, Roberta Flack, the soundtrack to the movie version of The Wiz, Chic, Cat Stevens and countless others; and by 1979 Luther began to gain greater attention appearing on albums by Sister Sledge, Chic, Bette Midler (once again), Cher, Roberta Flack (Featuring Donny Hathaway), and Evelyn "Champagne" King. He received prominent credit when he arranged the background vocals for Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer's duet No More Tears (Enough Is Enough), which became a number one pop hit in November 1979. He gained even more recognition in 1980, a year in which he appeared on studio albums by Chaka Khan, Melba Moore, the Brecker Brothers, and Cissy Houston, as well as live albums by Bette Midler (even still) and the duo of Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson, and on the soundtrack to the film Fame. But the most important credit for him that year was his work as lead vocalist of the studio group Change. He sang on the band's tracks Searching, a Top 40 R&B hit, and The Glow of Love, which also reached the R&B charts, and his name was listed prominently on the discs, thereby increasing his profile. On April 21, 1981, he signed with the Epic Records, subsidiary of the major label CBS Records.
Luther immediately began work on his debut album. His debut solo album, Never Too Much, was released in August of 1981. The album hit number one R&B in November and was certified gold in December. It went platinum five years later and double platinum in 1997. While he sold consistently to the R&B audience, his albums rarely received equal support from pop fans.
He went on to not only score countless hits, but turned to producing. Turning to Aretha Franklin, he produced her July 1982 LP Jump to It, and writing or co-writing four of its eight songs. Now his career as a producer of hits for hit makers was in place as well as continuing his solo career.
Luther finally eased off on his recording schedule during 1984, because he had become a major concert attraction and toured in both North America and Europe. It was only a year later that he returned to the studio and recorded his fourth alblum, The Night I Fell in Love, which went both gold and platinum simultaneously as soon as it was eligible for certification, it eventually went double platinum in 1990. The same year he released his fifth album, Give Me the Reason, which also went simultaneous gold and platinum certifications in December were followed by a double-platinum award in 1990.
Luther had by now become an international success, having achieved a record-breaking ten-night stand at London's Wembley Arena in March 1989. During his lifetime, Luther Vandross sold as many as 40 million recordings.
Even though Luther Vandross was adored by millions, many of those same fans were recalcitrant over his assumed gay lifestyle, a life he worked hard to keep private. While never denying he was gay, he stood by his assertion that his sexuality was his personal business. It wasn’t until after his passing that friends of his came to talk openly of his homosexuality and the loneliness that consumed him in search of a love that was never requited; as one of his friends stated, “Luther was dying to have a boyfriend”, but it never seemed to happen. His early death at the age of 54 robbed American popular music of one of its more consistent and compelling voices, and it is only a partial comfort that he left behind a substantial body of work. (Video Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gQ9ZVGM7smE; feature=player_embedded&v=gQ9ZVGM7smE ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gr94VZKZNWE ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR-q4Gvdp0o ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJNfUIAjDgg)
In 1978, he appeared on albums by Carly Simon, Quincy Jones, Roberta Flack, the soundtrack to the movie version of The Wiz, Chic, Cat Stevens and countless others; and by 1979 Luther began to gain greater attention appearing on albums by Sister Sledge, Chic, Bette Midler (once again), Cher, Roberta Flack (Featuring Donny Hathaway), and Evelyn "Champagne" King. He received prominent credit when he arranged the background vocals for Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer's duet No More Tears (Enough Is Enough), which became a number one pop hit in November 1979. He gained even more recognition in 1980, a year in which he appeared on studio albums by Chaka Khan, Melba Moore, the Brecker Brothers, and Cissy Houston, as well as live albums by Bette Midler (even still) and the duo of Roberta Flack and Peabo Bryson, and on the soundtrack to the film Fame. But the most important credit for him that year was his work as lead vocalist of the studio group Change. He sang on the band's tracks Searching, a Top 40 R&B hit, and The Glow of Love, which also reached the R&B charts, and his name was listed prominently on the discs, thereby increasing his profile. On April 21, 1981, he signed with the Epic Records, subsidiary of the major label CBS Records.
Luther immediately began work on his debut album. His debut solo album, Never Too Much, was released in August of 1981. The album hit number one R&B in November and was certified gold in December. It went platinum five years later and double platinum in 1997. While he sold consistently to the R&B audience, his albums rarely received equal support from pop fans.
He went on to not only score countless hits, but turned to producing. Turning to Aretha Franklin, he produced her July 1982 LP Jump to It, and writing or co-writing four of its eight songs. Now his career as a producer of hits for hit makers was in place as well as continuing his solo career.
Luther finally eased off on his recording schedule during 1984, because he had become a major concert attraction and toured in both North America and Europe. It was only a year later that he returned to the studio and recorded his fourth alblum, The Night I Fell in Love, which went both gold and platinum simultaneously as soon as it was eligible for certification, it eventually went double platinum in 1990. The same year he released his fifth album, Give Me the Reason, which also went simultaneous gold and platinum certifications in December were followed by a double-platinum award in 1990.
Luther had by now become an international success, having achieved a record-breaking ten-night stand at London's Wembley Arena in March 1989. During his lifetime, Luther Vandross sold as many as 40 million recordings.
Even though Luther Vandross was adored by millions, many of those same fans were recalcitrant over his assumed gay lifestyle, a life he worked hard to keep private. While never denying he was gay, he stood by his assertion that his sexuality was his personal business. It wasn’t until after his passing that friends of his came to talk openly of his homosexuality and the loneliness that consumed him in search of a love that was never requited; as one of his friends stated, “Luther was dying to have a boyfriend”, but it never seemed to happen. His early death at the age of 54 robbed American popular music of one of its more consistent and compelling voices, and it is only a partial comfort that he left behind a substantial body of work. (Video Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gQ9ZVGM7smE; feature=player_embedded&v=gQ9ZVGM7smE ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gr94VZKZNWE ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR-q4Gvdp0o ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJNfUIAjDgg)
Langston Hughes: Poet, Playwright
Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. Hughes' life and work were enormously influential during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s alongside those of his contemporaries, Zora Neal Hurston, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Richard Bruce Nugent, and Aaron Douglas, who, collectively, (with the exception of McKay), created the short-lived magazine Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists.
Hughes and his contemporaries were often in conflict with the goals and aspirations of the black middle class, and of those considered to be the midwives of the Harlem Renaissance, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Alain LeRoy Locke, whom they accused of being overly fulsome in accommodating and assimilating Eurocentric values and culture for social equality.
Academics and biographers today believe that Hughes was homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar in manner to Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry. Hughes' story "Blessed Assurance" deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and queerness.
To retain the respect and support of black churches and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained closted. Arnold Rampersad, the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for other African-American men in his work and life. This love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to a black male lover.
First published in The Crisis in 1921, the verse that would become Hughes's signature poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", appeared in his first book of poetry The Weary Blues in 1926.
Hughes and his contemporaries were often in conflict with the goals and aspirations of the black middle class, and of those considered to be the midwives of the Harlem Renaissance, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Redmon Fauset, and Alain LeRoy Locke, whom they accused of being overly fulsome in accommodating and assimilating Eurocentric values and culture for social equality.
Academics and biographers today believe that Hughes was homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar in manner to Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry. Hughes' story "Blessed Assurance" deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and queerness.
To retain the respect and support of black churches and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained closted. Arnold Rampersad, the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for other African-American men in his work and life. This love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to a black male lover.
First published in The Crisis in 1921, the verse that would become Hughes's signature poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", appeared in his first book of poetry The Weary Blues in 1926.
Emile Griffith: World Champion Boxer
Emile Alphonse Griffith (1938 - 2013) was a former boxer who was the first fighter from the U.S. Virgin Islands ever to become a world champion, as well as the first known gay champion boxer.
He’s perhaps best known for his controversial third fight with Benny Paret in 1962 for the welterweight world championship in which he beat Benny Paret so bad in their match that Paret later died.
The fight became even more controversial when Sports Illustrated reported in its April 18, 2005, edition that Griffith's rage may have been fueled by an anti-gay slur directed at him by Paret during the weigh-in. Paret reportedly called his opponent a maricón, the Spanish equivalent of "faggot". Griffith nearly went after him on the spot and had to be restrained. The media at the time either ignored the slur or used euphemisms such as "anti-man". The 2005 article pointed out that it would have been career suicide for an athlete or any other celebrity during the 1960s to admit that he was gay.
Griffith later won the world middleweight title and claimed an early version of the junior middleweight world championship, a claim that has not been universally recognized although some consider Griffith a three-division champion fighter.
In his early career as a boxer, Griffith won the 1958 New York Golden Gloves 147 lb Open Championship. He turned professional that same year and fought frequently in New York City. He captured the Welterweight title from Cuban Benny "The Kid" Paret by knocking him out in the 13th round on April 1, 1961. Six months later Griffith lost the title to Paret in a narrow split decision. He regained the title from Paret on March 24, 1962 in the controversial bout.
He later defeated Dick Tiger for the Middleweight title. He also lost, regained and then lost the middleweight title in three classic fights with Nino Benvenuti. But many boxing fans believed he was never quite the same fighter after Paret's death.
Reportedly, Emil Griffith still feels guilt over Benny Paret's death, and has suffered nightmares about it.
As a trainer, Emil Griffith has trained other boxers including Wilfred Benítez and Juan Laporte, of Puerto Rico. Both have won world championships. Emile Griffith is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
In 1992, at the age of 54, Griffith was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York City street, after leaving a gay bar. He was quoted in a Newsday blog as saying, "I keep thinking how strange it is ... I kill a man and most people understand and forgive me. However, I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgivable sin; this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison almost all my life."
Until the time of his passing, Griffith required full time care and suffered from pugilistic dementia. He passed away in Hempstead, New York. He was a frequent visitor to the Winters Brothers Boxing Club on Post Avenue in Westbury, New York.
Recently an opera on his life titled 'Champion' premiered in St. Louis at the Opera Theatre St. Louis.
A video of Emile Griffith's life and the infamous match with Benny Paret appears at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LbKSqHRIQ4k
He’s perhaps best known for his controversial third fight with Benny Paret in 1962 for the welterweight world championship in which he beat Benny Paret so bad in their match that Paret later died.
The fight became even more controversial when Sports Illustrated reported in its April 18, 2005, edition that Griffith's rage may have been fueled by an anti-gay slur directed at him by Paret during the weigh-in. Paret reportedly called his opponent a maricón, the Spanish equivalent of "faggot". Griffith nearly went after him on the spot and had to be restrained. The media at the time either ignored the slur or used euphemisms such as "anti-man". The 2005 article pointed out that it would have been career suicide for an athlete or any other celebrity during the 1960s to admit that he was gay.
Griffith later won the world middleweight title and claimed an early version of the junior middleweight world championship, a claim that has not been universally recognized although some consider Griffith a three-division champion fighter.
In his early career as a boxer, Griffith won the 1958 New York Golden Gloves 147 lb Open Championship. He turned professional that same year and fought frequently in New York City. He captured the Welterweight title from Cuban Benny "The Kid" Paret by knocking him out in the 13th round on April 1, 1961. Six months later Griffith lost the title to Paret in a narrow split decision. He regained the title from Paret on March 24, 1962 in the controversial bout.
He later defeated Dick Tiger for the Middleweight title. He also lost, regained and then lost the middleweight title in three classic fights with Nino Benvenuti. But many boxing fans believed he was never quite the same fighter after Paret's death.
Reportedly, Emil Griffith still feels guilt over Benny Paret's death, and has suffered nightmares about it.
As a trainer, Emil Griffith has trained other boxers including Wilfred Benítez and Juan Laporte, of Puerto Rico. Both have won world championships. Emile Griffith is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
In 1992, at the age of 54, Griffith was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York City street, after leaving a gay bar. He was quoted in a Newsday blog as saying, "I keep thinking how strange it is ... I kill a man and most people understand and forgive me. However, I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgivable sin; this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison almost all my life."
Until the time of his passing, Griffith required full time care and suffered from pugilistic dementia. He passed away in Hempstead, New York. He was a frequent visitor to the Winters Brothers Boxing Club on Post Avenue in Westbury, New York.
Recently an opera on his life titled 'Champion' premiered in St. Louis at the Opera Theatre St. Louis.
A video of Emile Griffith's life and the infamous match with Benny Paret appears at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LbKSqHRIQ4k
Josephine Baker: Singer, Dancer, Actress, Fashion Icon, Military Hero
JOSEPHINE BAKER (1906-1975) African-American dancer and singer, fashion icon and soldier. Born in St. Louis, she found much more liberty in her art when she moved to Paris in the 1920’s after having appeared in many Broadway chorus lines in 1923 and 1924.
Baker was the first African American to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de Guerre.
When Baker was eight she was sent to work for a white woman who abused her, burning Baker's hands when she put too much soap in the laundry. She later went to work for another woman.
Baker dropped out of school at the age of 12 and lived as a street child in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters and scavenging for food in garbage cans.
Her street-corner dancing attracted attention and she was recruited for the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show at 15. She then headed to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, performing at the Plantation Club and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues Shuffle Along (1921) and The Chocolate Dandies (1924). She performed as the last dancer in a chorus line, a position in which the dancer traditionally performed in a comic manner, as if she was unable to remember the dance, until the encore, at which point she would not only perform it correctly, but with additional complexity. Baker was then billed as "the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville."
On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris at the Théatre des Champs-Élysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage. After a successful tour of Europe, she reneged on her contract and returned to France to star at the Folies Bergères, setting the standard for her future acts. She performed the Danse sauvage, wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas.
Baker's success coincided (1925) with the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave us the term "Art Deco", and also with a renewal of interest in ethnic forms of art, including African. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion.
In later shows in Paris she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar. The cheetah frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it terrorized the musicians, adding another element of excitement to the show.
Baker was so well known and popular with the French that even the Nazis, who occupied France during World War II, were hesitant to cause her harm. In turn, this allowed Baker to show her loyalty to her adopted country by participating in the Underground, smuggling intelligence to the resistance in Portugal coded within her sheet music. After the war, for her underground activity, Baker received the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.
Her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Baker's agent's older brother approached her about working for the French government as an "honorable correspondent" -- if she happened to hear any gossip at parties that might be of use to her adopted country, she could report it. Baker immediately agreed, since she was against the Nazi stand on race not only because she was black but because her husband was Jewish.
Her café society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in the know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and report back what she heard. She was able to do things such as attend parties at the Italian embassy without any suspicion falling on her and gather information that turned out to be useful. She also helped in the war effort in other ways, such as by sending Christmas presents to French soldiers.
When the Germans invaded France, Baker left Paris and went to the Château des Milandes, her home in the south of France, where she had Belgian refugees living with her and others who were eager to help the Free French effort led by Charles de Gaulle from England. As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral Portugal, coming back to France, and such. Baker assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music.
She helped mount a production in Marseilles on the south coast of France to give herself and her like-minded friends a reason for being there. She helped quite a lot of people who were in danger from the Nazis get visas and passports to leave France.
Later in 1941, she and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa; the stated reason was Baker's health (since she really was recovering from another case of pneumonia) but the real reason was to continue helping the Resistance. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain and pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear (counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search) and made friends with the Pasha of Marrakesh, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several) and emergency hysterectomy she had to go through in 1942.
Despite the state of medicine in that time and place, she recovered, and started touring to entertain Allied soldiers in North Africa. She even persuaded Egypt's King Farouk to make a public appearance at one of her concerts, a subtle indication of which side his officially neutral country leaned toward. Later, she would perform at Buchenwald for the liberated inmates who were too frail to be moved. Baker became the first American-born woman to receive the highest French military honor, the Croix de Guerre.
After 1942, she went to North Africa where Ahmed Belbachir Haskouri, the right-hand man of the caliph of Spanish Morocco, placed her under his protection. Belbachir used Josephine to communicate with the French and U.S. forces to reinforce the allied position in North Africa . At Baker's request, Belbachir was successfully issuing visas and passports from Spanish Morocco and via the Spanish High Commissioner to the Jews who were suffering from persecution in Nazi occupied Europe.
In January 1966, she was invited by Fidel Castro to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba. Her spectacular show in April of that year led to record breaking attendance. In 1973, Baker opened at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation. She had finally received in the U.S. the recognition long accorded her in Europe.
Although based in France, Baker supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. She protested in her own way against racism, adopting 12 multi-ethnic orphans, who she called the "Rainbow Tribe." They were: Janot (Korean son), Akio (Japanese son), Luis (Colombian son), Jari (Finnish son), Jean-Claude (Canadian son), Moïse (French Jewish son), Brahim (Algerian son), Marianne (French daughter), Koffi (Ivorian son), Mara (Venezuela son), Noël (French son), and Stellina (Moroccan daughter).
For some time she lived with all of her children and an enormous staff in a castle, Château de Milandes, in Dordogne, France. Baker bore only one child, stillborn in 1941, an incident that precipitated an emergency hysterectomy.
She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States. Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1951, Baker made charges of racism against Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in New York, where she had been refused service. Actress Grace Kelly, who was at the club at the time, rushed over to Baker, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing to never return (and she never did). The two women became close friends after the incident. Testament to this was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by then was princess consort of Rainier III of Monaco).
Baker also worked with the NAACP. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr. Wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur, she was the only woman to speak at the rally.[16] After King's assassination, his widow Coretta Scott King approached Baker in Holland to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "… too young to lose their mother."
She died in Paris after 14 triumphant performances of Josephine, celebrating her 50 years as a performer in Paris. According to her son she lived a life that included same-sex affairs ("She was today what you would call bisexual…” Jean-Claude Baker, son of Josephine Baker). (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=g3986lZE0Gc ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VUZTllF0V7o )
Baker was the first African American to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de Guerre.
When Baker was eight she was sent to work for a white woman who abused her, burning Baker's hands when she put too much soap in the laundry. She later went to work for another woman.
Baker dropped out of school at the age of 12 and lived as a street child in the slums of St. Louis, sleeping in cardboard shelters and scavenging for food in garbage cans.
Her street-corner dancing attracted attention and she was recruited for the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show at 15. She then headed to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance, performing at the Plantation Club and in the chorus of the popular Broadway revues Shuffle Along (1921) and The Chocolate Dandies (1924). She performed as the last dancer in a chorus line, a position in which the dancer traditionally performed in a comic manner, as if she was unable to remember the dance, until the encore, at which point she would not only perform it correctly, but with additional complexity. Baker was then billed as "the highest-paid chorus girl in vaudeville."
On October 2, 1925, she opened in Paris at the Théatre des Champs-Élysées, where she became an instant success for her erotic dancing and for appearing practically nude on stage. After a successful tour of Europe, she reneged on her contract and returned to France to star at the Folies Bergères, setting the standard for her future acts. She performed the Danse sauvage, wearing a costume consisting of a skirt made of a string of artificial bananas.
Baker's success coincided (1925) with the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs, which gave us the term "Art Deco", and also with a renewal of interest in ethnic forms of art, including African. Baker represented one aspect of this fashion.
In later shows in Paris she was often accompanied on stage by her pet cheetah, Chiquita, who was adorned with a diamond collar. The cheetah frequently escaped into the orchestra pit, where it terrorized the musicians, adding another element of excitement to the show.
Baker was so well known and popular with the French that even the Nazis, who occupied France during World War II, were hesitant to cause her harm. In turn, this allowed Baker to show her loyalty to her adopted country by participating in the Underground, smuggling intelligence to the resistance in Portugal coded within her sheet music. After the war, for her underground activity, Baker received the Croix de Guerre, the Rosette de la Résistance, and was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle.
Her affection for France was so great that when World War II broke out, she volunteered to spy for her adopted country. Baker's agent's older brother approached her about working for the French government as an "honorable correspondent" -- if she happened to hear any gossip at parties that might be of use to her adopted country, she could report it. Baker immediately agreed, since she was against the Nazi stand on race not only because she was black but because her husband was Jewish.
Her café society fame enabled her to rub shoulders with those in the know, from high-ranking Japanese officials to Italian bureaucrats, and report back what she heard. She was able to do things such as attend parties at the Italian embassy without any suspicion falling on her and gather information that turned out to be useful. She also helped in the war effort in other ways, such as by sending Christmas presents to French soldiers.
When the Germans invaded France, Baker left Paris and went to the Château des Milandes, her home in the south of France, where she had Belgian refugees living with her and others who were eager to help the Free French effort led by Charles de Gaulle from England. As an entertainer, Baker had an excuse for moving around Europe, visiting neutral Portugal, coming back to France, and such. Baker assisted the French Resistance by smuggling secrets written in invisible ink on her sheet music.
She helped mount a production in Marseilles on the south coast of France to give herself and her like-minded friends a reason for being there. She helped quite a lot of people who were in danger from the Nazis get visas and passports to leave France.
Later in 1941, she and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa; the stated reason was Baker's health (since she really was recovering from another case of pneumonia) but the real reason was to continue helping the Resistance. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain and pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear (counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search) and made friends with the Pasha of Marrakesh, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several) and emergency hysterectomy she had to go through in 1942.
Despite the state of medicine in that time and place, she recovered, and started touring to entertain Allied soldiers in North Africa. She even persuaded Egypt's King Farouk to make a public appearance at one of her concerts, a subtle indication of which side his officially neutral country leaned toward. Later, she would perform at Buchenwald for the liberated inmates who were too frail to be moved. Baker became the first American-born woman to receive the highest French military honor, the Croix de Guerre.
After 1942, she went to North Africa where Ahmed Belbachir Haskouri, the right-hand man of the caliph of Spanish Morocco, placed her under his protection. Belbachir used Josephine to communicate with the French and U.S. forces to reinforce the allied position in North Africa . At Baker's request, Belbachir was successfully issuing visas and passports from Spanish Morocco and via the Spanish High Commissioner to the Jews who were suffering from persecution in Nazi occupied Europe.
In January 1966, she was invited by Fidel Castro to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba. Her spectacular show in April of that year led to record breaking attendance. In 1973, Baker opened at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation. She had finally received in the U.S. the recognition long accorded her in Europe.
Although based in France, Baker supported the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s. She protested in her own way against racism, adopting 12 multi-ethnic orphans, who she called the "Rainbow Tribe." They were: Janot (Korean son), Akio (Japanese son), Luis (Colombian son), Jari (Finnish son), Jean-Claude (Canadian son), Moïse (French Jewish son), Brahim (Algerian son), Marianne (French daughter), Koffi (Ivorian son), Mara (Venezuela son), Noël (French son), and Stellina (Moroccan daughter).
For some time she lived with all of her children and an enormous staff in a castle, Château de Milandes, in Dordogne, France. Baker bore only one child, stillborn in 1941, an incident that precipitated an emergency hysterectomy.
She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States. Her insistence on mixed audiences helped to integrate shows in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In 1951, Baker made charges of racism against Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in New York, where she had been refused service. Actress Grace Kelly, who was at the club at the time, rushed over to Baker, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing to never return (and she never did). The two women became close friends after the incident. Testament to this was made evident when Baker was near bankruptcy and was offered a villa and financial assistance by Kelly (who by then was princess consort of Rainier III of Monaco).
Baker also worked with the NAACP. In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Martin Luther King, Jr. Wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur, she was the only woman to speak at the rally.[16] After King's assassination, his widow Coretta Scott King approached Baker in Holland to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "… too young to lose their mother."
She died in Paris after 14 triumphant performances of Josephine, celebrating her 50 years as a performer in Paris. According to her son she lived a life that included same-sex affairs ("She was today what you would call bisexual…” Jean-Claude Baker, son of Josephine Baker). (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=g3986lZE0Gc ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VUZTllF0V7o )
Angela Davis: Political Activist, Educator
Angela Davis (1944) The socialist and former communist political activist and intellectual Angela Davis has addressed civil and women’s rights, poverty and peace, health care and prison reform since she first came dramatically into the public eye in 1970, when her activism in prisoners’ rights led to her arrest and trial on charges of kidnapping, conspiracy and murder. Davis’ imprisonment for over a year inspired the international “Free Angela” movement; her case became a symbol of the abusive power of the criminal justice system against minorities. Acquitted in 1972, Davis has had a long career as a popular lecturer and professor, writing and fighting for revolutionary social and political reform in the interests of the repressed.
The roots of her passion for social reform extend to her early youth in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1940s and 50s, a troubled time for blacks in the southern United States. The oldest of four children, Davis was raised by her college-educated parents in a segregated neighborhood that suffered such frequent bombings by the Ku Klux Klan that it was nicknamed “Dynamite Hill.” (Condoleezza Rice and Alma Johnson, wife of Colin Powell, were from the same Birmingham neighborhood.) Angela’s grandmother instilled in her a strong sense of her history as an African American, and she attended various civil-rights activities and demonstrations in Birmingham with her activist mother. When Davis tried to start an interracial study group in high school, it was harassed, then disbanded by the police.
Young Davis saw the potential of a more integrated society when she moved to New York City in 1956 to attend a progressive high school on scholarship. It was at this time that she first became acquainted with socialism and communism, joining a Marxist-Leninist group in New York. Attending Brandeis University on a scholarship as one of very few African Americans, she graduated magna cum laude in French literature in 1965. She had spent 1963-64 studying philosophy at the Sorbonne, where her ideas for radical political change progressed through her exposure to the experiences of students from African colonialist nations. And back at Brandeis, she attended classes in her final year with Marxist political philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who considered her the best student he had ever had.
Davis pursued graduate study of philosophy in Frankfurt between 1965-67. The bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls whom Davis knew intensified her desire for political change at this time, and she returned to the United States to participate actively in the struggle for civil rights. After earning a Masters Degree in Philosophy with Marcuse at the University of California at San Diego, she began teaching at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1969 as an assistant professor of philosophy. By 1970, Davis had achieved all but the dissertation in her doctoral study of philosophy. At this point her political activism propelled her dramatically into the public eye.
While a student in San Diego, Davis had become more active in the civil rights movement, joining SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the Black Panthers. Then, objecting to the male chauvinism she observed in these organizations, she pursued her activism as a member of the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-black faction of the Communist Party in Los Angeles. In 1969 the California Board of Regents and Governor Reagan fired her from the faculty of the University of Los Angeles because of her Communist affiliation, despite the fact that Davis was evaluated as an unbiased and popular teacher. After strong protest from students, faculty and administration she was reinstated by court order. Nonetheless, the Board did not renew her contract in 1970, claiming her unfinished dissertation and her radical political activism with the “Soledad Brothers” as their reasons.
On behalf of three prisoners at Soledad prison, who had tried to organize a Marxist group among fellow prisoners and were often abused by the prison officials, Davis began to organize protests, raise funds for their defense, and speak publicly calling for their release. She had received threats by phone and mail, and so she purchased guns for her protection. The guns were used by the brother of one of the “Soledad brothers” in a court-room rescue attempt in 1970. In the shoot-out, a judge and others were killed, and Davis was implicated by the guns. When she fled into hiding, the FBI placed her on the “Ten Most Wanted List.” Found in New York, she was held in prison for over a year, while a huge “Free Angela” movement began to grow internationally, protesting the abusive power of the criminal justice system. The Rolling Stones, John Lennon and Yoko Ono and German Franz Josef Degenhardt dedicated songs to Davis. Defining herself as a political prisoner, she later referred to her time in prison as a pivotal period for the development of her political theory. “I came to understand much more concretely many of the realities of the Black struggle of that period.”
At her trial in 1972, Davis was acquitted of all the charges. Following her acquittal she began a national lecture tour, speaking and writing about civil rights, prison reform, and social change. Her case had drawn particular attention in the Soviet Union, which awarded her the Lenin Peace Prize in 1979. She also received honorary doctorates from Lenin University and the University of Leipzig in the GDR.
Running as Vice Presidential candidate for the Communist Party in both 1980 and 1984, Davis helped to raise awareness of the Communist Party within the African American community. Though her affiliation with the party continued to hinder her teaching career for some years after her acquittal, since 1979 she has taught at San Francisco State University, and since 1992 she has been a tenured professor of the history of consciousness at University of California at Santa Cruz. She founded the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression, which grew out of the Free Angela movement. Since the mid-1980s she has been on the National Political Congress of Black Women and on the board for the National Black Women’s Health Project. In 1997 Davis came out as a lesbian in Out magazine. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union Davis and others formed a dissenting wing of the U.S. Communist Party and challenged the party to reject Leninism and take a more moderate stance; when it failed to do so they split from the CPUSA, defining themselves as democratic socialists and taking the nameCommittees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism in 2000.
Davis has published numerous articles, essays, and books, including her autobiography, several books on women and feminism (most notablyWomen, Race & Class, 1981) and on radical prison reform. Nationally and internationally Davis has been a popular lecturer on the necessity for social change, whether women’s rights, global peace and disarmament, improved opportunities for workers, affordable health care, prison abolition, or the need for and encouragement of youth activism today. In order to achieve social change Davis argues for politically based coalitions that organize beyond race and ethnic group to include differences in class, culture, gender, and sexual orientation. “We have to recognize the intersectionality, the interconnectedness of all of these institutions and attitudes.”
Quotes:
“Something happened during the period of my persecution by the government and the FBI and others. When I was underground, enormous numbers of Black women were arrested and harassed. I came to realize the government feared the politcal potential of Black women – and that that was a manifestation of a larger plan to push us away from political involvement.”
“It is no longer possible for various groups to live and function and struggle in isolation…While we may specifically be involved in our own particular struggles, our vision has to be that we understand how our own issues relate to the issues of others. My consciousness has grown so that when I speak and write, I make a point of discussing the need for understanding how Native Americans, Latinos, and other people of color are marginalized in this society.”
“My own work over the last two decade will have been wonderfully worthwhile if it has indeed assisted in some small measure to awaken and encourage this new activism.”
“History is important, but it also can stifle young people’s ability to think in new ways and to present ideas that may sound implausible now but that really may help us to develop radical strategies for moving into the next century.” (on encouraging younger visionaries in the civil rights movement toward leadership roles)
“No march, movement, or agenda that defines manhood in the narrowest terms and seeks to make women lesser partners in this quest for equality can be considered a positive step.”
“Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.”
“Radical simply means “grasping things at the root.”
In 1997 she came out as a lesbian in ‘Out’ magazine.
(Source: Katherine E. Horsley, Fem Bio)
The roots of her passion for social reform extend to her early youth in Birmingham, Alabama, in the 1940s and 50s, a troubled time for blacks in the southern United States. The oldest of four children, Davis was raised by her college-educated parents in a segregated neighborhood that suffered such frequent bombings by the Ku Klux Klan that it was nicknamed “Dynamite Hill.” (Condoleezza Rice and Alma Johnson, wife of Colin Powell, were from the same Birmingham neighborhood.) Angela’s grandmother instilled in her a strong sense of her history as an African American, and she attended various civil-rights activities and demonstrations in Birmingham with her activist mother. When Davis tried to start an interracial study group in high school, it was harassed, then disbanded by the police.
Young Davis saw the potential of a more integrated society when she moved to New York City in 1956 to attend a progressive high school on scholarship. It was at this time that she first became acquainted with socialism and communism, joining a Marxist-Leninist group in New York. Attending Brandeis University on a scholarship as one of very few African Americans, she graduated magna cum laude in French literature in 1965. She had spent 1963-64 studying philosophy at the Sorbonne, where her ideas for radical political change progressed through her exposure to the experiences of students from African colonialist nations. And back at Brandeis, she attended classes in her final year with Marxist political philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who considered her the best student he had ever had.
Davis pursued graduate study of philosophy in Frankfurt between 1965-67. The bombing of a Birmingham church that killed four girls whom Davis knew intensified her desire for political change at this time, and she returned to the United States to participate actively in the struggle for civil rights. After earning a Masters Degree in Philosophy with Marcuse at the University of California at San Diego, she began teaching at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1969 as an assistant professor of philosophy. By 1970, Davis had achieved all but the dissertation in her doctoral study of philosophy. At this point her political activism propelled her dramatically into the public eye.
While a student in San Diego, Davis had become more active in the civil rights movement, joining SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the Black Panthers. Then, objecting to the male chauvinism she observed in these organizations, she pursued her activism as a member of the Che-Lumumba Club, an all-black faction of the Communist Party in Los Angeles. In 1969 the California Board of Regents and Governor Reagan fired her from the faculty of the University of Los Angeles because of her Communist affiliation, despite the fact that Davis was evaluated as an unbiased and popular teacher. After strong protest from students, faculty and administration she was reinstated by court order. Nonetheless, the Board did not renew her contract in 1970, claiming her unfinished dissertation and her radical political activism with the “Soledad Brothers” as their reasons.
On behalf of three prisoners at Soledad prison, who had tried to organize a Marxist group among fellow prisoners and were often abused by the prison officials, Davis began to organize protests, raise funds for their defense, and speak publicly calling for their release. She had received threats by phone and mail, and so she purchased guns for her protection. The guns were used by the brother of one of the “Soledad brothers” in a court-room rescue attempt in 1970. In the shoot-out, a judge and others were killed, and Davis was implicated by the guns. When she fled into hiding, the FBI placed her on the “Ten Most Wanted List.” Found in New York, she was held in prison for over a year, while a huge “Free Angela” movement began to grow internationally, protesting the abusive power of the criminal justice system. The Rolling Stones, John Lennon and Yoko Ono and German Franz Josef Degenhardt dedicated songs to Davis. Defining herself as a political prisoner, she later referred to her time in prison as a pivotal period for the development of her political theory. “I came to understand much more concretely many of the realities of the Black struggle of that period.”
At her trial in 1972, Davis was acquitted of all the charges. Following her acquittal she began a national lecture tour, speaking and writing about civil rights, prison reform, and social change. Her case had drawn particular attention in the Soviet Union, which awarded her the Lenin Peace Prize in 1979. She also received honorary doctorates from Lenin University and the University of Leipzig in the GDR.
Running as Vice Presidential candidate for the Communist Party in both 1980 and 1984, Davis helped to raise awareness of the Communist Party within the African American community. Though her affiliation with the party continued to hinder her teaching career for some years after her acquittal, since 1979 she has taught at San Francisco State University, and since 1992 she has been a tenured professor of the history of consciousness at University of California at Santa Cruz. She founded the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Oppression, which grew out of the Free Angela movement. Since the mid-1980s she has been on the National Political Congress of Black Women and on the board for the National Black Women’s Health Project. In 1997 Davis came out as a lesbian in Out magazine. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union Davis and others formed a dissenting wing of the U.S. Communist Party and challenged the party to reject Leninism and take a more moderate stance; when it failed to do so they split from the CPUSA, defining themselves as democratic socialists and taking the nameCommittees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism in 2000.
Davis has published numerous articles, essays, and books, including her autobiography, several books on women and feminism (most notablyWomen, Race & Class, 1981) and on radical prison reform. Nationally and internationally Davis has been a popular lecturer on the necessity for social change, whether women’s rights, global peace and disarmament, improved opportunities for workers, affordable health care, prison abolition, or the need for and encouragement of youth activism today. In order to achieve social change Davis argues for politically based coalitions that organize beyond race and ethnic group to include differences in class, culture, gender, and sexual orientation. “We have to recognize the intersectionality, the interconnectedness of all of these institutions and attitudes.”
Quotes:
“Something happened during the period of my persecution by the government and the FBI and others. When I was underground, enormous numbers of Black women were arrested and harassed. I came to realize the government feared the politcal potential of Black women – and that that was a manifestation of a larger plan to push us away from political involvement.”
“It is no longer possible for various groups to live and function and struggle in isolation…While we may specifically be involved in our own particular struggles, our vision has to be that we understand how our own issues relate to the issues of others. My consciousness has grown so that when I speak and write, I make a point of discussing the need for understanding how Native Americans, Latinos, and other people of color are marginalized in this society.”
“My own work over the last two decade will have been wonderfully worthwhile if it has indeed assisted in some small measure to awaken and encourage this new activism.”
“History is important, but it also can stifle young people’s ability to think in new ways and to present ideas that may sound implausible now but that really may help us to develop radical strategies for moving into the next century.” (on encouraging younger visionaries in the civil rights movement toward leadership roles)
“No march, movement, or agenda that defines manhood in the narrowest terms and seeks to make women lesser partners in this quest for equality can be considered a positive step.”
“Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live, but also about the intensely social character of their interior lives. Ultimately, it can propel people toward social emancipation.”
“Radical simply means “grasping things at the root.”
In 1997 she came out as a lesbian in ‘Out’ magazine.
(Source: Katherine E. Horsley, Fem Bio)
George Washington Carver: Scientist, Sculptor
George Washington Carver (1860 - 1943) was an American botanist who introduced crop rotation to southern U.S. agriculture and developed hundreds of uses for the peanut and other plants. He was also an accomplished sculptor whose pieces often sold for high prices.
Carver was born into slavery in the early 1860s, near Diamond Grove Missouri. Afflicted with respiratory disease that left him with a permanently weakened constitution, he was unable to work as a field hand and spent his time working in the garden. He became so knowledgeable as a child that he was known in his neighborhood as "the plant doctor".
When freed from slavery, his name changed from Carver's George to George Carver. He worked on his former master's farm and taught himself to read and write before going on to earn a high-school diploma at Minneapolis High School in Kansas. He was accepted to Simpson College in 1887, and then transferred to Iowa State University (then Iowa State Agricultural College) where he earned a bachelor's (1891) and master's (1894) degrees. He used the name George W. Carver in his correspondence, and when requested to provide a middle name chose Washington.
While in college, he showed a strong aptitude for singing and art, as well as for science, and could possibly have chosen a career in any of the three fields.
In 1896 Carver came to the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) at the request of Booker T. Washington and specialized in botany. He became the director of agricultural research. Seeking to make the use of crops more profitable, Carver devised numerous new uses, including more than 300 uses for the peanut ranging from glue to printer's ink, however contrary to popular belief this list does not include peanut butter. He made similar investigations into uses for plants such as sweet potatoes and pecans.
While George Washington Carver’s renown raised the profile of Tuskegee, talk of his homosexuality and his physical contact with male students proved problematic for the institution.
Carver was born into slavery in the early 1860s, near Diamond Grove Missouri. Afflicted with respiratory disease that left him with a permanently weakened constitution, he was unable to work as a field hand and spent his time working in the garden. He became so knowledgeable as a child that he was known in his neighborhood as "the plant doctor".
When freed from slavery, his name changed from Carver's George to George Carver. He worked on his former master's farm and taught himself to read and write before going on to earn a high-school diploma at Minneapolis High School in Kansas. He was accepted to Simpson College in 1887, and then transferred to Iowa State University (then Iowa State Agricultural College) where he earned a bachelor's (1891) and master's (1894) degrees. He used the name George W. Carver in his correspondence, and when requested to provide a middle name chose Washington.
While in college, he showed a strong aptitude for singing and art, as well as for science, and could possibly have chosen a career in any of the three fields.
In 1896 Carver came to the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) at the request of Booker T. Washington and specialized in botany. He became the director of agricultural research. Seeking to make the use of crops more profitable, Carver devised numerous new uses, including more than 300 uses for the peanut ranging from glue to printer's ink, however contrary to popular belief this list does not include peanut butter. He made similar investigations into uses for plants such as sweet potatoes and pecans.
While George Washington Carver’s renown raised the profile of Tuskegee, talk of his homosexuality and his physical contact with male students proved problematic for the institution.
Frank Ocean: Singer, Songwriter
Frank Ocean (born Christopher Breaux; October 28, 1987), better known by his stage name Frank Ocean, is an American singer-songwriter from New Orleans, Louisiana. Ocean's early career was as a ghostwriter for artists such as Brandy, Justin Bieber, and John Legend. In 2010, he became a member of alternative hip hop collective OFWGKTA, and his debut mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, was released the following year to critical acclaim. He released two singles: "Novacane" and 'Swim Good", which both achieved chart success. The mixtape gained the interest of recording artists such as Kanye West, Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z, and he consequently appeared on West and Jay-Z's Watch the Throne album.
In 2012, the BBC announced that Ocean finished second place in its Sound of 2012 poll. Ocean appeared at the Coachella Festival as well as at Lollapalooza at the end of his 2012 summer tour.
His debut studio album, Channel Orange, was released in July 2012. The album was promoted with three charting singles: "Thinkin Bout You", "Pyramids", and "Sweet Life". Ocean wrote an open letter, intended for the liner notes on Channel Orange, that would preemptively address "speculation about his same-sex attraction," he instead blogged it on Tumblr. Ocean became one of the first major African-American music artists to announce that he had fallen in love with someone of the same sex, notable because the industry is known for homophobia.
Ocean was born Christopher "Lonny" Breaux on October 28, 1987, in Long Beach, California. When he was around five years old, he and his family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up around its local jazz scene and listened to his mother's CDs on her car stereo, including albums by Celine Dion, Anita Baker, and The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. As a teenager, he did neighborhood chores and saved up money to rent studio time. After high school he enrolled in the University of New Orleans and moved into its dormitory in 2005.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Ocean's hometown of New Orleans and his recording facility was looted and destroyed by floodwater. To continue recording music, he moved to Los Angeles and intended to stay for six weeks. However, after acclimating himself with music industry circles, Ocean planned to stay longer and develop his music career. He recorded demos at a friend's studio and shopped them around Los Angeles. After getting a songwriting deal, he started working with other record producers and writing songs for artists such as Justin Bieber, John Legend, and Brandy.
After meeting them in 2009 through networking, Ocean joined the Los Angeles-based hip hop collective OFWGKTA, also known as Odd Future. His friendship with Odd Future member Tyler, The Creator reinvigorated Ocean's songwriting. In late 2009, he met Tricky Stewart, who helped him sign a contract with Def Jam Recordings as a solo artist, though he was initially unable to build a relationship with the company. In 2010, through a legal website, he changed his name from Christopher Breaux to Christopher Francis Ocean.
Ocean has written songs for Justin Bieber, John Legend, Brandy, and Beyoncé Knowles. He has also worked with artists such as Nas and Pharrell Williams. On February 18, 2011, Ocean released his first mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, to critical acclaim. The mixtape focuses on interpersonal relationships, personal reflection and social commentary. NPR's Andrew Noz said Ocean's songwriting is "smart and subtle...setting him apart from the pack." Rolling Stone magazine's Jonah Weiner wrote that Ocean was a "gifted avant-R&B smoothie".
In June 2011, Ocean revealed that he would be working on the upcoming Kanye West and Jay-Z collaborative album, Watch the Throne.
On June 8, 2012, a single from the album Channel Orange, entitled "Pyramids", was made available for download on Ocean's Tumblr blog. On July 10, 2012, Ocean made his debut television performance with "Bad Religion" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The same day, Ocean released his album one week ahead of schedule for digital download on iTunes and free streaming on his Tumblr blog. All other forms of distribution for the album became available on July 17, 2012.
Ocean's music has been characterized by music writers as idiosyncratic in style. Ocean generally plays the electronic keyboard, and is backed by a subdued rhythm section in the production. His compositions are often mid-tempo, feature unconventional melodies, and they occasionally have an experimental song structure. In his songwriting, Jon Pareles of The New York Times observes "open echoes of self-guided, innovative R&B songwriters like Prince, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Maxwell, Erykah Badu and particularly R. Kelly and his way of writing melodies that hover between speech and song, asymmetrical and syncopated."
Culture critic Nelson George asserts that, along with Miguel, Ocean has "staked out ground where [he is] not competing with those hit-driven [commercial R&B] acts" and is "cultivating a sound that balances adult concerns with a sense of young men trying to understand their own desires (an apt description of Ocean, particularly)."
On July 4, 2012, Ocean published an open letter on his Tumblr blog recounting unrequited feelings he had for another young man when he was 19 years old, citing it as his first true love. He used the blog to thank the man for his influence, and also thanked his mother and other friends, saying "I don't know what happens now, and that's alrite [sic]. I don't have any secrets I need kept anymore...I feel like a free man." Members of the hip hop industry generally responded positively to the announcement. Russell Simmons, a business magnate in the hip hop industry, wrote a congratulatory article in Global Grind saying "Today is a big day for hip-hop. It is a day that will define who we really are. How compassionate will we be? How loving can we be? How inclusive are we? [...] Your decision to go public about your sexual orientation gives hope and light to so many young people still living in fear." Other artists who expressed their support included Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Tyler, The Creator also tweeted his support for Ocean, along with other members of OFWGKTA. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41MRWsCCytU; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDSPybTFYHU; http://vimeo.com/lumentech/frankocean2013grammystues)
In 2012, the BBC announced that Ocean finished second place in its Sound of 2012 poll. Ocean appeared at the Coachella Festival as well as at Lollapalooza at the end of his 2012 summer tour.
His debut studio album, Channel Orange, was released in July 2012. The album was promoted with three charting singles: "Thinkin Bout You", "Pyramids", and "Sweet Life". Ocean wrote an open letter, intended for the liner notes on Channel Orange, that would preemptively address "speculation about his same-sex attraction," he instead blogged it on Tumblr. Ocean became one of the first major African-American music artists to announce that he had fallen in love with someone of the same sex, notable because the industry is known for homophobia.
Ocean was born Christopher "Lonny" Breaux on October 28, 1987, in Long Beach, California. When he was around five years old, he and his family moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up around its local jazz scene and listened to his mother's CDs on her car stereo, including albums by Celine Dion, Anita Baker, and The Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. As a teenager, he did neighborhood chores and saved up money to rent studio time. After high school he enrolled in the University of New Orleans and moved into its dormitory in 2005.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Ocean's hometown of New Orleans and his recording facility was looted and destroyed by floodwater. To continue recording music, he moved to Los Angeles and intended to stay for six weeks. However, after acclimating himself with music industry circles, Ocean planned to stay longer and develop his music career. He recorded demos at a friend's studio and shopped them around Los Angeles. After getting a songwriting deal, he started working with other record producers and writing songs for artists such as Justin Bieber, John Legend, and Brandy.
After meeting them in 2009 through networking, Ocean joined the Los Angeles-based hip hop collective OFWGKTA, also known as Odd Future. His friendship with Odd Future member Tyler, The Creator reinvigorated Ocean's songwriting. In late 2009, he met Tricky Stewart, who helped him sign a contract with Def Jam Recordings as a solo artist, though he was initially unable to build a relationship with the company. In 2010, through a legal website, he changed his name from Christopher Breaux to Christopher Francis Ocean.
Ocean has written songs for Justin Bieber, John Legend, Brandy, and Beyoncé Knowles. He has also worked with artists such as Nas and Pharrell Williams. On February 18, 2011, Ocean released his first mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, to critical acclaim. The mixtape focuses on interpersonal relationships, personal reflection and social commentary. NPR's Andrew Noz said Ocean's songwriting is "smart and subtle...setting him apart from the pack." Rolling Stone magazine's Jonah Weiner wrote that Ocean was a "gifted avant-R&B smoothie".
In June 2011, Ocean revealed that he would be working on the upcoming Kanye West and Jay-Z collaborative album, Watch the Throne.
On June 8, 2012, a single from the album Channel Orange, entitled "Pyramids", was made available for download on Ocean's Tumblr blog. On July 10, 2012, Ocean made his debut television performance with "Bad Religion" on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The same day, Ocean released his album one week ahead of schedule for digital download on iTunes and free streaming on his Tumblr blog. All other forms of distribution for the album became available on July 17, 2012.
Ocean's music has been characterized by music writers as idiosyncratic in style. Ocean generally plays the electronic keyboard, and is backed by a subdued rhythm section in the production. His compositions are often mid-tempo, feature unconventional melodies, and they occasionally have an experimental song structure. In his songwriting, Jon Pareles of The New York Times observes "open echoes of self-guided, innovative R&B songwriters like Prince, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Maxwell, Erykah Badu and particularly R. Kelly and his way of writing melodies that hover between speech and song, asymmetrical and syncopated."
Culture critic Nelson George asserts that, along with Miguel, Ocean has "staked out ground where [he is] not competing with those hit-driven [commercial R&B] acts" and is "cultivating a sound that balances adult concerns with a sense of young men trying to understand their own desires (an apt description of Ocean, particularly)."
On July 4, 2012, Ocean published an open letter on his Tumblr blog recounting unrequited feelings he had for another young man when he was 19 years old, citing it as his first true love. He used the blog to thank the man for his influence, and also thanked his mother and other friends, saying "I don't know what happens now, and that's alrite [sic]. I don't have any secrets I need kept anymore...I feel like a free man." Members of the hip hop industry generally responded positively to the announcement. Russell Simmons, a business magnate in the hip hop industry, wrote a congratulatory article in Global Grind saying "Today is a big day for hip-hop. It is a day that will define who we really are. How compassionate will we be? How loving can we be? How inclusive are we? [...] Your decision to go public about your sexual orientation gives hope and light to so many young people still living in fear." Other artists who expressed their support included Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Tyler, The Creator also tweeted his support for Ocean, along with other members of OFWGKTA. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41MRWsCCytU; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDSPybTFYHU; http://vimeo.com/lumentech/frankocean2013grammystues)
Bayard Rustin: Human Rights Activist, MLK Advisor; Architect of the 1963 March on Washington
Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American civil rights activist, important largely behind the scenes in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and earlier, and the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He counseled Martin Luther King, Jr. on the techniques of nonviolent resistance. He became an advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian causes in the latter part of his career; however, his homosexuality was the basis for attacks from government officials and agencies as well as from interest groups.
He was raised by his maternal grandparents. Rustin's grandmother, Julia, was a Quaker, though she attended her husband's A.M.E. Church. She was also a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). NAACP leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson were frequent guests in the Rustin home. With these influences in his early life, Rustin campaigned against racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws in his youth.
In 1932, Rustin entered Wilberforce University, but left in 1936 before taking his final exams. He later attended Cheyney State Teachers College, now called Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. After completing an activist training program conducted by the American Friends Service Committee, Rustin moved to Harlem in 1937 and began studying at City College of New York. There he became involved in efforts to free the Scottsboro Boys– nine young black men who had been falsely accused of raping two white women.
Rustin was also an accomplished tenor vocalist, entering both Wilberforce University and Cheyney State Teachers College on music scholarships. In 1939 he was in the chorus of a short-lived musical that starred Paul Robeson. Blues singer Josh White was also a cast member, and later invited Rustin to join his band, Josh White and the Carolinians. This gave Rustin the opportunity to become a regular performer at the Café Society nightclub in in Greenwich Village, which widened his social and intellectual contacts.
Rustin began working with A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and A. J. Muste, leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). The three of them proposed a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the armed forces, but the march was canceled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 (the Fair Employment Act), which banned discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus. Rustin also went to California to protect the property of Japanese-Americans imprisoned in internment camps. Impressed with Rustin's organizational skills, Muste appointed him as FOR's secretary for student and general affairs.
In 1942, Rustin assisted two other staffers of FOR, George Houser and James L. Farmer, Jr., and a third activist, Bernice Fisher as they formed the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Rustin was not a direct founder but was "an uncle of CORE," Farmer and Houser said later. CORE was conceived as a pacifist organization based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau and modeled after Mohandas Gandhi's non-violent resistance against British rule in India. As pacifists, Rustin, Houser, and other members of FOR and CORE were arrested for violating the Selective Service Act. From 1944 to 1946, Rustin was imprisoned in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, where he organized protests against segregated dining facilities. During his incarceration, Rustin also organized FOR's Free India Committee. After his release from prison, he was frequently arrested for protesting against British rule in India and Africa.
His influence on theCivil-Rights Movement:
Rustin and Houser organized the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947. This was the first of the Freedom Rides to test the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel (Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia). CORE's Gandhian tactics were opposed strenuously by the NAACP, and participants in the Journey of Reconciliation were arrested several times. Arrested with Jewish activist Igal Roodenko, Rustin served twenty-two days on a chain gang in North Carolina for violating Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.
In 1948, Rustin traveled to India to learn nonviolence techniques directly from the leaders of the Gandhian movement at a conference that was organized by Gandhi himself before he was assassinated earlier that year. Between 1947 and 1952, Rustin met with leaders of Ghana's and Nigeria's independence movements and, in 1951, he formed the Committee to Support South African Resistance, which later became the American Committee on Africa. In 1953, Rustin was arrested in Pasadena, California; originally charged with vagrancy and lewd conduct, he eventually pleaded guilty to a single, lesser charge of "sex perversion" (as consensual sodomy was officially referred to in California at the time) and served 60 days in jail. This was the first time that his homosexuality had come to public attention, yet he remained candid about his sexuality, which was still criminalized throughout the United States. After his conviction, he was fired from FOR, though he became the executive secretary of the War Resisters League.
Rustin served as an unidentified member of the American Friends Service Committee's task force to prepare one of the most influential and widely commented upon pacifist essays ever produced in the United States, "Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence,"published in 1955. (According to the chairman of the group, Stephen Cary, Rustin's membership was repressed at his own request because he believed that his known sexual orientation would compromise the 71-page pamphlet once it appeared.) It analyzed the cold war and the American response to it and recommended non-violent solutions.
Rustin took leave from the War Resisters League in 1956 to advise Martin Luther King Jr. on Gandhian tactics as King organized the public transportation boycott in Montgomery, Alabama known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Many African-American leaders were concerned that Rustin's sexual orientation and Communist past would undermine support for the civil rights movement. U.S. Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who was a member of the SCLC's board, forced Rustin's resignation from the SCLC in 1960 by threatening to discuss Rustin's morals charge in Congress. Although Rustin was open about his sexual orientation and his conviction was a matter of public record, it had not been discussed widely outside the civil rights leadership.
When Rustin and Randolph organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, Senator Strom Thurmond railed against Rustin as a "Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual" and produced an FBI photograph of Rustin talking to King while King was bathing, to imply that there was a same-sex relationship between the two. Both men denied the allegation of an affair, but, despite King's support, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins did not want Rustin to receive any public recognition for his role in planning the march—though, in fact, he did become quite well-known. After the March on Washington, Rustin organized the New York City School Boycott. When Rustin was invited to speak at the University of Virginia in 1964, school administrators tried to ban him, out of fear that he would organize another school boycott there.
After passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, Rustin advocated closer ties between the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party and its labor activist base. He was the founder of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and a regular columnist for the AFL-CIO newspaper. He wrote an influential article called "From Protest to Politics," that led to a response by another civil rights activist, Staughton Lynd, called "Coalition Politics or Nonviolent Revolution?"
Rustin was an early supporter of President Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam policy, but as the war escalated and began to supersede Democratic programs for racial reconciliation and labor reform, Rustin returned to his pacifist roots. Still, he was seen as a "sell-out" by the burgeoning Black Power movement, whose identity politics he rejected—though he liked to point out that he was one of the early sporters of an "Afro" style haircut.
During the early 1970s Rustin served on the board of trustees of the University of Notre Dame.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin worked as a human rights and election monitor for Freedom House. He also testified on behalf of New York State's Gay Rights Bill and, in 1986, gave a speech "The New Niggers Are Gays," in which he asserted,'Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays. . . . It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. . . . The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.
Rustin died on August 24, 1987, of a perforated appendix. An obituary that appeared in the New York Times reported, "Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: 'The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one.'"
At least two high schools have been named for Rustin. Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities (formerly Humanities High School and Charles Evans Hughes High School) is located in the Chelsea section of New York City, but on January 8, 2009, the New York City Department of Education announced that they would be closing the school by 2012 due to poor performance. Bayard Rustin High School is located in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Other public building named for Rustin include the Bayard Rustin Library at the Affirmations Gay/Lesbian Community Center in Ferndale, MI and the Bayard Rustin Social Justice Center in Conway, Arkansas.
In July 2007, with the permission of the Estate of Bayard Rustin, a group of San Francisco Bay Area African American LGBT community leaders formed the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition (BRC) to promote greater participation in the electoral process, advance civil and human rights issues, and generally promote the legacy of Mr. Rustin.
He was raised by his maternal grandparents. Rustin's grandmother, Julia, was a Quaker, though she attended her husband's A.M.E. Church. She was also a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). NAACP leaders such as W. E. B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson were frequent guests in the Rustin home. With these influences in his early life, Rustin campaigned against racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws in his youth.
In 1932, Rustin entered Wilberforce University, but left in 1936 before taking his final exams. He later attended Cheyney State Teachers College, now called Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. After completing an activist training program conducted by the American Friends Service Committee, Rustin moved to Harlem in 1937 and began studying at City College of New York. There he became involved in efforts to free the Scottsboro Boys– nine young black men who had been falsely accused of raping two white women.
Rustin was also an accomplished tenor vocalist, entering both Wilberforce University and Cheyney State Teachers College on music scholarships. In 1939 he was in the chorus of a short-lived musical that starred Paul Robeson. Blues singer Josh White was also a cast member, and later invited Rustin to join his band, Josh White and the Carolinians. This gave Rustin the opportunity to become a regular performer at the Café Society nightclub in in Greenwich Village, which widened his social and intellectual contacts.
Rustin began working with A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and A. J. Muste, leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). The three of them proposed a march on Washington to protest racial discrimination in the armed forces, but the march was canceled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 (the Fair Employment Act), which banned discrimination in defense industries and federal bureaus. Rustin also went to California to protect the property of Japanese-Americans imprisoned in internment camps. Impressed with Rustin's organizational skills, Muste appointed him as FOR's secretary for student and general affairs.
In 1942, Rustin assisted two other staffers of FOR, George Houser and James L. Farmer, Jr., and a third activist, Bernice Fisher as they formed the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Rustin was not a direct founder but was "an uncle of CORE," Farmer and Houser said later. CORE was conceived as a pacifist organization based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau and modeled after Mohandas Gandhi's non-violent resistance against British rule in India. As pacifists, Rustin, Houser, and other members of FOR and CORE were arrested for violating the Selective Service Act. From 1944 to 1946, Rustin was imprisoned in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, where he organized protests against segregated dining facilities. During his incarceration, Rustin also organized FOR's Free India Committee. After his release from prison, he was frequently arrested for protesting against British rule in India and Africa.
His influence on theCivil-Rights Movement:
Rustin and Houser organized the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947. This was the first of the Freedom Rides to test the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel (Irene Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia). CORE's Gandhian tactics were opposed strenuously by the NAACP, and participants in the Journey of Reconciliation were arrested several times. Arrested with Jewish activist Igal Roodenko, Rustin served twenty-two days on a chain gang in North Carolina for violating Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.
In 1948, Rustin traveled to India to learn nonviolence techniques directly from the leaders of the Gandhian movement at a conference that was organized by Gandhi himself before he was assassinated earlier that year. Between 1947 and 1952, Rustin met with leaders of Ghana's and Nigeria's independence movements and, in 1951, he formed the Committee to Support South African Resistance, which later became the American Committee on Africa. In 1953, Rustin was arrested in Pasadena, California; originally charged with vagrancy and lewd conduct, he eventually pleaded guilty to a single, lesser charge of "sex perversion" (as consensual sodomy was officially referred to in California at the time) and served 60 days in jail. This was the first time that his homosexuality had come to public attention, yet he remained candid about his sexuality, which was still criminalized throughout the United States. After his conviction, he was fired from FOR, though he became the executive secretary of the War Resisters League.
Rustin served as an unidentified member of the American Friends Service Committee's task force to prepare one of the most influential and widely commented upon pacifist essays ever produced in the United States, "Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence,"published in 1955. (According to the chairman of the group, Stephen Cary, Rustin's membership was repressed at his own request because he believed that his known sexual orientation would compromise the 71-page pamphlet once it appeared.) It analyzed the cold war and the American response to it and recommended non-violent solutions.
Rustin took leave from the War Resisters League in 1956 to advise Martin Luther King Jr. on Gandhian tactics as King organized the public transportation boycott in Montgomery, Alabama known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Many African-American leaders were concerned that Rustin's sexual orientation and Communist past would undermine support for the civil rights movement. U.S. Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who was a member of the SCLC's board, forced Rustin's resignation from the SCLC in 1960 by threatening to discuss Rustin's morals charge in Congress. Although Rustin was open about his sexual orientation and his conviction was a matter of public record, it had not been discussed widely outside the civil rights leadership.
When Rustin and Randolph organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, Senator Strom Thurmond railed against Rustin as a "Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual" and produced an FBI photograph of Rustin talking to King while King was bathing, to imply that there was a same-sex relationship between the two. Both men denied the allegation of an affair, but, despite King's support, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins did not want Rustin to receive any public recognition for his role in planning the march—though, in fact, he did become quite well-known. After the March on Washington, Rustin organized the New York City School Boycott. When Rustin was invited to speak at the University of Virginia in 1964, school administrators tried to ban him, out of fear that he would organize another school boycott there.
After passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, Rustin advocated closer ties between the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party and its labor activist base. He was the founder of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and a regular columnist for the AFL-CIO newspaper. He wrote an influential article called "From Protest to Politics," that led to a response by another civil rights activist, Staughton Lynd, called "Coalition Politics or Nonviolent Revolution?"
Rustin was an early supporter of President Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam policy, but as the war escalated and began to supersede Democratic programs for racial reconciliation and labor reform, Rustin returned to his pacifist roots. Still, he was seen as a "sell-out" by the burgeoning Black Power movement, whose identity politics he rejected—though he liked to point out that he was one of the early sporters of an "Afro" style haircut.
During the early 1970s Rustin served on the board of trustees of the University of Notre Dame.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin worked as a human rights and election monitor for Freedom House. He also testified on behalf of New York State's Gay Rights Bill and, in 1986, gave a speech "The New Niggers Are Gays," in which he asserted,'Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays. . . . It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. . . . The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.
Rustin died on August 24, 1987, of a perforated appendix. An obituary that appeared in the New York Times reported, "Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: 'The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one.'"
At least two high schools have been named for Rustin. Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities (formerly Humanities High School and Charles Evans Hughes High School) is located in the Chelsea section of New York City, but on January 8, 2009, the New York City Department of Education announced that they would be closing the school by 2012 due to poor performance. Bayard Rustin High School is located in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Other public building named for Rustin include the Bayard Rustin Library at the Affirmations Gay/Lesbian Community Center in Ferndale, MI and the Bayard Rustin Social Justice Center in Conway, Arkansas.
In July 2007, with the permission of the Estate of Bayard Rustin, a group of San Francisco Bay Area African American LGBT community leaders formed the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition (BRC) to promote greater participation in the electoral process, advance civil and human rights issues, and generally promote the legacy of Mr. Rustin.
Billie Holiday ('Lady Day'): Legendary Jazz Singer
Billie Holiday (1915 – 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.
Above all, she was admired for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow, "and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing jazz standards written by others, including "Easy Living" and "Strange Fruit".
Her professional pseudonym was taken from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Holiday, her probable father. At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name Halliday, which was the birth-surname of her father, but eventually changed it to Holiday, his performing name. She cut her first record at the age of 18 and, by the time she was 23, she had recorded with most of the great names in jazz - including Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Artie Shaw.
It was in Harlem in the early 1930s that she started singing for tips in various nightclubs. According to legend, penniless and facing eviction, she sang "Travelin' All Alone" in a local club and reduced the audience to tears. She later worked at various clubs for tips, ultimately landing at Pod's and Jerry's, a well-known Harlem jazz club. Her early work history is hard to verify, though accounts say she was working at a club named Monette's in 1933 when she was discovered by talent scout John Hammond.
Among the musicians who accompanied her frequently was tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who had been a boarder at her mother's house in 1934 and with whom she had a special rapport. "Well, I think you can hear that on some of the old records, you know. Some time I'd sit down and listen to 'em myself, and it sound like two of the same voices, if you don't be careful, you know, or the same mind, or something like that." Young nicknamed her "Lady Day", and she, in turn, dubbed him "Prez". She did a three-month residency at Clark Monroe's Uptown House in New York in 1937. In the late 1930s, she also had brief stints as a big band vocalist with Count Basie (1937) and Artie Shaw (1938). The latter association placed her among the first black women to work with a white orchestra, an arrangement that went against the tenor of the times.
Billie Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to "Strange Fruit", a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings. It was eventually heard by Barney Josephson, proprietor of Café Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday. She performed it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, fearing possible retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death and that this played a role in her resistance to performing it. In a 1958 interview, she also bemoaned the fact that many people did not grasp the song's message: "They'll ask me to 'sing that sexy song about the people swinging'", she said.
When Holiday's producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive, Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his Commodore Records. That was done in April, 1939, and "Strange Fruit" remained in her repertoire for twenty years. She later recorded it again for Verve. While the Commodore release did not get airplay, the controversial song sold well, though Gabler attributed that mostly to the record's other side, "Fine and Mellow", which was a jukebox hit.
Billie Holiday signed on to Decca Records on August 7, 1944, when Holiday was 29. Her first recording for Decca was "Lover Man" (#5 R&B) and "No More". "Lover Man" was a song written especially for her by Jimmy Davis, Roger "Ram" Ramirez, and Jimmy Sherman. Although its lyrics describe a woman who has never known love ("I long to try something I never had"), its theme—a woman longing for a missing lover—and its refrain, "Lover man, oh, where can you be?", struck a chord in wartime America, and the record became one of her biggest hits. Holiday's slow, melodic songs of unrequited love aided her career, becoming a popular star in the 1940's.
Billie Holiday was a jazz diva who lived it up with a vengeance, and had a huge appetite for drink, drugs, men and women. She had an affair with actor and director Orson Welles, and also had a number of lesbian affairs - including one with actress, Tallulah Bankhead.
By the late 1930s she had married small-time drugs dealer Jimmy Monroe, who introduced her to opium and heroin. This was the beginning of Billie’s downfall. In 1947, she was imprisoned for a year for possession of drugs. On her release she had difficulty finding work and there was a succession of relationships with violent, parasitic men and a decline into addiction - accompanied by a roughening of her voice and an alarming physical decline.
On 10 July 1959, Billie Holiday died in hospital in New York of cirrhosis of the liver. In a characteristically cruel twist she had been arrested on her deathbed for possession of narcotics, and spent most of her final days under police guard. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vPJuFxl0bxY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d7ENPQzlUpY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h4ZyuULy9zs)
Above all, she was admired for her deeply personal and intimate approach to singing. Critic John Bush wrote that she "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow, "and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing jazz standards written by others, including "Easy Living" and "Strange Fruit".
Her professional pseudonym was taken from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and Clarence Holiday, her probable father. At the outset of her career, she spelled her last name Halliday, which was the birth-surname of her father, but eventually changed it to Holiday, his performing name. She cut her first record at the age of 18 and, by the time she was 23, she had recorded with most of the great names in jazz - including Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Artie Shaw.
It was in Harlem in the early 1930s that she started singing for tips in various nightclubs. According to legend, penniless and facing eviction, she sang "Travelin' All Alone" in a local club and reduced the audience to tears. She later worked at various clubs for tips, ultimately landing at Pod's and Jerry's, a well-known Harlem jazz club. Her early work history is hard to verify, though accounts say she was working at a club named Monette's in 1933 when she was discovered by talent scout John Hammond.
Among the musicians who accompanied her frequently was tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who had been a boarder at her mother's house in 1934 and with whom she had a special rapport. "Well, I think you can hear that on some of the old records, you know. Some time I'd sit down and listen to 'em myself, and it sound like two of the same voices, if you don't be careful, you know, or the same mind, or something like that." Young nicknamed her "Lady Day", and she, in turn, dubbed him "Prez". She did a three-month residency at Clark Monroe's Uptown House in New York in 1937. In the late 1930s, she also had brief stints as a big band vocalist with Count Basie (1937) and Artie Shaw (1938). The latter association placed her among the first black women to work with a white orchestra, an arrangement that went against the tenor of the times.
Billie Holiday was recording for Columbia in the late 1930s when she was introduced to "Strange Fruit", a song based on a poem about lynching written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx. Meeropol used the pseudonym "Lewis Allan" for the poem, which was set to music and performed at teachers' union meetings. It was eventually heard by Barney Josephson, proprietor of Café Society, an integrated nightclub in Greenwich Village, who introduced it to Holiday. She performed it at the club in 1939, with some trepidation, fearing possible retaliation. Holiday later said that the imagery in "Strange Fruit" reminded her of her father's death and that this played a role in her resistance to performing it. In a 1958 interview, she also bemoaned the fact that many people did not grasp the song's message: "They'll ask me to 'sing that sexy song about the people swinging'", she said.
When Holiday's producers at Columbia found the subject matter too sensitive, Milt Gabler agreed to record it for his Commodore Records. That was done in April, 1939, and "Strange Fruit" remained in her repertoire for twenty years. She later recorded it again for Verve. While the Commodore release did not get airplay, the controversial song sold well, though Gabler attributed that mostly to the record's other side, "Fine and Mellow", which was a jukebox hit.
Billie Holiday signed on to Decca Records on August 7, 1944, when Holiday was 29. Her first recording for Decca was "Lover Man" (#5 R&B) and "No More". "Lover Man" was a song written especially for her by Jimmy Davis, Roger "Ram" Ramirez, and Jimmy Sherman. Although its lyrics describe a woman who has never known love ("I long to try something I never had"), its theme—a woman longing for a missing lover—and its refrain, "Lover man, oh, where can you be?", struck a chord in wartime America, and the record became one of her biggest hits. Holiday's slow, melodic songs of unrequited love aided her career, becoming a popular star in the 1940's.
Billie Holiday was a jazz diva who lived it up with a vengeance, and had a huge appetite for drink, drugs, men and women. She had an affair with actor and director Orson Welles, and also had a number of lesbian affairs - including one with actress, Tallulah Bankhead.
By the late 1930s she had married small-time drugs dealer Jimmy Monroe, who introduced her to opium and heroin. This was the beginning of Billie’s downfall. In 1947, she was imprisoned for a year for possession of drugs. On her release she had difficulty finding work and there was a succession of relationships with violent, parasitic men and a decline into addiction - accompanied by a roughening of her voice and an alarming physical decline.
On 10 July 1959, Billie Holiday died in hospital in New York of cirrhosis of the liver. In a characteristically cruel twist she had been arrested on her deathbed for possession of narcotics, and spent most of her final days under police guard. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vPJuFxl0bxY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d7ENPQzlUpY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=h4ZyuULy9zs)
Dr. Pauli Murray: Attorney, Legal Scholar (Writings used as source for the Brown v. Board of Education argument), Civil Rights Activist, First African American woman to be ordained priest in the Protestant Episcopal Church, Co-Founder of N.O.W (National Organization of Women)
Anna Pauline (Pauli) Murray (1910-1985) was born in Baltimore on 20th November, 1910. Her mother, Agnes Murray died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1914. Her father, William Murray, was a graduate of Howard University and taught in a local high school. He suffered from the long-term effects of typhoid fever and eventually was confined to Crownsville State Hospital where he was murdered by a guard in 1923.
Pauli went to live with her aunt, Pauline Fitzgerald, an elementary school teacher and her grandparents Robert and Cornelia Fitzgerald in Durham, North Carolina.
After graduating from Hillside High School in 1926 with a certificate of distinction, she moved to New York City. Murray attended Hunter College and financed her studies with various jobs. However, after the Wall Street Crash, unable to find work, Murray was forced to abandon her studies. In the 1930s Murray worked for the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and as a teacher in the New York City Remedial Reading Project. She also had articles and poems published in various magazines. This included her novel, Angel of the Desert, that was serialized in the Carolina Times.
Murray also became involved in the civil rights movement. In 1938 she began a campaign to enter the all-white University of North Carolina. With the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Murray’s case received national publicity. However, it was not until 1951 thatFloyd McKissick became the first African American to be accepted by the University of North Carolina. During this campaign she developed a life-long friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt. A member of theFellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), Murray also became involved in attempts to end segregation on public transport and this resulted in her arrest and imprisonment in March 1940 for refusing to sit at the back of a bus in Virginia. In 1941 Murray enrolled at the Howard University law school with the intention of becoming a civil rights lawyer. The following year she joined with George Houser, James Farmer and Bayard Rustin, to form the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Members of CORE were mainly pacifists who had been deeply influenced by Henry David Thoreau and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent civil disobedience campaign that he used successfully against British rule in India. The students became convinced that the same methods could be employed by blacks to obtain civil rights in America. In 1943 Murray published two important essays on civil rights, Negroes Are Fed Up in Common Sense and an article about the Harlem race riot in the socialist newspaper, New York Call. Her most famous poem on race relations, Dark Testament, was also written in that year. The poem was published as a part of a larger collection of her work in 1970 by Silvermine Press.
After Murray graduated from Howard University in 1944 she wanted to enroll at Harvard University to continue her law studies. In her application for a Rosenwald Fellowship, she listed Harvard as her first choice. She was awarded the prestigious fellowship but after the award had been announced, Harvard Law School rejected her because of her gender. Murray went to the University of California Boalt School of Law where she received a degree in law. Her master’s thesis was The Right to Equal Opportunity in Employment. Murray moved to New York City and provided support to the growing civil rights movement. Her book, States’ Laws on Race and Color, was published in 1951. Thurgood Marshall, head of the legal department at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), described the book as the Bible for civil rights lawyers.
In the early 1950s Murray, like many African Americans involved in the civil rights movement, suffered from McCarthyism. In 1952 she lost a post at Cornell University because the people who had supplied her references: Eleanor Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshalland Philip Randolph, were considered to be too radical. She was told in a letter that they decided to give “one hundred per cent protection” to the university “in view of the troublous times in which we live”.
In 1956 Murray published Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family, biography of her grandparents, and their struggle with racial prejudice and a poignant portrayal of her hometown of Durham. In 1960 Murray travelled to Ghana to explore her African cultural roots. When she returned President John F. Kennedy appointed her to his Committee on Civil and Political Rights. In the early 1960s Murray worked closely with Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King but was critical of the way that men dominated the leadership of these civil rights organizations. In August, 1963, she wrote to Randolph and pointed out that she had: “been increasingly perturbed over the blatant disparity between the major role which Negro women have played and are playing in the crucial grass-roots levels of our struggle and the minor role of leadership they have been assigned in the national policy-making decisions.”
In 1977 Murray became the first African American woman to become a Episcopal priest. Pauli Murray died of cancer in Pittsburgh on 1st July, 1985. Her autobiography Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage was published posthumously in 1987. The book was re-released as Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest and Poet in 1987.
Since her death two additional books have been published about her life and work, Anne Firor Scott’sPauli Murray & Caroline Ware: Forty Years of Letters in Black and White, and Anthony Pinn’s collection,Pauli Murray: Selected Sermons and Writings.
Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmurrayA.htm (with revisions) Also includes extensive primary source material.
After graduating from Hillside High School in 1926 with a certificate of distinction, she moved to New York City. Murray attended Hunter College and financed her studies with various jobs. However, after the Wall Street Crash, unable to find work, Murray was forced to abandon her studies. In the 1930s Murray worked for the Works Projects Administration (WPA) and as a teacher in the New York City Remedial Reading Project. She also had articles and poems published in various magazines. This included her novel, Angel of the Desert, that was serialized in the Carolina Times.
Murray also became involved in the civil rights movement. In 1938 she began a campaign to enter the all-white University of North Carolina. With the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Murray’s case received national publicity. However, it was not until 1951 thatFloyd McKissick became the first African American to be accepted by the University of North Carolina. During this campaign she developed a life-long friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt. A member of theFellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), Murray also became involved in attempts to end segregation on public transport and this resulted in her arrest and imprisonment in March 1940 for refusing to sit at the back of a bus in Virginia. In 1941 Murray enrolled at the Howard University law school with the intention of becoming a civil rights lawyer. The following year she joined with George Houser, James Farmer and Bayard Rustin, to form the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Members of CORE were mainly pacifists who had been deeply influenced by Henry David Thoreau and the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and the nonviolent civil disobedience campaign that he used successfully against British rule in India. The students became convinced that the same methods could be employed by blacks to obtain civil rights in America. In 1943 Murray published two important essays on civil rights, Negroes Are Fed Up in Common Sense and an article about the Harlem race riot in the socialist newspaper, New York Call. Her most famous poem on race relations, Dark Testament, was also written in that year. The poem was published as a part of a larger collection of her work in 1970 by Silvermine Press.
After Murray graduated from Howard University in 1944 she wanted to enroll at Harvard University to continue her law studies. In her application for a Rosenwald Fellowship, she listed Harvard as her first choice. She was awarded the prestigious fellowship but after the award had been announced, Harvard Law School rejected her because of her gender. Murray went to the University of California Boalt School of Law where she received a degree in law. Her master’s thesis was The Right to Equal Opportunity in Employment. Murray moved to New York City and provided support to the growing civil rights movement. Her book, States’ Laws on Race and Color, was published in 1951. Thurgood Marshall, head of the legal department at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), described the book as the Bible for civil rights lawyers.
In the early 1950s Murray, like many African Americans involved in the civil rights movement, suffered from McCarthyism. In 1952 she lost a post at Cornell University because the people who had supplied her references: Eleanor Roosevelt, Thurgood Marshalland Philip Randolph, were considered to be too radical. She was told in a letter that they decided to give “one hundred per cent protection” to the university “in view of the troublous times in which we live”.
In 1956 Murray published Proud Shoes: The Story of an American Family, biography of her grandparents, and their struggle with racial prejudice and a poignant portrayal of her hometown of Durham. In 1960 Murray travelled to Ghana to explore her African cultural roots. When she returned President John F. Kennedy appointed her to his Committee on Civil and Political Rights. In the early 1960s Murray worked closely with Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King but was critical of the way that men dominated the leadership of these civil rights organizations. In August, 1963, she wrote to Randolph and pointed out that she had: “been increasingly perturbed over the blatant disparity between the major role which Negro women have played and are playing in the crucial grass-roots levels of our struggle and the minor role of leadership they have been assigned in the national policy-making decisions.”
In 1977 Murray became the first African American woman to become a Episcopal priest. Pauli Murray died of cancer in Pittsburgh on 1st July, 1985. Her autobiography Song in a Weary Throat: An American Pilgrimage was published posthumously in 1987. The book was re-released as Pauli Murray: The Autobiography of a Black Activist, Feminist, Lawyer, Priest and Poet in 1987.
Since her death two additional books have been published about her life and work, Anne Firor Scott’sPauli Murray & Caroline Ware: Forty Years of Letters in Black and White, and Anthony Pinn’s collection,Pauli Murray: Selected Sermons and Writings.
Source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmurrayA.htm (with revisions) Also includes extensive primary source material.
E. Lynn Harris: Novelist, Editor, Educator
Everette Lynn Harris (1955-2009) was a bestselling author of novels about African-American men in gay and bisexual relationships. In his nine novels, which have sold more than three million copies, often the gay characters live secret homosexual lives or have not publicized their sexuality.
E. Lynn Harris was born on June 20, 1955, in Flint, Michigan, to Etta Mae Williams and James Jeter, who were unmarried. When Harris was three, he moved with his mother to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she worked as a housekeeper. She soon married Ben Odis Harris, who helped raise Harris until he was thirteen, at which time the couple divorced.
The summer before his junior year of high school, when Harris was fifteen, he learned about his biological father and visited him several times while staying with relatives in Michigan. His biological father soon died in an automobile accident the next spring.
In his youth, Harris frequented the public library in Little Rock and fell in love with the writings of James Baldwin and Maya Angelou.
He graduated from Hall High School in Little Rock in 1973 and attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in the mid-1970s. He was the school’s first black male cheerleader and first black yearbook editor, and he served as president of his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha. He graduated with honors in 1977, earning a BA in journalism.
He sold computers for IBM and other companies for thirteen years, living in Dallas, Texas; New York City, New York; Washington DC; and Atlanta, Georgia. For years, he kept his sexual orientation hidden, and this led to depression and heavy drinking. When living in Washington DC in August 1990, he attempted suicide by ingesting a mixture of champagne, vodka, and sleeping pills. He soon addressed his problem with alcohol and managed his depression with medication and therapy. He bought a computer and started writing his first book, which proved therapeutic.
While living in Atlanta, Harris self-published his ‘Invisible Life’ in 1991 and personally hand-delivered it to black-owned bookstores and beauty salons. In this coming-of-age tale, the book’s protagonist, Raymond Tyler, discovers his bisexuality and struggles to accept his true desires. ‘Invisible Life’ caught the eye of a Doubleday sales representative, who bought a copy and sent it to the publishing house. Eventually, Harris made a presentation to company officials, who signed him to a three-book deal. Anchor Books, an imprint of Doubleday, published the book in trade paperback in 1994.
Among his other novels are ‘Just As I Am’ (1994), And ‘This Too Shall Pass’ (1996), ‘If This World Were Mine’ (1997), ‘Abide with Me’(1999), ‘Not a Day Goes By’ (2000), ‘Any Way the Wind Blows’ (2001), ‘A Love of My Own’ (2002), and ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ (2006). His books tell ultimately optimistic stories that explore friendship, careers, romance, sexuality, and race. Harris wrote with an ear for black dialect, with descriptions, slang terms, and dialogue. ‘ Just As I Am’, ‘Any Way the Wind Blows’, and ‘A Love of My Own’ all won Novel of the Year designations by the Blackboard African American Bestsellers Inc. In 1997, ‘If This World Were Mine’ won the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence. His memoir, ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted’, which he wrote over a period of seven years, was published in 2003.
In 1999, Harris’s alma mater, University of Arkansas, honored him with a Citation of Distinguished Alumni for outstanding professional achievement. In 2000, he was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. Other honors include the Sprague Todes Literary Award, the Harvey Milk Honorary Diploma, and the Silas Hunt Legacy Award for Outstanding Achievement from UA.
Harris returned to University of Arkansas in the fall of 2003 to teach literature and writing in the Department of English, and he has served as cheer coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks cheerleading squad. For his class on contemporary black authors, he brought in authors as guest speakers. He also taught a class focused on black female writers. He lived in Fayetteville while teaching at UA but also had homes in Houston and Atlanta.
A musical based on ‘Not a Day Goes By’ toured nationally in 2004. As a lecturer, Harris spoke at colleges across the country. He wrote articles for Sports Illustrated, Essence, The Washington Post Sunday Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Advocate.
Harris’s novel ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ was released in May 2006. Written during his time teaching at University of Arkansas and time spent at his Houston, Texas, home, it debuted at number three on The New York Times Book Review’s bestseller list. He subsequently published ‘Just Too Good to Be True’ (2008) and ‘Basketball Jones’ (2009).
Harris died on July 24, 2009, in Los Angeles while on a business trip.
E. Lynn Harris was born on June 20, 1955, in Flint, Michigan, to Etta Mae Williams and James Jeter, who were unmarried. When Harris was three, he moved with his mother to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she worked as a housekeeper. She soon married Ben Odis Harris, who helped raise Harris until he was thirteen, at which time the couple divorced.
The summer before his junior year of high school, when Harris was fifteen, he learned about his biological father and visited him several times while staying with relatives in Michigan. His biological father soon died in an automobile accident the next spring.
In his youth, Harris frequented the public library in Little Rock and fell in love with the writings of James Baldwin and Maya Angelou.
He graduated from Hall High School in Little Rock in 1973 and attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in the mid-1970s. He was the school’s first black male cheerleader and first black yearbook editor, and he served as president of his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha. He graduated with honors in 1977, earning a BA in journalism.
He sold computers for IBM and other companies for thirteen years, living in Dallas, Texas; New York City, New York; Washington DC; and Atlanta, Georgia. For years, he kept his sexual orientation hidden, and this led to depression and heavy drinking. When living in Washington DC in August 1990, he attempted suicide by ingesting a mixture of champagne, vodka, and sleeping pills. He soon addressed his problem with alcohol and managed his depression with medication and therapy. He bought a computer and started writing his first book, which proved therapeutic.
While living in Atlanta, Harris self-published his ‘Invisible Life’ in 1991 and personally hand-delivered it to black-owned bookstores and beauty salons. In this coming-of-age tale, the book’s protagonist, Raymond Tyler, discovers his bisexuality and struggles to accept his true desires. ‘Invisible Life’ caught the eye of a Doubleday sales representative, who bought a copy and sent it to the publishing house. Eventually, Harris made a presentation to company officials, who signed him to a three-book deal. Anchor Books, an imprint of Doubleday, published the book in trade paperback in 1994.
Among his other novels are ‘Just As I Am’ (1994), And ‘This Too Shall Pass’ (1996), ‘If This World Were Mine’ (1997), ‘Abide with Me’(1999), ‘Not a Day Goes By’ (2000), ‘Any Way the Wind Blows’ (2001), ‘A Love of My Own’ (2002), and ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ (2006). His books tell ultimately optimistic stories that explore friendship, careers, romance, sexuality, and race. Harris wrote with an ear for black dialect, with descriptions, slang terms, and dialogue. ‘ Just As I Am’, ‘Any Way the Wind Blows’, and ‘A Love of My Own’ all won Novel of the Year designations by the Blackboard African American Bestsellers Inc. In 1997, ‘If This World Were Mine’ won the James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence. His memoir, ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted’, which he wrote over a period of seven years, was published in 2003.
In 1999, Harris’s alma mater, University of Arkansas, honored him with a Citation of Distinguished Alumni for outstanding professional achievement. In 2000, he was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. Other honors include the Sprague Todes Literary Award, the Harvey Milk Honorary Diploma, and the Silas Hunt Legacy Award for Outstanding Achievement from UA.
Harris returned to University of Arkansas in the fall of 2003 to teach literature and writing in the Department of English, and he has served as cheer coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks cheerleading squad. For his class on contemporary black authors, he brought in authors as guest speakers. He also taught a class focused on black female writers. He lived in Fayetteville while teaching at UA but also had homes in Houston and Atlanta.
A musical based on ‘Not a Day Goes By’ toured nationally in 2004. As a lecturer, Harris spoke at colleges across the country. He wrote articles for Sports Illustrated, Essence, The Washington Post Sunday Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The Advocate.
Harris’s novel ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ was released in May 2006. Written during his time teaching at University of Arkansas and time spent at his Houston, Texas, home, it debuted at number three on The New York Times Book Review’s bestseller list. He subsequently published ‘Just Too Good to Be True’ (2008) and ‘Basketball Jones’ (2009).
Harris died on July 24, 2009, in Los Angeles while on a business trip.
Karen Williams: Pioneering 'Out' Comedian (Even Before Ellen), Writer, Educator, Activist
Even before Ellen DeGeneres decided to come out, Karen Williams was already taking the stage as an openly lesbian comedian.
As a single lesbian mom living in Berkeley in the early1980s, Karen Williams started doing stand-up comedy "because it was something I could do that didn't cost anything." Known for her quick repartee, insightful commentary and audience rapport, Williams is a comic craftmaster, a gifted actor, a multitalented writer, and an inspirational lecturer. Armed with her "heal with humor" philosophy, she gives humor workshops specifically designed to build self-awareness and self-confidence, and to encourage tolerance and respect for the dignity of human life.
Williams was born to teenage parents in the Bronx, NY. A gifted child, she read voraciously. She graduated summa cum laude from Cleveland State University with a personally-designed major in "Humor and Healing." She also received a Master of Education degree from CSU's Adult Learning & Development program. She's taught Stand-Up Comedy in the Dramatic Arts department of Cleveland State University and is the President and CEO of HaHA Institute. She is creator of the Humor-at-Large workshop series and founder of the National Women's Comedy Conference.
Featured in the award-winning comedy/documentary "We're Funny That Way," she's shown regularly on HBO and was a nominee for the 1999 GLAMA Award for her outrageously funny comedy CD, "human beings: what a concept" (Uproar Records). As a solo entertainer, Karen Williams delights SRO audiences from San Francisco to South Beach to Sydney. She's worked as a comedy writer and is the former television host of the New York variety show "In the Life." Williams' humor writings appear in numerous anthologies, including "Joke Stew" (Andrews McMeel Publishing); Revolutionary Laughter" (Crossing Press); "Out in All Directions" (Warner Books); and "Out, Loud & Laughing" (Random House). As a mainstage comic at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, she was introduced by television host Jon Stewart as "Professor Williams" (demo tape available). As adjunct faculty at Cleveland State University, Professor Williams taught a Senior Seminar in Stand-Up Comedy.
As a single lesbian mom living in Berkeley in the early1980s, Karen Williams started doing stand-up comedy "because it was something I could do that didn't cost anything." Known for her quick repartee, insightful commentary and audience rapport, Williams is a comic craftmaster, a gifted actor, a multitalented writer, and an inspirational lecturer. Armed with her "heal with humor" philosophy, she gives humor workshops specifically designed to build self-awareness and self-confidence, and to encourage tolerance and respect for the dignity of human life.
Williams was born to teenage parents in the Bronx, NY. A gifted child, she read voraciously. She graduated summa cum laude from Cleveland State University with a personally-designed major in "Humor and Healing." She also received a Master of Education degree from CSU's Adult Learning & Development program. She's taught Stand-Up Comedy in the Dramatic Arts department of Cleveland State University and is the President and CEO of HaHA Institute. She is creator of the Humor-at-Large workshop series and founder of the National Women's Comedy Conference.
Featured in the award-winning comedy/documentary "We're Funny That Way," she's shown regularly on HBO and was a nominee for the 1999 GLAMA Award for her outrageously funny comedy CD, "human beings: what a concept" (Uproar Records). As a solo entertainer, Karen Williams delights SRO audiences from San Francisco to South Beach to Sydney. She's worked as a comedy writer and is the former television host of the New York variety show "In the Life." Williams' humor writings appear in numerous anthologies, including "Joke Stew" (Andrews McMeel Publishing); Revolutionary Laughter" (Crossing Press); "Out in All Directions" (Warner Books); and "Out, Loud & Laughing" (Random House). As a mainstage comic at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, she was introduced by television host Jon Stewart as "Professor Williams" (demo tape available). As adjunct faculty at Cleveland State University, Professor Williams taught a Senior Seminar in Stand-Up Comedy.
Ana Irma Rivera Lassén: Attorney, Former Head of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico
Ana Irma Rivera Lassen (1955) is an Afro-Puerto Rican attorney who was the head of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico from 2012–2014. She was the first black woman, and third female, to head the organization. She is a feminist and human rights activist, who is also openly lesbian. She has received many awards and honors for her work in the area of women's rights and human rights, including the Capetillo-Roqué Medal from the Puerto Rican Senate, the Martin Luther King/Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize, and the Nilita Vientós Gastón Medal. She is a practicing attorney and serves on the faculty of several universities in Puerto Rico; she currently serves on the advisory council to the Program for Equality and Gender Equity of the Puerto Rican Judicial Branch.
Ana Irma Rivera Lassén was born in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico to Ana Irma Lassén and Eladio Rivera Quiñones, who were both educators. At the age of sixteen, she became involved with feminism, joining the Comité de Mujeres Puertorriqueñas (Puerto Rican Women’s Committee) and then helping to found the Mujer Integrate Ahora (MIA) (Women Integrate Now) organization in 1972. She attended the Juan José Osuna de Hato Rey High School in San Juan and then began Hispanic studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus in 1971. Bored with that course of study, she changed to general humanities and graduated with a bachelor of arts. She was one of the founders of the Poetry Workshop led by Luis A. Rosario Quiles and Joserramón Meléndez at the university. She obtained her law degree at the same university.
In 1974, Rivera co-founded and edited the feminist publication El tacón de la chancleta(The heel of the flip-flop). Originally it was published as part of the journal Avance, but was independently published the following year. It was the organ of the MIA, but had an independent editorial board. Rivera has published essays, poems, and newspaper articles in various publications, including: Avance, La Hora, Luna Nueva, Poemario de la mujer puertorriqueña, El Reportero, La sapa, Sin Nombre, El tacón de la chancleta, and Zse, Zse. In 1984, she published a regular column in El Reportero entitled "La mujer de siglo XXI" (Women of the 21st Century) and in 1988 co-founded the magazine Luna Nueva as a vehicle for Feministas en Marcha (Feminists on the March), for which she had been serving as spokesperson since 1983.
Rivera's legal career has focused on human rights law, including discrimination, gender violence, and socio-economic and cultural rights. Having faced discrimination personally, her goal was to protect others. In the 1980s, she had been refused to enter court in pants and was told to wear a skirt. She sued the judge and won. In 1993, her testimony regarding rights violations and police dossiers kept on feminists in Puerto Rico was one of the presentations at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights. This history, which retells the events of the feminist movement in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, was detailed in her book Documentos del Feminismo en Puerto Rico: Facsímiles de la Historia, co-written with Elizabeth Crespo Kebler.
In 2012, Rivera ran for and was elected as the third woman to preside as president of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico. She was the first Afro-Puerto Rican and first open lesbian to occupy the post. She defeated her opponent 948 to 341 for the two-year term. After her term ended, she returned to private practice and teaching. In 2015, she was actively involved in the assessment of a bill that proposed the merger of the Commission on Civil Rights and the offices of the Attorneys of Women of Persons with Disabilities, Elderly, Patients and Veterans into a single entity called the Department of Defense of Human Rights. The proposed new department was to cover legal issues on six target areas, including: aging, civil and constitutional rights, disability, gender equality, socio-economic parity, and veterans rights. In 2016, when the new department was launched with the title Program for Equality and Gender Equity of the Judicial Branch, Rivera was appointed to serve on the Advisory Committee on Access to Justice, which advises on public policy issues of the Department.
Rivera has been recognized as an expert on gender, race, and human rights by the Gender Affairs Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is a member of the Latin American and the Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women Rights (CLADEM). In 2003, Rivera was awarded the "Medalla Senatorial Capetillo-Roqué" from the Puerto Rican Senate for her contributions to women's rights in Puerto Rico. In 2006, she was the recipient of the "Martin Luther King/Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize" for her work against discrimination and for civil rights and the following year, received the Nilita Vientós Gastón Medal from the Puerto Rican Bar Association for her legal expertise. In 2009, Rivera was honored as the Collegiate of the Year. (Source: https://upclosed.com/people/ana-irma-rivera-lassen/)
Ana Irma Rivera Lassén was born in Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico to Ana Irma Lassén and Eladio Rivera Quiñones, who were both educators. At the age of sixteen, she became involved with feminism, joining the Comité de Mujeres Puertorriqueñas (Puerto Rican Women’s Committee) and then helping to found the Mujer Integrate Ahora (MIA) (Women Integrate Now) organization in 1972. She attended the Juan José Osuna de Hato Rey High School in San Juan and then began Hispanic studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus in 1971. Bored with that course of study, she changed to general humanities and graduated with a bachelor of arts. She was one of the founders of the Poetry Workshop led by Luis A. Rosario Quiles and Joserramón Meléndez at the university. She obtained her law degree at the same university.
In 1974, Rivera co-founded and edited the feminist publication El tacón de la chancleta(The heel of the flip-flop). Originally it was published as part of the journal Avance, but was independently published the following year. It was the organ of the MIA, but had an independent editorial board. Rivera has published essays, poems, and newspaper articles in various publications, including: Avance, La Hora, Luna Nueva, Poemario de la mujer puertorriqueña, El Reportero, La sapa, Sin Nombre, El tacón de la chancleta, and Zse, Zse. In 1984, she published a regular column in El Reportero entitled "La mujer de siglo XXI" (Women of the 21st Century) and in 1988 co-founded the magazine Luna Nueva as a vehicle for Feministas en Marcha (Feminists on the March), for which she had been serving as spokesperson since 1983.
Rivera's legal career has focused on human rights law, including discrimination, gender violence, and socio-economic and cultural rights. Having faced discrimination personally, her goal was to protect others. In the 1980s, she had been refused to enter court in pants and was told to wear a skirt. She sued the judge and won. In 1993, her testimony regarding rights violations and police dossiers kept on feminists in Puerto Rico was one of the presentations at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights. This history, which retells the events of the feminist movement in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, was detailed in her book Documentos del Feminismo en Puerto Rico: Facsímiles de la Historia, co-written with Elizabeth Crespo Kebler.
In 2012, Rivera ran for and was elected as the third woman to preside as president of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico. She was the first Afro-Puerto Rican and first open lesbian to occupy the post. She defeated her opponent 948 to 341 for the two-year term. After her term ended, she returned to private practice and teaching. In 2015, she was actively involved in the assessment of a bill that proposed the merger of the Commission on Civil Rights and the offices of the Attorneys of Women of Persons with Disabilities, Elderly, Patients and Veterans into a single entity called the Department of Defense of Human Rights. The proposed new department was to cover legal issues on six target areas, including: aging, civil and constitutional rights, disability, gender equality, socio-economic parity, and veterans rights. In 2016, when the new department was launched with the title Program for Equality and Gender Equity of the Judicial Branch, Rivera was appointed to serve on the Advisory Committee on Access to Justice, which advises on public policy issues of the Department.
Rivera has been recognized as an expert on gender, race, and human rights by the Gender Affairs Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is a member of the Latin American and the Caribbean Committee for the Defense of Women Rights (CLADEM). In 2003, Rivera was awarded the "Medalla Senatorial Capetillo-Roqué" from the Puerto Rican Senate for her contributions to women's rights in Puerto Rico. In 2006, she was the recipient of the "Martin Luther King/Arturo Alfonso Schomburg Prize" for her work against discrimination and for civil rights and the following year, received the Nilita Vientós Gastón Medal from the Puerto Rican Bar Association for her legal expertise. In 2009, Rivera was honored as the Collegiate of the Year. (Source: https://upclosed.com/people/ana-irma-rivera-lassen/)
Wanda Sykes: Comedian, Actress, Writer
Wanda Sykes (1964) is a popular American writer, comedian, actress, and voice artist. She earned the 1999 Emmy Award for her writing on “The Chris Rock Show”. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named Sykes as one of the 25 funniest people in America. She is well known for her role as Barbara Baran on “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and for her appearances on HBO's “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. She was the first African-American and first openly gay master of ceremonies for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Wanda Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in the Washington, D.C., area. Her mother, Marion Louise, worked in banking, and her father, Harry Ellsworth Sykes, was a US Army colonel employed at the Pentagon. Sykes attended Arundel High School in Gambrills, Maryland, and went on to graduate from Hampton University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in marketing and became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Wanda Sykes' family history was researched for an episode of the 2012 PBS genealogy program “Finding Your Roots” With Henry Louis Gates Jr. Her ancestry was traced back to a 1683 court case involving her paternal ninth great-grandmother Elizabeth Banks, a free white woman and indentured servant, who gave birth to a biracial child, Mary Banks fathered by a slave, who inherited her mother's free status. According to historian Ira Berlin, a specialist in the history of American slavery, the Sykes family history is "...the only such case that I know of in which it is possible to trace a black family rooted in freedom from the late 17th century to the present."
After college, her first job was as a procurement officer with the National Security Agency (NSA) where she worked for five years. Not completely satisfied with her role with the NSA, Sykes began her stand-up career at a venue in Washington, DC, where she performed for the first time in front of a live audience in 1987. She continued to hone her talents at local venues while at the NSA until 1992, when she moved to New York City, and took a position with a publishing house, Her first big break came when opening for Chris Rock at Caroline's Comedy Club. In 1997, she joined the writing team on “The Chris Rock Show” and also made many appearances on the show. The writing team was nominated for four Emmys, and in 1999, won for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. Since that time, she has appeared in such films as “Pootie Tang” and on TV shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. In 2003, she starred in her own short-lived Fox network sitcom, “Wanda at Large”. The same year, Sykes appeared in an hour-long Comedy Central special, “Tongue Untied”. That network also ranked her No. 70 on its list of the 100 greatest all-time stand ups. She served as a correspondent for HBO's “Inside the NFL”, hosted Comedy Central's popular show “Premium Blend”, and voiced a recurring character named Gladys on Comedy Central's puppet show “Crank Yankers”. She also had a short-lived show on Comedy Central called “Wanda Does It”.
In November 2009, “The Wanda Sykes Show”, her own late-night talkshow, premiered on Fox, until April of 2010. Sykes has also had a successful career in film, appearing in “Monster-in-Law”, “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”, “Evan Almighty”, and “License to Wed”, and voiced characters in “Over the Hedge”, “Barnyard”, “Brother Bear 2”, “Rio”, and “Ice Age: Continental Drift”.
In addition to her film and television work, Wanda Sykes is also an author. She wrote “Yeah, I Said It”, a book of humorous observations on various topics, published in September 2004.
In 2006, she landed a recurring role on the sitcom “The New Adventures of Old Christine”. She also guest starred in the Will & Grace episode "Buy, Buy Baby" in 2006. Sykes' first HBO Comedy Special, entitled “Wanda Sykes: Sick & Tired”, premiered on October 14, 2006; it was nominated for a 2007 Emmy Award. In 2008, she performed as part of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour for LGBT rights.
In October 2008, Wanda Sykes appeared in a television ad for the “Think Before You Speak” Campaign, an advertising campaign by GLSEN aimed at curbing homophobic slang in youth communities. Sykes publicly expressed being devastated after California voters passed state Proposition 8. She said: "with the legislation that they passed, I can’t sit by and just watch. I just can’t do it." She has continued to be active in same-sex marriage issues hosting events and emceeing fundraisers.
Wanda Sykes was married to record producer Dave Hall from 1991 to 1998. In November 2008, she publicly came out as gay while at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas regarding Proposition 8, which forbids new marriages of same-sex couples in California. One month earlier, Sykes married her wife, Alex, whom she met in 2006. They live in California with their twins, Lucas and Olivia.
(provided by Stephen Maglott)
Wanda Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in the Washington, D.C., area. Her mother, Marion Louise, worked in banking, and her father, Harry Ellsworth Sykes, was a US Army colonel employed at the Pentagon. Sykes attended Arundel High School in Gambrills, Maryland, and went on to graduate from Hampton University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in marketing and became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.
Wanda Sykes' family history was researched for an episode of the 2012 PBS genealogy program “Finding Your Roots” With Henry Louis Gates Jr. Her ancestry was traced back to a 1683 court case involving her paternal ninth great-grandmother Elizabeth Banks, a free white woman and indentured servant, who gave birth to a biracial child, Mary Banks fathered by a slave, who inherited her mother's free status. According to historian Ira Berlin, a specialist in the history of American slavery, the Sykes family history is "...the only such case that I know of in which it is possible to trace a black family rooted in freedom from the late 17th century to the present."
After college, her first job was as a procurement officer with the National Security Agency (NSA) where she worked for five years. Not completely satisfied with her role with the NSA, Sykes began her stand-up career at a venue in Washington, DC, where she performed for the first time in front of a live audience in 1987. She continued to hone her talents at local venues while at the NSA until 1992, when she moved to New York City, and took a position with a publishing house, Her first big break came when opening for Chris Rock at Caroline's Comedy Club. In 1997, she joined the writing team on “The Chris Rock Show” and also made many appearances on the show. The writing team was nominated for four Emmys, and in 1999, won for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. Since that time, she has appeared in such films as “Pootie Tang” and on TV shows such as “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. In 2003, she starred in her own short-lived Fox network sitcom, “Wanda at Large”. The same year, Sykes appeared in an hour-long Comedy Central special, “Tongue Untied”. That network also ranked her No. 70 on its list of the 100 greatest all-time stand ups. She served as a correspondent for HBO's “Inside the NFL”, hosted Comedy Central's popular show “Premium Blend”, and voiced a recurring character named Gladys on Comedy Central's puppet show “Crank Yankers”. She also had a short-lived show on Comedy Central called “Wanda Does It”.
In November 2009, “The Wanda Sykes Show”, her own late-night talkshow, premiered on Fox, until April of 2010. Sykes has also had a successful career in film, appearing in “Monster-in-Law”, “My Super Ex-Girlfriend”, “Evan Almighty”, and “License to Wed”, and voiced characters in “Over the Hedge”, “Barnyard”, “Brother Bear 2”, “Rio”, and “Ice Age: Continental Drift”.
In addition to her film and television work, Wanda Sykes is also an author. She wrote “Yeah, I Said It”, a book of humorous observations on various topics, published in September 2004.
In 2006, she landed a recurring role on the sitcom “The New Adventures of Old Christine”. She also guest starred in the Will & Grace episode "Buy, Buy Baby" in 2006. Sykes' first HBO Comedy Special, entitled “Wanda Sykes: Sick & Tired”, premiered on October 14, 2006; it was nominated for a 2007 Emmy Award. In 2008, she performed as part of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour for LGBT rights.
In October 2008, Wanda Sykes appeared in a television ad for the “Think Before You Speak” Campaign, an advertising campaign by GLSEN aimed at curbing homophobic slang in youth communities. Sykes publicly expressed being devastated after California voters passed state Proposition 8. She said: "with the legislation that they passed, I can’t sit by and just watch. I just can’t do it." She has continued to be active in same-sex marriage issues hosting events and emceeing fundraisers.
Wanda Sykes was married to record producer Dave Hall from 1991 to 1998. In November 2008, she publicly came out as gay while at a same-sex marriage rally in Las Vegas regarding Proposition 8, which forbids new marriages of same-sex couples in California. One month earlier, Sykes married her wife, Alex, whom she met in 2006. They live in California with their twins, Lucas and Olivia.
(provided by Stephen Maglott)
Keith Boykin: Commentator, Writer, Activist, Organizer, Special Ass't to Pres. Clinton
Keith Boykin is a CNBC contributor, MSNBC commentator, BET columnist, and New York Times best-selling author. He is also the former editor of the online news site, The Daily Voice.
Each of Keith’s four books has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, including his most recent book, For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough, which won the American Library Association Stonewall Award for Nonfiction in 2013.
Educated at Dartmouth and Harvard, Keith attended law school with President Barack Obama and served in the White House as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton, where he was once the highest ranking openly gay person in the Clinton White House. He also helped organize and participated in the nation’s first ever meeting between a sitting president and leaders of the LGBT community.
Keith has been actively involved in progressive causes since he worked on his first congressional campaign while still a student in high school. He is a veteran of six political campaigns, including two presidential campaigns, and he was named one of the top instructors when he taught political science at American University in Washington.
After he starred on the 2004 Showtime television series American Candidate, Keith became a co-host of the BET J TV series My Two Cents, where he interviewed celebrities, politicians, and public figures. He has since appeared on numerous national media programs, including Anderson Cooper 360, The O’Reilly Factor, The Tyra Banks Show, The Montel Williams Show, Judge Hatchettand The Tom Joyner Morning Show.
A founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition, Keith has spoken to audiences, large and small, all across the world. He delivered a landmark speech to 200,000 people at the Millennium March on Washington and he gave a stirring speech about the AIDS epidemic in front of 40,000 people in Chicago’s Soldier Field in July 2006.
Keith was an associate producer of the 2007 feature film Dirty Laundry and has recently taped a television appearance in an upcoming BET drama series.
His third book, Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America, spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Keith won the Lambda Literary Award for his second book, Respecting The Soul, and his first book, One More River to Cross, is taught in colleges and universities throughout the country.
Keith has lived in 12 cities, visited 48 of the 50 U.S. states, and traveled across four continents. In 1997 President Clinton appointed him, along with Coretta Scott King and Rev. Jesse Jackson, to the U.S. presidential trade delegation to Zimbabwe.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Keith currently lives in New York City and Miami.
Each of Keith’s four books has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award, including his most recent book, For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough, which won the American Library Association Stonewall Award for Nonfiction in 2013.
Educated at Dartmouth and Harvard, Keith attended law school with President Barack Obama and served in the White House as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton, where he was once the highest ranking openly gay person in the Clinton White House. He also helped organize and participated in the nation’s first ever meeting between a sitting president and leaders of the LGBT community.
Keith has been actively involved in progressive causes since he worked on his first congressional campaign while still a student in high school. He is a veteran of six political campaigns, including two presidential campaigns, and he was named one of the top instructors when he taught political science at American University in Washington.
After he starred on the 2004 Showtime television series American Candidate, Keith became a co-host of the BET J TV series My Two Cents, where he interviewed celebrities, politicians, and public figures. He has since appeared on numerous national media programs, including Anderson Cooper 360, The O’Reilly Factor, The Tyra Banks Show, The Montel Williams Show, Judge Hatchettand The Tom Joyner Morning Show.
A founder and first board president of the National Black Justice Coalition, Keith has spoken to audiences, large and small, all across the world. He delivered a landmark speech to 200,000 people at the Millennium March on Washington and he gave a stirring speech about the AIDS epidemic in front of 40,000 people in Chicago’s Soldier Field in July 2006.
Keith was an associate producer of the 2007 feature film Dirty Laundry and has recently taped a television appearance in an upcoming BET drama series.
His third book, Beyond the Down Low: Sex, Lies and Denial in Black America, spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Keith won the Lambda Literary Award for his second book, Respecting The Soul, and his first book, One More River to Cross, is taught in colleges and universities throughout the country.
Keith has lived in 12 cities, visited 48 of the 50 U.S. states, and traveled across four continents. In 1997 President Clinton appointed him, along with Coretta Scott King and Rev. Jesse Jackson, to the U.S. presidential trade delegation to Zimbabwe.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Keith currently lives in New York City and Miami.
Ephraim Lewis: British R&B Singer
Ephraim Lewis (1968 – 18 March 1994) was an English soul/neo-soul and R&B singer and songwriter. He was one of many highly anticipated performers that emerged in the early 1990s. However, he died with only one album to his name.
Born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, Lewis was known for possessing a higher-timbred, yet rich voice and impeccable diction, Lewis drew comparisons to fellow English musician, Seal. He signed with Elektra Records in 1992 and his debut Skin was released on 21 April of that year.
As a youngster, Ephraim was the Michael Jacksonesque lead singer of The Lewis Five, along with his brothers, playing religious music. Like Joe Jackson, Ephraim’s father, Jabez Lewis, started the group and mentored his sons with a strict (albeit religious) hand. As the boys grew up, they broke away. Derek, Sylvester, and Tony formed a secular group called The Trimmertones, with a cousin and did quite well around the local clubs, releasing an independent single and touring across Europe.
In 1984, Ephraim’s mother died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage. Her death marked the end not only of Jabez’s musical ambitions, but of his family itself. Ephraim was then 16, the last child still living at home. He promptly left and returned only for very rare visits.
Jabez, Ephraim’s father says, “Ephraim was the youngest, and of all the children, the one trying hardest to make something of his life. The rest of them, they finish school and unfortunately they never hold down a good steady job. Ephraim was the only one.” What he doesn’t say is that the religious dispute was the tip of the iceberg. His wife’s death and Jabez’s rapid remarriage brought out deep and bitter divisions between Jabez and his children. In later years, Ephraim would join Terence and some of the others to “confront” Jabez about their upbringing.
Of the eight Lewis children, two -- Sylvester and Ephraim -- died in their twenties. Two others are in and out of psychiatric hospitals. The rest survive as best they can. “An awful lot has been swept under the carpet in this family,” says Terence Lewis today.
Ephraim was always the exception. He didn’t seem to have any problems. But then Ephraim had his talent. Barry Cade, headmaster of Ephraim’s old school, and himself a former actor, recalls Ephraim as “a boy of outstanding intelligence and tremendous sensitivity. In 27 years of teaching the performing arts, I’ve never seen such a talent. For a long time when he was with us, Ephraim was cooking his own means and washing his own clothes. He was the classic kid from a deprived background who you’d have thought would go the way of all flesh, but he seemed to have a courage that enabled him to stand back from all that.”
Ephraim took a while to find his way out. He lived in Stoke and London, supporting himself by working in fast-food joints and a gas station, while he searched for a way into the music business. Then, in 1990 (aged 22), he was finally taken up by Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby’s Axis Studio in Sheffield. Bacon and Quarmby were among the numerous small independent producers in Britain who acted as talent-supporters, nurturing and developing new artists for the big record companies.
Lewis moved to Sheffield, where Bacon and Quarmby became his producers, song-writing partners, and substitute family. For the next four years, Bacon and Quarmby made a huge emotional and professional investment in their discovery. When Elektra signed Lewis in 1991, it looked as if the trio’s work might pay off.
Lewis recorded his first album, “Skin” with Bacon and Quarmby as producers. “We’d imagined it as a small-scale album from a new artist,” recalls Kevin Bacon. “The first step on Ephraim’s career ladder. Instead, when Bob Krasnow heard it, he went berserk about it and put millions of dollars into promotion to make it happen.”
Annie Roseberry confirms this. “Ephraim was adored by the chairman, adored by the people in this company. Krasnow’s interest in him was very unusual. No artist I’ve ever worked with has had the exposure and the treatment Ephraim got from Elektra.”
But the big push, in Bacon’s words, “sort of backfired.” Despite some critical acclaim, “Skin” sold only modestly -- fewer than 150,000 copies world-wide. Elektra remained committed, but wanted more commercial songs. A tug-of-war developed between the record company and Bacon and Quarmby. By the time preparations for Lewis’s second album got under way in 1993, it was clear that Lewis was moving on and up, and that Bacon and Quarmby wouldn’t be going with him.
It’s a credit to all involved that things didn’t turn nasty at that point. Lewis was an attractive young man -- cheerful, optimistic, the sort of person other people put aside their own needs and ambitions to help. But Lewis was also a man with secrets; for instance, about his sexuality.
A year before he died, Ephraim broke up with his long-time girlfriend and began an affair with Paul Flowers, a Sheffield graduate student. “We met in Sheffield Botanical Gardens by chance,” Flowers remembers. “I was openly gay, but Ephraim wasn’t ready to call himself gay at the time. We arranged to meet again and just sort of fell in love. Ephraim had an incredible presence. He glowed with energy. I was always amazed at how people reacted to him. By early 1994, the affair had become “a life of domestic bliss,” says Flowers.
By all accounts, Lewis was in a buoyant mood, which made his sudden death all the more inexplicable to family and friends. He had solved his sexual problems, becoming, as he told Flowers, “a whole person at last.” He had solved his financial problems, recently buying a black BMW with his Elektra money. He was also on the verge of solving his musical problem, which had always been to find the right material to match his voice. Lewis was not an experienced songwriter. Now Elektra had decided to send him to Los Angeles to work with top composer Glen Ballard, who has written hits for Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, and many others.
“Ephraim came to school to see me just before he left for the US,” recalls Bary Cade. “He seemed as if the world was finally opening up for him.” Six weeks later, he was dead.
Around 7:00am on March 18, 1994, LA police responded to reports of a “naked man acting crazy” at 1710 Fuller Avenue -- a typical, small Hollywood apartment building, four stories built around a courtyard, each apartment with a balcony facing inwards. The naked man was Ephraim Lewis, who had been living at 1710 Fuller Avenue while he was in LA, working with Ballard.
Lewis was due to fly home that day, and the previous night he had arranged a farewell dinner with Robin Fish (a mutual friend of Lewis and Flowers). But Lewis cancelled, saying he had to meet David Harper instead. There is evidence that Lewis, who had concealed his homosexuality from his manager, planned to “come out” to Harper. Lewis then cancelled Harper too.
While in LA, Lewis told Flowers, he’d been going around the West Hollywood gay scene. He’d been really enjoying that side of himself which he hadn’t been able to before. The West Hollywood gay bar scene is far more open and active than any British equivalent. Its casual sex and drug use are almost politically correct rites of passage for many young LA gays. And Lewis had become militant about his new sexual identity. “He wanted to be a positive gay black role model because there are so few in the black community,” says Flowers.
Lewis family members and friends are adamant Ephraim was not a habitual drug user. They say he was strongly and vocally anti-drugs. But that is not the whole story. Terence, his brother, saw him smoke pot, and Kevin Bacon, his producer, when asked if he and Quarmby ever saw Lewis use amphetamines (speed), preferred not to answer. The postmortem found a small amount of speed in Lewis’s body, but not enough to account for his naked, bizarre behaviour on March 18th. However, it is now clear Lewis had been on a metamphetamine binge for several days, which can produce metamphetamine psychosis, a state of paranoid derangement.
Lewis was also terrified of the police, who repeatedly stopped him in Britain in his BMW -- “A black man in a posh car. I’ve never had so much police attention as when I was with Ephraim,” recalls Flowers. When the LA cops arrived at 1710 Fuller, Lewis became more paranoid and, according to a report by the LA District Attorney’s Bureau of Special Operations, began climbing the outside balconies, “leaping from balcony to balcony, both horizontally and vertically, moving up and across the building.”
Lewis was singing to himself and shouting at the police to shut up. Reaching the top floor, he broke an apartment window and began stabbing himself repeatedly in the thigh with a shard of glass. By now, Robin Fish had turned up, looking for Lewis, who had broken a second breakfast date with Fish. He tried to talk Lewis down, but Lewis didn’t seem to recognize him and the cops pushed Fish away.
What happened next remains in dispute. But within minutes, Lewis had fallen or jumped from the top balcony, crashed through a ficus tree, and hit the courtyard, sustaining massive head injuries. He lingered, brain-dead, in a local hospital until, at 11:55pm that night, March 18, 1994, they turned off the respirator. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEQp6KkmegU&feature=share ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6ORas1str8&feature=share )
Born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, Lewis was known for possessing a higher-timbred, yet rich voice and impeccable diction, Lewis drew comparisons to fellow English musician, Seal. He signed with Elektra Records in 1992 and his debut Skin was released on 21 April of that year.
As a youngster, Ephraim was the Michael Jacksonesque lead singer of The Lewis Five, along with his brothers, playing religious music. Like Joe Jackson, Ephraim’s father, Jabez Lewis, started the group and mentored his sons with a strict (albeit religious) hand. As the boys grew up, they broke away. Derek, Sylvester, and Tony formed a secular group called The Trimmertones, with a cousin and did quite well around the local clubs, releasing an independent single and touring across Europe.
In 1984, Ephraim’s mother died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage. Her death marked the end not only of Jabez’s musical ambitions, but of his family itself. Ephraim was then 16, the last child still living at home. He promptly left and returned only for very rare visits.
Jabez, Ephraim’s father says, “Ephraim was the youngest, and of all the children, the one trying hardest to make something of his life. The rest of them, they finish school and unfortunately they never hold down a good steady job. Ephraim was the only one.” What he doesn’t say is that the religious dispute was the tip of the iceberg. His wife’s death and Jabez’s rapid remarriage brought out deep and bitter divisions between Jabez and his children. In later years, Ephraim would join Terence and some of the others to “confront” Jabez about their upbringing.
Of the eight Lewis children, two -- Sylvester and Ephraim -- died in their twenties. Two others are in and out of psychiatric hospitals. The rest survive as best they can. “An awful lot has been swept under the carpet in this family,” says Terence Lewis today.
Ephraim was always the exception. He didn’t seem to have any problems. But then Ephraim had his talent. Barry Cade, headmaster of Ephraim’s old school, and himself a former actor, recalls Ephraim as “a boy of outstanding intelligence and tremendous sensitivity. In 27 years of teaching the performing arts, I’ve never seen such a talent. For a long time when he was with us, Ephraim was cooking his own means and washing his own clothes. He was the classic kid from a deprived background who you’d have thought would go the way of all flesh, but he seemed to have a courage that enabled him to stand back from all that.”
Ephraim took a while to find his way out. He lived in Stoke and London, supporting himself by working in fast-food joints and a gas station, while he searched for a way into the music business. Then, in 1990 (aged 22), he was finally taken up by Kevin Bacon and Jonathan Quarmby’s Axis Studio in Sheffield. Bacon and Quarmby were among the numerous small independent producers in Britain who acted as talent-supporters, nurturing and developing new artists for the big record companies.
Lewis moved to Sheffield, where Bacon and Quarmby became his producers, song-writing partners, and substitute family. For the next four years, Bacon and Quarmby made a huge emotional and professional investment in their discovery. When Elektra signed Lewis in 1991, it looked as if the trio’s work might pay off.
Lewis recorded his first album, “Skin” with Bacon and Quarmby as producers. “We’d imagined it as a small-scale album from a new artist,” recalls Kevin Bacon. “The first step on Ephraim’s career ladder. Instead, when Bob Krasnow heard it, he went berserk about it and put millions of dollars into promotion to make it happen.”
Annie Roseberry confirms this. “Ephraim was adored by the chairman, adored by the people in this company. Krasnow’s interest in him was very unusual. No artist I’ve ever worked with has had the exposure and the treatment Ephraim got from Elektra.”
But the big push, in Bacon’s words, “sort of backfired.” Despite some critical acclaim, “Skin” sold only modestly -- fewer than 150,000 copies world-wide. Elektra remained committed, but wanted more commercial songs. A tug-of-war developed between the record company and Bacon and Quarmby. By the time preparations for Lewis’s second album got under way in 1993, it was clear that Lewis was moving on and up, and that Bacon and Quarmby wouldn’t be going with him.
It’s a credit to all involved that things didn’t turn nasty at that point. Lewis was an attractive young man -- cheerful, optimistic, the sort of person other people put aside their own needs and ambitions to help. But Lewis was also a man with secrets; for instance, about his sexuality.
A year before he died, Ephraim broke up with his long-time girlfriend and began an affair with Paul Flowers, a Sheffield graduate student. “We met in Sheffield Botanical Gardens by chance,” Flowers remembers. “I was openly gay, but Ephraim wasn’t ready to call himself gay at the time. We arranged to meet again and just sort of fell in love. Ephraim had an incredible presence. He glowed with energy. I was always amazed at how people reacted to him. By early 1994, the affair had become “a life of domestic bliss,” says Flowers.
By all accounts, Lewis was in a buoyant mood, which made his sudden death all the more inexplicable to family and friends. He had solved his sexual problems, becoming, as he told Flowers, “a whole person at last.” He had solved his financial problems, recently buying a black BMW with his Elektra money. He was also on the verge of solving his musical problem, which had always been to find the right material to match his voice. Lewis was not an experienced songwriter. Now Elektra had decided to send him to Los Angeles to work with top composer Glen Ballard, who has written hits for Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan, and many others.
“Ephraim came to school to see me just before he left for the US,” recalls Bary Cade. “He seemed as if the world was finally opening up for him.” Six weeks later, he was dead.
Around 7:00am on March 18, 1994, LA police responded to reports of a “naked man acting crazy” at 1710 Fuller Avenue -- a typical, small Hollywood apartment building, four stories built around a courtyard, each apartment with a balcony facing inwards. The naked man was Ephraim Lewis, who had been living at 1710 Fuller Avenue while he was in LA, working with Ballard.
Lewis was due to fly home that day, and the previous night he had arranged a farewell dinner with Robin Fish (a mutual friend of Lewis and Flowers). But Lewis cancelled, saying he had to meet David Harper instead. There is evidence that Lewis, who had concealed his homosexuality from his manager, planned to “come out” to Harper. Lewis then cancelled Harper too.
While in LA, Lewis told Flowers, he’d been going around the West Hollywood gay scene. He’d been really enjoying that side of himself which he hadn’t been able to before. The West Hollywood gay bar scene is far more open and active than any British equivalent. Its casual sex and drug use are almost politically correct rites of passage for many young LA gays. And Lewis had become militant about his new sexual identity. “He wanted to be a positive gay black role model because there are so few in the black community,” says Flowers.
Lewis family members and friends are adamant Ephraim was not a habitual drug user. They say he was strongly and vocally anti-drugs. But that is not the whole story. Terence, his brother, saw him smoke pot, and Kevin Bacon, his producer, when asked if he and Quarmby ever saw Lewis use amphetamines (speed), preferred not to answer. The postmortem found a small amount of speed in Lewis’s body, but not enough to account for his naked, bizarre behaviour on March 18th. However, it is now clear Lewis had been on a metamphetamine binge for several days, which can produce metamphetamine psychosis, a state of paranoid derangement.
Lewis was also terrified of the police, who repeatedly stopped him in Britain in his BMW -- “A black man in a posh car. I’ve never had so much police attention as when I was with Ephraim,” recalls Flowers. When the LA cops arrived at 1710 Fuller, Lewis became more paranoid and, according to a report by the LA District Attorney’s Bureau of Special Operations, began climbing the outside balconies, “leaping from balcony to balcony, both horizontally and vertically, moving up and across the building.”
Lewis was singing to himself and shouting at the police to shut up. Reaching the top floor, he broke an apartment window and began stabbing himself repeatedly in the thigh with a shard of glass. By now, Robin Fish had turned up, looking for Lewis, who had broken a second breakfast date with Fish. He tried to talk Lewis down, but Lewis didn’t seem to recognize him and the cops pushed Fish away.
What happened next remains in dispute. But within minutes, Lewis had fallen or jumped from the top balcony, crashed through a ficus tree, and hit the courtyard, sustaining massive head injuries. He lingered, brain-dead, in a local hospital until, at 11:55pm that night, March 18, 1994, they turned off the respirator. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEQp6KkmegU&feature=share ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6ORas1str8&feature=share )
Little Richard: Legendary R&B, Rock Singer, Composer; ‘Pioneer of Rock n Roll’
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932 - May 9, 2020), known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, pianist and recording artist, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s and considered by some to be ‘The Father of Rock and Roll’.
Though Richard Penniman began his music career in the late 1940's (performing mostly jump blues-- a precursor to Rock & Roll), Little Richard began his recording career in 1951, performing in the gospel-influenced style of late-1940s jump blues artist Billy Wright. Little Richard achieved commercial success until 1955, when he began recording in a style he had been performing onstage for years, featuring varied rhythm, a heavy backbeat, funky saxophone grooves, over-the-top Gospel-style singing, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections, accompanied by a combination of boogie-woogie and rhythm and blues music. This new music inspired James Brown, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding and generations of other rhythm & blues, rock and soul music artists. He was subsequently among the seven initial inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and was one of only four of these honorees (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.
In October 1957, while at the height of stardom, Penniman abruptly quit rock and roll music and became a born-again Christian. In January 1958, he enrolled in and attended Bible college to become a preacher and evangelist and began recording and performing only gospel music for a number of years. He then moved back and forth from rock and roll to the ministry, until he was able to reconcile the two roles in later life.
In October 1951, at the age of 18, Little Richard began recording jump blues records for RCA Camden. In October 1953, he began recording with Peacock Records. Records were released each year from 1951–54, but none were significant hits.
Following two recording sessions with Peacock in 1953, Little Richard, dissatisfied with his solo career, began to form a new, hard-driving R&B road band that he called "The Upsetters." A few years later, Little Richard recorded a demo for gospel/R&B label Specialty Records on February 9, 1955. Specialty's owner, Art Rupe, loaned him money to buy out his contract from Peacock Records and placed his career in the hands of Specialty's A&R man Robert "Bumps" Blackwell.
Following some recording that did not satisfy Blackwell, they took a break. Penniman began pounding out a boogie woogie rhythm on piano and hollering out impromptu recital of "Tutti Frutti", a song he wrote and had been performing on stage for years. Blackwell was so impressed with the sound that he had Little Richard record the song (changing some of the more sexually explicit lyrics). The recording was released on Specialty in October 1955. Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" climbed to the top of Billboard's R&B chart. Sixteen more hit singles followed in less than three years, seven of which reached number one on the charts.
Little Richard, along with his road band, performed his hits in sports stadiums and concert venues across the United States through 1956 and 1957. He brought the races together at his concerts, at a time in the United States when laws still dictated that public facilities (including concert venues) be divided into separate "white" and "colored" domains. Little Richard's audiences would start out segregated in the building, usually with one race on the floor and the other on the balcony, but most of the time, by the end of the night they were mixed together.
Racists in the south, such as The North Alabama White Citizens Council, responded by putting out statements on television, warning the public that "Rock n Roll is part of a test to undermine the morals of the youth of our nation. It is sexualistic, unmoralistic and ... brings people of both races together." The demand for him was so great, however, that even in the south where segregation was most rampant, the taboos against black artists appearing in white venues were being shattered.
In early October 1957, turned away from secular music and began performing gospel music. The news of him quitting at the height of his career had broken all over the world by the time he returned to the United States. He attended one more recording session for Specialty on October 18, 1957, and, at the request of DJ Alan Freed, performed a farewell concert at the Apollo Theatre in New York.
From October 1957 to 1962, Little Richard recorded gospel music for Goldner, Little Star, Mercury, and Atlantic Records. He also enrolled in the Seventh-day Adventist Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), in Hunstville, Alabama, where he planned to take a three year course which was to culminate in ordination. In November 1957, he met Ernestine Campbell at an evangelistic meeting in Washington. They were married on July 11, 1959.
He began for Mercury Records where two of his gospel songs during this period hit the charts - "He's Not Just a Soldier" (1961) for Mercury, and "Crying In The Chapel" (1962) for Atlantic Records. He continued in the ministry but was experiencing marital problems and some difficulty living a disciplined Christian life.
Although rock and roll sales were in a slump in America in 1962, Little Richard records were still selling well in England. British promoter Don Arden booked him for an October tour of the country, with The Beatles as an opening act. Little Richard thought he was going to perform gospel music but Arden had promoted the concert as a rock and roll show. On the first night of the tour he began performing gospel music, but gave in to the pressure and began performing his secular hits. The crowd appeared spellbound, with people standing and near hysterical girls in the aisles. He walked off to a standing ovation. The frenzied crowd reaction was to be repeated wherever Little Richard appeared.
Little Richard returned to Specialty Records in April 1963, recording one secular track. In mid-summer, around the time of Penniman's divorce, Don Arden began negotiating a second tour of England. Little Richard didn’t disclose this to the church community because he wasn't convinced that rock and roll was evil and still wanted to keep his options open in the ministry.
He toured England and Wales in October and November 1963, with Bo Diddley, The Everly Brothers and the then little-known Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger would later state, "I heard so much about the audience reaction, I thought there must be some exaggeration. But it was all true. He drove the whole house into a complete frenzy... I couldn't believe the power of Little Richard onstage. He was amazing." Near the end of the tour, he recorded a television show, "The Little Richard Spectacular", with Sounds Incorporated as the backing band and The Shirelles performing backing vocals, for Britain's largest independent television company at the time, Granada Network. After the show was first aired in May 1964, the Granada received over 60,000 letters from fans, which prompted the company to two repeat broadcasts of the show. Much of the footage was used for a TV special, highlighting the frenzy and excitement associated with rock and roll, that was seen all over the world.
Little Richard has continued to record. On June 5th and 6th of 2010, in his 60th year (and 7th decade) of professional recording, he recorded a new track - a cover of Dottie Rambo's "He Ain't Never Done Me Nothing But Good", as part of a star-studded tribute to the late Gospel songwriting legend.
Little Richard influenced the development of a variety of musical genres. James Brown, who called Little Richard his idol, stated that he was the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat via his mid-1950s road band. Otis Redding, whose inspiration was Little Richard, indicated that he contributed significantly to the development of soul music. Richie Unterberger of allmusic.com stated that Little Richard "was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock & roll."
Little Richard has been recognized for his musical contributions by many other high-profile artists. In 1989, Ray Charles introduced him at the Legends of Rock n Roll concert in Rome, Italy, as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today."
Bo Diddley stated that "Little Richard was a one-of-a-kind show business genius. He influenced so many people in the business." Paul McCartney said that he idolized Little Richard when he was in school and always wanted to sing like him, and Mick Jagger called Little Richard "the originator" and "my first idol." In his high school year book, Bob Dylan declared that his ambition was "to join Little Richard".
In 1966, Jimi Hendrix was quoted as saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Bob Seger, John Fogerty, David Bowie and Rod Stewart are among the other artists who have stated that Little Richard was a primary rock 'n' roll influence. In 1979, as he began to develop his solo career, Michael Jackson was quoted as saying that Little Richard was a huge influence on him. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QFL047fmsgg; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCYGNtyktlg; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AzB_Up0hlMw)
Though Richard Penniman began his music career in the late 1940's (performing mostly jump blues-- a precursor to Rock & Roll), Little Richard began his recording career in 1951, performing in the gospel-influenced style of late-1940s jump blues artist Billy Wright. Little Richard achieved commercial success until 1955, when he began recording in a style he had been performing onstage for years, featuring varied rhythm, a heavy backbeat, funky saxophone grooves, over-the-top Gospel-style singing, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections, accompanied by a combination of boogie-woogie and rhythm and blues music. This new music inspired James Brown, Elvis Presley, Otis Redding and generations of other rhythm & blues, rock and soul music artists. He was subsequently among the seven initial inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and was one of only four of these honorees (along with Ray Charles, James Brown, and Fats Domino) to also receive the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.
In October 1957, while at the height of stardom, Penniman abruptly quit rock and roll music and became a born-again Christian. In January 1958, he enrolled in and attended Bible college to become a preacher and evangelist and began recording and performing only gospel music for a number of years. He then moved back and forth from rock and roll to the ministry, until he was able to reconcile the two roles in later life.
In October 1951, at the age of 18, Little Richard began recording jump blues records for RCA Camden. In October 1953, he began recording with Peacock Records. Records were released each year from 1951–54, but none were significant hits.
Following two recording sessions with Peacock in 1953, Little Richard, dissatisfied with his solo career, began to form a new, hard-driving R&B road band that he called "The Upsetters." A few years later, Little Richard recorded a demo for gospel/R&B label Specialty Records on February 9, 1955. Specialty's owner, Art Rupe, loaned him money to buy out his contract from Peacock Records and placed his career in the hands of Specialty's A&R man Robert "Bumps" Blackwell.
Following some recording that did not satisfy Blackwell, they took a break. Penniman began pounding out a boogie woogie rhythm on piano and hollering out impromptu recital of "Tutti Frutti", a song he wrote and had been performing on stage for years. Blackwell was so impressed with the sound that he had Little Richard record the song (changing some of the more sexually explicit lyrics). The recording was released on Specialty in October 1955. Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" climbed to the top of Billboard's R&B chart. Sixteen more hit singles followed in less than three years, seven of which reached number one on the charts.
Little Richard, along with his road band, performed his hits in sports stadiums and concert venues across the United States through 1956 and 1957. He brought the races together at his concerts, at a time in the United States when laws still dictated that public facilities (including concert venues) be divided into separate "white" and "colored" domains. Little Richard's audiences would start out segregated in the building, usually with one race on the floor and the other on the balcony, but most of the time, by the end of the night they were mixed together.
Racists in the south, such as The North Alabama White Citizens Council, responded by putting out statements on television, warning the public that "Rock n Roll is part of a test to undermine the morals of the youth of our nation. It is sexualistic, unmoralistic and ... brings people of both races together." The demand for him was so great, however, that even in the south where segregation was most rampant, the taboos against black artists appearing in white venues were being shattered.
In early October 1957, turned away from secular music and began performing gospel music. The news of him quitting at the height of his career had broken all over the world by the time he returned to the United States. He attended one more recording session for Specialty on October 18, 1957, and, at the request of DJ Alan Freed, performed a farewell concert at the Apollo Theatre in New York.
From October 1957 to 1962, Little Richard recorded gospel music for Goldner, Little Star, Mercury, and Atlantic Records. He also enrolled in the Seventh-day Adventist Oakwood College (now Oakwood University), in Hunstville, Alabama, where he planned to take a three year course which was to culminate in ordination. In November 1957, he met Ernestine Campbell at an evangelistic meeting in Washington. They were married on July 11, 1959.
He began for Mercury Records where two of his gospel songs during this period hit the charts - "He's Not Just a Soldier" (1961) for Mercury, and "Crying In The Chapel" (1962) for Atlantic Records. He continued in the ministry but was experiencing marital problems and some difficulty living a disciplined Christian life.
Although rock and roll sales were in a slump in America in 1962, Little Richard records were still selling well in England. British promoter Don Arden booked him for an October tour of the country, with The Beatles as an opening act. Little Richard thought he was going to perform gospel music but Arden had promoted the concert as a rock and roll show. On the first night of the tour he began performing gospel music, but gave in to the pressure and began performing his secular hits. The crowd appeared spellbound, with people standing and near hysterical girls in the aisles. He walked off to a standing ovation. The frenzied crowd reaction was to be repeated wherever Little Richard appeared.
Little Richard returned to Specialty Records in April 1963, recording one secular track. In mid-summer, around the time of Penniman's divorce, Don Arden began negotiating a second tour of England. Little Richard didn’t disclose this to the church community because he wasn't convinced that rock and roll was evil and still wanted to keep his options open in the ministry.
He toured England and Wales in October and November 1963, with Bo Diddley, The Everly Brothers and the then little-known Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger would later state, "I heard so much about the audience reaction, I thought there must be some exaggeration. But it was all true. He drove the whole house into a complete frenzy... I couldn't believe the power of Little Richard onstage. He was amazing." Near the end of the tour, he recorded a television show, "The Little Richard Spectacular", with Sounds Incorporated as the backing band and The Shirelles performing backing vocals, for Britain's largest independent television company at the time, Granada Network. After the show was first aired in May 1964, the Granada received over 60,000 letters from fans, which prompted the company to two repeat broadcasts of the show. Much of the footage was used for a TV special, highlighting the frenzy and excitement associated with rock and roll, that was seen all over the world.
Little Richard has continued to record. On June 5th and 6th of 2010, in his 60th year (and 7th decade) of professional recording, he recorded a new track - a cover of Dottie Rambo's "He Ain't Never Done Me Nothing But Good", as part of a star-studded tribute to the late Gospel songwriting legend.
Little Richard influenced the development of a variety of musical genres. James Brown, who called Little Richard his idol, stated that he was the first to put the funk in the rock and roll beat via his mid-1950s road band. Otis Redding, whose inspiration was Little Richard, indicated that he contributed significantly to the development of soul music. Richie Unterberger of allmusic.com stated that Little Richard "was crucial in upping the voltage from high-powered R&B into the similar, yet different, guise of rock & roll."
Little Richard has been recognized for his musical contributions by many other high-profile artists. In 1989, Ray Charles introduced him at the Legends of Rock n Roll concert in Rome, Italy, as "a man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today."
Bo Diddley stated that "Little Richard was a one-of-a-kind show business genius. He influenced so many people in the business." Paul McCartney said that he idolized Little Richard when he was in school and always wanted to sing like him, and Mick Jagger called Little Richard "the originator" and "my first idol." In his high school year book, Bob Dylan declared that his ambition was "to join Little Richard".
In 1966, Jimi Hendrix was quoted as saying, "I want to do with my guitar what Little Richard does with his voice." Bob Seger, John Fogerty, David Bowie and Rod Stewart are among the other artists who have stated that Little Richard was a primary rock 'n' roll influence. In 1979, as he began to develop his solo career, Michael Jackson was quoted as saying that Little Richard was a huge influence on him. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QFL047fmsgg; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCYGNtyktlg; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AzB_Up0hlMw)
Joan Armatrading: Legendary British Singer, Songwriter
Joan Armatrading (1950) is a three times Grammy nominated and two time nominated Brit Award singer/songwriter/guitarist, born in St. Kitts, but raised in Birmingham England. To date, Joan has recorded 20 albums since 1972.
Known as a true craftsman, her distinctive vocals and consummate musicianship – she has arranged as well as played every instrument, with the exception of drums on her forthcoming album – have led to unanimous, widespread and, perhaps most importantly, consistent critical acclaim. Effortlessly eclectic, her sound has ranged from true soul to sophisticated pop driven by her passionate guitar.
Joan has played with some of the finest musicians around. She has received countless gold, platinum and silver discs, she has been nominated for the Brit Award and was the recipient of the highly coveted Ivor Novello Award for composition. VH1 voted her highly in its poll of Top 100 Most Influential Woman In Rock. To top all of that off, Joan Armatrading is one of the few artists to the title of MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth.
She stood down as President in 2009, after five years, of the highly prestigious Women of the Year Lunch. This sees women from all walks of life honored for their unique and often truly heroic contribution to modern day life, whether in art, science, politics, business or in the humanitarian arena. This was a role she took extremely seriously and one she is justly proud of her achievements in the organization, during this period.
In 2008, one month from her 58th birthday, Joan ran her first marathon. She ran the New York marathon of 26.24 miles and helped to raise £76,000 for the Women of the Year Foundation.
A huge admirer of Nelson Mandela, not only has she performed live for him at his 70th birthday at Wembley Stadium but, in 1999, she was invited to write a special tribute song. Entitled “The Messenger”, Joan performed it to the former President of South Africa when he made a private visit to the UK
in 2000. He smiled and danced throughout. In addition, she been given the keys to Sydney, is Patron of various charities, has presented and continues to present BBC Radio 4 and Radio 2 series.
As well as the Honorary Doctor’s of Letters degree she was given by the John Moores University of Liverpool (2000), Joan has also received a Doctorate in Music from the University of Birmingham (12th December 2002), been made an Honorary Fellow of Northampton University (14th November 2003) received an Honorary degree from Aston University in 2006 and on the 25th of June 2008 Joan received an Honorary Degree from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Moreover, after five years of committed studying, Joan achieved a goal she had held since childhood, she gained her BA in History.
Joan Armatrading’s dedication to her studies while consistently producing wonderful uplifting music says much about the woman, her vision and her commitment to excellence. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWFKKtvAvak; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyEt8C3KBmo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3ppBn_J7_w)
Known as a true craftsman, her distinctive vocals and consummate musicianship – she has arranged as well as played every instrument, with the exception of drums on her forthcoming album – have led to unanimous, widespread and, perhaps most importantly, consistent critical acclaim. Effortlessly eclectic, her sound has ranged from true soul to sophisticated pop driven by her passionate guitar.
Joan has played with some of the finest musicians around. She has received countless gold, platinum and silver discs, she has been nominated for the Brit Award and was the recipient of the highly coveted Ivor Novello Award for composition. VH1 voted her highly in its poll of Top 100 Most Influential Woman In Rock. To top all of that off, Joan Armatrading is one of the few artists to the title of MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth.
She stood down as President in 2009, after five years, of the highly prestigious Women of the Year Lunch. This sees women from all walks of life honored for their unique and often truly heroic contribution to modern day life, whether in art, science, politics, business or in the humanitarian arena. This was a role she took extremely seriously and one she is justly proud of her achievements in the organization, during this period.
In 2008, one month from her 58th birthday, Joan ran her first marathon. She ran the New York marathon of 26.24 miles and helped to raise £76,000 for the Women of the Year Foundation.
A huge admirer of Nelson Mandela, not only has she performed live for him at his 70th birthday at Wembley Stadium but, in 1999, she was invited to write a special tribute song. Entitled “The Messenger”, Joan performed it to the former President of South Africa when he made a private visit to the UK
in 2000. He smiled and danced throughout. In addition, she been given the keys to Sydney, is Patron of various charities, has presented and continues to present BBC Radio 4 and Radio 2 series.
As well as the Honorary Doctor’s of Letters degree she was given by the John Moores University of Liverpool (2000), Joan has also received a Doctorate in Music from the University of Birmingham (12th December 2002), been made an Honorary Fellow of Northampton University (14th November 2003) received an Honorary degree from Aston University in 2006 and on the 25th of June 2008 Joan received an Honorary Degree from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
Moreover, after five years of committed studying, Joan achieved a goal she had held since childhood, she gained her BA in History.
Joan Armatrading’s dedication to her studies while consistently producing wonderful uplifting music says much about the woman, her vision and her commitment to excellence. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWFKKtvAvak; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyEt8C3KBmo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3ppBn_J7_w)
Howard Rollins: Critically Acclaimed Actor
Howard Rollins (1950 – 1996) was an American television, film, and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in the film Ragtime, and for his portrayal of Virgil Tibbs in the NBC/CBS television series In the Heat of the Night.
The youngest of four children, Rollins was born in Baltimore, Maryland where he studied theater at Towson State College nearby. In 1970, he left college early to play the role of "Slick" in the PBS soap opera Our Street. In 1974, he moved to New York where he went on to appear on Broadway and in television films including Roots: The Next Generations.
In 1982, Rollins was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Dino De Laurentiis/Miloš Forman motion picture, Ragtime (1981). The following year, he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his role on Another World.
In 1984, Rollins starred in director Norman Jewison's film, A Soldier's Story which led to his role as Virgil Tibbs on the In the Heat of the Night television series based on Jewison's acclaimed film In the Heat of the Night.
In 1988, Rollins was arrested and pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in Louisiana. In 1993, he served a month in jail for reckless driving and driving under the influence. Because of continued legal problems, Rollins was ultimately dropped from In the Heat of the Night and was replaced by Carl Weathers. After attending drug rehab, he returned to In the Heat of the Night as a guest star.
In the last years of his life, Rollins appeared on the TV shows New York Undercover and Remember WENN (his final acting role), in the PBS film Harambee!, and in the theatrical film Drunks.
Rollins died on December 8, 1996 from complications from lymphoma. He had been diagnosed with the disease approximately six weeks earlier.
On October 25, 2006, a wax statue of Rollins was unveiled at the Senator Theatre in Baltimore. The statue is now at Baltimore's Great Blacks in Wax Museum.
The youngest of four children, Rollins was born in Baltimore, Maryland where he studied theater at Towson State College nearby. In 1970, he left college early to play the role of "Slick" in the PBS soap opera Our Street. In 1974, he moved to New York where he went on to appear on Broadway and in television films including Roots: The Next Generations.
In 1982, Rollins was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the Dino De Laurentiis/Miloš Forman motion picture, Ragtime (1981). The following year, he was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his role on Another World.
In 1984, Rollins starred in director Norman Jewison's film, A Soldier's Story which led to his role as Virgil Tibbs on the In the Heat of the Night television series based on Jewison's acclaimed film In the Heat of the Night.
In 1988, Rollins was arrested and pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in Louisiana. In 1993, he served a month in jail for reckless driving and driving under the influence. Because of continued legal problems, Rollins was ultimately dropped from In the Heat of the Night and was replaced by Carl Weathers. After attending drug rehab, he returned to In the Heat of the Night as a guest star.
In the last years of his life, Rollins appeared on the TV shows New York Undercover and Remember WENN (his final acting role), in the PBS film Harambee!, and in the theatrical film Drunks.
Rollins died on December 8, 1996 from complications from lymphoma. He had been diagnosed with the disease approximately six weeks earlier.
On October 25, 2006, a wax statue of Rollins was unveiled at the Senator Theatre in Baltimore. The statue is now at Baltimore's Great Blacks in Wax Museum.
Djuan Trent: Motivational Speaker; Writer; Advocate; ‘Miss Kentucky 2010’
Djuan Trent, born and raised in Columbus, Georgia, made her way to Kentucky by way of Berea College. In 2010, Trent gained the opportunity to travel and speak at schools and events across the Commonwealth, after capturing the title of Miss Kentucky. She went on to compete in the Miss America Pageant in 2011, where she was voted Contestant's Choice and finished as a top ten semi-finalist. During her year of service as Miss Kentucky, Djuan Trent became known and highly regarded for her innate ability to connect with and inspire her audiences. In 2014, Djuan chose to come out publicly as “queer”, rattling the ideas and conceptions of many throughout the nation, and becoming the first "out" pageant title holder to have competed on a national stage.
As a motivational speaker... Trent tailors and creates every presentation to reach every audience. She speaks at schools, conferences and events, sharing her story and presenting on a wide variety of topics, ranging from self-esteem to goal setting and achieving to queer identity.
As a writer... Trent generally shares in the style of personal narrative, pulling most of her inspiration from everyday situations and interactions with a dollop of mindfulness. Most of her writing can be found on her personal blog,"Life in 27"- a reflective collection of stories, experiences, thoughts, and life lessons.
As an advocate... Trent's passions lie in youth mentoring, and equality and empowerment for women, African Americans and the LGBTQ community. She has developed partnerships and relationships with local and national organizations and campaigns, including the Human Rights Campaign,Dare to Be Bold, The Fairness Campaign, Lexington Fairness, Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center, Many Voices, and Powered with Pride. She serves on the Miss Kentucky Board of Directors, Berea College Young Alumni Advisory Council and is a co-chair for Southerners for Freedom to Marry. She is also an alumna of Emerge Kentucky, a political program that identifies and trains women to run for public office.
As a motivational speaker... Trent tailors and creates every presentation to reach every audience. She speaks at schools, conferences and events, sharing her story and presenting on a wide variety of topics, ranging from self-esteem to goal setting and achieving to queer identity.
As a writer... Trent generally shares in the style of personal narrative, pulling most of her inspiration from everyday situations and interactions with a dollop of mindfulness. Most of her writing can be found on her personal blog,"Life in 27"- a reflective collection of stories, experiences, thoughts, and life lessons.
As an advocate... Trent's passions lie in youth mentoring, and equality and empowerment for women, African Americans and the LGBTQ community. She has developed partnerships and relationships with local and national organizations and campaigns, including the Human Rights Campaign,Dare to Be Bold, The Fairness Campaign, Lexington Fairness, Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center, Many Voices, and Powered with Pride. She serves on the Miss Kentucky Board of Directors, Berea College Young Alumni Advisory Council and is a co-chair for Southerners for Freedom to Marry. She is also an alumna of Emerge Kentucky, a political program that identifies and trains women to run for public office.
A Place in Time: Our Place in History as Black LGBTQA People (a short essay, then- feel free to continue on with the profiles)
“That’s what history does. It has a peculiar way of completing the questions in a person’s life; the ‘why’ of one’s existence, the ‘where’ of one’s place in the world, the ‘when’ and ‘how’ of a person’s legacy and the ‘what’ in the course of a person’s destiny. In all, it connects the dots in our lives, making us complete. Understanding this, I soon recognized the need to know my history as a black gay man.” ~ Doug Cooper Spencer
A few years ago with the passing of black historian John Hope Franklin, I found myself thinking about the importance of handing down historical knowledge, and more intimately, of passing along black LGBTQA historical knowledge.
Along with Carter G. Woodson and Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (Arthur Schomburg), John Hope Franklin completed what was the foundation of African American historical research. I heard the names of those men often as a child and as a young man. Having the distinction of growing up in an all black city, where even our school system was administered entirely by black people, learning the history of black folks was as common as learning math. The effect on me was to know more about myself as a black person, more than some people outside the borders of our small town wanted me to know.
As a result of my upbringing, I developed a profound sense of identity even at an early age. I can recall during the early ‘60’s wondering if ‘Negroes’ would ever gain equal rights, and like my peers during my coming of age in the mid to late ‘60’s, I demanded no less. My history had informed me of that right.
That’s what history does. It has a peculiar way of completing the questions in a person’s life; the ‘why’ of one’s existence, the ‘where’ of one’s place in the world, the ‘when’ and ‘how’ of a person’s legacy and the ‘what’ in the course of a person’s destiny. In all, it connects the dots in our lives, making us complete. Understanding this, I soon recognized the need to know my history as a black gay man.
During the time I was growing up in the 1950’s on through the late 1960’s, my rights as a black person had been established with pride and honor. But the other part of me hadn’t gained so esteemed a place, because under the afro and behind the eyes that glared at white injustice was the soul of a young man who was gay. That part of me hadn’t gained any historical significance.
After years of struggling to accept myself as a gay man, I set about discovering the questions of my identity; the why, where, when, how and what, of who I was with as much determination as I had been taught to view my place in the world as a black person.
With the construction of a black gay identity that emerged in the 1970’s, based on the works of predecessors like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde and through the voices of the more contemporary Joseph Beam, Marlon Riggs, Michelle Parkerson and Essex Hemphill, this new consciousness began coursing through the black gay community with true purpose in the 1980’s giving me the information I had longed for, for so much of my life.
It was obvious to me that since I had become a part of an extraordinary community, a black gay community, there had to have been something that created this 'extraordinariness', and I was beginning to find it. I can recall voraciously reading essays and books like David Levering Lewis' 'When Harlem Was In Vogue' while smiling and nodding, 'yeah'. As a black gay man I was there in time.
Now, there’s a renaissance of black LGBTQA artists and thinkers who work tirelessly, many in anonymity, to continue breathing life into the tapestry that gives purpose to being black and gay. One day I hope to see this movement morph into an established discipline of black gay historical and cultural research and lecture, where researching and studying the history of black LGBTQA persons will take its place in the classrooms of schools and universities alongside the discussions of the histories of other peoples.
I believe this should be done and needs to be done because that history exists, and in no less of a grand manner than other histories that have contributed to the continuum of world history. I wait for it to happen but until then, I will continue to find out more about myself and my community, its history and culture, and pass it on as the griot I have chosen to become; and I invite others to do so as well. ~ Doug Cooper Spencer
A few years ago with the passing of black historian John Hope Franklin, I found myself thinking about the importance of handing down historical knowledge, and more intimately, of passing along black LGBTQA historical knowledge.
Along with Carter G. Woodson and Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (Arthur Schomburg), John Hope Franklin completed what was the foundation of African American historical research. I heard the names of those men often as a child and as a young man. Having the distinction of growing up in an all black city, where even our school system was administered entirely by black people, learning the history of black folks was as common as learning math. The effect on me was to know more about myself as a black person, more than some people outside the borders of our small town wanted me to know.
As a result of my upbringing, I developed a profound sense of identity even at an early age. I can recall during the early ‘60’s wondering if ‘Negroes’ would ever gain equal rights, and like my peers during my coming of age in the mid to late ‘60’s, I demanded no less. My history had informed me of that right.
That’s what history does. It has a peculiar way of completing the questions in a person’s life; the ‘why’ of one’s existence, the ‘where’ of one’s place in the world, the ‘when’ and ‘how’ of a person’s legacy and the ‘what’ in the course of a person’s destiny. In all, it connects the dots in our lives, making us complete. Understanding this, I soon recognized the need to know my history as a black gay man.
During the time I was growing up in the 1950’s on through the late 1960’s, my rights as a black person had been established with pride and honor. But the other part of me hadn’t gained so esteemed a place, because under the afro and behind the eyes that glared at white injustice was the soul of a young man who was gay. That part of me hadn’t gained any historical significance.
After years of struggling to accept myself as a gay man, I set about discovering the questions of my identity; the why, where, when, how and what, of who I was with as much determination as I had been taught to view my place in the world as a black person.
With the construction of a black gay identity that emerged in the 1970’s, based on the works of predecessors like James Baldwin and Audre Lorde and through the voices of the more contemporary Joseph Beam, Marlon Riggs, Michelle Parkerson and Essex Hemphill, this new consciousness began coursing through the black gay community with true purpose in the 1980’s giving me the information I had longed for, for so much of my life.
It was obvious to me that since I had become a part of an extraordinary community, a black gay community, there had to have been something that created this 'extraordinariness', and I was beginning to find it. I can recall voraciously reading essays and books like David Levering Lewis' 'When Harlem Was In Vogue' while smiling and nodding, 'yeah'. As a black gay man I was there in time.
Now, there’s a renaissance of black LGBTQA artists and thinkers who work tirelessly, many in anonymity, to continue breathing life into the tapestry that gives purpose to being black and gay. One day I hope to see this movement morph into an established discipline of black gay historical and cultural research and lecture, where researching and studying the history of black LGBTQA persons will take its place in the classrooms of schools and universities alongside the discussions of the histories of other peoples.
I believe this should be done and needs to be done because that history exists, and in no less of a grand manner than other histories that have contributed to the continuum of world history. I wait for it to happen but until then, I will continue to find out more about myself and my community, its history and culture, and pass it on as the griot I have chosen to become; and I invite others to do so as well. ~ Doug Cooper Spencer
Simon Nkoli: South African Anti-Apartheid, LGBT & AIDS Activist, Organizer, Considered as the Father of the Black Gay Movement in South Africa
“I am black and I am gay. I cannot separate the two into secondary or primary struggles.” ~ Simon Nkoli
Simon Nkoli (1957-1998) was a South African anti-apartheid, gay rights and AIDS activist. He is recognized as the founder of South Africa’s black gay movement.
Nkoli was born in Soweto. At a young age, he was sent to live on a farm with his grandparents to avoid apartheid. He spent any spare moment in the classroom. Eventually his thirst for education led him to attend school full-time.
At 18, Nkoli came out to his mother. She sent him to a priest to be “argued” out of it. After this and further attempts by psychologists and doctors proved unsuccessful, Nkoli’s mother allowed her son to move in with his boyfriend.
As an activist in the 1970s, he was arrested in the student uprisings against apartheid. In 1979, he joined the Congress of South African Students and the United Democratic Front (UDF).
In 1983, Nkoli—frustrated that most gay venues were in districts reserved for whites—joined the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), a predominantly white gay organization. After realizing that GASA would not relocate their social activities outside of whites-only facilities, Nkoli founded the Saturday Group, South Africa’s first regional gay black organization.
For opposing apartheid, Nkoli and other UDF members were charged with treason. While awaiting sentencing, he came out to other UDF leaders, prompting them to recognize homophobia as oppression. In 1988, he and his co-defendants were acquitted.
After his release, Nkoli cofounded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of Witwatersrand (GLOW), the first national black LGBT organization in South Africa.
In the 1990s, Nkoli worked with Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) to end apartheid. His visibility in the anti-apartheid movement and his association with Mandela helped the gay movement gain support from the ANC. In 1996, South Africa became the first nation to include sexual orientation protection in its constitution.
Nkoli was one of the first South Africans to publicly disclose his HIV status. He cofounded the Township AIDS Project and the Gay Men’s Health Forum. In 1998, he died from AIDS-related complications. South Africa’s 1999 Gay Pride March was dedicated to Nkoli’s accomplishments.
Simon Nkoli (1957-1998) was a South African anti-apartheid, gay rights and AIDS activist. He is recognized as the founder of South Africa’s black gay movement.
Nkoli was born in Soweto. At a young age, he was sent to live on a farm with his grandparents to avoid apartheid. He spent any spare moment in the classroom. Eventually his thirst for education led him to attend school full-time.
At 18, Nkoli came out to his mother. She sent him to a priest to be “argued” out of it. After this and further attempts by psychologists and doctors proved unsuccessful, Nkoli’s mother allowed her son to move in with his boyfriend.
As an activist in the 1970s, he was arrested in the student uprisings against apartheid. In 1979, he joined the Congress of South African Students and the United Democratic Front (UDF).
In 1983, Nkoli—frustrated that most gay venues were in districts reserved for whites—joined the Gay Association of South Africa (GASA), a predominantly white gay organization. After realizing that GASA would not relocate their social activities outside of whites-only facilities, Nkoli founded the Saturday Group, South Africa’s first regional gay black organization.
For opposing apartheid, Nkoli and other UDF members were charged with treason. While awaiting sentencing, he came out to other UDF leaders, prompting them to recognize homophobia as oppression. In 1988, he and his co-defendants were acquitted.
After his release, Nkoli cofounded the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of Witwatersrand (GLOW), the first national black LGBT organization in South Africa.
In the 1990s, Nkoli worked with Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) to end apartheid. His visibility in the anti-apartheid movement and his association with Mandela helped the gay movement gain support from the ANC. In 1996, South Africa became the first nation to include sexual orientation protection in its constitution.
Nkoli was one of the first South Africans to publicly disclose his HIV status. He cofounded the Township AIDS Project and the Gay Men’s Health Forum. In 1998, he died from AIDS-related complications. South Africa’s 1999 Gay Pride March was dedicated to Nkoli’s accomplishments.
Stephen Burrows: Iconic Pioneering Fashion Designer
Stephen Gerald Burrows was born on 15 September 1943 in Newark, New Jersey. He studied at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art from 1961 to 1963 and at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York from 1964 to 1966. Perhaps most influential to the future career of this original American designer was his seamstress grandmother, Beatrice Simmons, who taught him to sew when he was eight years old. At an early age he discovered and delighted in the zigzag stitch that would become a signature. As a designer, instead of hiding stitching, Burrows celebrated and exaggerated it by using contrasting thread colors. He used a close, narrow zigzag stitch to create his trademark fluted “lettuce hem.” In an endless range of shapes and combinations Burrows placed bright contrasting colors of chiffon or knit fabrics in a single ensemble.
After having success selling pieces to friends, Burrows cofounded the O Boutique at Nineteenth Street and Park Avenue South in 1968. Attracting the countercul-tural luminaries that hung out at Max’s Kansas City across the street, the shop and its proprietor gained a following, but Burrow’s lack of business experience resulted in O Boutique’s eventual closure. In 1970 Geraldine Stutz, president of Henri Bendel, gave Burrows a space in the workroom of Bendel’s Studio, the small manufacturing part of the store, and Pat Tennant, the manager of the design studio, became an important mentor to the designer. ‘Stephen Burrows World’ opened in the summer of 1970 on the third floor of the store, as a packed audience watched a fashion show set to disco music. Leather garments with nail-studded embellishments, midiskirts, skin-tight sweaters, suede bags dripping with fringe, and Burrows’s famous super bright jersey knits shown on ethnically diverse male and female models impressed audience and press alike.
Burrows’s fluid, sexy separates are iconic of the individualist, confident woman of the 1970s. The “black is beautiful” philosophy of the 1970s was showcased through Burrows’s use of African American models and his success as an African American fashion designer. More than any other designer of the 1970s, Burrows captures in his designs the vivacious energy of the disco scene. By 1973 he was at the top of the field, winning the prestigious Coty award, the highest honor in American fashion, which he was honored with again in 1974 and 1977. He was one of five American designers invited to show their clothes along with five French designers at a fashion spectacle at the Palace of Versailles in 1973. Influenced by his success and the lure of Seventh Avenue, Burrows moved out on his own that same year. With this move he lost the guidance and protection of Bendel’s staff, however, and his business suffered due to poor management. Used to overseeing the details of his clothing line’s production, he was unable to achieve the same quality utilizing mass-manufacturing processes.
From 1977 to 1982 Burrows relaunched a successful collection with Henri Bendel. He stepped out of the New York fashion world in 1982 when the mood in fashion was changing and the disco era was coming to a close. He relaunched a third time with Henri Bendel in 2002, when his now-retro fashions were once again in demand.
In May 2006 the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) honored Burrows with “The Board of Directors Special Tribute;” adding the designer to the ranks of such previous luminaries as Tom Ford and Alexander McQueen. Around the same time, Burrows was invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Mode to return to Paris to present his Spring/Summer 2007 Collection in the Carousel de Louvre. "BURROWS IN PARIS" was presented to resounding applause as part of French Fashion Week. Fashion critic Suzy Menkes of ‘The International Herald Tribune’ praised Burrows as “the Master of matte jersey and colour combinations!” In addition to “Stephen Burrows World”, Burrows expanded his company to include a number of labels drawn from various points of inspiration. “S by Burrows” was created for a venture with Home Shopping Europe (HSN) in Munich, Germany, while “Everyday Girl” was inspired by Anna Cleveland, daughter to muse and model Pat Cleveland, and “SB73,” a cut and sew knit line that was developed based on Burrows’ hallmark, color-blocked creations of the seventies.
Stephen Burrows’ work as a fashion designer has been the subject of a series of retrospectives: in “1940-1970’s Cut and Style” at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology; “The 1970’s” at The Tribute Gallery in New York, and in “Back to Black: Art, Cinema, and the Racial Imaginary” at Whitechapel Gallery in London in June 2005. That same year he was the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Jenny Grenville and is the subject of another documentary under development by Patrick di Santo.
Recently, First Lady Michelle Obama chose to wear a Burrows Jersey pantsuit to a Washington DC event. Remarking on the significance, Vogue Magazine wrote, "It was a wonderful acknowledgement of Burrows, one of the great African-American designers and a Harlem resident known for his inventive cuts and bias technique."
Also in 2010, Burrows opened his new showroom and design studio in New York City’s Garment Center.
2011 marks Burrows’ 45th year as a designer. It began with Burrows co-hosting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Celebration of models in now historic ‘The Battle of Versailles Fashion Show that altered perceptions of American fashion’s presentation on the world stage.
After having success selling pieces to friends, Burrows cofounded the O Boutique at Nineteenth Street and Park Avenue South in 1968. Attracting the countercul-tural luminaries that hung out at Max’s Kansas City across the street, the shop and its proprietor gained a following, but Burrow’s lack of business experience resulted in O Boutique’s eventual closure. In 1970 Geraldine Stutz, president of Henri Bendel, gave Burrows a space in the workroom of Bendel’s Studio, the small manufacturing part of the store, and Pat Tennant, the manager of the design studio, became an important mentor to the designer. ‘Stephen Burrows World’ opened in the summer of 1970 on the third floor of the store, as a packed audience watched a fashion show set to disco music. Leather garments with nail-studded embellishments, midiskirts, skin-tight sweaters, suede bags dripping with fringe, and Burrows’s famous super bright jersey knits shown on ethnically diverse male and female models impressed audience and press alike.
Burrows’s fluid, sexy separates are iconic of the individualist, confident woman of the 1970s. The “black is beautiful” philosophy of the 1970s was showcased through Burrows’s use of African American models and his success as an African American fashion designer. More than any other designer of the 1970s, Burrows captures in his designs the vivacious energy of the disco scene. By 1973 he was at the top of the field, winning the prestigious Coty award, the highest honor in American fashion, which he was honored with again in 1974 and 1977. He was one of five American designers invited to show their clothes along with five French designers at a fashion spectacle at the Palace of Versailles in 1973. Influenced by his success and the lure of Seventh Avenue, Burrows moved out on his own that same year. With this move he lost the guidance and protection of Bendel’s staff, however, and his business suffered due to poor management. Used to overseeing the details of his clothing line’s production, he was unable to achieve the same quality utilizing mass-manufacturing processes.
From 1977 to 1982 Burrows relaunched a successful collection with Henri Bendel. He stepped out of the New York fashion world in 1982 when the mood in fashion was changing and the disco era was coming to a close. He relaunched a third time with Henri Bendel in 2002, when his now-retro fashions were once again in demand.
In May 2006 the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) honored Burrows with “The Board of Directors Special Tribute;” adding the designer to the ranks of such previous luminaries as Tom Ford and Alexander McQueen. Around the same time, Burrows was invited by the Chambre Syndicale de la Mode to return to Paris to present his Spring/Summer 2007 Collection in the Carousel de Louvre. "BURROWS IN PARIS" was presented to resounding applause as part of French Fashion Week. Fashion critic Suzy Menkes of ‘The International Herald Tribune’ praised Burrows as “the Master of matte jersey and colour combinations!” In addition to “Stephen Burrows World”, Burrows expanded his company to include a number of labels drawn from various points of inspiration. “S by Burrows” was created for a venture with Home Shopping Europe (HSN) in Munich, Germany, while “Everyday Girl” was inspired by Anna Cleveland, daughter to muse and model Pat Cleveland, and “SB73,” a cut and sew knit line that was developed based on Burrows’ hallmark, color-blocked creations of the seventies.
Stephen Burrows’ work as a fashion designer has been the subject of a series of retrospectives: in “1940-1970’s Cut and Style” at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology; “The 1970’s” at The Tribute Gallery in New York, and in “Back to Black: Art, Cinema, and the Racial Imaginary” at Whitechapel Gallery in London in June 2005. That same year he was the subject of a documentary by filmmaker Jenny Grenville and is the subject of another documentary under development by Patrick di Santo.
Recently, First Lady Michelle Obama chose to wear a Burrows Jersey pantsuit to a Washington DC event. Remarking on the significance, Vogue Magazine wrote, "It was a wonderful acknowledgement of Burrows, one of the great African-American designers and a Harlem resident known for his inventive cuts and bias technique."
Also in 2010, Burrows opened his new showroom and design studio in New York City’s Garment Center.
2011 marks Burrows’ 45th year as a designer. It began with Burrows co-hosting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Celebration of models in now historic ‘The Battle of Versailles Fashion Show that altered perceptions of American fashion’s presentation on the world stage.
Stephen Burrows Fashion
The Honorable, Deborah Batts: U.S. Federal Judge
The Honorable, Deborah A. Batts(1947) is a U.S. federal judge, currently serving on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She is the first openly LGBT person to have served as a judge of the United States federal courts, and as of 2008, the only openly LGBT person serving as an Article III judge. She was educated at Radcliffe College and Harvard Law School.
She clerked on the Federal Court on which she now serves as a Judge and later as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1979 to 1984. In 1984 she became an Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University. She was appointed to her current position in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. She continues to serve as an adjunct at Fordham.
She clerked on the Federal Court on which she now serves as a Judge and later as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1979 to 1984. In 1984 she became an Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University. She was appointed to her current position in 1994 by President Bill Clinton. She continues to serve as an adjunct at Fordham.
Frank Mugisha: Ugandan Human Rights Activist
Frank Mugisha is a Ugandan LGBT advocate who has won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize for his activism. Along with Val Kalende, Victor Mukasa, and Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, Mugisha is one of the most prominent advocates for LGBT rights in Uganda.
Mugisha was born in a suburb of Kampala, Uganda. Raised in a strict Catholic family, he came out to his brother at age 14. Although his coming out estranged him from some family members, other friends and family have continued to support him.
While still at university in 2004, he founded Icebreakers Uganda, an organization created as a support network for LGBT Ugandans who are out or in the process of coming out to family and friends. Mugisha is now the executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), an umbrella organization that consists of four groups, including Icebreakers Uganda.
Mugisha was close friends with fellow advocate and SMUG founder David Kato, who was murdered in January 2011 after successfully suing a tabloid named Rolling Stone for publishing the names of 100 LGBT Ugandans with an encouragement to "hang them".
Mugisha was awarded the 2011 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
Mugisha was born in a suburb of Kampala, Uganda. Raised in a strict Catholic family, he came out to his brother at age 14. Although his coming out estranged him from some family members, other friends and family have continued to support him.
While still at university in 2004, he founded Icebreakers Uganda, an organization created as a support network for LGBT Ugandans who are out or in the process of coming out to family and friends. Mugisha is now the executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), an umbrella organization that consists of four groups, including Icebreakers Uganda.
Mugisha was close friends with fellow advocate and SMUG founder David Kato, who was murdered in January 2011 after successfully suing a tabloid named Rolling Stone for publishing the names of 100 LGBT Ugandans with an encouragement to "hang them".
Mugisha was awarded the 2011 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.
Last Offence: Rapper
Since 2008 Last Offence (Last Offence) has been building a repertoire of music that stretches the limits of what his genre will allow. Born in Saint Louis the young emcee only dabbled in rap music at first, but once he relocated to Los Angeles he found it impossible to ignore the urge to be heard.
It wasn't until 2002 that he and a couple of his friends toyed around with a trial of a music software program that he finally put some words to paper and spit over a track. Even then, he would refer to it as "playing around...nothing serious".
In 2007, Last Offence (or ‘LastO’, as he is commonly known as) discovered a movement that had already been well in the making. The Homorevolution Tour brought prominence to an underground gay rap scene that, until then, he'd only been vaguely familiar with. But like so many of his current counterparts making moves in 2008, it drove him to action.
Not one to slow down the momentum, he continued to build notoriety with impressive guest appearances on Granthm's "Head O.U.T." and Solomon's "Transformers". By the end of 2008 he'd garnered critical acclaim with his first official release: an EP entitled RUN A LAP, which contained the cult classics ‘So Magical’ and ‘Hello Boyz’. In early 2009, he followed up with the grittier and more urban hip-hop offering NOT FOR NON PROFIT, a mixtape comprised of mostly original material.
By March of 2009, the emcee was already offering a darker, grittier and overall more refined follow-up to "Not For Non Profit". Last Offence’s credits include: "New Artist of the Year 2008" and "Best Non-Album of 2008" for "Run A Lap" (OutHipHop.com); one of "Top 5 Black Homo-Hop to Watch For" 2009 (QUEERTY.com); he has been quoted in SPIN Magazine, L.A. Times and featured on DJ KaySlay's Shade 45 Radio Show. (Video Links (Explicit Material): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fd0T8mcESU ;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl55ey8ahcg; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xrgseHaiig)
It wasn't until 2002 that he and a couple of his friends toyed around with a trial of a music software program that he finally put some words to paper and spit over a track. Even then, he would refer to it as "playing around...nothing serious".
In 2007, Last Offence (or ‘LastO’, as he is commonly known as) discovered a movement that had already been well in the making. The Homorevolution Tour brought prominence to an underground gay rap scene that, until then, he'd only been vaguely familiar with. But like so many of his current counterparts making moves in 2008, it drove him to action.
Not one to slow down the momentum, he continued to build notoriety with impressive guest appearances on Granthm's "Head O.U.T." and Solomon's "Transformers". By the end of 2008 he'd garnered critical acclaim with his first official release: an EP entitled RUN A LAP, which contained the cult classics ‘So Magical’ and ‘Hello Boyz’. In early 2009, he followed up with the grittier and more urban hip-hop offering NOT FOR NON PROFIT, a mixtape comprised of mostly original material.
By March of 2009, the emcee was already offering a darker, grittier and overall more refined follow-up to "Not For Non Profit". Last Offence’s credits include: "New Artist of the Year 2008" and "Best Non-Album of 2008" for "Run A Lap" (OutHipHop.com); one of "Top 5 Black Homo-Hop to Watch For" 2009 (QUEERTY.com); he has been quoted in SPIN Magazine, L.A. Times and featured on DJ KaySlay's Shade 45 Radio Show. (Video Links (Explicit Material): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fd0T8mcESU ;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl55ey8ahcg; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xrgseHaiig)
Roger Ross Williams: Oscar-Winning Filmmaker, Producer, Director, Writer, Journalist
Roger Ross Williams is an American television news, documentary and entertainment director, producer and writer. He directed most notably Music by Prudence that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject), about a 21-year-old Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Prudence Mabhena, who was born severely disabled and has struggled to overcome poverty and discrimination. All other seven members of Prudence's band "Liyana" are also disabled.
Roger Ross Williams is the first African American director to win an Academy Award in his category of Documentary Shorts, and the first ever African American director to win an Academy Award for directing and producing a film, short or feature. He is a member of a Gullah family from South Carolina, and has lived and worked in New York City for the past twenty-five years. He started working in 1985 and has worked for ABCNews, NBC News, MSNBC, BBC, CNN and PBS. He has produced shows for ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, Food Network, Sundance Channel, TLC, VH1 and Michael Moore’s Emmy Award winning series TV Nation.
He has directed prime-time reality (for ABC and CBS) and produced a documentary series for Discovery Networks and a lifestyle series: Sheila Bridges Designer Living, for Scripps Networks.
Roger Ross Williams is the first African American director to win an Academy Award in his category of Documentary Shorts, and the first ever African American director to win an Academy Award for directing and producing a film, short or feature. He is a member of a Gullah family from South Carolina, and has lived and worked in New York City for the past twenty-five years. He started working in 1985 and has worked for ABCNews, NBC News, MSNBC, BBC, CNN and PBS. He has produced shows for ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, Food Network, Sundance Channel, TLC, VH1 and Michael Moore’s Emmy Award winning series TV Nation.
He has directed prime-time reality (for ABC and CBS) and produced a documentary series for Discovery Networks and a lifestyle series: Sheila Bridges Designer Living, for Scripps Networks.
Angelina Weld Grimke: Poet, Playwright, Essayist, Activist
Angelina Weld Grimké (1880 – 1958) was an African-American journalist, teacher, playwright and poet who was part of the Harlem Renaissance and was one of the first African-American women to have a play performed.
She was the only child of prominent attorney and NAACP co-founder, Archibald Gimke who was the son of a white man and a black slave, and her mother was from a prominent white family. Her parents named her after her great aunt Angelina Grimké Weld, a famous white abolitionist and women's rights advocate. Her father Archibald Grimké was the second black person to have graduated from Harvard Law School. He was appointed consul to the Dominican Republic from 1894-1898. He served as Vice-President of the NAACP, helping found it in 1909. Her mother Sarah Stanley was a white woman from a Midwestern middle-class family, about whom information is scarce.
As a playwright, Angelina Weld Grimke became best known for her play entitled "Rachel." Rachel was one of the first plays to protest lynching and racial violence. The story centers around an African-American woman (Rachel) who rejects marriage and motherhood. Rachel believes that by refusing to reproduce, she declines to provide the white community with black children who can be tormented with racist atrocities. "Rachel" was the only piece of Angelina's work to be published as a book. Most of her stories and poems were published, in journals, newspapers, and anthologies. She wrote the three-act drama, “Rachel”, for the NAACP to rally public support against the recently released film The Birth of a Nation. The play was produced in 1916 in Washington, D.C., performed by an all-black cast. It was published in 1920.
Only her poetry reveals Angelina's romantic love toward women. The majority of her poems are love poems to women or poems about grief and loss. Some (particularly those published during her lifetime) deal with racial concerns, but the bulk of her poems are about other women, and were unlikely to be published for this reason. Only about a third of her poetry has been published to date.
Despite Angelina's great passion, she kept her desires closeted throughout her life, trying to live up to her father's idea of morality. Her writing shows the effect self-denial had upon her, revealing her sorrow over her inability to find the female companionship that she so deeply desired.
A consummate writer, Angelina Weld Grimké wrote essays, short stories and poems which were published in The Crisis, Opportunity, The New Negro, Caroling Dusk, and Negro Poets and Their Poems. Some of her more famous poems include, "The Eyes of My Regret", "At April", and "Trees". She was an active writer and activist included among the figures of the Harlem Renaissance. She counted as one of her friends during that time the poet Georgia Douglas Johnson
In her later years Angelina Weld Grimke lived a reclusive life in Brooklyn where she died in 1958.
She was the only child of prominent attorney and NAACP co-founder, Archibald Gimke who was the son of a white man and a black slave, and her mother was from a prominent white family. Her parents named her after her great aunt Angelina Grimké Weld, a famous white abolitionist and women's rights advocate. Her father Archibald Grimké was the second black person to have graduated from Harvard Law School. He was appointed consul to the Dominican Republic from 1894-1898. He served as Vice-President of the NAACP, helping found it in 1909. Her mother Sarah Stanley was a white woman from a Midwestern middle-class family, about whom information is scarce.
As a playwright, Angelina Weld Grimke became best known for her play entitled "Rachel." Rachel was one of the first plays to protest lynching and racial violence. The story centers around an African-American woman (Rachel) who rejects marriage and motherhood. Rachel believes that by refusing to reproduce, she declines to provide the white community with black children who can be tormented with racist atrocities. "Rachel" was the only piece of Angelina's work to be published as a book. Most of her stories and poems were published, in journals, newspapers, and anthologies. She wrote the three-act drama, “Rachel”, for the NAACP to rally public support against the recently released film The Birth of a Nation. The play was produced in 1916 in Washington, D.C., performed by an all-black cast. It was published in 1920.
Only her poetry reveals Angelina's romantic love toward women. The majority of her poems are love poems to women or poems about grief and loss. Some (particularly those published during her lifetime) deal with racial concerns, but the bulk of her poems are about other women, and were unlikely to be published for this reason. Only about a third of her poetry has been published to date.
Despite Angelina's great passion, she kept her desires closeted throughout her life, trying to live up to her father's idea of morality. Her writing shows the effect self-denial had upon her, revealing her sorrow over her inability to find the female companionship that she so deeply desired.
A consummate writer, Angelina Weld Grimké wrote essays, short stories and poems which were published in The Crisis, Opportunity, The New Negro, Caroling Dusk, and Negro Poets and Their Poems. Some of her more famous poems include, "The Eyes of My Regret", "At April", and "Trees". She was an active writer and activist included among the figures of the Harlem Renaissance. She counted as one of her friends during that time the poet Georgia Douglas Johnson
In her later years Angelina Weld Grimke lived a reclusive life in Brooklyn where she died in 1958.
Jason Bartlett: Businessman, Politician
Jason Bartlett is an American businessman and politician from Connecticut. A Democrat, he was a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011.
Jason Bartlett is the owner of Connecticut First Capitol in Bethel as well as a restaurant in Hartford. Bartlett is no longer with the mortgage company he owned and operated. He briefly worked for the National Black Justice Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to ending racism and homophobia by empowering black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
He raised two sons, the children of his deceased uncle and aunt. Now 21 and 19 years old and both attending community college in Connecticut, they came to live with him when they were 11 and 9 respectively.
Bartlett is gay. Although his district is 96 percent white, Bartlett is African American. He served for a time as the country's only openly gay black state legislator, a distinction he lost when Simone Bell was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in December 2009.
Bartlett ran for Connecticut's 24th Senate District, comprising Danbury, New Fairfield, Sherman and part of Bethel but lost by a very small margin to Michael McLachlan.
Jason Bartlett is the owner of Connecticut First Capitol in Bethel as well as a restaurant in Hartford. Bartlett is no longer with the mortgage company he owned and operated. He briefly worked for the National Black Justice Coalition, a non-profit dedicated to ending racism and homophobia by empowering black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
He raised two sons, the children of his deceased uncle and aunt. Now 21 and 19 years old and both attending community college in Connecticut, they came to live with him when they were 11 and 9 respectively.
Bartlett is gay. Although his district is 96 percent white, Bartlett is African American. He served for a time as the country's only openly gay black state legislator, a distinction he lost when Simone Bell was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in December 2009.
Bartlett ran for Connecticut's 24th Senate District, comprising Danbury, New Fairfield, Sherman and part of Bethel but lost by a very small margin to Michael McLachlan.
Janora McDuffie: Actress
Viewers have enjoyed Janora McDuffie’s recurring role as social worker Janet Meyers on the Emmy Award winning ‘Grey’s Anatomy’. She has also appeared on numerous major network shows including ‘The Event’ on NBC , ‘Terriers’ on FX, ‘The Forgotten’ on ABC, and FOX network television favorites, ‘Lie to Me’ and ‘24’. In commercials, Janora can be seen alongside Boris Kodjoe in a nationally televised advertisement for Ford Motor Company. She is also remembered for her appearance in the ‘Arby’s’ restaurant commercial promoting their “Good Mood Food” campaign. Many will also recognize her from her role in the Sony Screen Gems film, ‘Obsessed’, starring Beyonce Knowles and Idris Elba.
As a teen, Janora was awarded the prestigious ‘Morehead Award’, which provided a full scholarship and enabled her to study abroad, while a student at the University of North Carolina. During her freshman year, Janora was also selected, out of a number of her peers, as a North Carolina Fellow. At UNC she was elected as both ‘Miss Black Student Movement’ and ‘Miss UNC’. Her years of college culminated at graduation where she not only received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Performance Studies and Psychology, but also delivered the commencement speech.
Following college, Janora spent time as a management consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Consulting, a top firm in Atlanta, Georgia. After some time in corporate America, Janora’s passion for acting prompted her relocation to sunny California. Janora jumped in headfirst, scoring appearances on CBS shows ‘The Young & the Restless’, ‘Eleventh Hour’, ‘Close to Home’, ‘The Unit’ and the CW’s, ‘Veronica Mars’ early in her career. Her most memorable role was 14 episodes as FBI Special Agent Abbot for MyNetworkTV’s dramatic series ‘Desire’.
Janora has put her stamp on award winning short films and feature length movie projects. She was the Honorary Chair of the 2011 Annual Hayti Heritage Film Festival in her hometown of Durham, North Carolina. She also had two films to screen at the 19th Annual Pan African Film Festival this year. In 2010, she appeared in ‘To Save a Life’, distributed by Samuel Goldwyn films. ‘Odicie’, which tackled the topic of HIV/AIDs, placed Janora in a film alongside veteran actress Sheryl Lee Ralph. She also worked in ‘Be My Baby’, with actor/choreographer Cris Judd, and ‘Endangered Species’, winner of the Independent Film Festival in Atlanta and Best Dramatic Short Film in the Action-On Film Festival in Long Beach. She brought laughs in the romantic comedy ‘Big Ain’t Bad’, which went on to win the audience choice award at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. In 2007, Janora was awarded Best Actress at the Biola Film Festival for the film ‘Be the Man’, which aired on BET. She also starred in the lead role of Carla, in ‘The Message’, screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Moving from screen to stage is not a stretch for Janora. She brought an attractive energy to the role of Nicole in Don B. Welch’s big hit ‘The Bachelorette Party’, co-produced by actor Will Smith. She has also graced the stage in performances of ‘The Colored Museum’ and ‘Cinderella’. As a voiceover actress Janora has also worked on ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Saints Row 3’ and ‘Call of Juarez 3: The Cartel’, as the lead character FBI Agent Kim Evans. Her voice acting skills have also been contributed to movie hits ‘Takers’ and ‘The Soloist’.
As a teen, Janora was awarded the prestigious ‘Morehead Award’, which provided a full scholarship and enabled her to study abroad, while a student at the University of North Carolina. During her freshman year, Janora was also selected, out of a number of her peers, as a North Carolina Fellow. At UNC she was elected as both ‘Miss Black Student Movement’ and ‘Miss UNC’. Her years of college culminated at graduation where she not only received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Performance Studies and Psychology, but also delivered the commencement speech.
Following college, Janora spent time as a management consultant at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Consulting, a top firm in Atlanta, Georgia. After some time in corporate America, Janora’s passion for acting prompted her relocation to sunny California. Janora jumped in headfirst, scoring appearances on CBS shows ‘The Young & the Restless’, ‘Eleventh Hour’, ‘Close to Home’, ‘The Unit’ and the CW’s, ‘Veronica Mars’ early in her career. Her most memorable role was 14 episodes as FBI Special Agent Abbot for MyNetworkTV’s dramatic series ‘Desire’.
Janora has put her stamp on award winning short films and feature length movie projects. She was the Honorary Chair of the 2011 Annual Hayti Heritage Film Festival in her hometown of Durham, North Carolina. She also had two films to screen at the 19th Annual Pan African Film Festival this year. In 2010, she appeared in ‘To Save a Life’, distributed by Samuel Goldwyn films. ‘Odicie’, which tackled the topic of HIV/AIDs, placed Janora in a film alongside veteran actress Sheryl Lee Ralph. She also worked in ‘Be My Baby’, with actor/choreographer Cris Judd, and ‘Endangered Species’, winner of the Independent Film Festival in Atlanta and Best Dramatic Short Film in the Action-On Film Festival in Long Beach. She brought laughs in the romantic comedy ‘Big Ain’t Bad’, which went on to win the audience choice award at the Hollywood Black Film Festival. In 2007, Janora was awarded Best Actress at the Biola Film Festival for the film ‘Be the Man’, which aired on BET. She also starred in the lead role of Carla, in ‘The Message’, screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Moving from screen to stage is not a stretch for Janora. She brought an attractive energy to the role of Nicole in Don B. Welch’s big hit ‘The Bachelorette Party’, co-produced by actor Will Smith. She has also graced the stage in performances of ‘The Colored Museum’ and ‘Cinderella’. As a voiceover actress Janora has also worked on ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Saints Row 3’ and ‘Call of Juarez 3: The Cartel’, as the lead character FBI Agent Kim Evans. Her voice acting skills have also been contributed to movie hits ‘Takers’ and ‘The Soloist’.
Jaye Davidson: Oscar-Nominated Actor, Model; Fashion Industry Professional
Jaye Davidson is an American born British actor, model and fashion promoter. He is best known for his roles as transwoman "Dil" in the 1992 film “The Crying Game”, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Jaye Davidson was born Alfred Amey in Riverside, California, to a Ghanaian father and English mother. Jaye has two sisters and his family moved to the United Kingdom when he was two years old. He grew up in the London suburb of Hertfordshire, England. The actor is hesitant about discussing his parents, especially his late father: "We shan't even mention him. My mother would be very annoyed," he noted in a Rolling Stone interview. Davidson did, however, emphasize his "fabulous relationship" with his businesswoman mother. “My mother's very correct and very beautiful. She's to be admired. She brought three children up and worked full time and ran a house--all on her own."
He left school early to pursue his interests in the fashion business, but first took a job at Walt Disney's London offices--inside a life-sized Pluto costume--and later became a fashion assistant with the task of buying the fabric and buttons.
His exotic and androgynous look led to his casting as “Dil” in “The Crying Game” with Forest Whitaker. Davidson, who had no acting experience, was discovered by a casting associate at a wrap party for Derek Jarman's “Edward II.” Offered an audition, he refused, later telling the New York Times, that he was inebriated and had no recollection of the exchange. Even so, the film's casting personnel, unsatisfied by the parade of transvestites seeking the part, kept after him. Though he had been working for fashion designers David and Elizabeth Emmanuel, he soon found his employers' business going under. At last Davidson relented and read for the role; his unstudied poise and integrity appealed to the producers, and he was offered the part.
Neil Jordan’s “The Crying Game” was well received by critics as well as the public and the movie was an unexpected hit. Distributed by Miramax, critics tended to obey a request to not disclose the film’s surprise scene in which it is revealed that “Dil” is in fact a man. Jaye Davidson was a surprise nomination in the 1992 Oscar race, nominated as Best Supporting Actor. He wound up losing to Gene Hackman’s evil sheriff in “Unforgiven,” but he was the first biracial British actor to be nominated for an Oscar. His powerful role in “The Crying Game” also garnered Jaye Davidson a nomination by the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He was also voted “best newcomer” by the National Board of Review.
When he was nominated for an Academy Award in 1993 he quickly became the biggest question mark of the Oscars, not just the matter of whether the notoriously shy actor would decide to attend the show but what he'd wear if he did show up. After being modest about the event for weeks, he showed up in an aptly gender-bending ensemble: a woman's equestrian-style blazer, white shirt, riding breeches and thigh-high leather boots. Later, he pronounced himself happy to have met Jane Fonda and Richard Gere.
After filming wrapped, he returned to his fashion career until landing the role of the evil sun god Ra in the film “Stargate” in 1994, opposite Kurt Russell and James Spader. His dislike of the attention that he received after “The Crying Game” made him reluctant to take the role in “Stargate.” He didn't want to just turn the offer down so made what he expected to be an unacceptable demand of $1 million dollars. His demand was accepted and he accepted the role. He also appeared as himself in the 1996 documentary “Catwalk,” and had a small part in the 1999 film “Cousin Joey.” In 2009, he emerged from obscurity to play a role as a Nazi photographer in “The Borghilde Project.”
Jaye Davidson has reportedly retired from acting, stating that he "genuinely hated the fame" he was receiving. He has become more driven towards the fashion business now and has worked on several big photoshoots: for Steven Meisel for Italian Vogue; Michael Roberts for Joseph, and a GAP ad by celebrity photographer Annie Leibowitz. He accompanied Kate Moss to the British Fashion Awards and appeared in Paris at Valentino's jet-set party in honor of Sharon Stone, where he accompanied Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington.
On Hollywood’s treatment of Gay characters, Jaye Davidson said “It just happens that some desires go this way and some desires go that way. It's sad when people are oppressed. But it's a question of rising above it. Personally, mentally and, if you have to, physically.”
Jaye Davidson enjoys his simple and blissful life away from the focus of media and publicity. He is happily single and proud of his work as a fashion assistant in London.
(Source: Ubuntu Biography Project)
Jaye Davidson was born Alfred Amey in Riverside, California, to a Ghanaian father and English mother. Jaye has two sisters and his family moved to the United Kingdom when he was two years old. He grew up in the London suburb of Hertfordshire, England. The actor is hesitant about discussing his parents, especially his late father: "We shan't even mention him. My mother would be very annoyed," he noted in a Rolling Stone interview. Davidson did, however, emphasize his "fabulous relationship" with his businesswoman mother. “My mother's very correct and very beautiful. She's to be admired. She brought three children up and worked full time and ran a house--all on her own."
He left school early to pursue his interests in the fashion business, but first took a job at Walt Disney's London offices--inside a life-sized Pluto costume--and later became a fashion assistant with the task of buying the fabric and buttons.
His exotic and androgynous look led to his casting as “Dil” in “The Crying Game” with Forest Whitaker. Davidson, who had no acting experience, was discovered by a casting associate at a wrap party for Derek Jarman's “Edward II.” Offered an audition, he refused, later telling the New York Times, that he was inebriated and had no recollection of the exchange. Even so, the film's casting personnel, unsatisfied by the parade of transvestites seeking the part, kept after him. Though he had been working for fashion designers David and Elizabeth Emmanuel, he soon found his employers' business going under. At last Davidson relented and read for the role; his unstudied poise and integrity appealed to the producers, and he was offered the part.
Neil Jordan’s “The Crying Game” was well received by critics as well as the public and the movie was an unexpected hit. Distributed by Miramax, critics tended to obey a request to not disclose the film’s surprise scene in which it is revealed that “Dil” is in fact a man. Jaye Davidson was a surprise nomination in the 1992 Oscar race, nominated as Best Supporting Actor. He wound up losing to Gene Hackman’s evil sheriff in “Unforgiven,” but he was the first biracial British actor to be nominated for an Oscar. His powerful role in “The Crying Game” also garnered Jaye Davidson a nomination by the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor, and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He was also voted “best newcomer” by the National Board of Review.
When he was nominated for an Academy Award in 1993 he quickly became the biggest question mark of the Oscars, not just the matter of whether the notoriously shy actor would decide to attend the show but what he'd wear if he did show up. After being modest about the event for weeks, he showed up in an aptly gender-bending ensemble: a woman's equestrian-style blazer, white shirt, riding breeches and thigh-high leather boots. Later, he pronounced himself happy to have met Jane Fonda and Richard Gere.
After filming wrapped, he returned to his fashion career until landing the role of the evil sun god Ra in the film “Stargate” in 1994, opposite Kurt Russell and James Spader. His dislike of the attention that he received after “The Crying Game” made him reluctant to take the role in “Stargate.” He didn't want to just turn the offer down so made what he expected to be an unacceptable demand of $1 million dollars. His demand was accepted and he accepted the role. He also appeared as himself in the 1996 documentary “Catwalk,” and had a small part in the 1999 film “Cousin Joey.” In 2009, he emerged from obscurity to play a role as a Nazi photographer in “The Borghilde Project.”
Jaye Davidson has reportedly retired from acting, stating that he "genuinely hated the fame" he was receiving. He has become more driven towards the fashion business now and has worked on several big photoshoots: for Steven Meisel for Italian Vogue; Michael Roberts for Joseph, and a GAP ad by celebrity photographer Annie Leibowitz. He accompanied Kate Moss to the British Fashion Awards and appeared in Paris at Valentino's jet-set party in honor of Sharon Stone, where he accompanied Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington.
On Hollywood’s treatment of Gay characters, Jaye Davidson said “It just happens that some desires go this way and some desires go that way. It's sad when people are oppressed. But it's a question of rising above it. Personally, mentally and, if you have to, physically.”
Jaye Davidson enjoys his simple and blissful life away from the focus of media and publicity. He is happily single and proud of his work as a fashion assistant in London.
(Source: Ubuntu Biography Project)
Clarence Bekker (a.k.a. CB Milton): Suranimese/Dutch Singer
CB Milton, aka Clarence Bekker Milton (1968) is a Surinamese/Dutch vocalist. He moved to Amsterdam at the age of 6. He started his singing career with legendary Dutch band, Swing Soul Machine, where he was the youngest singer in 20 years.
He grew into a dance music artist called CB Milton where he achieved 10 international top 10 hits on the dance charts beginning in the 1990’s.
After years in the pop music circuit, CB found that his music no longer represented his artistic passion and decided that he had to make a drastic change. After a year-long sabbatical, during which he travelled the globe extensively, he rediscovered his passion in Barcelona: making music that comes straight from the heart. Clarence Bekker once again started to create a furor in the music world and meet new, interesting contacts, both with his solo work and as lead singer for the famous Spanish pop group 08001.
In 2008, DJ Taito Tikaro requested his talents for a collaboration. Together, they wrote the dance track Shine On Me (featuring Clarence on vocals), which rapidly became a huge hit and won the Best Dance Track of the Year award in 2009. This project also caught the eye of Mark Johnson, the initiator and driving force behind the internationally successful band Playing For Change. Johnson, truly a “Man With A Mission”, constantly travels the globe searching for the best musicians in the world to participate in a unique project that uses music to promote world peace and brotherhood.
Mark immediately recognized Clarence as the ideal person to demonstrate the expressive power of music, and Clarence seized his chance immediately. As lead singer of Playing For Change, his talents were downloaded over 20 million times worldwide and secured him one of the biggest YouTube hits in history. The huge demand for an album ensured that Songs Around The World (including vocal contributions from Bono and Bob Marley) quickly saw the light of day in the summer of 2009. The album had a dream start, entering the American Billboard 200 Album Chart at number 2, which led to a hugely successful world tour. The shows, with Clarence as front man, drew a massive audience in Canada, the US and Europe, and many of the performances for American radio and TV stations have since become legendary. The wonderful DVD Playing For Change Live was the result. It is a well-documented retrospective of the triumphant world tour, featuring guest appearances from artists such as Ziggy Marley.
In his travels with Playing For Change, Clarence came into contact with John Burk of the Concord Music Group, who immediately recognized the superb quality of Clarence’s voice. This resulted in a contract to record an album with the famous soul label Stax Records with the release scheduled for autumn 2010. Burk’s enormous belief in Clarence Bekker was clearly displayed by the unprecedentedly high calibre of producers and songwriters that were hired to work with him. For his new album, Clarence will have unlimited access to hugely established names with incredible track records such as Harvey Mason Jr. (Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears) and Motown icon Lamont Dozier (The Supremes, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye). (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXJrTLB5Ugk; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9y4Tq4LLPE; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmXrRqRdD5M)
He grew into a dance music artist called CB Milton where he achieved 10 international top 10 hits on the dance charts beginning in the 1990’s.
After years in the pop music circuit, CB found that his music no longer represented his artistic passion and decided that he had to make a drastic change. After a year-long sabbatical, during which he travelled the globe extensively, he rediscovered his passion in Barcelona: making music that comes straight from the heart. Clarence Bekker once again started to create a furor in the music world and meet new, interesting contacts, both with his solo work and as lead singer for the famous Spanish pop group 08001.
In 2008, DJ Taito Tikaro requested his talents for a collaboration. Together, they wrote the dance track Shine On Me (featuring Clarence on vocals), which rapidly became a huge hit and won the Best Dance Track of the Year award in 2009. This project also caught the eye of Mark Johnson, the initiator and driving force behind the internationally successful band Playing For Change. Johnson, truly a “Man With A Mission”, constantly travels the globe searching for the best musicians in the world to participate in a unique project that uses music to promote world peace and brotherhood.
Mark immediately recognized Clarence as the ideal person to demonstrate the expressive power of music, and Clarence seized his chance immediately. As lead singer of Playing For Change, his talents were downloaded over 20 million times worldwide and secured him one of the biggest YouTube hits in history. The huge demand for an album ensured that Songs Around The World (including vocal contributions from Bono and Bob Marley) quickly saw the light of day in the summer of 2009. The album had a dream start, entering the American Billboard 200 Album Chart at number 2, which led to a hugely successful world tour. The shows, with Clarence as front man, drew a massive audience in Canada, the US and Europe, and many of the performances for American radio and TV stations have since become legendary. The wonderful DVD Playing For Change Live was the result. It is a well-documented retrospective of the triumphant world tour, featuring guest appearances from artists such as Ziggy Marley.
In his travels with Playing For Change, Clarence came into contact with John Burk of the Concord Music Group, who immediately recognized the superb quality of Clarence’s voice. This resulted in a contract to record an album with the famous soul label Stax Records with the release scheduled for autumn 2010. Burk’s enormous belief in Clarence Bekker was clearly displayed by the unprecedentedly high calibre of producers and songwriters that were hired to work with him. For his new album, Clarence will have unlimited access to hugely established names with incredible track records such as Harvey Mason Jr. (Beyoncé, Whitney Houston, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears) and Motown icon Lamont Dozier (The Supremes, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye). (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXJrTLB5Ugk; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9y4Tq4LLPE; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmXrRqRdD5M)
Michelle Parkerson: Veteran Filmmaker
Michelle Parkerson is an award-winning independent filmmaker who been at the business of making movies for over 30 years. Her work has been shown widely in festivals and on public television including award-winning documentaries, A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (1995); Stormé: The Lady of the Jewel Box (her exploration of the life and career of an early drag king) (1987); But Then, She's Betty Carter (a portrait of legendary jazz vocalist Betty Carter) (1980); Gotta Make this Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock (a profile the a capella activist group, Sweet Honey in the Rock) and Sojourn (1973).
Ms. Parkerson has received grants from the Independent Television Service, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the American Film Institute as well as a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. Her work has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and Gotta Make this Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock was nominated for a Local Emmy in the category of Public Affairs Documentary. She was awarded the Prix du Public at the Festival International de Creteil Films de Femmes and the Audience and Best Biography Awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Michelle Parkerson has worked as a visiting professor at Northwestern University and and the University of Delaware, an assistant professor in Film & Media Arts at Temple University and as a lecturer at Howard University and the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.
She has also given lectures at Yale University, the National Film Board of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Flaherty Film Seminar, Harvard University, and the National Black Arts Festival. She currently heads up her own DC-based production company, Eye of the Storm Productions. She is currently in development with her first feature screenplay, Loving Eunice, a coming-of-age story sparked by lesbian love during the Harlem Renaissance. ~ “What we do with our lives, our bodies, our money and time, how we treat each other on a daily basis are the ultimate political acts.” ~ Michelle Parkerson
Ms. Parkerson has received grants from the Independent Television Service, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the American Film Institute as well as a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. Her work has premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and Gotta Make this Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock was nominated for a Local Emmy in the category of Public Affairs Documentary. She was awarded the Prix du Public at the Festival International de Creteil Films de Femmes and the Audience and Best Biography Awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Michelle Parkerson has worked as a visiting professor at Northwestern University and and the University of Delaware, an assistant professor in Film & Media Arts at Temple University and as a lecturer at Howard University and the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.
She has also given lectures at Yale University, the National Film Board of Canada, the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Flaherty Film Seminar, Harvard University, and the National Black Arts Festival. She currently heads up her own DC-based production company, Eye of the Storm Productions. She is currently in development with her first feature screenplay, Loving Eunice, a coming-of-age story sparked by lesbian love during the Harlem Renaissance. ~ “What we do with our lives, our bodies, our money and time, how we treat each other on a daily basis are the ultimate political acts.” ~ Michelle Parkerson
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera: Ugandan Human Rights Activist
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera (known also as Jacqueline Kasha) is a Ugandan LGBT rights activist. She is the founder and executive director of an LGBT rights organization called Freedom & Roam Uganda (FARUG), and is the 2011 recipient of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.
She has publicly campaigned for an end to homophobia in Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal. In 2010, Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone published the photographs and names of people it claimed to be gay, under the headline "Hang Them". The names and photographs included those of Nabagesera and her colleague David Kato. The pair eventually sued the tabloid, and in doing so set a benchmark for human rights in Uganda. Nabagesera explains the precedence as an attempt to protect “privacy and the safety we all have against incitements to violence.”
Kato was later killed following the legal battle with the publication. Nabagasera has continued the fight for gay rights in Uganda. Under the auspice of FARUG, she has fought to decriminalize homosexuality in Uganda by circumventing the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill; a bill which mandates stiff sentences ranging from prison sentences to the death penalty. Furthermore the bill mandates that citizens who do not expose gay and lesbians to the authorities, face up to 3 years in jail.
In 2010, Nabagesera opened the only Ugandan bar for LGBT people; named Sappho Islands, the bar was situated in a suburb of Kampala. It closed in 2011.
In May 2011, it was announced that Nabagesera would be awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. She received the award in Geneva on 13 October 2011, she is the first gay rights activist to do so. According to Michelle Kagari of Amnesty International, the award "recognises [Nabagesera's] tremendous courage in the face of discrimination and violence against LGBT people in Uganda. Her passion to promote equality and her tireless work to end a despicable climate of fear is an inspiration to LGBT activists the world over ..."
She has publicly campaigned for an end to homophobia in Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal. In 2010, Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone published the photographs and names of people it claimed to be gay, under the headline "Hang Them". The names and photographs included those of Nabagesera and her colleague David Kato. The pair eventually sued the tabloid, and in doing so set a benchmark for human rights in Uganda. Nabagesera explains the precedence as an attempt to protect “privacy and the safety we all have against incitements to violence.”
Kato was later killed following the legal battle with the publication. Nabagasera has continued the fight for gay rights in Uganda. Under the auspice of FARUG, she has fought to decriminalize homosexuality in Uganda by circumventing the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill; a bill which mandates stiff sentences ranging from prison sentences to the death penalty. Furthermore the bill mandates that citizens who do not expose gay and lesbians to the authorities, face up to 3 years in jail.
In 2010, Nabagesera opened the only Ugandan bar for LGBT people; named Sappho Islands, the bar was situated in a suburb of Kampala. It closed in 2011.
In May 2011, it was announced that Nabagesera would be awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. She received the award in Geneva on 13 October 2011, she is the first gay rights activist to do so. According to Michelle Kagari of Amnesty International, the award "recognises [Nabagesera's] tremendous courage in the face of discrimination and violence against LGBT people in Uganda. Her passion to promote equality and her tireless work to end a despicable climate of fear is an inspiration to LGBT activists the world over ..."
Ellis Haizlip: TV, Stage & Concert Producer, Impresario; Host of ‘Soul’, the First Nationally Televised Black Cultural and Arts Show
Before Oprah, Before Arsenio Hall there was Ellis Haizlip... ‘Haizlip (1930-1991) was a black gay man in a pre-gay liberation moment–the Stonewall riots that would catalyze the gay and lesbian liberation movement would not occur until summer 1969–and thus not an obvious choice to host a show as central to a Black Arts project as Soul!. Needless to say, Haizlip never came “out” as a homosexual on television; not only would it not have been his style, but such a move would have been fatal to the show. Yet neither did he shy away from “gay” issues. When Farrakhan appeared on Soul!, Haizlip boldly asked him whether the Nation of Islam welcomed black gays and lesbians, and reminded Farrakhan that many black people had experienced conversion to the Nation in prison. Higher-ups at Channel 13 tolerated Haizlip’s visibility on the show, but only barely; according to many people who worked on Soul!, station executives were uneasy with Haizlip’s presence, and worried that a gay man wasn’t an appropriate or fitting on-camera embodiment of black masculinity.’
It’s 1973. An impressively-dressed Ashford & Simpson launch into “Keep It Comin’,” a radiant soul song about the sustaining power of love. As she sings, Simpson raises her arm above her head, the gesture simultaneously a nod to the rhythm and a revolutionary salute. Both she and Ashford are beaming. As the camera pans back from the singers, it becomes apparent that so, too, is the audience. Heads keep time, feet tap gently; the room is softly alive and buzzing, the massed bodies a single unit, riding the song’s unifying and sustaining groove. “Keep it comin. Keep it comin.’”
The warmth and celebratory air of the “Ashford and Simpson” episode was a hallmark of Soul!. From its September 1968 debut to the final episodes in 1973, Soul! provided a stage for a breathtaking array of black cultural and political luminaries, including many performers who had never before appeared on TV. It did so, moreover, in a variety-show format that mixed “high” culture with “low,” well-known names like Sidney Poitier with (then) up-and-coming figures like Stevie Wonder and poet Nikki Giovanni. Most importantly, Soul! was unapologetic about aiming its diverse and self-critical weekly affirmation of black culture and politics to African American viewers, a group that had previously not had the pleasure of seeing itself widely, or truthfully, represented on television.
Soul! was the brainchild of Ellis Haizlip, the first black producer at WNET (then WNDT), who joined the station in the mid-60s. Haizlip was approached by Christopher Lukas, the station’s white director of cultural programming, with the idea of launching an arts program for black audiences. Haizlip developed the notion of a program that would use the variety-show format (familiar from commercial fare such as The Ed Sullivan Show) to display the breadth and variety of black culture. Soul!’s mission would be not merely to entertain African American viewers, but to challenge them to ponder the possible meanings of black culture and black community at a time when African Americans were driving American social transformation.
Initial funding for Soul! came from a combination of public and private sources, including a start-up grant from the Ford Foundation. With money in place, Haizlip pulled together a creative team of camera operators, set designers, and producers, the majority African Americans. (As a ‘first’ himself, Haizlip never forgot the entrenched discrimination he had experienced working in New York theater and television.) Alice Hille, Soul!’s first associate producer, and one of the first black women to hold such a position, became Haizlip’s close collaborator and, through her connections to Harlem’s Apollo Theater, his link to the rhythm-and-blues world.
Soul! bore the stamp of Haizlip’s visionary leadership, impeccable taste, and skill as a social connector. A product of segregated Washington DC, Haizlip had witnessed contralto Marian Anderson’s legendary 1939 concert on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial. For him, opera singers, funk musicians, lyrical poets, and political revolutionaries were equal participants in the black cultural project. Haizlip’s philosophy was “it’s all our culture,” recalls actor Anna Maria Horsford, who worked as an associate producer at Soul! “It was a celebration. Look what we’ve produced in spite of.”
Perhaps more than any other television show before–or since–Soul! insisted on representing the heterogeneity of black culture. It embraced cultural nationalists, Muslims, and feminists–occasionally on the same show. It flouted the conventional wisdom that ballet dancers and blues singers could not share a stage, let alone an audience. In addition to championing emerging acts, such as Ashford and Simpson(who appeared on the show before they even had their first LP out), Soul! embraced radical and challenging improvisatory music from multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, jazz drummer Max Roach, and the genre-defying Last Poets.
Soul! also gave artists a chance to go beyond their usual roles (on Soul!, singers might conduct interviews), and relished the unexpected juxtaposition. Among the most intriguing Soul! pairings: Bill Withers, the hit-making singer-songwriter, with poet Mae Jackson; Jesse Jackson (then best known for his work with PUSH) with former Raelette (Ray Charles’ backup singer) Merry Clayton; Toni Morrison, recent author of The Bluest Eye, with Junior Walker and His All-Stars; Louis Farrakhan with musicians Mongo Santamaria and the Delfonics; Jerry Butler with Muhammad Ali. (See episode list)
Designed by Chris Thee in its first season, the set of Soul! sent a powerful message. It “imagined the dawn of a new world—fiery orange sunbursts were projected on electric blue backdrops,” according to cultural critic Lisa Jones. “Abstract sculpture served as scenery. Interviews were shot from unexpected angles and the editing style was up-to-date psychedelic—lots of dissolves and superimpositions.”
Unlike programs such as The Tonight Show, Soul! was “taped as live,” which allowed its camera operators to capture the un-teleprompted reactions of a modest studio audience made of local New Yorkers. Indeed, in making the audience part of the spectacle, Haizlip brought to television the aesthetic principles he had imbibed in the churches of his youth, and he was able to represent black music as a conversation between musicians and audiences. As Haizlip explained, the goal was for the audience to appear “in relationship to a performance that [they are] enjoying as opposed to a performance that is being presented for [them].” In this way, a viewer might “catch the flavor of people interreacting. Some sort of exchange was going on.”
In addition to working behind the scenes, Haizlip put himself on camera, appearing as a frequent host and interviewer. Always sharply-dressed, sporting a mid-length Afro and “serious” glasses, he crafted an unusual, unassuming on-stage persona. He conducted interviews with intense interest, pushing conversations as far as they could go, all while never hogging the microphone. This laid-back style attracted notable, reticent figures: activist (and former SNCC leader) Stokely Carmichael, the writer Chester Himes, and black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan all accepted Haizlip’s invitation to appear on the show.
Haizlip was a black gay man in a pre-gay liberation moment–the Stonewall riots that would catalyze the gay and lesbian liberation movement would not occur until summer 1969–and thus not an obvious choice to host a show as central to a Black Arts project as Soul!. Needless to say, Haizlip never came “out” as a homosexual on television; not only would it not have been his style, but such a move would have been fatal to the show. Yet neither did he shy away from “gay” issues. When Farrakhan appeared on Soul!, Haizlip boldly asked him whether the Nation of Islam welcomed black gays and lesbians, and reminded Farrakhan that many black people had experienced conversion to the Nation in prison. Higher-ups at Channel 13 tolerated Haizlip’s visibility on the show, but only barely; according to many people who worked on Soul!, station executives were uneasy with Haizlip’s presence, and worried that a gay man wasn’t an appropriate or fitting on-camera embodiment of black masculinity.
For reasons divorced from Haizlip’s sexuality, Soul! ran out of funding before he could be replaced. The reason wasn’t popularity. From the beginning, critical reviews of the show had been strong, and Soul! had been quick to develop a following, first locally in New York, then nationally when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting picked the show up for syndication. “I feel this show is a part of me and represents what we the black people stand for—PROGRESS!”, wrote one viewer from Fort Tilden, New York.
As the 1960s gave way to the ’70s, Haizlip and others at Soul! came under increasing pressure to tamp down the show’s message of black pride. From the beginning, Soul! had to fight for its survival. For a time after the first season ended in 1969, Soul! aired in repeats while Christopher Lukas courted Mobil Oil Corporation. (The corporation was on the verge of giving the station money for Soul! until it decided to fund a new show calledMasterpiece Theatre). In 1970, with viewers pleading for the show to stay on the air, a three-year, $3.5 million grant from the Ford Foundation saved Soul!.
But the January 1969 transfer of presidential power from Lyndon Johnson–whose administration had created PBS–to Richard Nixon meant a new set of priorities for public broadcasting. By the end of 1972, CPB officials had deemed black shows such as Soul! hindrances to racial progress. Haizlip was given a choice: integrate Soul! or see it cancelled. The last episode aired on March 7, 1973.
Soul! did not go away without a fight. Via an on-air appeal to viewers, the show gathered 100,000 letters and telegrams of support. Haizlip was frank in his public pronouncements in the press: The cancellation of Soul! is “part of a policy to destroy all black programming on the network,” he told the Washington Post. “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting … preferred a sociological production rather than a cultural one which is really no reason for canceling Soul!” he informed Jet in 1973. Haizlip ended his run at WNET dispirited about public television, which he deemed “limited and limiting.” (That didn’t stop him from returning: five years later he produced the WNET program “Watch Your Mouth“.)
Even though it only aired for five seasons, Soul! never lacked for popular support. Ironically, perhaps, the defunding of Soul! made room for the commercial black television shows of the 1970s. The existence of those shows and of more black tv characters would generate new questions regarding the relationship between visibility and black “progress”.
Was all television programming created equal? Haizlip, who died in 1991, would probably have said no. Today, the program he shepherded from idea to national hit remains one of the most successful and culturally significant black-produced television shows in U.S. history. Soul! had a depth of discourse and diversity of content that still has had no equal on the small screen. (Note: currently there is a documentary being filmed on Mr. Haizlip his work: http://www.mrsoulmovie.com/ )
(Source: WNET, New York http://www.thirteen.org/broadcastingwhileblack/uncategorized/the-history-of-soul-and-influence-of-host-ellis-haizlip/)
It’s 1973. An impressively-dressed Ashford & Simpson launch into “Keep It Comin’,” a radiant soul song about the sustaining power of love. As she sings, Simpson raises her arm above her head, the gesture simultaneously a nod to the rhythm and a revolutionary salute. Both she and Ashford are beaming. As the camera pans back from the singers, it becomes apparent that so, too, is the audience. Heads keep time, feet tap gently; the room is softly alive and buzzing, the massed bodies a single unit, riding the song’s unifying and sustaining groove. “Keep it comin. Keep it comin.’”
The warmth and celebratory air of the “Ashford and Simpson” episode was a hallmark of Soul!. From its September 1968 debut to the final episodes in 1973, Soul! provided a stage for a breathtaking array of black cultural and political luminaries, including many performers who had never before appeared on TV. It did so, moreover, in a variety-show format that mixed “high” culture with “low,” well-known names like Sidney Poitier with (then) up-and-coming figures like Stevie Wonder and poet Nikki Giovanni. Most importantly, Soul! was unapologetic about aiming its diverse and self-critical weekly affirmation of black culture and politics to African American viewers, a group that had previously not had the pleasure of seeing itself widely, or truthfully, represented on television.
Soul! was the brainchild of Ellis Haizlip, the first black producer at WNET (then WNDT), who joined the station in the mid-60s. Haizlip was approached by Christopher Lukas, the station’s white director of cultural programming, with the idea of launching an arts program for black audiences. Haizlip developed the notion of a program that would use the variety-show format (familiar from commercial fare such as The Ed Sullivan Show) to display the breadth and variety of black culture. Soul!’s mission would be not merely to entertain African American viewers, but to challenge them to ponder the possible meanings of black culture and black community at a time when African Americans were driving American social transformation.
Initial funding for Soul! came from a combination of public and private sources, including a start-up grant from the Ford Foundation. With money in place, Haizlip pulled together a creative team of camera operators, set designers, and producers, the majority African Americans. (As a ‘first’ himself, Haizlip never forgot the entrenched discrimination he had experienced working in New York theater and television.) Alice Hille, Soul!’s first associate producer, and one of the first black women to hold such a position, became Haizlip’s close collaborator and, through her connections to Harlem’s Apollo Theater, his link to the rhythm-and-blues world.
Soul! bore the stamp of Haizlip’s visionary leadership, impeccable taste, and skill as a social connector. A product of segregated Washington DC, Haizlip had witnessed contralto Marian Anderson’s legendary 1939 concert on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial. For him, opera singers, funk musicians, lyrical poets, and political revolutionaries were equal participants in the black cultural project. Haizlip’s philosophy was “it’s all our culture,” recalls actor Anna Maria Horsford, who worked as an associate producer at Soul! “It was a celebration. Look what we’ve produced in spite of.”
Perhaps more than any other television show before–or since–Soul! insisted on representing the heterogeneity of black culture. It embraced cultural nationalists, Muslims, and feminists–occasionally on the same show. It flouted the conventional wisdom that ballet dancers and blues singers could not share a stage, let alone an audience. In addition to championing emerging acts, such as Ashford and Simpson(who appeared on the show before they even had their first LP out), Soul! embraced radical and challenging improvisatory music from multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, jazz drummer Max Roach, and the genre-defying Last Poets.
Soul! also gave artists a chance to go beyond their usual roles (on Soul!, singers might conduct interviews), and relished the unexpected juxtaposition. Among the most intriguing Soul! pairings: Bill Withers, the hit-making singer-songwriter, with poet Mae Jackson; Jesse Jackson (then best known for his work with PUSH) with former Raelette (Ray Charles’ backup singer) Merry Clayton; Toni Morrison, recent author of The Bluest Eye, with Junior Walker and His All-Stars; Louis Farrakhan with musicians Mongo Santamaria and the Delfonics; Jerry Butler with Muhammad Ali. (See episode list)
Designed by Chris Thee in its first season, the set of Soul! sent a powerful message. It “imagined the dawn of a new world—fiery orange sunbursts were projected on electric blue backdrops,” according to cultural critic Lisa Jones. “Abstract sculpture served as scenery. Interviews were shot from unexpected angles and the editing style was up-to-date psychedelic—lots of dissolves and superimpositions.”
Unlike programs such as The Tonight Show, Soul! was “taped as live,” which allowed its camera operators to capture the un-teleprompted reactions of a modest studio audience made of local New Yorkers. Indeed, in making the audience part of the spectacle, Haizlip brought to television the aesthetic principles he had imbibed in the churches of his youth, and he was able to represent black music as a conversation between musicians and audiences. As Haizlip explained, the goal was for the audience to appear “in relationship to a performance that [they are] enjoying as opposed to a performance that is being presented for [them].” In this way, a viewer might “catch the flavor of people interreacting. Some sort of exchange was going on.”
In addition to working behind the scenes, Haizlip put himself on camera, appearing as a frequent host and interviewer. Always sharply-dressed, sporting a mid-length Afro and “serious” glasses, he crafted an unusual, unassuming on-stage persona. He conducted interviews with intense interest, pushing conversations as far as they could go, all while never hogging the microphone. This laid-back style attracted notable, reticent figures: activist (and former SNCC leader) Stokely Carmichael, the writer Chester Himes, and black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan all accepted Haizlip’s invitation to appear on the show.
Haizlip was a black gay man in a pre-gay liberation moment–the Stonewall riots that would catalyze the gay and lesbian liberation movement would not occur until summer 1969–and thus not an obvious choice to host a show as central to a Black Arts project as Soul!. Needless to say, Haizlip never came “out” as a homosexual on television; not only would it not have been his style, but such a move would have been fatal to the show. Yet neither did he shy away from “gay” issues. When Farrakhan appeared on Soul!, Haizlip boldly asked him whether the Nation of Islam welcomed black gays and lesbians, and reminded Farrakhan that many black people had experienced conversion to the Nation in prison. Higher-ups at Channel 13 tolerated Haizlip’s visibility on the show, but only barely; according to many people who worked on Soul!, station executives were uneasy with Haizlip’s presence, and worried that a gay man wasn’t an appropriate or fitting on-camera embodiment of black masculinity.
For reasons divorced from Haizlip’s sexuality, Soul! ran out of funding before he could be replaced. The reason wasn’t popularity. From the beginning, critical reviews of the show had been strong, and Soul! had been quick to develop a following, first locally in New York, then nationally when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting picked the show up for syndication. “I feel this show is a part of me and represents what we the black people stand for—PROGRESS!”, wrote one viewer from Fort Tilden, New York.
As the 1960s gave way to the ’70s, Haizlip and others at Soul! came under increasing pressure to tamp down the show’s message of black pride. From the beginning, Soul! had to fight for its survival. For a time after the first season ended in 1969, Soul! aired in repeats while Christopher Lukas courted Mobil Oil Corporation. (The corporation was on the verge of giving the station money for Soul! until it decided to fund a new show calledMasterpiece Theatre). In 1970, with viewers pleading for the show to stay on the air, a three-year, $3.5 million grant from the Ford Foundation saved Soul!.
But the January 1969 transfer of presidential power from Lyndon Johnson–whose administration had created PBS–to Richard Nixon meant a new set of priorities for public broadcasting. By the end of 1972, CPB officials had deemed black shows such as Soul! hindrances to racial progress. Haizlip was given a choice: integrate Soul! or see it cancelled. The last episode aired on March 7, 1973.
Soul! did not go away without a fight. Via an on-air appeal to viewers, the show gathered 100,000 letters and telegrams of support. Haizlip was frank in his public pronouncements in the press: The cancellation of Soul! is “part of a policy to destroy all black programming on the network,” he told the Washington Post. “The Corporation for Public Broadcasting … preferred a sociological production rather than a cultural one which is really no reason for canceling Soul!” he informed Jet in 1973. Haizlip ended his run at WNET dispirited about public television, which he deemed “limited and limiting.” (That didn’t stop him from returning: five years later he produced the WNET program “Watch Your Mouth“.)
Even though it only aired for five seasons, Soul! never lacked for popular support. Ironically, perhaps, the defunding of Soul! made room for the commercial black television shows of the 1970s. The existence of those shows and of more black tv characters would generate new questions regarding the relationship between visibility and black “progress”.
Was all television programming created equal? Haizlip, who died in 1991, would probably have said no. Today, the program he shepherded from idea to national hit remains one of the most successful and culturally significant black-produced television shows in U.S. history. Soul! had a depth of discourse and diversity of content that still has had no equal on the small screen. (Note: currently there is a documentary being filmed on Mr. Haizlip his work: http://www.mrsoulmovie.com/ )
(Source: WNET, New York http://www.thirteen.org/broadcastingwhileblack/uncategorized/the-history-of-soul-and-influence-of-host-ellis-haizlip/)
Gina Breedlove: Singer; Broadway Actress
Gina Louise Breedlove is an American singer and stage actress. In 1997, she originated the role of Sarabi in the Broadway production of The Lion King. She previously appeared in the 1987 Broadway musical Sophisticated Ladies, and contributed a song to the soundtrack of the 1997 Shaquille O’Neal film Steel.
Gina began performing at age fifteen, singing backup vocals for another singer and Broadway actress, Phylis Hyman. Her touring life began when she joined Harry Belafonte’ for four International tours as his featured vocalist. Subsequently, Gina has performed as featured vocalist with many artists, including Ronny Jordan, Craig Harris, Sekou Sundiata, Ani Difranco,
and Toshi Reagan. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZuRbAK0pmA; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIhqUg8LPeY
Gina began performing at age fifteen, singing backup vocals for another singer and Broadway actress, Phylis Hyman. Her touring life began when she joined Harry Belafonte’ for four International tours as his featured vocalist. Subsequently, Gina has performed as featured vocalist with many artists, including Ronny Jordan, Craig Harris, Sekou Sundiata, Ani Difranco,
and Toshi Reagan. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZuRbAK0pmA; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIhqUg8LPeY
André Leon Talley: Former American editor-at-large for Vogue Magazine, Couture Fashion Maven
André Leon Talley (born October 16, 1949) is the former American editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, listed as Contributing Editor in the April 2010 masthead. Talley has been a front-row regular at fashion shows in New York, Paris, London and Milan for more than 25 years. He uses his influence to promote young fashion designers and mentors young talent in other fields.
His most famous pairings of late have been with designers Tracy Reese, Rachel Roy, and singer/actress Jennifer Hudson. In 2007, he was ranked 45th in Out magazine's "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America". Talley has an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Savannah College of Art and Design, where he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees. As of March 2010, Talley was serving on the judging panel for America's Next Top Model.
Talley was born in the community of Hayti, Durham, North Carolina, as the son of Alma Ruth Davis and William C. Talley. His parents left him with his grandmother, Bennie Davis, who raised him and, he claims, gave him an "understanding of luxury." After graduating from North Carolina Central University, Talley received his master's degree in French from Brown University. While at Brown, Talley befriended students from the nearby Rhode Island School of Design and often went on weekend trips to New York City. He is associated with former American Vogue editor-in-chief and Costume Institute consultant, Diana Vreeland. His first job was as an assistant for Andy Warhol for $50 a week.
In 2008, Talley advised the future First Family on fashion, and introduced Michelle Obama to the Taiwanese Canadian designer Jason Wu, from whom she bought several dresses including her inaugural gown.
He had a cameo appearance in the 2008 movie Sex and the City as a Vogue executive. He also appears in the movie-documentary about the Italian couturier Valentino Garavani,Valentino: The Last Emperor and in the documentary The September Issue. In October 2011, the André Leon Talley Gallery opened in the new Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art. He also made a cameo in Mariah Carey's "Say something" video.
In the mid 2000s, an intervention was initiated by Anna Wintour, to get Talley to lose weight. As seen on The Oprah Winfrey Show, he eventually lost a great deal of weight, and was eating more healthily.
Talley wrote an autobiography entitled A.L.T.: A Memoir, published in 2003.
He also authored A.L.T. 365+, an art monograph designed by art director Sam Shahid, published in 2005. 365 features photos and captions from one year in the life of André Leon Talley.
He also co-wrote MegaStar with Richard Bernstein, a book with an introduction from Paloma Picasso, which has portraits of famous stars.
His most famous pairings of late have been with designers Tracy Reese, Rachel Roy, and singer/actress Jennifer Hudson. In 2007, he was ranked 45th in Out magazine's "50 Most Powerful Gay Men and Women in America". Talley has an honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Savannah College of Art and Design, where he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees. As of March 2010, Talley was serving on the judging panel for America's Next Top Model.
Talley was born in the community of Hayti, Durham, North Carolina, as the son of Alma Ruth Davis and William C. Talley. His parents left him with his grandmother, Bennie Davis, who raised him and, he claims, gave him an "understanding of luxury." After graduating from North Carolina Central University, Talley received his master's degree in French from Brown University. While at Brown, Talley befriended students from the nearby Rhode Island School of Design and often went on weekend trips to New York City. He is associated with former American Vogue editor-in-chief and Costume Institute consultant, Diana Vreeland. His first job was as an assistant for Andy Warhol for $50 a week.
In 2008, Talley advised the future First Family on fashion, and introduced Michelle Obama to the Taiwanese Canadian designer Jason Wu, from whom she bought several dresses including her inaugural gown.
He had a cameo appearance in the 2008 movie Sex and the City as a Vogue executive. He also appears in the movie-documentary about the Italian couturier Valentino Garavani,Valentino: The Last Emperor and in the documentary The September Issue. In October 2011, the André Leon Talley Gallery opened in the new Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art. He also made a cameo in Mariah Carey's "Say something" video.
In the mid 2000s, an intervention was initiated by Anna Wintour, to get Talley to lose weight. As seen on The Oprah Winfrey Show, he eventually lost a great deal of weight, and was eating more healthily.
Talley wrote an autobiography entitled A.L.T.: A Memoir, published in 2003.
He also authored A.L.T. 365+, an art monograph designed by art director Sam Shahid, published in 2005. 365 features photos and captions from one year in the life of André Leon Talley.
He also co-wrote MegaStar with Richard Bernstein, a book with an introduction from Paloma Picasso, which has portraits of famous stars.
Staceyann Chin: Spoken-Word Artist, Author
A proud Jamaican national, Staceyann’s voice was featured on "The Oprah Show," where she spoke candidly about her experiences of growing up on the island and the dire consequences of her coming out there.
Widely known as co-writer and original performer in the Tony-Award-winning Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, her poetry has seen the rousing cheers of the Nuyorican Poets' Café, one-woman shows off-Broadway and writing workshops in Sweden, South Africa and Australia. Chin’s three one-woman shows, "Hands Afire," "Unspeakable Things" and "Border/Clash" all opened to rave reviews at the Culture Project in New York City.
Chin is the recipient of the 2007 Power of the Voice Award from The Human Rights Campaign, the 2008 Safe Haven Award from Immigration Equality, the 2008 Honors from the Lesbian AIDS Project, and the 2009 New York State Senate Award. She unapologetically identifies as Caribbean and black, Asian and lesbian, woman and resident of New York City.
Be it on “60 Minutes” or in The New York Times, Staceyann has a reputation for telling it exactly like it is. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOmyebFVV8; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t-ajU2defo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU9vhgRIuDs
Widely known as co-writer and original performer in the Tony-Award-winning Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, her poetry has seen the rousing cheers of the Nuyorican Poets' Café, one-woman shows off-Broadway and writing workshops in Sweden, South Africa and Australia. Chin’s three one-woman shows, "Hands Afire," "Unspeakable Things" and "Border/Clash" all opened to rave reviews at the Culture Project in New York City.
Chin is the recipient of the 2007 Power of the Voice Award from The Human Rights Campaign, the 2008 Safe Haven Award from Immigration Equality, the 2008 Honors from the Lesbian AIDS Project, and the 2009 New York State Senate Award. She unapologetically identifies as Caribbean and black, Asian and lesbian, woman and resident of New York City.
Be it on “60 Minutes” or in The New York Times, Staceyann has a reputation for telling it exactly like it is. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQOmyebFVV8; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t-ajU2defo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU9vhgRIuDs
Bry’Nt : Rapper
Bry’Nt grew up in Hartford, CT. He had a strong interest in music for as long as he can remember and started a rap group called 3rd Degree. Although he was extremely expressive with his music, Bry’Nt says he wasn’t comfortable with his sexuality at that point in his life. His sexuality remained a secret from his family (especially his mother), his friends, or the other members of 3rd Degree, his rap group. It was at age 15 that Bry’Nt came to accept h_is sexuality, and this is where his music took a turn. Feeling that the images of the homosexual lifestyle in Hip-Hop music were poor, he wanted to portray a realistic one. With that he felt he needed to make music that was more “rainbow-friendly,” (a pun he developed to describe his style of music). Yet, Bry’Nt feels that a rapper’s sexuality shouldn’t define them, or put them in a separate category musically.
_
Bry’Nt began his solo career with the release of his controversial mixtapes “Porn Star” (2008) and “Porn Star II: The Director’s Cut” (2009). He has also had the privilege to perform nationally and internationally opening for artists such as DJ Class, Fantasia, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Teairra Mari, Tweet, and RuPaul. Although Bry'Nt has also been hard at work in fashion and film as a model and actor, it is his efforts in music that have put the OUTMusic Award nominee at the forefront of an underground movement known as “Out Hip-Hop” consisting of open LGBTQ artists. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFyJdMwoeFQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZgfMskqRQU; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjFB1E0TUkM
_
Bry’Nt began his solo career with the release of his controversial mixtapes “Porn Star” (2008) and “Porn Star II: The Director’s Cut” (2009). He has also had the privilege to perform nationally and internationally opening for artists such as DJ Class, Fantasia, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Teairra Mari, Tweet, and RuPaul. Although Bry'Nt has also been hard at work in fashion and film as a model and actor, it is his efforts in music that have put the OUTMusic Award nominee at the forefront of an underground movement known as “Out Hip-Hop” consisting of open LGBTQ artists. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFyJdMwoeFQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZgfMskqRQU; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjFB1E0TUkM
Thomas Glave: Author, Educator
Thomas Glave was born in the Bronx and grew up there and in Kingston, Jamaica. A two-time New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, he is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Brown University. His work has earned many honors, including the Lambda Literary Award in 2005, an O. Henry Prize (he is the second gay African American writer, after James Baldwin, to win this award), a Fine Arts Center in Provincetown Fellowship, and a Fulbright fellowship to Jamaica. While there, he worked on issues of social justice, and helped found the Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays."…….. Thomas Glave is an American author of Jamaican descent who has published widely and won numerous awards. He is also a university professor.
Born to Jamaican parents in the Bronx, Glave grew up there and in Kingston, Jamaica. Glave is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Brown University. He is a [full] professor of English at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he teaches creative writing and courses on Caribbean, African-American, black British, postcolonial, and queer literatures, among other topics.
A two-time New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, Glave's early short story, "The Final Inning," originally published in The Kenyon Review, won an O. Henry Award in 1997 while Glave was still a graduate student at Brown University. With this award, Glave became the second and only gay African American writer, after James Baldwin, to have won an O. Henry Award. "The Final Inning" appears in Glave's first fiction collection, Whose Song? and Other Stories, published by City Lights in 2000. Glave's essay collection Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent won the Lambda Literary Award in 2005. Glave earned a second Lambda Literary Award in 2009 for his groundbreaking anthology, Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (Duke University Press, 2008).
In addition to these honors, Glave has also earned a Fine Arts Center in Provincetown Fellowship (1995-96) and a Fulbright Fellowship to Jamaica (1998-99). While in Jamaica that year, he worked on issues of social justice, and helped found the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG). In 2008 he was invited to MIT to teach as Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. He is presently a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.
Thomas Glave is the author of Whose Song? and Other Stories (City Lights, 2000), The Torturer's Wife (City Lights, 2008), the essay collection Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (University of Minnesota Press, 2005), and is editor of the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (Duke University Press, 2008).
Whose Song? garnered considerable praise upon its publication, drawing admiration from writers like Nadine Gordimer, Gloria Naylor, Clarence Major, and stellar reviews in publications like The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Hartford Courant, the Toronto Globe and Mail, and many others.
Born to Jamaican parents in the Bronx, Glave grew up there and in Kingston, Jamaica. Glave is a graduate of Bowdoin College and Brown University. He is a [full] professor of English at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he teaches creative writing and courses on Caribbean, African-American, black British, postcolonial, and queer literatures, among other topics.
A two-time New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, Glave's early short story, "The Final Inning," originally published in The Kenyon Review, won an O. Henry Award in 1997 while Glave was still a graduate student at Brown University. With this award, Glave became the second and only gay African American writer, after James Baldwin, to have won an O. Henry Award. "The Final Inning" appears in Glave's first fiction collection, Whose Song? and Other Stories, published by City Lights in 2000. Glave's essay collection Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent won the Lambda Literary Award in 2005. Glave earned a second Lambda Literary Award in 2009 for his groundbreaking anthology, Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (Duke University Press, 2008).
In addition to these honors, Glave has also earned a Fine Arts Center in Provincetown Fellowship (1995-96) and a Fulbright Fellowship to Jamaica (1998-99). While in Jamaica that year, he worked on issues of social justice, and helped found the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays (J-FLAG). In 2008 he was invited to MIT to teach as Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professor in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. He is presently a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.
Thomas Glave is the author of Whose Song? and Other Stories (City Lights, 2000), The Torturer's Wife (City Lights, 2008), the essay collection Words to Our Now: Imagination and Dissent (University of Minnesota Press, 2005), and is editor of the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles (Duke University Press, 2008).
Whose Song? garnered considerable praise upon its publication, drawing admiration from writers like Nadine Gordimer, Gloria Naylor, Clarence Major, and stellar reviews in publications like The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Hartford Courant, the Toronto Globe and Mail, and many others.
Simone Bell: Politician, State Rep.
Simone Bell is a community organizer and politician from Atlanta, Georgia. A Democrat, she was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in December 2009 from the state's 58th district in DeKalb and Fulton counties.
The district lies in eastern Atlanta and includes the following neighborhoods: EastAtlanta, Cabbagetown, Reynoldstown, Edgewood,Gresham Park, Grant Park, Kirkwood, Ormewood Park and Boulevard Heights.
The seat had been held by Rep. Robbin Shipp (D–Atlanta) from 2007 to 2009 but Shipp resigned in 2009 due to conflicts with her job as a Fulton County prosecutor, triggering a special election. In the election held on November 3, 2009, Bell won 24% of the vote in a five-candidate field, placing second behind attorney and fellow Democrat Asha Jackson. In the runoff, Bell defeated Jackson by 56% to 44%. She was sworn into office by Chief Justice Carol Hunstein of the Georgia Supreme Court on December 22, 2009. She ran unopposed for re-election in 2010.
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Bell came to Georgia to attend Agnes Scott College in Decatur. She works in the Southern regional office of Lambda Legal, a national non-profit legal group that focuses on LGBT and HIV issues.
Openly gay, Bell is the first African-American lesbian to serve in a U.S. state legislature; her partner is Valerie Acree. She is one of four openly LGBT members of the Georgia General Assembly, alongside Reps. Karla Drenner (D–Avondale Estates), Rashad Taylor(D–Atlanta) and Keisha Waites (D–Atlanta).
The district lies in eastern Atlanta and includes the following neighborhoods: EastAtlanta, Cabbagetown, Reynoldstown, Edgewood,Gresham Park, Grant Park, Kirkwood, Ormewood Park and Boulevard Heights.
The seat had been held by Rep. Robbin Shipp (D–Atlanta) from 2007 to 2009 but Shipp resigned in 2009 due to conflicts with her job as a Fulton County prosecutor, triggering a special election. In the election held on November 3, 2009, Bell won 24% of the vote in a five-candidate field, placing second behind attorney and fellow Democrat Asha Jackson. In the runoff, Bell defeated Jackson by 56% to 44%. She was sworn into office by Chief Justice Carol Hunstein of the Georgia Supreme Court on December 22, 2009. She ran unopposed for re-election in 2010.
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Bell came to Georgia to attend Agnes Scott College in Decatur. She works in the Southern regional office of Lambda Legal, a national non-profit legal group that focuses on LGBT and HIV issues.
Openly gay, Bell is the first African-American lesbian to serve in a U.S. state legislature; her partner is Valerie Acree. She is one of four openly LGBT members of the Georgia General Assembly, alongside Reps. Karla Drenner (D–Avondale Estates), Rashad Taylor(D–Atlanta) and Keisha Waites (D–Atlanta).
Patrik Ian Polk: Filmmaker; Writer/Director
Patrik Ian Polk (1973) is a film director, writer and producer. He attended Brandeis University in Massachusetts and received his undergraduate degree in film and theatre from the University of Southern Mississippi. He then attended graduate film school at the prestigious University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. After a brief stint as a producer's assistant on Amblin Entertainment's television series, "SeaQuest,DSV," Polk was hired as a development executive at MTV's then-new Paramount-based feature film division, MTV Films. Polk actively participated in the development of such productions as the hugely successful "Beavis and Butthead Do America" and the critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated high school dark comedy "Election."
Next, he served as Vice President of production and development at Tracey and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds' Edmonds Entertainment/e2 filmworks. During his tenure there, Polk worked on the films, "Soul Food," "Hav Plenty," and "Light It Up."
Polk made his feature film directorial debut with "Punks," an independent feature that he also wrote and produced. Often described as a male "Waiting to Exhale," "Punks" was produced by Tracey and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and had its world premiere in January 2000 at the Sundance Film Festival, as part of its prestigious American Spectrum series. The film delighted audiences, picked up many awards at festivals around the world and was released theatrically in November 2001. In New York City, the film played at the Quad to sold-out screenings and lines around the block. "Punks" was nominated for a 2002 Independent Spirit Award for Best low-budget feature.
In 2006, Patrik made his first foray into television with the original comedy-drama series "Noah's Arc". Often described as a gay male "Sex and the City", the show centers around four black gay men in Los Angeles
and was the first scripted series for the MTV/Viacom gay & lesbian themed cable network, Logo, which launched in June 2005. After its premiere, "Noah's Arc" quickly became Logo's highest rated series garnering a passionate fan base that crosses all demographics. In addition to creating and executive producing the series, Polk wrote and directed all nine of the first season's episodes.
Patrik directed a feature film version of "Noah's Arc", titled ‘Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom, which was given a limited release in October 2008, and performed well at the box office on a per-screen basis. His next feature film is "The Skinny", made it to the screen in Spring, 2012. “Blackbird”, a film based on the novel by Larry Deplechan is Patrik’s offering 2014.
Next, he served as Vice President of production and development at Tracey and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds' Edmonds Entertainment/e2 filmworks. During his tenure there, Polk worked on the films, "Soul Food," "Hav Plenty," and "Light It Up."
Polk made his feature film directorial debut with "Punks," an independent feature that he also wrote and produced. Often described as a male "Waiting to Exhale," "Punks" was produced by Tracey and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and had its world premiere in January 2000 at the Sundance Film Festival, as part of its prestigious American Spectrum series. The film delighted audiences, picked up many awards at festivals around the world and was released theatrically in November 2001. In New York City, the film played at the Quad to sold-out screenings and lines around the block. "Punks" was nominated for a 2002 Independent Spirit Award for Best low-budget feature.
In 2006, Patrik made his first foray into television with the original comedy-drama series "Noah's Arc". Often described as a gay male "Sex and the City", the show centers around four black gay men in Los Angeles
and was the first scripted series for the MTV/Viacom gay & lesbian themed cable network, Logo, which launched in June 2005. After its premiere, "Noah's Arc" quickly became Logo's highest rated series garnering a passionate fan base that crosses all demographics. In addition to creating and executive producing the series, Polk wrote and directed all nine of the first season's episodes.
Patrik directed a feature film version of "Noah's Arc", titled ‘Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom, which was given a limited release in October 2008, and performed well at the box office on a per-screen basis. His next feature film is "The Skinny", made it to the screen in Spring, 2012. “Blackbird”, a film based on the novel by Larry Deplechan is Patrik’s offering 2014.
Rashad Jamal Taylor: Politician, State Rep.
Rashad Jamal Taylor (born March 21, 1981) is a politician from Atlanta, Georgia. A Democrat, he serves in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing the City of Atlanta from the 55th House District. He was first elected in November 2008, at 27 years old, making him the youngest serving member of the General Assembly. After re-election in 2010, he was elected Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, the fourth highest ranking leadership position in the House. At 31, Taylor was the youngest member of the General Assembly leadership, House or Senate, Democrat or Republican.
Rashad Taylor was born and raised in Washington, D.C., where he attended D.C. Public Schools, graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School. Rashad was the first high school student ever selected for an internship via the Congressional Black Caucus College Internship Program; he interned in the office of Rep. John Lewis (D–Georgia) before moving to Atlanta for college. He moved to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College, where as a student, he led a living wage campaign for the school's janitors. Taylor led a two year battle that ended in a salary increase for janitors. That same year, Taylor helped found Atlanta Jobs with Justice. Taylor also worked as a Finance Assistant for US Senator Max Cleland.
He subsequently worked as a political consultant and campaign manager, managing the successful campaigns of Alisha Thomas Morgan, elected to the Georgia House in 2002, and Khaatim S. El, elected to the Atlanta Board of Education in 2003. Morgan and El were the youngest members to serve in their respective legislative bodies. From 2003 - 2006, Taylor successfully managed several successful campaigns in metro Atlanta for sheriff, Superior Court, Georgia House, Georgia Senate, city council, and county commission. In 2006, Rashad became a lobbyist and legislative coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Georgia. That year, Taylor worked with other progressive lobbyists to defeat a last minute attempt by Republicans to ban adoptions by same-sex couples. In May 2006, Rashad Taylor was named one of ten Democratic “Rising Stars” in national politics by Campaigns and Elections Magazine. In June 2007, Taylor was appointed political director of the Democratic Party of Georgia, a position he held until joining the Legislature in January 2009.
Most recently, in 2009, Rep. Taylor served as deputy campaign manager for Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s successful mayoral campaign and served on Mayor Reed’s transition team. As deputy campaign manager, Taylor oversaw the political, field, and policy/communications operations of the campaign. And in 2010, Taylor managed the successful re-election campaign of Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves. Rep. Taylor has served on the Board of Directors of NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia, the Youth Task Force, and the Joseph Whitehead YMCA. Taylor currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Kindezi School. Taylor is a 2011 graduate of LEAD Atlanta.
In 2008, state representative Mable Thomas decided against seeking re-election, choosing instead to mount an unsuccessful primary challenge to John Lewis in the 5th congressional district. Her decision created an open seat in the Georgia House, which attracted two candidates, both Democrats, one of whom was Taylor. In the primary election held on July 15, 2008, Taylor earned 62.8% of the vote and won the Democratic nomination. He faced no opposition in the general election and took office on January 12, 2009.
He ran for re-election in 2010, facing a primary challenge from Mable Thomas, his predecessor in office. In the Democratic primary election held on July 20, 2010, Taylor won 56.1%, winning by a margin of 349 votes. Once again, he won the general election unopposed.
Rep. Rashad Taylor in 2012
During his first term, Rep. Taylor served on the Education, MARTA Oversight (MARTOC), and Ways and Means Committees, powerful appointments for a freshman legislator. He was appointed Chairman of the MARTOC Subcommittee on Infrastructure and Maintenance, the only minority caucus freshman to hold a subcommittee chairmanship. Taylor was also appointed Deputy Minority Whip by the House Democratic Leader and Whip.
After re-election in 2010, Taylor was elected Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, handily defeating three other colleagues without a run-off election. Taylor was also appointed Chairman of the Atlanta-Fulton Legislative Delegation Subcommittee on Housing and Economic Development. Taylor successfully sponsored legislation for the City of Atlanta to extend its hotel/motel tax to help fund the construction of a new Georgia Dome.
On May 27, 2011, Taylor came out as a gay man following the circulation of an e-mail which accused Taylor of being gay and of using his official position to solicit sexual relationships. Taylor's accuser later admitted he had no proof to his allegations against Taylor. He is one of four openly LGBT members of the Georgia General Assembly, alongside Reps. Karla Drenner (D–Avondale Estates), Simone Bell (D–Atlanta) and Keisha Waites (D–Atlanta). Taylor is the first openly gay male to serve in the Georgia General Assembly and is only the second openly gay African American male state legislator in the United States.
Rashad Taylor was born and raised in Washington, D.C., where he attended D.C. Public Schools, graduating from Woodrow Wilson High School. Rashad was the first high school student ever selected for an internship via the Congressional Black Caucus College Internship Program; he interned in the office of Rep. John Lewis (D–Georgia) before moving to Atlanta for college. He moved to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College, where as a student, he led a living wage campaign for the school's janitors. Taylor led a two year battle that ended in a salary increase for janitors. That same year, Taylor helped found Atlanta Jobs with Justice. Taylor also worked as a Finance Assistant for US Senator Max Cleland.
He subsequently worked as a political consultant and campaign manager, managing the successful campaigns of Alisha Thomas Morgan, elected to the Georgia House in 2002, and Khaatim S. El, elected to the Atlanta Board of Education in 2003. Morgan and El were the youngest members to serve in their respective legislative bodies. From 2003 - 2006, Taylor successfully managed several successful campaigns in metro Atlanta for sheriff, Superior Court, Georgia House, Georgia Senate, city council, and county commission. In 2006, Rashad became a lobbyist and legislative coordinator for Planned Parenthood of Georgia. That year, Taylor worked with other progressive lobbyists to defeat a last minute attempt by Republicans to ban adoptions by same-sex couples. In May 2006, Rashad Taylor was named one of ten Democratic “Rising Stars” in national politics by Campaigns and Elections Magazine. In June 2007, Taylor was appointed political director of the Democratic Party of Georgia, a position he held until joining the Legislature in January 2009.
Most recently, in 2009, Rep. Taylor served as deputy campaign manager for Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s successful mayoral campaign and served on Mayor Reed’s transition team. As deputy campaign manager, Taylor oversaw the political, field, and policy/communications operations of the campaign. And in 2010, Taylor managed the successful re-election campaign of Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves. Rep. Taylor has served on the Board of Directors of NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia, the Youth Task Force, and the Joseph Whitehead YMCA. Taylor currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Kindezi School. Taylor is a 2011 graduate of LEAD Atlanta.
In 2008, state representative Mable Thomas decided against seeking re-election, choosing instead to mount an unsuccessful primary challenge to John Lewis in the 5th congressional district. Her decision created an open seat in the Georgia House, which attracted two candidates, both Democrats, one of whom was Taylor. In the primary election held on July 15, 2008, Taylor earned 62.8% of the vote and won the Democratic nomination. He faced no opposition in the general election and took office on January 12, 2009.
He ran for re-election in 2010, facing a primary challenge from Mable Thomas, his predecessor in office. In the Democratic primary election held on July 20, 2010, Taylor won 56.1%, winning by a margin of 349 votes. Once again, he won the general election unopposed.
Rep. Rashad Taylor in 2012
During his first term, Rep. Taylor served on the Education, MARTA Oversight (MARTOC), and Ways and Means Committees, powerful appointments for a freshman legislator. He was appointed Chairman of the MARTOC Subcommittee on Infrastructure and Maintenance, the only minority caucus freshman to hold a subcommittee chairmanship. Taylor was also appointed Deputy Minority Whip by the House Democratic Leader and Whip.
After re-election in 2010, Taylor was elected Vice Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, handily defeating three other colleagues without a run-off election. Taylor was also appointed Chairman of the Atlanta-Fulton Legislative Delegation Subcommittee on Housing and Economic Development. Taylor successfully sponsored legislation for the City of Atlanta to extend its hotel/motel tax to help fund the construction of a new Georgia Dome.
On May 27, 2011, Taylor came out as a gay man following the circulation of an e-mail which accused Taylor of being gay and of using his official position to solicit sexual relationships. Taylor's accuser later admitted he had no proof to his allegations against Taylor. He is one of four openly LGBT members of the Georgia General Assembly, alongside Reps. Karla Drenner (D–Avondale Estates), Simone Bell (D–Atlanta) and Keisha Waites (D–Atlanta). Taylor is the first openly gay male to serve in the Georgia General Assembly and is only the second openly gay African American male state legislator in the United States.
Shari Frilot: Filmmaker, Sr. Programmer at Sundance Film Festival
Shari Frilot, Filmmaker, Sr. Programmer at Sundance Film Festival
An alumna of Harvard/Radcliffe University, and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, Shari Frilot is a filmmaker who has produced television for the CBS affiliate in Boston and for WNYC and WNET in New York before creating her own independent award-winning films, including Strange & Charmed, A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality, What Is A Line? and the feature documentary, Black Nations/Queer Nations? She is the recipient of multiple grants, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Media Arts Foundation. She is presently working on a feature film project about the crisis in water supply with producer Effie Brown's production company, Duly Noted Inc.
In tandem with filmmaking, Shari also maintains a career in festival programming, occupying a distinguished position on the curatorial vanguard through her pioneering development of immersive cinematic environments. As the Festival Director of the MIX festival in New York (1992-1996) she co-founded the first gay Latin American film festivals, MIX BRASIL and MIX MÉXICO film festivals. As Co-Director of Programming for OUTFEST (1998-2001), she founded the Platinum section which introduced cinematic performance installation and performance to the festival. She is presently in her 11th year as a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. She is the curator and driving creative force behind New Frontier, an exhibition and commissioning initiative that focuses on cinematic work being created at the intersections of art, film and new media technology.
An interview with Shari by Ebony Magazine can be found at: http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/all-roads-lead-to-sundance-film-festival-324#axzz2K9BbCXAC
An alumna of Harvard/Radcliffe University, and the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program, Shari Frilot is a filmmaker who has produced television for the CBS affiliate in Boston and for WNYC and WNET in New York before creating her own independent award-winning films, including Strange & Charmed, A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality, What Is A Line? and the feature documentary, Black Nations/Queer Nations? She is the recipient of multiple grants, including the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Media Arts Foundation. She is presently working on a feature film project about the crisis in water supply with producer Effie Brown's production company, Duly Noted Inc.
In tandem with filmmaking, Shari also maintains a career in festival programming, occupying a distinguished position on the curatorial vanguard through her pioneering development of immersive cinematic environments. As the Festival Director of the MIX festival in New York (1992-1996) she co-founded the first gay Latin American film festivals, MIX BRASIL and MIX MÉXICO film festivals. As Co-Director of Programming for OUTFEST (1998-2001), she founded the Platinum section which introduced cinematic performance installation and performance to the festival. She is presently in her 11th year as a Senior Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival. She is the curator and driving creative force behind New Frontier, an exhibition and commissioning initiative that focuses on cinematic work being created at the intersections of art, film and new media technology.
An interview with Shari by Ebony Magazine can be found at: http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/all-roads-lead-to-sundance-film-festival-324#axzz2K9BbCXAC
Mandy Carter: Activist
Mandy Carter, (1948) began her activism in 1968 with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Poor People's Campaign. From then on she has worked as an activist for many causes. The list runs long: the War Resister's League; the March on Washington for Lesbians and Gays; UMOJA (black gay and lesbian organization); Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum; Human Rights Campaign Fund; member-at-large of the Democratic National Committee; the International Federation of Black Prides, and many other committees.
But one important battle was the effort to unseat North Carolina senator Jesse Helms, an ultraconservative Republican who championed segregationism in his early days and battled affirmative action and other anti-discrimination remedies in his later ones. Carter served as campaign director of North Carolina Senate Vote '90, the project to defeat Helms. To her dismay, she found that James Meredith--the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi and an important symbol in the history of desegregation--was working for Helms, who narrowly won re-election.
In another battle, the fight against the religious right and its foray into the black church and the black community, Mandy says, "In 1993 the HRCF sent me to Cincinnati to help fight an anti-gay ballot initiative in Ohio… Colorado for Family Values [a conservative organization] poured $400,000 into their campaign. They outspent us at Equality in Cincinnati nearly ten to one. They got one minister to be the `official' black voice of faith. He spoke out against `the wealthy, white gay men who want special rights.' Well, guess what. We lost."
Carter says she was disheartened to find that one of her early idols, civil rights leader Rev. James Bevel, was among those black clerics friendly with the religious right. But her most persistent opponent has been the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. Sheldon has recruited numerous black religious figures into his movement, circulating anti-gay videos and utilizing the slogan "There Is No Comparison"--insisting that the black struggle for civil rights and the gay struggle for equal protection under the law share no commonalities. "That, in a snapshot, showed why this movement must be more multiracial." She says, in general, "the black community opposes all discrimination, but there are some who side with the right. Sheldon has created a small but very vocal group."
In her interview with the Philadelphia Tribune, she went on to indict the entire conservative movement. "It is not just the anti-gay agenda that they are after," Carter emphasized. "They are up there now talking about welfare reform, they are talking about affirmative action, they are talking about crime. And most times they are coming after us in the black community; yet they want to use us in the anti-gay stuff, then turn around and come after us in terms of their other agendas."
For that reason, she says, black gays and lesbians are ideally suited to fight against such encroachments. She says, "Prejudice is prejudice, whether it is based on skin color or sexual orientation. And maybe the best folks to be making this point are gays and lesbians of color who embody both." Two people who had a large part in shaping her life as an activist are singer Joan Baez, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (architect of the 1964 March on Washington--whose homosexuality marginalized him even within the movement).
In spite of all she has accomplished, she sees herself, in her words, as an "out, southern, black, lesbian, social justice activist."
But one important battle was the effort to unseat North Carolina senator Jesse Helms, an ultraconservative Republican who championed segregationism in his early days and battled affirmative action and other anti-discrimination remedies in his later ones. Carter served as campaign director of North Carolina Senate Vote '90, the project to defeat Helms. To her dismay, she found that James Meredith--the first black student to attend the University of Mississippi and an important symbol in the history of desegregation--was working for Helms, who narrowly won re-election.
In another battle, the fight against the religious right and its foray into the black church and the black community, Mandy says, "In 1993 the HRCF sent me to Cincinnati to help fight an anti-gay ballot initiative in Ohio… Colorado for Family Values [a conservative organization] poured $400,000 into their campaign. They outspent us at Equality in Cincinnati nearly ten to one. They got one minister to be the `official' black voice of faith. He spoke out against `the wealthy, white gay men who want special rights.' Well, guess what. We lost."
Carter says she was disheartened to find that one of her early idols, civil rights leader Rev. James Bevel, was among those black clerics friendly with the religious right. But her most persistent opponent has been the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. Sheldon has recruited numerous black religious figures into his movement, circulating anti-gay videos and utilizing the slogan "There Is No Comparison"--insisting that the black struggle for civil rights and the gay struggle for equal protection under the law share no commonalities. "That, in a snapshot, showed why this movement must be more multiracial." She says, in general, "the black community opposes all discrimination, but there are some who side with the right. Sheldon has created a small but very vocal group."
In her interview with the Philadelphia Tribune, she went on to indict the entire conservative movement. "It is not just the anti-gay agenda that they are after," Carter emphasized. "They are up there now talking about welfare reform, they are talking about affirmative action, they are talking about crime. And most times they are coming after us in the black community; yet they want to use us in the anti-gay stuff, then turn around and come after us in terms of their other agendas."
For that reason, she says, black gays and lesbians are ideally suited to fight against such encroachments. She says, "Prejudice is prejudice, whether it is based on skin color or sexual orientation. And maybe the best folks to be making this point are gays and lesbians of color who embody both." Two people who had a large part in shaping her life as an activist are singer Joan Baez, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (architect of the 1964 March on Washington--whose homosexuality marginalized him even within the movement).
In spite of all she has accomplished, she sees herself, in her words, as an "out, southern, black, lesbian, social justice activist."
Doug Spearman: Actor, Director, Producer, Writer
Doug Spearman was born in Washington, D.C. Though his parents had no qualms about his being gay while growing up, the one place his parents put their foot down was on his ambitions to take to the stage, or worse, Hollywood. From the moment he could turn on a television by himself, he's been enthralled by movies, television series (particularly detective stories), and plays. When he was four his mother sent him to see the Nutcracker performed live. He came home that day, according to family lore, grabbed her by the hand sat her on the living-room sofa and proceeded to re-dance the entire ballet for her; which proved to be telling to his mother on so many levels.
When it came time for him to choose a college and choose a major his parents steered him away from drama school in Chicago toward Indiana University, but he still entered into a study that would lead him to theater by double majoring in Telecom and Theater and minoring in Art History.
Doug has enjoyed a long and successful career as a television creative director, writer, and twice-Emmy nominated producer and commercial director. As a producer and director he's worked for NBC, ABC, and CBS, BET, and UPN, the Disney Channel, and E! Entertainment Television. He's launched several networks including UPN, SoapNet, and LOGO. His awards include a BPME silver medal and a New England Ad Age Best of Award. As a director he's had the opportunity to direct such talented actors as William Shatner, Morgan Freeman, Halle Berry, Dixie Carter, Martin Sheen, and Candice Bergen to name a few.
On stage Doug has starred in such productions as the American premiere of the British drama, The Ice Pick at the Celebration Theater in Los Angeles, the Men's Room, Moscow, The Bullpen Boys, A Few Good Men, and the world premiere of the Tony Award winning South Coast Repertory's production of The Hollow Lands, by Howard Corder. On television Doug starred as Professor Chance Counter in the ground breaking television series Noah's Arc on LOGO and the feature film of the same name.
His career highlights also include work on such television shows as StarTrek Voyager, The Drew Carey Show, Charmed, The Hughleys, America's Most Wanted, Gideon's Crossing, MAD TV, Girlfriends, and the motion picture Cradle 2 The Grave with Jet Li and DMX. Currently he's recurring in the hilarious web series Old Dogs, New Tricks.
In 2006, Doug created a television and film development and production company called The Ogden Group Entertainment. That year Doug also produced and directed his first documentary – "Aretha" on the life of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin which aired in January of 2007. In 2009 the Director's Guild of America commissioned Doug to write a film entitled "Pirates 3.0". The film was produced Randal Kleiser and directed by Jeremy Kagen and shot entirely on the lot at Warner Brothers. Doug is currently co-writing and directing the web-series soap parody Santa Juanita.
Doug is also a much read and accomplished social commentary writer – having written articles for edweb.com, ABC radio, Frontier's Magazine, Germany's MANNER, The Advocate, and dot429.com.
His community involvement includes working for the HRC, GLADD, The Black AIDS Institute, SMYLE in Washington, D.C., Lifeworks Mentoring in West Hollywood, Outfest and serving on the Board of Directors of Equality California, The Relational Center in Los Angeles, and The Celebration Theater in Hollywood.
Doug has been honored with many awards including a Leadership Award by the Human Rights Campaign which was presented before the United States Senate, The Connie Norman Award from C.S.W. for for outstanding achievement in fostering racial, ethnic, religious and gender unity within the LGBT community, The Advocacy Award from the United Teachers Association and an Image Award from the Jordan Rustin Coalition in Los Angeles.
When it came time for him to choose a college and choose a major his parents steered him away from drama school in Chicago toward Indiana University, but he still entered into a study that would lead him to theater by double majoring in Telecom and Theater and minoring in Art History.
Doug has enjoyed a long and successful career as a television creative director, writer, and twice-Emmy nominated producer and commercial director. As a producer and director he's worked for NBC, ABC, and CBS, BET, and UPN, the Disney Channel, and E! Entertainment Television. He's launched several networks including UPN, SoapNet, and LOGO. His awards include a BPME silver medal and a New England Ad Age Best of Award. As a director he's had the opportunity to direct such talented actors as William Shatner, Morgan Freeman, Halle Berry, Dixie Carter, Martin Sheen, and Candice Bergen to name a few.
On stage Doug has starred in such productions as the American premiere of the British drama, The Ice Pick at the Celebration Theater in Los Angeles, the Men's Room, Moscow, The Bullpen Boys, A Few Good Men, and the world premiere of the Tony Award winning South Coast Repertory's production of The Hollow Lands, by Howard Corder. On television Doug starred as Professor Chance Counter in the ground breaking television series Noah's Arc on LOGO and the feature film of the same name.
His career highlights also include work on such television shows as StarTrek Voyager, The Drew Carey Show, Charmed, The Hughleys, America's Most Wanted, Gideon's Crossing, MAD TV, Girlfriends, and the motion picture Cradle 2 The Grave with Jet Li and DMX. Currently he's recurring in the hilarious web series Old Dogs, New Tricks.
In 2006, Doug created a television and film development and production company called The Ogden Group Entertainment. That year Doug also produced and directed his first documentary – "Aretha" on the life of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin which aired in January of 2007. In 2009 the Director's Guild of America commissioned Doug to write a film entitled "Pirates 3.0". The film was produced Randal Kleiser and directed by Jeremy Kagen and shot entirely on the lot at Warner Brothers. Doug is currently co-writing and directing the web-series soap parody Santa Juanita.
Doug is also a much read and accomplished social commentary writer – having written articles for edweb.com, ABC radio, Frontier's Magazine, Germany's MANNER, The Advocate, and dot429.com.
His community involvement includes working for the HRC, GLADD, The Black AIDS Institute, SMYLE in Washington, D.C., Lifeworks Mentoring in West Hollywood, Outfest and serving on the Board of Directors of Equality California, The Relational Center in Los Angeles, and The Celebration Theater in Hollywood.
Doug has been honored with many awards including a Leadership Award by the Human Rights Campaign which was presented before the United States Senate, The Connie Norman Award from C.S.W. for for outstanding achievement in fostering racial, ethnic, religious and gender unity within the LGBT community, The Advocacy Award from the United Teachers Association and an Image Award from the Jordan Rustin Coalition in Los Angeles.
Alvin Ailey: Choreographer, Dancer
Alvin Ailey Jr. (1931 – 1989) was an American modern dancer, choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. He is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance.
Alvin Ailey is one of the most important choreographers in the history of modern dance. His body of work shaped African American participation in American modern dance during the thirty-year period before his death. The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater popularized modern dance throughout the world with his international tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Because of these tours it is theorized that Alvin Ailey's masterpiece 'Revelations' is the most well-known and frequently seen modern dance performance.
Alvin Ailey arrived on the New York City dance scene in 1954 as a Broadway performer. Having appeared in other shows with the likes of Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne, he eventually began to create his own works and started the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in 1957. The group’s inaugural concert was presented in 1958.
Notable early work included Blues Suite, a piece deriving from blues songs. Ailey's choreography was a dynamic and vibrant mix growing out of his previous training in ballet, modern dance, jazz, and African dance techniques. Ailey insisted upon a complete theatrical experience, including costumes, lighting, and make-up. A work of intense emotional appeal expressing the pain and anger of African Americans, Blues Suite was an instant success and defined Ailey's style.
For his signature work, Revelations, Ailey drew upon his "blood memories" of Texas, the blues, spirituals, and gospel. These forces resulted in the creation of his most popular and critically acclaimed work. Ailey originally intended the dance to be the second part of a larger, evening-length survey of African-American music which he began with Blues Suite.
Alvin Ailey's choreography was a dynamic and vibrant mix of his previous training in ballet, modern dance, jazz, and African dance techniques. Mr. Ailey also insisted upon a complete theatricality including costumes, lighting and make-up. A work of intense emotional appeal expressing the pain and anger of African Americans, Blues Suite was an instant success and defined Alvin Ailey's style.
For his signature work, Revelations, Mr. Ailey drew upon his "blood memories" of Texas, the blues, spirituals, and gospel as inspiration, which resulted in the creation of his most popular and critically acclaimed work. Though Alvin Ailey created 79 works for his company, he maintained that his company was not a repository for his own work. Today, the company continues Mr. Ailey's vision by performing important works from the past and commissioning new ones to add to the repertoire. In all, More than 200 works by over 70 choreographers have been performed by the company.
Alvin Ailey continued to create works for his own company, and he also choreographed for other companies. Alvin Ailey succumbed to AIDS in 1989 at the age of 58.
Alvin Ailey is one of the most important choreographers in the history of modern dance. His body of work shaped African American participation in American modern dance during the thirty-year period before his death. The Alvin Ailey Dance Theater popularized modern dance throughout the world with his international tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Because of these tours it is theorized that Alvin Ailey's masterpiece 'Revelations' is the most well-known and frequently seen modern dance performance.
Alvin Ailey arrived on the New York City dance scene in 1954 as a Broadway performer. Having appeared in other shows with the likes of Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne, he eventually began to create his own works and started the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in 1957. The group’s inaugural concert was presented in 1958.
Notable early work included Blues Suite, a piece deriving from blues songs. Ailey's choreography was a dynamic and vibrant mix growing out of his previous training in ballet, modern dance, jazz, and African dance techniques. Ailey insisted upon a complete theatrical experience, including costumes, lighting, and make-up. A work of intense emotional appeal expressing the pain and anger of African Americans, Blues Suite was an instant success and defined Ailey's style.
For his signature work, Revelations, Ailey drew upon his "blood memories" of Texas, the blues, spirituals, and gospel. These forces resulted in the creation of his most popular and critically acclaimed work. Ailey originally intended the dance to be the second part of a larger, evening-length survey of African-American music which he began with Blues Suite.
Alvin Ailey's choreography was a dynamic and vibrant mix of his previous training in ballet, modern dance, jazz, and African dance techniques. Mr. Ailey also insisted upon a complete theatricality including costumes, lighting and make-up. A work of intense emotional appeal expressing the pain and anger of African Americans, Blues Suite was an instant success and defined Alvin Ailey's style.
For his signature work, Revelations, Mr. Ailey drew upon his "blood memories" of Texas, the blues, spirituals, and gospel as inspiration, which resulted in the creation of his most popular and critically acclaimed work. Though Alvin Ailey created 79 works for his company, he maintained that his company was not a repository for his own work. Today, the company continues Mr. Ailey's vision by performing important works from the past and commissioning new ones to add to the repertoire. In all, More than 200 works by over 70 choreographers have been performed by the company.
Alvin Ailey continued to create works for his own company, and he also choreographed for other companies. Alvin Ailey succumbed to AIDS in 1989 at the age of 58.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah: First Openly Gay Imam in U.S.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah is an important faith leader and a prominent human rights and sexuality-rights activist within the Muslim and interfaith communities.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, to a mother with strong beautician business background and his father carried on his family tradition as a Postal Service employee. He grew up in an educated environment with parents who were community activists. His large and loving family included seven siblings, and a step-sister, and they all attended a Baptist Church and were active in Scouting.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah is a graduate of Detroit’s Martin Luther King High School (formerly Eastern High School) where he graduated at the age of 15 in 1970. An inquisitive and precocious young man, he was exposed to many faiths in his formative years, and took an interest in spiritual matters at an early age. Also when he was around the age of five, he knew there was something different about him and he not unlike other boys discovered same sex relationships with his friends and had a boyfriend during his formative teenage years. His first boyfriend committed suicide and he knows the suffering of losing a loved one who was unable to accept their sexual orientation. After high school graduation he voiced this to his parents, and he was fully accepted by his parents and received their support and blessings. While finishing his first college degree, Daayiee became a gay activist because of Stonewall, and felt it was important for him to be out, and eventually was a role model for several relatives, friends and neighbors who came out in later years. He would not fully understand and appreciate his same-gender attraction until he moved to San Francisco, California in 1975.
San Francisco in the “age of Aquarius” was a very different place for Daayiee Abdullah and it was here where he would meet his first adult partner while attending a Metropolitan Community Church. He enrolled in court reporting school and became a stenographer serving the IRS for several years. Daayiee began his own activism within the gay community, which lead him to work as one of the San Francisco coordinators for the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. After spending extended time in Washington, DC, he decided to move there—it was his (black) Mecca.
After arriving in Washington, DC in 1979, Imam Daayiee Abdullah had a vision that told him to study Chinese. He entered Georgetown University as a Community Scholar and quickly began studying both Chinese language and literature. While in the first year of his program, he was encouraged to go to Beijing University to further his studies. During his tenure at Beijing in the early 1980s, he met some Chinese Muslims that invited him to experience the “real Islam” at their mosque. He was initially drawn to the faith because of its prayer process and continued to visit the mosque, but did not formally convert until 1985. His program at Georgetown also concentrated on Arabic language and literature which made possible study abroad in the Middle East and gave him the preparation for his further study of Islam and the Quran.
Imam Abdullah was 37 when he completed the degree at Georgetown and entered D.C. School of Law and through a joint degree program received his M.A. in Middle Eastern and North African Studies from University of Michigan. He graduated from law school and practiced corporate then public interest law for several years before returning to the Middle East in 1997 to teach for the Royal Saudi Air Force. While in Saudi Arabia he researched a homosexual positive interpretation of the Quran. In that work he argues that homosexuality is not an issue in Islam because his comparison of various interpretations of the Quran reveals that interpreters made generalizations and misrepresentations of the original Arabic. He sent that paper to Faisal Alam, founder of the Al-Fatiha Foundation, a GLBTQ Muslim organization. Upon returning to the United States at the end of 1999, he started volunteering with Al-Fatiha as a board member and religious advisor.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah became an authority on homosexuality and Islam and traveled widely lecturing that the Quran does not speak against homosexuality. His many roles within progressive Islam led many in the gay Muslim community to consider him an imam as he was performing marriages, funerals, and counseling those in the community. Realizing his deep scholastic interest in Islamic studies, Imam Abdullah began training in Virginia at the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences in 2000 with aspirations of becoming a sheikh. Before completing his master’s degree in Shari’ah Sciences and Quranic Interpretation he was kicked out of the school a few weeks before graduation for being openly gay. Despite this shunning, he has served as an Imam for ten years here in the United States as well as in Europe, Norway, the Netherlands, and the U.K. He continues to lecture in Muslim and non-Muslim academic institutions worldwide. He was a prominent figure outside the steps of the United States Supreme Court as they heard arguments in the Windsor case that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.
When asked about the Black, Gay community, Imam Daayiee Abdullah responds by stating “the Black Gay community is very important to me as this is the community that has united to create me, and has embraced me and allowed me to be who I was always meant to be. I am honored to be given the opportunity to serve my brothers and sisters and learn from them.”
Currently, he is Director of LGBT Outreach with Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) and a current board member and D.C. chapter leader. He is the Imam and Educational Director of Masjid el-Tawhid An-Nur Al-Isslaah (Mosque for Enlightenment and Reformation) an inclusive sacred prayer space for all, women, LGBT and intrafaith Muslims, and affiliated with MPV Unity Mosques and the el-Tawhid Prayer Circle of Toronto, Ontario in Canada.
In his capacity as Director of LGBT programs at Muslims for Progressive Values, Imam Daayiee Abdullah recently completed a new video series for LGBTQ Muslim youth on LGBT Islamic history and mental health. The series is currently set for release by the end of March.
In April of 2013, Imam Daayiee Abdullah was profiled in a Washington Post article about him and his unique work at Washington’s Light of Reform Mosque. This past December, Aljazeera America published a generally positive story about his work, and both the growing inclusion of LGBTQ Moslems, and the controversy that this has generated within the faith. You can view Aljazeera’s piece here:http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2013/12/20/meet-america-s-firstopenlygayimam.html
Although he has long been involved in actively promoting understanding and awareness of issues of racial, sexual, and gender equality both within and beyond Muslim communities, he has an equally productive social life. He is in a contractual relationship (mut’ah) with a long-term companion for the past several years.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah is a remarkable leader and a tireless advocate for same-gender loving Muslims. We join Daayiee Abdullah on this day to celebrate his 60th Birthday, and thank him for his life-long commitment to teaching and serving others, his activism within the faith community, and his many contributions to our community. (Source: Ubuntu Biography Project)
Imam Daayiee Abdullah was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, to a mother with strong beautician business background and his father carried on his family tradition as a Postal Service employee. He grew up in an educated environment with parents who were community activists. His large and loving family included seven siblings, and a step-sister, and they all attended a Baptist Church and were active in Scouting.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah is a graduate of Detroit’s Martin Luther King High School (formerly Eastern High School) where he graduated at the age of 15 in 1970. An inquisitive and precocious young man, he was exposed to many faiths in his formative years, and took an interest in spiritual matters at an early age. Also when he was around the age of five, he knew there was something different about him and he not unlike other boys discovered same sex relationships with his friends and had a boyfriend during his formative teenage years. His first boyfriend committed suicide and he knows the suffering of losing a loved one who was unable to accept their sexual orientation. After high school graduation he voiced this to his parents, and he was fully accepted by his parents and received their support and blessings. While finishing his first college degree, Daayiee became a gay activist because of Stonewall, and felt it was important for him to be out, and eventually was a role model for several relatives, friends and neighbors who came out in later years. He would not fully understand and appreciate his same-gender attraction until he moved to San Francisco, California in 1975.
San Francisco in the “age of Aquarius” was a very different place for Daayiee Abdullah and it was here where he would meet his first adult partner while attending a Metropolitan Community Church. He enrolled in court reporting school and became a stenographer serving the IRS for several years. Daayiee began his own activism within the gay community, which lead him to work as one of the San Francisco coordinators for the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. After spending extended time in Washington, DC, he decided to move there—it was his (black) Mecca.
After arriving in Washington, DC in 1979, Imam Daayiee Abdullah had a vision that told him to study Chinese. He entered Georgetown University as a Community Scholar and quickly began studying both Chinese language and literature. While in the first year of his program, he was encouraged to go to Beijing University to further his studies. During his tenure at Beijing in the early 1980s, he met some Chinese Muslims that invited him to experience the “real Islam” at their mosque. He was initially drawn to the faith because of its prayer process and continued to visit the mosque, but did not formally convert until 1985. His program at Georgetown also concentrated on Arabic language and literature which made possible study abroad in the Middle East and gave him the preparation for his further study of Islam and the Quran.
Imam Abdullah was 37 when he completed the degree at Georgetown and entered D.C. School of Law and through a joint degree program received his M.A. in Middle Eastern and North African Studies from University of Michigan. He graduated from law school and practiced corporate then public interest law for several years before returning to the Middle East in 1997 to teach for the Royal Saudi Air Force. While in Saudi Arabia he researched a homosexual positive interpretation of the Quran. In that work he argues that homosexuality is not an issue in Islam because his comparison of various interpretations of the Quran reveals that interpreters made generalizations and misrepresentations of the original Arabic. He sent that paper to Faisal Alam, founder of the Al-Fatiha Foundation, a GLBTQ Muslim organization. Upon returning to the United States at the end of 1999, he started volunteering with Al-Fatiha as a board member and religious advisor.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah became an authority on homosexuality and Islam and traveled widely lecturing that the Quran does not speak against homosexuality. His many roles within progressive Islam led many in the gay Muslim community to consider him an imam as he was performing marriages, funerals, and counseling those in the community. Realizing his deep scholastic interest in Islamic studies, Imam Abdullah began training in Virginia at the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences in 2000 with aspirations of becoming a sheikh. Before completing his master’s degree in Shari’ah Sciences and Quranic Interpretation he was kicked out of the school a few weeks before graduation for being openly gay. Despite this shunning, he has served as an Imam for ten years here in the United States as well as in Europe, Norway, the Netherlands, and the U.K. He continues to lecture in Muslim and non-Muslim academic institutions worldwide. He was a prominent figure outside the steps of the United States Supreme Court as they heard arguments in the Windsor case that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.
When asked about the Black, Gay community, Imam Daayiee Abdullah responds by stating “the Black Gay community is very important to me as this is the community that has united to create me, and has embraced me and allowed me to be who I was always meant to be. I am honored to be given the opportunity to serve my brothers and sisters and learn from them.”
Currently, he is Director of LGBT Outreach with Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) and a current board member and D.C. chapter leader. He is the Imam and Educational Director of Masjid el-Tawhid An-Nur Al-Isslaah (Mosque for Enlightenment and Reformation) an inclusive sacred prayer space for all, women, LGBT and intrafaith Muslims, and affiliated with MPV Unity Mosques and the el-Tawhid Prayer Circle of Toronto, Ontario in Canada.
In his capacity as Director of LGBT programs at Muslims for Progressive Values, Imam Daayiee Abdullah recently completed a new video series for LGBTQ Muslim youth on LGBT Islamic history and mental health. The series is currently set for release by the end of March.
In April of 2013, Imam Daayiee Abdullah was profiled in a Washington Post article about him and his unique work at Washington’s Light of Reform Mosque. This past December, Aljazeera America published a generally positive story about his work, and both the growing inclusion of LGBTQ Moslems, and the controversy that this has generated within the faith. You can view Aljazeera’s piece here:http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2013/12/20/meet-america-s-firstopenlygayimam.html
Although he has long been involved in actively promoting understanding and awareness of issues of racial, sexual, and gender equality both within and beyond Muslim communities, he has an equally productive social life. He is in a contractual relationship (mut’ah) with a long-term companion for the past several years.
Imam Daayiee Abdullah is a remarkable leader and a tireless advocate for same-gender loving Muslims. We join Daayiee Abdullah on this day to celebrate his 60th Birthday, and thank him for his life-long commitment to teaching and serving others, his activism within the faith community, and his many contributions to our community. (Source: Ubuntu Biography Project)
Samuel Delany: Author, Science Fiction Writer, Cultural Critic, Educator
Samuel Ray Delany is best known for his science-fiction writing. Samuel Ray Delany has won a Stonewall Book Award, two Hugo Awards and four Nebula Awards. In 2002, he was honored by his induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Delany’s most celebrated novels include Babel-17, Nova, Dhalgren, The Einstein Intersection, and Return to Neveryon. His work often addresses issues of social construction and sexuality as well as the themes of perception, mythology, memory, and language. Always willing to try new genres, Mr. Delany wrote music and film reviews for Fantasy and Science Fiction. He also created the short films The Orchard andTiresias. Selections of his short fiction were also turned into radio plays. He also began teaching for the Clarion Writer’s Workshop.
In examining language, the written word is of particular interest to Samuel Delany. Many of Delany’s characters are writers. This theme is obvious in Babel 17, Empire Star, Dark Reflections, and The Mad Man. Samuel Ray Delany is also interested in the concept of refraction. For Delany, refraction happens across phenomena. Light can be refracted, but so too can text be refracted. In addition to the concern about language, Delany also closely examined the struggles of those who tried to move between classes.
On April 1, 1942, Samuel Delany was born in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City. His parents (Margaret Carey Boyd Delany and Samuel Ray Delany) both had successful careers. His mother was a library clerk. His father was a businessman who owned part of the Levy & Delany Funeral Home. Samuel Delany was the nephew of Sadie and Bessie Delany. These women were educators and civil rights activists.
In his adolescence, Samuel Delaney became familiar with the works of the most renowned science fiction authors of his time. These authors included Ray Bradbury, Alfred Bester, Issac, Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, and Robert Heinlein. But his literary influences were much broader. He read the works of Jean Genet, Albert Camus, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Bruce Nugent, LeRoi Joins, and Zora Hurston. These figures represent the breadth of Delany’s interests and the influence of his writing.
Delany was educated at the Dalton School and then the Bronx High School of Science. As a child, Delany felt the strains of class differences quite acutely. His friends in Harlem were the children of working class families. However, his friends at school were the children of publishers, government officials, and producers of literature and television. In 1956, Delany met Marilyn Hacker.When Delany was in high school, the Louis August Jonas Foundation selected Samuel Delany to attend Camp Rising Sun, an international academic program. The Scholastic Writing Awards contest awarded Delany first place for short fiction and second place for essay.
Samuel Delany married Marilyn Hacker in 1961. At nineteen, Delany enrolled and dropped out of City College of New York. In 1974, Delany and Hacker had a daughter, Iva Hacker-Delany. Despite this marriage, Delany knew he had homosexual inclinations. In 1962, Delany published his first novel The Jewels of Aptor. Hacker, who was working at Ace Books, was integral in getting the work published. Babel 17 was composed in a short period of time while Delany was working on shrimp boats. In 1966, Delany traveled to Europe. He left his wife in New York City. His travels through Greece and Turkey inspired some of his later writings. When he returned to the United States, Delany and his wife moved to San Francisco.
At one point Samuel Ray Delany moved to the Heavenly Breakfast commune, he lost his personal papers. This loss caused Samuel Ray Delany to undergo a period of writers block. During this time, he wrote music for the Heavenly Breakfast Rock Band. Later, the couple would move to London. During this period, Delany wrote two pornographic novels.
Samuel Delany and Hacker ended their marriage in 1975. They remained close despite the dissolution of their relationship. They also divided their parental obligations. In 1977, Samuel Delaney would become the University of Wisconsin senior fellow at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies. Later, he would teach at the University at Buffalo as the Butler Professor of English. In 1988, Samuel Ray Delany began teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2001, he joined the English Department of Temple University.
These locales found their way into several pieces of his work at that time, including the novel Nova and the short stories "Aye, and Gomorrah" and "Dog in a Fisherman's Net". After returning from Europe, Delany and Hacker moved to San Francisco, and again to London, before returning to New York. It was during that time that Delany began working with sexual themes and wrote two pornographic works, one of which (Hogg) was considered to be completely unpublishable due to the nature of its content--Hogg relates the story of a so-called rape artist’s obsession with an underage boy. It would, in fact, be twenty years from the time Samuel Ray Delany finished writing the novel before it saw print.
From 1968 until 1968, Samuel Ray Delany published eight novels. In 1968, Delany published Nova. This publication was followed by a six-year publishing hiatus. Following this hiatus, Delany began to integrate more sexual themes into his writing. Stars in My Pocket Like Grans of Sand and Dhalgren contained sexually explicit scenes while books like Phallos and Hogg are explicitly pornographic. Delany embraces the label pornography in regards to that work. Delany has refined his examination of social classes took on a sexual dimension. This examination of the sexual dimension of class was not exploitative in itself; however, the work does examine the exploitation.
Samuel Ray Delany’s books of criticism focus on science fiction although he also examined the queer sexuality and comparative literature. Delany has mined his life for details of his fiction. But he has also written many autobiographical pieces. Delany’s positionality as a gay, black, and dyslexic writer shaped his memoir The Motion of Light in Water. This memoir was awarded the Hugo prize. Samuel Delany’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue was published 1999. Drawing from his own experience, he examines the way the redevelopment of Times Square in New York City. Samuel Ray Delany examines how the plans to re-create this area, affected the public sexual contacts of gay and straight working-class men.
Samuel Delany was the subject of the award winning documentary film, The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman. This film was directed by Fred Barney Taylor.
In examining language, the written word is of particular interest to Samuel Delany. Many of Delany’s characters are writers. This theme is obvious in Babel 17, Empire Star, Dark Reflections, and The Mad Man. Samuel Ray Delany is also interested in the concept of refraction. For Delany, refraction happens across phenomena. Light can be refracted, but so too can text be refracted. In addition to the concern about language, Delany also closely examined the struggles of those who tried to move between classes.
On April 1, 1942, Samuel Delany was born in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York City. His parents (Margaret Carey Boyd Delany and Samuel Ray Delany) both had successful careers. His mother was a library clerk. His father was a businessman who owned part of the Levy & Delany Funeral Home. Samuel Delany was the nephew of Sadie and Bessie Delany. These women were educators and civil rights activists.
In his adolescence, Samuel Delaney became familiar with the works of the most renowned science fiction authors of his time. These authors included Ray Bradbury, Alfred Bester, Issac, Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, and Robert Heinlein. But his literary influences were much broader. He read the works of Jean Genet, Albert Camus, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Bruce Nugent, LeRoi Joins, and Zora Hurston. These figures represent the breadth of Delany’s interests and the influence of his writing.
Delany was educated at the Dalton School and then the Bronx High School of Science. As a child, Delany felt the strains of class differences quite acutely. His friends in Harlem were the children of working class families. However, his friends at school were the children of publishers, government officials, and producers of literature and television. In 1956, Delany met Marilyn Hacker.When Delany was in high school, the Louis August Jonas Foundation selected Samuel Delany to attend Camp Rising Sun, an international academic program. The Scholastic Writing Awards contest awarded Delany first place for short fiction and second place for essay.
Samuel Delany married Marilyn Hacker in 1961. At nineteen, Delany enrolled and dropped out of City College of New York. In 1974, Delany and Hacker had a daughter, Iva Hacker-Delany. Despite this marriage, Delany knew he had homosexual inclinations. In 1962, Delany published his first novel The Jewels of Aptor. Hacker, who was working at Ace Books, was integral in getting the work published. Babel 17 was composed in a short period of time while Delany was working on shrimp boats. In 1966, Delany traveled to Europe. He left his wife in New York City. His travels through Greece and Turkey inspired some of his later writings. When he returned to the United States, Delany and his wife moved to San Francisco.
At one point Samuel Ray Delany moved to the Heavenly Breakfast commune, he lost his personal papers. This loss caused Samuel Ray Delany to undergo a period of writers block. During this time, he wrote music for the Heavenly Breakfast Rock Band. Later, the couple would move to London. During this period, Delany wrote two pornographic novels.
Samuel Delany and Hacker ended their marriage in 1975. They remained close despite the dissolution of their relationship. They also divided their parental obligations. In 1977, Samuel Delaney would become the University of Wisconsin senior fellow at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies. Later, he would teach at the University at Buffalo as the Butler Professor of English. In 1988, Samuel Ray Delany began teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2001, he joined the English Department of Temple University.
These locales found their way into several pieces of his work at that time, including the novel Nova and the short stories "Aye, and Gomorrah" and "Dog in a Fisherman's Net". After returning from Europe, Delany and Hacker moved to San Francisco, and again to London, before returning to New York. It was during that time that Delany began working with sexual themes and wrote two pornographic works, one of which (Hogg) was considered to be completely unpublishable due to the nature of its content--Hogg relates the story of a so-called rape artist’s obsession with an underage boy. It would, in fact, be twenty years from the time Samuel Ray Delany finished writing the novel before it saw print.
From 1968 until 1968, Samuel Ray Delany published eight novels. In 1968, Delany published Nova. This publication was followed by a six-year publishing hiatus. Following this hiatus, Delany began to integrate more sexual themes into his writing. Stars in My Pocket Like Grans of Sand and Dhalgren contained sexually explicit scenes while books like Phallos and Hogg are explicitly pornographic. Delany embraces the label pornography in regards to that work. Delany has refined his examination of social classes took on a sexual dimension. This examination of the sexual dimension of class was not exploitative in itself; however, the work does examine the exploitation.
Samuel Ray Delany’s books of criticism focus on science fiction although he also examined the queer sexuality and comparative literature. Delany has mined his life for details of his fiction. But he has also written many autobiographical pieces. Delany’s positionality as a gay, black, and dyslexic writer shaped his memoir The Motion of Light in Water. This memoir was awarded the Hugo prize. Samuel Delany’s Times Square Red, Times Square Blue was published 1999. Drawing from his own experience, he examines the way the redevelopment of Times Square in New York City. Samuel Ray Delany examines how the plans to re-create this area, affected the public sexual contacts of gay and straight working-class men.
Samuel Delany was the subject of the award winning documentary film, The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman. This film was directed by Fred Barney Taylor.
Jasika Nicole: Actress, TV/Film, Illustrator
Jasika Nicole (pronounced jah-SEE-kuh), Actress, Illustrator (1980) Jasika is most famous for portraying the character of Astrid Farnsworth in the TV series Fringe.
Nicole made her feature film debut in the movie Take the Lead, and soon after appeared on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She also starred in the title role of the world premiere of the musicalChasing Nicolette, and has appeared in several stage productions, most notably in the off-Broadway ‘60s musical Café A Go Go and the world premiere of Believe In Me…A Bigfoot Musical at the 2004 NYC Fringe Festival.
She is also an illustrator. She writes and draws an autobiographical comic entitled High Yella Magic, which is being developed into a graphic novel.
Nicole made her feature film debut in the movie Take the Lead, and soon after appeared on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She also starred in the title role of the world premiere of the musicalChasing Nicolette, and has appeared in several stage productions, most notably in the off-Broadway ‘60s musical Café A Go Go and the world premiere of Believe In Me…A Bigfoot Musical at the 2004 NYC Fringe Festival.
She is also an illustrator. She writes and draws an autobiographical comic entitled High Yella Magic, which is being developed into a graphic novel.
In Remembrance: Sakia Gunn (Victim of Homophobic Violence)
Sakia Gunn (1987 – 2003)was a 15-year old African American lesbian who was murdered in a hate crime in Newark, New Jersey.
On the night of May 11, Sakia Gunn was returning from a night out in Greenwich Village, Manhattan with her friends. While waiting for the #1 New Jersey Transit bus at the corner of Broad and Market Streets in downtown Newark, Gunn and her friends were propositioned by two men. When the girls rejected their advances, by declaring themselves to be lesbians, the men attacked them. Gunn fought back, and one of the men, Richard McCullough, stabbed her in the chest. Both men immediately fled the scene in their vehicle. After one of Gunn's friends flagged down a passing driver, she was taken to nearby University Hospital, where she died.
The murder set off several protests in working-class Newark, and more than 2,500 people were reported to have attended Gunn's funeral. In comparison to the 1998 gay-bias murder of Matthew Shepard, a white gay male, Sakia Gunn's murder, that of a black lesbian, drew limited media coverage.
On the night of May 11, Sakia Gunn was returning from a night out in Greenwich Village, Manhattan with her friends. While waiting for the #1 New Jersey Transit bus at the corner of Broad and Market Streets in downtown Newark, Gunn and her friends were propositioned by two men. When the girls rejected their advances, by declaring themselves to be lesbians, the men attacked them. Gunn fought back, and one of the men, Richard McCullough, stabbed her in the chest. Both men immediately fled the scene in their vehicle. After one of Gunn's friends flagged down a passing driver, she was taken to nearby University Hospital, where she died.
The murder set off several protests in working-class Newark, and more than 2,500 people were reported to have attended Gunn's funeral. In comparison to the 1998 gay-bias murder of Matthew Shepard, a white gay male, Sakia Gunn's murder, that of a black lesbian, drew limited media coverage.
Diana King: Reggae Fusion Singer-Songwriter
Diana King (1970) is a reggae fusion singer-songwriter who specifically performed a mixture and fusion of R&B, reggae and dancehall. She was born to an Indo-Jamaican mother and an Afro-Jamaican father.
After making an appearance on The Notorious B.I.G.’s 1994 song "Respect," from his album Ready to Die, she signed a recording contract with Sony Music. King’s first single, ‘Shy Guy’, became a hit, reaching # 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and being certified gold in the U.S.; the single also hit #2 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as reaching #1 on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart, going on to sell nearly five million singles worldwide. The song made the soundtrack to the 1995 film, ‘Bad Boys’. ‘Shy Guy’ was also ranked by the Japanese radio station J-Wave as the number-one song of 1995.
In 1997, King's second album ‘Think Like a Girl’ entered the Billboard Top Reggae Albums chart at #1. King also scored another well-received hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Dance Club Play with her cover version of the song ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ (originally recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1967), which featured on the soundtrack to the film, ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’. King was also featured on the 1997 soundtrack to the documentary ‘When We Were Kings’, where she performed the title track with Brian McKnight. In 1998, King joined Celine Dion and Brownstone on stage to perform the hit ‘Treat Her Like a Lady’ previously written and recorded by King from Tougher Than Love at the Essence Awards. That year she also appeared on Soul Train, The RuPaul Show and VIBE to promote ‘Think Like a Girl. In 1999 she toured India doing a five-city tour.
King entered negotiations with Madonna’s Maverick Records label in 2000. In 2002, King released her third album ‘Respect’. It received a Japan-only release on 24 July 2002 until it was eventually released in other markets such as the UK on 17 April 2006 and a digital-only release in the United States on 29 April 2008. The album's lead single "Summer Breezin'" premiered on BET and VH1 video and received some urban radio airplay.
In 2007, she co-wrote and recorded the song "The Light Within" with the German reggaie artist, Gentleman, for his album ‘Another Intensity’. Later that year, she formed her own record label, ThinkLikeAgirl. She also tours Asia annually.
2010 saw the launch of King's own recording label ThinkLikeAgirL Music Inc through a licensing deal with Warner Music Japan with the release of the album "WARRIOR GURL." her fourth studio album released in Japan on 22 September 2010. An upgraded version was released digitally in the United States on iTunes and all major online music stores (under the title Agirlnameking) on her birthday 8 November 2012.
On June 28th, 2012 Diana King declared "Yes I am a Lesbian" to her fans from her official Facebook page. She was honored for her bravery on Dec. 16th 2012 and was presented with the prestigious "Vanguard Award" at the Out Music Awards in Las Vegas NV. King is the first Jamaican artist to ever publicly come out. Jamaica is at the top of the list of the counties who are extremely violent and intolerant toward the LGBT community.
Her unique style of blending her native Reggae and Jamaican dialect with R&B, Soul, Dance and Pop, has made her a standout artist since the release of her first hit ‘Shy Guy’. Diana has always believed in staying true to herself, as an artist and as a person. Her songs take you on a musical journey and shows her versatility and her new music they truly live up to what her fans have grown to love and expect from her, only this time it's all her. A strong brew of genres seasoned with Reggae. To date Diana King has sold over 6 million albums worldwide and has a loyal fan-base that spans the globe.
(Here is a Youtube link to some of Diana's music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-FsX2yyuYc; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSci9dHmPmQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxgkTEAAmyI)
After making an appearance on The Notorious B.I.G.’s 1994 song "Respect," from his album Ready to Die, she signed a recording contract with Sony Music. King’s first single, ‘Shy Guy’, became a hit, reaching # 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and being certified gold in the U.S.; the single also hit #2 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as reaching #1 on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart, going on to sell nearly five million singles worldwide. The song made the soundtrack to the 1995 film, ‘Bad Boys’. ‘Shy Guy’ was also ranked by the Japanese radio station J-Wave as the number-one song of 1995.
In 1997, King's second album ‘Think Like a Girl’ entered the Billboard Top Reggae Albums chart at #1. King also scored another well-received hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Dance Club Play with her cover version of the song ‘I Say a Little Prayer’ (originally recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1967), which featured on the soundtrack to the film, ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’. King was also featured on the 1997 soundtrack to the documentary ‘When We Were Kings’, where she performed the title track with Brian McKnight. In 1998, King joined Celine Dion and Brownstone on stage to perform the hit ‘Treat Her Like a Lady’ previously written and recorded by King from Tougher Than Love at the Essence Awards. That year she also appeared on Soul Train, The RuPaul Show and VIBE to promote ‘Think Like a Girl. In 1999 she toured India doing a five-city tour.
King entered negotiations with Madonna’s Maverick Records label in 2000. In 2002, King released her third album ‘Respect’. It received a Japan-only release on 24 July 2002 until it was eventually released in other markets such as the UK on 17 April 2006 and a digital-only release in the United States on 29 April 2008. The album's lead single "Summer Breezin'" premiered on BET and VH1 video and received some urban radio airplay.
In 2007, she co-wrote and recorded the song "The Light Within" with the German reggaie artist, Gentleman, for his album ‘Another Intensity’. Later that year, she formed her own record label, ThinkLikeAgirl. She also tours Asia annually.
2010 saw the launch of King's own recording label ThinkLikeAgirL Music Inc through a licensing deal with Warner Music Japan with the release of the album "WARRIOR GURL." her fourth studio album released in Japan on 22 September 2010. An upgraded version was released digitally in the United States on iTunes and all major online music stores (under the title Agirlnameking) on her birthday 8 November 2012.
On June 28th, 2012 Diana King declared "Yes I am a Lesbian" to her fans from her official Facebook page. She was honored for her bravery on Dec. 16th 2012 and was presented with the prestigious "Vanguard Award" at the Out Music Awards in Las Vegas NV. King is the first Jamaican artist to ever publicly come out. Jamaica is at the top of the list of the counties who are extremely violent and intolerant toward the LGBT community.
Her unique style of blending her native Reggae and Jamaican dialect with R&B, Soul, Dance and Pop, has made her a standout artist since the release of her first hit ‘Shy Guy’. Diana has always believed in staying true to herself, as an artist and as a person. Her songs take you on a musical journey and shows her versatility and her new music they truly live up to what her fans have grown to love and expect from her, only this time it's all her. A strong brew of genres seasoned with Reggae. To date Diana King has sold over 6 million albums worldwide and has a loyal fan-base that spans the globe.
(Here is a Youtube link to some of Diana's music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-FsX2yyuYc; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSci9dHmPmQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxgkTEAAmyI)
Jackie Walker: All-American Linebacker
Jackie Walker was an All-American linebacker for the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1970 and '71. He was the first black athlete from Fulton to attend Tennessee on scholarship. In 1970, he became the first black player from the SEC to earn All-America honors. He made four All-America teams in 1971, the year he became the first black football player in SEC history to be named a captain. At UT, Walkerfinished with more than 300 career tackles. And he did it while playing at about 170 pounds.
His teammates elected him captain for the '71 season, making him the first African-American to lead an SEC team. Walker still shares the N.C.A.A. title for the most number of career interceptions converted into touchdowns (5).
It was in 1971 that Jackie decided to come out. One of his teammates, Jamie Rotella said he heard that Walker
was gay. He says:
“I was totally shocked,” he said. “But it didn’t affect the way I admired and respected him. We were confused, but everybody had too much respect for Jackie, for his character as well as for his football play. Jackie was a private person, very humble. Whenever he did speak, his words were sincere, reflecting his character. He was a silent leader. He didn’t say much, but when he did, you listened.”
During his years in college football, Jackie had to endure not only the pressure of being gay, but racism as well. Often he had to deal with racial epithets, and sometimes objects, hurled from the stands and being refused service in restaurants when the team was on the road.
Despite his successful college football career, Walker was never inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. His brother, Marshall, his teammates and coaches believe that he was withheld from the honor because of his sexuality. Walker was openly gay and never hid his sexual identity.
After college, Walker was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, but was later cut before the season began. Although not substantiated, Marshall Walker and others believe that Jackie's sexuality played a role in the decision.
The story of Walker's deafened legend was made audible by a story written by Betty Bean for Metro Plus magazine. Bean asked the question of whether Walker's sexuality was the reason why he was never inducted into the Hall of Fame. She discovered that Walker's name was still legendary in the Knoxville area and that there was much support from previous teammates and coaches for his induction.
"[Walker] should have been inducted long before I was,” Lon Herzbrun, who coached Walker at Fulton High School and in college told Bean. “He didn’t do any of the things some of the guys today do — no drugs, none of that,” he said. “He was just the most accomplished player I’ve ever been around.”
The resurrection of Walker's historic career prompted a move from the Hall of Fame to induct Walker in the summer of 2008. The honor comes six years after Walker
's death from AIDS complications in 2002.
(Read on, below, about Jackie Walker’s life after football. It’s an extraordinary story of a 25 year friendship between a gay man and his non-gay best friend)
Life After Football
After a chance with the Washington Redskins didn't pan out, Jackie Walker walked away from football. Turns out, he had other things to do.
The best way David Smith can describe his friend of more than 25 years is a renaissance man.
How else do you sum up a football star who taught tennis for the city of Atlanta, traveled all over the country and to places like Africa and Europe?
What else fits a man who worked for AT&T, Sprint, an insurance company and with paroled criminals?
"When he walked into a room, he had a presence. Everywhere he went," says Smith. "If we went to the mayor's house or we went to the 'hood, they dealt with him first."
Walker, though, always seemed to deal with himself last.
Shortly after he met Walker as a co-worker with Atlanta's parks and recreation department, Smith's life began to change.
Early in their friendship, Walker asked Smith why he still lived in a rough part of town. The answer was that Smith, who struggled with dyslexia, was too ashamed of his poor reading skills to fill out an application for an apartment in a better neighborhood.
So Walker
went with him to fill out the application. Then he found the phone number for a program that assisted people with learning disabilities and even accompanied Smith to a few classes.
After seeing one of Smith's drawings in a supply room at the tennis center, he kept after Smith to pursue a career in art.
Smith got married at Walker's family home in Knoxville. And when Smith's wife left him to care for their two young daughters after she came out as a lesbian, Walker helped his friend understand and deal with the pain.
"I can't imagine living my life not knowing Jackie Walker," says Smith, who adopted the name Da'Vu after achieving some renown as an artist.
More than almost anyone else, Smith knew the rare kind power Jackie Walker had in the lives of others.
"He dealt with everything by being a doer," Smith says. "He helped all kinds of people. He didn't judge. If he didn't judge, people around him didn't judge."
And so it was that Smith, a straight man, accompanied Walker to support group meetings for those struggling with HIV after Walker
was diagnosed with the disease in the early 1990s.
He watched his friend manage its effects in the early years, although it eventually meant Walker couldn't travel as much.
And, on a rare trip to the mountains in East Tennessee in Walker's later years, Smith watched how his friend handled himself when a waitress refused to serve him after Walker
told her of his disease.
"He dealt with AIDS with dignity," Smith said. "He never whined and said, 'Why me?' He was just a leader. He overcame."
Eventually, though, the disease took its toll. His kidneys began to fail around 2000, and his 6-foot frame withered from about 215 pounds to 165.
Marshall Walker would drive to Atlanta when Jackie had to be hospitalized, sometimes for weeks at a time. Smith, who lived just a few miles away, spent nearly every one of Jackie Walker's last days caring for his best friend.
In 2002, Jackie Walker died of complications from AIDS. And there's rarely a day that Smith or Marshall Walker (Jackie’s brother) don't think of Jackie.
"Without being cocky, he reminded me of a king the way he carried himself," Smith said. "He had a presence about him. I realized that more when he was gone."
Sources: Ramon Johnson, of About.com and Drew Edwards of The Knoxville News Sentinel
His teammates elected him captain for the '71 season, making him the first African-American to lead an SEC team. Walker still shares the N.C.A.A. title for the most number of career interceptions converted into touchdowns (5).
It was in 1971 that Jackie decided to come out. One of his teammates, Jamie Rotella said he heard that Walker
was gay. He says:
“I was totally shocked,” he said. “But it didn’t affect the way I admired and respected him. We were confused, but everybody had too much respect for Jackie, for his character as well as for his football play. Jackie was a private person, very humble. Whenever he did speak, his words were sincere, reflecting his character. He was a silent leader. He didn’t say much, but when he did, you listened.”
During his years in college football, Jackie had to endure not only the pressure of being gay, but racism as well. Often he had to deal with racial epithets, and sometimes objects, hurled from the stands and being refused service in restaurants when the team was on the road.
Despite his successful college football career, Walker was never inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. His brother, Marshall, his teammates and coaches believe that he was withheld from the honor because of his sexuality. Walker was openly gay and never hid his sexual identity.
After college, Walker was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers, but was later cut before the season began. Although not substantiated, Marshall Walker and others believe that Jackie's sexuality played a role in the decision.
The story of Walker's deafened legend was made audible by a story written by Betty Bean for Metro Plus magazine. Bean asked the question of whether Walker's sexuality was the reason why he was never inducted into the Hall of Fame. She discovered that Walker's name was still legendary in the Knoxville area and that there was much support from previous teammates and coaches for his induction.
"[Walker] should have been inducted long before I was,” Lon Herzbrun, who coached Walker at Fulton High School and in college told Bean. “He didn’t do any of the things some of the guys today do — no drugs, none of that,” he said. “He was just the most accomplished player I’ve ever been around.”
The resurrection of Walker's historic career prompted a move from the Hall of Fame to induct Walker in the summer of 2008. The honor comes six years after Walker
's death from AIDS complications in 2002.
(Read on, below, about Jackie Walker’s life after football. It’s an extraordinary story of a 25 year friendship between a gay man and his non-gay best friend)
Life After Football
After a chance with the Washington Redskins didn't pan out, Jackie Walker walked away from football. Turns out, he had other things to do.
The best way David Smith can describe his friend of more than 25 years is a renaissance man.
How else do you sum up a football star who taught tennis for the city of Atlanta, traveled all over the country and to places like Africa and Europe?
What else fits a man who worked for AT&T, Sprint, an insurance company and with paroled criminals?
"When he walked into a room, he had a presence. Everywhere he went," says Smith. "If we went to the mayor's house or we went to the 'hood, they dealt with him first."
Walker, though, always seemed to deal with himself last.
Shortly after he met Walker as a co-worker with Atlanta's parks and recreation department, Smith's life began to change.
Early in their friendship, Walker asked Smith why he still lived in a rough part of town. The answer was that Smith, who struggled with dyslexia, was too ashamed of his poor reading skills to fill out an application for an apartment in a better neighborhood.
So Walker
went with him to fill out the application. Then he found the phone number for a program that assisted people with learning disabilities and even accompanied Smith to a few classes.
After seeing one of Smith's drawings in a supply room at the tennis center, he kept after Smith to pursue a career in art.
Smith got married at Walker's family home in Knoxville. And when Smith's wife left him to care for their two young daughters after she came out as a lesbian, Walker helped his friend understand and deal with the pain.
"I can't imagine living my life not knowing Jackie Walker," says Smith, who adopted the name Da'Vu after achieving some renown as an artist.
More than almost anyone else, Smith knew the rare kind power Jackie Walker had in the lives of others.
"He dealt with everything by being a doer," Smith says. "He helped all kinds of people. He didn't judge. If he didn't judge, people around him didn't judge."
And so it was that Smith, a straight man, accompanied Walker to support group meetings for those struggling with HIV after Walker
was diagnosed with the disease in the early 1990s.
He watched his friend manage its effects in the early years, although it eventually meant Walker couldn't travel as much.
And, on a rare trip to the mountains in East Tennessee in Walker's later years, Smith watched how his friend handled himself when a waitress refused to serve him after Walker
told her of his disease.
"He dealt with AIDS with dignity," Smith said. "He never whined and said, 'Why me?' He was just a leader. He overcame."
Eventually, though, the disease took its toll. His kidneys began to fail around 2000, and his 6-foot frame withered from about 215 pounds to 165.
Marshall Walker would drive to Atlanta when Jackie had to be hospitalized, sometimes for weeks at a time. Smith, who lived just a few miles away, spent nearly every one of Jackie Walker's last days caring for his best friend.
In 2002, Jackie Walker died of complications from AIDS. And there's rarely a day that Smith or Marshall Walker (Jackie’s brother) don't think of Jackie.
"Without being cocky, he reminded me of a king the way he carried himself," Smith said. "He had a presence about him. I realized that more when he was gone."
Sources: Ramon Johnson, of About.com and Drew Edwards of The Knoxville News Sentinel
Kevin Aviance: Singer, Performance Artist
Before Lady Gaga there was Kevin Aviance. Kevin Aviance (born Eric Snead June 22, 1968 in Richmond Virginia) is an American female impressionist club / dance musician and fashion designer, he is a very popular personality in New York City's gay scene and is a member of the House of Aviance a local gay performer's group, he is known for his trademark phrase "Work Fierce Over Aviance!"
Kevin Aviance was raised in Richmond Virginia in a close-knit family with seven siblings from a young age, Aviance dedicated himself to the study of music and theater. His career as performance artist and club personality began in Washington DC, continued in Miami and in eventually landed him in New York City, the epicenter of the Club and the music scene, in 1989.
He has appeared in several films including Flawless starring Robert De Niro and the independent film Punks (written and directed by, Ian Patrik Polk of ‘Noah’s Arc’ fame). In addition to his feature-film work he has made guest appearances on such shows as The Tyra Banks Show and America's Next Top Model. Also his songs "Din Da Da" "Rhythm Is My Bitch" "Alive" "Give It Up" and "Strut" has all reached # 1 on the Billboard Dance Chart, the only of singles not to a peak of # 1 to date is "Dance For Love". Kevin Aviance's most successful dance radio hit to date is "Give It Up" released in 2004.
In recent news June 10, 2006 while leaving Phoenix popular gay bar located in the East Village Manhattan, he was robbed and beaten by a group of men who yelled anti-gay slurs against him four suspects were arrested in New York hate-crimes law, but reports say up to seven men were involved in the attack. Despite suffering a broken jaw, he insisted on appearing in the city's Pride parade later that month.
On 21 March 2007 all four attackers pleaded guilty and received prison sentences of between 6 to 15 years. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTuzFNZftY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l7_Zu2AQyQ)
Kevin Aviance was raised in Richmond Virginia in a close-knit family with seven siblings from a young age, Aviance dedicated himself to the study of music and theater. His career as performance artist and club personality began in Washington DC, continued in Miami and in eventually landed him in New York City, the epicenter of the Club and the music scene, in 1989.
He has appeared in several films including Flawless starring Robert De Niro and the independent film Punks (written and directed by, Ian Patrik Polk of ‘Noah’s Arc’ fame). In addition to his feature-film work he has made guest appearances on such shows as The Tyra Banks Show and America's Next Top Model. Also his songs "Din Da Da" "Rhythm Is My Bitch" "Alive" "Give It Up" and "Strut" has all reached # 1 on the Billboard Dance Chart, the only of singles not to a peak of # 1 to date is "Dance For Love". Kevin Aviance's most successful dance radio hit to date is "Give It Up" released in 2004.
In recent news June 10, 2006 while leaving Phoenix popular gay bar located in the East Village Manhattan, he was robbed and beaten by a group of men who yelled anti-gay slurs against him four suspects were arrested in New York hate-crimes law, but reports say up to seven men were involved in the attack. Despite suffering a broken jaw, he insisted on appearing in the city's Pride parade later that month.
On 21 March 2007 all four attackers pleaded guilty and received prison sentences of between 6 to 15 years. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTuzFNZftY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5l7_Zu2AQyQ)
Carmen McRae: Legendary Jazz Singer/Diva
(1920 – 1994) was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable. Carmen drew inspiration from Billie Holiday, but established her own distinctive voice. She went on to record over 60 albums, enjoying a rich musical career that spanned over 50 years, performing and recording in the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Carmen Mercedes McRae was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents, Osmond and Evadne McRae. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. She met singer Billie Holiday when she was just 17 years old. As a teenager McRae came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings Wilson. One of McRae's early songs, "Dream of Life" through their influence, was recorded in 1939 by Wilson’s longtime collaborator Billie Holiday. McRae considered Holiday to be her primary influence.
In her late teens and early twenties, McRae played piano at a New York club called Minton's Playhouse, Harlem's most famous jazz club, sang as a chorus girl, and worked as a secretary. It was at Minton's where she met trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Kenny Clarke. Had her first important job as a pianist with the Benny Carter's big band (1944), worked with Count Basie (1944) and made her first recording as pianist with Mercer Ellington Band (1946-1947). But it was while working in Brooklyn that she came to the attention of Decca’s Milt Gabler. Her five year association with Decca yielded 12 LPs.
In 1948 she moved to Chicago with comedian George Kirby. She played piano steadily for almost four years before returning to New York. Those years in Chicago, McRae told Jazz Forum, "gave me whatever it is that I have now. That's the most prominent schooling I ever had." Back in New York in the early 1950s, McRae got the record contract that launched her career. In 1954, she was voted best new female vocalist by Down Beat magazine.
Among her most interesting recording projects were Mad About The Man (1957) with composer Noël Coward, Boy Meets Girl (1957) with Sammy Davis, Jr., participating in Dave Brubeck's The Real Ambassadors (1961) with Louis Armstrong, a tribute album You're Lookin' at Me (A Collection of Nat King Cole Songs) (1983), cutting an album of live duets with Betty Carter, The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets (1987), being accompanied by Dave Brubeck and George Shearing, and closing her career with brilliant tributes to Thelonious Monk, Carmen Sings Monk (1990), and Sarah Vaughan, Sarah: Dedicated to You (1991).
As a result of her early friendship with Billie Holiday, she never performed without singing at least one song associated with "Lady Day", and recorded an album in 1983 in her honor entitled For Lady Day, which was released in 1995. Some songs included are; "Good Morning Heartache", "Them There Eyes", "Lover Man", "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", just to name a few. McRae also recorded with the world best jazz musicians, Take Five Live (1961) with Dave Brubeck, Heat Wave (1982) with Cal Tjader, and Two for the Road (1989) with George Shearing.
Carmen McRae sang in jazz clubs throughout the United States—and across the world—for over fifty years. McRae was a popular performer at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival (1961-1963, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1982). Performing with Duke Ellington's at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1980, singing "Don't Get Around Much Any More", and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1989. Carmen McRae was forced to retire in 1991 due to emphysema. McRae died on November 10, 1994, in Beverly Hills, California from a stroke, following complications from respiratory illness. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K0Jqt6wHZnY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i7ktgyt3OTo)
Carmen Mercedes McRae was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents, Osmond and Evadne McRae. She began studying piano when she was eight, and the music of jazz greats like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington filled her home. She met singer Billie Holiday when she was just 17 years old. As a teenager McRae came to the attention of Teddy Wilson and his wife, the composer Irene Kitchings Wilson. One of McRae's early songs, "Dream of Life" through their influence, was recorded in 1939 by Wilson’s longtime collaborator Billie Holiday. McRae considered Holiday to be her primary influence.
In her late teens and early twenties, McRae played piano at a New York club called Minton's Playhouse, Harlem's most famous jazz club, sang as a chorus girl, and worked as a secretary. It was at Minton's where she met trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, bassist Oscar Pettiford, and drummer Kenny Clarke. Had her first important job as a pianist with the Benny Carter's big band (1944), worked with Count Basie (1944) and made her first recording as pianist with Mercer Ellington Band (1946-1947). But it was while working in Brooklyn that she came to the attention of Decca’s Milt Gabler. Her five year association with Decca yielded 12 LPs.
In 1948 she moved to Chicago with comedian George Kirby. She played piano steadily for almost four years before returning to New York. Those years in Chicago, McRae told Jazz Forum, "gave me whatever it is that I have now. That's the most prominent schooling I ever had." Back in New York in the early 1950s, McRae got the record contract that launched her career. In 1954, she was voted best new female vocalist by Down Beat magazine.
Among her most interesting recording projects were Mad About The Man (1957) with composer Noël Coward, Boy Meets Girl (1957) with Sammy Davis, Jr., participating in Dave Brubeck's The Real Ambassadors (1961) with Louis Armstrong, a tribute album You're Lookin' at Me (A Collection of Nat King Cole Songs) (1983), cutting an album of live duets with Betty Carter, The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets (1987), being accompanied by Dave Brubeck and George Shearing, and closing her career with brilliant tributes to Thelonious Monk, Carmen Sings Monk (1990), and Sarah Vaughan, Sarah: Dedicated to You (1991).
As a result of her early friendship with Billie Holiday, she never performed without singing at least one song associated with "Lady Day", and recorded an album in 1983 in her honor entitled For Lady Day, which was released in 1995. Some songs included are; "Good Morning Heartache", "Them There Eyes", "Lover Man", "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", just to name a few. McRae also recorded with the world best jazz musicians, Take Five Live (1961) with Dave Brubeck, Heat Wave (1982) with Cal Tjader, and Two for the Road (1989) with George Shearing.
Carmen McRae sang in jazz clubs throughout the United States—and across the world—for over fifty years. McRae was a popular performer at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival (1961-1963, 1966, 1971, 1973, 1982). Performing with Duke Ellington's at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1980, singing "Don't Get Around Much Any More", and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1989. Carmen McRae was forced to retire in 1991 due to emphysema. McRae died on November 10, 1994, in Beverly Hills, California from a stroke, following complications from respiratory illness. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K0Jqt6wHZnY; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i7ktgyt3OTo)
William Scott: Singer, Songwriter
Ever since the day he was pulled out of his 6th grade class by his principal to sing for his schools most legendary alumnus Diana Ross, William Scott has been continuing the shining musical legacy of his hometown Detroit, MI.
Influenced by the likes of Prince, Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye, William’s silky voice has warmed the stage for R&B recording artists,”Monifah,” “Case,” “Dru Hill” and “Gladys Knight.” He was also 1 of 2 featured vocalists chosen out of 2,000 Detroiter’s to perform at the grand opening of “The Detroit Lion’s Ford Field.”
As a songwriter he is featured in the movie “Two Weeks Notice,” with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. He has written for artists such as “Bell Biv Devoe,” “Monifah,” “Next” and worked with producers, The Buchanan's (Jay Z), Steve Pageot (Grammy Award Winner), Adeka “D” Stupart (3LW, Kelly Rowland), China Black, Red Head Kingpin, Keith Krouch (Brandy), Doug E. Fresh and many others.
In 2006 William Scott independently released his debut album “Who’s Afraid of William Scott?” which sparked consciousness and controversy because of it’s refreshing sound and daring subject matter regarding race relations, the loss of cultural history and homophobia in the African American community. The album quickly gained attention from several newspapers and magazines such as, The New York Times, The Michigan Chronicle, Between The Lines Newspaper, and two consecutive issues of Out Magazine.
William Scott is not only a singer/songwriter, he is a working actor/director and playwright who has been involved in several professional, Equity and Non-Equity theatrical productions across the country. He was Michigan’s teen host for the nationally broadcast television show “Fast Forward ” in 1996. William was featured in a 2008 Ford Edge commercial. William has performed at Broadway and off-Broadway theaters. He has been featured in the New York Times, for his performance in the Off- Broadway musical, “Best of Both Worlds” an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “A Winter’s Tale.”
William has had the pleasure of performing alongside stage and screen stars such as, Billy Porter “Grease”, David Morse “Disturbia,” Kate Burton “Grey’s Anatomy” and Keith David “First Sunday,” “Chronicles of Riddick.”
In concert, he is a dynamic performer sure of his craft, with a musical style that can easily range from silky soul to funky house to an eclectic world music fusion. Onstage with him and his band you will often seen his life-partner, Sean Mosely (a dynamic singer in his own right) backing him. They could easily be the ‘Ashford and Simpson’ in this case, ‘Ashford and Ashford’, of black gay musical artists.
William Scott and his life-partner Sean Mosley (also a talented singer in his own right) are co-owners of ‘Free Will Music’ (http://www.freewillmusic.biz/), and Wil Power Media (https://www.facebook.com/WiLPowerMedia).
In an interview with ‘About.Com’, William was asked, ‘What are the tools same-gender-loving people need to make their positive vision a reality?’ His reply was:
1. Be present in life and engage in something that's a hugely important catalyst for change.
2. Be yourself and affirm who you truly are at every opportunity.
3. Seek the truth despite your fears. In truth comes greatness and empowerment. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpGzvSyEfyo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6do3bWjIztc&list=UUtmEWcDztFwkZLggSOwotwg; http://www.youtube.com/user/WilliamScott1979?feature=watch; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otyEx29z5-4)
Influenced by the likes of Prince, Donny Hathaway and Marvin Gaye, William’s silky voice has warmed the stage for R&B recording artists,”Monifah,” “Case,” “Dru Hill” and “Gladys Knight.” He was also 1 of 2 featured vocalists chosen out of 2,000 Detroiter’s to perform at the grand opening of “The Detroit Lion’s Ford Field.”
As a songwriter he is featured in the movie “Two Weeks Notice,” with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. He has written for artists such as “Bell Biv Devoe,” “Monifah,” “Next” and worked with producers, The Buchanan's (Jay Z), Steve Pageot (Grammy Award Winner), Adeka “D” Stupart (3LW, Kelly Rowland), China Black, Red Head Kingpin, Keith Krouch (Brandy), Doug E. Fresh and many others.
In 2006 William Scott independently released his debut album “Who’s Afraid of William Scott?” which sparked consciousness and controversy because of it’s refreshing sound and daring subject matter regarding race relations, the loss of cultural history and homophobia in the African American community. The album quickly gained attention from several newspapers and magazines such as, The New York Times, The Michigan Chronicle, Between The Lines Newspaper, and two consecutive issues of Out Magazine.
William Scott is not only a singer/songwriter, he is a working actor/director and playwright who has been involved in several professional, Equity and Non-Equity theatrical productions across the country. He was Michigan’s teen host for the nationally broadcast television show “Fast Forward ” in 1996. William was featured in a 2008 Ford Edge commercial. William has performed at Broadway and off-Broadway theaters. He has been featured in the New York Times, for his performance in the Off- Broadway musical, “Best of Both Worlds” an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “A Winter’s Tale.”
William has had the pleasure of performing alongside stage and screen stars such as, Billy Porter “Grease”, David Morse “Disturbia,” Kate Burton “Grey’s Anatomy” and Keith David “First Sunday,” “Chronicles of Riddick.”
In concert, he is a dynamic performer sure of his craft, with a musical style that can easily range from silky soul to funky house to an eclectic world music fusion. Onstage with him and his band you will often seen his life-partner, Sean Mosely (a dynamic singer in his own right) backing him. They could easily be the ‘Ashford and Simpson’ in this case, ‘Ashford and Ashford’, of black gay musical artists.
William Scott and his life-partner Sean Mosley (also a talented singer in his own right) are co-owners of ‘Free Will Music’ (http://www.freewillmusic.biz/), and Wil Power Media (https://www.facebook.com/WiLPowerMedia).
In an interview with ‘About.Com’, William was asked, ‘What are the tools same-gender-loving people need to make their positive vision a reality?’ His reply was:
1. Be present in life and engage in something that's a hugely important catalyst for change.
2. Be yourself and affirm who you truly are at every opportunity.
3. Seek the truth despite your fears. In truth comes greatness and empowerment. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpGzvSyEfyo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6do3bWjIztc&list=UUtmEWcDztFwkZLggSOwotwg; http://www.youtube.com/user/WilliamScott1979?feature=watch; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otyEx29z5-4)
Octavia Butler: Science Fiction Novelist, Short Story Writer
Octavia Butler (1947- 2006) was an American science fiction writer. She won both the Hugo and Nebula awards and in 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant.
Shy and suffering from dyslexia, Octavia Butler began writing at the age of 10 "to escape loneliness and boredom"; she was 12 when she began a lifelong interest in science fiction. Her first published story, a short story, "Crossover," appeared in Clarion's 1971 anthology.
In 1976, her novel Patternmaster, became her first published book. Over the next eight years, she would publish four more novels in the same story line, though the publication dates of the novels do not match the internal order of the series. Some of her books include: Wild Seed, (part of the Patternist series) where she contrasts how two potentially immortal characters go about building families. The male character, Doro, engages in a breeding program to create people with stronger psychic powers both as food, and as potential companions. The female character, Anyanwu, creates villages. Yet Doro and Anyanwu, in spite of their differences grow to need each other, as the only immortal/extremely long-lived beings in the world.
Her story, Kindred, explores the psychodynamics of power and enslavement. It’s a story in which Dana, an African American woman, is inexplicably transported from 1976 Los Angeles to early nineteenth century Maryland. She meets her ancestors: Rufus, a white slave holder, and Alice, an African American woman who was born free but forced into slavery later in life. Kindred became the most popular of all her books, with 250,000 copies currently in print.
What many consider her greatest achievement, though, are Parable of Sower and its sequel Parable of the Talents. These two books are set in a futuristic Los Angeles violently pulling itself apart as the homeless and drug-addicted many prey on the employed, suburban few. The plot follows the young Lauren Olamina, left orphaned and destitute after her walled community is attacked.
As she travels north, as much in pilgrimage as in flight, she establishes a secular belief system she calls Earthseed, a faith that "God is Change" and "We shape God." Olamina and her fellow travelers argue that human beings need to value adaptability, diversity, and responsibility if they are to halt social entropy and make something of the ruins left to them. In the second novel, Earthseed and the community built on it come under attack from religious fanatics, who prove as brutal as the urban gangs that plagued the city streets.
In all, Octavia Butler wrote thirteen novels and many short stories.
Shy and suffering from dyslexia, Octavia Butler began writing at the age of 10 "to escape loneliness and boredom"; she was 12 when she began a lifelong interest in science fiction. Her first published story, a short story, "Crossover," appeared in Clarion's 1971 anthology.
In 1976, her novel Patternmaster, became her first published book. Over the next eight years, she would publish four more novels in the same story line, though the publication dates of the novels do not match the internal order of the series. Some of her books include: Wild Seed, (part of the Patternist series) where she contrasts how two potentially immortal characters go about building families. The male character, Doro, engages in a breeding program to create people with stronger psychic powers both as food, and as potential companions. The female character, Anyanwu, creates villages. Yet Doro and Anyanwu, in spite of their differences grow to need each other, as the only immortal/extremely long-lived beings in the world.
Her story, Kindred, explores the psychodynamics of power and enslavement. It’s a story in which Dana, an African American woman, is inexplicably transported from 1976 Los Angeles to early nineteenth century Maryland. She meets her ancestors: Rufus, a white slave holder, and Alice, an African American woman who was born free but forced into slavery later in life. Kindred became the most popular of all her books, with 250,000 copies currently in print.
What many consider her greatest achievement, though, are Parable of Sower and its sequel Parable of the Talents. These two books are set in a futuristic Los Angeles violently pulling itself apart as the homeless and drug-addicted many prey on the employed, suburban few. The plot follows the young Lauren Olamina, left orphaned and destitute after her walled community is attacked.
As she travels north, as much in pilgrimage as in flight, she establishes a secular belief system she calls Earthseed, a faith that "God is Change" and "We shape God." Olamina and her fellow travelers argue that human beings need to value adaptability, diversity, and responsibility if they are to halt social entropy and make something of the ruins left to them. In the second novel, Earthseed and the community built on it come under attack from religious fanatics, who prove as brutal as the urban gangs that plagued the city streets.
In all, Octavia Butler wrote thirteen novels and many short stories.
Danieri Basammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa: King of Buganda (Now Uganda)
Danieri Basammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa, was the Kabaka or king, of Buganda (modern day Uganda) from 1884 to 1888, and from1889 to 1897. The king was known to have sexual relations with his male pages and courtiers. Contrary to the myth of Europeans ‘introducing homosexuality’ to Africa, it was often the European colonists who sought to punish Africans for acts of homosexuality. The colonists, in the form of missionaries, made efforts to impose their Christian morality to stop homosexuality as well as other cultural differences they found abhorrent.
Kabaka (King) Mwanga II fought hard to keep outside influences from dismantling his kingdom. Nonindigenous religious influence being an often used tool by the outsiders to conquer the kingdom of Buganda , King Mwanga II used the various religious churches that had taken hold in his kingdom to fight against each other, mainly the Christians and the Muslims, as well as the English Protestants, the French White Fathers, all who sought to control the Bugandan court, though it was the Christian Church, being of a more powerful Europe, that was gaining much of the control.
On October 29, 1885, he had the incoming archbishop James Hannington murdered on the eastern border of his kingdom and also in retaliation against the threats to his sovereignty, the king killed 22 of those who had converted to Christianity. His move was not that he was necessarily anti-Christian, as it was his understanding how the Christian missionaries were seeking to dismantle his country and the culture of his people. The move was political.
Eventually, the British came to power in Buganda, deposing Kabaka Mwanga II and made the act of homosexuality a criminal act, whereas before homosexuality was not considered a criminal act in Buganda-- an irony given today's rabid homophobia by some in that country.
Jackie Kay: Scottish Poet, Novelist
Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted by a white couple at birth and was brought up in Glasgow, studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Stirling University where she read English.
The experience of being adopted by and growing up withing a white family inspired her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991). The poems deal with an adopted child's search for a cultural identity and are told through three different voices: an adoptive mother, a birth mother and a daughter. The collection won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award, the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award and a commendation by the Forward Poetry Prize judges in 1992. The poems in Other Lovers (1993) explore the role and power of language, inspired and influenced by the history of Afro-Caribbean people, the story of a search for identity grounded in the experience of slavery. The collection includes a sequence of poems about the blues-singer Bessie Smith. Off Colour (1998) explores themes of sickness, health and disease through personal experience and metaphor. Her poems have appeared in many anthologies, and she has written widely for stage and television.
Her first novel, Trumpet, published in 1998, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Inspired by the life of musician Billy Tipton, the novel tells the story of Scottish jazz trumpeter Joss Moody whose death revealed that he was, in fact, a woman. Kay develops the narrative through the voices of Moody's wife, his adopted son and a journalist from a tabloid newspaper. Her books, Why Don't You Stop Talking (2002) and Wish I Was Here (2006), are collections of short stories, and she has also published a novel for children, Strawgirl (2002). Her collection of poetry for children, Red, Cherry Red (2007) won the 2008 CLPE Poetry Award.
Her novella, Sonata, was published in 2006; her book of poems Darling: New and Selected Poems in 2007; and her dramatised poem, The Lamplighter, in 2008. The Lamplighter was shortlisted for the 2009 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award.
Jackie Kay lives in Manchester. In 2006, she was knighted Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to literature.
The experience of being adopted by and growing up withing a white family inspired her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991). The poems deal with an adopted child's search for a cultural identity and are told through three different voices: an adoptive mother, a birth mother and a daughter. The collection won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award, the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award and a commendation by the Forward Poetry Prize judges in 1992. The poems in Other Lovers (1993) explore the role and power of language, inspired and influenced by the history of Afro-Caribbean people, the story of a search for identity grounded in the experience of slavery. The collection includes a sequence of poems about the blues-singer Bessie Smith. Off Colour (1998) explores themes of sickness, health and disease through personal experience and metaphor. Her poems have appeared in many anthologies, and she has written widely for stage and television.
Her first novel, Trumpet, published in 1998, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Inspired by the life of musician Billy Tipton, the novel tells the story of Scottish jazz trumpeter Joss Moody whose death revealed that he was, in fact, a woman. Kay develops the narrative through the voices of Moody's wife, his adopted son and a journalist from a tabloid newspaper. Her books, Why Don't You Stop Talking (2002) and Wish I Was Here (2006), are collections of short stories, and she has also published a novel for children, Strawgirl (2002). Her collection of poetry for children, Red, Cherry Red (2007) won the 2008 CLPE Poetry Award.
Her novella, Sonata, was published in 2006; her book of poems Darling: New and Selected Poems in 2007; and her dramatised poem, The Lamplighter, in 2008. The Lamplighter was shortlisted for the 2009 Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award.
Jackie Kay lives in Manchester. In 2006, she was knighted Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to literature.
Kenneth Reeves: First Black Openly Gay Mayor
Kenneth Reeves (1951) served as the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1992-1995 and again from 2006-2007. He is the first openly gay black man to serve as mayor of any city. Kenneth Reeves is a Cum Laude graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School. He is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, and served as the Managing Attorney of the General Motors/United Auto Workers legal plan and as an attorney specializing in utility, insurance and banking regulations for the National Consumer Law Center in Boston.
From1997-1998 he held a M.I.T. Fellowship in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and he has completed executive programs at Harvard’s J.F.K. School
of Government. His current and former organizational affiliations include: Men of Color Against AIDS (co-founder), Concillio Hispano, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (CMAC), Roxbury Children's Services, National Black College Alliance, National Black Lesbian & Gay Leadership Forum (NBLGLF) and Massachusetts Halfway Houses, Inc.
He and his partner of 36 years, Greg Johnson, were former roommates at Harvard. Greg is a non-profit executive.
From1997-1998 he held a M.I.T. Fellowship in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and he has completed executive programs at Harvard’s J.F.K. School
of Government. His current and former organizational affiliations include: Men of Color Against AIDS (co-founder), Concillio Hispano, Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (CMAC), Roxbury Children's Services, National Black College Alliance, National Black Lesbian & Gay Leadership Forum (NBLGLF) and Massachusetts Halfway Houses, Inc.
He and his partner of 36 years, Greg Johnson, were former roommates at Harvard. Greg is a non-profit executive.
Isaac Julien: Filmmaker, Painter, Video-Artist, Photographer
Isaac Julien (1960) graduated from St Martin's School of Art in 1984, where he studied painting and fine art film. He founded Sankofa Film and Video Collective, and was a founder member of Normal Films in 1999.
Julien came to prominence in the film world with his 1989 drama-documentary ‘Looking for Langston’, gaining a cult following with this poetic exploration of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. This following was expanded in 1991 when his film ‘Young Soul Rebels' received the Semaine de la Critique prize for best film at the Cannes Film Festival.
One of the objectives of Julien's work is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting these to construct a powerfully visual narrative. Thematically, much of his work directly relates to experiences of black and gay identity, including issues of class, sexuality, and artistic and cultural history.
He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001, and in 2003 he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Kunst film Biennale in Cologne for his single screen version of 'Baltimore'. Julien is also a documentary filmmaker - his work in this genre includes 'BaadAsssss Cinema', a film on the history and influence of blaxpoitation cinema. Julien lives and works in London. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le4O0CXppF4; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4lnqrNXyrs)
Julien came to prominence in the film world with his 1989 drama-documentary ‘Looking for Langston’, gaining a cult following with this poetic exploration of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. This following was expanded in 1991 when his film ‘Young Soul Rebels' received the Semaine de la Critique prize for best film at the Cannes Film Festival.
One of the objectives of Julien's work is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting these to construct a powerfully visual narrative. Thematically, much of his work directly relates to experiences of black and gay identity, including issues of class, sexuality, and artistic and cultural history.
He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001, and in 2003 he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Kunst film Biennale in Cologne for his single screen version of 'Baltimore'. Julien is also a documentary filmmaker - his work in this genre includes 'BaadAsssss Cinema', a film on the history and influence of blaxpoitation cinema. Julien lives and works in London. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le4O0CXppF4; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4lnqrNXyrs)
June Jordan: Poet, Novelist, Journalist, Teacher
June Millicent Jordan (1936 - 2002) was a Caribbean American poet, novelist, journalist, biographer, dramatist, teacher, and committed activist. In her three decade career Jordan made her mark as one of the fiercest and most compassionate voices of her time. She became a passionate voice of a generation battling the constructions of race, gender, sexuality, politics, war, violence, and human rights. Jordan played an important role in the development of black artistic, social, and politic movements and is still widely regarded as one of the most significant and prolific Black, writers of the twentieth century.
June Jordan was born the only child of Jamaican immigrant parents in Harlem. When she was five, the family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. While life in the Jordan household was often turbulent, Jordan credits her father with passing on to her a love of literature, and she began writing her own poetry at the age of seven. Jordan describes the complexities of her early childhood in her 2000 memoir, Soldier: A Poet's Childhood which she dedicated to her father. In this short memoir Jordan explores her complicated relationship with a man who encouraged her to read broadly and memorize passages of classical texts, but would also beat her for the slightest misstep and called her "damn black devil child".
In her 1986 essay For My American Family Jordan explores the many conflicts to be dealt with in the experience of being raised by black immigrant parents with visions of the future for their offspring that far exceeded the urban ghettos of the present. In Soldier: A Poet's Childhood, June recalls her father telling her "There was a war on against colored people, I had to became a soldier". While grateful to America for allowing him to escape poverty and seek a better life for his family, June Jordan's father was conscious of the struggles his daughter would face and encouraged her to fight. After attending Brooklyn's Midwood high school for a year, June's father enrolled her in the Northfield school for girls in Gill, Massachusetts.
Through her education June became "completely immersed in a white universe" attending predominately white schools, but was also able to construct and develop her identity as a black American and a writer. In 1953 she graduated high school and enrolled at Barnard College. She later expressed how she felt about Barnard College. In her book Civil War, she wrote, "No one ever presented me with a single Black author, poet, historian, personage, or idea for that matter. Nor was I ever assigned a single woman to study as a thinker, or writer, or poet, or life force. Nothing that I learned, here, lessened my feeling of pain or confusion and bitterness as related to my origins: my street, my family, my friends. Nothing showed me how I might try to alter the political and economic realities underlying our Black condition in white America."
It was at Barnard that she met a white Columbia University student, Michael Meyer whom she married in 1955. Jordan subsequently followed her husband to the University of Chicago, where he would pursue graduate studies in anthropology. She also enrolled at the university but soon returned to Barnard where she remained until 1957. In 1958 Jordan gave birth to the couples only child, Christopher David Meyer. The couple divorced in 1965.
June Jordan's first published book, Who Look at Me, appeared in 1969; it was a collection of poems for children. Twenty-seven more books followed in her lifetime, one (Some of Us Did Not Die, Collected and New Essays) was in press when she died. Two more have been published posthumously: Directed By Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press, 2005) and a re-issue of the 1970 poetry collection, SoulScript, edited by Jordan.
In her memoir Soldier: A Poet's Childhood, Jordan depicted in detail her relationship with her father in the book and was happy with the outcome stating, "I wanted to honor my father, first of all, and secondly, I wanted people to pay attention to a little girl who is gifted intellectually and creative, and to see that there's a complexity here that we may otherwise not be prepared to acknowledge or even search for, let alone encourage, and to understand that this is an okay story. This is a story, I think, with a happy outcome, you know".
Her broad-based inclusive politics were significantly influenced by her work in 1964 with visionary architect Buckminster Fuller, her mother's suicide in 1966, her meetings with Fannie Lou Hamer in 1969, and her travels to Nicaragua in the 1980s.
She was also an essayist, columnist for The Progressive, novelist, biographer, and librettist for the musical/opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, composed by John Adams and produced by Peter Sellars. When asked about the writing process of I was Looking at the Ceiling an Then I saw the Sky Jordan states, "The composer, John (Adams), said he needed to have the whole libretto before he could begin, so I just sat down last spring and wrote it in six weeks I mean, that's all I did. I didn't do laundry, anything. I put myself into it 100 percent. What I gave to John and Peter (Sellers) is basically what Scribner's has published now.
Jordan's teaching career began in 1967 at the City College of New York. Between 1968-1978 Jordan taught at Yale University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Connecticut College. Jordan then became the director of The Poetry Center and was an English professor at SUNY at Stony Brook from 1978-1989. From 1989-2002 Jordan was a full professor in the departments of English, Women Studies, and African American Studies at the University of California Berkeley. At Berkeley Jordan founded Poetry for the People in 1991. The program inspires and empowers students to use poetry as a means of artistic expression. On how she began with the concept of the program Jordan states,"I did not wake up one morning ablaze with a coherent vision of Poetry for the People! The natural intermingling of my ideas and my observations as an educator, a poet, and the African-American daughter of poorly documented immigrants did not lead me to any limiting ideological perspectives or resolve. Poetry for the People is the arduous and happy outcome of practical, day-by-day, classroom failure and success".
June composed three guideline points that embodied the program which was published with a set of her students writings in 1995 titled June Jordan's Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint.
June Jordan received numerous honors and awards, including a 1969-1970 Rockefeller grant for creative writing, a Yaddo Fellowship in 1979, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1982, and the Achievement Award for International Reporting from the National Association of Black Journalists in 1984. Jordan also won the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writers Award from 1995 to 1998 as well as the Ground Breakers-Dream Makers Award from The Woman's Foundation in 1994.
She was included in Who's Who in America from 1984 until her death. She received the Chancellor's Distinguished Lectureship from UC Berkeley and the PEN Center USA West Freedom to Write Award (1991).
A conference room is also named after her in UC Berkeley's Eshleman Hall, which is used by the Associated Students of the University of California, honoring her work as a civil rights activist.
June Jordan died of breast cancer at her home in Berkeley, California, aged 65. She was survived by her son, Christopher Meyer. The June Jordan School for Equity (formerly known as the Small School for Equity) in San Francisco was named after her.
Shortly before her death, she completed Some of Us Did Not Die, her seventh collection of political essays (and 27th book), which was published posthumously. In it she describes how her early marriage to a white student while at Barnard College immersed her in the racial turmoil of America in the 1950s, and set her on the path of social activism.
On writing her obituary 'The Guardian' gives a sterling tribute:
June Jordan, who has died aged 65, after suffering from breast cancer for several years, defied all pigeonholes. Poet, essayist, journalist, dramatist, academic, cultural and political activist - she was all these things, by turn and simultaneously, but above all, she was an inspirational teacher, through words and actions, and a supremely principled person.Among African-American writers, she was undoubtedly one of the most widely published, the author of well over two dozen books of non-fiction, poetry, fiction, drama and children's writing. She emerged onto the political and literary scene in the late 1960s, when the movements demanding attention were for civil rights and women's liberation, and anti-war.
She engaged with all of these and more, for her battles were for freedom, whether that involved planning a new architecture for Harlem with her mentor Buckminster Fuller, or speaking out on the Palestinian cause. She spoke out against, or did something about, oppression wherever it was to be found.
It was as a political essayist that Jordan stood head and shoulders above most of her contemporaries. Her collection Civil Wars (1981) was the first such work to be published by a black woman, dealing with battles both external and internal. In subsequent volumes, including On Call (1985) and Technical Difficulties (1992), she wrote about South Africa, Nicaragua and Lebanon, as well as myriad aspects of race and class in the US. She championed the use of black English in the education system 30 years before the emergence of the debate about "Ebonics" (a term she hated).
She was born to West Indian parents, Mildred and Granville Jordan, in Harlem, and the family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn when she was five. While her parents were grateful to America for enabling them to escape poverty in Jamaica, as she describes in her 1986 essay For My American Family, there were many contradictions to be dealt with in the experience of being raised by black immigrants with ambitions for their offspring that far exceeded the urban ghetto.
Jordan's 1971 novel, His Own Where, gives some insight into the tensions of her home situation. Her relationship with her father, a postal clerk, was turbulent - he did not hide his disappointment that she was not a boy - but he passed on to her a love of literature, from the Bible to Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe and Paul Laurence Dunbar, and at the age of seven she began writing poetry.
Her mother was a woman in the classic self-sacrificing mould, who eventually committed suicide. Fifteen years later, in a moving essay dating from 1981, Many Rivers To Cross, Jordan wrote: "I thought about the idea of my mother as a good woman and I rejected that, because I don't see why it's a good thing when you give up, or when you cooperate with those who hate you or when you polish and iron and mend and endlessly mollify for the sake of the people who love the way that you kill yourself day by day silently... I am working for the courage to admit the truth that Bertolt Brecht has written; he says, 'It takes courage to say that the good were defeated not because they were good, but because they were weak'... I came too late to help my mother to her feet. By way of everlasting thanks to all the women who have helped me to stay alive I am working never to be late again."
Through her education, Jordan became "completely immersed in a white universe", attending predominantly white schools, Millwood high school and Northfield school in Massachusetts. In 1953 she enrolled at Barnard College, interrupting her studies to marry a fellow student, who happened to be white. They had a son, Christopher, but the marriage did not survive, and in 1966 they divorced.
The years when she was struggling to make ends meet as a single mother were also her formative years as a writer. Her first book of poetry, Who Look At Me, was produced in 1969, and was followed by a steady stream of publications in different genres, including Things That I Do In The Dark (1970), Passion (1980), Living Room (1985), Lyrical Campaigns (1989), Poetry For The People: A Blueprint For The Revolution (1995), Affirmative Acts: Political Essays (1998), and a memoir, Soldier: A Poet's Childhood (2000).
Her versatility was allied to her belief that being free meant the freedom to be unpredictable, whether about her own sexuality or about the causes she espoused. She could as easily pen a regular column for the Progressive magazine as collaborate with John Adams and Peter Sellars on an opera, I Was Looking At the Ceiling And Then I Saw The Sky, in 1995.
She received many awards and honours, among them a Rockefeller grant in 1969, the New York Council of the Humanities award in 1977, and a lifetime achievement award from the National Black Writers' Conference in 1998.
In a respected academic career she taught at over seven universities, including Sarah Lawrence College, Connecticut College and Yale University, and she was most recently African-American studies professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her life was about challenging oppression, and her characteristic talent was the ability to lay bare through her writing "the intimate face of universal struggle". Alice Walker has said of her: "June Jordan makes us think of Akhmatova, of Neruda. She is the bravest of us, the most outraged. She feels for all. She is the universal poet."
For Toni Morrison, the sum of June Jordan's career was: "Forty years of tireless activism coupled with and fuelled by flawless art." All that aside, she was a joy to know.
June Jordan, poet, essayist and activist, born July 9 1936; died June 14 2002
June Jordan was born the only child of Jamaican immigrant parents in Harlem. When she was five, the family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. While life in the Jordan household was often turbulent, Jordan credits her father with passing on to her a love of literature, and she began writing her own poetry at the age of seven. Jordan describes the complexities of her early childhood in her 2000 memoir, Soldier: A Poet's Childhood which she dedicated to her father. In this short memoir Jordan explores her complicated relationship with a man who encouraged her to read broadly and memorize passages of classical texts, but would also beat her for the slightest misstep and called her "damn black devil child".
In her 1986 essay For My American Family Jordan explores the many conflicts to be dealt with in the experience of being raised by black immigrant parents with visions of the future for their offspring that far exceeded the urban ghettos of the present. In Soldier: A Poet's Childhood, June recalls her father telling her "There was a war on against colored people, I had to became a soldier". While grateful to America for allowing him to escape poverty and seek a better life for his family, June Jordan's father was conscious of the struggles his daughter would face and encouraged her to fight. After attending Brooklyn's Midwood high school for a year, June's father enrolled her in the Northfield school for girls in Gill, Massachusetts.
Through her education June became "completely immersed in a white universe" attending predominately white schools, but was also able to construct and develop her identity as a black American and a writer. In 1953 she graduated high school and enrolled at Barnard College. She later expressed how she felt about Barnard College. In her book Civil War, she wrote, "No one ever presented me with a single Black author, poet, historian, personage, or idea for that matter. Nor was I ever assigned a single woman to study as a thinker, or writer, or poet, or life force. Nothing that I learned, here, lessened my feeling of pain or confusion and bitterness as related to my origins: my street, my family, my friends. Nothing showed me how I might try to alter the political and economic realities underlying our Black condition in white America."
It was at Barnard that she met a white Columbia University student, Michael Meyer whom she married in 1955. Jordan subsequently followed her husband to the University of Chicago, where he would pursue graduate studies in anthropology. She also enrolled at the university but soon returned to Barnard where she remained until 1957. In 1958 Jordan gave birth to the couples only child, Christopher David Meyer. The couple divorced in 1965.
June Jordan's first published book, Who Look at Me, appeared in 1969; it was a collection of poems for children. Twenty-seven more books followed in her lifetime, one (Some of Us Did Not Die, Collected and New Essays) was in press when she died. Two more have been published posthumously: Directed By Desire: The Collected Poems of June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press, 2005) and a re-issue of the 1970 poetry collection, SoulScript, edited by Jordan.
In her memoir Soldier: A Poet's Childhood, Jordan depicted in detail her relationship with her father in the book and was happy with the outcome stating, "I wanted to honor my father, first of all, and secondly, I wanted people to pay attention to a little girl who is gifted intellectually and creative, and to see that there's a complexity here that we may otherwise not be prepared to acknowledge or even search for, let alone encourage, and to understand that this is an okay story. This is a story, I think, with a happy outcome, you know".
Her broad-based inclusive politics were significantly influenced by her work in 1964 with visionary architect Buckminster Fuller, her mother's suicide in 1966, her meetings with Fannie Lou Hamer in 1969, and her travels to Nicaragua in the 1980s.
She was also an essayist, columnist for The Progressive, novelist, biographer, and librettist for the musical/opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, composed by John Adams and produced by Peter Sellars. When asked about the writing process of I was Looking at the Ceiling an Then I saw the Sky Jordan states, "The composer, John (Adams), said he needed to have the whole libretto before he could begin, so I just sat down last spring and wrote it in six weeks I mean, that's all I did. I didn't do laundry, anything. I put myself into it 100 percent. What I gave to John and Peter (Sellers) is basically what Scribner's has published now.
Jordan's teaching career began in 1967 at the City College of New York. Between 1968-1978 Jordan taught at Yale University, Sarah Lawrence College, and Connecticut College. Jordan then became the director of The Poetry Center and was an English professor at SUNY at Stony Brook from 1978-1989. From 1989-2002 Jordan was a full professor in the departments of English, Women Studies, and African American Studies at the University of California Berkeley. At Berkeley Jordan founded Poetry for the People in 1991. The program inspires and empowers students to use poetry as a means of artistic expression. On how she began with the concept of the program Jordan states,"I did not wake up one morning ablaze with a coherent vision of Poetry for the People! The natural intermingling of my ideas and my observations as an educator, a poet, and the African-American daughter of poorly documented immigrants did not lead me to any limiting ideological perspectives or resolve. Poetry for the People is the arduous and happy outcome of practical, day-by-day, classroom failure and success".
June composed three guideline points that embodied the program which was published with a set of her students writings in 1995 titled June Jordan's Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint.
June Jordan received numerous honors and awards, including a 1969-1970 Rockefeller grant for creative writing, a Yaddo Fellowship in 1979, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1982, and the Achievement Award for International Reporting from the National Association of Black Journalists in 1984. Jordan also won the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Writers Award from 1995 to 1998 as well as the Ground Breakers-Dream Makers Award from The Woman's Foundation in 1994.
She was included in Who's Who in America from 1984 until her death. She received the Chancellor's Distinguished Lectureship from UC Berkeley and the PEN Center USA West Freedom to Write Award (1991).
A conference room is also named after her in UC Berkeley's Eshleman Hall, which is used by the Associated Students of the University of California, honoring her work as a civil rights activist.
June Jordan died of breast cancer at her home in Berkeley, California, aged 65. She was survived by her son, Christopher Meyer. The June Jordan School for Equity (formerly known as the Small School for Equity) in San Francisco was named after her.
Shortly before her death, she completed Some of Us Did Not Die, her seventh collection of political essays (and 27th book), which was published posthumously. In it she describes how her early marriage to a white student while at Barnard College immersed her in the racial turmoil of America in the 1950s, and set her on the path of social activism.
On writing her obituary 'The Guardian' gives a sterling tribute:
June Jordan, who has died aged 65, after suffering from breast cancer for several years, defied all pigeonholes. Poet, essayist, journalist, dramatist, academic, cultural and political activist - she was all these things, by turn and simultaneously, but above all, she was an inspirational teacher, through words and actions, and a supremely principled person.Among African-American writers, she was undoubtedly one of the most widely published, the author of well over two dozen books of non-fiction, poetry, fiction, drama and children's writing. She emerged onto the political and literary scene in the late 1960s, when the movements demanding attention were for civil rights and women's liberation, and anti-war.
She engaged with all of these and more, for her battles were for freedom, whether that involved planning a new architecture for Harlem with her mentor Buckminster Fuller, or speaking out on the Palestinian cause. She spoke out against, or did something about, oppression wherever it was to be found.
It was as a political essayist that Jordan stood head and shoulders above most of her contemporaries. Her collection Civil Wars (1981) was the first such work to be published by a black woman, dealing with battles both external and internal. In subsequent volumes, including On Call (1985) and Technical Difficulties (1992), she wrote about South Africa, Nicaragua and Lebanon, as well as myriad aspects of race and class in the US. She championed the use of black English in the education system 30 years before the emergence of the debate about "Ebonics" (a term she hated).
She was born to West Indian parents, Mildred and Granville Jordan, in Harlem, and the family moved to the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn when she was five. While her parents were grateful to America for enabling them to escape poverty in Jamaica, as she describes in her 1986 essay For My American Family, there were many contradictions to be dealt with in the experience of being raised by black immigrants with ambitions for their offspring that far exceeded the urban ghetto.
Jordan's 1971 novel, His Own Where, gives some insight into the tensions of her home situation. Her relationship with her father, a postal clerk, was turbulent - he did not hide his disappointment that she was not a boy - but he passed on to her a love of literature, from the Bible to Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe and Paul Laurence Dunbar, and at the age of seven she began writing poetry.
Her mother was a woman in the classic self-sacrificing mould, who eventually committed suicide. Fifteen years later, in a moving essay dating from 1981, Many Rivers To Cross, Jordan wrote: "I thought about the idea of my mother as a good woman and I rejected that, because I don't see why it's a good thing when you give up, or when you cooperate with those who hate you or when you polish and iron and mend and endlessly mollify for the sake of the people who love the way that you kill yourself day by day silently... I am working for the courage to admit the truth that Bertolt Brecht has written; he says, 'It takes courage to say that the good were defeated not because they were good, but because they were weak'... I came too late to help my mother to her feet. By way of everlasting thanks to all the women who have helped me to stay alive I am working never to be late again."
Through her education, Jordan became "completely immersed in a white universe", attending predominantly white schools, Millwood high school and Northfield school in Massachusetts. In 1953 she enrolled at Barnard College, interrupting her studies to marry a fellow student, who happened to be white. They had a son, Christopher, but the marriage did not survive, and in 1966 they divorced.
The years when she was struggling to make ends meet as a single mother were also her formative years as a writer. Her first book of poetry, Who Look At Me, was produced in 1969, and was followed by a steady stream of publications in different genres, including Things That I Do In The Dark (1970), Passion (1980), Living Room (1985), Lyrical Campaigns (1989), Poetry For The People: A Blueprint For The Revolution (1995), Affirmative Acts: Political Essays (1998), and a memoir, Soldier: A Poet's Childhood (2000).
Her versatility was allied to her belief that being free meant the freedom to be unpredictable, whether about her own sexuality or about the causes she espoused. She could as easily pen a regular column for the Progressive magazine as collaborate with John Adams and Peter Sellars on an opera, I Was Looking At the Ceiling And Then I Saw The Sky, in 1995.
She received many awards and honours, among them a Rockefeller grant in 1969, the New York Council of the Humanities award in 1977, and a lifetime achievement award from the National Black Writers' Conference in 1998.
In a respected academic career she taught at over seven universities, including Sarah Lawrence College, Connecticut College and Yale University, and she was most recently African-American studies professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her life was about challenging oppression, and her characteristic talent was the ability to lay bare through her writing "the intimate face of universal struggle". Alice Walker has said of her: "June Jordan makes us think of Akhmatova, of Neruda. She is the bravest of us, the most outraged. She feels for all. She is the universal poet."
For Toni Morrison, the sum of June Jordan's career was: "Forty years of tireless activism coupled with and fuelled by flawless art." All that aside, she was a joy to know.
June Jordan, poet, essayist and activist, born July 9 1936; died June 14 2002
Joseph Beam: Author, Editor, Activist
Joseph F. Beam (1954-1988) African-American gay rights activist and author.
Joseph Beam, attended Franklin College where he was influenced by the civil rights and the Black Power movements, and played an active role in the local Black Student Union. Also, as a member of the Franklin Independent Men, he helped organize several conferences on campus and was active in college journalism and radio programming. After graduation in 1976, Beam remained in the Midwest, enrolling first in a Master's Degree program in communications and then working as a waiter in Ames, Iowa. He returned to Philadelphia in 1979.
Giovanni's Room in the Center City District in Philadelphia was one of the main bookstores and contact points for lesbians and gays in the 1970s and 1980s. Joseph Beam, became well acquainted with local and national gay figures and institutions while employed there in the early 1980s. His articles and short stories began appearing around the same time in numerous gay newspapers and magazines. The Lesbian and Gay Press Association awarded him a certificate for outstanding achievement in 1984. The following year, he was hired as a consultant by the Gay and Lesbian Task Force of the American Friends Service Committee. He joined the Executive Committee of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays in 1985, and became the editor of their new journal Black/Out.
Joseph Beam began preparing and collecting materials for an anthology of writings by and about black gay men in 1982. His goal was to counteract the absence of positive images of gay men of color in the media and their exclusion from the cultural world of white gay rights activists. Inspired by the humanism of the black feminist and lesbian movement, he saw his work as part of a broad effort to correct and redefine the reality of race, sex, class and gender in the United States. Through his writings, he sought to alleviate the alienation of black homosexuals and help create a community of their own. In the Life was published by Allyson Press in 1986. It was ignored by most African-American critics and institutions, but was greeted as a literary and cultural milestone in the gay community.
Joseph F. Beam was working on a sequel to In the Life at the time of his death of HIV related disease in 1989. This work was completed by his mother, Dorothy Beam and the gay poet Essex Hemphill, and published under the title Brother to Brother in 1991. “As a writer, Joe was more profound than prolific,” wrote his friend Craig Harris after his death. “His articles and essays were poetic, containing turned phrases and puns, metaphors in meters that made his writing musical with penetrating meaning. He took great pride in his skill and devoted time to multiple rewrites, crafting his work to create the style which other writers of the Black genre dubbed `Beamesque'.”
Joseph Beam, attended Franklin College where he was influenced by the civil rights and the Black Power movements, and played an active role in the local Black Student Union. Also, as a member of the Franklin Independent Men, he helped organize several conferences on campus and was active in college journalism and radio programming. After graduation in 1976, Beam remained in the Midwest, enrolling first in a Master's Degree program in communications and then working as a waiter in Ames, Iowa. He returned to Philadelphia in 1979.
Giovanni's Room in the Center City District in Philadelphia was one of the main bookstores and contact points for lesbians and gays in the 1970s and 1980s. Joseph Beam, became well acquainted with local and national gay figures and institutions while employed there in the early 1980s. His articles and short stories began appearing around the same time in numerous gay newspapers and magazines. The Lesbian and Gay Press Association awarded him a certificate for outstanding achievement in 1984. The following year, he was hired as a consultant by the Gay and Lesbian Task Force of the American Friends Service Committee. He joined the Executive Committee of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays in 1985, and became the editor of their new journal Black/Out.
Joseph Beam began preparing and collecting materials for an anthology of writings by and about black gay men in 1982. His goal was to counteract the absence of positive images of gay men of color in the media and their exclusion from the cultural world of white gay rights activists. Inspired by the humanism of the black feminist and lesbian movement, he saw his work as part of a broad effort to correct and redefine the reality of race, sex, class and gender in the United States. Through his writings, he sought to alleviate the alienation of black homosexuals and help create a community of their own. In the Life was published by Allyson Press in 1986. It was ignored by most African-American critics and institutions, but was greeted as a literary and cultural milestone in the gay community.
Joseph F. Beam was working on a sequel to In the Life at the time of his death of HIV related disease in 1989. This work was completed by his mother, Dorothy Beam and the gay poet Essex Hemphill, and published under the title Brother to Brother in 1991. “As a writer, Joe was more profound than prolific,” wrote his friend Craig Harris after his death. “His articles and essays were poetic, containing turned phrases and puns, metaphors in meters that made his writing musical with penetrating meaning. He took great pride in his skill and devoted time to multiple rewrites, crafting his work to create the style which other writers of the Black genre dubbed `Beamesque'.”
Nikky Finney: Poet, Educator
Nikky Finney (1957) was born in South Carolina, within listening distance of the sea. A child of activists, she came of age during the civil rights and Black Arts Movements. At Talladega College, nurtured by Hale Woodruff's Amistad murals, Finney began to understand the powerful synergy between art and history. Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011); The World Is Round(2003); Rice (1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). The Guy Davenport Endowed Professor in the Department of English at the University of Kentucky, Finney also authored Heartwood (1997) edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), and co- founded the Affrilachian Poets. Finney's fourth book of poetry, Head Off & Split was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for poetry.
Recently, Nikky announced her decision to accept a faculty and chair position at the University of South Carolina, at her site, she posted:
A DAUGHTER GOES HOME
January 7, 2013
Dear Facebook Family,
After twenty years of living in Lexington and teaching at the University of Kentucky, I have accepted a teaching position at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
Over these last twenty years I have often told the story of my UK beginnings; a chance meeting with the great novelist, Percival Everett, in 1989 in Charleston, S.C.: his quick outlandish question asking whether I might be interested in a temporary teaching job in the English department at UK, the surprising invitation asking me to join the department for one year as a Visiting Writer. At the time of the invitation, I was living in California, working as the all-night shift manager of Kinkos's Copies. My first book had been published a few years before but with no real live models of how to be a writer in this world I remained a dreamy-eyed poet romanticizing the notion of how to pay the rent and how to keep writing. I had never ventured to or even through the state of Kentucky before. My seventh sense said Don't. But my eighth sense said Take the job – but take it for one year and one year only. Finish your next book. That initial invitation, gave me, a thirty-year-old poet, with one book of poetry, a chance to do something that I had never had the chance to do before – focus solely on teaching & writing. I finished my next book. It all worked out beautifully.
My decision to leave UK at this time is a daughter's decision. My mother and father are 79 and 82 respectively, and in need of more and more of me as time flies. After twenty years of driving through the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina in order to get to them, it is now time to remove those seven hours and those winding roads, that I feel I know every bump and curve of from the equation. After thirty-eight years of being away from South Carolina it is time to go home. I feel there are projects waiting on me there, books to write on that home soil, and students to nurture and guide. The University of South Carolina, graciously, made me an offer I could not refuse.
I will remain at UK through the end of this year's contract, June 30, 2013. After that I will join the faculty at USC on August 1, 2013. I have accepted the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Literature. This is a joint appointment in the English Language and Literature department and the African American Studies program. I will also be teaching in USC's wonderful MFA Creative Writing program. This will not be an easy or quick move for any residents of the poet's house. AJ, Ailey, and the poet are all in quite a spin. We don't yet have it all worked out. AJ's novel will be out in 2014. In the meantime, A.J. will continue teaching in the M.F.A. program at Lesley University, in Cambridge, while Ailey is readying herself for her grand first year of high school.
I wanted you to know.
Nikky
Recently, Nikky announced her decision to accept a faculty and chair position at the University of South Carolina, at her site, she posted:
A DAUGHTER GOES HOME
January 7, 2013
Dear Facebook Family,
After twenty years of living in Lexington and teaching at the University of Kentucky, I have accepted a teaching position at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
Over these last twenty years I have often told the story of my UK beginnings; a chance meeting with the great novelist, Percival Everett, in 1989 in Charleston, S.C.: his quick outlandish question asking whether I might be interested in a temporary teaching job in the English department at UK, the surprising invitation asking me to join the department for one year as a Visiting Writer. At the time of the invitation, I was living in California, working as the all-night shift manager of Kinkos's Copies. My first book had been published a few years before but with no real live models of how to be a writer in this world I remained a dreamy-eyed poet romanticizing the notion of how to pay the rent and how to keep writing. I had never ventured to or even through the state of Kentucky before. My seventh sense said Don't. But my eighth sense said Take the job – but take it for one year and one year only. Finish your next book. That initial invitation, gave me, a thirty-year-old poet, with one book of poetry, a chance to do something that I had never had the chance to do before – focus solely on teaching & writing. I finished my next book. It all worked out beautifully.
My decision to leave UK at this time is a daughter's decision. My mother and father are 79 and 82 respectively, and in need of more and more of me as time flies. After twenty years of driving through the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina in order to get to them, it is now time to remove those seven hours and those winding roads, that I feel I know every bump and curve of from the equation. After thirty-eight years of being away from South Carolina it is time to go home. I feel there are projects waiting on me there, books to write on that home soil, and students to nurture and guide. The University of South Carolina, graciously, made me an offer I could not refuse.
I will remain at UK through the end of this year's contract, June 30, 2013. After that I will join the faculty at USC on August 1, 2013. I have accepted the John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Creative Writing and Southern Literature. This is a joint appointment in the English Language and Literature department and the African American Studies program. I will also be teaching in USC's wonderful MFA Creative Writing program. This will not be an easy or quick move for any residents of the poet's house. AJ, Ailey, and the poet are all in quite a spin. We don't yet have it all worked out. AJ's novel will be out in 2014. In the meantime, A.J. will continue teaching in the M.F.A. program at Lesley University, in Cambridge, while Ailey is readying herself for her grand first year of high school.
I wanted you to know.
Nikky
A.J. Verdelle: Novelist
A.J. Verdelle, born, 1960, Washington, D.C., is an American novelist who is published by Algonguin Books & Harper, with essays published by Crown, the Smithsonian, the Whitney Museum, Random House, & University of Georgia Press. Verdelle has forthcoming novels from Random House, imprint Speigel & Grau.
Verdelle is the daughter of A.Y. and Patricia Howell Jones, both parents native Washingtonians. On her father's side, she is a fourth generation Washingtonian, making her a descendant of the sequestered and little studied freedmen's community that burgeoned after slavery and reconstruction in the nation's capital, in the 19th century. Verdelle attended a private Catholic girls' high school, La Reine, in Suitland, MD, a Prince George's County suburb of Washington, D.C. She graduated in 1982 from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Political Science, an M.A. in Applied Statistics in 1986, and earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Bard College, in the Hudson Valley of NY, in 1993. After receiving her graduate degree, Verdelle moved to Brooklyn, New York, and founded her own statistics consulting firm in 1988.
Verdelle's prize-winning first novel, The Good Negress, was published to considerable acclaim in 1995, paperback in 1996. Verdelle's debut novel received the rare endorsement by Nobel laureate, Toni Morrison, who called the novel "truly extraordinary." Verdelle taught Creative Writing at Princeton University, Vermont College, and currently teaches in the MFA program at Lesley University.
In 2010, Verdelle was featured in a documentary, Cheating the Stillness, chronicling the life of Julia Peterkin, who was the first American woman to be awarded the Pulitzer prize, 1929. Peterkin wrote several novels about black life in the plantation south. Peterkin's perspectives were searingly intimate, suggesting to the uninformed that Peterkin herself was a black writer. Verdelle studied Peterkin's oeuvre, and featured Peterkin's novel Scarlet Sister Mary in the narrative interior of The Good Negress.
Verdelle lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her partner, poet Nikky Finney, and her daughter.
Verdelle is the daughter of A.Y. and Patricia Howell Jones, both parents native Washingtonians. On her father's side, she is a fourth generation Washingtonian, making her a descendant of the sequestered and little studied freedmen's community that burgeoned after slavery and reconstruction in the nation's capital, in the 19th century. Verdelle attended a private Catholic girls' high school, La Reine, in Suitland, MD, a Prince George's County suburb of Washington, D.C. She graduated in 1982 from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in Political Science, an M.A. in Applied Statistics in 1986, and earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Bard College, in the Hudson Valley of NY, in 1993. After receiving her graduate degree, Verdelle moved to Brooklyn, New York, and founded her own statistics consulting firm in 1988.
Verdelle's prize-winning first novel, The Good Negress, was published to considerable acclaim in 1995, paperback in 1996. Verdelle's debut novel received the rare endorsement by Nobel laureate, Toni Morrison, who called the novel "truly extraordinary." Verdelle taught Creative Writing at Princeton University, Vermont College, and currently teaches in the MFA program at Lesley University.
In 2010, Verdelle was featured in a documentary, Cheating the Stillness, chronicling the life of Julia Peterkin, who was the first American woman to be awarded the Pulitzer prize, 1929. Peterkin wrote several novels about black life in the plantation south. Peterkin's perspectives were searingly intimate, suggesting to the uninformed that Peterkin herself was a black writer. Verdelle studied Peterkin's oeuvre, and featured Peterkin's novel Scarlet Sister Mary in the narrative interior of The Good Negress.
Verdelle lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her partner, poet Nikky Finney, and her daughter.
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Philosopher, Author; Prof. of Af/Am Studies, Princeton
Kwame Anthony Appiah (1954) is Professor of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy at Harvard University, President of the Society for African Philosophy in North America, an editor of Transition, Associate Director of the Black Periodical Literature Project, and a Board Member of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, and the former Chairman of the Joint Committee on African Studies of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Studies. His interests are African and African American philosophy and literary theory; the history and theory of nationalism; Black nationalism, including Pan-Africanism; the idea of "race" and its history; multi-culturalism and pluralism; ethical questions about racism, and post-colonial literary theory.
Professor Appiah is the author of Color Conscience: The Political Morality of Race (1996) and In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (1992), a winner of the coveted Herkovitz prize. He is also the author of an introduction to analytic philosophy, several monographs in the philosophy of language, and three novels: Another Death in Venice, Nobody Likes Letitia, and Avenging Angel. In addition, he has published many articles and reviews on topics ranging from post-modernism to the collapse of the African state. His philosophical work has been largely in the philosophy of language and of mind; his work in African and African American Studies focuses on questions of race, ethnicity, culture, and identity. His current projects include Bu Me Bé: Proverbs of the Akan (of which his mother is the principal author), an annotated edition of 7500 proverbs in Twi, the language of Asante, in Ghana, where he grew up.
Professor Appiah earned his B.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Clare College, Cambridge University. His first teaching post was at the University of Ghana, and he has since taught at Cambridge, Yale, Cornell, and Duke University.
Along with Dr. Henry Louis Gates edited the Encyclopedia Africana. In 2012, President Obama presented Dr. Appiah with a National Medal of Humanities award. (Photo of Dr. Appiah receiving award from President Obama, below)
Dr. Appiah Receiving National Medal of Humanities from Pres. Obama
Kwame Anthony Appiah (L) is presented with a National Medal of Humanities by U.S. President Barack Obama (R) during an East Room ceremony February 13, 2012 at the White House in Washington, DC. Appiah was presented with the medal for seeking eternal truths in the contemporary world.
Alain Locke: Philosopher ('The Father of the Harlem Renaissance')
Alain LeRoy Locke (1885 – 1954) was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. He is best known for his writings on and about the Harlem Renaissance. He is unofficially called the "Father of the Harlem Renaissance". His philosophy served as a strong motivating force in keeping the energy and passion of the Movement at the forefront.
In 1902, he graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, second in his class. He also attended Philadelphia School of Pedagogy. In 1907, he graduated from Harvard University with degrees in English and philosophy. He was the first African American Rhodes Scholar. He formed part of the Phi Beta Kappa society. Locke was denied admission to several Oxford colleges because of his skin color before finally being admitted to Hertford College, where he studied literature, philosophy, Greek, and Latin, from 1907-1910. In 1910, he attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy. Locke attended the Collège de France in Paris in 1911.
Alain Locke received an assistant professorship in English at Howard University, in Washington, D.C.
There he interacted with W. E. B. Du Bois and Carter Woodson, who helped develop his philosophy.
Locke returned to Harvard in 1916 to work on his doctoral dissertation, The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value. In his thesis, he discusses the causes of opinions and social biases, and that these are not objectively true or false, and therefore not universal. Locke received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1918. Locke returned to Howard University as the chair of the department of philosophy, a position he held until his retirement in 1953. At Howard, he became a distinguished member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Alain Locke promoted African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material. In 1925 he issued the periodical Survey Graphic, a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about the flourishing culture there.
Later that year, he expanded the issue into The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known works. His philosophy of the New Negro was grounded in the concept of race-building. Its most important component is overall awareness of the potential of black equality; No longer would blacks allow themselves to adjust themselves or comply with unreasonable white requests. This idea was based on self-confidence and political awareness. Although in the past the laws regarding equality had been ignored without consequence, Locke's philosophical idea of The New Negro allowed for real fair treatment. Because this was just an idea and not an actual bylaw, its power was held in the people. If they wanted this idea to flourish, they were the ones who would need to "enforce" it through their actions and overall points of view. Locke has been said to have greatly influenced and encouraged Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes.
In 1902, he graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, second in his class. He also attended Philadelphia School of Pedagogy. In 1907, he graduated from Harvard University with degrees in English and philosophy. He was the first African American Rhodes Scholar. He formed part of the Phi Beta Kappa society. Locke was denied admission to several Oxford colleges because of his skin color before finally being admitted to Hertford College, where he studied literature, philosophy, Greek, and Latin, from 1907-1910. In 1910, he attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy. Locke attended the Collège de France in Paris in 1911.
Alain Locke received an assistant professorship in English at Howard University, in Washington, D.C.
There he interacted with W. E. B. Du Bois and Carter Woodson, who helped develop his philosophy.
Locke returned to Harvard in 1916 to work on his doctoral dissertation, The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value. In his thesis, he discusses the causes of opinions and social biases, and that these are not objectively true or false, and therefore not universal. Locke received his Ph.D. in philosophy in 1918. Locke returned to Howard University as the chair of the department of philosophy, a position he held until his retirement in 1953. At Howard, he became a distinguished member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Alain Locke promoted African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material. In 1925 he issued the periodical Survey Graphic, a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about the flourishing culture there.
Later that year, he expanded the issue into The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known works. His philosophy of the New Negro was grounded in the concept of race-building. Its most important component is overall awareness of the potential of black equality; No longer would blacks allow themselves to adjust themselves or comply with unreasonable white requests. This idea was based on self-confidence and political awareness. Although in the past the laws regarding equality had been ignored without consequence, Locke's philosophical idea of The New Negro allowed for real fair treatment. Because this was just an idea and not an actual bylaw, its power was held in the people. If they wanted this idea to flourish, they were the ones who would need to "enforce" it through their actions and overall points of view. Locke has been said to have greatly influenced and encouraged Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes.
The Bishop Reverend Yvette Flunder: Bishop, Religious Leader
Rev. Yvette Flunder founded the City of Refuge Community Church UCC in 1991 in order to unite a gospel ministry with a social ministry. City of Refuge is a thriving inner-city congregation that celebrates the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ.
Rev. Flunder is a third generation preacher with roots in the Church of God in Christ. She was licensed in the COGIC and later ordained by the Bishop Walter Hawkins of Love Center Ministries where she served as Associate Pastor and administrator for the Oakland-based Love Center Church. Rev. Flunder is also an ordained Minister of the United Church of Christ and a graduate of the Ministry Studies and Master of Arts programs at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California. She received a Doctor of Ministry degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo California.
In June 2003 Rev. Flunder was consecrated Presiding Bishop of Refuge Ministries/Fellowship 2000 a multi-denominational fellowship of 50+ primarily African American Christian leaders and laity representing churches and faith-based organizations from all parts of the country and Africa.
Responding to the needs of the AIDS epidemic, Rev. Flunder and her staff opened Hazard-Ashley House and Walker House in Oakland and Restoration House in San Francisco through the Ark of Refuge, Inc., a non-profit agency which provides housing, direct services, education and training for persons affected by HIV/AIDS in the Bay Area, throughout the USA and in three countries in Africa.
Rev. Flunder has received many awards for her work in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with the elderly and youth.
Rev. Flunder is a third generation preacher with roots in the Church of God in Christ. She was licensed in the COGIC and later ordained by the Bishop Walter Hawkins of Love Center Ministries where she served as Associate Pastor and administrator for the Oakland-based Love Center Church. Rev. Flunder is also an ordained Minister of the United Church of Christ and a graduate of the Ministry Studies and Master of Arts programs at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California. She received a Doctor of Ministry degree from San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo California.
In June 2003 Rev. Flunder was consecrated Presiding Bishop of Refuge Ministries/Fellowship 2000 a multi-denominational fellowship of 50+ primarily African American Christian leaders and laity representing churches and faith-based organizations from all parts of the country and Africa.
Responding to the needs of the AIDS epidemic, Rev. Flunder and her staff opened Hazard-Ashley House and Walker House in Oakland and Restoration House in San Francisco through the Ark of Refuge, Inc., a non-profit agency which provides housing, direct services, education and training for persons affected by HIV/AIDS in the Bay Area, throughout the USA and in three countries in Africa.
Rev. Flunder has received many awards for her work in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, with the elderly and youth.
Clark Accord: Surinamese/Dutch Novelist, Journalist
(1961-2011) Born in Paramaribo, Surinam, Clark Accord moved to The Netherlands when he was 17 years old. After finishing high school in Amsterdam, he studied at medical school and worked for several years at the AMC Hospital in Amsterdam . After that, he studied to be a beautician in Amsterdam and left to live in Vienna for six years. He built a successful career as a make-up artist in Vienna, Zurich, Vancouver, Milan, New York, London and Paris. His creations can be seen in magazines such as Elle, Marie-Claire and Elegance.
However, it was writing that was in his blood. Clark Accord says he began writing because he couldn't find the kind of books he himself liked to read. For his first novel, he decided to research a legendary figure in Surinam's 20th century history: Wilhemina Angelica Adriana Merian Rijburg (1902-1981). Better known as Maxi Linder, she was the country's most famous prostitute. The novel was entitled, ‘The Queen of Paramaribo’, and was published in 1999, and participated for the first time in the Winternachten festival (an international literature and entertainment festival that is held every January in The Hague. In 2001 a musical was made of The Queen of Paramaribo.
Approaching the story like a journalist, Clark Accord interviewed her friends and associates to discover the truth behind the gossip and myths surrounding the glamorous woman. "In Maxi Linder we find good and evil," says Accord, "and that is the story I wanted to write."
The Queen of Paramaribo became a best seller in The Netherlands with some 100,000 copies in print. The book has been translated into several languages and a movie version is planned.
Clark Accord's second novel, 'Tussen Apoera en Oreala' (Between Apoera and Oreala), was published in 2005 and is a love story set in the Amazon jungle where Christianity clashes with indigenous traditions. As a journalist, Clark writes columns for various magazines. His latest novel 'Bingo!' is a day-in-the-life portrait of a mother and daughter hoping to hit the jackpot in a Rotterdam Bingo hall.
Besides writing books he wrote articles for magazines and newspapers, including Elsevier, M, Elle and Marie Claire.
In 2007 he received the Bronze Bull for Art and Culture of the Surinamese community in the Netherlands. On May 7, 2011, shortly before his death from stomach cancer, Clark Accord was the Surinamese ambassador to the Netherlands on behalf of the President of Suriname, and was awarded the Honorary Order of the Yellow Star.
Clark left behind an unfinished novel, ‘Plantation d’Amour’, a book that examines the period of Dutch-Surinamese slavery which was published posthumously. Though he couldn’t finish the novel, his publisher felt the omitted chapters, notes and annotations were sufficient to make the book. On his deathbed Clark talked to his editor about how the novel should end.
(Audio Link: Listen to an English translation of one of Clark Accord’s short stories, ‘The Creation' at Radio Netherlands Worldwide — scroll down to the audio box)
However, it was writing that was in his blood. Clark Accord says he began writing because he couldn't find the kind of books he himself liked to read. For his first novel, he decided to research a legendary figure in Surinam's 20th century history: Wilhemina Angelica Adriana Merian Rijburg (1902-1981). Better known as Maxi Linder, she was the country's most famous prostitute. The novel was entitled, ‘The Queen of Paramaribo’, and was published in 1999, and participated for the first time in the Winternachten festival (an international literature and entertainment festival that is held every January in The Hague. In 2001 a musical was made of The Queen of Paramaribo.
Approaching the story like a journalist, Clark Accord interviewed her friends and associates to discover the truth behind the gossip and myths surrounding the glamorous woman. "In Maxi Linder we find good and evil," says Accord, "and that is the story I wanted to write."
The Queen of Paramaribo became a best seller in The Netherlands with some 100,000 copies in print. The book has been translated into several languages and a movie version is planned.
Clark Accord's second novel, 'Tussen Apoera en Oreala' (Between Apoera and Oreala), was published in 2005 and is a love story set in the Amazon jungle where Christianity clashes with indigenous traditions. As a journalist, Clark writes columns for various magazines. His latest novel 'Bingo!' is a day-in-the-life portrait of a mother and daughter hoping to hit the jackpot in a Rotterdam Bingo hall.
Besides writing books he wrote articles for magazines and newspapers, including Elsevier, M, Elle and Marie Claire.
In 2007 he received the Bronze Bull for Art and Culture of the Surinamese community in the Netherlands. On May 7, 2011, shortly before his death from stomach cancer, Clark Accord was the Surinamese ambassador to the Netherlands on behalf of the President of Suriname, and was awarded the Honorary Order of the Yellow Star.
Clark left behind an unfinished novel, ‘Plantation d’Amour’, a book that examines the period of Dutch-Surinamese slavery which was published posthumously. Though he couldn’t finish the novel, his publisher felt the omitted chapters, notes and annotations were sufficient to make the book. On his deathbed Clark talked to his editor about how the novel should end.
(Audio Link: Listen to an English translation of one of Clark Accord’s short stories, ‘The Creation' at Radio Netherlands Worldwide — scroll down to the audio box)
Jasper Hendricks: Political Adviser, Activist, Organizer, Political Candidate
Jasper Hendricks attended Prince Edward County Public Schools before studying political science at Norfolk State University.
Jasper began his public service career by serving as the National Director of Youth and College Voter Empowerment at the NAACP, outreach adviser to two Democratic Presidential Campaigns, senior aide to three Members of Congress, National Director of Field and Political Programs at the National Black Justice Coalition and before launching his campaign Jasper served as Assistant Executive Director at Farmville Area Habitat for Humanity.
Although Jasper is most known as an advocate and community organizer, having served in various volunteer leadership roles including as the President of the Virginia NAACP Youth and College Division, Vice President of the Virginia Young Democrats, Co-Organizer of the Virginia Student Leadership Alliance, member of the Governance Committee for the Virginia Housing Coalition and serving on the boards of Norfolk State University National Alumni Association, HOPE Community Services, and Virginia Jaycees (Junior Chamber) - the mission in Jasper's professional and public life is, and has been, focused on bringing everyone together to tackle the many universal issues facing us all.
Jasper has been successful building coalitions across diverse communities in order to foster a better understanding of the crucial roles and decisions within our government and how we can work together to increase access to employment, create opportunities for at risk youth, and bring people into the political movement by registering voters and organizing candidate and educational forums in communities all over the country. He has done this by building political and community strength through working relationships with local, state and national civil rights groups, labor organizations, and other community leaders as well as corporations and advocacy groups.
In 2013, Jasper ran for election to the Virginia House of Delegates, but was defeated by incumbent James Edmumds II. Jasper Hendricks continues to work as an activist and organizer while keeping his eye on politics.
Jasper began his public service career by serving as the National Director of Youth and College Voter Empowerment at the NAACP, outreach adviser to two Democratic Presidential Campaigns, senior aide to three Members of Congress, National Director of Field and Political Programs at the National Black Justice Coalition and before launching his campaign Jasper served as Assistant Executive Director at Farmville Area Habitat for Humanity.
Although Jasper is most known as an advocate and community organizer, having served in various volunteer leadership roles including as the President of the Virginia NAACP Youth and College Division, Vice President of the Virginia Young Democrats, Co-Organizer of the Virginia Student Leadership Alliance, member of the Governance Committee for the Virginia Housing Coalition and serving on the boards of Norfolk State University National Alumni Association, HOPE Community Services, and Virginia Jaycees (Junior Chamber) - the mission in Jasper's professional and public life is, and has been, focused on bringing everyone together to tackle the many universal issues facing us all.
Jasper has been successful building coalitions across diverse communities in order to foster a better understanding of the crucial roles and decisions within our government and how we can work together to increase access to employment, create opportunities for at risk youth, and bring people into the political movement by registering voters and organizing candidate and educational forums in communities all over the country. He has done this by building political and community strength through working relationships with local, state and national civil rights groups, labor organizations, and other community leaders as well as corporations and advocacy groups.
In 2013, Jasper ran for election to the Virginia House of Delegates, but was defeated by incumbent James Edmumds II. Jasper Hendricks continues to work as an activist and organizer while keeping his eye on politics.
Vicki Randle: Tonight Show Band, Multi-Instrumentalist, Vocalist
Vicki Randle (1954) is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist (primarily acoustic guitar and percussion) and composer, known as the first (and only) female member of the Tonight Show Band, starting with host Jay Leno in 1992. She has recorded and/or toured with several artists, including Aretha Franklin, George Benson, Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins, Celine Dion, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Branford Marsalis, and Lyle Mays.
She began her career as a singer-songwriter/guitarist, playing in such venues as the Bla-Bla Cafe and The Ice House. She also recorded and toured with several women's music artists, such as Cris Williamson, Ferron, and Linda Tillery.
Vicki continued her association with Jay Leno under his new five-nights-a-week "The Jay Leno Show" on NBC as a musician with Kevin Eubank's renamed "Primetime Band." The show premiered Sept. 14, 2009. She returned to The Tonight Show with the primetime show's cancellation, but left the show in 2010. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9IY6mObJP9k; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PtaWVDJtdOA)
She began her career as a singer-songwriter/guitarist, playing in such venues as the Bla-Bla Cafe and The Ice House. She also recorded and toured with several women's music artists, such as Cris Williamson, Ferron, and Linda Tillery.
Vicki continued her association with Jay Leno under his new five-nights-a-week "The Jay Leno Show" on NBC as a musician with Kevin Eubank's renamed "Primetime Band." The show premiered Sept. 14, 2009. She returned to The Tonight Show with the primetime show's cancellation, but left the show in 2010. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9IY6mObJP9k; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PtaWVDJtdOA)
Barbara Jordan: Congresswoman
Barbara Jordan (1936 - 1996) was a congresswoman in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 to 1979. Before that, she was the first black woman to serve in the Texas Senate, and only the second black person to do so, period.
Jordan campaigned for the Texas House of Representatives in 1962 and 1964. Her persistence won her a seat in the Texas Senate in 1966, becoming the first African American state senator since 1883 and the first black woman to serve in that body.] Re-elected to a full term in the Texas Senate in 1968, she served until 1972. She was the first African-American female to serve as president pro tem. of the state senate and served one day, June 10, 1972, as acting governor of Texas.
In 1972, she was elected to the United States House of Representatives, becoming the first black woman from a Southern state to serve in the House. She received extensive support from former President Lyndon Johnson, who helped her secure a position on the House Judiciary Committee. In 1974, she made an influential, televised speech before the House Judiciary Committee supporting the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
Jordan was mentioned as a possible running mate to Jimmy Carter in 1976, and that year she became the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Her speech in New York that summer was ranked 5th in "Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th century" list and was considered by many historians to have been the best convention keynote speech in modern history until the 2004 keynote by Barack Obama. Despite not being a candidate Jordan received one delegate vote (0.03%) for president at the convention.
Jordan retired from politics in 1979 and became an adjunct professor teaching ethics at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. She again was a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 1992.
In 1973, Jordan began to suffer from multiple sclerosis. She had difficulty climbing stairs, and she started using a cane and eventually a wheelchair. President Bill Clinton wanted to nominate Jordan for the United States Supreme Court, but by the time he could do so, Jordan's health problems prevented him from nominating her.
Jordan's companion of close to 30 years was Nancy Earl. Jordan never publicly acknowledged her sexual orientation, but in her obituary, the Houston Chronicle mentioned her long relationship with Earl, interpreted to confirm her being a lesbian.
Jordan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. The many other honors given to her include her election into both the Texas and National Women's Halls of Fame; she was awarded the prestigious United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award, becoming only the second female awardee.
Upon her death on January 17, 1996, Jordan lay in state at the LBJ Library on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. She was buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, and was the first black woman interred there. Her papers are housed at the Barbara Jordan Archives at Texas Southern University.
The main terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is named after her, as are a middle school in Cibolo, Texas; a high school in Houston and a YMCA in Martinsville, Indiana. The Kaiser Family Foundation currently operates the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars, a fellowship designed for people of color who are college juniors, seniors and recent graduates as a summer experience working in a congressional office.
On March 27, 2000, a play on Jordan's life premièred at the Victory Garden Theater in Chicago, Illinois. Titled, "Voice of Good Hope", Kristine Thatcher's biographical evocation of Jordan's life played in theaters from San Francisco to New York. On April 24, 2009, a Barbara Jordan statue was unveiled at the University of Texas at Austin where Jordan taught at the time of her death.
Many of her speeches have been collected in a 2007 publication from the University of Texas Press, Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder."
Jordan campaigned for the Texas House of Representatives in 1962 and 1964. Her persistence won her a seat in the Texas Senate in 1966, becoming the first African American state senator since 1883 and the first black woman to serve in that body.] Re-elected to a full term in the Texas Senate in 1968, she served until 1972. She was the first African-American female to serve as president pro tem. of the state senate and served one day, June 10, 1972, as acting governor of Texas.
In 1972, she was elected to the United States House of Representatives, becoming the first black woman from a Southern state to serve in the House. She received extensive support from former President Lyndon Johnson, who helped her secure a position on the House Judiciary Committee. In 1974, she made an influential, televised speech before the House Judiciary Committee supporting the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
Jordan was mentioned as a possible running mate to Jimmy Carter in 1976, and that year she became the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Her speech in New York that summer was ranked 5th in "Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th century" list and was considered by many historians to have been the best convention keynote speech in modern history until the 2004 keynote by Barack Obama. Despite not being a candidate Jordan received one delegate vote (0.03%) for president at the convention.
Jordan retired from politics in 1979 and became an adjunct professor teaching ethics at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. She again was a keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 1992.
In 1973, Jordan began to suffer from multiple sclerosis. She had difficulty climbing stairs, and she started using a cane and eventually a wheelchair. President Bill Clinton wanted to nominate Jordan for the United States Supreme Court, but by the time he could do so, Jordan's health problems prevented him from nominating her.
Jordan's companion of close to 30 years was Nancy Earl. Jordan never publicly acknowledged her sexual orientation, but in her obituary, the Houston Chronicle mentioned her long relationship with Earl, interpreted to confirm her being a lesbian.
Jordan was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994. The many other honors given to her include her election into both the Texas and National Women's Halls of Fame; she was awarded the prestigious United States Military Academy's Sylvanus Thayer Award, becoming only the second female awardee.
Upon her death on January 17, 1996, Jordan lay in state at the LBJ Library on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. She was buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, and was the first black woman interred there. Her papers are housed at the Barbara Jordan Archives at Texas Southern University.
The main terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is named after her, as are a middle school in Cibolo, Texas; a high school in Houston and a YMCA in Martinsville, Indiana. The Kaiser Family Foundation currently operates the Barbara Jordan Health Policy Scholars, a fellowship designed for people of color who are college juniors, seniors and recent graduates as a summer experience working in a congressional office.
On March 27, 2000, a play on Jordan's life premièred at the Victory Garden Theater in Chicago, Illinois. Titled, "Voice of Good Hope", Kristine Thatcher's biographical evocation of Jordan's life played in theaters from San Francisco to New York. On April 24, 2009, a Barbara Jordan statue was unveiled at the University of Texas at Austin where Jordan taught at the time of her death.
Many of her speeches have been collected in a 2007 publication from the University of Texas Press, Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder."
Justin Fashanu: Soccer Player
"I hope the Jesus I love welcomes me, I will at last find peace." ~ Justin Fashanu
Those were the words Justin Fashanu left in the note accompanying his suicide. Justin Fashanu (1961 – 1998) was an English footballer (American soccer). In 1980, he won the BBC Goal of the Season award, for a very spectacular goal against Liverpool. He subsequently became Britain's first £1million black footballer when he transferred to Nottingham Forest in August 1981.
His career stalled as his professional relationship with team owner, Brian Clough deteriorated. Clough was disturbed by rumors of Justin Fashanu's gay lifestyle. Eventually, Justin's goals and then confidence dried up as he failed to fit in with the playing and lifestyle demands of Clough, especially after Clough had discovered, as fact, Justin's homosexuality and barred him from even training with the team.
In 1990, Justin publicly came out as gay, becoming the only prominent player in English football so far to do so. Many former colleagues spoke out in anger against him, and his brother John publicly disowned him. As a result of his coming out, he became the target of constant crowd abuse.
In 1998, having moved to the United States to pursue his career, a 17-year-old claimed to police that he had been sexually assaulted by Justin. Justin was questioned about this by the police, but was not held in custody. Justin moved back to England. The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
On the morning of May 23, 1998, he was found hanged in a deserted lock-up garage. In his suicide note, he stated: "I realised that I had already been presumed guilty. I do not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family"..."I hope the Jesus I love welcomes me, I will at last find peace."
Those were the words Justin Fashanu left in the note accompanying his suicide. Justin Fashanu (1961 – 1998) was an English footballer (American soccer). In 1980, he won the BBC Goal of the Season award, for a very spectacular goal against Liverpool. He subsequently became Britain's first £1million black footballer when he transferred to Nottingham Forest in August 1981.
His career stalled as his professional relationship with team owner, Brian Clough deteriorated. Clough was disturbed by rumors of Justin Fashanu's gay lifestyle. Eventually, Justin's goals and then confidence dried up as he failed to fit in with the playing and lifestyle demands of Clough, especially after Clough had discovered, as fact, Justin's homosexuality and barred him from even training with the team.
In 1990, Justin publicly came out as gay, becoming the only prominent player in English football so far to do so. Many former colleagues spoke out in anger against him, and his brother John publicly disowned him. As a result of his coming out, he became the target of constant crowd abuse.
In 1998, having moved to the United States to pursue his career, a 17-year-old claimed to police that he had been sexually assaulted by Justin. Justin was questioned about this by the police, but was not held in custody. Justin moved back to England. The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
On the morning of May 23, 1998, he was found hanged in a deserted lock-up garage. In his suicide note, he stated: "I realised that I had already been presumed guilty. I do not want to give any more embarrassment to my friends and family"..."I hope the Jesus I love welcomes me, I will at last find peace."
Alice Dunbar: Journalist, Activist, Diarist
(1875- 1935) Alice Dunbar Nelson was an American poet, journalist and political activist. Among the first generation born free in the South after the Civil War, she was one of the prominent African Americans involved in the artistic flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance. Her first husband was the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar; she then married physician Henry A. Callis; and last married Robert J. Nelson, a poet and civil rights activist. She is probably the first black womyn to write about her lesbian affairs in her journal, Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson.
Alice Dunbar Nelson's first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published by The Monthly Review, in 1895. About that time, she moved to New York. She co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission (White Rose Home for Girls) in Brooklyn. Beginning a correspondence with the poet and publisher Paul Laurence Dunbar, she ended up moving to Washington, DC to join him when they married in 1898. She and Dunbar separated in 1902 but were never divorced. He was reported to have been disturbed by her lesbian affairs. Paul Laurence Dunbar died in 1906.
Alice Dunbar then moved to Wilmington, Delaware and taught at Howard High School for more than a decade. In 1910 she married Henry A. Callis, a prominent physician and professor at Howard University, but this marriage ended in divorce as well.
From 1913 to 1914, Alice Dunbar was coeditor and writer for the A.M.E. Review, an influential church publication produced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1916 she married the poet and civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson. She joined him in becoming active in politics in Wilmington and the region. Alice Dunbar Nelson was an activist for African Americans' and women's rights, especially during the 1920s and 1930s.
While she continued to write stories and poetry, she became more politically active in Wilmington, and put more effort into numerous articles and journalism on leading topics. In 1915 she was field organizer for the Middle Atlantic states for the woman's suffrage movement. In 1918 she was field representative for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense. In 1924 Dunbar-Nelson campaigned for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, but the Southern Democratic block in Congress defeated it.
From about 1920 on, she made a commitment to journalism and was a highly successful columnist, with articles, essays and reviews appearing as well in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. She was a popular speaker and had an active schedule of lectures through these years.
Alice Dunbar Nelson's first collection of short stories and poems, Violets and Other Tales, was published by The Monthly Review, in 1895. About that time, she moved to New York. She co-founded and taught at the White Rose Mission (White Rose Home for Girls) in Brooklyn. Beginning a correspondence with the poet and publisher Paul Laurence Dunbar, she ended up moving to Washington, DC to join him when they married in 1898. She and Dunbar separated in 1902 but were never divorced. He was reported to have been disturbed by her lesbian affairs. Paul Laurence Dunbar died in 1906.
Alice Dunbar then moved to Wilmington, Delaware and taught at Howard High School for more than a decade. In 1910 she married Henry A. Callis, a prominent physician and professor at Howard University, but this marriage ended in divorce as well.
From 1913 to 1914, Alice Dunbar was coeditor and writer for the A.M.E. Review, an influential church publication produced by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1916 she married the poet and civil rights activist Robert J. Nelson. She joined him in becoming active in politics in Wilmington and the region. Alice Dunbar Nelson was an activist for African Americans' and women's rights, especially during the 1920s and 1930s.
While she continued to write stories and poetry, she became more politically active in Wilmington, and put more effort into numerous articles and journalism on leading topics. In 1915 she was field organizer for the Middle Atlantic states for the woman's suffrage movement. In 1918 she was field representative for the Woman's Committee of the Council of Defense. In 1924 Dunbar-Nelson campaigned for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, but the Southern Democratic block in Congress defeated it.
From about 1920 on, she made a commitment to journalism and was a highly successful columnist, with articles, essays and reviews appearing as well in newspapers, magazines, and academic journals. She was a popular speaker and had an active schedule of lectures through these years.
Archbishop Carl Bean: Religious Leader, Activist, Recording Artist ('I Was Born This Way', 1977)
Carl Bean (1944) founded the Unity Fellowship Church and recorded ‘I Was Born This Way’ (1977) a record considered one of the first gay affirming anthems on any major label. His song, ‘I Was Born This Way’ was recorded on the Motown label.
The song was written by a heterosexual woman, Bunny Jones, owner of several beauty salons in Harlem. Most of her employees were gay. Becoming aware of their suppression, she said, 'I began to feel that gays are more suppressed than blacks, Chicanos or other minorities. You hear of great designers or famous hairdressers, and that's about as far as society will let gays go.'" The song was originally recorded on her label by an out black singer named Valentino, but achieved greater success after Carl Bean ‘put it to wax’ for Motown.
Later Archbishop Bean became the founding prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a liberal protestant denomination that is particularly welcoming of lesbian, gay and bisexual African Americans.
In 1982 Bean became an activist, working on behalf of people with AIDS.
Bean's autobiography, I Was Born This Way, is scheduled for release 1 June 2010. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxh3cloeWQw)
The song was written by a heterosexual woman, Bunny Jones, owner of several beauty salons in Harlem. Most of her employees were gay. Becoming aware of their suppression, she said, 'I began to feel that gays are more suppressed than blacks, Chicanos or other minorities. You hear of great designers or famous hairdressers, and that's about as far as society will let gays go.'" The song was originally recorded on her label by an out black singer named Valentino, but achieved greater success after Carl Bean ‘put it to wax’ for Motown.
Later Archbishop Bean became the founding prelate of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a liberal protestant denomination that is particularly welcoming of lesbian, gay and bisexual African Americans.
In 1982 Bean became an activist, working on behalf of people with AIDS.
Bean's autobiography, I Was Born This Way, is scheduled for release 1 June 2010. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxh3cloeWQw)
Johnny Mathis: Legendary Vocalist
Johnny Mathis (1935) is one of the great romantic vocalists of all times, having received several dozen gold and platinum albums. Beginning his long career in the 1950’s, he has sold more than 350 million records and albums starting his recording career in 1956 and one that continues today.
Mr. Mathis has received three Grammy awards, nominated for an Oscar for theme for a movie, has taped twelve of his own television specials and made over 300 television guest appearances; his music has been heard in more than 100 television shows and films around the globe; and, again, has sold over 350 million recordings.
In 1973 Johnny Mathis was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
He was also an accomplished athlete excelling in both basketball and track and field (the high jump). He had a chance to enter the 1956 Olympics as well try out for professional basketball, but he chose music.
In a 1982 issue of Us Magazine, he came public with his homosexuality, but due to death threats, he discontinued speaking on the subject of his sexuality. In 2006 Mr. Mathis, tired of being ‘silenced’ once again touched on the fact that he is gay. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IM39yIKoSo4; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NEH3uqbpsm8; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cd3pDM2f6Y8)
Mr. Mathis has received three Grammy awards, nominated for an Oscar for theme for a movie, has taped twelve of his own television specials and made over 300 television guest appearances; his music has been heard in more than 100 television shows and films around the globe; and, again, has sold over 350 million recordings.
In 1973 Johnny Mathis was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
He was also an accomplished athlete excelling in both basketball and track and field (the high jump). He had a chance to enter the 1956 Olympics as well try out for professional basketball, but he chose music.
In a 1982 issue of Us Magazine, he came public with his homosexuality, but due to death threats, he discontinued speaking on the subject of his sexuality. In 2006 Mr. Mathis, tired of being ‘silenced’ once again touched on the fact that he is gay. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IM39yIKoSo4; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NEH3uqbpsm8; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Cd3pDM2f6Y8)
Kehinde Wiley: Visual Artist
Kihinde Wiley (1977) is a New York based visual artist who has firmly situated himself within art history's portrait painting tradition. As a contemporary descendent of a long line of portraitists--including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, and others--Wiley engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic, and sublime in his representation of urban black and brown men found throughout the world.
By applying the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, history, wealth and prestige to the subject matter drawn from the urban fabric, the subjects and stylistic references for his paintings are juxtaposed inversions of each other, forcing ambiguity and provocative perplexity to pervade his imagery.
Wiley's larger than life figures disturb and interrupt tropes of portrait painting, often blurring the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation and the critical portrayal of masculinity and physicality as it pertains to the view of black and brown young men.
Initially, Wiley's portraits were based on photographs taken of young men found on the street of Harlem. As his practice grew, his eye led him toward an international view, including models found in urban landscapes throughout the world – such as Mumbai, Senegal, Dakar and Rio de Janeiro, among others – accumulating to a vast body of work called, " The World Stage."
The models, dressed in their everyday clothing most of which are based on the notion of far-reaching Western ideas of style, are asked to assume poses found in paintings or sculptures representative of the history of their surroundings. This juxtaposition of the "old" inherited by the "new" – who often have no visual inheritance of which to speak – immediately provides a discourse that is at once visceral and cerebral in scope.
Without shying away from the complicated socio-political histories relevant to the world, Wiley's figurative paintings and sculptures "quote historical sources and position young black men within the field of power." His heroic paintings evoke a modern style instilling a unique and contemporary manner, awakening complex issues that many would prefer remain mute.
Kehinde Wiley received his MFA from Yale University in 2001. Shortly after he became an Artist-in-Resident at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He is represented by Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, and Roberts and Tilton in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collection of :
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX
Mint Museum of Art, NC
Hammer Museum, CA
Milwaukee Art Museum, WI
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Denver Art Museum, CO
Columbus Museum of Art, OH
Oak Park Public Library, Chicago, IL
The Studio Museum of Harlem, Harlem, NY
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Virginia Museum of Fine Art, VMFA
Johnson County Community College - Gallery of Art, Overland Park, KS
The Sender Collection, New York, NY
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (Video Link of Kehinde speaking on his work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq8Yr-Se7mc)
By applying the visual vocabulary and conventions of glorification, history, wealth and prestige to the subject matter drawn from the urban fabric, the subjects and stylistic references for his paintings are juxtaposed inversions of each other, forcing ambiguity and provocative perplexity to pervade his imagery.
Wiley's larger than life figures disturb and interrupt tropes of portrait painting, often blurring the boundaries between traditional and contemporary modes of representation and the critical portrayal of masculinity and physicality as it pertains to the view of black and brown young men.
Initially, Wiley's portraits were based on photographs taken of young men found on the street of Harlem. As his practice grew, his eye led him toward an international view, including models found in urban landscapes throughout the world – such as Mumbai, Senegal, Dakar and Rio de Janeiro, among others – accumulating to a vast body of work called, " The World Stage."
The models, dressed in their everyday clothing most of which are based on the notion of far-reaching Western ideas of style, are asked to assume poses found in paintings or sculptures representative of the history of their surroundings. This juxtaposition of the "old" inherited by the "new" – who often have no visual inheritance of which to speak – immediately provides a discourse that is at once visceral and cerebral in scope.
Without shying away from the complicated socio-political histories relevant to the world, Wiley's figurative paintings and sculptures "quote historical sources and position young black men within the field of power." His heroic paintings evoke a modern style instilling a unique and contemporary manner, awakening complex issues that many would prefer remain mute.
Kehinde Wiley received his MFA from Yale University in 2001. Shortly after he became an Artist-in-Resident at the Studio Museum in Harlem. He is represented by Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, and Roberts and Tilton in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collection of :
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX
Mint Museum of Art, NC
Hammer Museum, CA
Milwaukee Art Museum, WI
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Denver Art Museum, CO
Columbus Museum of Art, OH
Oak Park Public Library, Chicago, IL
The Studio Museum of Harlem, Harlem, NY
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Virginia Museum of Fine Art, VMFA
Johnson County Community College - Gallery of Art, Overland Park, KS
The Sender Collection, New York, NY
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
21C Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (Video Link of Kehinde speaking on his work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq8Yr-Se7mc)
The Mystery of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep: Egyptian Historical Figures, Symbols of Eternal Love
Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep shared titles in the palace of King Niuserre of the Fifth Dynasty. The shared titles were "Overseer of the Manicurists in the Palace of the King, King's Acquaintance and Royal Confidant."
Throughout the tomb there are scenes of the men embracing each other. It has long been debated as to what their relationship was; brothers, twins, close friends, lovers or all of the above (though now some historians say they were not brothers because they were from different families). Whatever their relationship was, it is obvious from the scenes that they were close. Even their names show their closeness.
It is unclear when they changed their names, however, the names they took have been translated. Niankhkhnum means "joined to life" and Khnumhotep means "joined to 'the blessed state of the dead'" and together the names can be translated as "joined in life and joined in death"
Throughout the tomb there are scenes of the men embracing each other. It has long been debated as to what their relationship was; brothers, twins, close friends, lovers or all of the above (though now some historians say they were not brothers because they were from different families). Whatever their relationship was, it is obvious from the scenes that they were close. Even their names show their closeness.
It is unclear when they changed their names, however, the names they took have been translated. Niankhkhnum means "joined to life" and Khnumhotep means "joined to 'the blessed state of the dead'" and together the names can be translated as "joined in life and joined in death"
Edmonia Lewis: The Master Sculptor
Edmonia Lewis (circa 1845 – 1911) was the first African American and Native American woman to gain fame and recognition as a sculptor in the international fine arts world. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Edmonia Lewis on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
She opened her studio to the public in her first solo exhibit in 1864. Early works that proved highly popular included medallion portraits of the abolitionists John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison. Lewis also drew inspiration from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his work, particularly his epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha".
A major coup in her career was participating in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. For this, she created a monumental 3,015-pound marble sculpture, The Death of Cleopatra, which dramatically portrayed the queen in the throes of death. The piece was noted as “the most remarkable piece of sculpture in the American section” of the Exposition. Much of the viewing public was shocked by Lewis’ frank portrayal of death, but the statue drew thousands of viewers.
Lewis never married and had no known children. Edmonia often wore “mannish” attire and she live most of her life in Rome, where she was a member of a lesbian circle of American expatriates and artists. (See photo of one of renowned works below).
She opened her studio to the public in her first solo exhibit in 1864. Early works that proved highly popular included medallion portraits of the abolitionists John Brown and William Lloyd Garrison. Lewis also drew inspiration from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his work, particularly his epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha".
A major coup in her career was participating in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. For this, she created a monumental 3,015-pound marble sculpture, The Death of Cleopatra, which dramatically portrayed the queen in the throes of death. The piece was noted as “the most remarkable piece of sculpture in the American section” of the Exposition. Much of the viewing public was shocked by Lewis’ frank portrayal of death, but the statue drew thousands of viewers.
Lewis never married and had no known children. Edmonia often wore “mannish” attire and she live most of her life in Rome, where she was a member of a lesbian circle of American expatriates and artists. (See photo of one of renowned works below).
Sculpture of Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis
Francisco Manicongo: First Recorded Presence of an LGBTQ Person in the Americas (1591)
Francisco Manicongo, was transported to the Americas into slavery from the Angola/Congo region of Africa. In the Americas he lived in Bahia, South America, where he became a shoemaker and was owned by Antonio Pires, a Portuguese slave owner.
In 1591 it was recorded that Francisco lived his life the way he had in his native land, as a same-sex loving man. It’s also recorded that he was part of a class known as ‘jimbandaa’ who lived their lives as same gender loving persons in the region of Africa from which Francisco came. Wearing the ‘girded cloth with open corners in front’, it was said that the ‘jimbandaa' wore this article of clothing to declare who they were.
Francisco wore this article of clothing and lived his sex life as he had in his homeland in the Angola/Congo region of Africa. It was stated that he had relations with other African men in his community.
Only under constant threat of strict reprimand from those in authority (Europeans) was he forced to change his attire, but it was never stated that he denied his sexuality.
In 1591 it was recorded that Francisco lived his life the way he had in his native land, as a same-sex loving man. It’s also recorded that he was part of a class known as ‘jimbandaa’ who lived their lives as same gender loving persons in the region of Africa from which Francisco came. Wearing the ‘girded cloth with open corners in front’, it was said that the ‘jimbandaa' wore this article of clothing to declare who they were.
Francisco wore this article of clothing and lived his sex life as he had in his homeland in the Angola/Congo region of Africa. It was stated that he had relations with other African men in his community.
Only under constant threat of strict reprimand from those in authority (Europeans) was he forced to change his attire, but it was never stated that he denied his sexuality.
Nell Carter: Actress, Singer
Nell Carter (1948-2003) was born Nell Ruth Hardy in Birmingham, Alabama, Carter won a Tony Award for her work in Ain't Misbehavin and appeared in Annie on Broadway and in the television shows Gimme a Break! and The Match Game. With her distinctive adenoidal voice that belt out a tune to bring down the house and an irrepressible personality, Nell Carter was destined to be a star. One of nine children, Nell grew up in Birmingham, Alabama where she developed an early interest in singing that led to performances in various youth groups, her church choir, on local radio and even the gospel circuit.
By age 19 Nell had relocated to New York where she found work singing in cafés, and musical revues. Studying at Bill Russell's School of Drama from 1970 to 1973, she made her Broadway debut in "Soon" a two-act musical show. Other musical roles came with "Dude" (1972), "Be Kind to People Week" (1975) and "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" (1976).
Receiving further training in London, Nell Carter made a star-making leap when she was cast alongside Armelia McQueen, Charlayne Woodard, 'Andre De Shields' and Ken Page in the 1978 ensemble revue "Ain't Misbehavin'". The stellar quintet ran for nearly four years and the scene-stealing Carter, with such show-stopping songs as "Mean to Me" and "Cash for Your Trash", received a multitude of awards, including the Theatre World, Drama Desk, Obie and Tony. The show was taped for TV in 1982 for which Carter also nabbed the Emmy, and a Broadway revival with all five performers reunited was restaged in 1988. Later musical vehicles included her own feisty version of Dolly Levi in a 1991 African-American revival.
Nell, was invariably drawn toward the small screen and was initially featured in the daytime soap "Ryan's Hope" (1975) and "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo" (1979). Eventually she was handed her own vehicle as the loving but no-nonsense housekeeper of a white family in the NBC sitcom "Gimme a Break!" (1981). That show, which ran for six seasons, earned her two additional Emmy nominations for "Best Actress in a Comedy". Following this she co-starred on "You Take the Kids" (1990), which fizzled, and the already established "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" (1992) as Mark Curry's boss. Other spunky guest shots over time included such popular programs as "Amen", "227", "Touched by an Angel", "Ally McBeal" and "Reba", as well as quiz show participations in "Match Game" and "To Tell the Truth". Her work in films included Milos Forman's film adaptation of Hair (1979) and a touching role as Piper Laurie's housekeeper in Grass Harp, The (1995).
When she died, friends and family were surprised to discover that Nell Carter had been living as a closeted lesbian, and that custody of her children had been left to her domestic partner. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iOBgOXjpw4I; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARdvdmJNhLg)
By age 19 Nell had relocated to New York where she found work singing in cafés, and musical revues. Studying at Bill Russell's School of Drama from 1970 to 1973, she made her Broadway debut in "Soon" a two-act musical show. Other musical roles came with "Dude" (1972), "Be Kind to People Week" (1975) and "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" (1976).
Receiving further training in London, Nell Carter made a star-making leap when she was cast alongside Armelia McQueen, Charlayne Woodard, 'Andre De Shields' and Ken Page in the 1978 ensemble revue "Ain't Misbehavin'". The stellar quintet ran for nearly four years and the scene-stealing Carter, with such show-stopping songs as "Mean to Me" and "Cash for Your Trash", received a multitude of awards, including the Theatre World, Drama Desk, Obie and Tony. The show was taped for TV in 1982 for which Carter also nabbed the Emmy, and a Broadway revival with all five performers reunited was restaged in 1988. Later musical vehicles included her own feisty version of Dolly Levi in a 1991 African-American revival.
Nell, was invariably drawn toward the small screen and was initially featured in the daytime soap "Ryan's Hope" (1975) and "The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo" (1979). Eventually she was handed her own vehicle as the loving but no-nonsense housekeeper of a white family in the NBC sitcom "Gimme a Break!" (1981). That show, which ran for six seasons, earned her two additional Emmy nominations for "Best Actress in a Comedy". Following this she co-starred on "You Take the Kids" (1990), which fizzled, and the already established "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" (1992) as Mark Curry's boss. Other spunky guest shots over time included such popular programs as "Amen", "227", "Touched by an Angel", "Ally McBeal" and "Reba", as well as quiz show participations in "Match Game" and "To Tell the Truth". Her work in films included Milos Forman's film adaptation of Hair (1979) and a touching role as Piper Laurie's housekeeper in Grass Harp, The (1995).
When she died, friends and family were surprised to discover that Nell Carter had been living as a closeted lesbian, and that custody of her children had been left to her domestic partner. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iOBgOXjpw4I; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARdvdmJNhLg)
Kaoz: Rapper, Activist, AIDS Educator
Kevin "Kaoz" Moore is a native Clevelander and an award winning writer, actor, slam poet, lyricist, and educator, and has been writing lyrics since 4th grade. Kevin began his hip-hop/spoken word performance career in 1998 as part of Black Poetic Society, a performance ensemble and Evolutionary Writer's Theatre.
Kevin "Kaoz" Moore represented Cleveland Ohio in the 2002 and 2003 National Poetry Slam competitions, self-published book of poetry entitled "The Y2Kaoz Project", and has independently released Project Mayhem a hip hop/spoken word disc.
He currently lives and works in Minneapolis – and is soon to release his cd, “The Intervention”. He is involved in HIV Activism, community mobilization, resurrection of real Hip Hop. Another fact that’s refreshing about this young man is he lists bringing about ‘The death of the "N" word as an actual state of being’. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpxUxTahccU ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r3a4sPOuvdc).
Kevin "Kaoz" Moore represented Cleveland Ohio in the 2002 and 2003 National Poetry Slam competitions, self-published book of poetry entitled "The Y2Kaoz Project", and has independently released Project Mayhem a hip hop/spoken word disc.
He currently lives and works in Minneapolis – and is soon to release his cd, “The Intervention”. He is involved in HIV Activism, community mobilization, resurrection of real Hip Hop. Another fact that’s refreshing about this young man is he lists bringing about ‘The death of the "N" word as an actual state of being’. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpxUxTahccU ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r3a4sPOuvdc).
Mabel Hampton & Lillian Foster: Activists, Archivists, Married 46 Years
Mabel Hampton and Lillian Foster lived as a couple from 1932 until Lillian died in 1978. Together they left a rich history of activism and archival documents of SGL-T life, more specifically, African American SGL-T life. It is Mabel who, being the surviving partner, turned over the documents to the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Mabel Hampton (1902- 1989) inspired many during her 87 year stay on this planet. Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Hampton’s mother died when she was just two months old. She grew up in the care of her grandmother, surrounded by chickens, hogs, a garden full of roses and vegetables, her maternal aunt, and of course, friends. She formed fond memories of North Carolina during this time and was forced to leave this haven of safety when her Grandmother died when Mabel was just 7 years old.
Hampton took the train to New York City where she went to live with her aunt and uncle. Treated poorly in that family and raped by her uncle, at 8 years old Hampton walked away from their home and set out on her own.
Between the ages of 8 and 17 Hampton lived with a white family in New Jersey, was wrongfully imprisoned for prostitution, and eventually found work dancing in an all women’s troupe that performed on Coney Island. For Hampton the 1920's were a time of dancing in all black productions, private parties with Jackie "Moms" Mabley and other Harlem Renaissance figures, and living amongst other dancers and lesbians. Mabel Hampton was "in the life."
Hampton left the chorus lines as work dried up, claiming that "I like to eat." She began a career of working as a cleaning woman for white families. Mabel Hampton is perhaps best recognized as a major contributor to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York. Through out her adult life she collected all matter of memorabilia, letters, and records documenting her history and the world around her as a black woman and as a lesbian.
In 1932 Mabel Hampton met Lillian Foster. The two quickly fell in love and remained a couple until Lillian died in 1978. For 45 years they, along with various friends, formed a household that weathered World War II, the Civil Rights era, and the Stonewall Rebellion. Perhaps most interesting about Mabel and Lillian is how integrated a life they led. They were surrounded by their lesbian contemporaries, and Mabel volunteered for the New York Defense Recreation Committee collecting cigarettes and refreshments for soldiers during World War II., and was her community’s air raid service warden in 1943. They often attended performances by the National Negro Opera Company and regularly contributed to the Martin Luther King Memorial Fund and later Mabel was to donate to gay organizations, all of this on a working class salary. Such was their commitment to the black community and the SGL-T community.
Mabel Hampton clipped articles, kept letters, and later donated her treasures to the Lesbian Herstory Archives so that she could be "a part of going on." She marched in the first national gay and lesbian civil rights march in Washington, appeared in the films Silent Pioneers and Before Stonewall. She inspired members of the gay and lesbian community in New York, and through her gifts to the Lesbian Herstory Archives, shared her tremendous history with the rest of the world. In 1984 Mabel Hampton addressed the crowds at New York City’s pride parade. She said "I, Mabel Hampton, have been a lesbian all my life, for 82 years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my gay people and my black people."
Hampton took the train to New York City where she went to live with her aunt and uncle. Treated poorly in that family and raped by her uncle, at 8 years old Hampton walked away from their home and set out on her own.
Between the ages of 8 and 17 Hampton lived with a white family in New Jersey, was wrongfully imprisoned for prostitution, and eventually found work dancing in an all women’s troupe that performed on Coney Island. For Hampton the 1920's were a time of dancing in all black productions, private parties with Jackie "Moms" Mabley and other Harlem Renaissance figures, and living amongst other dancers and lesbians. Mabel Hampton was "in the life."
Hampton left the chorus lines as work dried up, claiming that "I like to eat." She began a career of working as a cleaning woman for white families. Mabel Hampton is perhaps best recognized as a major contributor to the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York. Through out her adult life she collected all matter of memorabilia, letters, and records documenting her history and the world around her as a black woman and as a lesbian.
In 1932 Mabel Hampton met Lillian Foster. The two quickly fell in love and remained a couple until Lillian died in 1978. For 45 years they, along with various friends, formed a household that weathered World War II, the Civil Rights era, and the Stonewall Rebellion. Perhaps most interesting about Mabel and Lillian is how integrated a life they led. They were surrounded by their lesbian contemporaries, and Mabel volunteered for the New York Defense Recreation Committee collecting cigarettes and refreshments for soldiers during World War II., and was her community’s air raid service warden in 1943. They often attended performances by the National Negro Opera Company and regularly contributed to the Martin Luther King Memorial Fund and later Mabel was to donate to gay organizations, all of this on a working class salary. Such was their commitment to the black community and the SGL-T community.
Mabel Hampton clipped articles, kept letters, and later donated her treasures to the Lesbian Herstory Archives so that she could be "a part of going on." She marched in the first national gay and lesbian civil rights march in Washington, appeared in the films Silent Pioneers and Before Stonewall. She inspired members of the gay and lesbian community in New York, and through her gifts to the Lesbian Herstory Archives, shared her tremendous history with the rest of the world. In 1984 Mabel Hampton addressed the crowds at New York City’s pride parade. She said "I, Mabel Hampton, have been a lesbian all my life, for 82 years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my gay people and my black people."
Glenn Burke: Openly Gay Major League Baseball Player (started or popularized the 'High Five')
Glenn Burke (1952-1995) was a Major League Baseball player for the L.A. Dodgers and the Oakland A’s from 1976 to 1979. He was the first major league baseball player to play while being out of the closet. (“They can’t ever say now that a gay man can’t play in the majors, because I’m a gay man and I made it”—Glen Burke).
Before joining Baseball’s Major League, Burke was named Northern California's High School Basketball Player of the Year in 1970. He was considered capable of being a professional basketball player, but his first offer came from Major League Baseball. When he started his baseball career, many of the scouts described him as the next Willie Mays. Although he is commonly thought of as 'the player who invented the High-Five' the High-Five was widely used for at least a half-century prior to Burke's adaptation of the gesture during baseball games. In 1977, Burke ran onto the field to congratulate his Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker for hitting a home run in the last game of the regular season. His celebration has since been imitated by athletes and fans in virtually every sport around the world. Another High-Five came moments later when Baker returned the favor in celebration of Burke's first major league home run.
As a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland
A's Burke had 523 at-bats over his four seasons in the big leagues and had a career batting average of .237. He stole 35 bases.
Burke's association with the Dodgers was a difficult one. According to his autobiography Out at Home, Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis offered to pay for a lavish honeymoon if Burke agreed to get married. Burke refused to participate in the sham. He also angered Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda by befriending the manager's estranged gay son, Tommy Lasorda, Jr. The Dodgers eventually dealt Burke to the Oakland Athletics.
Faced with mounting difficulties, Burke eventually quit baseball. He stated in his autobiography that "prejudice just won out." He returned for spring training with Oakland in 1980. Billy Martin, the newly hired manager of the Athletics made public statements about not wanting a gay man in his clubhouse. When Burke injured his knee before the season began, the A's sent him to the minors in Utah. Burke then left professional sports for good at age 27.
In his 225 games in the majors, Burke batted .237 with two home runs, 38 RBI and 35 stolen bases.
Burke continued his athletic endeavors after retiring from baseball. He competed in the 1986 Gay Games in basketball, and won medals in the 100 and 220 meter sprints in the first Gay Games in 1982. His jersey number at Berkeley High School was retired in his honor.
Soon after, it was noted that Glenn Burke had acquired AIDS. When news of his battle with AIDS became public knowledge in 1994, he received the support of his former teammates and the Oakland Athletics organization. In interviews given while he was fighting AIDS, he expressed little in the way of grudges, and only one big regret - that he never had the opportunity to pursue a second professional sports career in basketball.
Glenn Burke eventually died from AIDS-related complications in 1995.
"My mission as a gay ballplayer was to break a stereotype . . . I think it worked." Glenn Burke in People ~ November 1994
Before joining Baseball’s Major League, Burke was named Northern California's High School Basketball Player of the Year in 1970. He was considered capable of being a professional basketball player, but his first offer came from Major League Baseball. When he started his baseball career, many of the scouts described him as the next Willie Mays. Although he is commonly thought of as 'the player who invented the High-Five' the High-Five was widely used for at least a half-century prior to Burke's adaptation of the gesture during baseball games. In 1977, Burke ran onto the field to congratulate his Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Dusty Baker for hitting a home run in the last game of the regular season. His celebration has since been imitated by athletes and fans in virtually every sport around the world. Another High-Five came moments later when Baker returned the favor in celebration of Burke's first major league home run.
As a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland
A's Burke had 523 at-bats over his four seasons in the big leagues and had a career batting average of .237. He stole 35 bases.
Burke's association with the Dodgers was a difficult one. According to his autobiography Out at Home, Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis offered to pay for a lavish honeymoon if Burke agreed to get married. Burke refused to participate in the sham. He also angered Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda by befriending the manager's estranged gay son, Tommy Lasorda, Jr. The Dodgers eventually dealt Burke to the Oakland Athletics.
Faced with mounting difficulties, Burke eventually quit baseball. He stated in his autobiography that "prejudice just won out." He returned for spring training with Oakland in 1980. Billy Martin, the newly hired manager of the Athletics made public statements about not wanting a gay man in his clubhouse. When Burke injured his knee before the season began, the A's sent him to the minors in Utah. Burke then left professional sports for good at age 27.
In his 225 games in the majors, Burke batted .237 with two home runs, 38 RBI and 35 stolen bases.
Burke continued his athletic endeavors after retiring from baseball. He competed in the 1986 Gay Games in basketball, and won medals in the 100 and 220 meter sprints in the first Gay Games in 1982. His jersey number at Berkeley High School was retired in his honor.
Soon after, it was noted that Glenn Burke had acquired AIDS. When news of his battle with AIDS became public knowledge in 1994, he received the support of his former teammates and the Oakland Athletics organization. In interviews given while he was fighting AIDS, he expressed little in the way of grudges, and only one big regret - that he never had the opportunity to pursue a second professional sports career in basketball.
Glenn Burke eventually died from AIDS-related complications in 1995.
"My mission as a gay ballplayer was to break a stereotype . . . I think it worked." Glenn Burke in People ~ November 1994
MeShell Ndegeocello: Multi-Instrumental Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Meshell Ndegeocello (born, Michelle Lynn Johnson in 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist and multi-instrumentalist. Prolific and without borders, her music incorporates funk, soul, hip hop, reggae, R&B, rock, and jazz. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, and has had ten career Grammy Award nominations. She is often credited for having "sparked the neo-soul movement."
Ndegeocello honed her skills on the D.C. go-go circuit in the late 1980s with the bands Prophecy, Little Bennie and the Masters, and Rare Essence. She unsuccessfully tried out for Living Colour's bassist position, vacated in 1992 by Muzz Skillings. Going solo, she was one of the first artists to sign with Maverick Records, where she released her debut album, Plantation Lullabies. This recording presented a distinctly androgynous persona.
Her biggest hit is a duet with John Cougar Mellencamp, a cover version of Van Morrison's "Wild Night", which reached #3 on the Billboard charts. Her only other Billboard Hot 100 hit besides "Wild Night" has been "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)", which peaked at #73 in 1994. She had a Dance #1 in 1996 with a Bill Withers cover called "Who Is He (and What Is He To You?)" (briefly featured in the film Jerry Maguire) as well as Dance Top 20 hits with "Earth", "Leviticus: Faggot", "Stay" and the aforementioned "...Boyfriend". Ndegeocello sang backing vocals on the song "I'd Rather be Your Lover" for Madonna on her album Bedtime Stories.
Her music has been featured in a number of film soundtracks including How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Lost & Delirious, Batman & Robin, Love Jones, Love & Basketball, Talk To Me, Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls,The Best Man, Higher Learning and Down in the Delta.
She has appeared on recordings by Basement Jaxx, Indigo Girls and The Blind Boys of Alabama. On The Rolling Stones' 1997 album Bridges to Babylon she plays bass on the song "Saint Of Me". On Alanis Morissette's 2002 album Under Rug Swept she plays bass on the songs "So Unsexy" and "You Owe Me Nothing in Return". On Zap Mama's album "ReCreation" (2009) she plays bass on the song "African Diamond".
She can also be seen in the documentary movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown, singing The Miracles' "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" and The Temptations' "Cloud Nine". In the late 1990s, she toured with Lilith Fair. She also did a remake of the song, "Two Doors Down" on the 2003 release, Just Because I'm A Woman: The Songs of Dolly Parton. Ndegeocello was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7BCwekvNbs; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GlE46xKESso; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUYWLS7Dl3s; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSiOpUzm6yg)
Ndegeocello honed her skills on the D.C. go-go circuit in the late 1980s with the bands Prophecy, Little Bennie and the Masters, and Rare Essence. She unsuccessfully tried out for Living Colour's bassist position, vacated in 1992 by Muzz Skillings. Going solo, she was one of the first artists to sign with Maverick Records, where she released her debut album, Plantation Lullabies. This recording presented a distinctly androgynous persona.
Her biggest hit is a duet with John Cougar Mellencamp, a cover version of Van Morrison's "Wild Night", which reached #3 on the Billboard charts. Her only other Billboard Hot 100 hit besides "Wild Night" has been "If That's Your Boyfriend (He Wasn't Last Night)", which peaked at #73 in 1994. She had a Dance #1 in 1996 with a Bill Withers cover called "Who Is He (and What Is He To You?)" (briefly featured in the film Jerry Maguire) as well as Dance Top 20 hits with "Earth", "Leviticus: Faggot", "Stay" and the aforementioned "...Boyfriend". Ndegeocello sang backing vocals on the song "I'd Rather be Your Lover" for Madonna on her album Bedtime Stories.
Her music has been featured in a number of film soundtracks including How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Lost & Delirious, Batman & Robin, Love Jones, Love & Basketball, Talk To Me, Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls,The Best Man, Higher Learning and Down in the Delta.
She has appeared on recordings by Basement Jaxx, Indigo Girls and The Blind Boys of Alabama. On The Rolling Stones' 1997 album Bridges to Babylon she plays bass on the song "Saint Of Me". On Alanis Morissette's 2002 album Under Rug Swept she plays bass on the songs "So Unsexy" and "You Owe Me Nothing in Return". On Zap Mama's album "ReCreation" (2009) she plays bass on the song "African Diamond".
She can also be seen in the documentary movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown, singing The Miracles' "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" and The Temptations' "Cloud Nine". In the late 1990s, she toured with Lilith Fair. She also did a remake of the song, "Two Doors Down" on the 2003 release, Just Because I'm A Woman: The Songs of Dolly Parton. Ndegeocello was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7BCwekvNbs; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GlE46xKESso; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUYWLS7Dl3s; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSiOpUzm6yg)
Steven G. Fullwood: Curator, Archivist, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture & the Black Gay & Lesbian Archive Project, Writer, Activist, Organizer
Steven G. Fullwood is Assistant Curator of the
Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division at the Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. Steven also founded the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive in 1999 to aid in the preservation of black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, same-gender loving, queer, questioning and in the life history of culture.
In his duties he manages the division through collection development (acquisitions, cataloging, and public service), supervising staff, directing the daily activities of the division, and continuing to develop programming and outreach initiatives to promote use of the collections.
In addition to his work as a curator and archivist, Steven is co-editor of two anthologies, Think Again (with Colin Robinson) and To Be Left With the Body (with Cheryl Clarke). Both publications were produced by AIDS Project Los Angeles. His articles, essays, poems and criticism has appeared in Black Issues Book Review, Lambda Book Report, Vibe, Library Journal, and other publications.
In his duties he manages the division through collection development (acquisitions, cataloging, and public service), supervising staff, directing the daily activities of the division, and continuing to develop programming and outreach initiatives to promote use of the collections.
In addition to his work as a curator and archivist, Steven is co-editor of two anthologies, Think Again (with Colin Robinson) and To Be Left With the Body (with Cheryl Clarke). Both publications were produced by AIDS Project Los Angeles. His articles, essays, poems and criticism has appeared in Black Issues Book Review, Lambda Book Report, Vibe, Library Journal, and other publications.
Archiving Black LGBT History: Interview with Steven Fullwood, Black Gay & Lesbian Archive Project
(This interview was done in 2008)
(I first met Steven G. Fuller about 4 years ago when he graciously showed Greg and me around the Schomburg Research Center and the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive project in Harlem. I had been following his work since I first heard of the project in 2000. Steven is not only a librarian/archivist, but a first rate essayist, editor and poet. If you're ever in the NYC area, stop by and let him show you around. ~ Doug)
When was the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive Project started?
In 1999, I approached GMAD about depositing their archives at the Schomburg. Kevin McGruder, the executive director at the time, was interested and helped to develop and execute the project. I was awarded a documentary heritage grant, a program sponsored by the New York State Archives, which essentially provided a modest stipend to process the papers. The records were moved to the Center, processed and are now available to the public.
While researching for the grant, I searched for other repositories collecting Black queer materials, both in order to know the territory of queer archives, and to develop my grant proposal. The majority of libraries and archival institutions whose stated missions were to collect and preserve Black or queer cultural or historical materials were sadly lacking.
What was available in 1999 at many of these institutions were books by mainstream authors like James Baldwin, Audre Lorde or Samuel Delany, but less than a handful had Black queer archival records. The Schomburg had (and continues to have) the largest collection of Black queer materials to date.
While I don’t recall the exact moment I decided to start an archival initiative to collect the universe of Black queer materials, I do remember feeling like I was in the right place and time to do this work.
I spent about ten years collecting materials before formerly instituting the BGLA in 2000. The collection was housed at my apartment. Inspired by the lack of documentation of non-heterosexual black life in libraries and repositories nationally, the genesis of the project began with my collection of books, magazines, flyers, programs, conference materials and other paraphernalia. For five years I traveled extensively in the United States and abroad, attending readings, conferences and other cultural events seeking and collecting materials created by and about activists, writers, filmmakers, organizations, businesses and other artists in the United States, Europe and Africa. Materials in the collection, as well, as photographic collections and artifacts, reflect those efforts. Currently the BGLA contains information dating from the mid-1950s to the present, documenting the experiences of non-heterosexual men and women of African descent primarily in the United States, London and several countries in Africa. Consisting of dozens of small collections of one to five folders, these miscellaneous collections form the bulk of the paper-based, non-photographic materials that I acquired through donation or purchase in an effort to bring to light the culture and history of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, same gender loving, queer, questioning, and in the life people.
Subject areas in the collections will be familiar to members and students of Black queer culture and history including files for writers such as Audre Lorde and Essex Hemphill, but there is also information on lesser known individuals and organizations such as information about filmmaker Michelle Parkerson, the Los Angeles based Association of Black Gays, and IRUWA! Minnesota Coalition of Black Gays, The span of the collection is the mid 20th Century to the present including a focus on information about underdocumented individuals, organizations and subjects in the 1980s when many organizations formed in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Types of materials in the collection include printed matter (reviews and feature articles, programs, flyers and broadsides, newsletters), letters, including correspondence generated by me with donors and individuals documented in the collection, resumes and other biographical information, scripts, academic papers, and speeches. In some cases, files contain scant information. Additionally, the administrative files contain information about the structure and development of the project and its deposit to the Schomburg Center.
How large is the collection and what are some of the items?
The BGLA is about 30 linear feet, and it includes dozens of books, magazines, journals, newsletters, newspapers, flyers, hand cards, posters, photographs, t-shirts, films, music CDs, and a number of other items. There are papers for writers Cheryl Clarke, Donna Allegra, Ira Jeffries and Ron Simmons, along with one to three folder collections for individuals, organizations, pride events, subjects, and house/ballroom scenes. There are more collection materials mentioned below.
How accessible is it to the public?
Currently the archive is open to the public by appointment. Interested researchers should contact me directly at [email protected]. My complete contact information is listed below.
What got you interested in the idea of a black gay and lesbian archive?
I was researching a grant to process the records of the Gay Men of African Descent. What I found was that there were virtually no libraries or archival institutions actively collecting black queer materials. At the time I was working as an archivist at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. The Schomburg had (and continues to have) the largest collection of black queer materials including the papers of Joseph Beam, editor of the first black gay anthology, In the Life; Melvin Dixon, poet, translator, and author of Vanishing Rooms; Assotto Saint, author, activist and publisher of Galiens Press; as well as books and magazines and journals. I was in the best possible position to start the archive because 1) I was at the Schomburg, 2) I has a sense of the geography of black queer history, 3) I knew artists, activists, and regular folk personally who were interested in reaching as many people as possible with their work, and 4) the archive project itself was an extension of what I believe might be useful to not just one segment of the black queer community or even the black community, but everyone. Redefining community so that everyone is valued is a dream of mine. By acknowledging the presence of non-heterosexual people I believe helps develop healthy community dialogue about perceived differences to diffuse and eradicate the stereotypes, distrust and lies that to this day go largely unchallenged. (Part 2 of the Interview Below)
W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, and others chronicled the lives of black folks, but they totally overlooked black gay history. Who are our historians? Who is out there chronicling our lives?
This is a good question because it makes me think primarily about the role of the artist in Black queer communities. The poets, fictionists, essayists, critics, playwrights, and short story writers, photographers, filmmakers, performing artists (actors, singers, dancers) are archivists in a sense who leave footprints that are invaluable in considering our various historical moments. There are academics such as E. Patrick Johnson’s Sweet Tea, who is also coeditor of Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology (with Mae G. Henderson), and Thomas Glave’s Words to Our Now, publishers like Lisa C. Moore’s Does Your Mama Know: Coming Out Stories by Black Lesbians, poets Marvin K. White, Samiya Bashir, Reginald Harris, and many more academics interested in putting down the stories of various same gender loving people of African descent. I also think of activists like Imani Henry who is at the forefront of Trans rights, and people like Larry Lyons who founded the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund in order to honor Brazell, a young black gay male who was murdered in 2005.
How extensive are the submissions to the collection? Is it mostly from the United States or international?
Although the collection is international in scope, most of the donations in the archive are largely from North America, and the largest part from the East Coast (New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia) and then the West Coast (California) and then various parts of the South (Atlanta, Houston, Florida).
How far back in time does the collection go?
There is a chilling special-edition monograph titled “Rape,” which dates to the 1950s. The sexually graphic comic was created by an unknown artist, and explores what I call “white gay desire for black male bodies.” The brief narrative follows the exploits of two black males and a white rapist by the name of Frank Sinatra. The action is brief and brutal but poignant, and offers scholars ways to image how power, desire and race intersected prior to Stonewall.
I’ve mentioned to you before that you should do a coffee table edition of the archive. Are there any plans to do that?
At this time I have no plans to do one, but maybe in the future. What I will do is continue developing the archive, doing publicity for it (like this interview) and helping other people start similar archival initiatives. If someone else wants to create that type of publication, I would be glad to assist.
What type of items are you looking for?
Not so much specific items, but materials that describe the earlier presence of black queer people, perhaps in diaries and letters.
Are there any rare items you’re looking for?
If I could get a copy of Adrian Stanford’s Black and Gay, published in 1977 by Gay Sunshine Press, I would be pleased. However, there is a microfilm copy of the book at the Schomburg library. And it would be great to obtain the records of earlier organizations like Salsa Soul Sisters or the Association of Black Gays, or the records of the publishers of B&G, or other early black queer magazines as well as all the issues of MOJA = Black and Gay, and other early publications like Blacklight and Blackheart. I wouldn’t mind doing an oral history project with black queer elders in New York City.
Is there a movement towards including black gay history into general historical writings?
I think there is, however slowly. The more professors and teachers use black queer writers and history in their classrooms, I’d like to think that it would have a ripple effect. Well-known figures like James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis, Rustin Bayard, and others whose sexual identity informed their work in some respects might become more evident, and it is certainly a way to rethink and reconsider their creative and political work as well. But I think the movement to include black queer history into general history is the least of most people’s interest. Frankly, there are not enough people pushing for this type of history in the classroom at most levels. Face it, most people do not even want to deal with the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Some would say sexual orientation should be irrelevant in recording history. What do you think?
Answering questions like this, and I get them a lot, presupposes that there is a position to defend, and thus fuels ignorance about power structures that require you to agree with them or, like most of us, be in conflict with their biases and stupidity. That said, my belief is that everyone deserves to have their history recorded, for a variety of reasons. Can you imagine for a moment if the world accepted sexuality as it is, not as they want it to be. Acceptance.
So, someone comes up and says ‘I want to start archiving black gay and lesbian historical data, artifacts… what would be your initial response?
My gut response is why. What is your interest? And be honest. If you want to make money, just say so, but don’t cloak it under some artificial notion that people should know about black queer history blah blah blah. That’s clear, so be clear about your intentions. Then I would say start from where you are – location. I would also ask why and what is the expected outcomes (what does it look like, where would it live, who and what would the archive focus on, etc.) I might also mention that this work takes a minute and requires lots of patience, time and vision.
How has the overall experience been?
Tremendous. It’s been a revelation to learn about black queer people, how they interact and have interacted with the larger black and gay communities, and the world; how they see and demonstrate their responsibilities to each other, to the communities they live in, and to the political repression of others, the environment, their health, nationalism, global warming and other issues. Mostly I am delighted to be useful in this manner.
(For a visit to the Black Gay and lesbian Archive or to make a donation, you can contact Steven at:
Steven G. Fullwood
Project Director
Black Gay & Lesbian Archive
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York, New York 10037
www.schomburgcenter.org
212.491.2226 Tel
212.491.2037 Fax)
(I first met Steven G. Fuller about 4 years ago when he graciously showed Greg and me around the Schomburg Research Center and the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive project in Harlem. I had been following his work since I first heard of the project in 2000. Steven is not only a librarian/archivist, but a first rate essayist, editor and poet. If you're ever in the NYC area, stop by and let him show you around. ~ Doug)
When was the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive Project started?
In 1999, I approached GMAD about depositing their archives at the Schomburg. Kevin McGruder, the executive director at the time, was interested and helped to develop and execute the project. I was awarded a documentary heritage grant, a program sponsored by the New York State Archives, which essentially provided a modest stipend to process the papers. The records were moved to the Center, processed and are now available to the public.
While researching for the grant, I searched for other repositories collecting Black queer materials, both in order to know the territory of queer archives, and to develop my grant proposal. The majority of libraries and archival institutions whose stated missions were to collect and preserve Black or queer cultural or historical materials were sadly lacking.
What was available in 1999 at many of these institutions were books by mainstream authors like James Baldwin, Audre Lorde or Samuel Delany, but less than a handful had Black queer archival records. The Schomburg had (and continues to have) the largest collection of Black queer materials to date.
While I don’t recall the exact moment I decided to start an archival initiative to collect the universe of Black queer materials, I do remember feeling like I was in the right place and time to do this work.
I spent about ten years collecting materials before formerly instituting the BGLA in 2000. The collection was housed at my apartment. Inspired by the lack of documentation of non-heterosexual black life in libraries and repositories nationally, the genesis of the project began with my collection of books, magazines, flyers, programs, conference materials and other paraphernalia. For five years I traveled extensively in the United States and abroad, attending readings, conferences and other cultural events seeking and collecting materials created by and about activists, writers, filmmakers, organizations, businesses and other artists in the United States, Europe and Africa. Materials in the collection, as well, as photographic collections and artifacts, reflect those efforts. Currently the BGLA contains information dating from the mid-1950s to the present, documenting the experiences of non-heterosexual men and women of African descent primarily in the United States, London and several countries in Africa. Consisting of dozens of small collections of one to five folders, these miscellaneous collections form the bulk of the paper-based, non-photographic materials that I acquired through donation or purchase in an effort to bring to light the culture and history of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, same gender loving, queer, questioning, and in the life people.
Subject areas in the collections will be familiar to members and students of Black queer culture and history including files for writers such as Audre Lorde and Essex Hemphill, but there is also information on lesser known individuals and organizations such as information about filmmaker Michelle Parkerson, the Los Angeles based Association of Black Gays, and IRUWA! Minnesota Coalition of Black Gays, The span of the collection is the mid 20th Century to the present including a focus on information about underdocumented individuals, organizations and subjects in the 1980s when many organizations formed in response to the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Types of materials in the collection include printed matter (reviews and feature articles, programs, flyers and broadsides, newsletters), letters, including correspondence generated by me with donors and individuals documented in the collection, resumes and other biographical information, scripts, academic papers, and speeches. In some cases, files contain scant information. Additionally, the administrative files contain information about the structure and development of the project and its deposit to the Schomburg Center.
How large is the collection and what are some of the items?
The BGLA is about 30 linear feet, and it includes dozens of books, magazines, journals, newsletters, newspapers, flyers, hand cards, posters, photographs, t-shirts, films, music CDs, and a number of other items. There are papers for writers Cheryl Clarke, Donna Allegra, Ira Jeffries and Ron Simmons, along with one to three folder collections for individuals, organizations, pride events, subjects, and house/ballroom scenes. There are more collection materials mentioned below.
How accessible is it to the public?
Currently the archive is open to the public by appointment. Interested researchers should contact me directly at [email protected]. My complete contact information is listed below.
What got you interested in the idea of a black gay and lesbian archive?
I was researching a grant to process the records of the Gay Men of African Descent. What I found was that there were virtually no libraries or archival institutions actively collecting black queer materials. At the time I was working as an archivist at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library. The Schomburg had (and continues to have) the largest collection of black queer materials including the papers of Joseph Beam, editor of the first black gay anthology, In the Life; Melvin Dixon, poet, translator, and author of Vanishing Rooms; Assotto Saint, author, activist and publisher of Galiens Press; as well as books and magazines and journals. I was in the best possible position to start the archive because 1) I was at the Schomburg, 2) I has a sense of the geography of black queer history, 3) I knew artists, activists, and regular folk personally who were interested in reaching as many people as possible with their work, and 4) the archive project itself was an extension of what I believe might be useful to not just one segment of the black queer community or even the black community, but everyone. Redefining community so that everyone is valued is a dream of mine. By acknowledging the presence of non-heterosexual people I believe helps develop healthy community dialogue about perceived differences to diffuse and eradicate the stereotypes, distrust and lies that to this day go largely unchallenged. (Part 2 of the Interview Below)
W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, and others chronicled the lives of black folks, but they totally overlooked black gay history. Who are our historians? Who is out there chronicling our lives?
This is a good question because it makes me think primarily about the role of the artist in Black queer communities. The poets, fictionists, essayists, critics, playwrights, and short story writers, photographers, filmmakers, performing artists (actors, singers, dancers) are archivists in a sense who leave footprints that are invaluable in considering our various historical moments. There are academics such as E. Patrick Johnson’s Sweet Tea, who is also coeditor of Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology (with Mae G. Henderson), and Thomas Glave’s Words to Our Now, publishers like Lisa C. Moore’s Does Your Mama Know: Coming Out Stories by Black Lesbians, poets Marvin K. White, Samiya Bashir, Reginald Harris, and many more academics interested in putting down the stories of various same gender loving people of African descent. I also think of activists like Imani Henry who is at the forefront of Trans rights, and people like Larry Lyons who founded the Rashawn Brazell Memorial Fund in order to honor Brazell, a young black gay male who was murdered in 2005.
How extensive are the submissions to the collection? Is it mostly from the United States or international?
Although the collection is international in scope, most of the donations in the archive are largely from North America, and the largest part from the East Coast (New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia) and then the West Coast (California) and then various parts of the South (Atlanta, Houston, Florida).
How far back in time does the collection go?
There is a chilling special-edition monograph titled “Rape,” which dates to the 1950s. The sexually graphic comic was created by an unknown artist, and explores what I call “white gay desire for black male bodies.” The brief narrative follows the exploits of two black males and a white rapist by the name of Frank Sinatra. The action is brief and brutal but poignant, and offers scholars ways to image how power, desire and race intersected prior to Stonewall.
I’ve mentioned to you before that you should do a coffee table edition of the archive. Are there any plans to do that?
At this time I have no plans to do one, but maybe in the future. What I will do is continue developing the archive, doing publicity for it (like this interview) and helping other people start similar archival initiatives. If someone else wants to create that type of publication, I would be glad to assist.
What type of items are you looking for?
Not so much specific items, but materials that describe the earlier presence of black queer people, perhaps in diaries and letters.
Are there any rare items you’re looking for?
If I could get a copy of Adrian Stanford’s Black and Gay, published in 1977 by Gay Sunshine Press, I would be pleased. However, there is a microfilm copy of the book at the Schomburg library. And it would be great to obtain the records of earlier organizations like Salsa Soul Sisters or the Association of Black Gays, or the records of the publishers of B&G, or other early black queer magazines as well as all the issues of MOJA = Black and Gay, and other early publications like Blacklight and Blackheart. I wouldn’t mind doing an oral history project with black queer elders in New York City.
Is there a movement towards including black gay history into general historical writings?
I think there is, however slowly. The more professors and teachers use black queer writers and history in their classrooms, I’d like to think that it would have a ripple effect. Well-known figures like James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis, Rustin Bayard, and others whose sexual identity informed their work in some respects might become more evident, and it is certainly a way to rethink and reconsider their creative and political work as well. But I think the movement to include black queer history into general history is the least of most people’s interest. Frankly, there are not enough people pushing for this type of history in the classroom at most levels. Face it, most people do not even want to deal with the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Some would say sexual orientation should be irrelevant in recording history. What do you think?
Answering questions like this, and I get them a lot, presupposes that there is a position to defend, and thus fuels ignorance about power structures that require you to agree with them or, like most of us, be in conflict with their biases and stupidity. That said, my belief is that everyone deserves to have their history recorded, for a variety of reasons. Can you imagine for a moment if the world accepted sexuality as it is, not as they want it to be. Acceptance.
So, someone comes up and says ‘I want to start archiving black gay and lesbian historical data, artifacts… what would be your initial response?
My gut response is why. What is your interest? And be honest. If you want to make money, just say so, but don’t cloak it under some artificial notion that people should know about black queer history blah blah blah. That’s clear, so be clear about your intentions. Then I would say start from where you are – location. I would also ask why and what is the expected outcomes (what does it look like, where would it live, who and what would the archive focus on, etc.) I might also mention that this work takes a minute and requires lots of patience, time and vision.
How has the overall experience been?
Tremendous. It’s been a revelation to learn about black queer people, how they interact and have interacted with the larger black and gay communities, and the world; how they see and demonstrate their responsibilities to each other, to the communities they live in, and to the political repression of others, the environment, their health, nationalism, global warming and other issues. Mostly I am delighted to be useful in this manner.
(For a visit to the Black Gay and lesbian Archive or to make a donation, you can contact Steven at:
Steven G. Fullwood
Project Director
Black Gay & Lesbian Archive
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard
New York, New York 10037
www.schomburgcenter.org
212.491.2226 Tel
212.491.2037 Fax)
Richard Bruce Nugent: Writer, Artist of The Harlem Renaissance; Wrote One of the Earliest Openly Queer Stories (1926)
Richard Bruce Nugent (July 2, 1906 – May 27, 1987), aka Richard Bruce and Bruce Nugent, was a writer and painter in the Harlem Renaissance.
Nugent was born in Washington, DC to a middle-class African-American family. He was the oldest child of Richard H. Nugent, Jr., a train porter, by his wife, Pauline. Spending a large part of his life in New York City, he died in Hoboken, New Jersey.
In 1926, he published Smoke, Lilies, and Jade, a short story regarded by many scholars as the first publication by an African American to depict homosexuality openly. The story, on which he collaborated with other authors, appeared in the only issue of the art magazine Fire!!. From 1926 to 1928 he lived with the writer Wallace Thurman at 267 W 136th Street in Harlem, New York. The apartment complex in which they stayed was known as "Niggeratti Manor," and the walls were decorated by Nugent with murals representing homoerotic scenes.
Many of his illustrations were featured in publications, such as Fire!!, Opportunity and Palms. Also, four of his works were included in the Harmon Foundation’s exhibition of Negro artist, which was one of the few venues available for black artists to show their work in 1931. His only stand-alone publication,Beyond Where the Stars Stood Still, was issued in a limited edition by Warren Marr II in 1945. He later married Marr's sister, Grace on December 5, 1952. This marriage however was never consummated since he was openly gay, but she insisted they marry with the notion that she could change him. It was not seen as a ploy to hide his homosexuality, but rather they were just very close.
He attended the Community Planning Conference at Columbia University in 1964 as an invited speaker. The conference was held under the auspices of the Borough President of Manhattan/Community Planning Board 10 and Columbia. The idea of forming an organization to promote the arts in Harlem emerged from the conference’s Cultural Planning workshop and led to the formation of the Harlem Cultural Council. Nugent took an active role in this effort and attended numerous subsequent meetings. Nugent was elected co-chair (a position equivalent to vice president) of this council. He also served as chair of the Program Committee until March, 1967.
He is a principal character in the 2004 film Brother to Brother. In 2002 Duke University Press releasedGay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent, which included examples of his writing and artwork.
He was a contemporary of Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas, Wallace Thurman and Zora Neale Hurston.
Nugent was born in Washington, DC to a middle-class African-American family. He was the oldest child of Richard H. Nugent, Jr., a train porter, by his wife, Pauline. Spending a large part of his life in New York City, he died in Hoboken, New Jersey.
In 1926, he published Smoke, Lilies, and Jade, a short story regarded by many scholars as the first publication by an African American to depict homosexuality openly. The story, on which he collaborated with other authors, appeared in the only issue of the art magazine Fire!!. From 1926 to 1928 he lived with the writer Wallace Thurman at 267 W 136th Street in Harlem, New York. The apartment complex in which they stayed was known as "Niggeratti Manor," and the walls were decorated by Nugent with murals representing homoerotic scenes.
Many of his illustrations were featured in publications, such as Fire!!, Opportunity and Palms. Also, four of his works were included in the Harmon Foundation’s exhibition of Negro artist, which was one of the few venues available for black artists to show their work in 1931. His only stand-alone publication,Beyond Where the Stars Stood Still, was issued in a limited edition by Warren Marr II in 1945. He later married Marr's sister, Grace on December 5, 1952. This marriage however was never consummated since he was openly gay, but she insisted they marry with the notion that she could change him. It was not seen as a ploy to hide his homosexuality, but rather they were just very close.
He attended the Community Planning Conference at Columbia University in 1964 as an invited speaker. The conference was held under the auspices of the Borough President of Manhattan/Community Planning Board 10 and Columbia. The idea of forming an organization to promote the arts in Harlem emerged from the conference’s Cultural Planning workshop and led to the formation of the Harlem Cultural Council. Nugent took an active role in this effort and attended numerous subsequent meetings. Nugent was elected co-chair (a position equivalent to vice president) of this council. He also served as chair of the Program Committee until March, 1967.
He is a principal character in the 2004 film Brother to Brother. In 2002 Duke University Press releasedGay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent, which included examples of his writing and artwork.
He was a contemporary of Langston Hughes, Aaron Douglas, Wallace Thurman and Zora Neale Hurston.
Artwork by Richard Bruce Nugent , Writer, Artist of the Harlem Renaissance
E. Denise Simmons: First openly lesbian African-American mayor in the U.S.
E. Denise Simmons was the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts during the 2008-2009 term. She was the first openly lesbian African-American mayor in the United States. The previous mayor of Cambridge, Kenneth Reeves, was the first openly gay African-American mayor in the United States. As Cambridge mayor, Simmons served as head of the city's legislative body—while the non-elected city manager serves as the city's chief executive officer. As of January, 2010, she is beginning her fifth term on the Cambridge City Council.
A Justice of the Peace and Notary Public, Simmons came to public office with 12 years of experience with the city-funded citizen rights organization Civic Unity Committee, which she served as executive director. Among the work performed while in this role was her successful fight to increase the diversity within the Cambridge public school faculty. In 1992, Simmons ran for and won a spot on the Cambridge School Committee.
In 2001, Simmons ran for and won a seat on the city council. Being a Black, a woman, and a member of the GLBT community, she worked hard to make sure that each of these constituencies were given a voice inside City Hall. Denise Simmons was a member of the City Council when Cambridge City Hall became the first municipality, in 2004, to issue same-sex marriage licenses. She also promoted efforts to help local minority business owners network and establish themselves in Cambridge, and she helped initiate community conversations about the role of race and class in contemporary Cambridge society.
Her election to mayor of Cambridge by the Cambridge City Council on January 14, 2008 was unanimous.
In February 2010, Councilor Simmons announced that she is running for an open state senate seat. She came in third. She released a statement to the press that said, in part: "Despite coming up a little short at the end, this campaign was still a winning experience for me. I have had a tremendous opportunity to get to meet so many people, to learn more about the issues impacting the people in this district, and to make many new friends in Cambridge and beyond.
Denise Simmons has a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and a Master's degree in Psychotherapy from Antioch College. In 1982, she established her own business, the Cambridgeport Insurance Agency.
A Justice of the Peace and Notary Public, Simmons came to public office with 12 years of experience with the city-funded citizen rights organization Civic Unity Committee, which she served as executive director. Among the work performed while in this role was her successful fight to increase the diversity within the Cambridge public school faculty. In 1992, Simmons ran for and won a spot on the Cambridge School Committee.
In 2001, Simmons ran for and won a seat on the city council. Being a Black, a woman, and a member of the GLBT community, she worked hard to make sure that each of these constituencies were given a voice inside City Hall. Denise Simmons was a member of the City Council when Cambridge City Hall became the first municipality, in 2004, to issue same-sex marriage licenses. She also promoted efforts to help local minority business owners network and establish themselves in Cambridge, and she helped initiate community conversations about the role of race and class in contemporary Cambridge society.
Her election to mayor of Cambridge by the Cambridge City Council on January 14, 2008 was unanimous.
In February 2010, Councilor Simmons announced that she is running for an open state senate seat. She came in third. She released a statement to the press that said, in part: "Despite coming up a little short at the end, this campaign was still a winning experience for me. I have had a tremendous opportunity to get to meet so many people, to learn more about the issues impacting the people in this district, and to make many new friends in Cambridge and beyond.
Denise Simmons has a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and a Master's degree in Psychotherapy from Antioch College. In 1982, she established her own business, the Cambridgeport Insurance Agency.
Paris Barclay: Prolific Two-Time Emmy Award Winning Director/Producer
Paris K.C. Barclay (born June 30, 1956) is an American television director and producer. He is a two-time Emmy Award winner and is currently among the busiest single-camera television directors, having directed over 125 episodes of television to date, for series such as NYPD Blue, ER, The West Wing, CSI, Lost, The Shield, House, Law & Order, Monk, Numb3rs, City of Angels, Cold Case, and more recently Sons of Anarchy, The Mentalist, Weeds, NCIS: Los Angeles, The Good Wife, In Treatment, Glee, and Smash.
Currently, Barclay is executive producer and principal director of FX’s highest rated series ever, Sons of Anarchy, which aired season five in 2012. Unusual for a series in its fifth season, Sons of Anarchy continues to rise in the ratings.
Between seasons of Sons of Anarchy, Barclay returned to directing music videos: helming LL Cool J's "Take It". Also, Barclay is currently developing a feature film biopic about the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan starring Viola Davis, which he will direct and produce. Barclay also serves his fourth term as First Vice-President of the Directors Guild of America.
Barclay was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois. He attended La Lumiere School, a private college preparatory boarding school in La Porte, Indiana. On scholarship, he was one of the first African-Americans to attend the school. Barclay then went on to Harvard College, where he was extremely active in student musical theatre productions and the a cappella singing group the Harvard Krokodiloes. During his four years there, he wrote 16 musicals, including the music for two of the annual Hasty Pudding shows.
Following graduation, he worked as a copywriter and creative supervisor at Grey, BBDO, Cunningham & Walsh, and Marsteller. Barclay then moved into music video directing and production through his own company, Black & White Television. He directed music videos for Bob Dylan, the New Kids On The Block, Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross. Most notably, he created eight videos for LL Cool J, including "Mama Said Knock You Out", which won awards from both MTV and Billboard -- and went on to be listed by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. He was often hired to direct videos for films, introducing audiences to House Party (1990), White Men Can't Jump (1992), Mo' Money (1992), Posse (1993), and Cool Runnings (1993), among others.
In 2012, Barclay directed his first music video in 16 years, working once again with LL Cool J and R&B star Joe on the video for "Take It", the first video from 'LL Cool J's forthcoming album, "Authentic Hip Hop".
Paris began his successful career in television with an episode of Angel Street. His arrival coincided with John Wells' debut as an executive producer.
Barclay directed Shawn and Marlon Wayans' first feature film, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996), and the HBO movie, The Cherokee Kid (1996).
After directing episodes of ER, Paris directed and eventually became a producer of NYPD Blue. In three years there, Barclay would receive two Emmy Awards for best Directing—the second of which was for the episode titled "Hearts and Souls" -- a farewell to Jimmy Smits' character Bobby Simone that has been ranked one of TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time.
In 2000, Barclay teamed with a fellow NYPD Blue producers Steven Bochco and Nicholas Wootton to create City of Angels, a medical drama with a predominantly African-American cast including Blair Underwood, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Maya Rudolph, and Vivica Fox. The show aired on CBS for two seasons while winning two NAACP awards.
In the years that followed, Barclay worked on a wide variety of television dramas and comedies. He served as a producer of the series Cold Case, for which he has also directed nine episodes. Other shows he directed in the decade include The West Wing, Huff, Law & Order, Numb3rs, Lost, House,The Shield, Weeds, Monk,The Good Wife, NCIS: Los Angeles, Sons of Anarchy, CSI, The Mentalist and numerous episodes of Glee.
2008 marked Barclay's return to HBO, where he executive produced three seasons of In Treatment, as well as directed 35 episodes.
In 2011, Barclay became the executive producer and primary director for the fourth season of FX's Sons of Anarchy, a role he continued through the fifth season, in which Barclay also directed 3 episodes, including the season premier "Sovereign", which improved upon the ratings of season four. The Barclay-directed opener to became the highest rated telecast in FX history.
A June 2011 article in Variety ranked Barclay among the "Ten TV Directors Who Leave Their Mark," ranking him among "the most respected in the business." The article went on to describe Barclay as a "highly adaptive force with the ability to control both TV detectives and scene-stealing gleesters."
Also in 2012, Barclay will return to "Glee", to direct the upcoming "Diva" episode, as well as directing episode 111 of the new ABC series "Last Resort".
Along with winning two Emmy Awards for NYPD Blue, Barclay has garnered six total Emmy nominations—two for producing NYPD Blue, one for directing The West Wing, and most recently for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the Glee episode "Wheels."
He has also received a Directors Guild of America Award for NYPD Blue and amassed 10 total DGA Award nominations for The West Wing (3), In Treatment (2), NYPD Blue (2), ER, House, and Glee. In 2007, he and Taylor Hackford were recipients of the DGA Robert B. Aldrich Award, for Distinguished Service to the Directors Guild.
Barclay received an NAACP Image Award for Best Drama Series as co-creator, writer, and director of the groundbreaking medical drama City of Angels, another Image Award for directing Cold Case, and a third Image Award for directing Smash. He has been nominated for the Image Award for Directing in a Drama Series every year it has been offered, from 2006 to 2012.
Paris received his first WGA Award nomination for co-writing Pedro with screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, marking the Oscar-winner's first WGA credit. The moving story of The Real World's Pedro Zamora garnered the team nominations for a GLAAD Media Award and Humanitas Prize.
Episodes directed by Paris for both Glee and In Treatment have become the recipients of the prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.
The Glee episode "Wheels" was also acknowledged at the 2010 Shane's Inspiration Gala, receiving the Visionary Leadership Award for shining a light on the abilities of those with disabilities. The Glee episode, "Wheels" and CSI episode, "Coup de Grace" were both chosen for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' (the Emmy organization) Television Academy Honor, saluting "Television with a Conscience," in which the Academy recognizes achievements in programming that present issues of concern to society in "a compelling, emotional, and insightful way." Barclay also accepted the Voice Award from the US Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of In Treatment, for "incorporating dignified, respectful, and accurate portrayals of people with mental illnesses."
In June 2011, Advertising Age featured Paris on the cover as one of 2011's 50 Most Creative People, saying "Mr. Barclay brings an innate cultural awareness to shows."
TV Guide also recognized his House episode, "Three Stories", as one of the 100 Best Episodes of All Time.
In addition to his honors in television, he also received the Bridge Award[18] from the Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles for over 20 years contributions to this theater. Barclay was named by POWER UP as one of the Top Ten Gay Men in Entertainment; the 2001 GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Awardwinner in honor of his outstanding representation of the LGBT community; the 2004 Pan-African Film Festival Pioneer Award; and the Founder's Award from Project Angel Food. Barclay received the 2012 Upton Sinclair Award from the non-profit Liberty Hill for "unwavering idealism and vision." In 2012, he and husband Christopher Barclay were also awarded with the Family Values Award from In the Life Media, given to "individuals whose representation of LGBT families serve as an inspiration for all Americans.
Paris is the DGA first vice-president and chair of the DGA's Political Action Committee, who's mission includes battling online theft of film and television shows. He attended both the La Lumiere School and Harvard with John Roberts, now the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
His Harvard roommate was novelist Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha.
Openly gay since late in his college days, he was a regular contributor to The Advocate for several years.
As a composer and lyricist, Barclay created the musical One Red Flower (based on the book “Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam”) which has been produced by the North Shore Music Theatre(Massachusetts), Carnegie Mellon University, The Village Theatre (Washington) and The Signature Theatre (Virginia). One Red Flower was also presented a as a benefit in Los Angeles in 2009 starringTony-winner Levi Kreis, Grammy Award nominee Maureen McGovern, Hunter Parrish, and Josh Henderson.
Currently, Barclay is executive producer and principal director of FX’s highest rated series ever, Sons of Anarchy, which aired season five in 2012. Unusual for a series in its fifth season, Sons of Anarchy continues to rise in the ratings.
Between seasons of Sons of Anarchy, Barclay returned to directing music videos: helming LL Cool J's "Take It". Also, Barclay is currently developing a feature film biopic about the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan starring Viola Davis, which he will direct and produce. Barclay also serves his fourth term as First Vice-President of the Directors Guild of America.
Barclay was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois. He attended La Lumiere School, a private college preparatory boarding school in La Porte, Indiana. On scholarship, he was one of the first African-Americans to attend the school. Barclay then went on to Harvard College, where he was extremely active in student musical theatre productions and the a cappella singing group the Harvard Krokodiloes. During his four years there, he wrote 16 musicals, including the music for two of the annual Hasty Pudding shows.
Following graduation, he worked as a copywriter and creative supervisor at Grey, BBDO, Cunningham & Walsh, and Marsteller. Barclay then moved into music video directing and production through his own company, Black & White Television. He directed music videos for Bob Dylan, the New Kids On The Block, Janet Jackson and Luther Vandross. Most notably, he created eight videos for LL Cool J, including "Mama Said Knock You Out", which won awards from both MTV and Billboard -- and went on to be listed by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. He was often hired to direct videos for films, introducing audiences to House Party (1990), White Men Can't Jump (1992), Mo' Money (1992), Posse (1993), and Cool Runnings (1993), among others.
In 2012, Barclay directed his first music video in 16 years, working once again with LL Cool J and R&B star Joe on the video for "Take It", the first video from 'LL Cool J's forthcoming album, "Authentic Hip Hop".
Paris began his successful career in television with an episode of Angel Street. His arrival coincided with John Wells' debut as an executive producer.
Barclay directed Shawn and Marlon Wayans' first feature film, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996), and the HBO movie, The Cherokee Kid (1996).
After directing episodes of ER, Paris directed and eventually became a producer of NYPD Blue. In three years there, Barclay would receive two Emmy Awards for best Directing—the second of which was for the episode titled "Hearts and Souls" -- a farewell to Jimmy Smits' character Bobby Simone that has been ranked one of TV Guide's 100 Best Episodes of All Time.
In 2000, Barclay teamed with a fellow NYPD Blue producers Steven Bochco and Nicholas Wootton to create City of Angels, a medical drama with a predominantly African-American cast including Blair Underwood, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Maya Rudolph, and Vivica Fox. The show aired on CBS for two seasons while winning two NAACP awards.
In the years that followed, Barclay worked on a wide variety of television dramas and comedies. He served as a producer of the series Cold Case, for which he has also directed nine episodes. Other shows he directed in the decade include The West Wing, Huff, Law & Order, Numb3rs, Lost, House,The Shield, Weeds, Monk,The Good Wife, NCIS: Los Angeles, Sons of Anarchy, CSI, The Mentalist and numerous episodes of Glee.
2008 marked Barclay's return to HBO, where he executive produced three seasons of In Treatment, as well as directed 35 episodes.
In 2011, Barclay became the executive producer and primary director for the fourth season of FX's Sons of Anarchy, a role he continued through the fifth season, in which Barclay also directed 3 episodes, including the season premier "Sovereign", which improved upon the ratings of season four. The Barclay-directed opener to became the highest rated telecast in FX history.
A June 2011 article in Variety ranked Barclay among the "Ten TV Directors Who Leave Their Mark," ranking him among "the most respected in the business." The article went on to describe Barclay as a "highly adaptive force with the ability to control both TV detectives and scene-stealing gleesters."
Also in 2012, Barclay will return to "Glee", to direct the upcoming "Diva" episode, as well as directing episode 111 of the new ABC series "Last Resort".
Along with winning two Emmy Awards for NYPD Blue, Barclay has garnered six total Emmy nominations—two for producing NYPD Blue, one for directing The West Wing, and most recently for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the Glee episode "Wheels."
He has also received a Directors Guild of America Award for NYPD Blue and amassed 10 total DGA Award nominations for The West Wing (3), In Treatment (2), NYPD Blue (2), ER, House, and Glee. In 2007, he and Taylor Hackford were recipients of the DGA Robert B. Aldrich Award, for Distinguished Service to the Directors Guild.
Barclay received an NAACP Image Award for Best Drama Series as co-creator, writer, and director of the groundbreaking medical drama City of Angels, another Image Award for directing Cold Case, and a third Image Award for directing Smash. He has been nominated for the Image Award for Directing in a Drama Series every year it has been offered, from 2006 to 2012.
Paris received his first WGA Award nomination for co-writing Pedro with screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, marking the Oscar-winner's first WGA credit. The moving story of The Real World's Pedro Zamora garnered the team nominations for a GLAAD Media Award and Humanitas Prize.
Episodes directed by Paris for both Glee and In Treatment have become the recipients of the prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in broadcasting.
The Glee episode "Wheels" was also acknowledged at the 2010 Shane's Inspiration Gala, receiving the Visionary Leadership Award for shining a light on the abilities of those with disabilities. The Glee episode, "Wheels" and CSI episode, "Coup de Grace" were both chosen for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' (the Emmy organization) Television Academy Honor, saluting "Television with a Conscience," in which the Academy recognizes achievements in programming that present issues of concern to society in "a compelling, emotional, and insightful way." Barclay also accepted the Voice Award from the US Department of Health and Human Services on behalf of In Treatment, for "incorporating dignified, respectful, and accurate portrayals of people with mental illnesses."
In June 2011, Advertising Age featured Paris on the cover as one of 2011's 50 Most Creative People, saying "Mr. Barclay brings an innate cultural awareness to shows."
TV Guide also recognized his House episode, "Three Stories", as one of the 100 Best Episodes of All Time.
In addition to his honors in television, he also received the Bridge Award[18] from the Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles for over 20 years contributions to this theater. Barclay was named by POWER UP as one of the Top Ten Gay Men in Entertainment; the 2001 GLAAD Stephen F. Kolzak Awardwinner in honor of his outstanding representation of the LGBT community; the 2004 Pan-African Film Festival Pioneer Award; and the Founder's Award from Project Angel Food. Barclay received the 2012 Upton Sinclair Award from the non-profit Liberty Hill for "unwavering idealism and vision." In 2012, he and husband Christopher Barclay were also awarded with the Family Values Award from In the Life Media, given to "individuals whose representation of LGBT families serve as an inspiration for all Americans.
Paris is the DGA first vice-president and chair of the DGA's Political Action Committee, who's mission includes battling online theft of film and television shows. He attended both the La Lumiere School and Harvard with John Roberts, now the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
His Harvard roommate was novelist Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha.
Openly gay since late in his college days, he was a regular contributor to The Advocate for several years.
As a composer and lyricist, Barclay created the musical One Red Flower (based on the book “Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam”) which has been produced by the North Shore Music Theatre(Massachusetts), Carnegie Mellon University, The Village Theatre (Washington) and The Signature Theatre (Virginia). One Red Flower was also presented a as a benefit in Los Angeles in 2009 starringTony-winner Levi Kreis, Grammy Award nominee Maureen McGovern, Hunter Parrish, and Josh Henderson.
Tevin Campbell: Recording Artist, Actor
Day 17: Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T History ~ Tevin Jermod Campbell (born November 12, 1976) is an American R&B singer-songwriter. He scored a string of R&B chart hits as a teenager in the early to mid-1990s.
Born in Waxahachie, Texas, Tevin Campbell was introduced to the R&B world by Quincy Jones in August 1989. Tevin's debut single was "Tomorrow (A Better You Better Me)" which reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip hop Singles chart in June 1990. It was the lead single from Jones' critically acclaimed ensemble LP Back on the Block which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1991. After working with Jones and writers and producers including Siedah Garrett, he worked with producers Narada Michael Walden, Al B. Sure, Babyface, and others to record additional music.
His first solo hit was "Round and Round", which charted at #3 on R&B charts in November 1991 and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1991 was produced by Prince and was featured in Prince's film Graffiti Bridge. Tevin followed the success of his first two singles by releasing his debut album, T.E.V.I.N., in November 1991 which featured the R&B hit singles and his only #1 Adult Contemporary hit: "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do" followed by:, "Alone With You", and "Goodbye".
His second album, I'm Ready released October 1993, yielded the #1 R&B hit and #9 pop single "Can We Talk" in December 1993, "I'm Ready", "Always in My Heart" which charted at #3 on the R&B chart. He also scored a Top 30 hit with "Don't Say Goodbye Girl" on the R&B charts. In September 1994, Campbell also scored an R&B hit with the single "U Will Know" as part of the R&B supergroup Black Men United, a group that also included singer Usher.
The year 1996 saw the release of his third album, Back to the World (#11 R&B). The title track was a success (hitting the R&B Top 20), but additional singles failed to make an impact on the chart. His early 1999 self-titled album found Tevin venturing into the neo-soul venue. The project was rushed, and as a result charted below the R&B Top 30, with only one single charting, a Top 30 song called "Another Way".
In 2009, Campbell made an appearance at the 2009 BET Awards as he paid tribute to The O'Jays with Trey Songz, Tyrese, and Johnny Gill.
In May 2010, Campbell performed on The Mo'Nique Show.
After his appearance in the 1990 film Graffiti Bridge, Campbell made a guest appearance the following year on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, playing fictional teen idol, "Little T", a celebrity crush and date of Ashley's first season in the episode "Just Infatuation". In a later episode, he was referenced when Will threatened to destroy Ashley's Tevin Campbell posters after she plays with Will's signature baseball. In 1995, Campbell voiced the character Powerline in Disney's A Goofy Movie, singing the songs "Stand Out" and "I 2 I".
In 1999, Tevin made another guest appearance on the hit show Moesha alongside Brandy Norwood. In the episode, "Rite Stuff."
Recently, he played the role of Seaweed J. Stubbs in the Broadway musical Hairspray. He joined the cast in December 2005. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eKj6zTpOCjQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wrXYlObVQ6g)
Born in Waxahachie, Texas, Tevin Campbell was introduced to the R&B world by Quincy Jones in August 1989. Tevin's debut single was "Tomorrow (A Better You Better Me)" which reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip hop Singles chart in June 1990. It was the lead single from Jones' critically acclaimed ensemble LP Back on the Block which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1991. After working with Jones and writers and producers including Siedah Garrett, he worked with producers Narada Michael Walden, Al B. Sure, Babyface, and others to record additional music.
His first solo hit was "Round and Round", which charted at #3 on R&B charts in November 1991 and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1991 was produced by Prince and was featured in Prince's film Graffiti Bridge. Tevin followed the success of his first two singles by releasing his debut album, T.E.V.I.N., in November 1991 which featured the R&B hit singles and his only #1 Adult Contemporary hit: "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do" followed by:, "Alone With You", and "Goodbye".
His second album, I'm Ready released October 1993, yielded the #1 R&B hit and #9 pop single "Can We Talk" in December 1993, "I'm Ready", "Always in My Heart" which charted at #3 on the R&B chart. He also scored a Top 30 hit with "Don't Say Goodbye Girl" on the R&B charts. In September 1994, Campbell also scored an R&B hit with the single "U Will Know" as part of the R&B supergroup Black Men United, a group that also included singer Usher.
The year 1996 saw the release of his third album, Back to the World (#11 R&B). The title track was a success (hitting the R&B Top 20), but additional singles failed to make an impact on the chart. His early 1999 self-titled album found Tevin venturing into the neo-soul venue. The project was rushed, and as a result charted below the R&B Top 30, with only one single charting, a Top 30 song called "Another Way".
In 2009, Campbell made an appearance at the 2009 BET Awards as he paid tribute to The O'Jays with Trey Songz, Tyrese, and Johnny Gill.
In May 2010, Campbell performed on The Mo'Nique Show.
After his appearance in the 1990 film Graffiti Bridge, Campbell made a guest appearance the following year on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, playing fictional teen idol, "Little T", a celebrity crush and date of Ashley's first season in the episode "Just Infatuation". In a later episode, he was referenced when Will threatened to destroy Ashley's Tevin Campbell posters after she plays with Will's signature baseball. In 1995, Campbell voiced the character Powerline in Disney's A Goofy Movie, singing the songs "Stand Out" and "I 2 I".
In 1999, Tevin made another guest appearance on the hit show Moesha alongside Brandy Norwood. In the episode, "Rite Stuff."
Recently, he played the role of Seaweed J. Stubbs in the Broadway musical Hairspray. He joined the cast in December 2005. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eKj6zTpOCjQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wrXYlObVQ6g)
Audre Lorde: Poet Laureate, Activist
Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992) was a Caribbean-American writer, poet, and activist.
In 1954, she spent a pivotal year as a student at the National University of Mexico, a period she described as a time of affirmation and renewal: she confirmed her identity on personal and artistic levels as a lesbian and poet.
On her return to New York, Lorde went to college, continued writing and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village. Lorde furthered her education at Columbia University, earning a master's degree in library science in 1961. In her own words, Lorde was a "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet".
Lorde's poetry was published regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes's 1962 'New Negro Poets, USA'; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and the feminist movement.
Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherrie Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of color.
Lorde was State Poet Laureate of New York from 1991 to 1992. In an African naming ceremony before her death, she took the name Gamba Adisa, which means "Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known". She died in 1992 after a 14-year struggle with cancer.
In 1954, she spent a pivotal year as a student at the National University of Mexico, a period she described as a time of affirmation and renewal: she confirmed her identity on personal and artistic levels as a lesbian and poet.
On her return to New York, Lorde went to college, continued writing and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village. Lorde furthered her education at Columbia University, earning a master's degree in library science in 1961. In her own words, Lorde was a "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet".
Lorde's poetry was published regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes's 1962 'New Negro Poets, USA'; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and the feminist movement.
Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherrie Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of color.
Lorde was State Poet Laureate of New York from 1991 to 1992. In an African naming ceremony before her death, she took the name Gamba Adisa, which means "Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known". She died in 1992 after a 14-year struggle with cancer.
David McAlmont: British Vocalist
Undoubtedly one of the most flamboyant frontmen of the '90s, David McAlmont also gained a reputation as one of Britain's most underrated vocalists. Born in Croydon in 1967, McAlmont moved to Guyana with his mother and sister at the age of 13, and after becoming a born-again Christian, began singing at his Pentecostal church.
In 1987 he returned to Croydon, where he met Saul Freeman. The pair formed Thieves, but split before they released their debut album, and after supporting Morrissey (formerly, of the group, ‘The Smiths’) on tour, McAlmont released the album under his own name.
In 1994 he teamed up with ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler to form McAlmont & Butler. Despite a critically acclaimed debut album, The Sound of...McAlmont & Butler, and a Top Ten single, the anthemic "Yes," it was a short-lived project. The pair only performed in public twice and by the time of their second single, "You Do," they were in the middle of an acrimonious split that was played out in the music press.
In 1997 McAlmont collaborated with David Arnold on his Shaken & Stirred album, a collection of reworkings of James Bond themes. Their cover of Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever" reached the Top 40 but attracted attention more for McAlmont's extravagant white catsuit and diamond earrings combo in the video. The pair teamed up again to pen "Surrender," a k.d. lang track that was in contention to be the Tomorrow Never Dies theme before losing out to Sheryl Crow. A year later, McAlmont released his second solo album, A Little Communication, with contributions from the diverse likes of Jeff Goldblum, Max Beesley, and Craig Armstrong, who then returned the favor by asking McAlmont to provide the vocals for "Snow," a track on his 2002 As If to Nothing album.
The same year, in a surprise move, McAlmont & Butler regrouped to record their second album, Bring It Back. Unlike the last time around, the duo promoted the record, performing regularly and doing interviews together, which led to a Top 20 placing and a hit lead single, "Falling." In 2003, McAlmont discovered an enthusiasm for jazz, and performed at a John Coltrane tribute concert at the Barbarican, DJed at the London Jazz Festival, and worked on Courtney Pine's Devotion album. The release of McAlmont's third solo album, Be, was shelved by Hut Records, but in 2004 he released Set One: You Go to My Head, a collection of Cassandra Wilson and Betty Carter-inspired standards. Since then, he has provided backing vocals for several of Bernard Butler's projects, including Duffy and Sharleen Spiteri. (Note: taken in part from: Jon O'Brien, All Music Guide) (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LyzHc1UicA8; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r1wF3MWEbZM)
In 1987 he returned to Croydon, where he met Saul Freeman. The pair formed Thieves, but split before they released their debut album, and after supporting Morrissey (formerly, of the group, ‘The Smiths’) on tour, McAlmont released the album under his own name.
In 1994 he teamed up with ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler to form McAlmont & Butler. Despite a critically acclaimed debut album, The Sound of...McAlmont & Butler, and a Top Ten single, the anthemic "Yes," it was a short-lived project. The pair only performed in public twice and by the time of their second single, "You Do," they were in the middle of an acrimonious split that was played out in the music press.
In 1997 McAlmont collaborated with David Arnold on his Shaken & Stirred album, a collection of reworkings of James Bond themes. Their cover of Shirley Bassey's "Diamonds Are Forever" reached the Top 40 but attracted attention more for McAlmont's extravagant white catsuit and diamond earrings combo in the video. The pair teamed up again to pen "Surrender," a k.d. lang track that was in contention to be the Tomorrow Never Dies theme before losing out to Sheryl Crow. A year later, McAlmont released his second solo album, A Little Communication, with contributions from the diverse likes of Jeff Goldblum, Max Beesley, and Craig Armstrong, who then returned the favor by asking McAlmont to provide the vocals for "Snow," a track on his 2002 As If to Nothing album.
The same year, in a surprise move, McAlmont & Butler regrouped to record their second album, Bring It Back. Unlike the last time around, the duo promoted the record, performing regularly and doing interviews together, which led to a Top 20 placing and a hit lead single, "Falling." In 2003, McAlmont discovered an enthusiasm for jazz, and performed at a John Coltrane tribute concert at the Barbarican, DJed at the London Jazz Festival, and worked on Courtney Pine's Devotion album. The release of McAlmont's third solo album, Be, was shelved by Hut Records, but in 2004 he released Set One: You Go to My Head, a collection of Cassandra Wilson and Betty Carter-inspired standards. Since then, he has provided backing vocals for several of Bernard Butler's projects, including Duffy and Sharleen Spiteri. (Note: taken in part from: Jon O'Brien, All Music Guide) (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LyzHc1UicA8; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=r1wF3MWEbZM)
Tim’m West: Poet, Educator, Singer, Songwriter, Activist
Tim’m West describes himself as, ‘Black, gay, feminist, POZ, and working class, Tim'm T. West has embraced all of who he is and, with laser-beam precision, harnessed the power of his truth to illuminate, celebrate, inspire, provoke, and bear witness’. All that is true. However, one fact about Tim’m can’t be overlooked and that is that he is a true renaissance man of the hip hop generation.
As a teacher, performance artist, author, and culture producer, Tim'm has become an exemplar among contemporary Renaissance personalities of the early 21st Century as he brings others to voice through education for critical consciousness. Indeed, that Tim'm has been interviewed by such dizzying array of media outlets from Newsweek to the New York Times is a testament to his importance to the spirit and history of the times as a foundational maverick among black, multi-disciplinary artists.
Before hip hop artist Kanye West spoke out against homophobia, there was Tim’m West. Tim’m has spent much of his adult life giving a voice to the voiceless. The LGBT/SGL community, people of color, womyn’s rights, AIDS awareness, issues affecting the homeless and many other disenfranchised groups, he has consistently brought to our attention the color and vibrancy of peoples so often overlooked by the mainstream.
It was in 1999 while still juggling arts and graduate studies at Stanford that Tim'm co-founded the now disbanded, critically acclaimed rap group DDC . In Spring 2007, DDC released its final, full-length studio project, 'On Some Other,' on Sugartruck Recordings. Widely published and anthologized in both academia and the mainstream press, Tim'm occupies a unique position among the provocative voices and critics of the contemporary Hip-Hop landscape. He is featured prominently as one of the critical voices in the acclaimed 2005 Hip Hop documentary, Pick Up the Mic & Quote;. Tim'm also appears in Byron Hurt's critically acclaimed Hip Hop documentary 'Beyond Beats and Rhymes.' Most recently he appeared in a set of documentaries directed by Mario Van Peebles about Black Manhood and Responsibility.
Tim’m attended Duke University where he completed his BA. From there, he went on to earn an MA in Liberal Studies/Philosophy from the Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research in 1998 and another MA in Modern Thought & Literature from Stanford in 2002.
On the secondary level, he served as the Department Chair of English and Creative Writing at the Oakland School of the Arts before relocating to Washington, DC where he taught in the English Department of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School. In various capacities, since 1995, Tim'm has also worked for College Summit, Inc. notably as a High School Coordinator in DC in 2006-07 helping to the build capacity of high schools to get more of their students into college. Known for his engaging teaching methods, Tim'm has taught on the post-secondary level as an instructor of Writing Pedagogy classes at Eugene Lang College of The New School (NYC) and as an instructor in Stanford University's first-year Writing and Critical Thinking Program. In 2008- 2009 Academic Year Tim’m taught in the Department of World Languages and Cultures as a Visiting Lecturer in Ethnic Studies at Humboldt State University (CA).
Most recently, Tim'm has been hosting the 'Front Porch' series, a Spoken Word/Hip-Hop/Soul showcase that has been held in DC, Chicago, Oakland, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and at various colleges and universities. He continues to teach, perform, and raise consciousness and looks forward to developing a community of progressive artists and intellectuals in Houston, TX where he now resides and works as an Intervention Specialist with young men at St. Hope Foundation’s FUSION Center.
His cd’s include: Red Dirt Revival, BlackBoy Blues, and In Security: The Golden Error. His books are: Red Dirt Revival, Bare, and Flirting. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BYmHMKwifQI; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nvqg7gFMnss)
As a teacher, performance artist, author, and culture producer, Tim'm has become an exemplar among contemporary Renaissance personalities of the early 21st Century as he brings others to voice through education for critical consciousness. Indeed, that Tim'm has been interviewed by such dizzying array of media outlets from Newsweek to the New York Times is a testament to his importance to the spirit and history of the times as a foundational maverick among black, multi-disciplinary artists.
Before hip hop artist Kanye West spoke out against homophobia, there was Tim’m West. Tim’m has spent much of his adult life giving a voice to the voiceless. The LGBT/SGL community, people of color, womyn’s rights, AIDS awareness, issues affecting the homeless and many other disenfranchised groups, he has consistently brought to our attention the color and vibrancy of peoples so often overlooked by the mainstream.
It was in 1999 while still juggling arts and graduate studies at Stanford that Tim'm co-founded the now disbanded, critically acclaimed rap group DDC . In Spring 2007, DDC released its final, full-length studio project, 'On Some Other,' on Sugartruck Recordings. Widely published and anthologized in both academia and the mainstream press, Tim'm occupies a unique position among the provocative voices and critics of the contemporary Hip-Hop landscape. He is featured prominently as one of the critical voices in the acclaimed 2005 Hip Hop documentary, Pick Up the Mic & Quote;. Tim'm also appears in Byron Hurt's critically acclaimed Hip Hop documentary 'Beyond Beats and Rhymes.' Most recently he appeared in a set of documentaries directed by Mario Van Peebles about Black Manhood and Responsibility.
Tim’m attended Duke University where he completed his BA. From there, he went on to earn an MA in Liberal Studies/Philosophy from the Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research in 1998 and another MA in Modern Thought & Literature from Stanford in 2002.
On the secondary level, he served as the Department Chair of English and Creative Writing at the Oakland School of the Arts before relocating to Washington, DC where he taught in the English Department of the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School. In various capacities, since 1995, Tim'm has also worked for College Summit, Inc. notably as a High School Coordinator in DC in 2006-07 helping to the build capacity of high schools to get more of their students into college. Known for his engaging teaching methods, Tim'm has taught on the post-secondary level as an instructor of Writing Pedagogy classes at Eugene Lang College of The New School (NYC) and as an instructor in Stanford University's first-year Writing and Critical Thinking Program. In 2008- 2009 Academic Year Tim’m taught in the Department of World Languages and Cultures as a Visiting Lecturer in Ethnic Studies at Humboldt State University (CA).
Most recently, Tim'm has been hosting the 'Front Porch' series, a Spoken Word/Hip-Hop/Soul showcase that has been held in DC, Chicago, Oakland, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and at various colleges and universities. He continues to teach, perform, and raise consciousness and looks forward to developing a community of progressive artists and intellectuals in Houston, TX where he now resides and works as an Intervention Specialist with young men at St. Hope Foundation’s FUSION Center.
His cd’s include: Red Dirt Revival, BlackBoy Blues, and In Security: The Golden Error. His books are: Red Dirt Revival, Bare, and Flirting. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BYmHMKwifQI; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nvqg7gFMnss)
J Mase III: Poet, Performance Artist, Educator, Activist
J Mase III is a Black, Trans, Queer poet based in New York City and creator of the national performance event, Cupid Ain’t @#$%!: An Anti-Valentine’s Day Poetry Movement. As a performer and teaching poet, J Mase III has performed at venues internationally from London to San Francisco, at colleges and radio stations, to group homes and youth centers.
In J Mase’s other life as an educator and activist, he has worked with thousands of community members and service providers across the country on the needs of LGBTQ youth and adults in spaces such as faith communities, elementary schools, domestic violence shelters, medical agencies, juvenile justice organizations, foster care programs among others.
Having been formerly affiliated with organizations such as Soulforce, J Mase recently served as co-director of the 2012 Equality Ride helping to take 18 young adult leaders across the country to stop spiritual and political abuse aimed at LGBTQ people in religiously conservative arenas. On his off time, J Mase contributes to various academic and literary publications. Some of these publications include the Vanderbilt African American Lectionary Online to talk about gay teens in the church, the anthology ‘Nina Arsenault: An Unreasonable Body of Work’ to share insight about gender and genitalia and as both a contributor and editor of T in Philly.
(Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGxjPGtxnzs)
In J Mase’s other life as an educator and activist, he has worked with thousands of community members and service providers across the country on the needs of LGBTQ youth and adults in spaces such as faith communities, elementary schools, domestic violence shelters, medical agencies, juvenile justice organizations, foster care programs among others.
Having been formerly affiliated with organizations such as Soulforce, J Mase recently served as co-director of the 2012 Equality Ride helping to take 18 young adult leaders across the country to stop spiritual and political abuse aimed at LGBTQ people in religiously conservative arenas. On his off time, J Mase contributes to various academic and literary publications. Some of these publications include the Vanderbilt African American Lectionary Online to talk about gay teens in the church, the anthology ‘Nina Arsenault: An Unreasonable Body of Work’ to share insight about gender and genitalia and as both a contributor and editor of T in Philly.
(Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGxjPGtxnzs)
Yvonne Welbon: Filmmaker
Yvonne Welbon is a Chicago-based award-winning independent filmmaker and freelance producer. Since 1991, she has made eight films and produced a dozen others. Her independent films have screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, the Sundance Channel and in over one hundred film festivals around the world.
Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 has won ten best documentary awards — including the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Her ongoing Sundance Documentary Fellow project is Sisters in Cinema, a documentary, website and forth-coming book based on her doctoral dissertation about the history of African American women feature film directors.
Her freelance producer projects include: John Pierson's Split Screen, Zeinabu irene Davis' Sundance dramatic competition feature Compensation, Cheryl Dunye's HBO film Stranger Inside, Thomas Allen Harris' Berlin Int'l Film Festival award-winning documentary É Minha Cara/That’s My Face, and Catherine Crouch's directorial debut Stray Dogs, starring Guinevere Turner.
Yvonne Welbon received an undergraduate degree in History from Vassar College. Thereafter, she spent six years in Taipei, Taiwan, where she taught English, learned Mandarin Chinese, and founded and published a premiere arts magazine. She returned to the United States and completed a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She is also a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women.
Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 has won ten best documentary awards — including the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Her ongoing Sundance Documentary Fellow project is Sisters in Cinema, a documentary, website and forth-coming book based on her doctoral dissertation about the history of African American women feature film directors.
Her freelance producer projects include: John Pierson's Split Screen, Zeinabu irene Davis' Sundance dramatic competition feature Compensation, Cheryl Dunye's HBO film Stranger Inside, Thomas Allen Harris' Berlin Int'l Film Festival award-winning documentary É Minha Cara/That’s My Face, and Catherine Crouch's directorial debut Stray Dogs, starring Guinevere Turner.
Yvonne Welbon received an undergraduate degree in History from Vassar College. Thereafter, she spent six years in Taipei, Taiwan, where she taught English, learned Mandarin Chinese, and founded and published a premiere arts magazine. She returned to the United States and completed a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. She is also a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women.
Ruth Ellis: LGBTQ Activist at Age 101
Ruth Ellis (1899 - 2000)Openly lesbian since 1915, Ruth Ellis made a declaration of her love of women and of life - and lived these as truths until her last days. Her exceptional longevity ran a long course of events that were no less exceptional. She was among the few black women of her generation to obtain a high school education. In 1937, Ruth became the first American woman to own a printing business in Northwestern Detroit
. She also taught herself photography and hand-colored painting. For generations of African American gays and lesbians, the home of Ruth and Babe, her life-long partner, was known as the "gay spot" -- "a refuge to African Americans who came 'out' before the civil rights movement and Stonewall." Those who were victims of double discrimination, racism and homophobia, found themselves at home chez Ruth and Babe.
Throughout her life, Ruth Ellis was an advocate for the rights of gays and lesbians, as well as for the rights of African Americans. Affected by the loss of Babe, who died at the beginning of the 1970's, Ruth Ellis nevertheless started a new life as she approached 80 years. She became an advocate in the U.S.
lesbian/gay community, and in particular for lesbians of color researching their history and their roots. She went out to the bars, attended concerts, made a tour of lesbian events. Among the participants at the annual Michigan Women's Music Festival in August 1999, thousands of women got to see her celebrating her 100th year, dancing on the night stage; hundreds attended the showing of her film, Living With Pride : Ruth Ellis @ 100, which retraces her life and history and is told in conjunction with some U.S. history as well.
Ruth Ellis was at the forefront of black, lesbian, and senior pride and, directly or indirectly, the source at the root of several projects for support to seniors, as well as to the African American, gay and lesbian communities. The Ruth Ellis Center, for example, is a space for shelter and aid for gay/ lesbian/ bisexual / transgendered youth who have run away or are without shelter in Detroit or in southeastern Michigan
. She was also advocating for an organization for gay and lesbian seniors as a sort of Big Brother/Big Sister program in reverse: younger gays and lesbians would be partnered with seniors according to interests.
Two months before her passing at the age of 101, she traveled again, participating in conferences, and never ceasing to give messages of optimism and of hope. In the end, she said that she had done everything that she wanted to do here and that she appreciated the love the community had given her, but she was just tired.
. She also taught herself photography and hand-colored painting. For generations of African American gays and lesbians, the home of Ruth and Babe, her life-long partner, was known as the "gay spot" -- "a refuge to African Americans who came 'out' before the civil rights movement and Stonewall." Those who were victims of double discrimination, racism and homophobia, found themselves at home chez Ruth and Babe.
Throughout her life, Ruth Ellis was an advocate for the rights of gays and lesbians, as well as for the rights of African Americans. Affected by the loss of Babe, who died at the beginning of the 1970's, Ruth Ellis nevertheless started a new life as she approached 80 years. She became an advocate in the U.S.
lesbian/gay community, and in particular for lesbians of color researching their history and their roots. She went out to the bars, attended concerts, made a tour of lesbian events. Among the participants at the annual Michigan Women's Music Festival in August 1999, thousands of women got to see her celebrating her 100th year, dancing on the night stage; hundreds attended the showing of her film, Living With Pride : Ruth Ellis @ 100, which retraces her life and history and is told in conjunction with some U.S. history as well.
Ruth Ellis was at the forefront of black, lesbian, and senior pride and, directly or indirectly, the source at the root of several projects for support to seniors, as well as to the African American, gay and lesbian communities. The Ruth Ellis Center, for example, is a space for shelter and aid for gay/ lesbian/ bisexual / transgendered youth who have run away or are without shelter in Detroit or in southeastern Michigan
. She was also advocating for an organization for gay and lesbian seniors as a sort of Big Brother/Big Sister program in reverse: younger gays and lesbians would be partnered with seniors according to interests.
Two months before her passing at the age of 101, she traveled again, participating in conferences, and never ceasing to give messages of optimism and of hope. In the end, she said that she had done everything that she wanted to do here and that she appreciated the love the community had given her, but she was just tired.
Countee Cullen: Poet of the Harlem Renaissance
Countee Cullen (1903 – 1946) was one of the leading African American poets of his time, associated with the generation of black poets of the Harlem Remaissance. In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Countee Cullen on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
Countee Cullen won many poetry contests from a very young age and often had his winning work reprinted. Cullen attended New York University. While an undergraduate, he published works in various literary magazines, including Harper's, Century Magazine, and Poetry. His writings were acknowledged with prizes from The Crisis, which was edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, and Opportunity magazine of the National Urban League.
He graduated in 1925 as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and was also initiated into Phi Beta Kappa honors society. Soon afterwards, he produced his first volume entitled "Color" and pursued graduate studies at Harvard University. In 1928 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
In April of that year, Cullen married Nina Yolande Du Bois, daughter of the famous W.E.B. Du Bois. Two months after the wedding, Cullen left for Europe with Harold Jackman; his wife followed after a month. Nina Yolande Du Bois divorced Cullen two years later, saying that he told her that he was sexually attracted to men.
Countee Cullen won many poetry contests from a very young age and often had his winning work reprinted. Cullen attended New York University. While an undergraduate, he published works in various literary magazines, including Harper's, Century Magazine, and Poetry. His writings were acknowledged with prizes from The Crisis, which was edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, and Opportunity magazine of the National Urban League.
He graduated in 1925 as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, and was also initiated into Phi Beta Kappa honors society. Soon afterwards, he produced his first volume entitled "Color" and pursued graduate studies at Harvard University. In 1928 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
In April of that year, Cullen married Nina Yolande Du Bois, daughter of the famous W.E.B. Du Bois. Two months after the wedding, Cullen left for Europe with Harold Jackman; his wife followed after a month. Nina Yolande Du Bois divorced Cullen two years later, saying that he told her that he was sexually attracted to men.
Alberta Hunter: Blues Legend
Alberta Hunter (1895 – 1984), was one of the earlier black recording artists (her first recording was in 1921). She worked with and influenced some of the greats of her time like Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Fetcher Henderson.
Her gutsy voice matched her gutsy attitude. From the beginning of her long career, which began in 1912 (taking a twenty year break, to resurface in the 1970’s) to the end of her life, she sang with a spirit that brought even the snootiest person back down to earth.
She lived her life as a lesbian, having been married once during her youth before deciding to embrace her love of women. She was a gutsy and ‘strong headed’ woman who started off singing in seedy bars and rose to become an internationally celebrated artist. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9AloYua9vu0; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x9qIcBk4pMI)
Her gutsy voice matched her gutsy attitude. From the beginning of her long career, which began in 1912 (taking a twenty year break, to resurface in the 1970’s) to the end of her life, she sang with a spirit that brought even the snootiest person back down to earth.
She lived her life as a lesbian, having been married once during her youth before deciding to embrace her love of women. She was a gutsy and ‘strong headed’ woman who started off singing in seedy bars and rose to become an internationally celebrated artist. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9AloYua9vu0; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x9qIcBk4pMI)
George C. Wolfe: Acclaimed Director of Stage and Film
George C. Wolfe (1954), dramatist, stage and film director, and librettist. George C. Wolfe received his MFA in playwriting and musical theater from New York University in 1983, he wrote the libretto for Duke Ellington's music in ‘Queenie Pie’, produced at Washington's Kennedy Center in 1986.
While ‘Queenie Pie’ had a moderate success, Wolfe's main claim to attention and acclaim that year was ‘The Colored Museum’, a collection of eleven exuberantly inventive exhibits, brief scenes highlighting African American oppression and the culture that evolved with and against it. In 1989 Wolfe faithfully yet innovatively adapted three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston for the stage in ‘Spunk’. Wolfe's device of having the tales introduced by Guitar Man and Blues Speak Woman while interacting with the Folk (a chorus representing black folk) was spiritually akin to Hurston's frame for ‘Mules and Men’ (1935). In 1990, Wolfe directed an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’, in which he reset the play in Francois Duvalier's Haiti.
‘Jelly's Last Jam’, Wolfe's exhilarating proof that musicals need not sidestep pain and problems to be successful, was produced to wide acclaim in 1991. A tribute to Jelly Roll Morton that shows him denying his black roots as the singer did in ‘The Colored Museum’, Wolfe's musical emphasizes the role of suffering and community in the creation of jazz. In 1993, he won a Tony as best director for ‘Angels in America: Millennium Approaches’, and in 1994 he was nominated for the same award for ‘Angels in America: Perestroika’.
He has directed many films including the award winning 2005 T.V. movie, ‘Lackawanna Blues’. A multiple award–winning writer, adaptor, and director, Wolfe is among the most imaginative creators in American theater today.
While ‘Queenie Pie’ had a moderate success, Wolfe's main claim to attention and acclaim that year was ‘The Colored Museum’, a collection of eleven exuberantly inventive exhibits, brief scenes highlighting African American oppression and the culture that evolved with and against it. In 1989 Wolfe faithfully yet innovatively adapted three short stories by Zora Neale Hurston for the stage in ‘Spunk’. Wolfe's device of having the tales introduced by Guitar Man and Blues Speak Woman while interacting with the Folk (a chorus representing black folk) was spiritually akin to Hurston's frame for ‘Mules and Men’ (1935). In 1990, Wolfe directed an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's ‘The Caucasian Chalk Circle’, in which he reset the play in Francois Duvalier's Haiti.
‘Jelly's Last Jam’, Wolfe's exhilarating proof that musicals need not sidestep pain and problems to be successful, was produced to wide acclaim in 1991. A tribute to Jelly Roll Morton that shows him denying his black roots as the singer did in ‘The Colored Museum’, Wolfe's musical emphasizes the role of suffering and community in the creation of jazz. In 1993, he won a Tony as best director for ‘Angels in America: Millennium Approaches’, and in 1994 he was nominated for the same award for ‘Angels in America: Perestroika’.
He has directed many films including the award winning 2005 T.V. movie, ‘Lackawanna Blues’. A multiple award–winning writer, adaptor, and director, Wolfe is among the most imaginative creators in American theater today.
Darryl Stephens: Actor, Singer, Songwriter, Novelist
Darryl Stephens (born March 7, 1974, Pasadena, California) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Noah Nicholson on the television dramedy Noah's Arc.
Stephens grew up in the Altadena and Pasadena areas of Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley where he studied sociology and ethnic studies along with drama and dance before earning a Bachelor's Degree in American Culture Studies. He performed for four years in San Francisco with the cult theater troupe Sassymouth before returning to Los Angeles to pursue a film and television career. He also worked with the Berkeley Black Theater Workshop.
Back in L.A., Stephens appeared on the sexy late-night serial MTV's Undressed, the short-lived series That's Life, and VH1's Red Eye. During the same period, he was also appearing in various commercials for products such as Dockers and performing in small theater venues and scene study classes. He also played a "future funked"[citation needed] Greta in a Hollywood revival of the well-known play Bent.
Stephens had supporting roles in the films Seamless (with Shannon Elizabeth), Not Quite Right, and Circuit. However, his breakout role came in 2004, when independent filmmaker Patrik-Ian Polk cast him as the lead character for the new series Noah's Arc. The original intention was for the show to be released direct-to-DVD after it had received rave reviews at various film festivals.
However, in the fall of 2005, LOGO picked up Noah's Arc, which debuted on October 19. Upon the end of the series, it was announced that there would be feature film version, in which Stephens will presumably star.
By the end of 2006, Stephens had completed roles in the comedy Another Gay Movie and the drama Boy Culture, the latter alongside newcomer Derek Magyar. His next film, scheduled for release in 2008, is Bolden!, a biographical film about a cornet player in which he plays Frank Lewis. He is also a songwriter and vocalist, having co-penned the song ‘Crazy’ with Rahsaan Patterson for Rahsaan’s ‘Bleuphoria’ cd, and the song, ‘Envious Moon’, for what we hope will be the first song of a forthcoming cd album. Darryl is also the author of the novel, ‘Shortcoming’. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eM7NnQZv9Uk)
Stephens grew up in the Altadena and Pasadena areas of Los Angeles, California. He attended the University of California, Berkeley where he studied sociology and ethnic studies along with drama and dance before earning a Bachelor's Degree in American Culture Studies. He performed for four years in San Francisco with the cult theater troupe Sassymouth before returning to Los Angeles to pursue a film and television career. He also worked with the Berkeley Black Theater Workshop.
Back in L.A., Stephens appeared on the sexy late-night serial MTV's Undressed, the short-lived series That's Life, and VH1's Red Eye. During the same period, he was also appearing in various commercials for products such as Dockers and performing in small theater venues and scene study classes. He also played a "future funked"[citation needed] Greta in a Hollywood revival of the well-known play Bent.
Stephens had supporting roles in the films Seamless (with Shannon Elizabeth), Not Quite Right, and Circuit. However, his breakout role came in 2004, when independent filmmaker Patrik-Ian Polk cast him as the lead character for the new series Noah's Arc. The original intention was for the show to be released direct-to-DVD after it had received rave reviews at various film festivals.
However, in the fall of 2005, LOGO picked up Noah's Arc, which debuted on October 19. Upon the end of the series, it was announced that there would be feature film version, in which Stephens will presumably star.
By the end of 2006, Stephens had completed roles in the comedy Another Gay Movie and the drama Boy Culture, the latter alongside newcomer Derek Magyar. His next film, scheduled for release in 2008, is Bolden!, a biographical film about a cornet player in which he plays Frank Lewis. He is also a songwriter and vocalist, having co-penned the song ‘Crazy’ with Rahsaan Patterson for Rahsaan’s ‘Bleuphoria’ cd, and the song, ‘Envious Moon’, for what we hope will be the first song of a forthcoming cd album. Darryl is also the author of the novel, ‘Shortcoming’. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eM7NnQZv9Uk)
Francilia Agar Schofield: Olympic Swimmer
(1976) Francilia Agar competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics representing her home country of Dominica in the 50-metre freestyle and came in at 29.9 seconds. She studied music at the University of Ottawa and is also an accomplished painter, choral director and musician
Major Alan Rogers: War Hero
Major Alan Rogers, a black gay man, was killed in Iraq. He served with valor in the U.S. Army and gave his life by throwing his body on his fellow soldiers to protect them from an explosive device.
His story caused some controversy because in 2008, The Washington Post decided not to mention that he was a gay man who supported gay rights. Major Rogers's family said he would not have wanted the fact that he was gay put out, but according to his close friends and members of several gay organizations he supported, he would be proud.
The verdict is out on whether or not he would have wanted the public to posthumously know that he was gay, but it's not out on the fact that he was a brave black gay man, an extraordinary man, who gave his life for his country.
His story caused some controversy because in 2008, The Washington Post decided not to mention that he was a gay man who supported gay rights. Major Rogers's family said he would not have wanted the fact that he was gay put out, but according to his close friends and members of several gay organizations he supported, he would be proud.
The verdict is out on whether or not he would have wanted the public to posthumously know that he was gay, but it's not out on the fact that he was a brave black gay man, an extraordinary man, who gave his life for his country.
Doria Roberts: Singer, Songwriter
Internationally touring, Atlanta based singer/songwriter Doria Roberts was born and raised in inner city Trenton, NJ but schooled in the neighboring yet decidedly more affluent Princeton, NJ. Her first introduction to music were vinyl records, most notable a collection including the Brothers Johnson, Marvin Gaye, the Sugar Hill Gang and Ricki Lee Jones. A dancer from the age of 3, she was exposed to classical offerings during ballet class, ragtime during tap training and pop music in her modern jazz dance lessons. By age 10, she was starring in musicals in local childrens theater and choral productions once performing a lead role in Gilbert & Sullivans classic HMS Pinafore. At age 17, she produced her first event directing, staging, acting in, and even promoting the topically controversial play Laundry and Bourbon as part of her senior project.
By the time she was off to college, she had incorporated the likes of Public Enemy, De La Soul, and KRS One into her listening repertoire. While toiling away as a scholarship student at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in East Asian Studies (with side bars in linguistics, business and art history) and aspiring to be an executive art dealer in Tokyo, she discovered the Indigo Girls, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, as well as John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix, Public Image Limited and Fishbone. And, like many women of her generation, she stumbled upon the rising star and fierce, feminist zeitgeist Ani DiFranco during an unplanned trip to a New York City dive.
As a senior in college, she started playing guitar, having picked up a roommates’ guitar. It was then that she embarked on her deeply personal though socially conscious and committed musical path.
In 1999 she won a slot to appear at Lilith Fair and was poised to sign a major label deal along with Atlanta based peers John Mayer and India Arie. However, a dubious piece of legislation changing copyright law in favor of the labels prompted the activist in Roberts to step away from potentially lucrative offers and release her own record. Though originally intending to simply wait out the storm, Roberts eventually found herself at the helm of her own label instead.
Since then she has released and self produced five independent and nationally distributed records on her imprint Hurricane Doria Records, has appeared at the internationally recognized Montreux Jazz Festival and has headlined Gay Pride events in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. She has also opened for or shared the stage with legendary folk singer Odetta, Janis Ian, the Indigo Girls, John Mayer, blues legends the Holmes Brothers, Chris Smither avant-garde R&B priestess Meshell Ndegeocello, world music darling Angelique Kidjo, the late poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker and many others.
In 2004, she was awarded both the Anderson Leadership Prize from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the Orfeo Musica Humanitarian Award from the Tupilak Arts Consortium-Nordic in Stockholm, Sweden. Both awards were given in recognition of her willingness to fuse her music with her activist work and for creating major performance opportunities and outlets for other independent artists and youth at risk. She was also nominated for the 2005 Collin Higgins Courage Award. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EHHwMJy2OVk; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O0hn6L7RXns)
By the time she was off to college, she had incorporated the likes of Public Enemy, De La Soul, and KRS One into her listening repertoire. While toiling away as a scholarship student at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in East Asian Studies (with side bars in linguistics, business and art history) and aspiring to be an executive art dealer in Tokyo, she discovered the Indigo Girls, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, as well as John Coltrane and Jimi Hendrix, Public Image Limited and Fishbone. And, like many women of her generation, she stumbled upon the rising star and fierce, feminist zeitgeist Ani DiFranco during an unplanned trip to a New York City dive.
As a senior in college, she started playing guitar, having picked up a roommates’ guitar. It was then that she embarked on her deeply personal though socially conscious and committed musical path.
In 1999 she won a slot to appear at Lilith Fair and was poised to sign a major label deal along with Atlanta based peers John Mayer and India Arie. However, a dubious piece of legislation changing copyright law in favor of the labels prompted the activist in Roberts to step away from potentially lucrative offers and release her own record. Though originally intending to simply wait out the storm, Roberts eventually found herself at the helm of her own label instead.
Since then she has released and self produced five independent and nationally distributed records on her imprint Hurricane Doria Records, has appeared at the internationally recognized Montreux Jazz Festival and has headlined Gay Pride events in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. She has also opened for or shared the stage with legendary folk singer Odetta, Janis Ian, the Indigo Girls, John Mayer, blues legends the Holmes Brothers, Chris Smither avant-garde R&B priestess Meshell Ndegeocello, world music darling Angelique Kidjo, the late poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker and many others.
In 2004, she was awarded both the Anderson Leadership Prize from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force and the Orfeo Musica Humanitarian Award from the Tupilak Arts Consortium-Nordic in Stockholm, Sweden. Both awards were given in recognition of her willingness to fuse her music with her activist work and for creating major performance opportunities and outlets for other independent artists and youth at risk. She was also nominated for the 2005 Collin Higgins Courage Award. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EHHwMJy2OVk; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O0hn6L7RXns)
Andy Bey: Jazz Singer
Andy Bey (1939) is a jazz singer and pianist. He worked on a television show, Startime, with Connie Francis and sang for Louis Jordan. He went on to form a trio with sisters Salome Bey and Geraldine Bey (de Haas) called "Andy and The Bey Sisters".
They recorded various sides and released two albums on the Prestige label and one on RCA. The group parted in 1965. He also did notable work with Horace Silver and Gary Bartz. Later he had an album named Experience And Judgment, which had Indian influences. After that period he returned to hard bop and also did covers of music by non-jazz musicians such as Nick Drake. Other albums: Andy Bey and The Bey Sisters, Ballads, Blues & Bey, American Song (2004), Tuesdays In Chinatown, Ain't Necessarily So (2007).
In 1994, openly gay, Bey was diagnosed HIV-positive, but it never stopped him from achieving his musical heights. Colleague Herb Jordan assisted Bey in a revived resurgence in his recording career. Their recording "Ballads, Blues, & Bey" in 1996 put Andy Bey back on top. Albums that followed, like "Shades of Bey" (1998), were a bigger success.
Bey constantly explores his art, and still tours, and his unique sound and style is still in high demand. Bey was recently quoted in an interview, "Did you know that gratefulness helps get rid of fear? ...I'm so grateful to be able to do what I love, to have a purpose in life." (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L0ZW7Y4HFuM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fGqk9QMhSnw )
They recorded various sides and released two albums on the Prestige label and one on RCA. The group parted in 1965. He also did notable work with Horace Silver and Gary Bartz. Later he had an album named Experience And Judgment, which had Indian influences. After that period he returned to hard bop and also did covers of music by non-jazz musicians such as Nick Drake. Other albums: Andy Bey and The Bey Sisters, Ballads, Blues & Bey, American Song (2004), Tuesdays In Chinatown, Ain't Necessarily So (2007).
In 1994, openly gay, Bey was diagnosed HIV-positive, but it never stopped him from achieving his musical heights. Colleague Herb Jordan assisted Bey in a revived resurgence in his recording career. Their recording "Ballads, Blues, & Bey" in 1996 put Andy Bey back on top. Albums that followed, like "Shades of Bey" (1998), were a bigger success.
Bey constantly explores his art, and still tours, and his unique sound and style is still in high demand. Bey was recently quoted in an interview, "Did you know that gratefulness helps get rid of fear? ...I'm so grateful to be able to do what I love, to have a purpose in life." (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L0ZW7Y4HFuM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fGqk9QMhSnw )
Jewelle Gomez: Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Educator, Activist
Jewelle Gomez (1948) in Boston, Massachusetts is an American author, poet, critic and playwright. She lived and worked in New York City for twenty-two years working in public television, theatre as well as philanthropy before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing---fiction, poetry, essays and cultural criticism---has appeared in a wide variety of venues, both feminist and mainstream. Her work often intersects and addresses multiple ethnicities as well as the ideals of lesbian/feminism and issues. She has been interviewed for several documentaries focused on LGBT rights and culture.
Gomez was raised by her great-grandmother, Grace, who was born on Indian land in Iowa to an African-American mother and Ioway father. Grace returned to New England before she was fourteen, when her father died and was married to John E. Morandus, a Wampanoag and descendant of Massasoit, the sachem for whom Massachusetts was named.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s she was shaped socially and politically by the close family ties with her great grandmother, Grace and grandmother Lydia. Their history of independence as well as marginalization in an African-American community are referenced throughout her work. "Grace A." from the collection Don't Explain is an early example. During her high school and college years Gomez was involved with Black political and social movements which is reflected in much of her writing. Subsequent years in New York City she spent in Black theatre including work with the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop and many years as a stage manager for off Broadway productions.
During this time she became involved in lesbian feminist activism and magazine publication. She was a member of the CONDITIONS, a lesbian feminist literary magazine. More of Gomez's recent writing has begun to reflect her Native American (Ioway, Wampanoag) heritage.
Gomez is the author of seven books, including the double Lambda Literary Award winning novel The Gilda Stories(Firebrand Books, 1991) . This novel has been in print since 1991 and reframes the traditional vampire mythology, taking a lesbian feminist perspective; it is an adventure about an escaped slave who comes of age over two hundred years. According to scholar Elyce Rae Helford, "Each stage of Gilda's personal voyage is also a study of life as part of multiple communities, all at the margins of mainstream white middle-class America."
She also authored the theatrical adaptation of her novel Bones and Ash which in 1996 toured thirteen U.S. cities performed by the Urban Bush Women Company. The book, which remains in print, was also issued by the Quality Paperback Book Club in an edition including the play.
Her other books include Don't Explain, a collection of short fiction; 43 Septembers, a collection of personal/political essays; and Oral Tradition: Selected Poems Old and New.
Her fiction and poetry is included in over one hundred anthologies including the first anthology of Black speculative fiction, Dark Matter: A Century of African American Speculative Fiction edited by Sheree R. Thomas; Home Girls: a Black feminist Anthology from Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and Best American Poetry of 2001 edited by Robert Hass.
Gomez has written literary and film criticism for numerous publications including The Village Voice, The San Francisco Chronicle, Ms. Magazine and Black Scholar.
She's been interviewed in periodicals and journals over the past twenty-five years including a September 1993 Advocate article where writer Victoria Brownworth discussed her writing origins and political interests. In the Journal of Lesbian Studies (Vol. 5, #3) she was interviewed for an article entitled "Funding Lesbian Activism," which linked her career in philanthropy with her political roots. She's also interviewed in the 1999 film produced for Public Television, After Stonewall, directed by John Scagliotti.
Her newest work includes a forthcoming comic novel, Televised, recounting the lives of survivors of the Black Nationalist movement, which was excerpted in the anthology Gumbo edited by Marita Golden and E. Lyn Harris.
She authored a play about James Baldwin in 2010 in collaboration with Harry Waters Jr., an actor and professor in the theatre department at MacAlester College. Readings have been held in San Francisco at Intersection for the Arts at a seminar on Baldwin at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, at the Yellow Springs Writers Workshop in Ohio, AfroSolo Festival and the 2009 National Black Theatre Festival. Gomez and Waters were interviewed on the public radio program Fresh Fruit on KFAI by host Dixie Trechel in 2008. The segment also includes two short readings from the script.
Gomez was on the original staff of Say Brother (now Basic Black), one of the first weekly Black television shows (WGBH-TV Boston, 1968), and was on the founding board of theGay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in 1984.
She also served on the early boards of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation and the Open Meadows Foundation, both devoted to funding women's organizations and activities. She's been a member of the board of the Cornell University Human Sexuality Archives and the advisory board of the James Hormel LGBT Center of the main San Francisco Public Library. She was a member of the loose-knit philanthropic collective founded in San Francisco in 1998 called 100 Lesbians and Our Friends. The group, co-founded by Andrea Gillespie andDiane Sabin, was designed to educate lesbians who were culturally miseducated—as women—about the use of money and benefits of philanthropy. The philosophy of making "stretch gifts" (not reducing contributions already being made) to lesbian groups and projects raised more than $200,000 in two years.
She and her partner, Dr.Diane Sabin, were among the litigants against the state of California suing for the right to legal marriage. The case was brought to the courts by the City Attorney of San Francisco, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union. She has written extensively about gay rights since the 1980s, including articles on equal marriage in Ms. Magazine and has been quoted extensively during the court case. In May 2008 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the litigants, allowing marriage between same-sex couples in the state of California. Such ceremonies may legally begin after thirty days, which allow municipalities to make administrative changes. They were among 18,000 couples married in California before the anti-equal marriage proposition (Prop 8) came before the California voters and was passed by a narrow margin on November 4, 2008.
Formerly the executive director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University, she has also had a long career in philanthropy. She was the director of Cultural Equity Grants at the San Francisco Arts Commission and the director of the Literature Program for the New York State Council on the Arts.
She has presented lectures and taught at numerous institutions of higher learning including San Francisco State University, Hunter College, Rutgers University, New College of California, Grinnell College, San Diego City College, The Ohio State University and the University of Washington (Seattle). She is the former director of the Literature Program at the New York State Council on the Arts and of Cultural Equity Grants at the San Francisco Arts Commission. She also served as executive director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University.
She is currently employed as Director of Grants and Community Initiatives for Horizons Foundation, the oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender foundation in the US. She serves as the President of the San Francisco Public Library Commission.
Gomez was raised by her great-grandmother, Grace, who was born on Indian land in Iowa to an African-American mother and Ioway father. Grace returned to New England before she was fourteen, when her father died and was married to John E. Morandus, a Wampanoag and descendant of Massasoit, the sachem for whom Massachusetts was named.
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s she was shaped socially and politically by the close family ties with her great grandmother, Grace and grandmother Lydia. Their history of independence as well as marginalization in an African-American community are referenced throughout her work. "Grace A." from the collection Don't Explain is an early example. During her high school and college years Gomez was involved with Black political and social movements which is reflected in much of her writing. Subsequent years in New York City she spent in Black theatre including work with the Frank Silvera Writers Workshop and many years as a stage manager for off Broadway productions.
During this time she became involved in lesbian feminist activism and magazine publication. She was a member of the CONDITIONS, a lesbian feminist literary magazine. More of Gomez's recent writing has begun to reflect her Native American (Ioway, Wampanoag) heritage.
Gomez is the author of seven books, including the double Lambda Literary Award winning novel The Gilda Stories(Firebrand Books, 1991) . This novel has been in print since 1991 and reframes the traditional vampire mythology, taking a lesbian feminist perspective; it is an adventure about an escaped slave who comes of age over two hundred years. According to scholar Elyce Rae Helford, "Each stage of Gilda's personal voyage is also a study of life as part of multiple communities, all at the margins of mainstream white middle-class America."
She also authored the theatrical adaptation of her novel Bones and Ash which in 1996 toured thirteen U.S. cities performed by the Urban Bush Women Company. The book, which remains in print, was also issued by the Quality Paperback Book Club in an edition including the play.
Her other books include Don't Explain, a collection of short fiction; 43 Septembers, a collection of personal/political essays; and Oral Tradition: Selected Poems Old and New.
Her fiction and poetry is included in over one hundred anthologies including the first anthology of Black speculative fiction, Dark Matter: A Century of African American Speculative Fiction edited by Sheree R. Thomas; Home Girls: a Black feminist Anthology from Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and Best American Poetry of 2001 edited by Robert Hass.
Gomez has written literary and film criticism for numerous publications including The Village Voice, The San Francisco Chronicle, Ms. Magazine and Black Scholar.
She's been interviewed in periodicals and journals over the past twenty-five years including a September 1993 Advocate article where writer Victoria Brownworth discussed her writing origins and political interests. In the Journal of Lesbian Studies (Vol. 5, #3) she was interviewed for an article entitled "Funding Lesbian Activism," which linked her career in philanthropy with her political roots. She's also interviewed in the 1999 film produced for Public Television, After Stonewall, directed by John Scagliotti.
Her newest work includes a forthcoming comic novel, Televised, recounting the lives of survivors of the Black Nationalist movement, which was excerpted in the anthology Gumbo edited by Marita Golden and E. Lyn Harris.
She authored a play about James Baldwin in 2010 in collaboration with Harry Waters Jr., an actor and professor in the theatre department at MacAlester College. Readings have been held in San Francisco at Intersection for the Arts at a seminar on Baldwin at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, at the Yellow Springs Writers Workshop in Ohio, AfroSolo Festival and the 2009 National Black Theatre Festival. Gomez and Waters were interviewed on the public radio program Fresh Fruit on KFAI by host Dixie Trechel in 2008. The segment also includes two short readings from the script.
Gomez was on the original staff of Say Brother (now Basic Black), one of the first weekly Black television shows (WGBH-TV Boston, 1968), and was on the founding board of theGay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in 1984.
She also served on the early boards of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation and the Open Meadows Foundation, both devoted to funding women's organizations and activities. She's been a member of the board of the Cornell University Human Sexuality Archives and the advisory board of the James Hormel LGBT Center of the main San Francisco Public Library. She was a member of the loose-knit philanthropic collective founded in San Francisco in 1998 called 100 Lesbians and Our Friends. The group, co-founded by Andrea Gillespie andDiane Sabin, was designed to educate lesbians who were culturally miseducated—as women—about the use of money and benefits of philanthropy. The philosophy of making "stretch gifts" (not reducing contributions already being made) to lesbian groups and projects raised more than $200,000 in two years.
She and her partner, Dr.Diane Sabin, were among the litigants against the state of California suing for the right to legal marriage. The case was brought to the courts by the City Attorney of San Francisco, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union. She has written extensively about gay rights since the 1980s, including articles on equal marriage in Ms. Magazine and has been quoted extensively during the court case. In May 2008 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the litigants, allowing marriage between same-sex couples in the state of California. Such ceremonies may legally begin after thirty days, which allow municipalities to make administrative changes. They were among 18,000 couples married in California before the anti-equal marriage proposition (Prop 8) came before the California voters and was passed by a narrow margin on November 4, 2008.
Formerly the executive director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University, she has also had a long career in philanthropy. She was the director of Cultural Equity Grants at the San Francisco Arts Commission and the director of the Literature Program for the New York State Council on the Arts.
She has presented lectures and taught at numerous institutions of higher learning including San Francisco State University, Hunter College, Rutgers University, New College of California, Grinnell College, San Diego City College, The Ohio State University and the University of Washington (Seattle). She is the former director of the Literature Program at the New York State Council on the Arts and of Cultural Equity Grants at the San Francisco Arts Commission. She also served as executive director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University.
She is currently employed as Director of Grants and Community Initiatives for Horizons Foundation, the oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender foundation in the US. She serves as the President of the San Francisco Public Library Commission.
Raymond St. Jacques: Veteran Actor
(1930 – 1990) Raymond St. Jacques (pictured on right) was born James Arthur Johnson in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1930, but he and younger sister Barbara were raised in Depression-era New Haven after their parents' divorce. He started writing and performing in his own short plays in elementary school and developed a strong interest in acting after appearing in a production of "Othello".
A stint with the Air Force in 1952 during the Korean War temporarily interrupted his professional momentum, but he managed to arrange plays and entertain servicemen during his stay of duty. Upon his discharge, he refocused, auditioned and was accepted into both the Actor's Studio and Herbert Berghof's Institute while modeling, dish washing and working as a sales clerk at Bloomingdale's to make ends meet. At around this time, he changed his stage moniker from the very common name of Raymond Johnson to Ray Saint Jacques (later Raymond St. Jacques) to avoid confusion with other actors.
St. Jacques went on to perform for the American Shakespearean Festival, Stratford Connecticut, and, in addition to acting and assistant directing, was relied upon to train other actors in the art of swordplay as he had grown to become an accomplished fencing master.
He made his Broadway bow in the 1955 musical "Seventh Heaven" and appeared in various on- and off-Broadway productions including "The Blacks", "Night Life", "The Cool World" and "A Raisin in the Sun". He also continued to performed in the Bard's plays, including "Henry V", "Romeo and Juliet" and "Julius Caesar". He started gracing films in mid-career, making his debut with Black Like Me (1964). His breakthrough role came with the otherwise tepidly-received The Comedians (1967) where he stole the thunder from under husband and wife Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. This led to a series of black-oriented 'stud' roles in Up Tight! (1968), Change of Mind (1969), Cool Breeze (1972), and notably, If He Hollers, Let Him Go! (1968) in which he shared some torrid and controversial bed scenes with Barbara McNair that made the "Sex in the Cinema" pages of Playboy magazine.
He also made history as the first black actor to appear in a regular role on a western series, playing Simon Blake on "Rawhide" (1959). St. Jacques moved briefly into producing and directing with the film Book of Numbers (1973), which relayed the stories of various African-Americans during the late 1800s. He was also a regular in a number of TV series, over 300 in his career. He was also a noted civil rights activist and lectured both here and abroad on apartheid issues. St. Jacques died of lymph cancer in 1990 at age 60.
(Note: IMDB lists Raymond St. Jacques as the father of dancer, model, celebrity escort, Sterling St. Jacques, but in actuality they were lovers. This had always been mentioned in the black SGL-T community and is confirmed in an interview I did with veteran actor/author Stanley Bennett Clay. ~ Doug)
A stint with the Air Force in 1952 during the Korean War temporarily interrupted his professional momentum, but he managed to arrange plays and entertain servicemen during his stay of duty. Upon his discharge, he refocused, auditioned and was accepted into both the Actor's Studio and Herbert Berghof's Institute while modeling, dish washing and working as a sales clerk at Bloomingdale's to make ends meet. At around this time, he changed his stage moniker from the very common name of Raymond Johnson to Ray Saint Jacques (later Raymond St. Jacques) to avoid confusion with other actors.
St. Jacques went on to perform for the American Shakespearean Festival, Stratford Connecticut, and, in addition to acting and assistant directing, was relied upon to train other actors in the art of swordplay as he had grown to become an accomplished fencing master.
He made his Broadway bow in the 1955 musical "Seventh Heaven" and appeared in various on- and off-Broadway productions including "The Blacks", "Night Life", "The Cool World" and "A Raisin in the Sun". He also continued to performed in the Bard's plays, including "Henry V", "Romeo and Juliet" and "Julius Caesar". He started gracing films in mid-career, making his debut with Black Like Me (1964). His breakthrough role came with the otherwise tepidly-received The Comedians (1967) where he stole the thunder from under husband and wife Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. This led to a series of black-oriented 'stud' roles in Up Tight! (1968), Change of Mind (1969), Cool Breeze (1972), and notably, If He Hollers, Let Him Go! (1968) in which he shared some torrid and controversial bed scenes with Barbara McNair that made the "Sex in the Cinema" pages of Playboy magazine.
He also made history as the first black actor to appear in a regular role on a western series, playing Simon Blake on "Rawhide" (1959). St. Jacques moved briefly into producing and directing with the film Book of Numbers (1973), which relayed the stories of various African-Americans during the late 1800s. He was also a regular in a number of TV series, over 300 in his career. He was also a noted civil rights activist and lectured both here and abroad on apartheid issues. St. Jacques died of lymph cancer in 1990 at age 60.
(Note: IMDB lists Raymond St. Jacques as the father of dancer, model, celebrity escort, Sterling St. Jacques, but in actuality they were lovers. This had always been mentioned in the black SGL-T community and is confirmed in an interview I did with veteran actor/author Stanley Bennett Clay. ~ Doug)
Sapphire: Author (‘Precious') and Performance Poet
Sapphire (born Ramona Lofton, 1950) Author and performance poet. She took the name Sapphire because of its association with the image of a "belligerent black woman" and because she could picture the name on a book cover more than her birth name. She attended City College of San Francisco and City College of New York. She obtained her master's degree at Brooklyn College.
She held various jobs before starting her writing career, working as an exotic dancer, a performance artist, a social worker, and a teacher of reading and writing. Her first novel, Push, was unpublished before being discovered by the renowned feminist literary agent Charlotte Sheedy, who created a buzz and demand for Sapphire's novel, eventually leading to a bidding war. The novel brought Sapphire praise and much controversy for its graphic account of a young woman growing up in a cycle of incest and abuse.
A film based on her novel premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009; it was renamed Precious. Actors in it include Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, and Lenny Kravitz.
Sapphire was born in Fort Orr, California, one of four children of an Army couple who moved all over the world. After a disagreement over where the family would live, the family parted ways with Sapphire’s mother leaving the family. Sapphire dropped out of high school, moved to San Francisco where she enrolled in City College, only to drop out. She moved to New York City in 1977 and immersed herself in poetry. She wrote, performed and eventually published her poetry during the height of the Slam Poetry movement in NYC.
Her first book is a collection of poems entitled American Dreams, which was published in 1994. This collection caused controversy. Some considered it pornographic and sacrilegious, while others considered it one of the strongest debut collections of the ‘90s. Already heralded as a serious young author, Sapphire submitted the first 100 pages of Push to a publisher auction in 1995 and the highest bidder offered her $500,000 to finish the novel.
The book was published in 1996 by Vintage Publishing and has since sold a large number of copies. Sapphire noted in an interview with William Powers that “she noticed Push for sale in one of the Penn Station bookstores, and that moment it struck her she’s no longer a creature of the tiny world of art magazines and homeless-shelters from which she came”. Sapphire lives and works in New York City.
She held various jobs before starting her writing career, working as an exotic dancer, a performance artist, a social worker, and a teacher of reading and writing. Her first novel, Push, was unpublished before being discovered by the renowned feminist literary agent Charlotte Sheedy, who created a buzz and demand for Sapphire's novel, eventually leading to a bidding war. The novel brought Sapphire praise and much controversy for its graphic account of a young woman growing up in a cycle of incest and abuse.
A film based on her novel premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2009; it was renamed Precious. Actors in it include Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, and Lenny Kravitz.
Sapphire was born in Fort Orr, California, one of four children of an Army couple who moved all over the world. After a disagreement over where the family would live, the family parted ways with Sapphire’s mother leaving the family. Sapphire dropped out of high school, moved to San Francisco where she enrolled in City College, only to drop out. She moved to New York City in 1977 and immersed herself in poetry. She wrote, performed and eventually published her poetry during the height of the Slam Poetry movement in NYC.
Her first book is a collection of poems entitled American Dreams, which was published in 1994. This collection caused controversy. Some considered it pornographic and sacrilegious, while others considered it one of the strongest debut collections of the ‘90s. Already heralded as a serious young author, Sapphire submitted the first 100 pages of Push to a publisher auction in 1995 and the highest bidder offered her $500,000 to finish the novel.
The book was published in 1996 by Vintage Publishing and has since sold a large number of copies. Sapphire noted in an interview with William Powers that “she noticed Push for sale in one of the Penn Station bookstores, and that moment it struck her she’s no longer a creature of the tiny world of art magazines and homeless-shelters from which she came”. Sapphire lives and works in New York City.
Billy Porter: Tony Award Winning Actor, Singer, Cabaret Performer, Recording Artist
Billy Porter (born September 21, 1969 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a Tony Award winning Broadway performer and pop vocalist. He won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Lola in Kinky Boots at the 67th Tony Awards. For the role, Porter also won Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical andOuter Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.
Billy graduated from the Musical Theatre Program at Anderson High School's School of Drama before going on to graduate from Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts with a B.F.A in Drama.
Before embarking on a career as a mainstream pop vocalist, Billy Porter built a substantial reputation as a theatrical singer in Broadway productions such as Grease, where he revived the character of Teen Angel and Smokey Joe's Café. Other plays he has appeared in are: Jesus Christ Superstar, and Myths and Hymns and Songs for a New World.
He made his initial impact by placing 'Love Is On The Way' on the soundtrack to the film First Wives' Club, in 1996. His debut album, Untitled, was firmly anchored in traditional R&B territory. His backing band featured several musicians better known for their work in the theatre, including Warren J. McCrae, Gary Haase and Peter Zizzo (his producer).
Until recently, he was probably best known onstage for his portrayal of the Teen Angel in the 1994 revival of Grease!. Other plays he has been in include Ghetto Superstar (The Man That I Am) for which Porter was nominated for "Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off Broadway Award" at the 17th GLAAD Media Awards and in Topdog/Underdog at City Theatre, Jesus Christ Superstar and Dreamgirls at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and the song cycles "Myths and Hymns" and "Songs for a New World". In September 2010, Porter appeared as Belize in Signature Theatre Company's 20th Anniversary production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America.[6]
Porter has also appeared in a number of films. He landed a major role as Shiniqua, a drag queen who befriends Angel (David Norona) and Lee (Keivyn McNeill Graves) in Seth Michael Donsky's Twisted, an adaptation of Oliver Twist. He has also appeared on an episode of the The RuPaul Show.
He has had a musical career with two albums released, Billy Porter on A&M Records in 1997 and At the Corner of Broadway + Soul in 2005 on Sh-K-Boom Records. He was also featured in a number of songs in the tribute album It's Only Life: The Songs of John Bucchino in 2006 released on PS Classics and in Adam Guettel's album Myths and Hymns on Nonesuch Records. He also covered "Only One Road" that was included on the Human Rights Campaign compilation album Love Rocks.
In spite of recording, however, Billy Porter, remains firmly rooted in musical theater and also garners much attention from his cabaret performances that have gotten rave reviews. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jOgwKodB16o ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QCUFx-si3OA ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XH6zwgaCfNE )
(Source: Wikipedia, et al.)
Billy graduated from the Musical Theatre Program at Anderson High School's School of Drama before going on to graduate from Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts with a B.F.A in Drama.
Before embarking on a career as a mainstream pop vocalist, Billy Porter built a substantial reputation as a theatrical singer in Broadway productions such as Grease, where he revived the character of Teen Angel and Smokey Joe's Café. Other plays he has appeared in are: Jesus Christ Superstar, and Myths and Hymns and Songs for a New World.
He made his initial impact by placing 'Love Is On The Way' on the soundtrack to the film First Wives' Club, in 1996. His debut album, Untitled, was firmly anchored in traditional R&B territory. His backing band featured several musicians better known for their work in the theatre, including Warren J. McCrae, Gary Haase and Peter Zizzo (his producer).
Until recently, he was probably best known onstage for his portrayal of the Teen Angel in the 1994 revival of Grease!. Other plays he has been in include Ghetto Superstar (The Man That I Am) for which Porter was nominated for "Outstanding New York Theater: Broadway & Off Broadway Award" at the 17th GLAAD Media Awards and in Topdog/Underdog at City Theatre, Jesus Christ Superstar and Dreamgirls at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and the song cycles "Myths and Hymns" and "Songs for a New World". In September 2010, Porter appeared as Belize in Signature Theatre Company's 20th Anniversary production of Tony Kushner's Angels in America.[6]
Porter has also appeared in a number of films. He landed a major role as Shiniqua, a drag queen who befriends Angel (David Norona) and Lee (Keivyn McNeill Graves) in Seth Michael Donsky's Twisted, an adaptation of Oliver Twist. He has also appeared on an episode of the The RuPaul Show.
He has had a musical career with two albums released, Billy Porter on A&M Records in 1997 and At the Corner of Broadway + Soul in 2005 on Sh-K-Boom Records. He was also featured in a number of songs in the tribute album It's Only Life: The Songs of John Bucchino in 2006 released on PS Classics and in Adam Guettel's album Myths and Hymns on Nonesuch Records. He also covered "Only One Road" that was included on the Human Rights Campaign compilation album Love Rocks.
In spite of recording, however, Billy Porter, remains firmly rooted in musical theater and also garners much attention from his cabaret performances that have gotten rave reviews. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jOgwKodB16o ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QCUFx-si3OA ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XH6zwgaCfNE )
(Source: Wikipedia, et al.)
Keisha Sean Waites: State Rep., GA
Keisha Sean Waites (born 1972) is an American politician from the state of Georgia. A Democrat, she was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives on February 7, 2012, in a special election to fill the 60th district seat left vacant by Gloria Tinubu's resignation. District 60 includes southeast Atlanta, Hapeville, and parts of Clayton and DeKalb counties. She was sworn in on February 13, 2012.
Keisha Waites attended Southside Comprehensive High School (now known as Maynard H. Jackson High School) in Atlanta and graduated in 1991. She attended Georgia Southern University, concentrating in political science.
She is a former chief of staff to State Rep. Sheila Jones. She has also served on the Atlanta Planning Advisory Board, the boards of the Atlanta Commission on Women, the National Women's Political Caucus-Atlanta Chapter, Georgia Stonewall Democrats, Fulton County Democratic Party Executive Board, and NAACP-Atlanta chapter.
Outside of politics, Keisha Waites has worked on a contract basis as an intergovernmental affairs officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She also worked for the U.S. Small Business Administration as a commercial loan specialist.
Waites is a lesbian. She is one of three openly gay members of the Georgia General Assembly, alongside Representatives Karla Drenner (D–Avondale Estates), and Simone Bell (D–Atlanta).
Keisha Waites attended Southside Comprehensive High School (now known as Maynard H. Jackson High School) in Atlanta and graduated in 1991. She attended Georgia Southern University, concentrating in political science.
She is a former chief of staff to State Rep. Sheila Jones. She has also served on the Atlanta Planning Advisory Board, the boards of the Atlanta Commission on Women, the National Women's Political Caucus-Atlanta Chapter, Georgia Stonewall Democrats, Fulton County Democratic Party Executive Board, and NAACP-Atlanta chapter.
Outside of politics, Keisha Waites has worked on a contract basis as an intergovernmental affairs officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She also worked for the U.S. Small Business Administration as a commercial loan specialist.
Waites is a lesbian. She is one of three openly gay members of the Georgia General Assembly, alongside Representatives Karla Drenner (D–Avondale Estates), and Simone Bell (D–Atlanta).
Clara Ward: Gospel Singer
Clara Ward (April 21, 1924 – January 16, 1973) was an American gospel artist who achieved great success, both artistic and commercial, in the 1940s and 1950s as leader of The Famous Ward Singers.
A gifted singer and arranger, Ward took the lead-switching style used by male gospel quartets to new heights, leaving room for spontaneous improvisation and vamping by each member of the group while giving virtuouso singers such as Marion Williams the opportunity to step forward in songs such as "Surely, God Is Able" (among the first million-selling gospel hits), "How I Got Over" (which she wrote; one of the most famous songs in the Black gospel repertoire), and "Packin' Up".
Ward ranks among the greatest of gospel singers along with Mahalia Jackson, Roberta Martin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and others.
Clara Ward's mother, Gertrude Ward (1901–1981), founded the Ward Singers in 1931 as a family group, then called variously The Consecrated Gospel Singers or The Ward Trio, consisting of herself, her youngest daughter Clara, and her elder daughter Willa.
Clara Ward made her first solo recording in 1940 and continued accompanying the Ward Gospel Trio.
The Ward Singers began touring nationally in 1943, after making a memorable appearance at the National Baptist Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that year
Henrietta Waddy joined the group in 1947 after Willa Ward retired; she added a rougher alto and the enthusiastic stage manners taken from her South Carolina church background. The group's performance style, such as the mimed packing of suitcases as part of the song "Packin' Up", may have been condemned by some purists as "clowning" but was wildly popular with their audiences.
The addition of Marion Williams, who came out of the Pentecostal tradition growing up in Miami, Florida, brought even more to the group. A powerful singer with a preternaturally broad range, she was able to reach the highest registers of the soprano range without losing either purity or volume, and could also swoop down to growling low notes in the style of a country preacher. Williams' singing helped make the group nationally popular when they began recording in 1948. In 1949 the Ward Singers toured from Philadelphia to California, appeared on TV in Hollywood.
In 1950, Clara Ward and the Famous Ward Singers of Philadelphia made their first appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City on a gospel program titled Negro Music Festival, produced by gospel music pioneer Joe Bostic, sharing the stage with Mahalia Jackson and appearing there at Carnegie Hall on Bostic's program again in 1952.
In 1963 Clara Ward was the second gospel singer to sing gospel songs on Broadway in Langston Hughes' play Tambourines To Glory. She was also the musical director for this play. The first being her former group members, which were known as the Stars of Faith, which starred Langston Hughes in the first Gospel stage play and first play that featured a all black cast to be produced on Broadway, The Black Nativity.
Clara Ward was the first gospel singer to sing with a 100-piece symphony orchestra in the 1960s. They recorded an album together on the Verve label, V-5019, The Heart, The Faith, The Soul of Clara Ward, and the Ward Singers performed their music live in Philadelphia with the symphony and the Golden Voices Ensemble.
Though Clara Ward did not regularly sing secular music as a soloist or with her groups, she did sing backup for pop artists with her sister Willa's background group, most notably on Dee Dee Sharp's smash hit, 'Mashed Potato Time", which reached #1 on Billboard's pop chart in 1962. In 1969 she recorded an album for Capitol Records, Soul and Inspiration, which consisted of pop songs from Broadway plays and Hollywood movies. This album was later reissued on the Capitol's budget Pickwick label minus one song.
In the same year she recorded an album in Copenhagen, Denmark on the Philips label, Walk A Mile In My Shoes, which included the pop title song, other pop songs (such as "California Dreaming") and a few gospel songs. She also recorded an album for MGM/Verve, Hang Your Tears Out To Dry, which included country and Western, blues/folk, pop and an arrangement of the Beatles' hit song, "Help". Her 1972 album Uplifting on United Artists, produced by Nikolas Venet and Sam Alexander, included her stunning interpretation of Bill Wither's pop hit "Lean On Me" and a rearrangement of the Soul Stirrer's 1950's recording of "Thank You, Jesus". Also in 1972 Ward, because she was under exclusive contract to United Artists at this time, provided vocals for a Canned Heat's album New Age, on the ballad "Looking For My Rainbow"; it was released on that album and as a single 45 rpm record.
In 1968 Clara Ward and her singers toured Vietnam at the request of the U.S. State Department and the U.S.O. These war-time tours were filmed and all the Ward Singers were given special certificates of recognition by the U.S. Army. The U.S.O did not pay a salary to entertainers, but after these tours the Ward Singers went to Japan each year for commercial concerts and released LPs in Japan to coincide with these tours.
Clara Ward co-starred in the Hollywood movie A Time To Sing, starring Hank Williams. Other movie appearances include Its Your Thing starring the Isley Brothers, and Spree, also known as Night Time in Las Vegas. The late 1960s and early 1970s were an extremely busy and successful time for the Clara Ward Singers.
Despite her career success, Ward's life was an unhappy one. Financial hardships caused her and her family to move 19 times before her adulthood. Sexually abused in childhood by a cousin and relentlessly driven as prime breadwinner by her mother throughout her life, Clara's life was one of constant work and little joy. According to her sister Willa, Gertrude Ward recognized Clara's exceptional musical ability when Clara was a child and controlled and manipulated her throughout her life. In her biography of Clara, Willa attests that Gertrude worked to prevent Clara from forming any romantic attachments.
Although Clara eloped as a teenager (at age 17 in 1941), her mother forced her to tour and the strain caused the always frail Clara to have a miscarriage. Her marriage ended after only one year. Willa describes Clara as explaining her occasional lesbian encounters as the sexual expression likely to escape her mother's notice. Her only real happiness seems to have come from her longtime romance with Rev. C. L. Franklin (with whom the Ward groups extensively toured), the famous Detroit-based preacher and father of the legendary Aretha Franklin.
Ward's poor health forced her to retire in the early 1970s. She died after two strokes in 1973. Aretha Franklin and Rev. C. L. Franklin sang at her funeral in Philadelphia in 1973; Marion Williams sang at her second memorial service held days later in Los Angeles, California.
Clara Ward is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
In 1977, Ward was honored posthumously at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City and her surviving sister, Willa, accepted an award in her honor.
In July 1998, in recognition of her status as one of the most famous and loved gospel singers in the world, the United States Postal Service issued a 32-cent stamp with her image. The stamp can still be purchased with a CD and other gospel singers' stamps at HYPERLINK "http://www.usps.com" \t "_blank" www.usps.com.
Ward's beautiful alto (with a distinctly nasal tone) in gospel songs and the Methodist hymns of the 18th century continues to delight music lovers. She had a marked influence on later singers, such as her protegee Aretha Franklin, who adopted her moan for secular songs and who saluted Ward in Amazing Grace, the gospel album she made with James Cleveland in the early 1970s. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o2802-4kQoA ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yU-herUo23I )
A gifted singer and arranger, Ward took the lead-switching style used by male gospel quartets to new heights, leaving room for spontaneous improvisation and vamping by each member of the group while giving virtuouso singers such as Marion Williams the opportunity to step forward in songs such as "Surely, God Is Able" (among the first million-selling gospel hits), "How I Got Over" (which she wrote; one of the most famous songs in the Black gospel repertoire), and "Packin' Up".
Ward ranks among the greatest of gospel singers along with Mahalia Jackson, Roberta Martin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and others.
Clara Ward's mother, Gertrude Ward (1901–1981), founded the Ward Singers in 1931 as a family group, then called variously The Consecrated Gospel Singers or The Ward Trio, consisting of herself, her youngest daughter Clara, and her elder daughter Willa.
Clara Ward made her first solo recording in 1940 and continued accompanying the Ward Gospel Trio.
The Ward Singers began touring nationally in 1943, after making a memorable appearance at the National Baptist Convention held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that year
Henrietta Waddy joined the group in 1947 after Willa Ward retired; she added a rougher alto and the enthusiastic stage manners taken from her South Carolina church background. The group's performance style, such as the mimed packing of suitcases as part of the song "Packin' Up", may have been condemned by some purists as "clowning" but was wildly popular with their audiences.
The addition of Marion Williams, who came out of the Pentecostal tradition growing up in Miami, Florida, brought even more to the group. A powerful singer with a preternaturally broad range, she was able to reach the highest registers of the soprano range without losing either purity or volume, and could also swoop down to growling low notes in the style of a country preacher. Williams' singing helped make the group nationally popular when they began recording in 1948. In 1949 the Ward Singers toured from Philadelphia to California, appeared on TV in Hollywood.
In 1950, Clara Ward and the Famous Ward Singers of Philadelphia made their first appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City on a gospel program titled Negro Music Festival, produced by gospel music pioneer Joe Bostic, sharing the stage with Mahalia Jackson and appearing there at Carnegie Hall on Bostic's program again in 1952.
In 1963 Clara Ward was the second gospel singer to sing gospel songs on Broadway in Langston Hughes' play Tambourines To Glory. She was also the musical director for this play. The first being her former group members, which were known as the Stars of Faith, which starred Langston Hughes in the first Gospel stage play and first play that featured a all black cast to be produced on Broadway, The Black Nativity.
Clara Ward was the first gospel singer to sing with a 100-piece symphony orchestra in the 1960s. They recorded an album together on the Verve label, V-5019, The Heart, The Faith, The Soul of Clara Ward, and the Ward Singers performed their music live in Philadelphia with the symphony and the Golden Voices Ensemble.
Though Clara Ward did not regularly sing secular music as a soloist or with her groups, she did sing backup for pop artists with her sister Willa's background group, most notably on Dee Dee Sharp's smash hit, 'Mashed Potato Time", which reached #1 on Billboard's pop chart in 1962. In 1969 she recorded an album for Capitol Records, Soul and Inspiration, which consisted of pop songs from Broadway plays and Hollywood movies. This album was later reissued on the Capitol's budget Pickwick label minus one song.
In the same year she recorded an album in Copenhagen, Denmark on the Philips label, Walk A Mile In My Shoes, which included the pop title song, other pop songs (such as "California Dreaming") and a few gospel songs. She also recorded an album for MGM/Verve, Hang Your Tears Out To Dry, which included country and Western, blues/folk, pop and an arrangement of the Beatles' hit song, "Help". Her 1972 album Uplifting on United Artists, produced by Nikolas Venet and Sam Alexander, included her stunning interpretation of Bill Wither's pop hit "Lean On Me" and a rearrangement of the Soul Stirrer's 1950's recording of "Thank You, Jesus". Also in 1972 Ward, because she was under exclusive contract to United Artists at this time, provided vocals for a Canned Heat's album New Age, on the ballad "Looking For My Rainbow"; it was released on that album and as a single 45 rpm record.
In 1968 Clara Ward and her singers toured Vietnam at the request of the U.S. State Department and the U.S.O. These war-time tours were filmed and all the Ward Singers were given special certificates of recognition by the U.S. Army. The U.S.O did not pay a salary to entertainers, but after these tours the Ward Singers went to Japan each year for commercial concerts and released LPs in Japan to coincide with these tours.
Clara Ward co-starred in the Hollywood movie A Time To Sing, starring Hank Williams. Other movie appearances include Its Your Thing starring the Isley Brothers, and Spree, also known as Night Time in Las Vegas. The late 1960s and early 1970s were an extremely busy and successful time for the Clara Ward Singers.
Despite her career success, Ward's life was an unhappy one. Financial hardships caused her and her family to move 19 times before her adulthood. Sexually abused in childhood by a cousin and relentlessly driven as prime breadwinner by her mother throughout her life, Clara's life was one of constant work and little joy. According to her sister Willa, Gertrude Ward recognized Clara's exceptional musical ability when Clara was a child and controlled and manipulated her throughout her life. In her biography of Clara, Willa attests that Gertrude worked to prevent Clara from forming any romantic attachments.
Although Clara eloped as a teenager (at age 17 in 1941), her mother forced her to tour and the strain caused the always frail Clara to have a miscarriage. Her marriage ended after only one year. Willa describes Clara as explaining her occasional lesbian encounters as the sexual expression likely to escape her mother's notice. Her only real happiness seems to have come from her longtime romance with Rev. C. L. Franklin (with whom the Ward groups extensively toured), the famous Detroit-based preacher and father of the legendary Aretha Franklin.
Ward's poor health forced her to retire in the early 1970s. She died after two strokes in 1973. Aretha Franklin and Rev. C. L. Franklin sang at her funeral in Philadelphia in 1973; Marion Williams sang at her second memorial service held days later in Los Angeles, California.
Clara Ward is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
In 1977, Ward was honored posthumously at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York City and her surviving sister, Willa, accepted an award in her honor.
In July 1998, in recognition of her status as one of the most famous and loved gospel singers in the world, the United States Postal Service issued a 32-cent stamp with her image. The stamp can still be purchased with a CD and other gospel singers' stamps at HYPERLINK "http://www.usps.com" \t "_blank" www.usps.com.
Ward's beautiful alto (with a distinctly nasal tone) in gospel songs and the Methodist hymns of the 18th century continues to delight music lovers. She had a marked influence on later singers, such as her protegee Aretha Franklin, who adopted her moan for secular songs and who saluted Ward in Amazing Grace, the gospel album she made with James Cleveland in the early 1970s. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=o2802-4kQoA ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yU-herUo23I )
Nhojj: Singer, Songwriter
A singer with an almost ethereal voice, an instrumentalist and composer, the multi-talented Nhojj is originally from Guyana, but resides in New York City. I first met him in 2006 when he interviewed me at a book signing. At the time I had no idea he was also a superb musical artist.
In almost a decade of creating innovative music, Nhojj has released 6 CDs and an unplugged live DVD filmed by Emmy nominated director Bill Cote. He has performed at Lincoln Center, and toured the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom.
In 2009 Nhojj won the OUTMusic Award’s outstanding R&B/Soul song of the year, for his song ‘Love’. “Love” appears on the Nhojj compilation “Love Songs” and the 2x Velocity nominated “Soul Comfort.” It features keyboardist Carl Evans (Stevie Wonder, Barry White); David Stark on Guitar (Rick James & Teena Marie); Tommy Aros on percussion (Luis Miguel); and is mastered by by Robert Honablue, whose Gold and Platinum credits include Santana, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley, and Miles Davis.
The official music video for “Love” was featured at 2010 Sundance Film Festival Queer Lounge, and is on MTV and VH1. Unlike current R&B music videos, it is the sensitive reflection of 2 male college students who feel a mutual attraction toward each other. Director Kirk Shannon-Butts spliced scenes from his highly acclaimed indie film "Blueprint,” (seen below in the 2nd video) which screened at 2008 Cannes International Film Festival, and footage of Nhojj as the angel of love. "I believe love is for everyone... homosexual and heterosexual" Nhojj explains, "One day soon our world will acknowledge this simple truth."
Music critic, and BET/Centric TV blogger L. Michael Gipson says of Nhojj: “Nhojj has been delivering high-quality jazzy soul for nearly a decade. A soul pioneer, Nhojj is one of a growing number of “out” Black gay performers releasing both universal and same-sex material. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d4nvTILXnrg ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mx6fNK6uo34 )
In almost a decade of creating innovative music, Nhojj has released 6 CDs and an unplugged live DVD filmed by Emmy nominated director Bill Cote. He has performed at Lincoln Center, and toured the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom.
In 2009 Nhojj won the OUTMusic Award’s outstanding R&B/Soul song of the year, for his song ‘Love’. “Love” appears on the Nhojj compilation “Love Songs” and the 2x Velocity nominated “Soul Comfort.” It features keyboardist Carl Evans (Stevie Wonder, Barry White); David Stark on Guitar (Rick James & Teena Marie); Tommy Aros on percussion (Luis Miguel); and is mastered by by Robert Honablue, whose Gold and Platinum credits include Santana, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley, and Miles Davis.
The official music video for “Love” was featured at 2010 Sundance Film Festival Queer Lounge, and is on MTV and VH1. Unlike current R&B music videos, it is the sensitive reflection of 2 male college students who feel a mutual attraction toward each other. Director Kirk Shannon-Butts spliced scenes from his highly acclaimed indie film "Blueprint,” (seen below in the 2nd video) which screened at 2008 Cannes International Film Festival, and footage of Nhojj as the angel of love. "I believe love is for everyone... homosexual and heterosexual" Nhojj explains, "One day soon our world will acknowledge this simple truth."
Music critic, and BET/Centric TV blogger L. Michael Gipson says of Nhojj: “Nhojj has been delivering high-quality jazzy soul for nearly a decade. A soul pioneer, Nhojj is one of a growing number of “out” Black gay performers releasing both universal and same-sex material. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=d4nvTILXnrg ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mx6fNK6uo34 )
Demarco Majors: First Openly Gay Active Player in Pro Basketball
Demarco Majors (1977) First professional basketball player to play as an openly gay man (the American Basketball Associaton. John Amaechi, of the NBA was not openly gay when he played); Former captain of the San Francisco Rockdogs (gold medal winner at the 2006 Chicago Gay Games); Model; T.V. Performer (Logo’s ‘Shirts and Skins’).
Demarco is a spokesman for openly gay athletes and hopes one day (‘soon’, he says) to see other openly gay athletes play during the prime of their professional careers. He says he knows of some professional athletes who are gay, but they aren’t out of the closet. He is now beginning a career as a model and video performer, having appeared in Beyonce’s ‘Freakum Dress’ videoThe Warrior , 2007, Majors is the only pro basketball player to have come out before he retired.
After playing for teams in Australia, Brazil, Argentina and in the American Basketball Association dealing with homophobic teammates, he wants to start the first openly gay team in the American Basketball Association.
While he's busy lining that up, he's been exploring another part of the world. In addition to staring in the Logo series "Shirts & Skins", Majors modeled in New York's Fashion Week, appeared in Beyonce’s ‘Freakum Dress’ video, underwear ads, and made his off broadway debut at the Actors Playhouse in a JL King production titled RAW.
Future endeavors include: A lead in The Penis Monologue touring fall 2009, print ad campaign, a book series collabboration and to create a non-profit organization to help suicidal & homeless LGBT teens. One way or another, we expect to see him front and center for some time to come.
Demarco is a spokesman for openly gay athletes and hopes one day (‘soon’, he says) to see other openly gay athletes play during the prime of their professional careers. He says he knows of some professional athletes who are gay, but they aren’t out of the closet. He is now beginning a career as a model and video performer, having appeared in Beyonce’s ‘Freakum Dress’ videoThe Warrior , 2007, Majors is the only pro basketball player to have come out before he retired.
After playing for teams in Australia, Brazil, Argentina and in the American Basketball Association dealing with homophobic teammates, he wants to start the first openly gay team in the American Basketball Association.
While he's busy lining that up, he's been exploring another part of the world. In addition to staring in the Logo series "Shirts & Skins", Majors modeled in New York's Fashion Week, appeared in Beyonce’s ‘Freakum Dress’ video, underwear ads, and made his off broadway debut at the Actors Playhouse in a JL King production titled RAW.
Future endeavors include: A lead in The Penis Monologue touring fall 2009, print ad campaign, a book series collabboration and to create a non-profit organization to help suicidal & homeless LGBT teens. One way or another, we expect to see him front and center for some time to come.
Jackie 'Moms' Mabley: Legendary Comic, Vaudevillian
Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley (1894–1975) was an American standup comedienne and a pioneer of the so-called "Chitlin’ Circuit" of African-American vaudeville. Her career spanned fifty-five years, from 1919 to1974. Moms Mabley was one of the most successful entertainers of the black vaudeville Chitlin’ Circuit, earning $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theater at the height of her career. In 1962 she played the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York City. She also made a number of mainstream TV appearances in the 1960s, and was often billed as "The Funniest Woman in the World.”
Moms Mabley often tackled topics too edgy for many other comics of the time, including racism, and although she was lesbian, one of her regular themes was her romantic interest in handsome young men rather than old, "washed-up geezers", and regularly got away with it courtesy of her on stage persona where she appeared as a toothless, bedraggled woman in a house dress and floppy hat. She added the occasional satirical song to her jokes, and had a minor song hit in the 1960s with a serious plea for peace, "Everythings Gonna Be Alright."
Moms Mabley often tackled topics too edgy for many other comics of the time, including racism, and although she was lesbian, one of her regular themes was her romantic interest in handsome young men rather than old, "washed-up geezers", and regularly got away with it courtesy of her on stage persona where she appeared as a toothless, bedraggled woman in a house dress and floppy hat. She added the occasional satirical song to her jokes, and had a minor song hit in the 1960s with a serious plea for peace, "Everythings Gonna Be Alright."
Nona Hendryx: Singer, Songwriter, 1/3 of Labelle Singing Group
From 1961 – 1976 Nona Hendryx (1944) (pictured in middle of photo) was one-third member of LaBelle (Sarah Dash, and of course, Patti LaBelle, being the other two). Embraced by her two gay supportive friends, Patti and Sarah, Nona rose to great status as the composer of many of the songs that made LaBelle standouts in the world of music. Since then Nona Hendryx, an openly same gender loving woman has gone on to put out solo recordings and to backing many groups.
Since her teens, Nona Hendryx has written and performed pop songs that span a range of genres. Her music has rangeds from soul, funk, dance, and rhythm and blues to hard rock, art rock, and World Music She attained stardom in the 1970s as a member of the soul trio Labelle, and then went on to build a solo career that included guest performances with a variety of rock and soul bands as well as solo recordings.
Nona Hendryx has also had a distinguished career as a songwriter. She wrote many of Labelle's hit songs, and continued writing her own material after the group split up in 1976. In addition to pop songs, she has written for the theater. Also active in the business segment of the music industry, Hendryx is co-founder and director of RhythmBank Entertainment, an independent record label, music publishing, and film production company.
Nona was born on October 9, 1944, in Trenton, New Jersey, and by the time she was 18 she had joined the Del Capris, a "girl group" based in Philadelphia. Soon after, she joined the Ordettes, where she met Patricia Holt, who became known as Patti Labelle, and Cindy Birdsong (who had replaced Sandra Tucker, though Cindy eventually became a member of The Supermes); and along with Sara Dash, who had sung with the Del Capris, the new group called themselves the BlueBelles.
Their first single was "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman," which they followed in 1963 with a bigger hit, "Down the Aisle." But the BlueBelles failed to sell as many records as their label had initially hoped, and in 1969 they were dropped. Now a trio after the 1967 departure of Birdsong, the group decided in 1970 to hire British television producer Vicki Wickham as their new manager.
Renaming the group Labelle, Wickham gave them a new image. Instead of the sentimental songs they had covered in earlier records, they started covering rock hits by such stars as the Rolling Stones, Carole King, and the Who. In 1971 the group put out the album Labelle, followed by 1972's Moon Shadow. While Nona contributed only a few songs to this album, she wrote most of the original material for Pressure Cookin', which was released in 1973. With Nightbirds, released in 1974, Labelle had a major hit: "Lady Marmalade," written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, helped push the album to number one status.
With Nightbirds's success came star status for Labelle, and the group went on to record two subsequent albums, Phoenix and Chameleon, for which Nona wrote most of the songs. The material was becoming more experimental, however, and Patti Labelle felt that Nona's songs, though brilliant, were not right for the group. In 1976 Labelle disbanded. "It was heaven and hell," Nona told Advocate interviewer Carol Pope in 2001, describing her years with Labelle. "We were like sisters. We'd fight, love, and laugh. After 17 years, breaking up was like a divorce. But by separating, you get to see your strengths and limitations."
In 1977, Nona Hendryx released her first solo album – a self-titled collection. A blend of soul and hard rock, it contained notable standout tracks such as "Winning" – later recorded by Santana – and the haunting ballad "Leaving Here Today". It quickly disappeared from the shelves, and she was dropped from Epic. Subsequently, she recorded four singles for Arista (London), which also escaped chart success. She did find success doing session work during this period, most notably providing background vocals for Talking Heads and touring with them, appearing first at the major Heatwave festival in August 1980. She contributed to the song "Checkmate" on Dusty Springfield's, It Begins Again album (the first of Springfield's comeback attempts) in 1978.
In the early 80's, Nona fronted her own progressive art-rock group, Zero Cool, which included guitarist Naux (China Shop, Richard Hell), Bassist Michael Allison (Darshan Ambient), guitarist Kevin Fullen and drummer Jimmy Allington. Simultaneously, she sang with experimental funk group Material, achieving a giant club hit with "Busting Out." She had two other major club hits soon after: a dance remake of The Supremes' "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart," and – in a lead vocal guest spot for the Cage – "Do What You Wanna Do." Material also produced her second eponymous album, Nona, in 1983. The hip, contemporary dance sound of this album proved to be more charts-compatible, with the disco music times, and the single "Keep It Confidential" becoming a modest R&B hit, and a remix of "B-boys" finding major success on the dance charts.
"Transformation" became a Nona Hendryx staple, and was later covered by Fierce Ruling Diva. Another particularly noteworthy track on the album is the ballad "Design For Living," which featured guests Laurie Anderson, Gina Shock of The Go-Go's, Valerie Simpson of Ashford & Simpson, Tina Weymouth of Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads, Nancy Wilson of Heart, and former bandmate Patti LaBelle.
In the mid-1980s, Nona was recruited by RCA to record songs for various soundtracks, including: the theme for Moving Violations; "I Sweat (Going Through the Motions)," a commercial hit for her from the Jamie Lee Curtis film Perfect; and "Transparent" from the Eddie Murphy film, Coming To America. Her album The Art Of Defense was released in 1984.
In 1985, Hendryx wrote and recorded "Rock This House" with Keith Richards, from her album The Heat. The song was nominated for a Grammy award. The same year, the MTV broadcast of the video "I Need Love" stirred some controversy for featuring drag queens, and it was quickly removed from MTV's playlist as a result.
Her biggest commercial success came with 1987's single "Why Should I Cry?", a top 5 R'n'B hit (also reaching #58 on the Billboard 100). The accompanying album, Female Trouble, boasted an impressive list of contributors, including Peter Gabriel and Prince ("Baby A Go Go"). Around this time, she became a member of the Black Rock Coalition, founded by Vernon Reid of Living Colour.
Nona took a detour from commercial music with Skin Diver, a new age record produced with long-time Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann. The album was generally greeted with positive feedback from critics, but was commercially unsuccessful. The title track did attract some attention, as did "Women Who Fly", which was later covered by Jefferson Starship.
In addition to the duet-album with Billy Vera (You Have to Cry Sometime) and a couple of compilation-only tracks, Nona Hendryx has recorded more than five albums worth of music, but has been unable to release any of it due to lack of interest from major and independent record labels. Her Epic, RCA and EMI albums have long been out of print and have yet to attract the attention of specialist reissue labels, but a Best Of album titled Transformation was released in 1999 by Razor & Tie.
Nona Hendryx has also dabbled in acting. She wrote and performed the theme for Landlord Blues (1987), while also having a small part in the film as attorney Sally Viscuso. She played herself in the late-90's Pam Grier series Linc's, and at the end of the show accompanied herself on the piano for "Lift Every Voice." Most recently, she appeared in the third season of The L Word, which closed with Grier, Hendryx, and the trio BETTY singing a cover of the Hendryx track "Transformation."
She remains in high demand for musical collaborations, both for her vocals and her songwriting. One of her early collaborations was with Jerry Harrison's (Talking Heads) The Red and The Black album 1981. In 1992, she recorded a duet with Billy Crawford, "Urgently In Love," which was considered by many to be a strong single that was not promoted properly. In 1998, she recorded the huge rap hit "It's a Party" with Bounty Killer. She has also written songs for Dusty Springfield and Ultra Nate, and produced albums for Lisa Lisa and The Bush Tetras. Other artists with whom she has recorded with over the years include: David Johansen, Yoko Ono, Cameo, Talking Heads (3 albums), 80's band Our Daughter's Wedding, Garland Jeffreys, Dan Hartman, Afrika Bambaata (performing a duet of "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" with Boy George), Canadian band Rough Trade, Curtis Hairston, and Graham Parker on the hit single, "Soul Christmas."
In the beginning of the current decade, Hendryx was asked to appear on two of Paul Haslinger's albums; two tracks for which she sang lead vocals – "Higher Purpose" and "Beginning to End" -were featured on the soundtrack for the Showtime series Sleeper Cell.
Currently, Hendryx is still touring and has written plays, including Blue. Recently, Sandra St. Victor (The Family Stand) recruited daughters of famous African American soul/blues icons – including Lalah Hathaway, Simone, Indira Khan, and Leah McCrae – together with "spiritual daughters" Joyce Kennedy, Caron Wheeler, and Nona, to form the group Daughters Of Soul, which has enjoyed much success, especially on the European tour circuit.
She also formed her own record label with Bobby Banks, Rhythm Bank, in 2005, and has released a gospel CD by protege Najiyah.
Since the breakup of Labelle, Patti, Sarah, and Nona have reunited on occasion. These reunions include Patti LaBelle's "Live In New York" video, the dance hit "Turn It Out" from the soundtrack To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), and two television specials. In January 2006, Labelle again reunited to record "Dear Rosa," a tribute to civil rights leader Rosa Parks. Labelle also performed the theme song for the soundtrack for the film Preaching to the Choir, with Nona being the composer of the film's soundtrack. In late 2008, Labelle released their comeback album, Back to Now, and went on a successful concert tour that carried through the spring of 2009.
Speaking in April 2009 to noted UK soul/R&B writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul, Hendryx discussed the background to Labelle reuniting for Back To Now: "Well, there were lots of ongoing times when we'd discussed doing it. And a lot of it was really down to the fact that the fans were DEMANDING that we did it! But, rather than just going back and doing what we'd done in the past, we did want to be able to make an album of new music before coming back out together. And it was really once we'd recorded the song 'Dear Rosa', together that Patti finally became convinced that yes, we should make a new record and then go out and tour behind it. So I'd say basically our reunion was down to two things - pressure from the fans; plus Patti hearing a sound again that she loved and hadn't heard for many years."
Nona has also authored a children's book, called The Brownies.
In 2001 she discussed her bisexuality in an interview with The Advocate magazine and has become a gay-rights activist over the years. In summer 2008, she joined Cyndi Lauper on her True Colors tour, raising awareness of discrimination and the LGBT community. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zcegOxXoxOM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=57I1cppkZu4 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-KNl1GAehvM )
Since her teens, Nona Hendryx has written and performed pop songs that span a range of genres. Her music has rangeds from soul, funk, dance, and rhythm and blues to hard rock, art rock, and World Music She attained stardom in the 1970s as a member of the soul trio Labelle, and then went on to build a solo career that included guest performances with a variety of rock and soul bands as well as solo recordings.
Nona Hendryx has also had a distinguished career as a songwriter. She wrote many of Labelle's hit songs, and continued writing her own material after the group split up in 1976. In addition to pop songs, she has written for the theater. Also active in the business segment of the music industry, Hendryx is co-founder and director of RhythmBank Entertainment, an independent record label, music publishing, and film production company.
Nona was born on October 9, 1944, in Trenton, New Jersey, and by the time she was 18 she had joined the Del Capris, a "girl group" based in Philadelphia. Soon after, she joined the Ordettes, where she met Patricia Holt, who became known as Patti Labelle, and Cindy Birdsong (who had replaced Sandra Tucker, though Cindy eventually became a member of The Supermes); and along with Sara Dash, who had sung with the Del Capris, the new group called themselves the BlueBelles.
Their first single was "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman," which they followed in 1963 with a bigger hit, "Down the Aisle." But the BlueBelles failed to sell as many records as their label had initially hoped, and in 1969 they were dropped. Now a trio after the 1967 departure of Birdsong, the group decided in 1970 to hire British television producer Vicki Wickham as their new manager.
Renaming the group Labelle, Wickham gave them a new image. Instead of the sentimental songs they had covered in earlier records, they started covering rock hits by such stars as the Rolling Stones, Carole King, and the Who. In 1971 the group put out the album Labelle, followed by 1972's Moon Shadow. While Nona contributed only a few songs to this album, she wrote most of the original material for Pressure Cookin', which was released in 1973. With Nightbirds, released in 1974, Labelle had a major hit: "Lady Marmalade," written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan, helped push the album to number one status.
With Nightbirds's success came star status for Labelle, and the group went on to record two subsequent albums, Phoenix and Chameleon, for which Nona wrote most of the songs. The material was becoming more experimental, however, and Patti Labelle felt that Nona's songs, though brilliant, were not right for the group. In 1976 Labelle disbanded. "It was heaven and hell," Nona told Advocate interviewer Carol Pope in 2001, describing her years with Labelle. "We were like sisters. We'd fight, love, and laugh. After 17 years, breaking up was like a divorce. But by separating, you get to see your strengths and limitations."
In 1977, Nona Hendryx released her first solo album – a self-titled collection. A blend of soul and hard rock, it contained notable standout tracks such as "Winning" – later recorded by Santana – and the haunting ballad "Leaving Here Today". It quickly disappeared from the shelves, and she was dropped from Epic. Subsequently, she recorded four singles for Arista (London), which also escaped chart success. She did find success doing session work during this period, most notably providing background vocals for Talking Heads and touring with them, appearing first at the major Heatwave festival in August 1980. She contributed to the song "Checkmate" on Dusty Springfield's, It Begins Again album (the first of Springfield's comeback attempts) in 1978.
In the early 80's, Nona fronted her own progressive art-rock group, Zero Cool, which included guitarist Naux (China Shop, Richard Hell), Bassist Michael Allison (Darshan Ambient), guitarist Kevin Fullen and drummer Jimmy Allington. Simultaneously, she sang with experimental funk group Material, achieving a giant club hit with "Busting Out." She had two other major club hits soon after: a dance remake of The Supremes' "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart," and – in a lead vocal guest spot for the Cage – "Do What You Wanna Do." Material also produced her second eponymous album, Nona, in 1983. The hip, contemporary dance sound of this album proved to be more charts-compatible, with the disco music times, and the single "Keep It Confidential" becoming a modest R&B hit, and a remix of "B-boys" finding major success on the dance charts.
"Transformation" became a Nona Hendryx staple, and was later covered by Fierce Ruling Diva. Another particularly noteworthy track on the album is the ballad "Design For Living," which featured guests Laurie Anderson, Gina Shock of The Go-Go's, Valerie Simpson of Ashford & Simpson, Tina Weymouth of Tom Tom Club and Talking Heads, Nancy Wilson of Heart, and former bandmate Patti LaBelle.
In the mid-1980s, Nona was recruited by RCA to record songs for various soundtracks, including: the theme for Moving Violations; "I Sweat (Going Through the Motions)," a commercial hit for her from the Jamie Lee Curtis film Perfect; and "Transparent" from the Eddie Murphy film, Coming To America. Her album The Art Of Defense was released in 1984.
In 1985, Hendryx wrote and recorded "Rock This House" with Keith Richards, from her album The Heat. The song was nominated for a Grammy award. The same year, the MTV broadcast of the video "I Need Love" stirred some controversy for featuring drag queens, and it was quickly removed from MTV's playlist as a result.
Her biggest commercial success came with 1987's single "Why Should I Cry?", a top 5 R'n'B hit (also reaching #58 on the Billboard 100). The accompanying album, Female Trouble, boasted an impressive list of contributors, including Peter Gabriel and Prince ("Baby A Go Go"). Around this time, she became a member of the Black Rock Coalition, founded by Vernon Reid of Living Colour.
Nona took a detour from commercial music with Skin Diver, a new age record produced with long-time Tangerine Dream member Peter Baumann. The album was generally greeted with positive feedback from critics, but was commercially unsuccessful. The title track did attract some attention, as did "Women Who Fly", which was later covered by Jefferson Starship.
In addition to the duet-album with Billy Vera (You Have to Cry Sometime) and a couple of compilation-only tracks, Nona Hendryx has recorded more than five albums worth of music, but has been unable to release any of it due to lack of interest from major and independent record labels. Her Epic, RCA and EMI albums have long been out of print and have yet to attract the attention of specialist reissue labels, but a Best Of album titled Transformation was released in 1999 by Razor & Tie.
Nona Hendryx has also dabbled in acting. She wrote and performed the theme for Landlord Blues (1987), while also having a small part in the film as attorney Sally Viscuso. She played herself in the late-90's Pam Grier series Linc's, and at the end of the show accompanied herself on the piano for "Lift Every Voice." Most recently, she appeared in the third season of The L Word, which closed with Grier, Hendryx, and the trio BETTY singing a cover of the Hendryx track "Transformation."
She remains in high demand for musical collaborations, both for her vocals and her songwriting. One of her early collaborations was with Jerry Harrison's (Talking Heads) The Red and The Black album 1981. In 1992, she recorded a duet with Billy Crawford, "Urgently In Love," which was considered by many to be a strong single that was not promoted properly. In 1998, she recorded the huge rap hit "It's a Party" with Bounty Killer. She has also written songs for Dusty Springfield and Ultra Nate, and produced albums for Lisa Lisa and The Bush Tetras. Other artists with whom she has recorded with over the years include: David Johansen, Yoko Ono, Cameo, Talking Heads (3 albums), 80's band Our Daughter's Wedding, Garland Jeffreys, Dan Hartman, Afrika Bambaata (performing a duet of "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" with Boy George), Canadian band Rough Trade, Curtis Hairston, and Graham Parker on the hit single, "Soul Christmas."
In the beginning of the current decade, Hendryx was asked to appear on two of Paul Haslinger's albums; two tracks for which she sang lead vocals – "Higher Purpose" and "Beginning to End" -were featured on the soundtrack for the Showtime series Sleeper Cell.
Currently, Hendryx is still touring and has written plays, including Blue. Recently, Sandra St. Victor (The Family Stand) recruited daughters of famous African American soul/blues icons – including Lalah Hathaway, Simone, Indira Khan, and Leah McCrae – together with "spiritual daughters" Joyce Kennedy, Caron Wheeler, and Nona, to form the group Daughters Of Soul, which has enjoyed much success, especially on the European tour circuit.
She also formed her own record label with Bobby Banks, Rhythm Bank, in 2005, and has released a gospel CD by protege Najiyah.
Since the breakup of Labelle, Patti, Sarah, and Nona have reunited on occasion. These reunions include Patti LaBelle's "Live In New York" video, the dance hit "Turn It Out" from the soundtrack To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), and two television specials. In January 2006, Labelle again reunited to record "Dear Rosa," a tribute to civil rights leader Rosa Parks. Labelle also performed the theme song for the soundtrack for the film Preaching to the Choir, with Nona being the composer of the film's soundtrack. In late 2008, Labelle released their comeback album, Back to Now, and went on a successful concert tour that carried through the spring of 2009.
Speaking in April 2009 to noted UK soul/R&B writer Pete Lewis of the award-winning Blues & Soul, Hendryx discussed the background to Labelle reuniting for Back To Now: "Well, there were lots of ongoing times when we'd discussed doing it. And a lot of it was really down to the fact that the fans were DEMANDING that we did it! But, rather than just going back and doing what we'd done in the past, we did want to be able to make an album of new music before coming back out together. And it was really once we'd recorded the song 'Dear Rosa', together that Patti finally became convinced that yes, we should make a new record and then go out and tour behind it. So I'd say basically our reunion was down to two things - pressure from the fans; plus Patti hearing a sound again that she loved and hadn't heard for many years."
Nona has also authored a children's book, called The Brownies.
In 2001 she discussed her bisexuality in an interview with The Advocate magazine and has become a gay-rights activist over the years. In summer 2008, she joined Cyndi Lauper on her True Colors tour, raising awareness of discrimination and the LGBT community. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zcegOxXoxOM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=57I1cppkZu4 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-KNl1GAehvM )
James Baldwin: Novelist, Essayist, Playwright, Civil Rights Activist
James Baldwin on being born poor, black and gay: “I’d thought I’d hit the jackpot – it was so incredibly outrageous, you could not go any further, you had to learn how to use it.”
James Baldwin (1924-1987), was an American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist. Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century United States. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of identity as well as for the way in which they mine complex social and psychological pressures related to being black and homosexual. In 1948, disillusioned by American prejudice against blacks and homosexuals, Baldwin left the United States for Paris, France, where he would live for most of his later life.
Although he spent a great deal of his life abroad, James Baldwin always remained a quintessentially American writer. Whether he was working in Paris or Istanbul, he never ceased to reflect on his experience as a black man in white America. In numerous essays, novels, plays, and public speeches, the eloquent voice of James Baldwin spoke of the pain and struggle of black Americans and the saving power of brotherhood.
James Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924. The oldest of nine children, he grew up in poverty, developing a troubled relationship with his strict, religious father. As a child, he cast about for a way to escape his circumstances. As he recalls, “I knew I was black, of course, but I also knew I was smart. I didn’t know how I would use my mind, or even if I could, but that was the only thing I had to use.” By the time he was fourteen, Baldwin was spending much of his time in libraries and had found his passion for writing.
During this early part of his life, he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a preacher. Of those teen years, Baldwin recalled, “Those three years in the pulpit — I didn’t realize it then — that is what turned me into a writer, really, dealing with all that anguish and that despair and that beauty.” Many have noted the strong influence of the language of the church on Baldwin’s style, its cadences and tone. Eager to move on, Baldwin knew that if he left the pulpit he must also leave home, so at eighteen he took a job working for the New Jersey railroad.
After working for a short while with the railroad, Baldwin moved to Greenwich Village, where he came into contact with the well-known writer Richard Wright. Baldwin worked for a number of years as a freelance writer, working primarily on book reviews. Though Baldwin had not yet finished a novel, Wright helped to secure him a grant with which he could support himself as a writer in Paris. So, in 1948 Baldwin left for Paris, where he would find enough distance from the American society he grew up in to write about it.
After writing a number of pieces that were published in various magazines, Baldwin went to Switzerland to finish his first novel. Go Tell It on the Mountain, published in 1953, was an autobiographical work about growing up in Harlem. The passion and depth with which he described the struggles of black Americans was unlike anything that had been written. Though not instantly recognized as such, Go Tell It on the Mountain has long been considered an American classic. Throughout the rest of the decade, Baldwin moved from Paris to New York to Istanbul, writing Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Giovanni’s Room (1956). Dealing with taboo themes in both books (interracial relationships and homosexuality, respectively), Baldwin was creating socially relevant and psychologically penetrating literature.
Being abroad gave Baldwin a perspective on his life and a solitary freedom to pursue his craft. “Once you find yourself in another civilization,” he notes, “you’re forced to examine your own.” In a sense, Baldwin’s travels brought him even closer to the social concerns of contemporary America. In the early 1960s, overwhelmed with a responsibility to the times, Baldwin returned to take part in the civil rights movement. Traveling throughout the South, he began work on an explosive work about black identity and the state of racial struggle, The Fire Next Time (1963). For many, Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were an early and primary voice in the civil rights movement. Though at times criticized for his pacifist stance, Baldwin remained throughout the 1960s an important figure in that struggle.
After the assassinations of his friends Medgar Evers, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, Baldwin returned to France where he worked on a book about the disillusionment of the times, If Beale Street Could Talk (1974). Many responded to the harsh tone of If Beale Street Could Talk with accusations of bitterness. But, even if Baldwin had encapsulated much of the anger of the times in his book, he always remained a constant advocate for universal love and brotherhood. During the last ten years of his life, Baldwin produced a number of important works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and turned to teaching as a new way of connecting with the young. By his death in 1987, James Baldwin had become one of the most important and vocal advocates for equality. From Go Tell It on the Mountain to The Evidence of Things Not Seen (1985), James Baldwin created works of literary beauty and depth that will remain essential parts of the American canon.
James Baldwin (1924-1987), was an American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist. Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century United States. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of identity as well as for the way in which they mine complex social and psychological pressures related to being black and homosexual. In 1948, disillusioned by American prejudice against blacks and homosexuals, Baldwin left the United States for Paris, France, where he would live for most of his later life.
Although he spent a great deal of his life abroad, James Baldwin always remained a quintessentially American writer. Whether he was working in Paris or Istanbul, he never ceased to reflect on his experience as a black man in white America. In numerous essays, novels, plays, and public speeches, the eloquent voice of James Baldwin spoke of the pain and struggle of black Americans and the saving power of brotherhood.
James Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924. The oldest of nine children, he grew up in poverty, developing a troubled relationship with his strict, religious father. As a child, he cast about for a way to escape his circumstances. As he recalls, “I knew I was black, of course, but I also knew I was smart. I didn’t know how I would use my mind, or even if I could, but that was the only thing I had to use.” By the time he was fourteen, Baldwin was spending much of his time in libraries and had found his passion for writing.
During this early part of his life, he followed in his father’s footsteps and became a preacher. Of those teen years, Baldwin recalled, “Those three years in the pulpit — I didn’t realize it then — that is what turned me into a writer, really, dealing with all that anguish and that despair and that beauty.” Many have noted the strong influence of the language of the church on Baldwin’s style, its cadences and tone. Eager to move on, Baldwin knew that if he left the pulpit he must also leave home, so at eighteen he took a job working for the New Jersey railroad.
After working for a short while with the railroad, Baldwin moved to Greenwich Village, where he came into contact with the well-known writer Richard Wright. Baldwin worked for a number of years as a freelance writer, working primarily on book reviews. Though Baldwin had not yet finished a novel, Wright helped to secure him a grant with which he could support himself as a writer in Paris. So, in 1948 Baldwin left for Paris, where he would find enough distance from the American society he grew up in to write about it.
After writing a number of pieces that were published in various magazines, Baldwin went to Switzerland to finish his first novel. Go Tell It on the Mountain, published in 1953, was an autobiographical work about growing up in Harlem. The passion and depth with which he described the struggles of black Americans was unlike anything that had been written. Though not instantly recognized as such, Go Tell It on the Mountain has long been considered an American classic. Throughout the rest of the decade, Baldwin moved from Paris to New York to Istanbul, writing Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Giovanni’s Room (1956). Dealing with taboo themes in both books (interracial relationships and homosexuality, respectively), Baldwin was creating socially relevant and psychologically penetrating literature.
Being abroad gave Baldwin a perspective on his life and a solitary freedom to pursue his craft. “Once you find yourself in another civilization,” he notes, “you’re forced to examine your own.” In a sense, Baldwin’s travels brought him even closer to the social concerns of contemporary America. In the early 1960s, overwhelmed with a responsibility to the times, Baldwin returned to take part in the civil rights movement. Traveling throughout the South, he began work on an explosive work about black identity and the state of racial struggle, The Fire Next Time (1963). For many, Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were an early and primary voice in the civil rights movement. Though at times criticized for his pacifist stance, Baldwin remained throughout the 1960s an important figure in that struggle.
After the assassinations of his friends Medgar Evers, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, Baldwin returned to France where he worked on a book about the disillusionment of the times, If Beale Street Could Talk (1974). Many responded to the harsh tone of If Beale Street Could Talk with accusations of bitterness. But, even if Baldwin had encapsulated much of the anger of the times in his book, he always remained a constant advocate for universal love and brotherhood. During the last ten years of his life, Baldwin produced a number of important works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and turned to teaching as a new way of connecting with the young. By his death in 1987, James Baldwin had become one of the most important and vocal advocates for equality. From Go Tell It on the Mountain to The Evidence of Things Not Seen (1985), James Baldwin created works of literary beauty and depth that will remain essential parts of the American canon.
Billy Preston: Singer, Songwriter, Musician
William Everett "Billy" Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American rhythm and blues musician from Houston, Texas raised mostly in Los Angeles, California. In addition to his successful, Grammy Award-winning career as a solo artist, Preston collaborated with some of the greatest names in the music industry, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Band, Nat King Cole, Little Richard, Eric Burdon, Ray Charles, George Harrison, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke, King Curtis, Sammy Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin, the Jackson 5, Quincy Jones, Mick Jagger, Richie Sambora, Sly Stone, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Ringo Starr.
Preston began playing piano while sitting on his mother's lap at age three, and he was considered something of a child prodigy on piano and organ. By the age of 10 he was performing in the bands of gospel singers Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, and Andrae Crouch. At age 12 he began a side career acting, and appeared in the 1958 Paramount Pictures film St. Louis Blues, portraying blues composer W.C. Handy as a young man. In the 1960s he performed with Little Richard and Ray Charles. He also began a recording career as a solo artist with the 1965 album The Most Exciting Organ Ever. He was also a regular on the mid-1960s ABC-TV musical variety series Shindig! as a member of the show's house band.
His solo career also peaked at this time, beginning with 1972's "Outa-Space", an instrumental track that further popularized the sound of the clavinet in funk music. The song reached #2 on the U.S. Hot 100, #1 on the R&B chart, and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in June 1972.
Over the next two years, he followed up with the #1 hits "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing From Nothing", and the #4 hit "Space Race." All three releases each sold in excess of one million copies. American Bandstand host and executive producer Dick Clark enjoyed "Space Race" so much that he used the instrumental for the mid-show break for virtually the remainder of its run.
He had a hit single in 1980 with Syreeta Wright with the ballad "With You I'm Born Again" that reached number four on the charts. A few years later, however, he was arrested and convicted for insurance fraud after setting fire to his own house in Los Angeles, and he was treated for alcohol and cocaine addictions.
Preston overcame his problems in the early 1990s, toured with Eric Clapton, and recorded with a wide range of artists. In 1997-98 Billy Preston played organ during the choir numbers on the UPN comedy show Good News.
In 2005 he recorded "Go Where No One's Gone Before", the main title song for the anime series L/R: Licensed by Royalty.
Preston played clavinet on the song "Warlocks" for the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Stadium Arcadium released in 2006. Although very ill by this point, he jumped out of his bed after hearing a tape of the song given to him by the band, recorded his part, and went back to bed. Preston's final contributions were the gospel-tinged organ on the Neil Diamond album 12 Songs, and his keyboard work on The Road to Escondido by Eric Clapton and J. J. Cale, and some of the first tracks on the Reach album by Is'real Benton.
In March 2005, Preston appeared on the American Idol's fourth season finale. Playing piano, he performed "With You I'm Born Again" with Vonzell Solomon, who finished in third place.
Preston made his last public appearance in late 2005 at the Los Angeles press junket for the re-release of the Concert for Bangla Desh movie. He was in good spirits and talked to many in the press. Afterwards he played a three song set of "Give Me Love", "My Sweet Lord" and "Isn't It a Pity", featuring Dhani Harrison on guitar and Ringo Starr on drums for the final song only.
There still remains an unreleased CD of Beatles covers that he had been working on for several years before his death. Many tracks from this CD were previewed by him at The Fest For Beatles Fans shows in the years before his death.
Jazz musician Miles Davis was heavily influenced by Preston's music during his funk rock period of the early 1970s. The 1972 album Get Up With It features a track called "Billy Preston" in his honor.
Preston had battled kidney disease in his later years, brought on by his hypertension. He received a kidney transplant in 2002, but his health continued to deteriorate. He died on June 6, 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona, of complications of malignant hypertension that resulted in kidney failure and other complications.
His funeral was held on June 20 at the Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California, where he was interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2fcGq7AoA6I ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LDehYXKI31g ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KQ5-BTdcqjk
)
Preston began playing piano while sitting on his mother's lap at age three, and he was considered something of a child prodigy on piano and organ. By the age of 10 he was performing in the bands of gospel singers Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, and Andrae Crouch. At age 12 he began a side career acting, and appeared in the 1958 Paramount Pictures film St. Louis Blues, portraying blues composer W.C. Handy as a young man. In the 1960s he performed with Little Richard and Ray Charles. He also began a recording career as a solo artist with the 1965 album The Most Exciting Organ Ever. He was also a regular on the mid-1960s ABC-TV musical variety series Shindig! as a member of the show's house band.
His solo career also peaked at this time, beginning with 1972's "Outa-Space", an instrumental track that further popularized the sound of the clavinet in funk music. The song reached #2 on the U.S. Hot 100, #1 on the R&B chart, and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in June 1972.
Over the next two years, he followed up with the #1 hits "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing From Nothing", and the #4 hit "Space Race." All three releases each sold in excess of one million copies. American Bandstand host and executive producer Dick Clark enjoyed "Space Race" so much that he used the instrumental for the mid-show break for virtually the remainder of its run.
He had a hit single in 1980 with Syreeta Wright with the ballad "With You I'm Born Again" that reached number four on the charts. A few years later, however, he was arrested and convicted for insurance fraud after setting fire to his own house in Los Angeles, and he was treated for alcohol and cocaine addictions.
Preston overcame his problems in the early 1990s, toured with Eric Clapton, and recorded with a wide range of artists. In 1997-98 Billy Preston played organ during the choir numbers on the UPN comedy show Good News.
In 2005 he recorded "Go Where No One's Gone Before", the main title song for the anime series L/R: Licensed by Royalty.
Preston played clavinet on the song "Warlocks" for the Red Hot Chili Peppers album Stadium Arcadium released in 2006. Although very ill by this point, he jumped out of his bed after hearing a tape of the song given to him by the band, recorded his part, and went back to bed. Preston's final contributions were the gospel-tinged organ on the Neil Diamond album 12 Songs, and his keyboard work on The Road to Escondido by Eric Clapton and J. J. Cale, and some of the first tracks on the Reach album by Is'real Benton.
In March 2005, Preston appeared on the American Idol's fourth season finale. Playing piano, he performed "With You I'm Born Again" with Vonzell Solomon, who finished in third place.
Preston made his last public appearance in late 2005 at the Los Angeles press junket for the re-release of the Concert for Bangla Desh movie. He was in good spirits and talked to many in the press. Afterwards he played a three song set of "Give Me Love", "My Sweet Lord" and "Isn't It a Pity", featuring Dhani Harrison on guitar and Ringo Starr on drums for the final song only.
There still remains an unreleased CD of Beatles covers that he had been working on for several years before his death. Many tracks from this CD were previewed by him at The Fest For Beatles Fans shows in the years before his death.
Jazz musician Miles Davis was heavily influenced by Preston's music during his funk rock period of the early 1970s. The 1972 album Get Up With It features a track called "Billy Preston" in his honor.
Preston had battled kidney disease in his later years, brought on by his hypertension. He received a kidney transplant in 2002, but his health continued to deteriorate. He died on June 6, 2006 in Scottsdale, Arizona, of complications of malignant hypertension that resulted in kidney failure and other complications.
His funeral was held on June 20 at the Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California, where he was interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2fcGq7AoA6I ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LDehYXKI31g ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KQ5-BTdcqjk
)
Larry Levan: Legendary Club DJ
'70's & '80's
Larry Levan (born Lawrence Philpot, July 20, 1954 – November 8, 1992) was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the Paradise Garage, a New York City night club, which has been described as the prototype of the modern dance club. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass". Influential US DJ Francois Kevorkian credits Levan with introducing the dub aesthetic into dance music. Along with Kevorkian, Levan experimented with drum machines and synthesizers in his productions and live sets, ushering in an electronic, post-disco sound that presaged the ascendence of house music.
Levan got his start alongside DJ Frankie Knuckles at the Continental Baths. At the height of the disco boom in 1977, Levan was offered a residency at the Paradise Garage. Although owner Michael Brody, who employed Levan at the defunct Reade Street, intended to create a downtown facsimile of Studio 54 catering to an upscale white gay clientele, Levan initially drew an improbable mix of streetwise blacks, Latinos, and punks.
Open only to a select membership and housed in an otherwise unadorned building on King Street in Greenwich Village, the club and Levan's DJing slowly engendered themselves into the mainstream. The DJ and programming director fromWBLS, Frankie Crocker often mentioned the club on air and based his playlists around Levan's sets. The Richard Long & Associates Sound system,(RLA) of the club included custom-designed "Levan Horn Bass Speakers".
Levan became a prolific producer and mixer in the 1980s, with many of his efforts crossing over onto the national dance music charts. Among the records that received Levan's touch were his remixes of "Ain't Nothin' Goin On But The Rent" by Gwen Guthrie and "Heartbeat" by Taana Gardner, as well as his production work on "Don't Make Me Wait" by the Peech Boys, a group that Levan formed and was part of.
With a strong gospel tinge in the vocal arrangements and driven by a tinkling piano, the latter song is a quintessential example of the deejay's soulful aesthetic. One of the first dance releases to incorporate a dub influence and an appended vocal-only edit, Levan tinkered with the song for nearly a year to the consternation of Mel Cheren, whose label, West End Records, was nearing bankruptcy. When it was finally released, much of the song's momentum had been lost and it stalled in the lower reaches of the charts.
As the popularity of the Garage soared in the mid-1980s just as many of his longtime friends lost their battles with AIDS, Levan became increasingly dependent upon PCP and heroin. While performing, he began to ensconce himself within a protective entourage of drag queens and younger acolytes. At the Paradise Garage, Levan was described as being 'worshipped, almost like a god'. As beat-matching and stylistic adherence became the norm among club DJs, Levan's idiosyncratic sets (ranging the gamut from Evelyn “Champagne” King and Chaka Khan to Kraftwerk & British synth-pop) elicited criticism from some quarters. Nevertheless, he remained at the vanguard of dance music; recordings of Levan's later sets at the Garage demonstrate his affinity for the insurgent sounds of Chicago and hip-hop.
The Garage ended its run with a 48 hour-long party in September 1987, weeks before Brody died from AIDS-related complications. The closure devastated Levan, who knew that few club owners would tolerate his quirks and drug dependencies. Although Brody had verbally bequeathed the club's sound and lighting systems to Levan, they were instead left to Brody's mother in his will. This change was reportedly instigated by the late impresario's lover and manager, who reportedly despised Levan.
Despite protestations and pleas to the Brody family from Mel Cheren, the systems remained in storage as their property. Unable to secure a long-term residency after a stay at the short-lived Choice in the East Village alongside DJ/proprietor Richard Vasquez and Joey Llanos, Levan began to sell his valuable records for drug money. Friends like Danny Krivit would buy them back for him out of sympathy.
As the nineties dawned, Levan was on the brink of a comeback. Although dismissed as a relic in New York, his popularity had soared among connoisseurs of disco and early American electronic dance music in Europe and Japan. In 1991, he was brought over for the weekend to London by Justin Berkmann to DJ at London's Ministry of Sound nightclub where he ended up staying for 3 months remixing, producing and helping to tune the club's sound system. Although he was still dependent on heroin, Levan's 1992 tour of Japan garnered gushing accolades in the local press. Encouraged by Cheren, he entered rehab and made a tentative return to the studio. On the contrary, he informed his mother in June 1992 that he had "lived a good life" and was "ready to die"; Francois Kevorkian described Levan's final Japanese sets as nostalgic and inspirational, imbued with an air of bittersweetness and closure.
Shortly after returning home from Japan, Levan voluntarily entered the hospital. He died four days later on November 8 of heart failure. In September 2004, Levan was inducted into theDance Music Hall of Fame for his outstanding achievement as a DJ. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gSeJaXeXqOI ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=itp6_4dZX58 )
Levan got his start alongside DJ Frankie Knuckles at the Continental Baths. At the height of the disco boom in 1977, Levan was offered a residency at the Paradise Garage. Although owner Michael Brody, who employed Levan at the defunct Reade Street, intended to create a downtown facsimile of Studio 54 catering to an upscale white gay clientele, Levan initially drew an improbable mix of streetwise blacks, Latinos, and punks.
Open only to a select membership and housed in an otherwise unadorned building on King Street in Greenwich Village, the club and Levan's DJing slowly engendered themselves into the mainstream. The DJ and programming director fromWBLS, Frankie Crocker often mentioned the club on air and based his playlists around Levan's sets. The Richard Long & Associates Sound system,(RLA) of the club included custom-designed "Levan Horn Bass Speakers".
Levan became a prolific producer and mixer in the 1980s, with many of his efforts crossing over onto the national dance music charts. Among the records that received Levan's touch were his remixes of "Ain't Nothin' Goin On But The Rent" by Gwen Guthrie and "Heartbeat" by Taana Gardner, as well as his production work on "Don't Make Me Wait" by the Peech Boys, a group that Levan formed and was part of.
With a strong gospel tinge in the vocal arrangements and driven by a tinkling piano, the latter song is a quintessential example of the deejay's soulful aesthetic. One of the first dance releases to incorporate a dub influence and an appended vocal-only edit, Levan tinkered with the song for nearly a year to the consternation of Mel Cheren, whose label, West End Records, was nearing bankruptcy. When it was finally released, much of the song's momentum had been lost and it stalled in the lower reaches of the charts.
As the popularity of the Garage soared in the mid-1980s just as many of his longtime friends lost their battles with AIDS, Levan became increasingly dependent upon PCP and heroin. While performing, he began to ensconce himself within a protective entourage of drag queens and younger acolytes. At the Paradise Garage, Levan was described as being 'worshipped, almost like a god'. As beat-matching and stylistic adherence became the norm among club DJs, Levan's idiosyncratic sets (ranging the gamut from Evelyn “Champagne” King and Chaka Khan to Kraftwerk & British synth-pop) elicited criticism from some quarters. Nevertheless, he remained at the vanguard of dance music; recordings of Levan's later sets at the Garage demonstrate his affinity for the insurgent sounds of Chicago and hip-hop.
The Garage ended its run with a 48 hour-long party in September 1987, weeks before Brody died from AIDS-related complications. The closure devastated Levan, who knew that few club owners would tolerate his quirks and drug dependencies. Although Brody had verbally bequeathed the club's sound and lighting systems to Levan, they were instead left to Brody's mother in his will. This change was reportedly instigated by the late impresario's lover and manager, who reportedly despised Levan.
Despite protestations and pleas to the Brody family from Mel Cheren, the systems remained in storage as their property. Unable to secure a long-term residency after a stay at the short-lived Choice in the East Village alongside DJ/proprietor Richard Vasquez and Joey Llanos, Levan began to sell his valuable records for drug money. Friends like Danny Krivit would buy them back for him out of sympathy.
As the nineties dawned, Levan was on the brink of a comeback. Although dismissed as a relic in New York, his popularity had soared among connoisseurs of disco and early American electronic dance music in Europe and Japan. In 1991, he was brought over for the weekend to London by Justin Berkmann to DJ at London's Ministry of Sound nightclub where he ended up staying for 3 months remixing, producing and helping to tune the club's sound system. Although he was still dependent on heroin, Levan's 1992 tour of Japan garnered gushing accolades in the local press. Encouraged by Cheren, he entered rehab and made a tentative return to the studio. On the contrary, he informed his mother in June 1992 that he had "lived a good life" and was "ready to die"; Francois Kevorkian described Levan's final Japanese sets as nostalgic and inspirational, imbued with an air of bittersweetness and closure.
Shortly after returning home from Japan, Levan voluntarily entered the hospital. He died four days later on November 8 of heart failure. In September 2004, Levan was inducted into theDance Music Hall of Fame for his outstanding achievement as a DJ. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gSeJaXeXqOI ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=itp6_4dZX58 )
Frankie Knuckles: Legendary Club DJ, 'The Father of House Music'
Frankie Knuckles (1955-2014) was an American club DJ, record producer and remix artist. He played an important role in developing house music as a Chicago DJ in the 1980s (he is considered by many to be 'The Father of House Music') and he helped to popularize house music in the 1990s, with his work as a producer and remixer.
In his seminal years, Frankie Knuckles began working as a DJ, playing soul, disco and R&B at ‘The Continental Baths’, in New York City, with fellow DJ Larry Levan. When he became better known, he DJ’d at the club ‘Better Days’. When the ‘Warehouse’ club opened in Chicago in 1977, he was invited to play on a regular basis. He continued DJing there until 1982, when he started his own club, The Power Plant. He worked as a remixer, revamping the material for singers such as Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, and Toni Braxton. Billboard Magazine said, "He's probably the best dance music producer we have in America…"
As house music gained momentum, pioneering producer Chip E. took Knuckles under his tutelage and produced Knuckle's first recording, "You Can't Hide", featuring vocalist Ricky Dillard. Then came more production work, including Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride", and later "Tears" with Robert Owens (of Fingers, Inc.) and (Knuckles' protege and future Def Mix associate) Satoshi Tomiie.
When business difficulties caused the Warehouse to fold, he moved back to New York, where DJ'd and immersed himself in producing, remixing and recording.
Knuckles did a number of popular Def Classic Mixes with David Morales, and both men's mixing styles became very similar for a period in the early 1990s as they honed the formula for a "Def Classic Mix" sound. With several important original productions and remixes to his name.
In 1991 he released his biggest hit to date, "The Whistle Song". As his productions and remixes were becoming more popular, and he was also breaking new ground. When Junior Vasquez took a sabbatical from Manhattan's The Sound Factory, he took over and launched a successful run as resident DJ until Vasquez made his return, at which point Knuckles became the resident DJ at The Sound Factory Bar. Knuckles remained part of the underground scene. In 1992, Billboard's Larry Flick commented "He's probably the best dance music producer we understands the groove, but he understands songs, and the whole picture." Knuckles won the 1997 Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical.
Knuckles continued to work as a remixer through the 90s and into the next decade, reworking tracks from Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Eternal and Toni Braxton. He released several new singles, including "Keep On Movin'" and a re-issue of an earlier hit "Bac N Da Day" with Definity Records.
In 2004, he released a thirteen track album of original material - his first in over a decade, entitled A New Reality, which was critically well received. In October 2004 "Your Love" appeared in the popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on house music radio station, SF-UR. On 19 September 2005, Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his outstanding achievement as a DJ. Knuckles is featured in the 2006 documentary film, "The UnUsual Suspects - Once Upon a Time in House Music" by Chip E. and the 2005 documentary film, "Maestro" by Josell Ramos. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MT4WsZyKgyo ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qd94o5Dbgow; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LDS7boNwtKk )
In his seminal years, Frankie Knuckles began working as a DJ, playing soul, disco and R&B at ‘The Continental Baths’, in New York City, with fellow DJ Larry Levan. When he became better known, he DJ’d at the club ‘Better Days’. When the ‘Warehouse’ club opened in Chicago in 1977, he was invited to play on a regular basis. He continued DJing there until 1982, when he started his own club, The Power Plant. He worked as a remixer, revamping the material for singers such as Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, and Toni Braxton. Billboard Magazine said, "He's probably the best dance music producer we have in America…"
As house music gained momentum, pioneering producer Chip E. took Knuckles under his tutelage and produced Knuckle's first recording, "You Can't Hide", featuring vocalist Ricky Dillard. Then came more production work, including Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride", and later "Tears" with Robert Owens (of Fingers, Inc.) and (Knuckles' protege and future Def Mix associate) Satoshi Tomiie.
When business difficulties caused the Warehouse to fold, he moved back to New York, where DJ'd and immersed himself in producing, remixing and recording.
Knuckles did a number of popular Def Classic Mixes with David Morales, and both men's mixing styles became very similar for a period in the early 1990s as they honed the formula for a "Def Classic Mix" sound. With several important original productions and remixes to his name.
In 1991 he released his biggest hit to date, "The Whistle Song". As his productions and remixes were becoming more popular, and he was also breaking new ground. When Junior Vasquez took a sabbatical from Manhattan's The Sound Factory, he took over and launched a successful run as resident DJ until Vasquez made his return, at which point Knuckles became the resident DJ at The Sound Factory Bar. Knuckles remained part of the underground scene. In 1992, Billboard's Larry Flick commented "He's probably the best dance music producer we understands the groove, but he understands songs, and the whole picture." Knuckles won the 1997 Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical.
Knuckles continued to work as a remixer through the 90s and into the next decade, reworking tracks from Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Eternal and Toni Braxton. He released several new singles, including "Keep On Movin'" and a re-issue of an earlier hit "Bac N Da Day" with Definity Records.
In 2004, he released a thirteen track album of original material - his first in over a decade, entitled A New Reality, which was critically well received. In October 2004 "Your Love" appeared in the popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on house music radio station, SF-UR. On 19 September 2005, Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his outstanding achievement as a DJ. Knuckles is featured in the 2006 documentary film, "The UnUsual Suspects - Once Upon a Time in House Music" by Chip E. and the 2005 documentary film, "Maestro" by Josell Ramos. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MT4WsZyKgyo ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qd94o5Dbgow; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LDS7boNwtKk )
Jewel Thais Williams: Owner of the Oldest Black LBTQ Club in America, Humanitarian
In a time when black patrons had to show I.D. to get into white owned gay clubs - sometimes even two pieces of I.D. were required, all while we stood to the side and let the white patrons waltz by with impunity - Jewell Thais Williams, a black lesbian, took it upon herself to open The Catch One in L.A. The year was 1972, making Catch One the oldest black owned gay and lesbian clubs in the country.
Over the years Jewell went on to not only own the club, but to actually purchase the land on which it stands as well. Today, Catch One is the oldest black owned gay club in the country.
If you’ve ever been to L.A., most likely you’ve partied at Catch One. I know I did for many years back in the 1970’s and ‘80’s when I lived on the West Coast. What began as a single bar ensconced in a large building on Pico Boulevard, eventually became an entire playground as Jewel Thais Williams came to own the entire site transforming the single bar into a multi-level club with three dance floors and three bars as well as a restaurant.
But not only is the complex for partying, Jewel, having always been a humanitarian and one dedicated to wellness, has also opened up a holistic health clinic, offering health care to the underserved and the underinsured of the community, in another part of the site.
Even if you’ve never been to Jewel’s Catch One you’ve probably seen it. It’s been the location for many events over the years, from music videos, to films and T.V., shows like the T.V. series, ‘Cold Case’, films like ‘I’m Gonna Get You Sucker’ and BAPS (the Halle Berry film). However, many will recall Catch One as the location for some episodes of ‘Noah’s Arc’ (especially the one in which Noah and friends did the drag number at the end of one of the shows). The Catch One has also served as host of many, many political and humanitarian events over the decades as well.
But there would be no Catch One, no community health center or vegetarian restaurant without the spirit and the energy of Jewel Thais Williams. Not only was it Jewel’s vision to offer a place for black gays and lesbians to socialize during a period when both homophobia as well as racial discrimination worked against the black SGLT community, but she has also been a longtime HIV/AIDS and wellness activist for many years, co-founding the Minority AIDS Project and opening Rue’s House for women and children with HIV/AIDS during the height of the AIDS crisis.
Jewel is also certified in alternative Chinese medicine and opened the non-profit Village Health Foundation to provide holistic healthcare to the underserved and the uninsured in the community.
The clinic, which is situated next door to the club – on property she also purchased - was opened by Jewel to provide quality supplemental and medical care to everyone, regardless of race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or their financial situation.
Jewel and her spouse Rue, also founded Rue's House, the first residential home in the nation, for homeless women and children with HIV/AIDS.
Rue's House, no longer needed due to the medical advancements in the AIDS community, closed its doors in 1997 and reopened as The Village Manor currently serving recovering adults with substance abuse issues. In addition to these endeavors, they have recently established the Vegan Village Internet Cafe, again, spreading Jewel’s message of wellness by offering an organic vegetarian menu.
The road hasn’t been easy for Jewel, though. I can recall sitting and talking with her so many years ago, hearing her tell of the death threats against her and threats of arson against her property - some, it appeared, even from within the gay community, white gay club owners who felt she was ‘siphoning’ offer their black gay clientele – I would hear of Feds threatening to shut her business down. We would talk and she would tell me how exhausting it could become, and with that smile and that warm demeanor, she would tell us how she would persist because she knew what she was doing was right.
That was many years ago when we would sit at the bar and talk, and today into her seventies, looking as spry as ever, Jewel keeps going.
In an era that seems to focus so much on self-indulgence and escapism in the black LGBT community, Jewel Thai Williams’s life offers a treatise on the real value of life, wellness and service to others.
(Written and posted in 2010, by Doug Cooper Spencer)
Over the years Jewell went on to not only own the club, but to actually purchase the land on which it stands as well. Today, Catch One is the oldest black owned gay club in the country.
If you’ve ever been to L.A., most likely you’ve partied at Catch One. I know I did for many years back in the 1970’s and ‘80’s when I lived on the West Coast. What began as a single bar ensconced in a large building on Pico Boulevard, eventually became an entire playground as Jewel Thais Williams came to own the entire site transforming the single bar into a multi-level club with three dance floors and three bars as well as a restaurant.
But not only is the complex for partying, Jewel, having always been a humanitarian and one dedicated to wellness, has also opened up a holistic health clinic, offering health care to the underserved and the underinsured of the community, in another part of the site.
Even if you’ve never been to Jewel’s Catch One you’ve probably seen it. It’s been the location for many events over the years, from music videos, to films and T.V., shows like the T.V. series, ‘Cold Case’, films like ‘I’m Gonna Get You Sucker’ and BAPS (the Halle Berry film). However, many will recall Catch One as the location for some episodes of ‘Noah’s Arc’ (especially the one in which Noah and friends did the drag number at the end of one of the shows). The Catch One has also served as host of many, many political and humanitarian events over the decades as well.
But there would be no Catch One, no community health center or vegetarian restaurant without the spirit and the energy of Jewel Thais Williams. Not only was it Jewel’s vision to offer a place for black gays and lesbians to socialize during a period when both homophobia as well as racial discrimination worked against the black SGLT community, but she has also been a longtime HIV/AIDS and wellness activist for many years, co-founding the Minority AIDS Project and opening Rue’s House for women and children with HIV/AIDS during the height of the AIDS crisis.
Jewel is also certified in alternative Chinese medicine and opened the non-profit Village Health Foundation to provide holistic healthcare to the underserved and the uninsured in the community.
The clinic, which is situated next door to the club – on property she also purchased - was opened by Jewel to provide quality supplemental and medical care to everyone, regardless of race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or their financial situation.
Jewel and her spouse Rue, also founded Rue's House, the first residential home in the nation, for homeless women and children with HIV/AIDS.
Rue's House, no longer needed due to the medical advancements in the AIDS community, closed its doors in 1997 and reopened as The Village Manor currently serving recovering adults with substance abuse issues. In addition to these endeavors, they have recently established the Vegan Village Internet Cafe, again, spreading Jewel’s message of wellness by offering an organic vegetarian menu.
The road hasn’t been easy for Jewel, though. I can recall sitting and talking with her so many years ago, hearing her tell of the death threats against her and threats of arson against her property - some, it appeared, even from within the gay community, white gay club owners who felt she was ‘siphoning’ offer their black gay clientele – I would hear of Feds threatening to shut her business down. We would talk and she would tell me how exhausting it could become, and with that smile and that warm demeanor, she would tell us how she would persist because she knew what she was doing was right.
That was many years ago when we would sit at the bar and talk, and today into her seventies, looking as spry as ever, Jewel keeps going.
In an era that seems to focus so much on self-indulgence and escapism in the black LGBT community, Jewel Thai Williams’s life offers a treatise on the real value of life, wellness and service to others.
(Written and posted in 2010, by Doug Cooper Spencer)
Jewel's Catch-One Nightclub: Oldest Black-Owned LGBTQ Club in the U.S.
Essex Hemphill: Poet, Editor, Performer, Activist
A poet and performer known for his political edge, Essex Hemphill (1957-1995) openly addressed race, identity, sexuality, HIV/AIDS, and the family in his work, voicing issues central to the African American gay community. His first collections of poems were the self-published chapbooks Earth Life (1985) and Conditions (1986). His first full-length collection,Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (1992), won the National Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual New Author Award. His work is included in the anthologies Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time (1986) and Life Sentences: Writers, Artists, and AIDS (1993).
Hemphill studied English at the University of Maryland; in 1978, with a fellow student, he helped found and run the Nethula Journal of Contemporary Literature. His later editing credits include the anthology Brother to Brother: New Writing by Black Gay Men (1991), which won the Lambda Literary Award.
In 1983, Hemphill participated in the performance poetry group Cinque with Wayson Jones and Larry Duckette; their work was later featured in the documentariesTongues Untied (1989) and Black Is … Black Ain’t (1994). Hemphill’s poetry was also included in the film Looking for Langston (1989). He also performed readings and lectured at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Los Angeles, the Folger Shakespeare Library, The National Black Arts Festival at the Whitney Museum, and many other institutions.
Hemphill received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and grants from the Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship in the Arts and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He was a visiting scholar at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in 1993 in Santa Monica, California.
Hemphill died of complications from AIDS in 1995.
Hemphill studied English at the University of Maryland; in 1978, with a fellow student, he helped found and run the Nethula Journal of Contemporary Literature. His later editing credits include the anthology Brother to Brother: New Writing by Black Gay Men (1991), which won the Lambda Literary Award.
In 1983, Hemphill participated in the performance poetry group Cinque with Wayson Jones and Larry Duckette; their work was later featured in the documentariesTongues Untied (1989) and Black Is … Black Ain’t (1994). Hemphill’s poetry was also included in the film Looking for Langston (1989). He also performed readings and lectured at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Los Angeles, the Folger Shakespeare Library, The National Black Arts Festival at the Whitney Museum, and many other institutions.
Hemphill received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and grants from the Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship in the Arts and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He was a visiting scholar at the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities in 1993 in Santa Monica, California.
Hemphill died of complications from AIDS in 1995.
Ashley Phillips: Guitarist, Singer-Songwriter
Ashley Phillips is a guitarist and singer/songwriter steeped in the tradition of Soul music. Early last year, Phillips released APSoul: The Demo Sessions, an intimate conversation with the listener about forgiveness, clarity, and love of all kinds. An independent release, the album has been selling extremely well on Phillips’s website www.apsoul.com, and at live performances in New York and around the country.
Her previous album, Nostalgia, was released in 2007.
While primarily a solo artist, Ashley Phillips has performed in collaboration with Ganessa James Tiffany James and Chaney Sims, as Roots.Soul.Music. Ashley has also toured as a guitarist/vocalist with Gina Breedlove in multiple cities including Chicago, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis. Most recently, Phillips returned from Los Angeles where she was a featured guest at the African Arts and Music Festival with Ngozi Flux. (Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCZ50ChodM)
Her previous album, Nostalgia, was released in 2007.
While primarily a solo artist, Ashley Phillips has performed in collaboration with Ganessa James Tiffany James and Chaney Sims, as Roots.Soul.Music. Ashley has also toured as a guitarist/vocalist with Gina Breedlove in multiple cities including Chicago, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis. Most recently, Phillips returned from Los Angeles where she was a featured guest at the African Arts and Music Festival with Ngozi Flux. (Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCZ50ChodM)
Deborah Anne Dyer (aka Skin): British Rock Singer
Singer better known by the stage name Skin, (born 3 August 1967, Brixton, London) is a singer and occasional model. She is the former lead vocalist of English band Skunk Anansie, and now has a career as a solo artist after the break-up the band.
Skin began her music career in Skunk Anansie which was a band often grouped as part of the britrock movement in the UK. They were noted for being a multi-racial band, and having Skin, a black female as their lead singer. Joining Skin in the line up for the band were Ace on guitar, Cass on bass guitar, and Mark on drums.
After forming in 1994, the band released three albums. Paranoid & Sunburnt, Stoosh and Post Orgasmic Chill sold over 4 million copies worldwide. In 2001 the band decided to split.
After Skunk Anansie split, Skin released her debut solo album Fleshwounds. The album was toned down from her Skunk Anansie days. While the album was not a massive success in the UK, elsewhere in Europe the album's success was greater. For example, in Italy it peaked at #6 in the album chart, and in Germany it peaked at #18. After releasing Fleshwounds, Skin went on to perform various solo gigs around Europe.
Soon after touring she began to record her second album, Fake Chemical State, which was released for sale on 20 March 2006, preceded by new single Just Let the Sun two weeks earlier. The first single actually issued from this album was Alone in My Room, a download-only track released on 7 November 2005. 'Alone In My Room' was also the name given to Skin's first UK solo tour in two years, which commenced in Berlin in November 2005.
Skin's next solo outing was a small promotional 'Fake Chemical State' tour. It started in Glasgow on 17 March 2006. She went onto perform many festivals around Europe including Rock Werchter in Belgium and the Southside/Hurricane festivals in Germany. She performed on the main stage at most of these festivals.
In February 2008 she announced that she was working with Timo Maas and Martin Buttrich on a side project called "Format-3". Her 2008 song "Tear Down These Houses" was released as a part of the soundtrack to Parlami d'Amore, directed by Silvio Muccino.
Also, in 2008 the former drummer for Skunk Anansie, Mark Richardson confirmed reports that the band was reforming in an interview with Drummer Magazine (2008, November Issue), and said that the band planned to release a 'Best Of' as well as new material. In fact, on April 2 and 3, 2009, two shows took place at the Monto Water Rats (the former venue of the Splash Club) in London under the alias SCAM (Skin, Cass, Ace, Mark). The band began a 'Greatest Hits' tour in October 2009. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EAPWY0DGYGohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EAPWY0DGYGo ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DnLwK_UKg-0 )
Skin began her music career in Skunk Anansie which was a band often grouped as part of the britrock movement in the UK. They were noted for being a multi-racial band, and having Skin, a black female as their lead singer. Joining Skin in the line up for the band were Ace on guitar, Cass on bass guitar, and Mark on drums.
After forming in 1994, the band released three albums. Paranoid & Sunburnt, Stoosh and Post Orgasmic Chill sold over 4 million copies worldwide. In 2001 the band decided to split.
After Skunk Anansie split, Skin released her debut solo album Fleshwounds. The album was toned down from her Skunk Anansie days. While the album was not a massive success in the UK, elsewhere in Europe the album's success was greater. For example, in Italy it peaked at #6 in the album chart, and in Germany it peaked at #18. After releasing Fleshwounds, Skin went on to perform various solo gigs around Europe.
Soon after touring she began to record her second album, Fake Chemical State, which was released for sale on 20 March 2006, preceded by new single Just Let the Sun two weeks earlier. The first single actually issued from this album was Alone in My Room, a download-only track released on 7 November 2005. 'Alone In My Room' was also the name given to Skin's first UK solo tour in two years, which commenced in Berlin in November 2005.
Skin's next solo outing was a small promotional 'Fake Chemical State' tour. It started in Glasgow on 17 March 2006. She went onto perform many festivals around Europe including Rock Werchter in Belgium and the Southside/Hurricane festivals in Germany. She performed on the main stage at most of these festivals.
In February 2008 she announced that she was working with Timo Maas and Martin Buttrich on a side project called "Format-3". Her 2008 song "Tear Down These Houses" was released as a part of the soundtrack to Parlami d'Amore, directed by Silvio Muccino.
Also, in 2008 the former drummer for Skunk Anansie, Mark Richardson confirmed reports that the band was reforming in an interview with Drummer Magazine (2008, November Issue), and said that the band planned to release a 'Best Of' as well as new material. In fact, on April 2 and 3, 2009, two shows took place at the Monto Water Rats (the former venue of the Splash Club) in London under the alias SCAM (Skin, Cass, Ace, Mark). The band began a 'Greatest Hits' tour in October 2009. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EAPWY0DGYGohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EAPWY0DGYGo ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DnLwK_UKg-0 )
Sylvester: Singer/Songwriter, Music Diva, Make-up Artist, Chartbuster
Sylvester (Born, Sylvester James; 1947 – 1988) was a popular disco and soul singer, as well as drag performer. He is considered to be one of the first Hi-NRG artists. Sylvester was sometimes known as the "Queen of Disco," although this moniker has also been bestowed on some of the ladies of the disco era (i.e. Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer).
A former child gospel singer prodigy, Sylvester was encouraged to sing gospel by his grandmother, the 1920s and 1930s jazz singer Julia Morgan, James' talent first surfaced at the Palm Lane Church of God in Christ in South Los Angeles, and soon he was making the rounds and stirring up audiences at churches around Southern California and beyond, sometimes billed as the "child wonder of gospel."
Sylvester's home life disintegrated when he was a teenager. He clashed with his mother and stepfather, finally running away from home at age 16. For several years he lived on and around the streets of Los Angeles, but managed to finish high school and enroll at Lamert Beauty College. James moved to San Francisco in 1967 and by his own account, his life began at that time.
In San Francisco, Sylvester performed in a musical production called Women of the Blues,[2] then joined a short-lived group of transvestite performance artists called The Cockettes in the early 1970s,[3] his repertoire of Bessie Smith songs in tow. After leaving The Cockettes, Sylvester performed in San Francisco a number of different times as a solo act. In 1972, he performed at The Temple in San Francisco with the then-unknown Pointer Sisters.
In 1972, Sylvester supplied two cuts to Lights Out San Francisco, an album compiled by the KSAN radio station and released on the Blue Thumb label. In 1973, Sylvester & The Hot Band, released two rock-oriented albums on Blue Thumb.
In 1974, Sylvester met Horus Jack Tolsen (Keyboards) together with Sylvester's drummer Amadeo Barrios (drums) and Brother Adrian Barrios (Bass) formed a trio which backed up Sylvester at a nightclub in San Francisco called Cabaret - After Dark.
Sylvester signed a solo deal to Fantasy Records in 1977, working with the production talents of legendary Motown producer Harvey Fuqua, who produced his album Stars in 1979. Sylvester later alleged that Fuqua cheated him out of millions of dollars. Sylvester soon met his frequent collaborator Patrick Cowley. Cowley's synthesizer and Sylvester's voice proved to be a magical combination, and pushed Sylvester's sound in an increasingly dance-oriented direction; his second solo album, Step II (1978), unleashed two disco classics: "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)," and "Dance (Disco Heat)". These two songs charted together on the American dance chart and spent six weeks at #1 on this chart in August and September 1978. By this time both his live shows and recordings also recognizably featured the back-up vocals of Two Tons O' Fun: future Weather Girls Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes. 1979 brought three Billboard awards and an appearance in the movie, The Rose, starring Bette Midler. He sung "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" live for The Castro Street Fair, thanks to future first openly gay supervisor Harvey Milk.
Moving to Megatone Records in 1982, Sylvester quickly landed a Hi-NRG classic with "Do You Wanna Funk", which was featured in the 1983 film Trading Places. He was close friends with other Megatone artists Linda Imperial and Jeanie Tracy. Sylvester was also very close to Patti LaBelle and Sarah Dash for whom he recorded background vocals for her dance hit "Lucky Tonight".
Later pressure from the label to "butch up" his image would result in him attending meetings in full-on drag. A drag photo shoot, which he staged and presented to label heads as a gag (calling it his "new album cover") would later grace the cover of Immortal after Sylvester died; it was the label's way of paying tribute to his spirit. In 1985, one of his dreams came true as he was summoned to sing back-up for Aretha Franklin on her Who's Zoomin' Who? comeback album. His sole Warner Bros. Records album was Mutual Attraction in 1986; a single from the album, "Someone Like You", became Sylvester's second #1 hit on the U.S. dance chart and featured original cover art by Keith Haring.
Sylvester died of complications from AIDS in San Francisco on December 16, 1988. He was 41 years old. His good friend Jeanie Tracy took care of Sylvester during his last days.
On September 20, 2004 Sylvester's anthem record, "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)", was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. A year later, on September 19, 2005, Sylvester himself was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his achievement as an artist. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FNS7VM5oTRU ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ftwMLH962-o ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nhcm5yWWdAE )
A former child gospel singer prodigy, Sylvester was encouraged to sing gospel by his grandmother, the 1920s and 1930s jazz singer Julia Morgan, James' talent first surfaced at the Palm Lane Church of God in Christ in South Los Angeles, and soon he was making the rounds and stirring up audiences at churches around Southern California and beyond, sometimes billed as the "child wonder of gospel."
Sylvester's home life disintegrated when he was a teenager. He clashed with his mother and stepfather, finally running away from home at age 16. For several years he lived on and around the streets of Los Angeles, but managed to finish high school and enroll at Lamert Beauty College. James moved to San Francisco in 1967 and by his own account, his life began at that time.
In San Francisco, Sylvester performed in a musical production called Women of the Blues,[2] then joined a short-lived group of transvestite performance artists called The Cockettes in the early 1970s,[3] his repertoire of Bessie Smith songs in tow. After leaving The Cockettes, Sylvester performed in San Francisco a number of different times as a solo act. In 1972, he performed at The Temple in San Francisco with the then-unknown Pointer Sisters.
In 1972, Sylvester supplied two cuts to Lights Out San Francisco, an album compiled by the KSAN radio station and released on the Blue Thumb label. In 1973, Sylvester & The Hot Band, released two rock-oriented albums on Blue Thumb.
In 1974, Sylvester met Horus Jack Tolsen (Keyboards) together with Sylvester's drummer Amadeo Barrios (drums) and Brother Adrian Barrios (Bass) formed a trio which backed up Sylvester at a nightclub in San Francisco called Cabaret - After Dark.
Sylvester signed a solo deal to Fantasy Records in 1977, working with the production talents of legendary Motown producer Harvey Fuqua, who produced his album Stars in 1979. Sylvester later alleged that Fuqua cheated him out of millions of dollars. Sylvester soon met his frequent collaborator Patrick Cowley. Cowley's synthesizer and Sylvester's voice proved to be a magical combination, and pushed Sylvester's sound in an increasingly dance-oriented direction; his second solo album, Step II (1978), unleashed two disco classics: "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)," and "Dance (Disco Heat)". These two songs charted together on the American dance chart and spent six weeks at #1 on this chart in August and September 1978. By this time both his live shows and recordings also recognizably featured the back-up vocals of Two Tons O' Fun: future Weather Girls Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes. 1979 brought three Billboard awards and an appearance in the movie, The Rose, starring Bette Midler. He sung "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" live for The Castro Street Fair, thanks to future first openly gay supervisor Harvey Milk.
Moving to Megatone Records in 1982, Sylvester quickly landed a Hi-NRG classic with "Do You Wanna Funk", which was featured in the 1983 film Trading Places. He was close friends with other Megatone artists Linda Imperial and Jeanie Tracy. Sylvester was also very close to Patti LaBelle and Sarah Dash for whom he recorded background vocals for her dance hit "Lucky Tonight".
Later pressure from the label to "butch up" his image would result in him attending meetings in full-on drag. A drag photo shoot, which he staged and presented to label heads as a gag (calling it his "new album cover") would later grace the cover of Immortal after Sylvester died; it was the label's way of paying tribute to his spirit. In 1985, one of his dreams came true as he was summoned to sing back-up for Aretha Franklin on her Who's Zoomin' Who? comeback album. His sole Warner Bros. Records album was Mutual Attraction in 1986; a single from the album, "Someone Like You", became Sylvester's second #1 hit on the U.S. dance chart and featured original cover art by Keith Haring.
Sylvester died of complications from AIDS in San Francisco on December 16, 1988. He was 41 years old. His good friend Jeanie Tracy took care of Sylvester during his last days.
On September 20, 2004 Sylvester's anthem record, "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)", was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. A year later, on September 19, 2005, Sylvester himself was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his achievement as an artist. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FNS7VM5oTRU ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ftwMLH962-o ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Nhcm5yWWdAE )
Billy Strayhorn: Jazz Composer, Musician; Duke Ellington's Main Composer
Billy Strayhorn (1915 – 1967, nicknamed ‘Sweet Pea’) was a jazz composer and arranger for Duke Ellington. To many he’s considered the man who gave Duke and the jazz world some of its greatest compositions, most prominent of which was ‘Take the A Train’, a Duke Ellington anthem. Billy’s enormous talent was why he became Duke Ellington’s right hand man. He and the Duke were inseparable for almost thirty years.
Black and openly gay, Billy Strayhorn walked in a world that might not have been ready for him back then, but no one could deny his talent. They had to give him his props.
An extravagantly gifted composer, arranger, and pianist -- some considered him a genius -- Billy Strayhorn toiled throughout most of his maturity in the gaudy shadow of his employer, collaborator, and friend, Duke Ellington. Only in the last decade has Strayhorn's profile been lifted to a level approaching that of Ellington, where diligent searching of the Strayhorn archives (mainly by David Hajdu, author of the excellent Strayhorn bio Lush Life) revealed that Strayhorn's contribution to the Ellington legacy was far more extensive and complex than once thought. There are several instances where Strayhorncompositions were registered as Ellington/Strayhorn pieces ("Day Dream," "Something to Live For"), where collaborations between the two were listed only under Ellington's name ("Satin Doll," "Sugar Hill Penthouse," "C-Jam Blues"), where Strayhorn pieces were copyrighted under Ellington's name or no name at all. Even tunes that were listed as Strayhorn's alone have suffered; the proverbial man on the street is likely to tell you that "Take the 'A' Train" -- perhaps Strayhorn's most famous tune -- is a Duke Ellington song.
Still, among musicians and jazz fans, Strayhorn is renowned for acknowledged classics like "Lotus Blossom," "Lush Life," "Rain Check," "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing," and "Mid-Riff." While tailored for the Ellington idiom, Strayhorn's pieces often have their own bittersweet flavor, and his larger works have coherent, classically influenced designs quite apart from those of Ellington. Strayhorn was alternately content with and frustrated by his second-fiddle status, and he was also one of the few openly gay figures in jazz, which probably added more stress to his life.
Classical music was Strayhorn's first and life-long musical love. He started out as a child prodigy, gravitating toward Victrolas as a child, and working odd jobs in order to buy a used upright piano while in grade school. He studied harmony and piano in high school, writing the music for a professional musical, Fantastic Rhythm, at 19. But the realities of a black man trying to make it in the then-lily-white classical world, plus exposure to pianists like Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson, led Strayhorn toward jazz. He gigged around Pittsburgh with a combo called the Mad Hatters. Through a friend of a friend,Strayhorn gained an introduction to Duke Ellington when the latter's band stopped in Pittsburgh in 1938. After hearing Strayhorn play, Ellington immediately gave him an assignment, and in January 1939,Strayhorn moved to New York to join Ellington as an arranger, composer, occasional pianist, and collaborator without so much as any kind of contract or verbal agreement. "I don't have any position for you," Ellington allegedly said. "You'll do whatever you feel like doing."
A 1940-1941 dispute with ASCAP that kept Ellington's compositions off the radio gave Strayhorn his big chance to contribute several tunes to the Ellington band book, among them "After All," "Chelsea Bridge," "Johnny Come Lately," and "Passion Flower." Over the years, Strayhornwould collaborate (and be given credit) with Ellington in many of his large-scale suites, like "Such Sweet Thunder," "A Drum Is a Woman," "The Perfume Suite," and "The Far East Suite," as well as musicals likeJump for Joy and Saturday Laughter, and the score for the filmAnatomy of a Murder. Beginning in the '50s, Strayhorn also took on some projects of his own away from Ellington, including a few solo albums, revues for a New York society called the Copasetics, theater collaborations with Luther Henderson, and songs for his friend Lena Horne. In 1964, Strayhorn was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, aggravated by years of smoking and drinking, and he submitted his last composition, "Blood Count," to the Ellington band while in the hospital. Shortly after Strayhorn's death in May 1967, Ellingtonrecorded one of his finest albums and the best introduction to Strayhorn's work, And His Mother Called Him Bill (RCA), in memory of his friend.
(Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPBeTUnw5c4 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WtYvGJaIRn0 )
Black and openly gay, Billy Strayhorn walked in a world that might not have been ready for him back then, but no one could deny his talent. They had to give him his props.
An extravagantly gifted composer, arranger, and pianist -- some considered him a genius -- Billy Strayhorn toiled throughout most of his maturity in the gaudy shadow of his employer, collaborator, and friend, Duke Ellington. Only in the last decade has Strayhorn's profile been lifted to a level approaching that of Ellington, where diligent searching of the Strayhorn archives (mainly by David Hajdu, author of the excellent Strayhorn bio Lush Life) revealed that Strayhorn's contribution to the Ellington legacy was far more extensive and complex than once thought. There are several instances where Strayhorncompositions were registered as Ellington/Strayhorn pieces ("Day Dream," "Something to Live For"), where collaborations between the two were listed only under Ellington's name ("Satin Doll," "Sugar Hill Penthouse," "C-Jam Blues"), where Strayhorn pieces were copyrighted under Ellington's name or no name at all. Even tunes that were listed as Strayhorn's alone have suffered; the proverbial man on the street is likely to tell you that "Take the 'A' Train" -- perhaps Strayhorn's most famous tune -- is a Duke Ellington song.
Still, among musicians and jazz fans, Strayhorn is renowned for acknowledged classics like "Lotus Blossom," "Lush Life," "Rain Check," "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing," and "Mid-Riff." While tailored for the Ellington idiom, Strayhorn's pieces often have their own bittersweet flavor, and his larger works have coherent, classically influenced designs quite apart from those of Ellington. Strayhorn was alternately content with and frustrated by his second-fiddle status, and he was also one of the few openly gay figures in jazz, which probably added more stress to his life.
Classical music was Strayhorn's first and life-long musical love. He started out as a child prodigy, gravitating toward Victrolas as a child, and working odd jobs in order to buy a used upright piano while in grade school. He studied harmony and piano in high school, writing the music for a professional musical, Fantastic Rhythm, at 19. But the realities of a black man trying to make it in the then-lily-white classical world, plus exposure to pianists like Art Tatum and Teddy Wilson, led Strayhorn toward jazz. He gigged around Pittsburgh with a combo called the Mad Hatters. Through a friend of a friend,Strayhorn gained an introduction to Duke Ellington when the latter's band stopped in Pittsburgh in 1938. After hearing Strayhorn play, Ellington immediately gave him an assignment, and in January 1939,Strayhorn moved to New York to join Ellington as an arranger, composer, occasional pianist, and collaborator without so much as any kind of contract or verbal agreement. "I don't have any position for you," Ellington allegedly said. "You'll do whatever you feel like doing."
A 1940-1941 dispute with ASCAP that kept Ellington's compositions off the radio gave Strayhorn his big chance to contribute several tunes to the Ellington band book, among them "After All," "Chelsea Bridge," "Johnny Come Lately," and "Passion Flower." Over the years, Strayhornwould collaborate (and be given credit) with Ellington in many of his large-scale suites, like "Such Sweet Thunder," "A Drum Is a Woman," "The Perfume Suite," and "The Far East Suite," as well as musicals likeJump for Joy and Saturday Laughter, and the score for the filmAnatomy of a Murder. Beginning in the '50s, Strayhorn also took on some projects of his own away from Ellington, including a few solo albums, revues for a New York society called the Copasetics, theater collaborations with Luther Henderson, and songs for his friend Lena Horne. In 1964, Strayhorn was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, aggravated by years of smoking and drinking, and he submitted his last composition, "Blood Count," to the Ellington band while in the hospital. Shortly after Strayhorn's death in May 1967, Ellingtonrecorded one of his finest albums and the best introduction to Strayhorn's work, And His Mother Called Him Bill (RCA), in memory of his friend.
(Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPBeTUnw5c4 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WtYvGJaIRn0 )
Alice Walker: Pulitzer Prize Winning Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Alice Walker (1944) is a poet, novelist, essayist, biographer, short fiction writer, publisher, educator and Pulitzer Prize laureate. Considered to be one of America’s most influential writers, to many, she is known for her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, ‘The Color Purple’, but she is much more prolific. Much of her work, though not all, deals with the struggles and spiritual development affecting women.
Alice Walker has become one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the U.S. Educated at Spelman College and Sarah Lawrence College, Walker, in a commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence years later, spoke out against the silence of that institution's curriculum when it came to African-American culture and history. Active in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the South, she used her own and others' experiences as material for her searing examination of politics and black-white relations in her novel Meridian (1976).
Beginning with her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Walker has focused on a matrix which includes sexual and racial realities within black communities as well as the unavoidable connections between family and society. For exposing the former, she has been criticized by some African-American male critics and theorists; for exploring the latter, she has been awarded numerous prizes while winning the hearts and minds of countless black and white readers. Perhaps her most famous work is The Color Purple, brought to the attention of mainstream America through the film adaptation by Steven Spielberg. In that novel of incest, lesbian love, and sibling devotion, Walker also introduces blues music as a unifying thread in the lives of many of the characters.
Refusing to ignore the tangle of personal and political themes, Walker has produced half a dozen novels, two collections of short stories, numerous volumns of poetry, and books of essays. Though she has attained fame and recognition in many countries, Walker has not lost her sense of rootedness in the South or her sense of indebtedness to her mother for showing her what the life of an artist entailed. Writing of this central experience in her famous essay, “In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens,” she talks about watching her mother at the end of a day of back-breaking physical labor on someone else's farm return home only to walk the long distance to their well to get water for her garden planted each year at their doorstep. Walker observed her design that garden, putting tall plants at the back and planting so as to have something in bloom from early spring until the end of summer. While not knowing what she was seeing at the time, the adult Walker names her mother an artist full of dedication, a keen sense of design and balance, and a tough conviction that life without beauty is unbearable.
She is the former girlfriend of singer Tracy Chapman.
Alice Walker has become one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the U.S. Educated at Spelman College and Sarah Lawrence College, Walker, in a commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence years later, spoke out against the silence of that institution's curriculum when it came to African-American culture and history. Active in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the South, she used her own and others' experiences as material for her searing examination of politics and black-white relations in her novel Meridian (1976).
Beginning with her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Walker has focused on a matrix which includes sexual and racial realities within black communities as well as the unavoidable connections between family and society. For exposing the former, she has been criticized by some African-American male critics and theorists; for exploring the latter, she has been awarded numerous prizes while winning the hearts and minds of countless black and white readers. Perhaps her most famous work is The Color Purple, brought to the attention of mainstream America through the film adaptation by Steven Spielberg. In that novel of incest, lesbian love, and sibling devotion, Walker also introduces blues music as a unifying thread in the lives of many of the characters.
Refusing to ignore the tangle of personal and political themes, Walker has produced half a dozen novels, two collections of short stories, numerous volumns of poetry, and books of essays. Though she has attained fame and recognition in many countries, Walker has not lost her sense of rootedness in the South or her sense of indebtedness to her mother for showing her what the life of an artist entailed. Writing of this central experience in her famous essay, “In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens,” she talks about watching her mother at the end of a day of back-breaking physical labor on someone else's farm return home only to walk the long distance to their well to get water for her garden planted each year at their doorstep. Walker observed her design that garden, putting tall plants at the back and planting so as to have something in bloom from early spring until the end of summer. While not knowing what she was seeing at the time, the adult Walker names her mother an artist full of dedication, a keen sense of design and balance, and a tough conviction that life without beauty is unbearable.
She is the former girlfriend of singer Tracy Chapman.
Dee Rees: Writer, Director
Dee Rees is an alumna of New York University’s graduate film program and a 2008 Sundance Screenwriting & Directing Lab Fellow. She has written and directed several short films, including Orange Bow (centering on a teenage boy) and Pariah. The latter, completed in 2007, screened at over 40 festivals worldwide (including Sundance) and garnered 25 Best Short awards. Additionally, Pariah was a finalist for the 2009 Sundance/NHK International Award. Ms. Rees was also selected as a 2008 Tribeca Institute/Renew Media Arts Fellow for her work; was chosen as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” for 2008; and was nominated for a USA Fellowship in 2009. Pariah has now been expanded into Pariah, which world-premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was honored with the Festival’s [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Excellence in Cinematography Award (Bradford Young).
The Nashville native’s most recent short film, Colonial Gods, aired on the BBC in the fall of 2009. The short chronicles a complicated friendship between a Somali man and a Nigerian man, set against the backdrop of gentrification in the small immigrant community in Cardiff, Wales known as Tiger Bay.
Also prior to making Pariah, Ms. Rees directed a documentary feature, Eventual Salvation. The film, which she also edited, received a 2007 Sundance Documentary Fund Grant and premiered on the Sundance Channel in October 2009. It follows her grandmother’s return to Liberia on to help rebuild a community following the country’s civil war.
She previously worked as a script supervision intern on Spike Lee’s epic documentary When the Levees Broke and feature Inside Man; and earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University.
Growing up in Nashville in the 1980s, Dee Rees saw few images of young black women on the screen. And fewer still of black lesbians. (Video Link to 'Pariah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbBiTlGhrPY ; See my review on the movie, 'Pariah' http://www.dougcooperspencer.com/blog-the-view-from-here.html )
The Nashville native’s most recent short film, Colonial Gods, aired on the BBC in the fall of 2009. The short chronicles a complicated friendship between a Somali man and a Nigerian man, set against the backdrop of gentrification in the small immigrant community in Cardiff, Wales known as Tiger Bay.
Also prior to making Pariah, Ms. Rees directed a documentary feature, Eventual Salvation. The film, which she also edited, received a 2007 Sundance Documentary Fund Grant and premiered on the Sundance Channel in October 2009. It follows her grandmother’s return to Liberia on to help rebuild a community following the country’s civil war.
She previously worked as a script supervision intern on Spike Lee’s epic documentary When the Levees Broke and feature Inside Man; and earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University.
Growing up in Nashville in the 1980s, Dee Rees saw few images of young black women on the screen. And fewer still of black lesbians. (Video Link to 'Pariah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbBiTlGhrPY ; See my review on the movie, 'Pariah' http://www.dougcooperspencer.com/blog-the-view-from-here.html )
Tracy Chapman: Singer, Songwriter
Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 30, 1964, and at a young age, she moved with her family to Connecticut. While attending Tufts University in Massachusetts, studying anthropology and African studies, Chapman began writing music and performing in Boston, and recorded songs at the local WMFO radio station.
Chapman caught her big break in 1986, when a friend's father introduced her to a manager at Elektra Records—with whom she recorded her first, self-titled album, which was released in 1988.Tracy Chapman rose to No. 1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and its popular single, "Fast Car," landed at No. 5 on the U.K. charts and No. 6 on the U.S. charts. That same year, Chapman performed at Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday Tribute Concert, which was held in Great Britain. The album's second single, "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution," also met with wide acclaim, and ranked competitively on Billboard's music charts.
Chapman received several honors following the release of Tracy Chapman, including three Grammy Awards in 1989—for best new artist, best female pop vocal performer and best contemporary folk album.
Though becoming a three-time Grammy winner is quite an accomplishment for any musician's first project, Chapman didn't waste any time before working on her next one. Between performing songs from her Grammy Award–winning album, she continued to write and make rounds back to the studio to recordCrossroads (1989), which she also co-produced. Chapman dedicated one song on the album, "Freedom Now," to former South African President Nelson Mandela. Though the album didn't receive the same acclaim as her first, it did find a place on Billboard's 200, as well as other industry charts.
The singer-songwriter's musical success again sloped slightly downward in 1992, with the release of Matters of the Heart, an album that peaked at No. 53 on the Billboard 200 and failed to receive any real international fame. Matters of the Heart included less memorable songs than Chapman's previous projects, and fans were put off by her straying from folk and blues to a more upbeat, alternative-rock sound. It was likely difficult for Chapman to predict, at that time, what was to come three years later, upon the release of her fourth studio album.
As the album's title suggests, Chapman's New Beginning (1995) proved to be a step back into the limelight for the musician, selling nearly 5 million copies in the United States alone. The album far exceeded the appeal of Chapman's previous projects, thanks to the widely popular single "Give Me One Reason," as well as such catchy, soulful tunes as "Smoke and Ashes" and the album's title track, "New Beginning." Chapman received her fourth Grammy Award in 1997,
for best rock song ("Give Me One Reason"), as well as several Grammy nominations and other music awards.
Chapman's 1995 success has yet to be matched. Since New Beginning's release, the musician has released a handful of albums, including Telling Stories (2000) and Our Bright Future (2008), and toured through 2009. In recent years, however, Chapman has largely stayed out of the spotlight.
Outside of her musical career, Chapman has long worked as an activist, speaking and performing on behalf of several nonprofit organizations, including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Circle of Life (no longer active). During a 2003 event to benefit Circle of Life, Chapman performed a memorable duet with Bonnie Raitt, of the John Prine song "Angel From Montgomery."
According to VH1, “her album helped usher in the era of political correctness…” Her liberal political views have made her popular on college campuses and with large numbers of listeners. She is the former girlfriend of novelist, Alice Walker (Videoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Orv_F2HV4gk ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wzIE3mRFypQ )
Chapman caught her big break in 1986, when a friend's father introduced her to a manager at Elektra Records—with whom she recorded her first, self-titled album, which was released in 1988.Tracy Chapman rose to No. 1 in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and its popular single, "Fast Car," landed at No. 5 on the U.K. charts and No. 6 on the U.S. charts. That same year, Chapman performed at Nelson Mandela’s 70th Birthday Tribute Concert, which was held in Great Britain. The album's second single, "Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution," also met with wide acclaim, and ranked competitively on Billboard's music charts.
Chapman received several honors following the release of Tracy Chapman, including three Grammy Awards in 1989—for best new artist, best female pop vocal performer and best contemporary folk album.
Though becoming a three-time Grammy winner is quite an accomplishment for any musician's first project, Chapman didn't waste any time before working on her next one. Between performing songs from her Grammy Award–winning album, she continued to write and make rounds back to the studio to recordCrossroads (1989), which she also co-produced. Chapman dedicated one song on the album, "Freedom Now," to former South African President Nelson Mandela. Though the album didn't receive the same acclaim as her first, it did find a place on Billboard's 200, as well as other industry charts.
The singer-songwriter's musical success again sloped slightly downward in 1992, with the release of Matters of the Heart, an album that peaked at No. 53 on the Billboard 200 and failed to receive any real international fame. Matters of the Heart included less memorable songs than Chapman's previous projects, and fans were put off by her straying from folk and blues to a more upbeat, alternative-rock sound. It was likely difficult for Chapman to predict, at that time, what was to come three years later, upon the release of her fourth studio album.
As the album's title suggests, Chapman's New Beginning (1995) proved to be a step back into the limelight for the musician, selling nearly 5 million copies in the United States alone. The album far exceeded the appeal of Chapman's previous projects, thanks to the widely popular single "Give Me One Reason," as well as such catchy, soulful tunes as "Smoke and Ashes" and the album's title track, "New Beginning." Chapman received her fourth Grammy Award in 1997,
for best rock song ("Give Me One Reason"), as well as several Grammy nominations and other music awards.
Chapman's 1995 success has yet to be matched. Since New Beginning's release, the musician has released a handful of albums, including Telling Stories (2000) and Our Bright Future (2008), and toured through 2009. In recent years, however, Chapman has largely stayed out of the spotlight.
Outside of her musical career, Chapman has long worked as an activist, speaking and performing on behalf of several nonprofit organizations, including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and Circle of Life (no longer active). During a 2003 event to benefit Circle of Life, Chapman performed a memorable duet with Bonnie Raitt, of the John Prine song "Angel From Montgomery."
According to VH1, “her album helped usher in the era of political correctness…” Her liberal political views have made her popular on college campuses and with large numbers of listeners. She is the former girlfriend of novelist, Alice Walker (Videoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Orv_F2HV4gk ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wzIE3mRFypQ )
Richmond Barthé: Renown Sculptor
James Richmond Barthé (1901-1989) was an African American sculptor known for his many public works, including the Toussaint L’Ouverture Monument in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and a sculpture of Rose McClendon for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House.
Barthe once said that “all my life I have be interested in trying to capture the spiritual quality I see and feel in people, and I feel that the human figure as God made it, is the best means of expressing this spirit in man.”
Richmond Barthé was born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, (in January 1901). His father died at 22, when Richmond was only one month old, leaving his mother to raise him alone. Barthé spent his teen years in New Orleans, Louisiana.
His fourth grade teacher and his parish priest influenced young Richmond’s aesthetic development, and he showed great promise as an artist at a young age, but as a Colored American in the South, he was barred from enrolling in any of the art schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, near his home. When Barthé was twelve, his work was shown at the county fair in Mississippi, and he continued to develop remarkably as an artist.
At fourteen, Barthé left school to take a job as houseboy and handyman, but he still spent his free time drawing. At eighteen, having moved to New Orleans, his parish priest in New Orleans and a writer for the New Orleans Times Picayune recognized his ability. Richmond donated a portrait he made for a church fund raiser. The priest and the writer, along with his employer determined to find an art school where Barthé could study and expand his talent.
Lyle Saxon of the Times Picayune newspaper, fighting against current racist school segregation, tried unsuccessfully to get Barthé registered in art school in New Orleans. In 1924, with the aid of a Catholic priest, the Reverend Harry Kane, S.S.I, and with less than a high school education and no formal training in art, Barthé was admitted to the Art Institute of Chicago. During the next four years Barthé followed a curriculum structured for majors in painting. During his four years of study he worked as a busboy at a small café. His work caught the attention of Dr. Charles Maceo Thompson, a patron of the arts and supporter of many talented young black artists. Barthé was a flattering portrait painter, and Dr. Thompson helped him to secure many lucrative commissions from the city’s affluent black citizens.
During his senior year he was introduced to sculpture by his anatomy teacher. He began modeling in clay to gain a better understanding of the third dimension in his painting. This transition proved to be, according to him, a turning point in his career. He exhibited two busts in the 1927 Negro in Art Week Exhibition and in the April 1928 annual exhibition of the Chicago Art League. He received much critical praise and numerous commissions following this.
Following his graduation from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1928, Barthé spent several months in New York, established a studio inHarlem, and eventually moved to NYC permanently in 1930. During the next two decades, he built his reputation as a sculptor. He is associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He won aGuggenheim fellowship twice and other awards. By 1934, his reputation was so well established that he was awarded his first solo show at the Caz Delbo Galleries in New York City. Barthé experienced success after success and was considered by writers and critics as one of the leading “moderns” of his time.
Among his African American friends were Wallace Thurman,Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Jimmie Daniels, Countee Cullen, and Harold Jackman. Ralph Ellison was his first student. His white allies included Carl Van Vechten, Noel Sullivan, Charles Cullen, Lincoln Kirstein, Paul Cadmus, and Jared French.
In 1946 Barthé became a member of the National Sculpture Society.
Eventually, the tense environment and violence of the city began to take its toll, and he decided to abandon his life of fame and move to Jamaica in the West Indies in 1947. His career flourished in Jamaica and he remained there until the mid-1960s when ever-growing violence forced him to yet again move. For the next five years he lived in Switzerland, Spain, and Italy before eventually settling in Pasadena, California. When he moved to a rental apartment, above a garage in Pasadena, the city named the street after him. In that apartment, Barthe worked on his memoirs and most importantly, editioned many of his works with the financial assistance of the actor James Garner until his death in 1989.
Some of his major public works included the Toussaint L’Ouverture Monument (1950) installed originally at the Haitian National Palace and the General Jean-Jacques Dessalines Monument (1952), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Green Pastures: Walls of Jericho for the Harlem River Housing Project, and a sculpture of Rose McClendon (1932), the African American actress, for Frank Lloyd Wright’sFallingwater House.
Barthe's Haitian works came in a time after his 1947 move to Ocho Rios Jamaica, and were among his largest and most famous works. The huge equestrian bronze of Dessalines was one of four heroic sculptures commissioned in 1948 by Haitian political leaders to mark independence celebrations. The Dessalines monument was part of a larger 1954 restoration of the Champs-du-Mars park in Port-au-Prince, Barthe's 40 foot high L'Overture statue and stone monument was positioned nearer the National Palace, and was unveiled in 1950 with two other commissioned heroic sculptures (in the capital and in the north of the county) by Cuban sculptor Blanco Ramos. At the time, one African-American newspaper called the collection "the Greatest Negro Monuments on earth." L'Overture was in fact a subject Barthe returned to several times, having created a bust (1926) and painted portrait (1929) of the figure early in his career.
Today Barthé's pieces are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, among others.
Richmond Barthé received many honors during his career, including the Rosenwald Fellowship,Guggenheim Fellowship, and was honored by the National Academy of Arts and Letters. Barthé also received awards for interracial justice and honorary degrees from Xavier and St. Francis Universities. He was the recipient of the Audubon Artists Gold Medal in 1950.
Barthe once said that “all my life I have be interested in trying to capture the spiritual quality I see and feel in people, and I feel that the human figure as God made it, is the best means of expressing this spirit in man.”
Richmond Barthé was born in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, (in January 1901). His father died at 22, when Richmond was only one month old, leaving his mother to raise him alone. Barthé spent his teen years in New Orleans, Louisiana.
His fourth grade teacher and his parish priest influenced young Richmond’s aesthetic development, and he showed great promise as an artist at a young age, but as a Colored American in the South, he was barred from enrolling in any of the art schools in New Orleans, Louisiana, near his home. When Barthé was twelve, his work was shown at the county fair in Mississippi, and he continued to develop remarkably as an artist.
At fourteen, Barthé left school to take a job as houseboy and handyman, but he still spent his free time drawing. At eighteen, having moved to New Orleans, his parish priest in New Orleans and a writer for the New Orleans Times Picayune recognized his ability. Richmond donated a portrait he made for a church fund raiser. The priest and the writer, along with his employer determined to find an art school where Barthé could study and expand his talent.
Lyle Saxon of the Times Picayune newspaper, fighting against current racist school segregation, tried unsuccessfully to get Barthé registered in art school in New Orleans. In 1924, with the aid of a Catholic priest, the Reverend Harry Kane, S.S.I, and with less than a high school education and no formal training in art, Barthé was admitted to the Art Institute of Chicago. During the next four years Barthé followed a curriculum structured for majors in painting. During his four years of study he worked as a busboy at a small café. His work caught the attention of Dr. Charles Maceo Thompson, a patron of the arts and supporter of many talented young black artists. Barthé was a flattering portrait painter, and Dr. Thompson helped him to secure many lucrative commissions from the city’s affluent black citizens.
During his senior year he was introduced to sculpture by his anatomy teacher. He began modeling in clay to gain a better understanding of the third dimension in his painting. This transition proved to be, according to him, a turning point in his career. He exhibited two busts in the 1927 Negro in Art Week Exhibition and in the April 1928 annual exhibition of the Chicago Art League. He received much critical praise and numerous commissions following this.
Following his graduation from The Art Institute of Chicago in 1928, Barthé spent several months in New York, established a studio inHarlem, and eventually moved to NYC permanently in 1930. During the next two decades, he built his reputation as a sculptor. He is associated with the Harlem Renaissance. He won aGuggenheim fellowship twice and other awards. By 1934, his reputation was so well established that he was awarded his first solo show at the Caz Delbo Galleries in New York City. Barthé experienced success after success and was considered by writers and critics as one of the leading “moderns” of his time.
Among his African American friends were Wallace Thurman,Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Jimmie Daniels, Countee Cullen, and Harold Jackman. Ralph Ellison was his first student. His white allies included Carl Van Vechten, Noel Sullivan, Charles Cullen, Lincoln Kirstein, Paul Cadmus, and Jared French.
In 1946 Barthé became a member of the National Sculpture Society.
Eventually, the tense environment and violence of the city began to take its toll, and he decided to abandon his life of fame and move to Jamaica in the West Indies in 1947. His career flourished in Jamaica and he remained there until the mid-1960s when ever-growing violence forced him to yet again move. For the next five years he lived in Switzerland, Spain, and Italy before eventually settling in Pasadena, California. When he moved to a rental apartment, above a garage in Pasadena, the city named the street after him. In that apartment, Barthe worked on his memoirs and most importantly, editioned many of his works with the financial assistance of the actor James Garner until his death in 1989.
Some of his major public works included the Toussaint L’Ouverture Monument (1950) installed originally at the Haitian National Palace and the General Jean-Jacques Dessalines Monument (1952), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Green Pastures: Walls of Jericho for the Harlem River Housing Project, and a sculpture of Rose McClendon (1932), the African American actress, for Frank Lloyd Wright’sFallingwater House.
Barthe's Haitian works came in a time after his 1947 move to Ocho Rios Jamaica, and were among his largest and most famous works. The huge equestrian bronze of Dessalines was one of four heroic sculptures commissioned in 1948 by Haitian political leaders to mark independence celebrations. The Dessalines monument was part of a larger 1954 restoration of the Champs-du-Mars park in Port-au-Prince, Barthe's 40 foot high L'Overture statue and stone monument was positioned nearer the National Palace, and was unveiled in 1950 with two other commissioned heroic sculptures (in the capital and in the north of the county) by Cuban sculptor Blanco Ramos. At the time, one African-American newspaper called the collection "the Greatest Negro Monuments on earth." L'Overture was in fact a subject Barthe returned to several times, having created a bust (1926) and painted portrait (1929) of the figure early in his career.
Today Barthé's pieces are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, among others.
Richmond Barthé received many honors during his career, including the Rosenwald Fellowship,Guggenheim Fellowship, and was honored by the National Academy of Arts and Letters. Barthé also received awards for interracial justice and honorary degrees from Xavier and St. Francis Universities. He was the recipient of the Audubon Artists Gold Medal in 1950.
Ma Rainey: Legendary Blues Singer
Gertrude Pridgett ("Ma" Rainey) (1886-1939) was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues (though there were women blues singers before her). She did much to develop and popularize the form and was an important influence on younger blues women, such as Bessie Smith, and their careers.
Ma Rainey began performing at 12–14. She recorded under the name Ma Rainey after she and Will Rainey were married in 1904. They toured with F.S. Wolcott’s Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group called Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. From the time of her first recording in 1923 to five years later, Ma Rainey made over 100 recordings. Some of them include, Bo-weevil Blues (1923), Moonshine Blues (1923), See See Rider (1924), Black Bottom (1927), and Soon This Morning (1927).
Ma Rainey was known for her very powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a ‘moaning’ style of singing similar to folk tradition. Though her powerful voice and disposition are not captured on her recordings, the other characteristics are present, and most evident on her early recordings, Bo-weevil Blues and Moonshine Blues. Ma Rainey also recorded with Louis Armstrong in addition to touring and recording with the Georgia Jazz Band. Ma Rainey continued to tour until 1935 when she retired to her hometown.
Around 1914, Ma Rainey met Bessie Smith, a young blues singer who was also making a name for herself, and the two of them began working together and became friends.
Towards the end of the 1920s, live vaudeville went into decline, being replaced by radio and recordings. Rainey's career was not immediately affected. She continued recording with Paramount and earned enough money touring to buy a bus with her name on it. In 1928, she recorded 20 songs before ending her contract with Paramount. Her style of blues had fallen out of fashion.
In 1935 Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran two theaters, "The Lyric" and "The Airdrome", until her death from a heart attack in 1939. She was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1983, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
(Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S8EB78QYrCM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-fizLgmUHmw )
Ma Rainey began performing at 12–14. She recorded under the name Ma Rainey after she and Will Rainey were married in 1904. They toured with F.S. Wolcott’s Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group called Rainey and Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. From the time of her first recording in 1923 to five years later, Ma Rainey made over 100 recordings. Some of them include, Bo-weevil Blues (1923), Moonshine Blues (1923), See See Rider (1924), Black Bottom (1927), and Soon This Morning (1927).
Ma Rainey was known for her very powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a ‘moaning’ style of singing similar to folk tradition. Though her powerful voice and disposition are not captured on her recordings, the other characteristics are present, and most evident on her early recordings, Bo-weevil Blues and Moonshine Blues. Ma Rainey also recorded with Louis Armstrong in addition to touring and recording with the Georgia Jazz Band. Ma Rainey continued to tour until 1935 when she retired to her hometown.
Around 1914, Ma Rainey met Bessie Smith, a young blues singer who was also making a name for herself, and the two of them began working together and became friends.
Towards the end of the 1920s, live vaudeville went into decline, being replaced by radio and recordings. Rainey's career was not immediately affected. She continued recording with Paramount and earned enough money touring to buy a bus with her name on it. In 1928, she recorded 20 songs before ending her contract with Paramount. Her style of blues had fallen out of fashion.
In 1935 Rainey returned to her hometown, Columbus, Georgia, where she ran two theaters, "The Lyric" and "The Airdrome", until her death from a heart attack in 1939. She was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1983, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.
(Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S8EB78QYrCM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-fizLgmUHmw )
Paul Winfield: Actor
Paul Winfield (1939 – 2004) Actor. This is what is written about Paul Winfield at IMDB.Com: ‘Signifying intelligence, eloquence, versatility and quiet intensity, one of the more important, critically-acclaimed black actors to gain a Hollywood foothold in the 1970s…’ Paul Winfield's first big break came in 1964 when he garnered a role in Le Roi Jones' controversial one-act play The Dutchman and the Toilet. In 1966 he won a contract at Columbia Pictures and built up his on-camera career with a succession of TV credits though he continued to focus on his first love, the legitimate stage.
In the late 60s Paul redirected himself back to performing on TV and in films with guest work in more than 40 shows on the small screen, including a boyfriend role on the first season of the landmark black sitcom Julia (1968) starring Diahann Carroll. In films he was given a featured part in the Sidney Poitier film, The Lost Man (1969), and earned comparable roles in R.P.M. (1970) and Brother John (1971) before major stardom occurred. 1972 proved to be a banner year for Paul after winning the male lead opposite Cicely Tyson in the touching classic film Sounder (1972). His towering performance as a sharecropper who is imprisoned and tortured for stealing a ham for his impoverished family earned him an Oscar nomination for "Best Actor" -- the third black actor (Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones preceded him) to receive such an honor at the time.
His film roles included various historical/entertainment giants including Thurgood Marshall, Don King and baseball's Roy Campanella, and was Emmy-nominated for his portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. in King (1978). Throughout the 70s and 80s he earned solid distinction in such prestige projects as Backstairs at the White House (1979), Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (another Emmy nomination), The Sophisticated Gents (1981) (TV), The Blue and the Gray (1982), Sister, Sister (1982) (TV), James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985) (TV), Under Siege (1986) (TV) and The Women of Brewster Place (1989) (TV). He also gave strong performances in films such as, Conrack (1974), Huckleberry Finn (1974), A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1978) (again with Ms. Tyson), Damnation Alley (1977), Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and White Dog (1982) and the TV series, Picket Fences, in which he won an Emmy.
On stage he graced such productions as "Richard III" (at New York's Lincoln Center Theatre), "Othello," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "The Seagull," "A Few Good Men," "Happy Endings" and "Checkmates," which became his sole Broadway credit. In his final years he narrated the A&E crime series City Confidential(1998), appeared as a teacher in a TV adaptation of his earlier success Sounder (2003) (TV), and enjoyed a recurring role as Sam for many years on the series Touched by an Angel (1994). Besides winning theater awards, Paul Winfield has been honored by Cord, the Black Publishers of America, the National Association of Media Women, the California Federation of Black Leadership, and Black Child Development Institution of Washington, D.C.
Paul passed away from a heart attack at age 62 in 2004. He is buried beside his longtime companion of 30 years architect Charles Gillan Jr., who passed away two years before.
In the late 60s Paul redirected himself back to performing on TV and in films with guest work in more than 40 shows on the small screen, including a boyfriend role on the first season of the landmark black sitcom Julia (1968) starring Diahann Carroll. In films he was given a featured part in the Sidney Poitier film, The Lost Man (1969), and earned comparable roles in R.P.M. (1970) and Brother John (1971) before major stardom occurred. 1972 proved to be a banner year for Paul after winning the male lead opposite Cicely Tyson in the touching classic film Sounder (1972). His towering performance as a sharecropper who is imprisoned and tortured for stealing a ham for his impoverished family earned him an Oscar nomination for "Best Actor" -- the third black actor (Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones preceded him) to receive such an honor at the time.
His film roles included various historical/entertainment giants including Thurgood Marshall, Don King and baseball's Roy Campanella, and was Emmy-nominated for his portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. in King (1978). Throughout the 70s and 80s he earned solid distinction in such prestige projects as Backstairs at the White House (1979), Roots: The Next Generations (1979) (another Emmy nomination), The Sophisticated Gents (1981) (TV), The Blue and the Gray (1982), Sister, Sister (1982) (TV), James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985) (TV), Under Siege (1986) (TV) and The Women of Brewster Place (1989) (TV). He also gave strong performances in films such as, Conrack (1974), Huckleberry Finn (1974), A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1978) (again with Ms. Tyson), Damnation Alley (1977), Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and White Dog (1982) and the TV series, Picket Fences, in which he won an Emmy.
On stage he graced such productions as "Richard III" (at New York's Lincoln Center Theatre), "Othello," "The Merry Wives of Windsor," "The Seagull," "A Few Good Men," "Happy Endings" and "Checkmates," which became his sole Broadway credit. In his final years he narrated the A&E crime series City Confidential(1998), appeared as a teacher in a TV adaptation of his earlier success Sounder (2003) (TV), and enjoyed a recurring role as Sam for many years on the series Touched by an Angel (1994). Besides winning theater awards, Paul Winfield has been honored by Cord, the Black Publishers of America, the National Association of Media Women, the California Federation of Black Leadership, and Black Child Development Institution of Washington, D.C.
Paul passed away from a heart attack at age 62 in 2004. He is buried beside his longtime companion of 30 years architect Charles Gillan Jr., who passed away two years before.
Labi Siffre: British Recording Legend (Even Kanye & Emminem Sample His Music)
Labi Siffre (born 25 June 1945) is a British poet, songwriter, musician and singer. Jazz and Blues records provided his musical education: Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus among many. Jimmy Reed and Wes Montgomery loomed large as guitar influences; Billie Holiday, Jimmy Reed and Mel Tormé as vocal influences.
Openly gay, Siffre met his partner, Peter Lloyd, in July 1964. Under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, they became legally recognized partners December 2005.
In 1969, while Labi was working in Amsterdam, friends sent a tape of his songs to the DJ Dave Cash and music publishers Management Agency & Music Ltd. (MAM). Siffre soon signed a publishing and management contract with MAM. However, since the MAM Records label was not yet in operation Siffre's recordings were licensed to other labels. His first contract was with Festival Records. His recording debut in 1970 was released in the U.K. on the Pye International division of Pye Records. He had a "turntable hit" in 1970 with the single "Pretty Little Girl (Make My Day)/Too Late" which despite being heavily played on Radio Luxembourg never made it to the charts.
Six albums were released between 1970 and 1975, and four between 1988 and 1998. In the early 1970s he had UK hits with "It Must Be Love" (No. 14, 1971) (later covered by and a No. 4 hit for Madness, for which Siffre himself appeared in the video); "Crying Laughing Loving Lying" (No. 11, 1972); and "Watch Me" (No. 29, 1972). Both "It Must Be Love" and "Crying Laughing Loving Lying" were released as singles in the U.S. by Bell Records but failed to chart.
During this period Siffre toured Britain and Europe, both headlining and supporting the likes of Ike & Tina Turner, Daliah Lavi, the Hollies, Chicago, The Carpenters and The Supremes. He often appeared on television, including the series "In Concert" and "Sounding Out".
He moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and wrote with Tom Shapiro. Around this time Siffre decided to quit the music business as a performer and concentrate on writing. After nine months in California he moved back to the UK when, in 1978 two of his songs, "Solid Love" (performed by Siffre) and "We Got It Bad" (co-written and performed by Bob James) reached the UK finals of the BBC's A Song for Europe.
In December 1979 Siffre released 'One World Song' a duet with Jackie which received heavy rotation on Radio Luxembourg in the final week of that year into 1980. The lyrics of the song reflected a theme which has run throughout much of his songwriting; robust peace and harmony. Siffre had his first U.S. singles success as a songwriter when, in 1983, the cover version of "It Must Be Love" by Madness peaked in the Billboard Magazine chart at #33. Siffre appeared in the cover version's music video.
Siffre came out of self-imposed retirement from music in 1985 when he saw a television film from South Africa showing a white soldier shooting at black children. He wrote "(Something Inside) So Strong" (No. 4, 1987), an anti-apartheid anthem, a song of defiance in the face of oppression and bigotry, a song of personal inner strength and more. The song has remained enduringly popular and is an example of the political and sociological thread running through much of Siffre’s lyrics and poetry since the single “Thank Your Lucky Star” and the album “For the Children” (1973). It won the Ivor Novello Award for "Best Song Musically and Lyrically", and has been used in Amnesty International campaigns, a television advertisement and Alice Walker's film against female genital mutilation: Warrior Marks. His stance on civil and human rights has further enhanced his reputation.
In 1990, collaborating with the South African R&B, jazz-fusion singer-songwriter and guitarist Jonathan Butler, Siffre wrote the lyrics of five of the nine songs on Butler’s album "Heal Our Land".
Searching for expression beyond the "limitations of songwriting" he wrote his first poems in 1984. Three books of his poetry have been published: "Nigger" (1993), "Blood on the Page" (1995) and "Monument" (1997). More appear on his poetry blog "Labi Siffre - Into The Light".
Beginning with “Let’s Pretend” on the 1973 album For the Children and especially in his poetry, Siffre has been and remains, a determined advocate for secularism.
For rapper Eminem's hit single "My Name Is," hip hop record producer Dr. Dre wanted to use a sample (written by Siffre and including Siffre on electric piano) of his song I Got The for the rhythm track. Siffre objected to what he describes as "lazy writing" (in the sleeve notes of the EMI re-mastered CD of the source album Remember My Song): "Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims".
Eminem and Dr Dre edited their song to get the sample cleared. Labi Siffre's original is available on his 1975 album "Remember My Song" (remastered on EMI CD in 2006) and on the 2006 EMI CD of re-mastered tracks "The Best of Labi Siffre".
Siffre released a new album, The Last Songs, on EMI in 2006.
Kanye West's 2007 album "Graduation" holds a song titled "I Wonder" in which he samples Labi Siffre's "My Song" from Siffre's album, Crying Laughing Loving Lying. In 2008 Siffre's song "Down" was featured in the film JCVD. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=itsI6KxR6g0 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yU8erMXlBVQ )
Openly gay, Siffre met his partner, Peter Lloyd, in July 1964. Under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, they became legally recognized partners December 2005.
In 1969, while Labi was working in Amsterdam, friends sent a tape of his songs to the DJ Dave Cash and music publishers Management Agency & Music Ltd. (MAM). Siffre soon signed a publishing and management contract with MAM. However, since the MAM Records label was not yet in operation Siffre's recordings were licensed to other labels. His first contract was with Festival Records. His recording debut in 1970 was released in the U.K. on the Pye International division of Pye Records. He had a "turntable hit" in 1970 with the single "Pretty Little Girl (Make My Day)/Too Late" which despite being heavily played on Radio Luxembourg never made it to the charts.
Six albums were released between 1970 and 1975, and four between 1988 and 1998. In the early 1970s he had UK hits with "It Must Be Love" (No. 14, 1971) (later covered by and a No. 4 hit for Madness, for which Siffre himself appeared in the video); "Crying Laughing Loving Lying" (No. 11, 1972); and "Watch Me" (No. 29, 1972). Both "It Must Be Love" and "Crying Laughing Loving Lying" were released as singles in the U.S. by Bell Records but failed to chart.
During this period Siffre toured Britain and Europe, both headlining and supporting the likes of Ike & Tina Turner, Daliah Lavi, the Hollies, Chicago, The Carpenters and The Supremes. He often appeared on television, including the series "In Concert" and "Sounding Out".
He moved to Los Angeles in 1977 and wrote with Tom Shapiro. Around this time Siffre decided to quit the music business as a performer and concentrate on writing. After nine months in California he moved back to the UK when, in 1978 two of his songs, "Solid Love" (performed by Siffre) and "We Got It Bad" (co-written and performed by Bob James) reached the UK finals of the BBC's A Song for Europe.
In December 1979 Siffre released 'One World Song' a duet with Jackie which received heavy rotation on Radio Luxembourg in the final week of that year into 1980. The lyrics of the song reflected a theme which has run throughout much of his songwriting; robust peace and harmony. Siffre had his first U.S. singles success as a songwriter when, in 1983, the cover version of "It Must Be Love" by Madness peaked in the Billboard Magazine chart at #33. Siffre appeared in the cover version's music video.
Siffre came out of self-imposed retirement from music in 1985 when he saw a television film from South Africa showing a white soldier shooting at black children. He wrote "(Something Inside) So Strong" (No. 4, 1987), an anti-apartheid anthem, a song of defiance in the face of oppression and bigotry, a song of personal inner strength and more. The song has remained enduringly popular and is an example of the political and sociological thread running through much of Siffre’s lyrics and poetry since the single “Thank Your Lucky Star” and the album “For the Children” (1973). It won the Ivor Novello Award for "Best Song Musically and Lyrically", and has been used in Amnesty International campaigns, a television advertisement and Alice Walker's film against female genital mutilation: Warrior Marks. His stance on civil and human rights has further enhanced his reputation.
In 1990, collaborating with the South African R&B, jazz-fusion singer-songwriter and guitarist Jonathan Butler, Siffre wrote the lyrics of five of the nine songs on Butler’s album "Heal Our Land".
Searching for expression beyond the "limitations of songwriting" he wrote his first poems in 1984. Three books of his poetry have been published: "Nigger" (1993), "Blood on the Page" (1995) and "Monument" (1997). More appear on his poetry blog "Labi Siffre - Into The Light".
Beginning with “Let’s Pretend” on the 1973 album For the Children and especially in his poetry, Siffre has been and remains, a determined advocate for secularism.
For rapper Eminem's hit single "My Name Is," hip hop record producer Dr. Dre wanted to use a sample (written by Siffre and including Siffre on electric piano) of his song I Got The for the rhythm track. Siffre objected to what he describes as "lazy writing" (in the sleeve notes of the EMI re-mastered CD of the source album Remember My Song): "Attacking two of the usual scapegoats, women and gays, is lazy writing. If you want to do battle, attack the aggressors not the victims".
Eminem and Dr Dre edited their song to get the sample cleared. Labi Siffre's original is available on his 1975 album "Remember My Song" (remastered on EMI CD in 2006) and on the 2006 EMI CD of re-mastered tracks "The Best of Labi Siffre".
Siffre released a new album, The Last Songs, on EMI in 2006.
Kanye West's 2007 album "Graduation" holds a song titled "I Wonder" in which he samples Labi Siffre's "My Song" from Siffre's album, Crying Laughing Loving Lying. In 2008 Siffre's song "Down" was featured in the film JCVD. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=itsI6KxR6g0 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yU8erMXlBVQ )
Linda Villarosa: Journalist, Author, Editor, Frmr Exec Editor Essence Magazine
From Linda’s bio she writes: I am a journalist, author, editor and now novelist. For several years, I edited the health pages for the New York Times, working on health coverage for Science Times and for the newspaper at large. I was also the executive editor of Essence Magazine—two different times--where I wrote or edited a number of award-winning articles that I am extremely proud of.
As a contributing reporter, I have written many articles for the Times, several of which ran on the newspaper’s front page. I’ve also contributed articles, profiles and reviews to a number of national publications, including Glamour, Health,Latina, the New York Times Book Review, O Magazine, Vibe and Woman’s Day. Whenever I get the inspiration, I write a column called “Outside the Lines,” which appears on afterellen.com. I also contribute to theroot.com.
I have won lots of awards from organizations, including The American Medical Writers’ Association, The Arthur Ashe Institute, Lincoln University, the New York Association of Black Journalists, the National Women’s Political Caucus, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists’ Association and the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.
Most recently, I have provided editorial consulting to a number of companies and organizations. For American Express Publishing, I launched a newsletter for television host Dr. Phil. For the Kaiser Family Foundation, I was honored to train journalists from around the world to better cover the international HIV/AIDS epidemic and cover the International AIDS conferences in Barcelona, Bangkok and Toronto. I also conceive, write and edit beauty and lifestyle publications for the Meredith Corporation.
I am the author or co-author of three books, including Body & Soul: The Black Women’s Guide to Physical Health and Emotional Well-Being. When I get the opportunity, I work behind the scenes helping other authors complete proposals and package and write their books. My first novel,Passing for Black, was released in 2008 and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.
A graduate of the University of Colorado, I also spent a year at Harvard University as a journalism fellow. I am the program director of the journalism department at the City College of New York where I teach writing and media studies. I live in Brooklyn with my partner and two children. My mom, Clara Villarosa, is the retired founder and co-owner of the Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem.
As a contributing reporter, I have written many articles for the Times, several of which ran on the newspaper’s front page. I’ve also contributed articles, profiles and reviews to a number of national publications, including Glamour, Health,Latina, the New York Times Book Review, O Magazine, Vibe and Woman’s Day. Whenever I get the inspiration, I write a column called “Outside the Lines,” which appears on afterellen.com. I also contribute to theroot.com.
I have won lots of awards from organizations, including The American Medical Writers’ Association, The Arthur Ashe Institute, Lincoln University, the New York Association of Black Journalists, the National Women’s Political Caucus, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists’ Association and the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.
Most recently, I have provided editorial consulting to a number of companies and organizations. For American Express Publishing, I launched a newsletter for television host Dr. Phil. For the Kaiser Family Foundation, I was honored to train journalists from around the world to better cover the international HIV/AIDS epidemic and cover the International AIDS conferences in Barcelona, Bangkok and Toronto. I also conceive, write and edit beauty and lifestyle publications for the Meredith Corporation.
I am the author or co-author of three books, including Body & Soul: The Black Women’s Guide to Physical Health and Emotional Well-Being. When I get the opportunity, I work behind the scenes helping other authors complete proposals and package and write their books. My first novel,Passing for Black, was released in 2008 and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award.
A graduate of the University of Colorado, I also spent a year at Harvard University as a journalism fellow. I am the program director of the journalism department at the City College of New York where I teach writing and media studies. I live in Brooklyn with my partner and two children. My mom, Clara Villarosa, is the retired founder and co-owner of the Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem.
Lee Daniels: Filmmaker ('Precious', 'The Butler' and 'Monster’s Ball')
Lee Daniels (1959) Film producer and director best known for his Academy Award-nominated film Monster's Ball. Lee Daniels began his career in entertainment as a casting director and manager, working on projects such as Under the Cherry Moon and Purple Rain. He continued managing talent that included several Academy Award nominees and winners.
Monster's Ball, the first production of Lee Daniels Entertainment, marked Daniels as the first African-American sole producer of an Academy Award-earning film. It became a substantially critical and box office success. Monster's Ball was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2002: Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress, for which Halle Berry won an Oscar.
Daniels' next producing effort was The Woodsman starring Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Mos Def. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. Nominated for three 2005 Independent Spirit Awards, the film received the CICAE Arthouse Prize at the Cannes Film Festival; Jury Prize, Deauville International Film Festival and Special Mention for Excellence in Filmmaking from the National Board of Review.
Daniels made his directorial debut in 2006 with Shadowboxer, which starred Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Stephen Dorff, Vanessa Ferlito, Mo'Nique, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Macy Gray. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and received a nomination for the New Directors Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
In 2008 Lee Daniels produced the film Tennessee, co-starring Mariah Carey.
Lee Daniels also directed the film, Precious (based on the novel, Push, by Sapphire) in 2009, starring Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, Kimberly Russell and Sherri Shepherd. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe is playing the starring role. The film won three awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival, including the grand jury prize and the audience award in the U.S. dramatic competition. Directed by Daniels, the film tells the redemptive story of Precious Jones, a young girl in Harlem struggling to overcome tremendous obstacles and discover her own voice.
Verbally and sexually abused by her family, her troubles lead to problems in school. Precious has no friends, no money, two kids (from her father), and she's illiterate. After being accepted into an alternative school, one of her teachers (Patton) helps her find new direction in life. Along her journey, she comes across a concerned social worker (Carey) and a nurse (Kravitz) who show her incredible kindness.
Then came his director's hat for the film, The Butler which garnered both critical and box office success.
Outside of his work in film, Daniels briefly delved into politics and community development. Upon the request of Harlem neighbor and former president Bill Clinton, Daniels produced public service announcements to inspire young people of color to vote. The effective campaign was launched in March 2004 and featured actor/musician LL Cool J and Grammy winner Alicia Keys.
Daniels, who is gay, is based in New York City, and is the father of two children, Clara Infinity and Liam Samad
Monster's Ball, the first production of Lee Daniels Entertainment, marked Daniels as the first African-American sole producer of an Academy Award-earning film. It became a substantially critical and box office success. Monster's Ball was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2002: Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress, for which Halle Berry won an Oscar.
Daniels' next producing effort was The Woodsman starring Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Mos Def. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. Nominated for three 2005 Independent Spirit Awards, the film received the CICAE Arthouse Prize at the Cannes Film Festival; Jury Prize, Deauville International Film Festival and Special Mention for Excellence in Filmmaking from the National Board of Review.
Daniels made his directorial debut in 2006 with Shadowboxer, which starred Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Stephen Dorff, Vanessa Ferlito, Mo'Nique, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Macy Gray. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and received a nomination for the New Directors Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
In 2008 Lee Daniels produced the film Tennessee, co-starring Mariah Carey.
Lee Daniels also directed the film, Precious (based on the novel, Push, by Sapphire) in 2009, starring Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, Kimberly Russell and Sherri Shepherd. Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe is playing the starring role. The film won three awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival, including the grand jury prize and the audience award in the U.S. dramatic competition. Directed by Daniels, the film tells the redemptive story of Precious Jones, a young girl in Harlem struggling to overcome tremendous obstacles and discover her own voice.
Verbally and sexually abused by her family, her troubles lead to problems in school. Precious has no friends, no money, two kids (from her father), and she's illiterate. After being accepted into an alternative school, one of her teachers (Patton) helps her find new direction in life. Along her journey, she comes across a concerned social worker (Carey) and a nurse (Kravitz) who show her incredible kindness.
Then came his director's hat for the film, The Butler which garnered both critical and box office success.
Outside of his work in film, Daniels briefly delved into politics and community development. Upon the request of Harlem neighbor and former president Bill Clinton, Daniels produced public service announcements to inspire young people of color to vote. The effective campaign was launched in March 2004 and featured actor/musician LL Cool J and Grammy winner Alicia Keys.
Daniels, who is gay, is based in New York City, and is the father of two children, Clara Infinity and Liam Samad
Michele Aboro: Boxer
Michele Aboro (1967) is a British female boxer who has held the Super Bantamweight champion.
Michele Aboro, along with her countrywoman Michelle Sutcliffe and with German Regina Halmich, has become an important figure in European women's boxing, helping raise awareness about female participation on this, traditionally male sport, in Europe.
On March 4, 1995, she debuted as a professional boxer, with a first round knockout win over Marleen Lambert in Belgium. As a matter of a fact, her first three professional fights were held in different European countries (Belgium, Italy and Hungary) and they were all first round knockout wins for Aboro. Her fourth fight, on October 19, 1996, against Severine Grandsire, was her first fight in Germany, and Aboro won by a sixth round technical knockout.
Aboro had one more win, and then, on November 29, 1997, she met future world champion Daisy Lang, defeating Lang by a six round decision.
On August 22, 1998, Aboro fought Brigitte Pastor for the vacant WIBF European Super Bantamweight title, knocking out Pastor in five rounds to win her first professional belt. She defended her title once, knocking out Galina Gumliiska in eight rounds on November 28, then followed that win with four more wins in a row, before obtaining her first world title opportunity. Aboro became a world champion when she fought Eva Jones, on February 5, 2000, knocking Jones out in round ten to become the WIBF's world Super Bantamweight champion.
Then came Downtown Leona Brown's challenge. Aboro met the future world champion on June 13 of that year, defeating Brown by a ten round decision.
After two, non-title wins, she faced the highly touted contender Kelsey Jeffries, who had 10 wins and only 2 losses coming into their bout, for her second world championship defense. Aboro defended the title successfully against Jeffries on February 10, 2001, with a ten round decision win.
After one more non-title win, Aboro made what has been, to date, her last fight. On November 24, of that year, she beat Nadia Debras, who she had previously beaten, by a ten round decision, to retain her world title for the third time.
Aboro has not officially announced her retirement. However, should she decide to remain inactive and, ultimately, to retire from boxing, she would join Rocky Marciano and a handful of others in boxing's history to retire as an undefeated world champion.
Michele Aboro is now living in Shanghai China and has opened a Boxing gym there.
Michele Aboro, along with her countrywoman Michelle Sutcliffe and with German Regina Halmich, has become an important figure in European women's boxing, helping raise awareness about female participation on this, traditionally male sport, in Europe.
On March 4, 1995, she debuted as a professional boxer, with a first round knockout win over Marleen Lambert in Belgium. As a matter of a fact, her first three professional fights were held in different European countries (Belgium, Italy and Hungary) and they were all first round knockout wins for Aboro. Her fourth fight, on October 19, 1996, against Severine Grandsire, was her first fight in Germany, and Aboro won by a sixth round technical knockout.
Aboro had one more win, and then, on November 29, 1997, she met future world champion Daisy Lang, defeating Lang by a six round decision.
On August 22, 1998, Aboro fought Brigitte Pastor for the vacant WIBF European Super Bantamweight title, knocking out Pastor in five rounds to win her first professional belt. She defended her title once, knocking out Galina Gumliiska in eight rounds on November 28, then followed that win with four more wins in a row, before obtaining her first world title opportunity. Aboro became a world champion when she fought Eva Jones, on February 5, 2000, knocking Jones out in round ten to become the WIBF's world Super Bantamweight champion.
Then came Downtown Leona Brown's challenge. Aboro met the future world champion on June 13 of that year, defeating Brown by a ten round decision.
After two, non-title wins, she faced the highly touted contender Kelsey Jeffries, who had 10 wins and only 2 losses coming into their bout, for her second world championship defense. Aboro defended the title successfully against Jeffries on February 10, 2001, with a ten round decision win.
After one more non-title win, Aboro made what has been, to date, her last fight. On November 24, of that year, she beat Nadia Debras, who she had previously beaten, by a ten round decision, to retain her world title for the third time.
Aboro has not officially announced her retirement. However, should she decide to remain inactive and, ultimately, to retire from boxing, she would join Rocky Marciano and a handful of others in boxing's history to retire as an undefeated world champion.
Michele Aboro is now living in Shanghai China and has opened a Boxing gym there.
The Hon. Darrin P. Gayles: Federal Judge, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
Judge Darrin Gayles, became the first openly gay black man to serve as a U.S. Federal Judge in 2014, having been appointed by President Barack Obama. Before then he had been appointed by Governor Charlie Crist to serve on Florida's Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court in Miami. Prior to his investiture, Judge Gayles served on the Miami-Dade County Court since 2004. In addition, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida from 1999 to 2004; as Assistant District Counsel for the US Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, from 1997 to 1999; and as an Assistant State Attorney for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit from 1993 to 1997. He received his bachelor's degree from Howard University and his law degree from George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC.
“Judge Gayles is widely known for his professionalism, fairness and effective administration of justice,” said Governor Crist. “His respect for the law, as well as for all who appear in his courtroom, will contribute to the Eleventh Circuit in a meaningful way.”
Previously, Judge Gayles served as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida from 1999 to 2004 and as assistant district counsel for the United States Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, from 1997 to 1999. He was an assistant state attorney for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit from 1993 to 1997. He received his bachelor’s degree from Howard University and his law degree from George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.
“Judge Gayles is widely known for his professionalism, fairness and effective administration of justice,” said Governor Crist. “His respect for the law, as well as for all who appear in his courtroom, will contribute to the Eleventh Circuit in a meaningful way.”
Previously, Judge Gayles served as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida from 1999 to 2004 and as assistant district counsel for the United States Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, from 1997 to 1999. He was an assistant state attorney for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit from 1993 to 1997. He received his bachelor’s degree from Howard University and his law degree from George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.
Dennis Carney: British Activist, Chair of the Black Gay Men's Advisory Group
Over the last two decades British activist Dennis Carney has worked with clients from the statutory and voluntary sectors, providing a range of high quality training and consultancy services to organizations committed managing change in the following areas of service development; Diversity, Racial Equality, Sexuality, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Health issues.
Dennis is a qualified Assertiveness Trainer and offers Team Building as part of his portfolio of work.
Dennis has coordinated a dynamic training program for PACE, London's leading LGBT mental health charity for the last 7 years and counts the Department of Trade & Industry, Social Care Institute for Excellence, The NAZ Project and East Thames Housing Association, amongst many others, as satisfied clients he has worked with.
Dennis facilitates workshops on the popular Gay Men's Workshop program at PACE, that explore themes around identity, self esteem, assertiveness, relationships and sexual health.
Dennis is a part-time lecturer at London's City Lit, teaching courses on Diversity, HIV and Sexuality Awareness within the Counseling & Psychotherapy Department. He has also completed 7 years of ongoing training in Humanistic Psychology at Spectrum.
Dennis appeared in the recent Channel 4 documentary 'Reggae, Trainers & Olympics which explored the role of dancehall music and homophobia.
He is a member of the Crime Prosecution Service Community Scrutiny Panel and is the current Vice-Chair of the Black Gay Men's Advisory Group (BGMAG).
In 2003 and 2006 he received Black LGBT Community Awards in recognition of his work with Black LGBT communities in the UK.
In May 2001 Dennis L Carney was appointed to the post of Black Gay Men's Group worker to develop group work initiatives aimed at London's diverse Black Gay communities, and to network with other agencies to promote this ground-breaking and necessary work at PACE.
Dennis moved from Manchester to London to pursue a career within the Civil Service in the early eighties. Soon afterwards, he attended a public meeting organized by the Black Lesbian & Gay Centre (BLGC), entitled Homosexuality in the Black Community. One month later, he was voted onto the Management Committee of BLGC. This was the beginning of Dennis' activism around Black gay& lesbian concerns. He was elected Chair of BLGC and became one of the early members of the board of Blackliners. He has also worked on the Management Committees of Black, HIV & AIDS Network (BHAN), and Big Up Limited. He co-founded the group Black Gay Men United Against AIDS (BGMUAA) and continues to develop sexual health interventions aimed at Black gay men.
Dennis was a founding member of Let's Rap, a discussion group for Black gay men, and one of the first of its kind in the UK. He has also attended several national Black Gay & Lesbian Leadership Forum (BLGLF) conferences in America, and was invited to speak at last year's annual conference held in New York by Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD).
After five years, Dennis recently resigned as Chair of Stonewall Housing Association and is now an active volunteer with Big Up @ GMFA. He recently facilitated a number of successful Basement Sessions (workshops) which aimed to empower Black gay men from diverse communities.
He currently works at PACE where he develops group work initiatives aimed at Black gay men. He is also a freelance trainer with a number of organizations concerned with challenging discrimination and working with diversity.
Dennis Carney has a once a month black men's meeting in London at Islington at PACE.
Dennis is a qualified Assertiveness Trainer and offers Team Building as part of his portfolio of work.
Dennis has coordinated a dynamic training program for PACE, London's leading LGBT mental health charity for the last 7 years and counts the Department of Trade & Industry, Social Care Institute for Excellence, The NAZ Project and East Thames Housing Association, amongst many others, as satisfied clients he has worked with.
Dennis facilitates workshops on the popular Gay Men's Workshop program at PACE, that explore themes around identity, self esteem, assertiveness, relationships and sexual health.
Dennis is a part-time lecturer at London's City Lit, teaching courses on Diversity, HIV and Sexuality Awareness within the Counseling & Psychotherapy Department. He has also completed 7 years of ongoing training in Humanistic Psychology at Spectrum.
Dennis appeared in the recent Channel 4 documentary 'Reggae, Trainers & Olympics which explored the role of dancehall music and homophobia.
He is a member of the Crime Prosecution Service Community Scrutiny Panel and is the current Vice-Chair of the Black Gay Men's Advisory Group (BGMAG).
In 2003 and 2006 he received Black LGBT Community Awards in recognition of his work with Black LGBT communities in the UK.
In May 2001 Dennis L Carney was appointed to the post of Black Gay Men's Group worker to develop group work initiatives aimed at London's diverse Black Gay communities, and to network with other agencies to promote this ground-breaking and necessary work at PACE.
Dennis moved from Manchester to London to pursue a career within the Civil Service in the early eighties. Soon afterwards, he attended a public meeting organized by the Black Lesbian & Gay Centre (BLGC), entitled Homosexuality in the Black Community. One month later, he was voted onto the Management Committee of BLGC. This was the beginning of Dennis' activism around Black gay& lesbian concerns. He was elected Chair of BLGC and became one of the early members of the board of Blackliners. He has also worked on the Management Committees of Black, HIV & AIDS Network (BHAN), and Big Up Limited. He co-founded the group Black Gay Men United Against AIDS (BGMUAA) and continues to develop sexual health interventions aimed at Black gay men.
Dennis was a founding member of Let's Rap, a discussion group for Black gay men, and one of the first of its kind in the UK. He has also attended several national Black Gay & Lesbian Leadership Forum (BLGLF) conferences in America, and was invited to speak at last year's annual conference held in New York by Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD).
After five years, Dennis recently resigned as Chair of Stonewall Housing Association and is now an active volunteer with Big Up @ GMFA. He recently facilitated a number of successful Basement Sessions (workshops) which aimed to empower Black gay men from diverse communities.
He currently works at PACE where he develops group work initiatives aimed at Black gay men. He is also a freelance trainer with a number of organizations concerned with challenging discrimination and working with diversity.
Dennis Carney has a once a month black men's meeting in London at Islington at PACE.
Williams Rashidi: Nigerian Activist, Organizer
Rashidi is the Founding Executive Director of Queer Alliance Nigeria. He is a passionate and visionary advocate for equality for all Nigerians regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Rashidi was instrumental in the defeat of the same gender marriage bill in 2009, having spoken before the Nigeria Parliament as an open gay man. He designs project which contributes to the well being and advance the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people in Nigeria. He uses his professional and educational capacity to support the work for equality for sexual minorities in Nigeria. He is a graduate of Science Laboratory Technology from Accra Polytechnic Ghana and is a fellow of the International LGBT and Human Rights Training from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education.
Rashidi was instrumental in the defeat of the same gender marriage bill in 2009, having spoken before the Nigeria Parliament as an open gay man. He designs project which contributes to the well being and advance the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people in Nigeria. He uses his professional and educational capacity to support the work for equality for sexual minorities in Nigeria. He is a graduate of Science Laboratory Technology from Accra Polytechnic Ghana and is a fellow of the International LGBT and Human Rights Training from the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education.
Lisa C. Moore: Publisher, Editor, Organizer Fire & Ink Festival, Archivist; Co-Producer of the Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project
Lisa C. Moore (pictured on the right) is the founder and editor of RedBone Press, which publishes work that celebrates the culture of black lesbians and gay men and further promotes understanding between black gays and lesbians and the black mainstream.
RedBone’s first book, does your mama know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories, won two 1997 Lambda Literary Awards, for Small Press and Lesbian Studies. The second title, the bull-jean stories by Sharon Bridgforth, won the 1998 Lambda Literary Award for Small Press.
Three more books were released September 2004:love conjure/blues, a novel by Sharon Bridgforth; last rights and "nothin' ugly fly," both books of poetry by Marvin K. White.
In the summer of 2005, RedBone published Where the Apple Falls, poetry by Samiya Bashir. Moore is the co-editor of Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity, published in spring 2006.
Moore, along with Tiona McClodden is currently in production of Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project, a feature-length documentary that will highlight interviews with black lesbian elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s from across the United States and situate them in a range of black historical movements, spanning the decades between the 1930s and 1980s. It’s a documentary stemming from her master's research in anthropology (University of Texas, 2000).
Moore is also lead organizer of the Fire & Ink writers and arts festival for LGBT people of African descent, and she is the former editor of the Lambda Book Report. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QtUH5Pf1O6I )_
RedBone’s first book, does your mama know? An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories, won two 1997 Lambda Literary Awards, for Small Press and Lesbian Studies. The second title, the bull-jean stories by Sharon Bridgforth, won the 1998 Lambda Literary Award for Small Press.
Three more books were released September 2004:love conjure/blues, a novel by Sharon Bridgforth; last rights and "nothin' ugly fly," both books of poetry by Marvin K. White.
In the summer of 2005, RedBone published Where the Apple Falls, poetry by Samiya Bashir. Moore is the co-editor of Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity, published in spring 2006.
Moore, along with Tiona McClodden is currently in production of Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project, a feature-length documentary that will highlight interviews with black lesbian elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s from across the United States and situate them in a range of black historical movements, spanning the decades between the 1930s and 1980s. It’s a documentary stemming from her master's research in anthropology (University of Texas, 2000).
Moore is also lead organizer of the Fire & Ink writers and arts festival for LGBT people of African descent, and she is the former editor of the Lambda Book Report. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QtUH5Pf1O6I )_
Tiona McClodden: Multimedia Artist
Tiona McClodden (pictured on the left) is a multimedia artist who works in film, new media and visual art. She considers her work “black social realism” and aims to fight the hyper-realistic imagery that can lead to the silencing of marginalized communities; she hopes to make the invisible visible and to humanize her subjects. McClodden is the executive producer and director of the award-winning feature-length documentary, black./womyn.: conversations with lesbians of African descent. She is currently in production on two feature-length documentary films, as well as an experimental short series, Be Alarmed: The Black Americana Epic.
Along with Lisa C. Moore, Tiona is currently in production of Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project, a feature-length documentary that will highlight interviews with black lesbian elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s from across the United States and situate them in a range of black historical movements, spanning the decades between the 1930s and 1980s. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QtUH5Pf1O6I )
Along with Lisa C. Moore, Tiona is currently in production of Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project, a feature-length documentary that will highlight interviews with black lesbian elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s from across the United States and situate them in a range of black historical movements, spanning the decades between the 1930s and 1980s. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QtUH5Pf1O6I )
Baron Artist a.k.a. B.Dot: Electro/Hip-Hop Recording Artist
BARON ARTIST a.k.a. B.Dot is an electro/hip-hop recording artist living in New York City. Diversely inspired by 80’s rock, 90’s hip-hop, and today’s synth electronica. Baron’s style is both retrospective and contemporary, his unique blend of meaningful vocals, pop songwritings, and hip-hop nuances creates a poignant yet eclectic mix of music. Afro-Punk described Baron’s latest EP RadioHeart as accomplishing “the almost impossible by seeming “retro” without actually conjuring a specific time or genre. It's a grab-bag of electro sounds past.”
Baron began performing as a spoken-word artist. Here he was fearless, the stage was an unapologetic platform where expression was abundant and Baron had a lot to express. It was also here, where Baron revealed himself to his audience as a homosexual man. “I felt that true expression needed full honesty. It was a difficult decision but I’m glad I’ve made it. My mind thanks me all the time.” Since his steps on the poetry stage, Baron has performed all over the country winning audiences in colleges, cafes, and theaters. His one-person play “Troubled Man” was a standing room only spectacle at the legendary Nuyorican. With recorded material from his live show, Baron created his first CD “Troubled Man”. The album blended the live spoken word with hip-hop, dance and soul music. The mish-mash of styling provides the foundation to what would be Baron’s most celebrated work to-date, the cleverly titled “Celebrity”.
Celebrity, released in 2008, was Baron’s breakthrough album separating him from his spoken-word roots and placing him in the ever expansive world of music. The 14 track CD garnered praise for it’s raw delivery, genre bending mixes and Baron’s creative songwriting style. His singles “Feel Like Fashion”, “Celebrity”, “Party with B”, and “Birds” became fan favorites nationally and internationally. Michael Christopher of SWERV magazine writes, “His new CD (Celebrity) gives you the glimpse of the good life while actually having something to say”.
The years that followed were like a whirlwind of surprises and accolades. In 2008 Baron won the Velocity Magazine Award for Best Alternative Artist as well as given the opportunity to perform amongst thousands at the Annual Latex Ball in NYC. In 2009 Baron won Best Album, Best Music Video, and Best Song for the OutHipHop viewer’s choice awards and was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Song at the OutMusic Awards. He won the OutMusic Award for his collaboration with artist Infinite on the song “Why You Hate” the next year. Baron also performed at NYC Irving Plaza and the Nokia Theater with his OutMusic alum and in 2009 became a featured artists for the OutMusic “Freedom of Expression” Campaign created to foster support to the many LGBT musical artists.
In 2010 Baron took a much needed rest from the spotlight and traveled the world returning home only to perform at the OutMusic Awards. His experiences in countries like Mexico and Amsterdam cultivated the foundation for his project RadioHeart
J.W. Richards of Groove Love Melody had this to say about RadioHeart, “Baron stirs up thick dark synths under the production of Belief and delivers as a strong EP, called RadioHeart. All the songs are wet with want, both for a physical lover and the salvation of the new beat... It’s a late night electro-pop/dance workout.” (Links to Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W0Zeg9gV7lQ ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hStjbzCcrg8 )
Baron began performing as a spoken-word artist. Here he was fearless, the stage was an unapologetic platform where expression was abundant and Baron had a lot to express. It was also here, where Baron revealed himself to his audience as a homosexual man. “I felt that true expression needed full honesty. It was a difficult decision but I’m glad I’ve made it. My mind thanks me all the time.” Since his steps on the poetry stage, Baron has performed all over the country winning audiences in colleges, cafes, and theaters. His one-person play “Troubled Man” was a standing room only spectacle at the legendary Nuyorican. With recorded material from his live show, Baron created his first CD “Troubled Man”. The album blended the live spoken word with hip-hop, dance and soul music. The mish-mash of styling provides the foundation to what would be Baron’s most celebrated work to-date, the cleverly titled “Celebrity”.
Celebrity, released in 2008, was Baron’s breakthrough album separating him from his spoken-word roots and placing him in the ever expansive world of music. The 14 track CD garnered praise for it’s raw delivery, genre bending mixes and Baron’s creative songwriting style. His singles “Feel Like Fashion”, “Celebrity”, “Party with B”, and “Birds” became fan favorites nationally and internationally. Michael Christopher of SWERV magazine writes, “His new CD (Celebrity) gives you the glimpse of the good life while actually having something to say”.
The years that followed were like a whirlwind of surprises and accolades. In 2008 Baron won the Velocity Magazine Award for Best Alternative Artist as well as given the opportunity to perform amongst thousands at the Annual Latex Ball in NYC. In 2009 Baron won Best Album, Best Music Video, and Best Song for the OutHipHop viewer’s choice awards and was nominated for Best Hip-Hop Song at the OutMusic Awards. He won the OutMusic Award for his collaboration with artist Infinite on the song “Why You Hate” the next year. Baron also performed at NYC Irving Plaza and the Nokia Theater with his OutMusic alum and in 2009 became a featured artists for the OutMusic “Freedom of Expression” Campaign created to foster support to the many LGBT musical artists.
In 2010 Baron took a much needed rest from the spotlight and traveled the world returning home only to perform at the OutMusic Awards. His experiences in countries like Mexico and Amsterdam cultivated the foundation for his project RadioHeart
J.W. Richards of Groove Love Melody had this to say about RadioHeart, “Baron stirs up thick dark synths under the production of Belief and delivers as a strong EP, called RadioHeart. All the songs are wet with want, both for a physical lover and the salvation of the new beat... It’s a late night electro-pop/dance workout.” (Links to Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=W0Zeg9gV7lQ ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hStjbzCcrg8 )
Dr. Sylvia Rhue: Writer, Filmmaker, Organizer
Sylvia Rhue is a writer, activist, filmmaker and producer. She is working on a one-woman comedy show called “CAKE: You Ain’t Gettin' None,” which will be filmed and performed in Santa Monica.
She is the former Director of Research and Academic Initiatives
and former Director of Religious Affairs with the National Black Justice Coalition located in Washington, D.C.
Previously, she was employed as the California Freedom to Marry Coalition Manager and the Director of Equal Partners in Faith, and she worked with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights. She also worked at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center as the Assistant Director of Counseling, and then as the Policy and Public Affairs Advocate. A native Californian, she graduated from UCLA with a Masters Degree in Social Work and received a Doctorate in Human Sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. She is the first African American to receive this degree. Dr. Rhue is the co-producer of the award-winning film All God's Children, and she is an expert on the "ex-gay" movement, which she calls “the cult of the annihilation of the authentic self.” Dr. Rhue is a noted public speaker, a documentarian, a religious scholar and a writer.
She is the former Director of Research and Academic Initiatives
and former Director of Religious Affairs with the National Black Justice Coalition located in Washington, D.C.
Previously, she was employed as the California Freedom to Marry Coalition Manager and the Director of Equal Partners in Faith, and she worked with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights. She also worked at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center as the Assistant Director of Counseling, and then as the Policy and Public Affairs Advocate. A native Californian, she graduated from UCLA with a Masters Degree in Social Work and received a Doctorate in Human Sexuality from the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. She is the first African American to receive this degree. Dr. Rhue is the co-producer of the award-winning film All God's Children, and she is an expert on the "ex-gay" movement, which she calls “the cult of the annihilation of the authentic self.” Dr. Rhue is a noted public speaker, a documentarian, a religious scholar and a writer.
Ethel Waters: Actress, Singer, Dancer
Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American blues and jazz vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her best-known recording was her version of the spiritual, "His Eye is on the Sparrow", and she was the second African American ever nominated for an Academy Award.
Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on October 31, 1896. Ethel Waters was raised in a violent, impoverished home. She never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. She said of her difficult childhood, "I never was a child. I never was cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family." Despite this unpromising start, Waters demonstrated early the love of language that so distinguishes her work. Moreover, according to her biographer Rosetta Reitz, Waters' birth in the North and her peripatetic life exposed her to many cultures.
For the rest of her life, this lent to her interpretation of southern blues a unique sensibility that pulled in eclectic influences from across American music.
Waters married at the age of 13, but soon left her abusive husband and became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel working for $4.75 per week. On Halloween night in 1913, she attended a party in costume at a nightclub on Juniper Street. She was persuaded to sing two songs, and impressed the audience so much that she was offered professional work at the Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland. She later recalled that she earned the rich sum of ten dollars a week, but her managers cheated her out of the tips her admirers threw on the stage.
Waters had at least one quite public affair with a dancer named Ethel Williams, with whom she flirted from the stage and had notorious lovers' spats. She is also rumored to have had a brief liaison with British novelist Radclyffe Hall, whom she mentions in her autobiography.
After her start in Baltimore, she toured on the black vaudeville circuit. As she described it later, "I used to work from nine until unconscious." Despite her early success, Waters fell on hard times and joined a carnival which traveled in freight cars to Chicago, Illinois. Waters enjoyed her time with the carnival, and recalled, "The roustabouts and the concessionaires were the kind of people I'd grown up with, rough, tough, full of larceny towards strangers, but sentimental, and loyal to their friends and co-workers." She did not last long with them, though, and soon headed south to Atlanta, Georgia. There, she worked in the same club with Bessie Smith. Smith demanded that she not compete in singing the blues opposite her, and Waters conceded to the older woman and instead sang ballads and popular songs and danced. Though perhaps best known for her blues singing today, Waters was to go on to star in musicals, plays and TV and return to the blues only periodically.
She fell in love with a drug addict in this early period, but their stormy relationship ended with World War I. Ethel Waters moved to Harlem and became part of the Harlem Renaissance around 1919.
Waters obtained her first job at Edmond's Cellar, a club that had a black patronage. She specialized in popular ballads, and became an actress in a blackface comedy called Hello 1919. Her biographer, Rosetta Reitz, points out that by the time Waters returned to Harlem in 1921, women blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in the country. In 1921 Waters became the fifth black woman to make a record (recording for the tiny Cardinal Records label). She later joined Black Swan Records, where Fletcher Henderson was her accompanist. Waters later commented that Henderson tended to perform in a more classical style than she would prefer, often lacking "the damn-it-to-hell bass". According to Waters, she influenced Henderson to practice in a "real jazz" style.
Waters made her first record in 1921 for tiny Cardinal Record label. She then signed with Black Swan in 1921 and remained with them through 1923 when Black Swan's records were melded into the Paramount label, staying with Paramount through 1924. She first recorded for Columbia Records in 1925; this recording was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. Soon after, Waters started working with Pearl Wright, and together they toured in the South. In 1924 Waters played at the Plantation Club on Broadway. She also toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. With Earl Dancer, she joined what was called the "white time" Keith Circuit. They received rave reviews in Chicago, and earned the unheard-of salary of US$1,250 in 1928. In 1929, Harry Akst helped Wright and Waters compose a version of "Am I Blue?", her signature tune.
Although she was considered a blues singer during the pre-1925 period, Waters belonged to the Vaudeville-style style similar to Mamie Smith, Viola McCoy, and Lucille Hegamin. While with Columbia, she introduced many popular standards including "Dinah", "Heebie Jeebies", "Sweet Georgia Brown", "Someday, Sweetheart", "Am I Blue?" and "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue".
During the 1920s, Waters performed and recorded with the ensembles of Will Marion Cook and Lovie Austin. As her career continued, she evolved toward being a blues and Broadway singer, performing with artists such as Duke Ellington.
She remained with Columbia through 1931. She then signed with Brunsick in 1932 and remained until 1933 when she went back to Columbia. She signed with Decca in late 1934 for only two sessions, as well as a single session in early 1938. She recorded for the specialty label "Liberty Music Shops" in 1935 and again in 1940. Between 1938 and 1939, she recorded for Bluebird.
In 1933, Waters made a satirical all-black film entitled Rufus Jones for President. She went on to star at the Cotton Club, where, according to her autobiography, she "sang 'Stormy Weather' from the depths of the private hell in which I was being crushed and suffocated." She took a role in the Broadway musical revue As Thousands Cheer in 1933, where she was the first black woman in an otherwise white show. She had three gigs at this point; in addition to the show, she starred in a national radio program and continued to work in nightclubs. She was the highest paid performer on Broadway, but she was starting to age. MGM hired Lena Horne as the ingenue in the all-Black musical Cabin in the Sky, and Waters starred as Petunia in 1942, reprising her stage role of 1940. The film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, was a success, but Waters, offended by the adulation accorded Horne and feeling her age, went into something of a decline.
She began to work with Fletcher Henderson again in the late 1940s. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky. In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding. Waters and Harris repeated their roles in the 1952 film version of Member of the Wedding'' In 1950, Waters starred in the television series Beulah but quit after complaining that the scripts' portrayal of African-Americans was "degrading."
Despite these successes, her brilliant career was fading. She lost tens of thousands in jewelry and cash in a robbery, and the IRS hounded her. Her health suffered, and she worked only sporadically in following years. In 1950-51 she wrote the autobiography His Eye is on the Sparrow, with Charles Samuels. (It later was adapted for a stage production in which she was portrayed by Ernestine Jackson.) In it, she talks candidly about her life. She also explains why her age has often been misstated, saying that her mother had to sign a paper saying she was four years older than she was. She states she was born in 1900. In her second autobiography, To Me, It's Wonderful, Waters states that she was born in 1897.
Waters is the great-aunt of Dance music singer and songwriter Crystal Waters. In the period before her death in Los Angeles, California, she toured with The Reverend Billy Graham, despite the fact that she had once been a Catholic and he was a Protestant. She died in 1977 at the age of 80 from heart disease, at the Chatsworth, California, home of a young couple who cared for her.
(Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sZ58Kfe41kI )
Ethel Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on October 31, 1896. Ethel Waters was raised in a violent, impoverished home. She never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. She said of her difficult childhood, "I never was a child. I never was cuddled, or liked, or understood by my family." Despite this unpromising start, Waters demonstrated early the love of language that so distinguishes her work. Moreover, according to her biographer Rosetta Reitz, Waters' birth in the North and her peripatetic life exposed her to many cultures.
For the rest of her life, this lent to her interpretation of southern blues a unique sensibility that pulled in eclectic influences from across American music.
Waters married at the age of 13, but soon left her abusive husband and became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel working for $4.75 per week. On Halloween night in 1913, she attended a party in costume at a nightclub on Juniper Street. She was persuaded to sing two songs, and impressed the audience so much that she was offered professional work at the Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland. She later recalled that she earned the rich sum of ten dollars a week, but her managers cheated her out of the tips her admirers threw on the stage.
Waters had at least one quite public affair with a dancer named Ethel Williams, with whom she flirted from the stage and had notorious lovers' spats. She is also rumored to have had a brief liaison with British novelist Radclyffe Hall, whom she mentions in her autobiography.
After her start in Baltimore, she toured on the black vaudeville circuit. As she described it later, "I used to work from nine until unconscious." Despite her early success, Waters fell on hard times and joined a carnival which traveled in freight cars to Chicago, Illinois. Waters enjoyed her time with the carnival, and recalled, "The roustabouts and the concessionaires were the kind of people I'd grown up with, rough, tough, full of larceny towards strangers, but sentimental, and loyal to their friends and co-workers." She did not last long with them, though, and soon headed south to Atlanta, Georgia. There, she worked in the same club with Bessie Smith. Smith demanded that she not compete in singing the blues opposite her, and Waters conceded to the older woman and instead sang ballads and popular songs and danced. Though perhaps best known for her blues singing today, Waters was to go on to star in musicals, plays and TV and return to the blues only periodically.
She fell in love with a drug addict in this early period, but their stormy relationship ended with World War I. Ethel Waters moved to Harlem and became part of the Harlem Renaissance around 1919.
Waters obtained her first job at Edmond's Cellar, a club that had a black patronage. She specialized in popular ballads, and became an actress in a blackface comedy called Hello 1919. Her biographer, Rosetta Reitz, points out that by the time Waters returned to Harlem in 1921, women blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in the country. In 1921 Waters became the fifth black woman to make a record (recording for the tiny Cardinal Records label). She later joined Black Swan Records, where Fletcher Henderson was her accompanist. Waters later commented that Henderson tended to perform in a more classical style than she would prefer, often lacking "the damn-it-to-hell bass". According to Waters, she influenced Henderson to practice in a "real jazz" style.
Waters made her first record in 1921 for tiny Cardinal Record label. She then signed with Black Swan in 1921 and remained with them through 1923 when Black Swan's records were melded into the Paramount label, staying with Paramount through 1924. She first recorded for Columbia Records in 1925; this recording was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. Soon after, Waters started working with Pearl Wright, and together they toured in the South. In 1924 Waters played at the Plantation Club on Broadway. She also toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. With Earl Dancer, she joined what was called the "white time" Keith Circuit. They received rave reviews in Chicago, and earned the unheard-of salary of US$1,250 in 1928. In 1929, Harry Akst helped Wright and Waters compose a version of "Am I Blue?", her signature tune.
Although she was considered a blues singer during the pre-1925 period, Waters belonged to the Vaudeville-style style similar to Mamie Smith, Viola McCoy, and Lucille Hegamin. While with Columbia, she introduced many popular standards including "Dinah", "Heebie Jeebies", "Sweet Georgia Brown", "Someday, Sweetheart", "Am I Blue?" and "(What Did I Do To Be So) Black and Blue".
During the 1920s, Waters performed and recorded with the ensembles of Will Marion Cook and Lovie Austin. As her career continued, she evolved toward being a blues and Broadway singer, performing with artists such as Duke Ellington.
She remained with Columbia through 1931. She then signed with Brunsick in 1932 and remained until 1933 when she went back to Columbia. She signed with Decca in late 1934 for only two sessions, as well as a single session in early 1938. She recorded for the specialty label "Liberty Music Shops" in 1935 and again in 1940. Between 1938 and 1939, she recorded for Bluebird.
In 1933, Waters made a satirical all-black film entitled Rufus Jones for President. She went on to star at the Cotton Club, where, according to her autobiography, she "sang 'Stormy Weather' from the depths of the private hell in which I was being crushed and suffocated." She took a role in the Broadway musical revue As Thousands Cheer in 1933, where she was the first black woman in an otherwise white show. She had three gigs at this point; in addition to the show, she starred in a national radio program and continued to work in nightclubs. She was the highest paid performer on Broadway, but she was starting to age. MGM hired Lena Horne as the ingenue in the all-Black musical Cabin in the Sky, and Waters starred as Petunia in 1942, reprising her stage role of 1940. The film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, was a success, but Waters, offended by the adulation accorded Horne and feeling her age, went into something of a decline.
She began to work with Fletcher Henderson again in the late 1940s. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky. In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding. Waters and Harris repeated their roles in the 1952 film version of Member of the Wedding'' In 1950, Waters starred in the television series Beulah but quit after complaining that the scripts' portrayal of African-Americans was "degrading."
Despite these successes, her brilliant career was fading. She lost tens of thousands in jewelry and cash in a robbery, and the IRS hounded her. Her health suffered, and she worked only sporadically in following years. In 1950-51 she wrote the autobiography His Eye is on the Sparrow, with Charles Samuels. (It later was adapted for a stage production in which she was portrayed by Ernestine Jackson.) In it, she talks candidly about her life. She also explains why her age has often been misstated, saying that her mother had to sign a paper saying she was four years older than she was. She states she was born in 1900. In her second autobiography, To Me, It's Wonderful, Waters states that she was born in 1897.
Waters is the great-aunt of Dance music singer and songwriter Crystal Waters. In the period before her death in Los Angeles, California, she toured with The Reverend Billy Graham, despite the fact that she had once been a Catholic and he was a Protestant. She died in 1977 at the age of 80 from heart disease, at the Chatsworth, California, home of a young couple who cared for her.
(Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sZ58Kfe41kI )
Cesnabmihilo Dorothy Aken’Ova: Nigerian Activist, Organizer
Cesnabmihilo Dorothy Aken’Ova is a feminist and a sexual rights activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of INCRESE.
Dorothy designs and manages community projects targeting young people, women, especially women governed by shari’a laws, and other sexual minorities using the Behavioural Change Communication towards the acceptance, protection and promotion of Sexual rights and gender equality. She has coordinated national research on sexual diversity and human rights in Nigeria and a situational analysis of the status of sexual health and rights in Nigeria. Dorothy is currently implementing an advocacy project for the protection of the human rights of sexual minorities, and the eradication of discriminatory laws. She coordinates the Coalition for the Defense of Sexual rights in Nigeria under whose auspices the bill prohibiting same sex marriage has been defeated twice. Dorothy is an Ashoka fellow distinguished by her research and response intervention community projects on sexual pleasure in women.
Dorothy designs and manages community projects targeting young people, women, especially women governed by shari’a laws, and other sexual minorities using the Behavioural Change Communication towards the acceptance, protection and promotion of Sexual rights and gender equality. She has coordinated national research on sexual diversity and human rights in Nigeria and a situational analysis of the status of sexual health and rights in Nigeria. Dorothy is currently implementing an advocacy project for the protection of the human rights of sexual minorities, and the eradication of discriminatory laws. She coordinates the Coalition for the Defense of Sexual rights in Nigeria under whose auspices the bill prohibiting same sex marriage has been defeated twice. Dorothy is an Ashoka fellow distinguished by her research and response intervention community projects on sexual pleasure in women.
Tony Washington: Lead Singer of The Dynamic Superiors (Soul Singing Group of the 1960's & 1970's)
The Dynamic Superiors (under lead singer, Tony Washington) was a Motown group from Washington, D.C. The group formed in 1963 with members Michael McCalpin, George Wesley Peterbark Jr., George Spann and brothers Maurice and Tony Washington who all grew up in the same Washington, D.C. housing project. The five of them went to school together, singing on street corners and playing in various talent contests along the way. By the time they were in high school they’d formed The Superiors and were lying about their ages in order to play D.C. niteclubs. They made their recording debut in 1969.
Two years later they got their big break when they were discovered by Motown executive Ewart Abner at a 1972 dj convention in Atlanta. It apparently took Motown management awhile to figure out how to deal with the group, eventually teaming them with the writing and production team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson. To Motown’s credit the label made no attempt to hide lead singer Tony Washington’s openly gay lifestyle.
They finally received their contract with Motown in 1974 and their debut album was a collection of Ashford & Simpson romantic soul ballads that produced two top 20 hits, “Shoe Shoe Shine” and “Leave It Alone’. Their second album, Pure Pleasure, saw them continuing their collaboration with Ashford & Simpson. The album added a disco feel to the Superiors” sound, and spawned two further chart entries.
In concert they were noted for their energetic live performances and sometimes Tony would ‘dress up’ for certain numbers. One of the highlights of their stage performance would be their rendition of ‘Me and Mrs. Jones’. While the other members would sing ‘me and Mrs. Jones’, lead singer, Tony would camp it up singing ‘me and Mr. Jones’. They were a rare, talented group. Lead singer Tony Washington has since passed away. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EAcp0vMFYOo ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ouWfvtDKKJM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4yruV9o04Y0 )
Two years later they got their big break when they were discovered by Motown executive Ewart Abner at a 1972 dj convention in Atlanta. It apparently took Motown management awhile to figure out how to deal with the group, eventually teaming them with the writing and production team of Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson. To Motown’s credit the label made no attempt to hide lead singer Tony Washington’s openly gay lifestyle.
They finally received their contract with Motown in 1974 and their debut album was a collection of Ashford & Simpson romantic soul ballads that produced two top 20 hits, “Shoe Shoe Shine” and “Leave It Alone’. Their second album, Pure Pleasure, saw them continuing their collaboration with Ashford & Simpson. The album added a disco feel to the Superiors” sound, and spawned two further chart entries.
In concert they were noted for their energetic live performances and sometimes Tony would ‘dress up’ for certain numbers. One of the highlights of their stage performance would be their rendition of ‘Me and Mrs. Jones’. While the other members would sing ‘me and Mrs. Jones’, lead singer, Tony would camp it up singing ‘me and Mr. Jones’. They were a rare, talented group. Lead singer Tony Washington has since passed away. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EAcp0vMFYOo ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ouWfvtDKKJM ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4yruV9o04Y0 )
Jason Collins: Athlete, Activist
Jason Paul Collins was born on December 2, 1978, in Northridge, California, minutes ahead of his twin brother, Jarron. They both played basketball for Harvard-Westlake High School in North Hollywood, California, where future television and movie star Jason Segel served as their back-up, and won a pair of California State championships together. As a senior in 1997, Jason Collins was named to the McDonald's High School Basketball All-American Team.
The twins enrolled at Stanford University, providing basketball coach Mike Montgomery with a pair of imposing big men. Limited to eight games over his first two seasons because of injuries, Jason Collins went on to average 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in his senior year, as well as earn selection to the honorable mention All-American Team. He graduated with a degree in communications and was taken with the 18th pick in the 2001 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets.
Jason Collins never became a star in the NBA, but at a rock-solid 7'0" and 255 pounds he could capably defend the league's best big men and logged regular minutes for the Nets teams that reached the NBA finals in 2002 and '03. He enjoyed his best season in 2004-05, when he averaged 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game but was also charged with a league-high 322 personal fouls.
Collins was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in early 2008, then spent the following season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He found a home with the Atlanta Hawks for the next three seasons, providing his usual tough defense off the bench to help them reach the playoffs each time. He played sparingly during the 2012-13 season for the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards, averaging just 1.1 points and 1.6 rebounds per game, before becoming a free agent.
On April 29, 2013, the internet lit up with the revelation that Collins was gay, making him the first openly gay active male athlete in the four major North American sports. In an article released with the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated, Collins made his official announcement and explained his reasoning for coming out when he did: Having grown tired of guarding his secret for years, he was frustrated when he could not join former roommate, Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Kennedy III, and participate in Boston's 2012 Gay Pride Parade. Furthermore, he said, the recent bombings at the Boston Marathon made him realize the impermanence of everyday life and the importance of living truthfully.
In the wake of the announcement, NBA stars such as Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash tweeted their support. White House spokesman Jay Carney lauded Collins's statement as a courageous act, while former U.S. President Bill Clinton, whose daughter, Chelsea, attended Stanford with Collins, wrote that the basketball star's words were "the straightforward statement of a good man who wants no more than what so many of us seek: to be able to be who we are; to do our work; to build families and to contribute to our communities."
Jason signed with the Brooklyn Nets in February of 2014.
The twins enrolled at Stanford University, providing basketball coach Mike Montgomery with a pair of imposing big men. Limited to eight games over his first two seasons because of injuries, Jason Collins went on to average 14.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in his senior year, as well as earn selection to the honorable mention All-American Team. He graduated with a degree in communications and was taken with the 18th pick in the 2001 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets.
Jason Collins never became a star in the NBA, but at a rock-solid 7'0" and 255 pounds he could capably defend the league's best big men and logged regular minutes for the Nets teams that reached the NBA finals in 2002 and '03. He enjoyed his best season in 2004-05, when he averaged 6.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game but was also charged with a league-high 322 personal fouls.
Collins was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in early 2008, then spent the following season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He found a home with the Atlanta Hawks for the next three seasons, providing his usual tough defense off the bench to help them reach the playoffs each time. He played sparingly during the 2012-13 season for the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards, averaging just 1.1 points and 1.6 rebounds per game, before becoming a free agent.
On April 29, 2013, the internet lit up with the revelation that Collins was gay, making him the first openly gay active male athlete in the four major North American sports. In an article released with the May 6 issue of Sports Illustrated, Collins made his official announcement and explained his reasoning for coming out when he did: Having grown tired of guarding his secret for years, he was frustrated when he could not join former roommate, Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Kennedy III, and participate in Boston's 2012 Gay Pride Parade. Furthermore, he said, the recent bombings at the Boston Marathon made him realize the impermanence of everyday life and the importance of living truthfully.
In the wake of the announcement, NBA stars such as Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash tweeted their support. White House spokesman Jay Carney lauded Collins's statement as a courageous act, while former U.S. President Bill Clinton, whose daughter, Chelsea, attended Stanford with Collins, wrote that the basketball star's words were "the straightforward statement of a good man who wants no more than what so many of us seek: to be able to be who we are; to do our work; to build families and to contribute to our communities."
Jason signed with the Brooklyn Nets in February of 2014.
Aba Taylor: Ghanaian/USA Activist, Writer, Photographer, Filmmaker
As a first-generation Ghanaian Aba Taylor has been involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy, international women’s rights, LGBT and social justice movements for over a decade. Aba received her Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in New York and a Master’s degree from the School of International Training. She have lived, worked and traveled in Africa, Europe, Asia, Central America, the Caribbean, and North America and is committed to working with and uplifting communities of African descent. Aba has worked for the United Nations, African Services Committee, Lambda Legal, Liberty Hill Foundation, ACT-UP and a host of other civil rights and social justice organizations dedicated to empowering women, Africans and LGBTQ people. In addition to her career as a non-profit professional, consultant and educator/facilitator/trainer, Aba is an avid supporter of social entrepreneurship and is also a freelance writer, photographer and filmmaker who could not live without art and creative and cultural expression.
Randall Kenan: Novelist, Educator
Randall Kenan (1963) is an American author of fiction and nonfiction. Raised in a rural community in North Carolina, Kenan has focused his fiction on what it means to be black and gay in the southern United States. Among his books is the collection of short stories Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, which was named a New York Times Notable Book in 1992. Kenan is the recipient of aGuggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award and the John Dos Passos Prize.
Kenan was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 12, 1963. Initially raised by his grandparents, Kenan soon went to live with a great-aunt in Chinquapin, North Carolina, a rural community of fewer than a thousand people. The community later became the basis of the fictional Tims Creek, where all of Kenan's fiction is set.
Kenan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he graduated in 1985 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. He studied with the author Doris Betts. Based on an instructor's recommendation, and the help of novelist and editor Toni Morrison, he was hired for a job with Random House in New York City.
Kenan eventually transferred to the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, where he worked until 1989. That same year he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. Currently, an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he has served as a visiting writer or writing in residence at a number of other universities, including the University of Mississippi, the University of Memphis, Duke University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Kenan's first novel, A Visitation of Spirits, was published in 1989. While a few critics praised the book, it did not receive much attention. This changed with the publication in 1992 of Kenan's second book, a collection of short stories titled Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. The stories, based in the fictional community of Tims Creek, focused on (among other things) what it meant to be poor, black, and gay in the southern United States. The book was hailed as a revival of classic southern literature and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book. The short story collection also brought renewed attention to his first novel, which was likewise set in Tims Creek.
Kenan strongly identifies with both his African American and gay identities, both of which were highlighted in his next two books. In 1993 he published a young adult biography of gay African American novelist and essayist James Baldwin. Kenan has frequently stated that Baldwin is one of his idols. He then spent several years traveling across America and Canada collecting oral histories of African Americans, which he published in Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century (1999).
Kenan has won a number of writing awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Award, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 2007 Kenan published The Fire This Time, a book whose title was taken from James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time.
Kenan's latest book, "Only The Dead Know Chapel Hill" tells the tale of an abduction of African-American boys from Chapel Hill. This story is filled with walking contradictions, for example: Jesus became Beelzebub but is repeatedly referenced by both of his names.
Kenan was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 12, 1963. Initially raised by his grandparents, Kenan soon went to live with a great-aunt in Chinquapin, North Carolina, a rural community of fewer than a thousand people. The community later became the basis of the fictional Tims Creek, where all of Kenan's fiction is set.
Kenan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he graduated in 1985 with degrees in English and Creative Writing. He studied with the author Doris Betts. Based on an instructor's recommendation, and the help of novelist and editor Toni Morrison, he was hired for a job with Random House in New York City.
Kenan eventually transferred to the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, where he worked until 1989. That same year he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. Currently, an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he has served as a visiting writer or writing in residence at a number of other universities, including the University of Mississippi, the University of Memphis, Duke University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Kenan's first novel, A Visitation of Spirits, was published in 1989. While a few critics praised the book, it did not receive much attention. This changed with the publication in 1992 of Kenan's second book, a collection of short stories titled Let the Dead Bury Their Dead. The stories, based in the fictional community of Tims Creek, focused on (among other things) what it meant to be poor, black, and gay in the southern United States. The book was hailed as a revival of classic southern literature and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was named a New York Times Notable Book. The short story collection also brought renewed attention to his first novel, which was likewise set in Tims Creek.
Kenan strongly identifies with both his African American and gay identities, both of which were highlighted in his next two books. In 1993 he published a young adult biography of gay African American novelist and essayist James Baldwin. Kenan has frequently stated that Baldwin is one of his idols. He then spent several years traveling across America and Canada collecting oral histories of African Americans, which he published in Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century (1999).
Kenan has won a number of writing awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Award, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 2007 Kenan published The Fire This Time, a book whose title was taken from James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time.
Kenan's latest book, "Only The Dead Know Chapel Hill" tells the tale of an abduction of African-American boys from Chapel Hill. This story is filled with walking contradictions, for example: Jesus became Beelzebub but is repeatedly referenced by both of his names.
Deepa Soul: Singer, Performer
When Deepa Soul performs or even speaks to her audiences they just can't take their eyes off her. Her stunning stage presence has been inspiring club goers since her debut in 2000 with the release of her Billboard Dance/Club Play smash" Nowhere Love". Embodying all of the elements of funk, rock, soul, reggae, house , blues and ballads, Deepa Soul can’t be defined by or confined to any particular genre.
A native of New Orleans, she is not only an extraordinary singer, she is a musician, songwriter, performer, poet, writer and activist. Her ‘Gumbo’ style of music has it’s roots anchored in the church - gospel, chorale; school - classical, jazz, marching band, pop music, big band, and brass band; and parents who were gifted musicians themselves.
Having been born deep in the Bible Belt culture of the south, she says: “That Bible belt was so tight, that it was hard for me to breath in that dark ugly closet.” Fortunately, she says her grandmother, Mildred, was her saving grace. She says her grandmother understood her and helped her to understand herself. They had a secret relationship that nurtured Deepa through the hard times. “She told me that I would have to get out of the south as soon as I could if I was going to live and be happy." She heeded her grandmother’s words and left as soon as she was able eventually winding up in New York City, where she now lives.
Deepa broke out with her very first single ‘Nowhere Love’ after being discovered by Junior Vasquez. She did it again when she and Junior Vasquez joined forces to release a cover of the Sound Factory classic ‘As I Am’. Her 2010 debut album “Ego Trippin” inspired by poet Nikki Giovanni is a trilogy that is sure to take listeners on a magical, musical, mystical ride! (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Appt3GMcLIg ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sPrXGXaZuzE )
A native of New Orleans, she is not only an extraordinary singer, she is a musician, songwriter, performer, poet, writer and activist. Her ‘Gumbo’ style of music has it’s roots anchored in the church - gospel, chorale; school - classical, jazz, marching band, pop music, big band, and brass band; and parents who were gifted musicians themselves.
Having been born deep in the Bible Belt culture of the south, she says: “That Bible belt was so tight, that it was hard for me to breath in that dark ugly closet.” Fortunately, she says her grandmother, Mildred, was her saving grace. She says her grandmother understood her and helped her to understand herself. They had a secret relationship that nurtured Deepa through the hard times. “She told me that I would have to get out of the south as soon as I could if I was going to live and be happy." She heeded her grandmother’s words and left as soon as she was able eventually winding up in New York City, where she now lives.
Deepa broke out with her very first single ‘Nowhere Love’ after being discovered by Junior Vasquez. She did it again when she and Junior Vasquez joined forces to release a cover of the Sound Factory classic ‘As I Am’. Her 2010 debut album “Ego Trippin” inspired by poet Nikki Giovanni is a trilogy that is sure to take listeners on a magical, musical, mystical ride! (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Appt3GMcLIg ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sPrXGXaZuzE )
Chewy: British Rapper, Actor
Chewy is a U.K, based rapper/hip hop artist who grew up listening to Motown, The Philly sounds and Barry White ballads. He started performing as a child at the age of five as an actor and performing poetry, however he started rapping at the age of 12. His professional career as a rapper, though, is relatively new- - only a little over four years.
When asked what made him decide to become an out hip hop artist he says: “Sexuality is as much a part of me as the colour of my skin. To me there was never a compromise. I rap about my life and personal experiences so to leave out such an epic poignant aspect of my genetic make up absent in my artistry would be completely false. And that's not me. I am what I am.”
Chewy describes his music as “Extremely lyrical, conscious rap with a touch of 60's & 70's northern soul (British soul music), r 'n' b mixed with early hip hop flavas. “I try to be as dynamic as I can when writing bars and always try and tell a story tailored for the greater audience while still staying true to who I am and what I represent.”
Besides rapping, Chewy still makes a living as an actor. He has released a single and music video for his song, "Someone" from his mix tape, ‘Wookie Wonderland’. Wookie Wonderland mix tape part 2 will be dropping soon. He’s also working on a follow up single to 'Someone' with a new video, and preparing for the release of his full feature length album. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ld_cYYrTWbQ)
When asked what made him decide to become an out hip hop artist he says: “Sexuality is as much a part of me as the colour of my skin. To me there was never a compromise. I rap about my life and personal experiences so to leave out such an epic poignant aspect of my genetic make up absent in my artistry would be completely false. And that's not me. I am what I am.”
Chewy describes his music as “Extremely lyrical, conscious rap with a touch of 60's & 70's northern soul (British soul music), r 'n' b mixed with early hip hop flavas. “I try to be as dynamic as I can when writing bars and always try and tell a story tailored for the greater audience while still staying true to who I am and what I represent.”
Besides rapping, Chewy still makes a living as an actor. He has released a single and music video for his song, "Someone" from his mix tape, ‘Wookie Wonderland’. Wookie Wonderland mix tape part 2 will be dropping soon. He’s also working on a follow up single to 'Someone' with a new video, and preparing for the release of his full feature length album. (Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ld_cYYrTWbQ)
Da 5 Footaz: Rap Group
Da 5 Footaz is an all-girl group from L.A. They have been making moves since the mid-nineties. Composed of Neb Luv, Cobra Red, Jah Skillz, Ka-Bar, and Knehi, their origins go back to '94, when Jah Skillz scorched the mic on "Supa Soul Sis" off Warren G'sRegulate&G-Funk Era. Jah hooked up with Neb Luv in school, and the two were featured in the documentary The Show. Soon their ranks grew, and in '96 the quintet contributed a track called "The Heist" to the film Set It Off. (Below, see Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LVQ6hg-Ek34 ;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jmWlyXeuryM )
Bessie Smith: Legendary Singer, ‘Queen of the Blues’
Bessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer.
Sometimes referred to as "The Empress of the Blues," Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.
By the early 1920s, Smith had starred with Sidney Bechet in How Come?, a musical that made its way to Broadway. She spent several years working out of Atlanta, Georgia's 81 Theater, and performing in black theaters along the East Coast. Following a run-in with the producer of How Come?, Smith was replaced by Alberta Hunter and returned to Philadelphia where she had taken up residence.
There, she met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first recordings were being released by Columbia Records. The marriage was a stormy one, with infidelity on both sides. During the marriage, Smith became the biggest headliner on the black Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) circuit. Her show sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers and made her the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Gee was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business life, or to Smith's bisexuality (including a volatile, near-fatal affair in 1926 with chorus girl Lillian Simpson).
In 1929, when Smith learned of Gee's affair with Gertrude Saunders, another performer, she ended the marriage, though she never sought a divorce. Smith eventually found a common-law husband in an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton's uncle and the antithesis of her husband. She stayed with him until her death.
Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. By 1920 Smith had established a reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.
She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues," which its composer Alberta Hunter had already turned into a hit on the Paramount label. Smith became a headliner on the black T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s.[7] Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter months and doing tent tours the rest of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car), Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day.[8] Columbia nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues," but a PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to "Empress".
She made some 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, Charlie Green and Fletcher Henderson.
Smith's career was cut short by a combination of the Great Depression (which all but put the recording industry out of business) and the advent of "talkies", which spelled the end for vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. While the days of elaborate vaudeville shows were over, Smith continued touring and occasionally singing in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a Broadway flop called Pansy, a musical in which top critics said she was the only asset.
In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson and a string section — a musical environment radically different from any found on her recordings.
On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Two ambulances arrived on the scene from Clarksdale; one from the black hospital, the other from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver involved in the accident, who had not seen the accident victims but apparently assumed that they were white. Eventually, Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale's Afro-American Hospital where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness.
Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia on Monday, October 4, 1937. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community, the body had to be moved from a funeral home to an Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania. Her estranged husband thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose. The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a tombstone—paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith—was erected.
Recordings of Bessie Smith were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and in 2002 Smith's recording of the single, "Downhearted Blues," was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The board selects songs on an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
“Downhearted Blues" was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. It is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2cngx_KKiWE ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5TzylwYt-YM )
Sometimes referred to as "The Empress of the Blues," Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and, along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent jazz vocalists.
By the early 1920s, Smith had starred with Sidney Bechet in How Come?, a musical that made its way to Broadway. She spent several years working out of Atlanta, Georgia's 81 Theater, and performing in black theaters along the East Coast. Following a run-in with the producer of How Come?, Smith was replaced by Alberta Hunter and returned to Philadelphia where she had taken up residence.
There, she met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married on June 7, 1923, just as her first recordings were being released by Columbia Records. The marriage was a stormy one, with infidelity on both sides. During the marriage, Smith became the biggest headliner on the black Theater Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A.) circuit. Her show sometimes featured as many as 40 troupers and made her the highest-paid black entertainer of her day. Gee was impressed by the money, but never adjusted to show business life, or to Smith's bisexuality (including a volatile, near-fatal affair in 1926 with chorus girl Lillian Simpson).
In 1929, when Smith learned of Gee's affair with Gertrude Saunders, another performer, she ended the marriage, though she never sought a divorce. Smith eventually found a common-law husband in an old friend, Richard Morgan, who was Lionel Hampton's uncle and the antithesis of her husband. She stayed with him until her death.
Smith began forming her own act around 1913, at Atlanta's "81" Theater. By 1920 Smith had established a reputation in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.
She scored a big hit with her first release, a coupling of "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues," which its composer Alberta Hunter had already turned into a hit on the Paramount label. Smith became a headliner on the black T.O.B.A. circuit and rose to become its top attraction in the 1920s.[7] Working a heavy theater schedule during the winter months and doing tent tours the rest of the year (eventually traveling in her own railroad car), Smith became the highest-paid black entertainer of her day.[8] Columbia nicknamed her "Queen of the Blues," but a PR-minded press soon upgraded her title to "Empress".
She made some 160 recordings for Columbia, often accompanied by the finest musicians of the day, most notably Louis Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, Charlie Green and Fletcher Henderson.
Smith's career was cut short by a combination of the Great Depression (which all but put the recording industry out of business) and the advent of "talkies", which spelled the end for vaudeville. She never stopped performing, however. While the days of elaborate vaudeville shows were over, Smith continued touring and occasionally singing in clubs. In 1929, she appeared in a Broadway flop called Pansy, a musical in which top critics said she was the only asset.
In 1929, Smith made her only film appearance, starring in a two-reeler titled St. Louis Blues, based on W. C. Handy's song of the same name. In the film, directed by Dudley Murphy and shot in Astoria, she sings the title song accompanied by members of Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, the Hall Johnson Choir, pianist James P. Johnson and a string section — a musical environment radically different from any found on her recordings.
On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Two ambulances arrived on the scene from Clarksdale; one from the black hospital, the other from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver involved in the accident, who had not seen the accident victims but apparently assumed that they were white. Eventually, Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale's Afro-American Hospital where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness.
Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia on Monday, October 4, 1937. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community, the body had to be moved from a funeral home to an Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania. Her estranged husband thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose. The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a tombstone—paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith—was erected.
Recordings of Bessie Smith were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and in 2002 Smith's recording of the single, "Downhearted Blues," was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. The board selects songs on an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
“Downhearted Blues" was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2001. It is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock 'n' roll. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2cngx_KKiWE ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5TzylwYt-YM )
Carl Phillips: Poet, Educator
Born in 1959, Carl Phillips is the author of numerous books of poetry, includingDouble Shadow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems 1986-2006 (2007) andRiding Westward (2006). His collectionThe Rest of Love (2004) won the Theodore Roethke Memorial Foundation Poetry Prize and the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, and was a finalist for the National Book Award.
His other books include: Rock Harbor(2002); The Tether (2001), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award;Pastoral (2000), winner of the Lambda Literary Award; From the Devotions(1998), finalist for the National Book Award; Cortége (1995), finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and In the Blood (1992), winner of the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize.
His work has been anthologized in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry (2003), edited by J. D. McClatchy, Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology (2002), edited by Helen Vendler,New Voices: University and College Prizes, 1989-1998 (2002), Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time (1988), Contemporary American Poetry(2001), and The Vintage Book of African American Poetry (2000). His poems have also been chosen eight times for the annual Best American Poetry series. Phillips is also the author of a book of prose, Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry (2004), and the translator of Sophocles’s Philoctetes (2003).
His honors include the 2006 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Pushcart Prize, the Academy of American Poets Prize, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress.
Ancient Greek and Roman writers, especially Thucydides, Cicero, and Tacitus, were an early influence for Phillips. He studied their work extensively in college, and through them learned "how forceful syntax can be in conveying nuance" as well as the use of "compression when conveying psychological and emotional crisis." Later, while studying with Geoffrey Hill, he discovered English Metaphysical poets such asGeorge Herbert and John Donne.
According to the Judges' Citation for the 1998 National Book Awards, "Carl Phillips' passionate and lyrical poems read like prayers, with a prayer's hesitations, its desire to be utterly accurate, its occasional flowing outbursts."
Phillips is Professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also teaches in the Creative Writing Program. He was elected an Academy Chancellor in 2006.
His other books include: Rock Harbor(2002); The Tether (2001), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award;Pastoral (2000), winner of the Lambda Literary Award; From the Devotions(1998), finalist for the National Book Award; Cortége (1995), finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and In the Blood (1992), winner of the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize.
His work has been anthologized in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry (2003), edited by J. D. McClatchy, Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology (2002), edited by Helen Vendler,New Voices: University and College Prizes, 1989-1998 (2002), Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time (1988), Contemporary American Poetry(2001), and The Vintage Book of African American Poetry (2000). His poems have also been chosen eight times for the annual Best American Poetry series. Phillips is also the author of a book of prose, Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry (2004), and the translator of Sophocles’s Philoctetes (2003).
His honors include the 2006 Academy of American Poets Fellowship, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Pushcart Prize, the Academy of American Poets Prize, induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress.
Ancient Greek and Roman writers, especially Thucydides, Cicero, and Tacitus, were an early influence for Phillips. He studied their work extensively in college, and through them learned "how forceful syntax can be in conveying nuance" as well as the use of "compression when conveying psychological and emotional crisis." Later, while studying with Geoffrey Hill, he discovered English Metaphysical poets such asGeorge Herbert and John Donne.
According to the Judges' Citation for the 1998 National Book Awards, "Carl Phillips' passionate and lyrical poems read like prayers, with a prayer's hesitations, its desire to be utterly accurate, its occasional flowing outbursts."
Phillips is Professor of English and of African and Afro-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also teaches in the Creative Writing Program. He was elected an Academy Chancellor in 2006.
B. Slade (aka Tonex): Singer, Songwriter, Producer, Actor
Anthony Charles Williams II (1975) better known by his stage name B.Slade, formerly known under the gospel moniker Tonéx (pronounced Toh nay), is a singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actor, and activist. He has gone by various names and aliases, but his primary stage name of choice had for years been "Tonéx". In 2010, he began using the stage name B.Slade.
Williams has released songs on dozens of albums over the span of his career, while producing several others for both gospel and secular artists. He has won six Stellar Awards, a GMA Award, and received 2 Grammy nominations: one for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album for his 2004 gold album, Out The Box and another in 2009 for Best Urban/Soul Alternative Performance for his single, "Blend", from his 2009 album, Unspoken.
Known more for his gospel recordings, his musical efforts have been known to blend a smorgasbord of styles, including pop, r&b, jazz, soul, funk, hip hop, rock and more. His primary influences include Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Prince, Michael Jackson, Walter Hawkins, David Bowie and Janet Jackson.
Born in 1975, Williams grew up in the San Diego area. His father, Dr. Anthony Williams, was Senior Pastor of the Truth Apostolic Community Church in suburban Spring Valley and served as a district elder in the California District Council of the Pentecostal Asssemblies of the World (PAW). His mother, Dr. E.B. Williams, was a licensed minister in the PAW and served the church as Assistant Pastor. Anthony was the youngest of the Williams' six boys. Gospel music was the preferred choice at home, but other sounds made their way into Williams' environment. His father played saxophone for James Brown and Jackie Wilson, his mother sang in various girl groups, and his older brothers sneaked funk and r&b recordings into the house. By age 10, he had recorded an album of his own at home (produced by Virgil Brookins). Deciding early on a musical career, he took the name "Tonex" by the time he was 13, sometimes spelling it "Tonéx"; at the age of 16 he and his parents Pastor A.C. Williams and Dr. E.B. Williams hired his first personal manager, Benjamin Jimerson (aka Benjamin Jimerson-Phillips) in 1991. Jimerson, who has since become a relatively successful movie producer, stated: "From the first moment I saw Tonex and he sang his first note, I realized I was dealing with a young man destined to become a major celebrity."
Rescue was still a small label, and Pronounced Toe-Nay was issued in a limited production run and distributed mostly from the back of Williams' car. Young gospel fans, however, quickly caught on to the innovative variety of music on Pronounced Toe-Nay. The album's producer, T. Boy, was an alter ego of Tonex himself. The album was divided by style into seven sections: hip-hop/rap, retro/funk, the future, jazz, mellow grooves, soul/gospel, and bonus tracks. In the recordings of Kirk Franklin and others, hip-hop had previously made inroads into gospel music, but this kind of wild eclectic mix was completely new. At the time, the digital reproduction of music was in its infancy, and rare copies of the album became prized possessions. Pronounced Toe-Nay garnered the attention of the producers at the 14th Annual Stellar Awards and placed him on the billing.
By this time, national labels had come calling. Tonéx was signed to an unusual three-way deal that affiliated him with the successful and growing gospel label Verity, the pop imprint Zomba, and the durable hip-hop label Tommy Boy. Tonéx made his national debut with a re-release of his most successful independent album Pronounced Toe-Nay in 2000. His first high-profile television appearance was performing a medley of "Trinity" and "One Good Reason" on the Stellar Awards, which was a coup as Tonéx was a relative unknown at the time. He has dubbed his particular genre-spanning musical style "nureau."
Upon its release, Pronounced Toe-Nay bore 5 different record label logos: Rescue Records, the independent label that originally released the album; Mo' Soule Steppyn Records, Tonéx's then-active vanity imprint label; Tommy Boy Gospel, the label to which Tonéx was signed as an artist; Verity Records, the label to which his independent label Rescue Records sold his album's masters; and Jive Records, the mainstream umbrella over Verity Records. All of the material was produced, arranged, composed and performed by Tonéx, with guest appearances from his mother E.B. Williams, and the rapper Big J.
Some executives wanted to develop Tonéx's career in a secular direction, but he turned them down and kept to religious themes. "There are a lot of people who do similar things to what I do in R&B but I wanted to use gospel lyrics," he explained in an interview quoted on the Sphinx Management Web site.
After going through numerous revisions, his second album O2 was released in 2002. The album spawned a major Christian radio hit in "God Has Not 4Got", a Stellar Award-winning song that displayed Tonéx's ability to create traditional choral gospel music as well as innovative pop fusions. USA TODAY gave it 3 stars (3 out of 4). The music video for the single "Bout A Thang" received heavy rotation on BET and MTV Australia, and featured energetic hip-hop dance and an urban image not usually associated with Gospel artists. O2 also featured a love song, "You", directed toward the artist's then-wife Yvette Williams (née Graham), a vocalist who at times went by the name Ms. Tonéx.
Even though O2 brought him more mainstream success, Tonéx said that this album was not what he had in mind for release. He continued to release independent projects via the internet that showcased even more of his versatile creativity. Probably his most acclaimed of these works, Tonéx released Oak Park 92105 in 2003 Oak Park 92105 was a double album. It was eventually re-released on iTunes in 2005 with some new songs; however, the album did not come without controversy, as Tonéx opted to include a ‘parental advisory: explicit lyrics’ notice on the front cover of the album, making it the first album by a Christian-based artist to carry the notice. Tonéx said the "explicit lyrics" notice is not a result of "cussing" on a record but rather content that "might be a little too deep for children."
His 2004 live double CD Out The Box earned him the most widespread acclaim so far. Divided into segments ranging from traditional gospel and praise anthems to splashes of urban dance, rock, and hip-hop, the ambitious Out The Box was a sprawling double disc set with 36 tracks, which included innovative intros, interludes, and a number of studio tracks. The supporting cast included a 10-piece band, 4 dancers, a 16-voice ensemble, and a 40-voice choir.
Out The Box debuted at #1 on the Billboard magazine Top Gospel Album Chart in September 2004, appeared on Billboard’s Top 200 and Top R&B Chart, was #5 on the Contemporary Christian Chart, and to date has sold over 500,000 copies. He also netted a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album the following year, and had another bonafide Christian radio hit with the ballad "Make Me Over". n 2005, Tonéx won a total of six Stellar Awards including "Artist of the Year" for Out The Box.
In July 2004, his father died, forcing him to take on the responsibility of becoming senior pastor of their family's church in his stead. He also divorced his wife of 5 years, Yvette. In 2006, Verity Records sued Williams for one million dollars citing breach of contract. Subsequently, Tonéx announced that he would retire from the Gospel music industry, frustrated by politics and mistreatment. The artist continued releasing music independently, using MySpace as his primary vehicle for promotion.
In March 2007, a reconciliation with Zomba Label Group was announced, which would be a joint venture for his Nureau Ink label. However, in June 2007, another split with Zomba was announced, fueled by his leaking of the vitriolic and profanity-laden song "The Naked Truth", along with several similarly themed blogs and videos. Tonéx cited label frustration as one of the reasons he leaked the song, and he soon faced much scrutiny within the Gospel arena for the explicit language and the angry tone of the song and its subsequent blogs. He later would close down his social networking sites for several months before resurfacing on the web in January 2008.
Recreating a softer gospel-friendly image, Williams changed his stage name to Ton3x (or TON3X) in 2008. He left the Verity Records family and signed under the umbrella of Battery Records, a label imprint of Sony/BMG. His only Battery Records release was the album Unspoken, released on March 17, 2009. The first single from that album, entitled "Blend", was unexpectedly nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance, despite very little promotional/financial support from Sony/Battery and garnered the artist his first non-gospel Grammy nomination.
In September 2009, The World Network aired an appearance of Tonéx on The Lexi Show. Starting out as another promotional tool for his music, the interview unexpectedly changed directions, leading to Williams candidly expressing his views on sexuality and revealing his own same-sex attraction. Though his sexual orientation had already been highly speculated within the African American and gospel communities, the unapologetic tone of these revelations were condemned by conservative Christians, and bookings and appearances were universally cancelled, eventually leading to Williams being excommunicated. The artist would later say that he was "caught off guard" by the show's line of questioning but that he answered every question truthfully.
On December 29, 2009, Tonéx's website, as well as his Twitter and Facebook accounts, reported that the artist's mother, Evangelist and vocalist E.B. Williams, had died the day before. Williams would soon end his pastoral duties at his family's church.
On June 9, 2010, Tonéx announced what would be his final mixtape, the digital-only release The Parking Lot. The mixtape was also distributed in NYC that night after what would be his final performance. On June 15, 2010, the brand Tonéx/TON3X was officially and permanently retired
Recreating himself as anout indie R&B/glam-pop artist, the artist formerly known as Tonéx underwent a re-branding, dubbing himself B.Slade and using digital media to release his new music. Though he continues to receive much resistance from his past, conservative gospel fans, his new-found transparency and honest lyrics have helped him carve a niche in the SGLT music genre, which itself is slowly gaining acceptance in the mainstream field.
In the fall of 2012, B.Slade embarked on his "Sex, Drugs and Sushi US Tour", doing shows in Chicago, New York and taking residency at the WitZend in Venice, LA during the months of September and November. He was nominated for four awards at the 8th Annual OUTMUSIC Awards, winning one for Best R&B/Soul Song. He released another album, Stunt B%$@H, on January 25, 2013.
Along with the many changes made by Williams in 2008, a foray into acting became part of his long list of endeavors.
Williams sang and produced the opening song for the hit UPN TV series One on One. His production was featured on the song "Off We Go" from the J. Lo/Ben Affleck film Gigli and in BET Films original movie The Walk starring Eva Marcille. "Cry No More" from the album Pronounced Toe-Nay was featured in the HBO film Prison Song starring Q-Tip and Mary J. Blige, while the track "The Good Song 2005", a remake of the song "The Good Song", was included on the soundtrack of the action movie xXx: State of the Union starring Ice Cube. B.Slade's song "Don't Wake Me" was featured on the second episode of the BET series Second Generation Wayans. In 2013, he produced the score for the 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards telecast. (Video Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L4FhhUlYYLs ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PNsDbFMTvJk; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DuitDAbvZqo )
Williams has released songs on dozens of albums over the span of his career, while producing several others for both gospel and secular artists. He has won six Stellar Awards, a GMA Award, and received 2 Grammy nominations: one for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album for his 2004 gold album, Out The Box and another in 2009 for Best Urban/Soul Alternative Performance for his single, "Blend", from his 2009 album, Unspoken.
Known more for his gospel recordings, his musical efforts have been known to blend a smorgasbord of styles, including pop, r&b, jazz, soul, funk, hip hop, rock and more. His primary influences include Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Prince, Michael Jackson, Walter Hawkins, David Bowie and Janet Jackson.
Born in 1975, Williams grew up in the San Diego area. His father, Dr. Anthony Williams, was Senior Pastor of the Truth Apostolic Community Church in suburban Spring Valley and served as a district elder in the California District Council of the Pentecostal Asssemblies of the World (PAW). His mother, Dr. E.B. Williams, was a licensed minister in the PAW and served the church as Assistant Pastor. Anthony was the youngest of the Williams' six boys. Gospel music was the preferred choice at home, but other sounds made their way into Williams' environment. His father played saxophone for James Brown and Jackie Wilson, his mother sang in various girl groups, and his older brothers sneaked funk and r&b recordings into the house. By age 10, he had recorded an album of his own at home (produced by Virgil Brookins). Deciding early on a musical career, he took the name "Tonex" by the time he was 13, sometimes spelling it "Tonéx"; at the age of 16 he and his parents Pastor A.C. Williams and Dr. E.B. Williams hired his first personal manager, Benjamin Jimerson (aka Benjamin Jimerson-Phillips) in 1991. Jimerson, who has since become a relatively successful movie producer, stated: "From the first moment I saw Tonex and he sang his first note, I realized I was dealing with a young man destined to become a major celebrity."
Rescue was still a small label, and Pronounced Toe-Nay was issued in a limited production run and distributed mostly from the back of Williams' car. Young gospel fans, however, quickly caught on to the innovative variety of music on Pronounced Toe-Nay. The album's producer, T. Boy, was an alter ego of Tonex himself. The album was divided by style into seven sections: hip-hop/rap, retro/funk, the future, jazz, mellow grooves, soul/gospel, and bonus tracks. In the recordings of Kirk Franklin and others, hip-hop had previously made inroads into gospel music, but this kind of wild eclectic mix was completely new. At the time, the digital reproduction of music was in its infancy, and rare copies of the album became prized possessions. Pronounced Toe-Nay garnered the attention of the producers at the 14th Annual Stellar Awards and placed him on the billing.
By this time, national labels had come calling. Tonéx was signed to an unusual three-way deal that affiliated him with the successful and growing gospel label Verity, the pop imprint Zomba, and the durable hip-hop label Tommy Boy. Tonéx made his national debut with a re-release of his most successful independent album Pronounced Toe-Nay in 2000. His first high-profile television appearance was performing a medley of "Trinity" and "One Good Reason" on the Stellar Awards, which was a coup as Tonéx was a relative unknown at the time. He has dubbed his particular genre-spanning musical style "nureau."
Upon its release, Pronounced Toe-Nay bore 5 different record label logos: Rescue Records, the independent label that originally released the album; Mo' Soule Steppyn Records, Tonéx's then-active vanity imprint label; Tommy Boy Gospel, the label to which Tonéx was signed as an artist; Verity Records, the label to which his independent label Rescue Records sold his album's masters; and Jive Records, the mainstream umbrella over Verity Records. All of the material was produced, arranged, composed and performed by Tonéx, with guest appearances from his mother E.B. Williams, and the rapper Big J.
Some executives wanted to develop Tonéx's career in a secular direction, but he turned them down and kept to religious themes. "There are a lot of people who do similar things to what I do in R&B but I wanted to use gospel lyrics," he explained in an interview quoted on the Sphinx Management Web site.
After going through numerous revisions, his second album O2 was released in 2002. The album spawned a major Christian radio hit in "God Has Not 4Got", a Stellar Award-winning song that displayed Tonéx's ability to create traditional choral gospel music as well as innovative pop fusions. USA TODAY gave it 3 stars (3 out of 4). The music video for the single "Bout A Thang" received heavy rotation on BET and MTV Australia, and featured energetic hip-hop dance and an urban image not usually associated with Gospel artists. O2 also featured a love song, "You", directed toward the artist's then-wife Yvette Williams (née Graham), a vocalist who at times went by the name Ms. Tonéx.
Even though O2 brought him more mainstream success, Tonéx said that this album was not what he had in mind for release. He continued to release independent projects via the internet that showcased even more of his versatile creativity. Probably his most acclaimed of these works, Tonéx released Oak Park 92105 in 2003 Oak Park 92105 was a double album. It was eventually re-released on iTunes in 2005 with some new songs; however, the album did not come without controversy, as Tonéx opted to include a ‘parental advisory: explicit lyrics’ notice on the front cover of the album, making it the first album by a Christian-based artist to carry the notice. Tonéx said the "explicit lyrics" notice is not a result of "cussing" on a record but rather content that "might be a little too deep for children."
His 2004 live double CD Out The Box earned him the most widespread acclaim so far. Divided into segments ranging from traditional gospel and praise anthems to splashes of urban dance, rock, and hip-hop, the ambitious Out The Box was a sprawling double disc set with 36 tracks, which included innovative intros, interludes, and a number of studio tracks. The supporting cast included a 10-piece band, 4 dancers, a 16-voice ensemble, and a 40-voice choir.
Out The Box debuted at #1 on the Billboard magazine Top Gospel Album Chart in September 2004, appeared on Billboard’s Top 200 and Top R&B Chart, was #5 on the Contemporary Christian Chart, and to date has sold over 500,000 copies. He also netted a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Soul Gospel Album the following year, and had another bonafide Christian radio hit with the ballad "Make Me Over". n 2005, Tonéx won a total of six Stellar Awards including "Artist of the Year" for Out The Box.
In July 2004, his father died, forcing him to take on the responsibility of becoming senior pastor of their family's church in his stead. He also divorced his wife of 5 years, Yvette. In 2006, Verity Records sued Williams for one million dollars citing breach of contract. Subsequently, Tonéx announced that he would retire from the Gospel music industry, frustrated by politics and mistreatment. The artist continued releasing music independently, using MySpace as his primary vehicle for promotion.
In March 2007, a reconciliation with Zomba Label Group was announced, which would be a joint venture for his Nureau Ink label. However, in June 2007, another split with Zomba was announced, fueled by his leaking of the vitriolic and profanity-laden song "The Naked Truth", along with several similarly themed blogs and videos. Tonéx cited label frustration as one of the reasons he leaked the song, and he soon faced much scrutiny within the Gospel arena for the explicit language and the angry tone of the song and its subsequent blogs. He later would close down his social networking sites for several months before resurfacing on the web in January 2008.
Recreating a softer gospel-friendly image, Williams changed his stage name to Ton3x (or TON3X) in 2008. He left the Verity Records family and signed under the umbrella of Battery Records, a label imprint of Sony/BMG. His only Battery Records release was the album Unspoken, released on March 17, 2009. The first single from that album, entitled "Blend", was unexpectedly nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance, despite very little promotional/financial support from Sony/Battery and garnered the artist his first non-gospel Grammy nomination.
In September 2009, The World Network aired an appearance of Tonéx on The Lexi Show. Starting out as another promotional tool for his music, the interview unexpectedly changed directions, leading to Williams candidly expressing his views on sexuality and revealing his own same-sex attraction. Though his sexual orientation had already been highly speculated within the African American and gospel communities, the unapologetic tone of these revelations were condemned by conservative Christians, and bookings and appearances were universally cancelled, eventually leading to Williams being excommunicated. The artist would later say that he was "caught off guard" by the show's line of questioning but that he answered every question truthfully.
On December 29, 2009, Tonéx's website, as well as his Twitter and Facebook accounts, reported that the artist's mother, Evangelist and vocalist E.B. Williams, had died the day before. Williams would soon end his pastoral duties at his family's church.
On June 9, 2010, Tonéx announced what would be his final mixtape, the digital-only release The Parking Lot. The mixtape was also distributed in NYC that night after what would be his final performance. On June 15, 2010, the brand Tonéx/TON3X was officially and permanently retired
Recreating himself as anout indie R&B/glam-pop artist, the artist formerly known as Tonéx underwent a re-branding, dubbing himself B.Slade and using digital media to release his new music. Though he continues to receive much resistance from his past, conservative gospel fans, his new-found transparency and honest lyrics have helped him carve a niche in the SGLT music genre, which itself is slowly gaining acceptance in the mainstream field.
In the fall of 2012, B.Slade embarked on his "Sex, Drugs and Sushi US Tour", doing shows in Chicago, New York and taking residency at the WitZend in Venice, LA during the months of September and November. He was nominated for four awards at the 8th Annual OUTMUSIC Awards, winning one for Best R&B/Soul Song. He released another album, Stunt B%$@H, on January 25, 2013.
Along with the many changes made by Williams in 2008, a foray into acting became part of his long list of endeavors.
Williams sang and produced the opening song for the hit UPN TV series One on One. His production was featured on the song "Off We Go" from the J. Lo/Ben Affleck film Gigli and in BET Films original movie The Walk starring Eva Marcille. "Cry No More" from the album Pronounced Toe-Nay was featured in the HBO film Prison Song starring Q-Tip and Mary J. Blige, while the track "The Good Song 2005", a remake of the song "The Good Song", was included on the soundtrack of the action movie xXx: State of the Union starring Ice Cube. B.Slade's song "Don't Wake Me" was featured on the second episode of the BET series Second Generation Wayans. In 2013, he produced the score for the 44th Annual NAACP Image Awards telecast. (Video Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L4FhhUlYYLs ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PNsDbFMTvJk; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DuitDAbvZqo )
Kele Okereke: British Rock Singer, Songwriter, Musician
Kelechukwu "Kele" Rowland Okereke (born 13 October 1981) is a British musician, best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the indie rock band Bloc Party.
Kele Okereke was born in Liverpool to Catholic Igbo Nigerian parents. His mother was a midwife, and his father a molecular biologist. He grew up in London with his sister. In 1998 he became friends with Russell Lissack, who would become Bloc Party's guitarist. A year later, while studying at King's College London, Okereke met Lissack again at Reading Festival, where the band was officially formed under the title of 'The Angel Range'. In 2001, Okereke moved out of his parents' home. He went on to meet Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong who became the band's permanent bass guitarist and drummer, respectively. In 2003, the band changed its name to Bloc Party after briefly being called Union.
In 2005, Bloc Party released their first studio album, titled Silent Alarm. The album reached number three in the UK charts, and propelled the band to fame. Despite this, Okereke continued to study English literature at university. Until the release of Silent Alarm, he had kept his musical activities secret from his parents.
The band released their second album A Weekend in the City on 5 February 2007 in the UK and 6 February in the US. The album debuted at #12 in the Billboard 200 with 48,000 copies sold, and reached the #2 spot in the Official UK Chart.
It became available via the UK's iTunes Store a day ahead of schedule, on 4 February. The first single, "The Prayer", was released on 29 January, having been made available on Myspace on November 22, 2006. It reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart, still the group's highest placing. The next single, "I Still Remember", was the album's first in the US.
The third album released by the band Intimacy, was initially only made available for purchase on their website as a download on 21 August 2008. The record was released in compact disc form on 24 October 2008, with Wichita Recordings as the primary label. It peaked at number 8 on the UK Albums Chart and entered the Billboard 200 in the United States at number 18.
The band went on hiatus as of 31 October 2009.
In 2010 Kele released his first solo album, titled The Boxer. Okereke explained the album title, saying "as a boxer, you have to rely on nobody else but yourself to achieve what it is you want to achieve. Even though you take hits, you have to keep focus on your priorities and keep going. I thought that was an inspiring image." The first single from the album, "Tenderoni", was released on 14 June 2010.
Okereke has expressed disdain for interviews, asking one interviewer from Skyscrapermagazine, "Why is it important to know what I had for breakfast? Or who I went to bed with? Or what sneakers I am wearing? If it's relevant to understanding my music, then so be it. But if it's purely to satisfy the media's obsession with celebrity, then no thanks. I don't want to play that game." Kele has also said, "people think that I hate being approached but that's not true" in NME Magazine on 15 September 2005.
In March 2010 Okereke came out as gay in a Butt magazine article, and he then gave an interview and appeared on the front cover of the June 2010 issue of Attitude magazine. Previously he had been reluctant to discuss his sexuality. He also discussed the homoerotic story behind his song "I Still Remember" and the semi-autobiographical nature of it. In June 2010 Kele was named as the Sexiest Out Gay Male Artist by music website LP33 in its annual survey.[13]
In 2010, Okereke launched a personal photoblog at iamkele.com. On 7 June, whilst being interviewed by Steve Lamacq, Okereke said he would be moving to Manhattan. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ziUFslIHc9Q ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wytuUyvRZN0 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=q6cS26oEX64)
Kele Okereke was born in Liverpool to Catholic Igbo Nigerian parents. His mother was a midwife, and his father a molecular biologist. He grew up in London with his sister. In 1998 he became friends with Russell Lissack, who would become Bloc Party's guitarist. A year later, while studying at King's College London, Okereke met Lissack again at Reading Festival, where the band was officially formed under the title of 'The Angel Range'. In 2001, Okereke moved out of his parents' home. He went on to meet Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong who became the band's permanent bass guitarist and drummer, respectively. In 2003, the band changed its name to Bloc Party after briefly being called Union.
In 2005, Bloc Party released their first studio album, titled Silent Alarm. The album reached number three in the UK charts, and propelled the band to fame. Despite this, Okereke continued to study English literature at university. Until the release of Silent Alarm, he had kept his musical activities secret from his parents.
The band released their second album A Weekend in the City on 5 February 2007 in the UK and 6 February in the US. The album debuted at #12 in the Billboard 200 with 48,000 copies sold, and reached the #2 spot in the Official UK Chart.
It became available via the UK's iTunes Store a day ahead of schedule, on 4 February. The first single, "The Prayer", was released on 29 January, having been made available on Myspace on November 22, 2006. It reached #4 on the UK Singles Chart, still the group's highest placing. The next single, "I Still Remember", was the album's first in the US.
The third album released by the band Intimacy, was initially only made available for purchase on their website as a download on 21 August 2008. The record was released in compact disc form on 24 October 2008, with Wichita Recordings as the primary label. It peaked at number 8 on the UK Albums Chart and entered the Billboard 200 in the United States at number 18.
The band went on hiatus as of 31 October 2009.
In 2010 Kele released his first solo album, titled The Boxer. Okereke explained the album title, saying "as a boxer, you have to rely on nobody else but yourself to achieve what it is you want to achieve. Even though you take hits, you have to keep focus on your priorities and keep going. I thought that was an inspiring image." The first single from the album, "Tenderoni", was released on 14 June 2010.
Okereke has expressed disdain for interviews, asking one interviewer from Skyscrapermagazine, "Why is it important to know what I had for breakfast? Or who I went to bed with? Or what sneakers I am wearing? If it's relevant to understanding my music, then so be it. But if it's purely to satisfy the media's obsession with celebrity, then no thanks. I don't want to play that game." Kele has also said, "people think that I hate being approached but that's not true" in NME Magazine on 15 September 2005.
In March 2010 Okereke came out as gay in a Butt magazine article, and he then gave an interview and appeared on the front cover of the June 2010 issue of Attitude magazine. Previously he had been reluctant to discuss his sexuality. He also discussed the homoerotic story behind his song "I Still Remember" and the semi-autobiographical nature of it. In June 2010 Kele was named as the Sexiest Out Gay Male Artist by music website LP33 in its annual survey.[13]
In 2010, Okereke launched a personal photoblog at iamkele.com. On 7 June, whilst being interviewed by Steve Lamacq, Okereke said he would be moving to Manhattan. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ziUFslIHc9Q ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wytuUyvRZN0 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=q6cS26oEX64)
Gail Ann Dorsey: Musician, Vocalist
Gail Ann Dorsey (1962) is an American musician considered one of the premier bass guitarists and vocalists within the alternative rock scene.
With a distinguished career as a session musician, it has been most notably her long association performing in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to the present day, that has brought her fans and accolades. Aside from playing bass, she occasionally has sung lead vocals according to Bowie's introduction on A Reality Tour, on "Under Pressure", and duetted with him on others, including "The London Boys", and "I Dig Everything", accompanying Bowie on clarinet.
From 1993-96, Dorsey also recorded and toured extensively with Tears for Fears, and collaborated on songwriting with the band. Her diverse range of work includes performances and/or recordings with, among others, Bryan Ferry, Boy George, the Indigo Girls, Khaled, Jane Siberry, The The, Skin, Gwen Stefani, Charlie Watts, Seal, Gang of Four, ani difranco and Dar Williams.
In addition, she has released three solo albums: The Corporate World (1988), Rude Blue (1992), and I Used To Be... (2003), and, according to her website, another album is currently in the works.
Dorsey attended the California Institute of the Arts in the School of Film & Video School/Live Action. Initially, her aspirations were to study film and become a professional screenwriter, and to create film scores, however, she chose a career in music instead. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PwG1yD-wAMw ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4fsply_AyrU )
With a distinguished career as a session musician, it has been most notably her long association performing in David Bowie's band, from 1995 to the present day, that has brought her fans and accolades. Aside from playing bass, she occasionally has sung lead vocals according to Bowie's introduction on A Reality Tour, on "Under Pressure", and duetted with him on others, including "The London Boys", and "I Dig Everything", accompanying Bowie on clarinet.
From 1993-96, Dorsey also recorded and toured extensively with Tears for Fears, and collaborated on songwriting with the band. Her diverse range of work includes performances and/or recordings with, among others, Bryan Ferry, Boy George, the Indigo Girls, Khaled, Jane Siberry, The The, Skin, Gwen Stefani, Charlie Watts, Seal, Gang of Four, ani difranco and Dar Williams.
In addition, she has released three solo albums: The Corporate World (1988), Rude Blue (1992), and I Used To Be... (2003), and, according to her website, another album is currently in the works.
Dorsey attended the California Institute of the Arts in the School of Film & Video School/Live Action. Initially, her aspirations were to study film and become a professional screenwriter, and to create film scores, however, she chose a career in music instead. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PwG1yD-wAMw ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4fsply_AyrU )
Ken j. Martin: Singer, Songwriter
With the acclaim of his first album, 3 years 8 days, Ken j. Martin has established his rightful role in Atlanta's soul movement. Hailing from Atlanta's 4th Ward neighborhood, Ken j. fuses his acoustic melodies effortlessly with his sultry vocals. He's been featured on BET's Lyric Cafe and other notable venues across the United States. His latest album, Ken j. and Friends, is a live recording where he is accompanied by several other rising soul artists. With his unmovable faith and the guitar he calls freedom, Ken j. has grown into a musical phenomena.
Ken j.'s notable lyrics range from heartfelt love ballads to revolutionary anthems evoking memories of music legends Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley. In an industry of superficial love, Ken j. captures audiences by composing songs that identify blissfully indescribable feelings. His caviar voice and guy next door personality melts hearts and enamors listeners. Whether expressing the innocence of new love or highlighting the ills of societal confines, the world consciousness and emotional harmonies woven into his songs make his performances an experience.
Ascending towards international regard for his vocal flair and songwriting prowess, Ken j. is the next male sensation. Maintaining his entrepreneurial savvy through creative business ventures, he hosts The Rent Show, a monthly artist showcase and Ken j. and Friends, an annual fundraising event aimed at creating seasonal plays featuring bands and artists in the Atlanta area. His ultimate objective is to develop an Outreach Program for Youth to aid with their talents and expose them to unconventional career opportunities.
In constant inspiration from life, Ken j. has began work on his third album. After numerous television appearances, collaborations and being on the road, he patiently awaits the opportunity to share feelings of peace, love and inspiration. On this upcoming release, he will not only display his growth, but will present a platform for a new stage in acoustic soul music. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JuVIQUmmuJ8 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iLVWcXp6VA4 )
Ken j.'s notable lyrics range from heartfelt love ballads to revolutionary anthems evoking memories of music legends Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley. In an industry of superficial love, Ken j. captures audiences by composing songs that identify blissfully indescribable feelings. His caviar voice and guy next door personality melts hearts and enamors listeners. Whether expressing the innocence of new love or highlighting the ills of societal confines, the world consciousness and emotional harmonies woven into his songs make his performances an experience.
Ascending towards international regard for his vocal flair and songwriting prowess, Ken j. is the next male sensation. Maintaining his entrepreneurial savvy through creative business ventures, he hosts The Rent Show, a monthly artist showcase and Ken j. and Friends, an annual fundraising event aimed at creating seasonal plays featuring bands and artists in the Atlanta area. His ultimate objective is to develop an Outreach Program for Youth to aid with their talents and expose them to unconventional career opportunities.
In constant inspiration from life, Ken j. has began work on his third album. After numerous television appearances, collaborations and being on the road, he patiently awaits the opportunity to share feelings of peace, love and inspiration. On this upcoming release, he will not only display his growth, but will present a platform for a new stage in acoustic soul music. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JuVIQUmmuJ8 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iLVWcXp6VA4 )
Donnie: Singer, Songwriter
Donnie (1975) The Atlanta-based vocalist and songwriter Donnie has often been grouped with D'Angelo, India.Arie, and other artists labeled as neo-soul. Like those artists, Donnie has avoided hip-hop beats and lyric styles in favor of melodic singing and church-inspired harmonies that evoke the classic soul music of the 1970s. What has set Donnie apart from his contemporaries, however, is that he has embraced the politically and socially oriented side of soul as well as its romantic aspects. As a result he has often been compared to soul giants Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.
When Donnie was eight his family moved to Atlanta. His parents enjoyed the black popular music of the day, but as they became more deeply involved in their church, they steered their son away from secular music.
Donnie continued to attend church into early adulthood. Another church member was Marvin Gaye, a cousin whom Donnie never met but whose violent death in 1984 shook the talented youngster. "I grew up in the same church as Marvin, with the same people, the same pastors, and the same threats," Donnie told the Boston Globe. "There was this whole 'If you do this, you're going to hell' speech. I was scared to do what they called 'secular music' or to come into the secular world."
Beginning his musical career in his church's choir, Donnie was directing musical performances by the time he was 14 years old. When he was in his late teens, however, Donnie began to feel the need to reconnect with secular audiences. Once he decided in favor of a secular career, Donnie found that Atlanta had a thriving music scene that welcomed idealists and experimentally minded artists. Donnie became friends with India.Arie and made his way into the center of an orbit of performers associated with the Yin Yang Cafe in the city's Little Five Points neighborhood.
"You might think of me as crazy, but I know the spirits said,'This is a special place at a special time,'" Donnie told the Groovenation.net website. "Because everybody came there. You had black, white, Asian, Latino, straight, gay, bisexual. You had drag queens up in there. Everybody may not always have been comfortable, but everybody respected each other. I felt a kinship because everyone at Yin Yang sang about things that mattered."
Donnie performed with Arie at an Atlanta showcase event in 1997, and she recommended him to Maurice Bernstein of Giant Step Records. By 2000 Donnie was recording demo tracks with Los Angeles producer Steve Harvey and working on music for his debut album release. A Giant Step single called "Do You Know?" garnered airplay on the independent Los Angeles-area radio station KCRW, and the singer parlayed that success into a five-night run at the Jazz Café in London.
Word was spreading about Donnie's talents in the music industry, and in 2002 he was signed to Motown Records, formerly home to both Gaye and Wonder. His full-length debut, The Colored Section, was released in October of that year.
"Welcome to the colored section," Donnie sang, over church-choir harmonies on the album's opening track. "Welcome to the Negro League." Donnie often referred to himself with the old-fashioned term of "Negro," rejecting hip-hop epithets. "I'm not a nigger, I'm a Negro," he sang in "Beautiful Me." "When I become a nigger, I'll let you know."
Musically Donnie looked both backward and forward. With a musical language rooted in classic soul, Donnie reached as far back as ragtime and minstrel music for his satirical look at black consumerism in "Big Black Buck." His verbal facility and rapid-fire juxtaposition of ideas, though, marked him as a member of the hip-hop generation, even as he rejected many of the musical characteristics and social attitudes associated with the hip-hop genre.
The Colored Section was moderately successful. Some felt that Motown's promotional efforts on behalf of the album were halfhearted, although the song "Cloud 9" was heard in the hit film Brown Sugar, and another selection, "Our New National Anthem," was featured in a Black Entertainment Television (BET) publicity campaign. But critics gave rave reviews. "Donnie's 'The Colored Section' might be the best soul record since Stevie Wonder's masterpieces [of the 1970s]," praised the Boston Globe, while People felt that Donnie "someday ... may just take a place alongside his cousin."
Donnie is clearly setting his own path with being a great artist and one who is openly gay.
(Partial excerpts by James M. Manheim of Musicanworld.Com) (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vKKsbpx2t2M ;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e_E5Q2vI-g&list=PL6EE95CCDDBD941B5 )
When Donnie was eight his family moved to Atlanta. His parents enjoyed the black popular music of the day, but as they became more deeply involved in their church, they steered their son away from secular music.
Donnie continued to attend church into early adulthood. Another church member was Marvin Gaye, a cousin whom Donnie never met but whose violent death in 1984 shook the talented youngster. "I grew up in the same church as Marvin, with the same people, the same pastors, and the same threats," Donnie told the Boston Globe. "There was this whole 'If you do this, you're going to hell' speech. I was scared to do what they called 'secular music' or to come into the secular world."
Beginning his musical career in his church's choir, Donnie was directing musical performances by the time he was 14 years old. When he was in his late teens, however, Donnie began to feel the need to reconnect with secular audiences. Once he decided in favor of a secular career, Donnie found that Atlanta had a thriving music scene that welcomed idealists and experimentally minded artists. Donnie became friends with India.Arie and made his way into the center of an orbit of performers associated with the Yin Yang Cafe in the city's Little Five Points neighborhood.
"You might think of me as crazy, but I know the spirits said,'This is a special place at a special time,'" Donnie told the Groovenation.net website. "Because everybody came there. You had black, white, Asian, Latino, straight, gay, bisexual. You had drag queens up in there. Everybody may not always have been comfortable, but everybody respected each other. I felt a kinship because everyone at Yin Yang sang about things that mattered."
Donnie performed with Arie at an Atlanta showcase event in 1997, and she recommended him to Maurice Bernstein of Giant Step Records. By 2000 Donnie was recording demo tracks with Los Angeles producer Steve Harvey and working on music for his debut album release. A Giant Step single called "Do You Know?" garnered airplay on the independent Los Angeles-area radio station KCRW, and the singer parlayed that success into a five-night run at the Jazz Café in London.
Word was spreading about Donnie's talents in the music industry, and in 2002 he was signed to Motown Records, formerly home to both Gaye and Wonder. His full-length debut, The Colored Section, was released in October of that year.
"Welcome to the colored section," Donnie sang, over church-choir harmonies on the album's opening track. "Welcome to the Negro League." Donnie often referred to himself with the old-fashioned term of "Negro," rejecting hip-hop epithets. "I'm not a nigger, I'm a Negro," he sang in "Beautiful Me." "When I become a nigger, I'll let you know."
Musically Donnie looked both backward and forward. With a musical language rooted in classic soul, Donnie reached as far back as ragtime and minstrel music for his satirical look at black consumerism in "Big Black Buck." His verbal facility and rapid-fire juxtaposition of ideas, though, marked him as a member of the hip-hop generation, even as he rejected many of the musical characteristics and social attitudes associated with the hip-hop genre.
The Colored Section was moderately successful. Some felt that Motown's promotional efforts on behalf of the album were halfhearted, although the song "Cloud 9" was heard in the hit film Brown Sugar, and another selection, "Our New National Anthem," was featured in a Black Entertainment Television (BET) publicity campaign. But critics gave rave reviews. "Donnie's 'The Colored Section' might be the best soul record since Stevie Wonder's masterpieces [of the 1970s]," praised the Boston Globe, while People felt that Donnie "someday ... may just take a place alongside his cousin."
Donnie is clearly setting his own path with being a great artist and one who is openly gay.
(Partial excerpts by James M. Manheim of Musicanworld.Com) (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vKKsbpx2t2M ;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e_E5Q2vI-g&list=PL6EE95CCDDBD941B5 )
Gladys Bentley: Singer; Entertainer of the Harlem Renaissance
Gladys Bentley(12 August 1907 – 18 January 1960) was an American blues singer during the Harlem Renaissance. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of American George L. Bentley and his wife, a Trinidadian, Mary Mote. She appeared at Harry Hansberry's "Clam House" on 133rd Street, one of New York City's most notorious gay speakeasies, in the 1920s, and headlined in the early thirties at Harlem's Ubangi Club, where she was backed up by a chorus line of drag queens. She was a 250 pound woman dressed in men's clothes (including a signature tuxedo and top hat), who played piano and sang her own raunchy lyrics to popular tunes of the day in a deep, growling voice while flirting outrageously with women in the audience.
On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player", and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She claimed that she had married a white woman in Atlantic City.
Bentley was openly lesbian during her early career, but during the McCarthy Era, she started wearing dresses, married a man (who later denied that they ever married), and studied to be a minister, claiming to have been "cured" by taking female hormones. She died, aged 52, from pneumonia in 1960.
Fictional characters based on Bentley appeared in Carl Van Vechten's Parties, Clement Woods's Deep River, and Blair Niles's Strange Brother. She recorded for the OKeh, Victor, Excelsior, and Flame labels. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HqPfSWEFMtc ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LNWSxUIZ4PQ )
On the decline of the Harlem speakeasies with the repeal of Prohibition, she relocated to southern California, where she was billed as "America's Greatest Sepia Piano Player", and the "Brown Bomber of Sophisticated Songs". She was frequently harassed for wearing men's clothing. She claimed that she had married a white woman in Atlantic City.
Bentley was openly lesbian during her early career, but during the McCarthy Era, she started wearing dresses, married a man (who later denied that they ever married), and studied to be a minister, claiming to have been "cured" by taking female hormones. She died, aged 52, from pneumonia in 1960.
Fictional characters based on Bentley appeared in Carl Van Vechten's Parties, Clement Woods's Deep River, and Blair Niles's Strange Brother. She recorded for the OKeh, Victor, Excelsior, and Flame labels. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HqPfSWEFMtc ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=LNWSxUIZ4PQ )
Kristian Legierski: Polish Businessman, Politician and Activist
Krystian Legierski (1978) is a Polish SGLT activist, entrepreneur, member of the Greens 2004. In local elections in 2010 he won a seat in the Warsaw City Council, thus becoming the first openly gay politician elected to a political office in Poland.
He was born in Poland, to a Polish mother and a Mauritanian father who was in Poland as an international student.
Legierski studied Law at the University of Warsaw. He has been active in LGBT movement. In 2003 he co-authored first draft of a law on civil unions sponsored in the Polish Senate by Maria Szyszkowska; the law was passed by the Senate, but was not considered by the Sejm. Since 2009 he has been involved in another effort to introduce civil unions into Polish legal system. Between 2006 and 2010 he co-hosted Lepiej późno niż wcale (Better Late Than Never) - an LGBT radio programme on TOK FM.
In 2003 he founded his first club called Le Madame in the Warsaw Old Town. Le Madame was a nightclub, but also a cultural center, providing space for alternative theatre, music, drag queen shows, art exhibitions and political debate. It was closed by the acting mayor of Warsaw, Mirosław Kochalski, in March 2006, shortly after Lech Kaczyński, Kochalski's predecessor who had a history of banning Gay Pride events in Warsaw, became President of Poland. The closure was met with protests, which came to be labelled as "the Polish Stonewall". Along with Le Madame Legierski founded a gay club Tomba Tomba (later renamed Usta Mariana) as well as M25 - a nightclub and a theatre scene.
Legierski was among founding members of the Polish Green party Greens 2004. In November 2010 he won a seat in Warsaw City Council. He ran on a Social Democratic ballot, following an official electoral
He was born in Poland, to a Polish mother and a Mauritanian father who was in Poland as an international student.
Legierski studied Law at the University of Warsaw. He has been active in LGBT movement. In 2003 he co-authored first draft of a law on civil unions sponsored in the Polish Senate by Maria Szyszkowska; the law was passed by the Senate, but was not considered by the Sejm. Since 2009 he has been involved in another effort to introduce civil unions into Polish legal system. Between 2006 and 2010 he co-hosted Lepiej późno niż wcale (Better Late Than Never) - an LGBT radio programme on TOK FM.
In 2003 he founded his first club called Le Madame in the Warsaw Old Town. Le Madame was a nightclub, but also a cultural center, providing space for alternative theatre, music, drag queen shows, art exhibitions and political debate. It was closed by the acting mayor of Warsaw, Mirosław Kochalski, in March 2006, shortly after Lech Kaczyński, Kochalski's predecessor who had a history of banning Gay Pride events in Warsaw, became President of Poland. The closure was met with protests, which came to be labelled as "the Polish Stonewall". Along with Le Madame Legierski founded a gay club Tomba Tomba (later renamed Usta Mariana) as well as M25 - a nightclub and a theatre scene.
Legierski was among founding members of the Polish Green party Greens 2004. In November 2010 he won a seat in Warsaw City Council. He ran on a Social Democratic ballot, following an official electoral
Willi Smith: Fashion Designer, Businessman
Willi Smith was one of the most influential and successful designers in fashion history. Known for his spirited and trendy clothes, his company WilliWear Ltd. broke sales records and made him a household name in the 1980s.
Willi Donnell Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The seeds for Willi Donnell Smith's later successes were planted during his youth by his parents, both of whom were extremely clothes-conscious. As a boy, Smith spent a lot of time drawing with his mother, and he nurtured dreams of becoming an artist. After his parents were divorced, his grandmother, Gladys Bush, became an important figure in motivating Smith to pursue his artistic interests this nurturing led him to appreciated even more the visual asthetic of fashion.
After studying commercial art at Mastbaum Technical High School, Willi Smith attended Philadelphia College of Art where he concentrated on fashion illustration. He then moved to New York to attend The New School – Parsons School of Design. For a short time Smith free-lanced with Arnold Scaasi and Bobbie Brooks's sports wear company.
Smith worked across the full gamut of the sportswear industry in the late 1960s. Extremely hard working, he began to build a solid reputation but had trouble breaking through to the top tier of designers. Determined to make his own mark, he started his own business in 1973. Smith's lack of knowledge of the business side of fashion put his fledgling company out of operation in no time, and he was forced to enter into a partnership with a Seventh Avenue firm that gained the rights to his name in return for financial support. The result was a very unhappy period for Smith, who eventually sued to regain the rights to his name, and then worked freelance and pursued career options with other large sportswear companies. From that time on, although the company bore his name and he was the public figurehead, the majority of the revenue generated-went to white investors.
In 1976, Smith met up with Laurie Mallet, an old friend who at the time was selling shirts imported from India. At Mallet's suggestion, Smith accompanied her to India to design a collection at a factory near Bombay. A company called WilliWear Limited was set up, with Mallet as president and Smith as vice-president and designer. The following winter Smith's collection generated only about $30,000 of business, but one of Smith's pants designs became extremely popular. Characteristic of what would become the Willi Smith look, the pants were a baggy fatigue with a high, wrapped waist and became known as the "WilliWear pant."
Before long the streetwise and sassy WilliWear designs caught the public's attention in a big way, and other designers soon copied the style. Smith's next collection sold $200,000, and by 1982, WilliWear had an annual gross topping $5 million. In 1978 Smith introduced WilliWear Men, a line of clothes that incorporated both formality and casualness. Smith struck fashion gold again with this new line, winning the 1986 Cutty Sark Award, the most prestigious honor for menswear design.
Willi Smith concentrated primarily on separates and his consistency from season to season allowed pieces from previous years to be mixed with his new designs. Pieces ranged from oversized blazers and long dirndls to dhoti pants and pouf-skirted dresses. Everything he designed showed a sense of humor and spirit, as if inviting the wearer to get up and move. He paid acute attention to all aspects of design and manufacture, designing his own textiles and taking several trips each year to India to overlook production of his collection.
Many influences were cited by Smith as affecting his work, from art to watching people. His apartment in the Tribeca section of Manhattan was filled with African, Oriental, and contemporary art, and many of his clothes featured unusual color blends that he had seen in artworks. Smith also had many friends who were artists, and he worked with some of them. In 1985 he designed 600 uniforms for workers who helped the artist Christo wrap the Pont Neuf, a bridge in Paris, with pink material.
By the mid-1980s Willi Smith's designs were hanging in 1,100 stores in the United States, as well as stores in London. WilliWear grossed $25 million in 1986, and by that time the company's designs were taking on a more traditional, tailored appearance as Smith decided to "mature." However, he created a bit of a furor with the uncharacteristic look he designed for Edwin A. Schlossberg for his wedding with Caroline Kennedy in 1987. The groom's outfit featured a navy blue linen suit with a silver tie. Willi Smith also designed clothes for Spike Lee’s 1987 film “School Daze” and the wedding dress worn by Mary Jane Watson when she married Peter Parker in the Spider-Man comic book and comic strip in 1987, and he also designed clothes for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's “Next Wave Festival”.
Willi Smith’s groundbreaking designs won many honors including Designer of the Year, by International Mannequins, in 1978, the Coty American Fashion Critics' Award for Women's Fashion, in 1983 and the Cutty Sark Award, in 1986, for menswear design.
After one of his usual trips to India to supervise production in 1986, Smith became infected with shigella, a parasitic disease. The parasite led to serious complications and he was later admitted to a New York City hospital and died unexpectedly in 1987 at the relatively young age of 39, due to pneumonia and other complications as a result of AIDS. It is suspected that Smith, himself, didn't know he had the disease although those around him knew that he was fragile in his last days. (Source: Ubuntu Biography Project)
Willi Donnell Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The seeds for Willi Donnell Smith's later successes were planted during his youth by his parents, both of whom were extremely clothes-conscious. As a boy, Smith spent a lot of time drawing with his mother, and he nurtured dreams of becoming an artist. After his parents were divorced, his grandmother, Gladys Bush, became an important figure in motivating Smith to pursue his artistic interests this nurturing led him to appreciated even more the visual asthetic of fashion.
After studying commercial art at Mastbaum Technical High School, Willi Smith attended Philadelphia College of Art where he concentrated on fashion illustration. He then moved to New York to attend The New School – Parsons School of Design. For a short time Smith free-lanced with Arnold Scaasi and Bobbie Brooks's sports wear company.
Smith worked across the full gamut of the sportswear industry in the late 1960s. Extremely hard working, he began to build a solid reputation but had trouble breaking through to the top tier of designers. Determined to make his own mark, he started his own business in 1973. Smith's lack of knowledge of the business side of fashion put his fledgling company out of operation in no time, and he was forced to enter into a partnership with a Seventh Avenue firm that gained the rights to his name in return for financial support. The result was a very unhappy period for Smith, who eventually sued to regain the rights to his name, and then worked freelance and pursued career options with other large sportswear companies. From that time on, although the company bore his name and he was the public figurehead, the majority of the revenue generated-went to white investors.
In 1976, Smith met up with Laurie Mallet, an old friend who at the time was selling shirts imported from India. At Mallet's suggestion, Smith accompanied her to India to design a collection at a factory near Bombay. A company called WilliWear Limited was set up, with Mallet as president and Smith as vice-president and designer. The following winter Smith's collection generated only about $30,000 of business, but one of Smith's pants designs became extremely popular. Characteristic of what would become the Willi Smith look, the pants were a baggy fatigue with a high, wrapped waist and became known as the "WilliWear pant."
Before long the streetwise and sassy WilliWear designs caught the public's attention in a big way, and other designers soon copied the style. Smith's next collection sold $200,000, and by 1982, WilliWear had an annual gross topping $5 million. In 1978 Smith introduced WilliWear Men, a line of clothes that incorporated both formality and casualness. Smith struck fashion gold again with this new line, winning the 1986 Cutty Sark Award, the most prestigious honor for menswear design.
Willi Smith concentrated primarily on separates and his consistency from season to season allowed pieces from previous years to be mixed with his new designs. Pieces ranged from oversized blazers and long dirndls to dhoti pants and pouf-skirted dresses. Everything he designed showed a sense of humor and spirit, as if inviting the wearer to get up and move. He paid acute attention to all aspects of design and manufacture, designing his own textiles and taking several trips each year to India to overlook production of his collection.
Many influences were cited by Smith as affecting his work, from art to watching people. His apartment in the Tribeca section of Manhattan was filled with African, Oriental, and contemporary art, and many of his clothes featured unusual color blends that he had seen in artworks. Smith also had many friends who were artists, and he worked with some of them. In 1985 he designed 600 uniforms for workers who helped the artist Christo wrap the Pont Neuf, a bridge in Paris, with pink material.
By the mid-1980s Willi Smith's designs were hanging in 1,100 stores in the United States, as well as stores in London. WilliWear grossed $25 million in 1986, and by that time the company's designs were taking on a more traditional, tailored appearance as Smith decided to "mature." However, he created a bit of a furor with the uncharacteristic look he designed for Edwin A. Schlossberg for his wedding with Caroline Kennedy in 1987. The groom's outfit featured a navy blue linen suit with a silver tie. Willi Smith also designed clothes for Spike Lee’s 1987 film “School Daze” and the wedding dress worn by Mary Jane Watson when she married Peter Parker in the Spider-Man comic book and comic strip in 1987, and he also designed clothes for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's “Next Wave Festival”.
Willi Smith’s groundbreaking designs won many honors including Designer of the Year, by International Mannequins, in 1978, the Coty American Fashion Critics' Award for Women's Fashion, in 1983 and the Cutty Sark Award, in 1986, for menswear design.
After one of his usual trips to India to supervise production in 1986, Smith became infected with shigella, a parasitic disease. The parasite led to serious complications and he was later admitted to a New York City hospital and died unexpectedly in 1987 at the relatively young age of 39, due to pneumonia and other complications as a result of AIDS. It is suspected that Smith, himself, didn't know he had the disease although those around him knew that he was fragile in his last days. (Source: Ubuntu Biography Project)
Toshi Reagon: Singer, Songwriter
Toshi Reagon (1964) is an American folk/blues musician. She is the daughter of Freedom Singers co-founders Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, with whom she has sometimes collaborated on musical projects and of Cordell Hull Reagon, a leader of the civil rights movement in Albany, member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and co-founder of The Freedom Singers. She is also the goddaughter of folk singer, Pete Seeger and named after his wife, Toshi Seeger.
Reagon began performing when she dropped out of college; soon afterward, Lenny Kravitz invited her to open for him on his first world tour. She has since shared the stage with performers ranging from Ani Difranco to Elvis Costello.
Her band, BIGLovely, has been performing together since September 1996. The name allegedly comes from a love-letter she received from her girlfriend, which was addressed "To My BIGLovely." The band includes Judith Casselberry on acoustic guitar and vocals, Robert "Chicken" Burke on drums, Fre
` 1`d Cass, Jr. on bass, Adam Widoff on electric guitar, and Catherine Russell on mandolin and vocals. The line-up also includes Jen Leigh, Ann Klein, Debbie Robinson, Alison Miller, Kismet Lyles and Stephanie McKay as replacements.
Reagon lives in Brooklyn, New York with her partner and her daughter. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Zv5pbW_IE10 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KNmQ1GqO97Y )
Reagon began performing when she dropped out of college; soon afterward, Lenny Kravitz invited her to open for him on his first world tour. She has since shared the stage with performers ranging from Ani Difranco to Elvis Costello.
Her band, BIGLovely, has been performing together since September 1996. The name allegedly comes from a love-letter she received from her girlfriend, which was addressed "To My BIGLovely." The band includes Judith Casselberry on acoustic guitar and vocals, Robert "Chicken" Burke on drums, Fre
` 1`d Cass, Jr. on bass, Adam Widoff on electric guitar, and Catherine Russell on mandolin and vocals. The line-up also includes Jen Leigh, Ann Klein, Debbie Robinson, Alison Miller, Kismet Lyles and Stephanie McKay as replacements.
Reagon lives in Brooklyn, New York with her partner and her daughter. (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Zv5pbW_IE10 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KNmQ1GqO97Y )
Foxxjazell: Transgender Recording Artist
"If people are ready for white rappers, then they are ready for me," says Keva Jackson, AKA Foxxjazell.
Foxxjazell is determined to prove that people are ready for a transgender rapper. She's part of an emerging SGLT hip-hop scene that has been around since the late 80s, but has only recently appeared on the radar screens of the larger GLBT community thanks to Alex Hinton's 2005 documentary, Pick Up The Mic.
Foxxjazell wants to become a role model for other people struggling with the transgender issue, and wants to be a voice for the transgender community.
She told LA Daily News reporter Phillip Zonkel in a February 2007 interview that the decision to be open about her transgender status wasn't an easy one.
"In the beginning, people didn't know what to make of me when I sang at nightclubs," she says. "You're more accepted if you stay in your box, a drag queen who lip-synchs. But Foxxjazell says, "I'm not a drag performer. I rap with my own music."
Her style of blended dance music with hip-hop is increasingly getting her attention. She was interviewed on the Tyra Banks Show and has built a following in California. "I want to go mainstream," Foxxjazell says. "I have something strong to say that everyone can relate to - 'Be Yourself.' " (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZHMhZ9r4KQ&NR=1&feature=endscreen ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odeKLT-n1Pw )
Foxxjazell is determined to prove that people are ready for a transgender rapper. She's part of an emerging SGLT hip-hop scene that has been around since the late 80s, but has only recently appeared on the radar screens of the larger GLBT community thanks to Alex Hinton's 2005 documentary, Pick Up The Mic.
Foxxjazell wants to become a role model for other people struggling with the transgender issue, and wants to be a voice for the transgender community.
She told LA Daily News reporter Phillip Zonkel in a February 2007 interview that the decision to be open about her transgender status wasn't an easy one.
"In the beginning, people didn't know what to make of me when I sang at nightclubs," she says. "You're more accepted if you stay in your box, a drag queen who lip-synchs. But Foxxjazell says, "I'm not a drag performer. I rap with my own music."
Her style of blended dance music with hip-hop is increasingly getting her attention. She was interviewed on the Tyra Banks Show and has built a following in California. "I want to go mainstream," Foxxjazell says. "I have something strong to say that everyone can relate to - 'Be Yourself.' " (Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZHMhZ9r4KQ&NR=1&feature=endscreen ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odeKLT-n1Pw )
Maurice Jamal: Director, Writer, Actor, Producer, CEO of GLO TV (First Urban LGBTQ Network)
Director, Writer, Producer of both film and television. He is the creative mind behind the landmark film The Ski Trip (MTV's LOGO Network), and the award winning film, Dirty Laundry, a ‘dramedy’ that created an amazing buzz across the country and throughout the industry, for it’s groundbreaking handling of the issue of the black family and its relationship to gay members. It starred Loretta Devine, Rockmond Dunbar, Jenifer Lewis, Sommore, Terri J. Vaughn and Maurice, himself.
In 2001, with no job, no money and no apartment, Maurice Jamal sold his furniture, broke his lease and brought a one-way ticket to New York City to pursue his dreams. A classically trained Shakeperean actor and accomplished slam poet (and, I might add, for those who don’t know, a fantastic dancer), he made enough money to eat, by winning poetry competitions across New York City.
His first break in the film industry was on the feature-film Spider-Man. Eventually, hard work and tenacity led to a steady line of gigs, where he proved his production skills and talent, on major network TV shows and academy-award winning films. In a short period he developed a lengthy and impressive list of credits, most notably the smash hit CHAPPELLE'S SHOW (both in front and behind the camera).
His current project is ‘Friends and Lovers’, a comic soap opera that follows several diverse L.A. couples through the ups and downs of their relationships.
In September of 2010, Maurice launched his own network, GLO TV, here he describes GLO TV in his own words: “The GLO TV is first the Urban LGBT TV network and we represent the future of television: innovative, bold, diverse and delivered across multiple platforms. We proudly feature a full slate of quality programming for the urban LGBT audience, our friends, family and allies. GLO is about showing all of whom we are with programs that are entertaining, informative, affirming and sometimes provocative. GLO understands that within the Urban LGBT community are unique stories waiting to be told, and our programs will always be presented with creativity, quality and integrity...”
In 2001, with no job, no money and no apartment, Maurice Jamal sold his furniture, broke his lease and brought a one-way ticket to New York City to pursue his dreams. A classically trained Shakeperean actor and accomplished slam poet (and, I might add, for those who don’t know, a fantastic dancer), he made enough money to eat, by winning poetry competitions across New York City.
His first break in the film industry was on the feature-film Spider-Man. Eventually, hard work and tenacity led to a steady line of gigs, where he proved his production skills and talent, on major network TV shows and academy-award winning films. In a short period he developed a lengthy and impressive list of credits, most notably the smash hit CHAPPELLE'S SHOW (both in front and behind the camera).
His current project is ‘Friends and Lovers’, a comic soap opera that follows several diverse L.A. couples through the ups and downs of their relationships.
In September of 2010, Maurice launched his own network, GLO TV, here he describes GLO TV in his own words: “The GLO TV is first the Urban LGBT TV network and we represent the future of television: innovative, bold, diverse and delivered across multiple platforms. We proudly feature a full slate of quality programming for the urban LGBT audience, our friends, family and allies. GLO is about showing all of whom we are with programs that are entertaining, informative, affirming and sometimes provocative. GLO understands that within the Urban LGBT community are unique stories waiting to be told, and our programs will always be presented with creativity, quality and integrity...”
Cleo Manago: Activist, Writer, Social Critic
Cleo Manago is despised by some in the LGBTQ community. Descriptors like "homo demagogue," contrarian, separatist, and anti-white are just a few that can be expressed in polite company. But to a nationwide community of same-gender-loving (SGL), bisexual, transgender, and progressive heterosexual African-American men, Manago is the man, seen as a visionary game changer and "social architect" focusing on advocating for and healing a group of men that continues to be maligned and marginalized: brothers.
"Without an understanding of the deep hurt that Black men have around issues of masculinity and their role as a man, you can't hope to eliminate anti-homosexual sentiment in Black men," Manago wrote in his recent article "Getting at the Root of Black 'Homophobic' Speech," in which he castigates GLAAD for demanding that CNN fire Roland Martin for misconstrued homophobic tweets. "There has been no national project to address the psychic damage that White supremacy has done to Black men. But there is always some predominantly White institution waiting, ready to pounce on a Black man for behaving badly."
Unapologetically Afrocentric in his approach in addressing social, mental, and health issues plaguing communities of black men, Manago has created a national study on black men (the Critical Thinking and Cultural Affirmation (CTCA) study) and has built two organizations that, for more than two decades, have had national recognition and have successfully secured millions of dollars in funding: AmASSI Health and Cultural Centers, and Black Men's Xchange (BMX).
Manago's CTCA study is a culturally informed, preventive health strategy that addresses positive mental, sexual, and community health, encouraging self-actualization, cultural empowerment, and responsibility. CTCA has been in practice since 2002.
As the founder and CEO of AmASSI Health and Cultural Centers, Manago was one of the first innovators in the AIDS movement to provide HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention services utilizing a psychosocial, mental health model that was culturally specific to the African-American identity. AmASSI has been in practice since 1989.
Manago is the national organizer and founder of Black Men's Xchange, the oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to promoting healthy self-concept and behavior, cultural affirmation, and critical consciousness among SGL, bisexual, and transgender males and their allies, with chapters in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Orange County, Detroit, Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Black Men's Xchange has been funded by the Center for Disease Control's Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative program. And the CDC positions BMX alongside other legacy community black organization such as the NAACP, the Urban League, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and American Urban Radio Networks. BMX has been in practice since 1989.
A native of south-central Los Angeles, Manago began a vocation in social services at the age of 16. While many would call him a social activist, he does not like the term "activist" applied to him, because he considers black LGBTQ activism tethered to mainstream white privilege, ideology, and single-focused gay organizations, which he views as culturally dissonant and too limited in scope to be meaningful and beneficial to African-American LGBTQ communities and the larger black community.
Cleo Manago spoke at the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March. His views of a conscious separation from the dominant, white heterosexual and queer cultures, being more in line with the Nation of Islam (NOI)’s ideology of a conscious separation from the dominant, white cultures led to Cleo Manago’s engagement with the Nation of Islam. He had also spoken at the historic 1995 Million Man March. In an open letter Manago emailed around in 2005:
BMX knows the Nation of Islam (NOI). It's an independent black organization not funded by the HRC or any white folks. The NOI does not, nor does it have to succumb to White gay press laden, black homosexual coercives who want to ram a white constructed gay-identity political agenda -- that even most Black homosexuals reject -- down their throats. Over the years, several members of the Nation of Islam have been to BMX. As some of you may know, almost 10 years ago BMX co-sponsored a very successful transformative debate on Homosexuality in the Black community with the Nation in L.A.
As a queer separatist organization, many LGBTQ African Americans applaud BMX for being unabashedly queer and unapologetically black. But the terms "queer" and "gay" are not descriptors Manago and his organization would use to depict themselves. That would be "same-gender-loving," because terms like "gay" and "queer" uphold a white queer hegemony that Manago and many in the African-American LGBTQ community denounce. As a matter of fact, he takes credit for having coined the terms "men who have sex with men" (MSM) and "same-gender-loving" (SGL).
To some in the LGBTQ community, Manago is a dangerous demagogue. But to tens of thousands African-American brothers and generous funders, he's seen as a brother driven with a dream. And he's perhaps dangerous because he's effecting change.
(Edited from a Huffington Post article)
"Without an understanding of the deep hurt that Black men have around issues of masculinity and their role as a man, you can't hope to eliminate anti-homosexual sentiment in Black men," Manago wrote in his recent article "Getting at the Root of Black 'Homophobic' Speech," in which he castigates GLAAD for demanding that CNN fire Roland Martin for misconstrued homophobic tweets. "There has been no national project to address the psychic damage that White supremacy has done to Black men. But there is always some predominantly White institution waiting, ready to pounce on a Black man for behaving badly."
Unapologetically Afrocentric in his approach in addressing social, mental, and health issues plaguing communities of black men, Manago has created a national study on black men (the Critical Thinking and Cultural Affirmation (CTCA) study) and has built two organizations that, for more than two decades, have had national recognition and have successfully secured millions of dollars in funding: AmASSI Health and Cultural Centers, and Black Men's Xchange (BMX).
Manago's CTCA study is a culturally informed, preventive health strategy that addresses positive mental, sexual, and community health, encouraging self-actualization, cultural empowerment, and responsibility. CTCA has been in practice since 2002.
As the founder and CEO of AmASSI Health and Cultural Centers, Manago was one of the first innovators in the AIDS movement to provide HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention services utilizing a psychosocial, mental health model that was culturally specific to the African-American identity. AmASSI has been in practice since 1989.
Manago is the national organizer and founder of Black Men's Xchange, the oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to promoting healthy self-concept and behavior, cultural affirmation, and critical consciousness among SGL, bisexual, and transgender males and their allies, with chapters in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Orange County, Detroit, Denver, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. Black Men's Xchange has been funded by the Center for Disease Control's Act Against AIDS Leadership Initiative program. And the CDC positions BMX alongside other legacy community black organization such as the NAACP, the Urban League, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and American Urban Radio Networks. BMX has been in practice since 1989.
A native of south-central Los Angeles, Manago began a vocation in social services at the age of 16. While many would call him a social activist, he does not like the term "activist" applied to him, because he considers black LGBTQ activism tethered to mainstream white privilege, ideology, and single-focused gay organizations, which he views as culturally dissonant and too limited in scope to be meaningful and beneficial to African-American LGBTQ communities and the larger black community.
Cleo Manago spoke at the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March. His views of a conscious separation from the dominant, white heterosexual and queer cultures, being more in line with the Nation of Islam (NOI)’s ideology of a conscious separation from the dominant, white cultures led to Cleo Manago’s engagement with the Nation of Islam. He had also spoken at the historic 1995 Million Man March. In an open letter Manago emailed around in 2005:
BMX knows the Nation of Islam (NOI). It's an independent black organization not funded by the HRC or any white folks. The NOI does not, nor does it have to succumb to White gay press laden, black homosexual coercives who want to ram a white constructed gay-identity political agenda -- that even most Black homosexuals reject -- down their throats. Over the years, several members of the Nation of Islam have been to BMX. As some of you may know, almost 10 years ago BMX co-sponsored a very successful transformative debate on Homosexuality in the Black community with the Nation in L.A.
As a queer separatist organization, many LGBTQ African Americans applaud BMX for being unabashedly queer and unapologetically black. But the terms "queer" and "gay" are not descriptors Manago and his organization would use to depict themselves. That would be "same-gender-loving," because terms like "gay" and "queer" uphold a white queer hegemony that Manago and many in the African-American LGBTQ community denounce. As a matter of fact, he takes credit for having coined the terms "men who have sex with men" (MSM) and "same-gender-loving" (SGL).
To some in the LGBTQ community, Manago is a dangerous demagogue. But to tens of thousands African-American brothers and generous funders, he's seen as a brother driven with a dream. And he's perhaps dangerous because he's effecting change.
(Edited from a Huffington Post article)
Julius Eastman: Post-Modern Composer
While he was alive Julius Eastman (1940-1990) never gained the recognition of his contemporaries like Philip Glass, LaMonte Young and Steve Reich. They were all a part of the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s post-modern music movement in New York City a place where musicians and composers flocked during that era to create and perform music of all genre that would challenge traditional modes of music. Like Steve Reich, Philip Glass and LaMonte Young, Julius Eastman’s energies were put into the genre of classical music of post modernism.
Julius grew up in Ithaca New York where he worked in his teen years as a chorister, having been gifted with a wonderful voice, and he studied piano. He began his college studies at Ithaca College for a year before transferring to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied piano and composition. He then moved to Buffalo where he performed in choral groups and the music of contemporary composers before moving to New York City where he worked with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and in various jazz groups.
It was while living in New York City that Julius composed some of his most memorable and most admired works. Yet he never achieved the fame that his peers attained. In a piece on Julius Eastman’s life aired by NPR it was noted:
“But even for classical music devotees, Eastman was easy to miss — never as famous as the likes of Reich and Glass. As for reasons why, there are a lot of good guesses. He was black. He was gay. And the titles of his pieces were often provocative — darkly funny on one hand, Clayton says, but also deeply angry.”
All of those observations could (and most likely does) explain why Julius Eastman never achieved the recognition of other post-modern composers of his time. He was indeed a fiercely openly SGL (same-gender-loving) black man trying to make a mark in a profession that has shown to be in the past less than accepting to both aspects of identity. It didn’t help Julius that in addition to more acceptable titles like ‘The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc’ and ‘The Moon’s Silent Modulation’ he used such titles as ‘Crazy Nigger’ and ‘Gay Guerilla’ as the titles of some of his works which most likely added to the chagrin of those devotees of a music that was considered ‘intellectual’ and in some ways ‘genteel’, but his lack of recognition was surely not because of a lack talent.
Julius Eastman died at the age of forty-nine, homeless (it’s said he was living in New York’s Tompkin Park at the time of his death) and addicted to alcohol and drugs. It’s said that he had always been fiercely flagrant in his approach to life, and described by some as being ‘angry’, though we would have to wonder if he had been a middle class white composer would his ‘anger’ been respected as ‘temperamental’. Even so, he was a man of great talent whose music is now being reproduced in concert halls and recordings some twenty-three years after his death.
(Here is a Youtube link to some of his work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEATdpIJn3I )
Julius grew up in Ithaca New York where he worked in his teen years as a chorister, having been gifted with a wonderful voice, and he studied piano. He began his college studies at Ithaca College for a year before transferring to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied piano and composition. He then moved to Buffalo where he performed in choral groups and the music of contemporary composers before moving to New York City where he worked with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and in various jazz groups.
It was while living in New York City that Julius composed some of his most memorable and most admired works. Yet he never achieved the fame that his peers attained. In a piece on Julius Eastman’s life aired by NPR it was noted:
“But even for classical music devotees, Eastman was easy to miss — never as famous as the likes of Reich and Glass. As for reasons why, there are a lot of good guesses. He was black. He was gay. And the titles of his pieces were often provocative — darkly funny on one hand, Clayton says, but also deeply angry.”
All of those observations could (and most likely does) explain why Julius Eastman never achieved the recognition of other post-modern composers of his time. He was indeed a fiercely openly SGL (same-gender-loving) black man trying to make a mark in a profession that has shown to be in the past less than accepting to both aspects of identity. It didn’t help Julius that in addition to more acceptable titles like ‘The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc’ and ‘The Moon’s Silent Modulation’ he used such titles as ‘Crazy Nigger’ and ‘Gay Guerilla’ as the titles of some of his works which most likely added to the chagrin of those devotees of a music that was considered ‘intellectual’ and in some ways ‘genteel’, but his lack of recognition was surely not because of a lack talent.
Julius Eastman died at the age of forty-nine, homeless (it’s said he was living in New York’s Tompkin Park at the time of his death) and addicted to alcohol and drugs. It’s said that he had always been fiercely flagrant in his approach to life, and described by some as being ‘angry’, though we would have to wonder if he had been a middle class white composer would his ‘anger’ been respected as ‘temperamental’. Even so, he was a man of great talent whose music is now being reproduced in concert halls and recordings some twenty-three years after his death.
(Here is a Youtube link to some of his work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEATdpIJn3I )
Pauline Kimani: Kenyan Poet, LGBT/Human Rights Activist
'I felt afraid,' says Pauline Kimani, 'because I had heard stories, especially in school, that attraction between people of the same sex wasn't normal, and it was considered evil and un-African.'
Homosexuality is illegal in 38 African countries. In Kenya, it is punishable by up to 14 years in jail. Although no one has ever been convicted, the existence of this law has kept most of Kenya's lesbian, gay, bi and trans-sexual (LGBT) community in the closet. There are high incidences of suicide and drug abuse, and no legal recourse in the face of discrimination and hate crimes.
When Pauline came out, her mother took her to a therapist who gave her anti-depressants as a 'cure'. Pauline's sister accused her of bringing shame to the family. Her father accepted her choice, but died soon after. Only her younger brother, Edwin, has stood by her over the years, respecting both her sexuality and activism.
Seven years on, her sister is more reconciled with Pauline's lesbianism, but her relationship with her mother is still fraught with pain. 'Having my mom come from a very Christian background, and read, translate and interpret the bible the way everybody else is doing, gives her grounds to hate the lesbian in me. But I expect her to challenge her biased judgment, because in the end, it's the same bible that's about preaching love.'
Pauline blames religious leaders for systematically fueling homophobia in Kenya. Homosexuality is constantly described as a crime against Christianity and Islam, with many churches running sexual orientation conversions and banning homosexuals from services. American conservative pastors regularly tour Kenya and have daily television shows there, bolstering homophobic beliefs.
Hate crimes against the LGBT community are frequent, but most go unreported. Pauline had to move house when she was attacked by neighbours after taking part in Kenya's first television talk show on homosexuality in August last year. At least two other members of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) present at the show were also attacked.
This was not the first time for Pauline, nor does she expect it to be the last. She came out to four male college friends a few years back. One of them, she says, wanted a relationship with her. She invited them for drinks to celebrate her coming out, and later that night offered to drive them home. On the way to one of the men's house, 'one of them grabbed me from behind,' Pauline explains, 'and then they started ripping my clothes apart. That's when they raped me, in my own car.'
Pauline did not tell anyone or report it. She tried to commit suicide. Soon after, she was raped again by an unknown group of boys on campus. Targeted rapes of lesbians are very common - and not only in Kenya. South Africa, for instance, despite being the only African country to give sexual minorities equal constitutional rights, has one of the highest incidences of so-called 'corrective rapes' of lesbians.
It's nothing new, says Pauline: rape has always been used to intimidate assertive women in Kenya, like feminists and female politicians.
Surviving these attacks gave her strength to keep fighting for LGBT rights. She joined GALCK within a month of its creation two years ago. From the onset, the coalition prioritised HIV healthcare and treatment. Studies estimate that sex between men accounts for at least five to ten per cent of HIV cases in Kenya, but HIV counselling and treatment programmes have been systematically geared towards heterosexuals. Cases of LGBT people being denied healthcare are common.
One major breakthrough for Kenya's gay coalition was to->www.mask.org.za] collaborate with Liverpool VCT, the only HIV counselling and treatment centre in Kenya to cater to LGBT people. With pride, Pauline marched at the 2006 World Aids Day, when Kenya's gay coalition went public, and then at the 2007 World Social Forum where for the first time LGBT people from the East African community claimed public space to demand their rights.
'Even if there is not any social recognition,' says Pauline, 'at least people now know we exist.'
Homosexuality is illegal in 38 African countries. In Kenya, it is punishable by up to 14 years in jail. Although no one has ever been convicted, the existence of this law has kept most of Kenya's lesbian, gay, bi and trans-sexual (LGBT) community in the closet. There are high incidences of suicide and drug abuse, and no legal recourse in the face of discrimination and hate crimes.
When Pauline came out, her mother took her to a therapist who gave her anti-depressants as a 'cure'. Pauline's sister accused her of bringing shame to the family. Her father accepted her choice, but died soon after. Only her younger brother, Edwin, has stood by her over the years, respecting both her sexuality and activism.
Seven years on, her sister is more reconciled with Pauline's lesbianism, but her relationship with her mother is still fraught with pain. 'Having my mom come from a very Christian background, and read, translate and interpret the bible the way everybody else is doing, gives her grounds to hate the lesbian in me. But I expect her to challenge her biased judgment, because in the end, it's the same bible that's about preaching love.'
Pauline blames religious leaders for systematically fueling homophobia in Kenya. Homosexuality is constantly described as a crime against Christianity and Islam, with many churches running sexual orientation conversions and banning homosexuals from services. American conservative pastors regularly tour Kenya and have daily television shows there, bolstering homophobic beliefs.
Hate crimes against the LGBT community are frequent, but most go unreported. Pauline had to move house when she was attacked by neighbours after taking part in Kenya's first television talk show on homosexuality in August last year. At least two other members of the Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK) present at the show were also attacked.
This was not the first time for Pauline, nor does she expect it to be the last. She came out to four male college friends a few years back. One of them, she says, wanted a relationship with her. She invited them for drinks to celebrate her coming out, and later that night offered to drive them home. On the way to one of the men's house, 'one of them grabbed me from behind,' Pauline explains, 'and then they started ripping my clothes apart. That's when they raped me, in my own car.'
Pauline did not tell anyone or report it. She tried to commit suicide. Soon after, she was raped again by an unknown group of boys on campus. Targeted rapes of lesbians are very common - and not only in Kenya. South Africa, for instance, despite being the only African country to give sexual minorities equal constitutional rights, has one of the highest incidences of so-called 'corrective rapes' of lesbians.
It's nothing new, says Pauline: rape has always been used to intimidate assertive women in Kenya, like feminists and female politicians.
Surviving these attacks gave her strength to keep fighting for LGBT rights. She joined GALCK within a month of its creation two years ago. From the onset, the coalition prioritised HIV healthcare and treatment. Studies estimate that sex between men accounts for at least five to ten per cent of HIV cases in Kenya, but HIV counselling and treatment programmes have been systematically geared towards heterosexuals. Cases of LGBT people being denied healthcare are common.
One major breakthrough for Kenya's gay coalition was to->www.mask.org.za] collaborate with Liverpool VCT, the only HIV counselling and treatment centre in Kenya to cater to LGBT people. With pride, Pauline marched at the 2006 World Aids Day, when Kenya's gay coalition went public, and then at the 2007 World Social Forum where for the first time LGBT people from the East African community claimed public space to demand their rights.
'Even if there is not any social recognition,' says Pauline, 'at least people now know we exist.'
Kenyon Farrow: Organizer, Activist, Strategist, Writer
Kenyon Farrow has been working as an organizer, communications strategist, and writer on issues at the intersection of HIV/AIDS, prisons, and homophobia. Kenyon is the former Executive Director of Queers for Economic Justice—an organization dedicated to organizing, research, and advocacy for and with low-income and working-class lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. Prior to becoming ED, Kenyon served as the National Public Education Director, building the visibility of progressive racial and economic justice issues as they pertain to LGBTQ community through coalition-building, public education, and media advocacy. Currently he serves on the Executive Committee of Connect 2 Protect New York, and the Center for Gay & Lesbian Studies (CLAGS). Kenyon is working on a new report on the Tea Party and LGBT Politics with Political Research Associates, as well as working as a book editor with South End Press.
Kenyon was also a Policy Institute Fellow with the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) doing research, writing, and advocating for new approaches to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Black gay men in the U.S.
While the Director of Communications for CHAMP, Kenyon lead the strategic communications efforts for the Prevention Justice Mobilization, and helped launch Project Unshackle—a network of AIDS activists and prison activists from across the country to work more strategically together at the intersection of mass imprisonment and HIV risk.
Kenyon has also led successful campaigns to tackle homophobia in the Black community. While with the New York State Black Gay Network, he launched a faith-based project—the REVIVAL! Initiative, help shut down a performance of homophobic dancehall artists, and launched a groundbreaking social marketing campaign challenging homophobia in the Black community, which has now been replicated in several cities across the country. He was also a board member of FIERCE!
In addition to his community work, he is the co-editor of “Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out” (Nation Books 2005) and the upcoming “A New Queer Agenda” and Stand Up! The Politics of Racial Uplift (South End Press). His work has appeared in publications such as The Huffington Post, Colorlines.com, theGrio.com, Bilerico.com, After Elton.com, Utne Reader, Black Commentator, and in the anthologies, “Spirited: Affirming the Soul of Black Lesbian and Gay Identity” (Red Bone Press 2006) and the new book “Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage (AK Press 2010).”
Kenyon has been a panelist, lecturer and keynote speaker at many conferences and universities including New York University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin/Madison, and Hampshire College, University of California/Berkeley, Antioch College, University of Texas at Austin, and Macalester College.
He has been honored as one of the “Movers and Shakers” in HIV/AIDS Activism in the African-American Community by The Body.com, was named as one of Out Magazine’s Out 100 for 2008, the Advocate Magazine’s “40 Under 40” LGBT Leaders in the United States for 2010, and one of Black Entertainment Television’s “Modern Black History Heroes” for 2011.
Kenyon is a native of Cleveland, OH, but has lived in New Orleans, and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Kenyon was also a Policy Institute Fellow with the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) doing research, writing, and advocating for new approaches to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Black gay men in the U.S.
While the Director of Communications for CHAMP, Kenyon lead the strategic communications efforts for the Prevention Justice Mobilization, and helped launch Project Unshackle—a network of AIDS activists and prison activists from across the country to work more strategically together at the intersection of mass imprisonment and HIV risk.
Kenyon has also led successful campaigns to tackle homophobia in the Black community. While with the New York State Black Gay Network, he launched a faith-based project—the REVIVAL! Initiative, help shut down a performance of homophobic dancehall artists, and launched a groundbreaking social marketing campaign challenging homophobia in the Black community, which has now been replicated in several cities across the country. He was also a board member of FIERCE!
In addition to his community work, he is the co-editor of “Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out” (Nation Books 2005) and the upcoming “A New Queer Agenda” and Stand Up! The Politics of Racial Uplift (South End Press). His work has appeared in publications such as The Huffington Post, Colorlines.com, theGrio.com, Bilerico.com, After Elton.com, Utne Reader, Black Commentator, and in the anthologies, “Spirited: Affirming the Soul of Black Lesbian and Gay Identity” (Red Bone Press 2006) and the new book “Against Equality: Queer Critiques of Gay Marriage (AK Press 2010).”
Kenyon has been a panelist, lecturer and keynote speaker at many conferences and universities including New York University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin/Madison, and Hampshire College, University of California/Berkeley, Antioch College, University of Texas at Austin, and Macalester College.
He has been honored as one of the “Movers and Shakers” in HIV/AIDS Activism in the African-American Community by The Body.com, was named as one of Out Magazine’s Out 100 for 2008, the Advocate Magazine’s “40 Under 40” LGBT Leaders in the United States for 2010, and one of Black Entertainment Television’s “Modern Black History Heroes” for 2011.
Kenyon is a native of Cleveland, OH, but has lived in New Orleans, and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Wanda Renita Alson: Washtington D.C. Cabinet Member, Activist
Wanda Renita Alston (1959 -2005). She was a passionate feminist and LGBT advocate who became the first Washington D.C. cabinet-level Director of the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs.
Wanda Renita Alston was born in Newport News, Virginia, the 10th of 11 children of Arabelle and the late William D. Alston. After graduating from high school in Newport News, she left home and joined the U.S. Air Force where she earned her Bachelor's degree in Mass Communications at Norfolk State University. She would later earn her Master's degree in Business Administration from Southeastern University, in D.C. She overcame an addiction to cocaine and dedicated herself to becoming a feminist and a leader in the LGBT community.
Wanda Renita Alston's political career began in 1992, when a friend introduced her to the National Organization for Women (NOW). She began working as a volunteer for NOW, but quickly joined their staff, serving as then-President Patricia Ireland's executive assistant and as a special projects director. Her first major project involved helping organize its 1992 March for Women's Lives. While there, she also served as the staff liaison to Rev. Jesse Jackson's National Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Over four years, Alston organized five national marches and helped lead a NOW delegation to the World Conference on Women in Beijing.
Alston left NOW in 1996 to explore other career options, including a stint at the Human Rights Campaign, and held several positions in the D.C. government before becoming special assistant to the mayor for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender affairs in November 2001. Then Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams appointed her to this special position in 2001. In September 2004, Williams turned her post into a Cabinet-level position, saying he wanted to raise the profile of the office. Alston began focusing on preparations for the mayor's first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender summit.
Alston was an active force in the local Democratic Party and on D.C. statehood and feminist issues. She played a key role in bringing together a diverse group of people into a gay political culture, often people who had been traditionally underrepresented.
Wanda Renita Alston received numerous community service awards for her efforts, including the 1994 Welmore Cook Award from Black Pride, Inc., the 1995 National Welfare Rights Union community award, the 1995 D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals Community Service Award, and the 2004 Trust Servant Award from the Transgender Health Empowerment Organization. In 1997, she established her own political consulting firm, Alston Consulting Services, Inc.
On Wednesday, March 16, 2005, just weeks before her 46th birthday, Wanda Renita Alston was fatally stabbed in her home by a neighbor who knocked on her door in search of money to buy crack cocaine. Police charged William Parrot, with the crime. He pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced by D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin to 24 years in prison, the maximum term under sentencing guidelines.
Alston, who was a member of Unity Fellowship Church of Washington, D.C., was eulogized by D.C. Mayor Williams as a “shepherd of the disenfranchised - someone who could reach out to people struggling with racism, drug addiction or discrimination because of their sexual orientation and make them feel a part of a greater political movement”. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton described Alston's ability to inspire those who were struggling: "We will never know how many lost souls Wanda saved by her boldness that inspired, especially, young, black gay people who, to our shame, all too often have been driven to the borders of society -- unwelcome and put down at home, in school, and even in our churches," Norton said.
Wanda Alston House, a transitional residence for homeless LGBT youth in Northeast D.C. was named in her honor. (Source: Stephen Maglott)
Wanda Renita Alston was born in Newport News, Virginia, the 10th of 11 children of Arabelle and the late William D. Alston. After graduating from high school in Newport News, she left home and joined the U.S. Air Force where she earned her Bachelor's degree in Mass Communications at Norfolk State University. She would later earn her Master's degree in Business Administration from Southeastern University, in D.C. She overcame an addiction to cocaine and dedicated herself to becoming a feminist and a leader in the LGBT community.
Wanda Renita Alston's political career began in 1992, when a friend introduced her to the National Organization for Women (NOW). She began working as a volunteer for NOW, but quickly joined their staff, serving as then-President Patricia Ireland's executive assistant and as a special projects director. Her first major project involved helping organize its 1992 March for Women's Lives. While there, she also served as the staff liaison to Rev. Jesse Jackson's National Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Over four years, Alston organized five national marches and helped lead a NOW delegation to the World Conference on Women in Beijing.
Alston left NOW in 1996 to explore other career options, including a stint at the Human Rights Campaign, and held several positions in the D.C. government before becoming special assistant to the mayor for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender affairs in November 2001. Then Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams appointed her to this special position in 2001. In September 2004, Williams turned her post into a Cabinet-level position, saying he wanted to raise the profile of the office. Alston began focusing on preparations for the mayor's first Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender summit.
Alston was an active force in the local Democratic Party and on D.C. statehood and feminist issues. She played a key role in bringing together a diverse group of people into a gay political culture, often people who had been traditionally underrepresented.
Wanda Renita Alston received numerous community service awards for her efforts, including the 1994 Welmore Cook Award from Black Pride, Inc., the 1995 National Welfare Rights Union community award, the 1995 D.C. Coalition of Black Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals Community Service Award, and the 2004 Trust Servant Award from the Transgender Health Empowerment Organization. In 1997, she established her own political consulting firm, Alston Consulting Services, Inc.
On Wednesday, March 16, 2005, just weeks before her 46th birthday, Wanda Renita Alston was fatally stabbed in her home by a neighbor who knocked on her door in search of money to buy crack cocaine. Police charged William Parrot, with the crime. He pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced by D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith E. Retchin to 24 years in prison, the maximum term under sentencing guidelines.
Alston, who was a member of Unity Fellowship Church of Washington, D.C., was eulogized by D.C. Mayor Williams as a “shepherd of the disenfranchised - someone who could reach out to people struggling with racism, drug addiction or discrimination because of their sexual orientation and make them feel a part of a greater political movement”. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton described Alston's ability to inspire those who were struggling: "We will never know how many lost souls Wanda saved by her boldness that inspired, especially, young, black gay people who, to our shame, all too often have been driven to the borders of society -- unwelcome and put down at home, in school, and even in our churches," Norton said.
Wanda Alston House, a transitional residence for homeless LGBT youth in Northeast D.C. was named in her honor. (Source: Stephen Maglott)
Phill Wilson: HIV-AIDS Activist, Organizer
Born April 22, 1956, in Chicago; son of Tebo (a small business owner) and Ina (a banker) Wilson; children: Tiffany.
Education: Illinois Wesleyan University, B.A. in theater and Spanish.
Memberships: Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum; Gay Men of Color Consortium; AIDS Health Care Foundation; National Minority AIDS Council.
Career
Self-employed owner of small giftware company, 1982-86; community organizer and activist, 1986--; Stop AIDS Los Angeles, director of outreach, 1986-88; Minority AIDS Project, deputy director, 1988; National Task Force on AIDS Prevention, national director of training, 1988-90; City of Los Angeles, AIDS coordinator, 1990-92; AIDS Project Los Angeles, director of public policy, 1992--. Member of board of directors of National Association of Black and White Men Together, 1986-88, National AIDS Network, 1988, AIDS Action Council, 1992--, and Minority AIDS Project, 1992--.
Life's Work
Phill Wilson is an outspoken man on a variety of subjects. Usually those subjects revolve around the issues of race, sexuality, and health. Phill Wilson is also a busy man, constantly travelling around the United States advocating for his causes. These are the demands on a person who has established himself as a leader in a field where a few people have wanted to go. Phill Wilson is a community organizer, activist, and educator. He has earned a leading role nationally in these activities through founding, working with, and participating in numerous organizations over the past dozen years.
Wilson serves as Director of Public Policy for AIDS Project Los Angeles, the second largest provider of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS services in the nation. "I started," said Wilson in an interview in Out, "to do this work because I was interested in contributing to the lives of gay and lesbian people in general, and to the lives of black gays and lesbians specifically. And even more specifically to black gay men impacted by [human immunodeficiency virus] HIV and AIDS." Phill Wilson has every reason to believe his job is extremely important. Phill Wilson is both gay and HIV positive.
Wilson grew up in Chicago. His parents had moved north from the southern states like many black Americans did after World War II. Both his parents worked outside the home, but they also provided a strong, supportive environment within the family. He grew up learning a commitment to family and to the community too. Wilson was often involved in civil rights activities in the Chicago area, such as Operation PUSH, Operation Breadbasket, and Black Expos, according to Out. He credits his family with continuing to support him after he came out to them regarding his sexuality. Wilson told Out a story about how he and his former lover, Chris Brownlie, had been to a family reunion and an in-law commented to a cousin about their presence after they had left. "My cousin," said Wilson, "who is a very committed, active, and faithful Jehovah's Witness told this woman, 'that man is my cousin. He is welcome here, and his partner's welcome here. They're a part of our family. You can't come to my house and talk about my cousin and his partner that way. That's not allowed.'"
Families are something Wilson speaks often about when discussing gays in the black community. He speaks of knowing racism, as all African Americans do, plus knowing of discrimination based on sexual orientation. He often calls for the black community to accept their gay and lesbian members nearly as often as he calls for the white gay community to accept their black brothers and sisters as equals. "He calls them as he sees them," said Mario Cooper, manager of the 1992 Democratic National Convention, in Out. Wilson's work in founding and leading coalition-building organizations "allows him to speak frankly about those racial issues," said Cooper.
Phill Wilson has always been busy. He was busy in high school with community activities and still managed to graduate early. He then went directly to Illinois Wesleyan University, where he stayed busy earning a Bachelor's degree in theater and Spanish. Wilson had originally intended going on to law school after completing his degree, however, he never got there. He said in Out that, "I just didn't like law professors, I didn't like lawyers, I didn't like law students." Instead Phill went on to try to meet some other of the usual family expectations. He worked hard for American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) and was married for a short time. He described himself as naive to his sexuality until he heard a radio interview with a publisher of gay magazines. He then went about trying to locate the gay community in Chicago and met his partner of 10 years Chris Brownlie in 1979.
In 1981 Wilson said he "had enough of the cold weather of Chicago." He and Chris moved to the Los Angeles area. They ran a giftware manufacturing company called Black Is More Than Beautiful. By this time both Phill and his partner had heard of AIDS. Some of their friends had been ill or had died. Wilson said around this time both he and Chris had biopsies of their lymph nodes taken, because they had been swollen for a long time. "No one knew what caused AIDS then," said Wilson. "The doctors told Chris and I that there were abnormalities to the lymph nodes but they couldn't tell us what it meant." As the years progressed more friends grew ill and people learned a virus caused AIDS. In 1986 California placed Proposition 64--a proposal calling for the forced quarantine of all people with AIDS--on the election ballot. Both Wilson and Brownlie volunteered to work for a committee opposing the passage of this proposal.
About the time of the November of 1986 election Brownlie became ill. Wilson said Brownlie's illness, plus the amount of time they found themselves working on the ballot proposal led them to close down their giftware business. With their efforts Proposition 64 went down to defeat. In 1986 Wilson also founded a group called the AIDS Prevention Team. This group was started with a small grant Wilson received while volunteering with a social organization called Black and White Men Together.
In early 1987 Wilson and Brownlie were both diagnosed with HIV infection, which nearly always gives way to full blown AIDS, an often sexually transmitted condition in which the body's immune system is depressed, making one susceptible to a host of health problems, usually becoming fatal. In fact, Brownlie's illness was classified as AIDS. This diagnosis just seemed to make Wilson and Brownlie work harder. They also founded the AIDS Health Care Foundation around that time, which has grown into the largest nonprofit HIV medical services provider in Los Angeles County. It now includes the Chris Brownlie Hospice, named for Wilson's partner.
In 1987 Wilson had become concerned that AIDS was too easily being ignored in the African American community. He also noted that the scant information available to the minority community ignored black gays and lesbians. Wilson went about trying to change this through the founding of the National Black Gay and Lesbian Conference and one year later the Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum (BGLLF).
Wilson noted in POZ that "When you look at much of the information directed at gay men, much of the language and imagery is focused on white men, and my own experience as a black man is if I'm not explicitly included then I'm tacitly excluded." He is no less critical of the African American community, also noted in POZ: "even now when you look at the AIDS prevention campaigns in African American communities, you'll see that their priorities are not gay men and that often the agencies involved are hostile places for gays." Last year BGLLF's annual conference attracted more than 1,000 people to meetings in New Jersey. Wilson also founded the Gay Men of Color Consortium in 1990.
Beginning in 1988, Wilson was more frequently involved on the national side of the issues close to him. He took part in a major conference in Virginia with other lesbian and gay leaders originally summoned by author Larry Kramer. Wilson led a protest to the conference's lack of racial parity and gained some respect from attendees. In 1990 Wilson was instrumental in putting together the first "Summit on Homosexuality in the Black Community" at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta. Out magazine stated that this meeting eventually led to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) endorsement of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual March on Washington in 1993.
In April of 1993 Wilson was one of the key note speakers at the march. In August of that same year he was back in Washington as a keynote speaker for the 30th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington. When U.S. president Bill Clinton invited lesbian and gay leaders to meet with him shortly after his election, Phill Wilson was chosen as one of the gay community's spokespeople.
As the organizing and activism has continued, the awards and recognition of Wilson's work has grown. In 1990 he was voted Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. Mayor Richard J. Riordan of Los Angeles awarded him the AIDS Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. In January of 1994 Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said, as quoted in BLK, that Wilson "ensured that voices of African Americans were heard in the struggle for lesbian and gay rights as well as in the fight against AIDS," as they awarded Phill their Vision Liberty Award.
Phill Wilson is realistic in his work with AIDS. He knows the heavy losses of colleagues and friends. His lover Chris died in 1989. He wrote about the grief and anguish in Advocate magazine in 1992. He often speaks of his work as war. But the necessity of the work keeps him going. "If you don't do any of that long term planning," he toldOut, "then you're assuring that it's going to be around another 5, 10, 15, or 20 years." "By the time we have the infrastructure we have to have," said Wilson in POZ, "I'll probably be dead. But right now I'm doing what I'm doing and living my life as I see it."
Awards
Selected Awards: Public Official of the Year, Stonewall Democratic Club; Man of the Year, Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Los Angeles, 1990; Man of the Year, Christopher Street West Association, 1992; Vision Liberty Award, Lambda Legal Defense Fund, 1994; Honored in public session by the California State Senate and County of Los Angeles; AIDS Lifetime Achievement Award, City of Los Angeles, 1994; Grand Marshall, Martin Luther King Celebration, Atlanta, 1995.
Further Reading
Sources
— Stephen Stratton (Answers.com)
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/phill-wilson#ixzz2TNXyMfZX
Education: Illinois Wesleyan University, B.A. in theater and Spanish.
Memberships: Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum; Gay Men of Color Consortium; AIDS Health Care Foundation; National Minority AIDS Council.
Career
Self-employed owner of small giftware company, 1982-86; community organizer and activist, 1986--; Stop AIDS Los Angeles, director of outreach, 1986-88; Minority AIDS Project, deputy director, 1988; National Task Force on AIDS Prevention, national director of training, 1988-90; City of Los Angeles, AIDS coordinator, 1990-92; AIDS Project Los Angeles, director of public policy, 1992--. Member of board of directors of National Association of Black and White Men Together, 1986-88, National AIDS Network, 1988, AIDS Action Council, 1992--, and Minority AIDS Project, 1992--.
Life's Work
Phill Wilson is an outspoken man on a variety of subjects. Usually those subjects revolve around the issues of race, sexuality, and health. Phill Wilson is also a busy man, constantly travelling around the United States advocating for his causes. These are the demands on a person who has established himself as a leader in a field where a few people have wanted to go. Phill Wilson is a community organizer, activist, and educator. He has earned a leading role nationally in these activities through founding, working with, and participating in numerous organizations over the past dozen years.
Wilson serves as Director of Public Policy for AIDS Project Los Angeles, the second largest provider of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS services in the nation. "I started," said Wilson in an interview in Out, "to do this work because I was interested in contributing to the lives of gay and lesbian people in general, and to the lives of black gays and lesbians specifically. And even more specifically to black gay men impacted by [human immunodeficiency virus] HIV and AIDS." Phill Wilson has every reason to believe his job is extremely important. Phill Wilson is both gay and HIV positive.
Wilson grew up in Chicago. His parents had moved north from the southern states like many black Americans did after World War II. Both his parents worked outside the home, but they also provided a strong, supportive environment within the family. He grew up learning a commitment to family and to the community too. Wilson was often involved in civil rights activities in the Chicago area, such as Operation PUSH, Operation Breadbasket, and Black Expos, according to Out. He credits his family with continuing to support him after he came out to them regarding his sexuality. Wilson told Out a story about how he and his former lover, Chris Brownlie, had been to a family reunion and an in-law commented to a cousin about their presence after they had left. "My cousin," said Wilson, "who is a very committed, active, and faithful Jehovah's Witness told this woman, 'that man is my cousin. He is welcome here, and his partner's welcome here. They're a part of our family. You can't come to my house and talk about my cousin and his partner that way. That's not allowed.'"
Families are something Wilson speaks often about when discussing gays in the black community. He speaks of knowing racism, as all African Americans do, plus knowing of discrimination based on sexual orientation. He often calls for the black community to accept their gay and lesbian members nearly as often as he calls for the white gay community to accept their black brothers and sisters as equals. "He calls them as he sees them," said Mario Cooper, manager of the 1992 Democratic National Convention, in Out. Wilson's work in founding and leading coalition-building organizations "allows him to speak frankly about those racial issues," said Cooper.
Phill Wilson has always been busy. He was busy in high school with community activities and still managed to graduate early. He then went directly to Illinois Wesleyan University, where he stayed busy earning a Bachelor's degree in theater and Spanish. Wilson had originally intended going on to law school after completing his degree, however, he never got there. He said in Out that, "I just didn't like law professors, I didn't like lawyers, I didn't like law students." Instead Phill went on to try to meet some other of the usual family expectations. He worked hard for American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) and was married for a short time. He described himself as naive to his sexuality until he heard a radio interview with a publisher of gay magazines. He then went about trying to locate the gay community in Chicago and met his partner of 10 years Chris Brownlie in 1979.
In 1981 Wilson said he "had enough of the cold weather of Chicago." He and Chris moved to the Los Angeles area. They ran a giftware manufacturing company called Black Is More Than Beautiful. By this time both Phill and his partner had heard of AIDS. Some of their friends had been ill or had died. Wilson said around this time both he and Chris had biopsies of their lymph nodes taken, because they had been swollen for a long time. "No one knew what caused AIDS then," said Wilson. "The doctors told Chris and I that there were abnormalities to the lymph nodes but they couldn't tell us what it meant." As the years progressed more friends grew ill and people learned a virus caused AIDS. In 1986 California placed Proposition 64--a proposal calling for the forced quarantine of all people with AIDS--on the election ballot. Both Wilson and Brownlie volunteered to work for a committee opposing the passage of this proposal.
About the time of the November of 1986 election Brownlie became ill. Wilson said Brownlie's illness, plus the amount of time they found themselves working on the ballot proposal led them to close down their giftware business. With their efforts Proposition 64 went down to defeat. In 1986 Wilson also founded a group called the AIDS Prevention Team. This group was started with a small grant Wilson received while volunteering with a social organization called Black and White Men Together.
In early 1987 Wilson and Brownlie were both diagnosed with HIV infection, which nearly always gives way to full blown AIDS, an often sexually transmitted condition in which the body's immune system is depressed, making one susceptible to a host of health problems, usually becoming fatal. In fact, Brownlie's illness was classified as AIDS. This diagnosis just seemed to make Wilson and Brownlie work harder. They also founded the AIDS Health Care Foundation around that time, which has grown into the largest nonprofit HIV medical services provider in Los Angeles County. It now includes the Chris Brownlie Hospice, named for Wilson's partner.
In 1987 Wilson had become concerned that AIDS was too easily being ignored in the African American community. He also noted that the scant information available to the minority community ignored black gays and lesbians. Wilson went about trying to change this through the founding of the National Black Gay and Lesbian Conference and one year later the Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum (BGLLF).
Wilson noted in POZ that "When you look at much of the information directed at gay men, much of the language and imagery is focused on white men, and my own experience as a black man is if I'm not explicitly included then I'm tacitly excluded." He is no less critical of the African American community, also noted in POZ: "even now when you look at the AIDS prevention campaigns in African American communities, you'll see that their priorities are not gay men and that often the agencies involved are hostile places for gays." Last year BGLLF's annual conference attracted more than 1,000 people to meetings in New Jersey. Wilson also founded the Gay Men of Color Consortium in 1990.
Beginning in 1988, Wilson was more frequently involved on the national side of the issues close to him. He took part in a major conference in Virginia with other lesbian and gay leaders originally summoned by author Larry Kramer. Wilson led a protest to the conference's lack of racial parity and gained some respect from attendees. In 1990 Wilson was instrumental in putting together the first "Summit on Homosexuality in the Black Community" at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta. Out magazine stated that this meeting eventually led to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) endorsement of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual March on Washington in 1993.
In April of 1993 Wilson was one of the key note speakers at the march. In August of that same year he was back in Washington as a keynote speaker for the 30th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington. When U.S. president Bill Clinton invited lesbian and gay leaders to meet with him shortly after his election, Phill Wilson was chosen as one of the gay community's spokespeople.
As the organizing and activism has continued, the awards and recognition of Wilson's work has grown. In 1990 he was voted Man of the Year by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center. Mayor Richard J. Riordan of Los Angeles awarded him the AIDS Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. In January of 1994 Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund said, as quoted in BLK, that Wilson "ensured that voices of African Americans were heard in the struggle for lesbian and gay rights as well as in the fight against AIDS," as they awarded Phill their Vision Liberty Award.
Phill Wilson is realistic in his work with AIDS. He knows the heavy losses of colleagues and friends. His lover Chris died in 1989. He wrote about the grief and anguish in Advocate magazine in 1992. He often speaks of his work as war. But the necessity of the work keeps him going. "If you don't do any of that long term planning," he toldOut, "then you're assuring that it's going to be around another 5, 10, 15, or 20 years." "By the time we have the infrastructure we have to have," said Wilson in POZ, "I'll probably be dead. But right now I'm doing what I'm doing and living my life as I see it."
Awards
Selected Awards: Public Official of the Year, Stonewall Democratic Club; Man of the Year, Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Los Angeles, 1990; Man of the Year, Christopher Street West Association, 1992; Vision Liberty Award, Lambda Legal Defense Fund, 1994; Honored in public session by the California State Senate and County of Los Angeles; AIDS Lifetime Achievement Award, City of Los Angeles, 1994; Grand Marshall, Martin Luther King Celebration, Atlanta, 1995.
Further Reading
Sources
- Advocate, February 12, 1991, p. 36.
- BLK, January 1994, p. 11.
- Los Angeles Times, October 2, 1990, p. B3.
- Out, February/March 1994, pp. 69-73, 141-42.
- POZ, June/July 1994, p. 12-13; August/September 1994, p. 71.
- Additional information for this profile was obtained from a CBB interview with Wilson on December 28, 1994.
— Stephen Stratton (Answers.com)
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/phill-wilson#ixzz2TNXyMfZX
Bill T Jones: Multi-Award Winning Choreographer, Dancer
Bill T. Jones (1952) is an American artistic director, choreographer and dancer.
Jones was born in Bunnell, Florida, and his family moved North as part of the Great Migration in the first half of the twentieth century. They settled in Wayland, New York, where Jones attended Wayland High School. He began his dance training at Binghamton University, where he studied classical ballet and modern dance.
Bill T Jones choreographed and performed worldwide as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane, before forming the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982.
Creating more than 100 works for his own company, Jones has also choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, AXIS Dance Company, Boston Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Berlin Opera Ballet and Diversions Dance Company, among others. In 1995, Jones directed and performed in a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach, Degga, at Alice Tully Hall, commissioned by Lincoln Center’s "Serious Fun" Festival. His collaboration with Jessye Norman, How! Do! We! Do!, premiered at New York’s City Center in 1999.
In 1990, Jones choreographed Sir Michael Tippett’s New Year under the direction of Sir Peter Hall for the Houston Grand Opera and the Glyndebourne Opera Festival. He conceived, co-directed and choreographed Mother of Three Sons, which was performed at the Munich Biennale, New York City Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera. He also directed Lost in the Stars for the Boston Lyric Opera. Jones’ theater involvement includes co-directing Perfect Courage with Rhodessa Jones for Festival 2000, in 1990. In 1994, he directed Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain for The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN.
Jones also collaborated with artist Keith Haring in 1982 to create a series of both performance and visual arts together.
Television credits include PBS’s “Great Performances” Series (Fever Swamp and Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land) and “Alive from Off Center” (Untitled).Still/Here was co-directed for television by Bill T. Jones and Gretchen Bender. A PBS documentary on the making of Still/Here, by Bill Moyers and David Grubin, Bill T. Jones: Still/Here with Bill Moyers, premiered in 1997. The 1999 Blackside documentary I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Arts, profiled Jones’ work. D-Man in the Waters is included in Free to Dance, a 2001 Emmy-winning documentary that chronicles modern dance’s African-American roots. Narrated by Jones himself, the BBC/VIEW also produced a documentary film, entitled Bill T. Jones: Dancing to the Promised Land, that documents the creation of Jones’s Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Landand guides us through the life, work, and creative process of Jones and the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company.
Bill's piece Still/Here explores and contemplates survival, life and art through dance and music. Still/Here is a two-act, evening-length dance-theater piece (premiered 1994) with a visual score made from edited interviews with people who were or are facing life-threatening illnesses.
Choreographed by Bill T. Jones First performed at the Biennale Internationale de la Danse in Lyon, France Music by Kenneth Frazelle (traditionals by Odetta, the Lark String Quartet and Bill Finizio) and Vernon Reid
Jones is the co-creator, director and choreographer of the musical Fela!, which ran Off-Broadway in 2008 and opened on Broadway in previews in October 2009. Jones won theLucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Choreographer for his work as well as the Tony Award for Best Choreography.
In 1994, Jones received a MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 1979, Jones was granted the Creative Artists Public Service Award in Choreography, and in 1980, 1981 and 1982, he was the recipient of Choreographic Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has been awarded several New York Dance and Performance (“Bessie Awards”); 1986 Joyce Theater Season (along with Arnie Zane), D-Man in the Waters (1989 and 2001), The Table Project (2001) and The Breathing Show (2001). Jones, along with his collaborators, sister Rhodessa Jones and Idris Ackamoor, received an “Izzie Award” in Choreography for Perfect Courage in 1992. In 2001, he received another “Izzie” for his work, Fantasy in C-Major, with AXIS Dance Company. He was honored with the Dorothy B. Chandler Performing Arts Award for his innovative contributions to performing arts in 1991. In 1993, he was presented with the Dance Magazine Award. In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.” Jones has received honorary doctorates from the Art Institute of Chicago, Bard College, Columbia College, the Juilliard School, Swarthmore College, and Yale University. He is also a recipient of the SUNY BinghamtonDistinguished Alumni Award.
In 2003 Jones was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts, given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.” In 2005 he received the Wexner Prize at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.
In 2007, he won the Tony Award for Best Choreography for Spring Awakening.
Jones was named a 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellow and awarded a $50,000 grant by United States Artists, a public charity that supports and promotes the work of American artists.
Jones was inducted into the National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 2010, Jones won the Tony Award for Best Choreography for his work in Fela!.
He was one of five recipients for the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors.
Bill T. Jones was the recipient of the 2011 YoungArts Arison Award, which is given annually to an individual who has had a significant influence on the development of young American artists.
Selected works:
Intuitive Momentum (1983)
With Arnie Zane
Music: Max Roach and Connie Crothers
Set: Robert Longo
Costumes: Ronald Kolodzie
Lighting: Craig Miller
Virgil Thompson Etudes (1986)
Music: Virgil Thompson
Costume: Louise Nevelson and William Katz
Lighting: Craig Miller
It Takes Two (1989)
Music: Ray Charles and Betty Carter
Lighting: Raymond Dooley
Broken Wedding (1992)
Music: Klezmer Conservatory Band
Costumes/Set: Liz Prince
Lighting: Robert Wierzel
Love Re-Defined (1996)
Music: Daniel Johnston
Decor: Donald Baechler
Costumes: Liz Prince
Lighting: Robert Wierzel
World II (18 Movements to Kurtag) (2002)
Music: Gyorgy Kurtag
Costumes: Liz Prince
Lighting: Robert Wierzel
Chapel/Chapter (2006)
With Janet Wong and members of the Company
Music: Daniel Bernard Roumain, Lawrence "Lipbone" Redding, Christopher Antoino William Lancaster and Alicia Hall Moran
Costumes: Liz Prince
Lighting: Robert Wierzel
Decor: Bjorn G. Amelan
Video: Janet Wong
Sound Design: Sam Crawford
A Quarelling Pair (2006)
With Janet Wong and members of the Company
Set: Bjorn G. Amelan
Lighting: Robert Wierzel
Costumes: Liz Prince
Video: Janet Wong
Sound Design: Sam Crawford
Music: Wynne Bennett, Christopher William Antoino Lancaster and George Lewis, Jr.
Filmography. Film Appearances
- 1986: The Kitchen Presents Two Moon July
- 1994: Black Is... Black Ain't
- 2001: Free to Dance
- 2004: Bill T. Jones: Dancing to the Promised Land[3]
- 2008: The Black List: Volume One
- 2008: The Universe of Keith Haring
- 2008: Bill T Jones - Solos
- Jones, Bill T.; Gillespie, Peggy (1995). Last Night on Earth (First edition ed.). New York: Pantheon. ISBN 0-679-43926-9.
- Jones, Bill T.; Zane, Arnie; Zimmer, Elizabeth; Quasha, Susan (1989). Body Against Body: The Dance and Other Collaborations of Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane (First edition ed.). Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press. ISBN 0-88268-064-1.
- Jones, Bill T.; Susan Kuklin (1998). Dance (First edition ed.). New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-2307-0.
- Zane, Arnie; Jones, Bill T. and Green, Jonathan (1999). Continuous Replay: The Photographs of Arnie Zane (First edition ed.). Cambridge: MIT Press. (Source: Wikipedia)
Bakah Aicha: Nigerian/Republic Democratic of Congo Activist, Organizer
Bakah Aich is an ICT professional currently working with the United Nations World Food Program. As an African lesbian living in Niger, she is excited about contributing to QAYN through her lived experiences as well as translation and technical skills. Although she’s been a resource person for years by sharing lesbian and gay- related materials (websites, books, movies, etc.) to fellow African queers, she decided to get involved with QAYN to participate more actively in developing the queer community in West Africa and to help improve access to information for young queer Africans.
Wade Davis: Athlete, Activist, Educator, Writer
Wade Alan Davis II (1977) is an American speaker, activist, writer, educator, and former American football player.
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Davis grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana and Aurora, Colorado. At seven years of age, Davis discovered football. Davis was born in Little Rock Rock, Arkansas and spent most of his childhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was raised in a Southern Baptist and went to church four to five times a week. Wade was the only boy and the youngest child in his family. He suffered from a speech impediment and did not like to talk, which added to his feelings of loneliness. Davis later moved to Aurora, Colorado and attended Overland High School, graduating in 1996.
Wade Davis played college football first at Mesa State College, a small college in Colorado, in 1996. He transferred to Weber State University of Ogden, Utah in 1997 and played three seasons on the Weber State Wildcats football team. As a sophomore in 1997, Davis blocked two kicks. In 1999, his senior year, Davis made 11 tackles in one game for Weber State and was an honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference selection. With Weber State, Davis made 142 tackles (3 for loss), one fumble recovery, 2 forced fumbles, 20 passes defended, and 2 interceptions.
In 2000, Davis signed with the Tennessee Titans of the NFL as undrafted free agent but was cut after the preseason. Davis made his professional debut in 2001 with the NFL Europe team Berlin Thunder and won the World Bowl IX title with the Thunder. After spending the 2001 preseason with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, Davis again played the 2002 regular season in the NFL Europe with the Barcelona Dragons. Davis then participated in training camps and preseasons with the Tennessee Titans in 2002 and Washington Redskins in 2003 before retiring due to injury.
In 2012, Davis came out publicly speaking about what it was like to be closeted and gay in the NFL.
Davis has spoken on his experience of the intersectionality of his identities as a Black, masculine, gay, NFL player.
“For me, existing at the intersection of Black manhood, Black masculinity, sexuality and sports was the most dangerous place in the world. As an athlete you have to consistently prove yourself; as a Black male athlete, 'I' felt the pressure to consistently prove myself, my masculinity and my sexuality. I lived under a microscope, at least I thought, and I never had the opportunity to just be myself within the confines of a never-ending cycle of masculine performance. I was never alone. I was never able to relax. And I was never my authentic self. I felt so much pressure. Some of it was self-imposed and I was socialized to believe that pressure was part of the game. I knew I was expected to have sex with women, to engage in conversations that were, either, sexist, racist, or homophobic. I felt the need to prove that I belonged in that sports fraternity and that I was just as masculine as everyone else.”
Davis is currently executive director for the You Can Play Project, an advocacy organization working to eradicate homophobia in professional sports and is a member of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network sport-advisory board.. He formerly worked at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York City, as the Assistant Director of Job Readiness, where he helped at-promise LGBT youth learn life skills. His writings and interviews have appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times and Outsports.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Davis grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana and Aurora, Colorado. At seven years of age, Davis discovered football. Davis was born in Little Rock Rock, Arkansas and spent most of his childhood in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was raised in a Southern Baptist and went to church four to five times a week. Wade was the only boy and the youngest child in his family. He suffered from a speech impediment and did not like to talk, which added to his feelings of loneliness. Davis later moved to Aurora, Colorado and attended Overland High School, graduating in 1996.
Wade Davis played college football first at Mesa State College, a small college in Colorado, in 1996. He transferred to Weber State University of Ogden, Utah in 1997 and played three seasons on the Weber State Wildcats football team. As a sophomore in 1997, Davis blocked two kicks. In 1999, his senior year, Davis made 11 tackles in one game for Weber State and was an honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference selection. With Weber State, Davis made 142 tackles (3 for loss), one fumble recovery, 2 forced fumbles, 20 passes defended, and 2 interceptions.
In 2000, Davis signed with the Tennessee Titans of the NFL as undrafted free agent but was cut after the preseason. Davis made his professional debut in 2001 with the NFL Europe team Berlin Thunder and won the World Bowl IX title with the Thunder. After spending the 2001 preseason with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, Davis again played the 2002 regular season in the NFL Europe with the Barcelona Dragons. Davis then participated in training camps and preseasons with the Tennessee Titans in 2002 and Washington Redskins in 2003 before retiring due to injury.
In 2012, Davis came out publicly speaking about what it was like to be closeted and gay in the NFL.
Davis has spoken on his experience of the intersectionality of his identities as a Black, masculine, gay, NFL player.
“For me, existing at the intersection of Black manhood, Black masculinity, sexuality and sports was the most dangerous place in the world. As an athlete you have to consistently prove yourself; as a Black male athlete, 'I' felt the pressure to consistently prove myself, my masculinity and my sexuality. I lived under a microscope, at least I thought, and I never had the opportunity to just be myself within the confines of a never-ending cycle of masculine performance. I was never alone. I was never able to relax. And I was never my authentic self. I felt so much pressure. Some of it was self-imposed and I was socialized to believe that pressure was part of the game. I knew I was expected to have sex with women, to engage in conversations that were, either, sexist, racist, or homophobic. I felt the need to prove that I belonged in that sports fraternity and that I was just as masculine as everyone else.”
Davis is currently executive director for the You Can Play Project, an advocacy organization working to eradicate homophobia in professional sports and is a member of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network sport-advisory board.. He formerly worked at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York City, as the Assistant Director of Job Readiness, where he helped at-promise LGBT youth learn life skills. His writings and interviews have appeared in The Huffington Post, The New York Times and Outsports.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Earnest Winborne: TV Producer, CEO of NoMoreDownLow TV
Earnest Winborne is a 35+ year veteran television producer and director. In 2010, he launched NoMoreDownLow.TV - an entertainment news show dedicated to speaking the truth and dispelling the negative stereotypes of same gender loving people of color and their allies.
Winborne's career path has led him to work with television's biggest stars on the most successful programs in the nation’s top television markets. His career began with stints at local television affiliates in Richmond, Baltimore, Boston and Washington, D.C. His unique career path has allowed him to receive producer credits on a wide variety of television formats, ranging from live talk shows, news and public affairs programs, documentaries, telethons, lifestyle and entertainment magazines, concerts, dance shows and other music specials.
He has also worked as an associate producer with The Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago and as producer and field director for The View in New York. For the better part of the last 15 years, Winborne has covered the red-carpet events of Hollywood as a field producer/director for entertainment news magazines Extra, Access Hollywood and E! News. Earnest currently serves as Coordinating Producer for The Inside news show.
Winborne's career path has led him to work with television's biggest stars on the most successful programs in the nation’s top television markets. His career began with stints at local television affiliates in Richmond, Baltimore, Boston and Washington, D.C. His unique career path has allowed him to receive producer credits on a wide variety of television formats, ranging from live talk shows, news and public affairs programs, documentaries, telethons, lifestyle and entertainment magazines, concerts, dance shows and other music specials.
He has also worked as an associate producer with The Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago and as producer and field director for The View in New York. For the better part of the last 15 years, Winborne has covered the red-carpet events of Hollywood as a field producer/director for entertainment news magazines Extra, Access Hollywood and E! News. Earnest currently serves as Coordinating Producer for The Inside news show.
Maurice Tomlinson: Attorney, Human Rights Advocate, HIV/AIDS Activist
Maurice Tomlinson (1971) is an attorney, law lecturer, Human Rights and LGBT advocate, and a prominent HIV and AIDS activist in Jamaica and the Caribbean for more than 18 years.
Maurice A. Tomlinson was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica to Carmen Tomlinson, a cashier and his father George Tomlinson, was a telephone technician. Maurice has one older and one younger brother, both of whom migrated to North America.
Maurice attended two different high schools in Jamaica, Cornwall College in Montego Bay where he did his first set of exams and graduated as their class valedictorian, and Kingston College where he completed his grade 13 ‘A’ Levels in 1989. Maurice then took a gap year to work with the national airline, Air Jamaica. In 1990 Maurice enrolled at the University of the West Indies, Mona (UWI) where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in History. After graduation in 1993 Maurice returned to Air Jamaica and started his then “dream” job as a flight attendant. However, he left the airline after only 6 months when his boss advised him to “stand in front of a mirror, try to act more macho and deepen his voice” because passengers had complained that he was gay. In 1993, Maurice also started volunteering with and later served on the board of Jamaica’s major HIV / AIDS non-government organization (NGO), Jamaica AIDS Support for Life.
After leaving Air Jamaica, Maurice Tomlinson went to work for a mortgage company where at 25 he became the youngest branch manager. Soon after, Maurice received a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue his Master’s in Business Administration degree at the University of Calgary, Alberta. He returned to the Caribbean in 1998 and in 1999 he again enrolled at the UWI to read for his Bachelor of Laws degree. It was while pursuing his law degree that Maurice became interested in international human rights work. He then received a United Nations Development Programme/World Intellectual Property Organization fellowship and pursued a Master of Laws degree in Intellectual Property at the University of Turin in Italy, where he graduated in 2005.
In 2005 he started working as a corporate lawyer and left after a year and a half to become the project manager in the Office of the Principal of the University of West Indies. In this post, Maurice was responsible for establishing the UWI’s Western Jamaica Campus in 2008. In 2009, he began teaching human rights and discrimination law at the University of Technology, Jamaica and also became Legal Advisor to Marginalized Groups for the international NGO, AIDS-Free World. He now teaches Canadian Human Rights Law at the University of Ontario’s Institute of Technology in Canada.
Maurice Tomlinson previously served as legal advisor on the boards of Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL) as well as the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG). He had lectured extensively on human rights and discrimination law at the University of Technology, Jamaica but had to flee the country temporarily in 2012 when a Jamaican newspaper carried an authorized photograph of his wedding to a Canadian man, Rev. Tom Decker who was the LGB liaison officer for the Toronto Police Force. Rev. Tom now pastors the Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church in Rochester, New York and Maurice now divides his time between Toronto and Rochester.
Maurice still visits Jamaica regularly and he is Lead Counsel for an unprecedented challenge to Jamaica’s colonial anti-sodomy law. In addition, he is the claimant in two land-mark cases challenging the immigration laws of Belize and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago which ban the entry of gays. He has also filed a constitutional challenge against Jamaican television stations who refused to air an ad in which he appears, which calls for respect for the human rights of gay Jamaicans.
Over the past four years, Maurice Tomlinson has been working with J-FLAG and JSAL to increase the visibility of Jamaican LGBTI in order to improve the access to health care for this vulnerable group. In this regard, he has led several public initiatives, including public service announcements, Jamaica’s first Walk for Tolerance, several public demonstrations, a successful letter writing campaign to the Jamaican newspapers, and spearheaded meetings with senior government, diplomatic and civic officials.
Maurice Tomlinson also travels around the Caribbean providing human rights documentation and advocacy training for groups working with LGBTI individuals. Maurice’s husband, Rev. Tom, developed an award winning program to report homophobic violence while he worked for the Toronto Police and has revised this program for the Caribbean. He now travels with Maurice to teach this to Caribbean civil society groups, as well as provide LGBT sensitization sessions for Caribbean police.
In December of 2011, Maurice was awarded the inaugural “David Kato Vision and Voice Award” which was created to honor the memory of slain Ugandan LGBT activist, David Kato. This award recognizes outstanding leadership in advocating for the rights of LGBTI people.
Maurice Tomlinson is a self-confessed workaholic who is receiving physiotherapy for excessive hours spent crouched over a computer. In the rare moments of downtime, he enjoys reading historical novels, or curling up on the couch with his husband, Rev. Tom Decker, and watching historical dramas. When time permits, the couple also takes in the odd play and live musical performance. The Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus is a particular favorite of theirs.
Rev. Tom and Maurice met in 2010 at an International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) World Conference and their activism is central to their marriage. They now split their time between homes in Toronto, Ontario and Rochester, New York.
Maurice Tomlinson was married to his best female friend in 1999 and the couple divorced 4 years later. They have one son who now lives with his mother.
Today we join with Maurice Tomlinson in celebration of his 42nd Birthday and thank him for his courageous advocacy on behalf of our community, here and throughout the Caribbean. (Source: Stephen Maglott)
Maurice A. Tomlinson was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica to Carmen Tomlinson, a cashier and his father George Tomlinson, was a telephone technician. Maurice has one older and one younger brother, both of whom migrated to North America.
Maurice attended two different high schools in Jamaica, Cornwall College in Montego Bay where he did his first set of exams and graduated as their class valedictorian, and Kingston College where he completed his grade 13 ‘A’ Levels in 1989. Maurice then took a gap year to work with the national airline, Air Jamaica. In 1990 Maurice enrolled at the University of the West Indies, Mona (UWI) where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in History. After graduation in 1993 Maurice returned to Air Jamaica and started his then “dream” job as a flight attendant. However, he left the airline after only 6 months when his boss advised him to “stand in front of a mirror, try to act more macho and deepen his voice” because passengers had complained that he was gay. In 1993, Maurice also started volunteering with and later served on the board of Jamaica’s major HIV / AIDS non-government organization (NGO), Jamaica AIDS Support for Life.
After leaving Air Jamaica, Maurice Tomlinson went to work for a mortgage company where at 25 he became the youngest branch manager. Soon after, Maurice received a Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue his Master’s in Business Administration degree at the University of Calgary, Alberta. He returned to the Caribbean in 1998 and in 1999 he again enrolled at the UWI to read for his Bachelor of Laws degree. It was while pursuing his law degree that Maurice became interested in international human rights work. He then received a United Nations Development Programme/World Intellectual Property Organization fellowship and pursued a Master of Laws degree in Intellectual Property at the University of Turin in Italy, where he graduated in 2005.
In 2005 he started working as a corporate lawyer and left after a year and a half to become the project manager in the Office of the Principal of the University of West Indies. In this post, Maurice was responsible for establishing the UWI’s Western Jamaica Campus in 2008. In 2009, he began teaching human rights and discrimination law at the University of Technology, Jamaica and also became Legal Advisor to Marginalized Groups for the international NGO, AIDS-Free World. He now teaches Canadian Human Rights Law at the University of Ontario’s Institute of Technology in Canada.
Maurice Tomlinson previously served as legal advisor on the boards of Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL) as well as the Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG). He had lectured extensively on human rights and discrimination law at the University of Technology, Jamaica but had to flee the country temporarily in 2012 when a Jamaican newspaper carried an authorized photograph of his wedding to a Canadian man, Rev. Tom Decker who was the LGB liaison officer for the Toronto Police Force. Rev. Tom now pastors the Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church in Rochester, New York and Maurice now divides his time between Toronto and Rochester.
Maurice still visits Jamaica regularly and he is Lead Counsel for an unprecedented challenge to Jamaica’s colonial anti-sodomy law. In addition, he is the claimant in two land-mark cases challenging the immigration laws of Belize and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago which ban the entry of gays. He has also filed a constitutional challenge against Jamaican television stations who refused to air an ad in which he appears, which calls for respect for the human rights of gay Jamaicans.
Over the past four years, Maurice Tomlinson has been working with J-FLAG and JSAL to increase the visibility of Jamaican LGBTI in order to improve the access to health care for this vulnerable group. In this regard, he has led several public initiatives, including public service announcements, Jamaica’s first Walk for Tolerance, several public demonstrations, a successful letter writing campaign to the Jamaican newspapers, and spearheaded meetings with senior government, diplomatic and civic officials.
Maurice Tomlinson also travels around the Caribbean providing human rights documentation and advocacy training for groups working with LGBTI individuals. Maurice’s husband, Rev. Tom, developed an award winning program to report homophobic violence while he worked for the Toronto Police and has revised this program for the Caribbean. He now travels with Maurice to teach this to Caribbean civil society groups, as well as provide LGBT sensitization sessions for Caribbean police.
In December of 2011, Maurice was awarded the inaugural “David Kato Vision and Voice Award” which was created to honor the memory of slain Ugandan LGBT activist, David Kato. This award recognizes outstanding leadership in advocating for the rights of LGBTI people.
Maurice Tomlinson is a self-confessed workaholic who is receiving physiotherapy for excessive hours spent crouched over a computer. In the rare moments of downtime, he enjoys reading historical novels, or curling up on the couch with his husband, Rev. Tom Decker, and watching historical dramas. When time permits, the couple also takes in the odd play and live musical performance. The Rochester Gay Men’s Chorus is a particular favorite of theirs.
Rev. Tom and Maurice met in 2010 at an International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) World Conference and their activism is central to their marriage. They now split their time between homes in Toronto, Ontario and Rochester, New York.
Maurice Tomlinson was married to his best female friend in 1999 and the couple divorced 4 years later. They have one son who now lives with his mother.
Today we join with Maurice Tomlinson in celebration of his 42nd Birthday and thank him for his courageous advocacy on behalf of our community, here and throughout the Caribbean. (Source: Stephen Maglott)
David Kato Kisule: Human Rights Activist, Teacher
David Kato Kisule (1964 – January 26, 2011) was a Ugandan teacher and SGLT/LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay rights movement. He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). Kato was murdered in 2011, shortly after winning a lawsuit against a magazine which had published his name and photograph identifying him as gay and calling for him to be executed.
Born to the Kisule clan in its ancestral village of Nakawala, he was educated at King’s College Budo and Kyambogo University and taught at various schools including the Nile Vocational Institute in Njeru near Jinja. It was here that he became aware of his sexual orientation and was subsequently dismissed without any benefits in 1991. Later, he came out to his twin brother John Malumba Wasswa, before he left to teach for a few years in Johannesburg, South Africa during its transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy, becoming influenced by the end of the apartheid-era ban on sodomy and the growth of SGLT/LGBT rights in the country. Coming back to Uganda in 1998, he decided to come out in public through a press conference; he was arrested and held in police custody for a week due to this action. He continued to maintain contact with pro-LGBT activists outside the country.
When St Herman Nkoni Boys Primary School was founded in 2002 in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Masaka, Kato joined the faculty.
He became highly involved with the underground SGLT/LGBT rights movement in Uganda, eventually becoming one of the founding members of SMUG on March 3, 2004.
According to information leaked by Wikkileaks, Kato spoke during a November 2009 United Nations-funded consultative conference on human rights. During the conference, Kato spoke on the issue of LGBT rights and the anti-LGBT atmosphere in the country, but members of the Uganda Human Rights Commission "openly joked and snickered" during the speech, and a rumor circulated that David Bahati MP, the leading proponent of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, had ordered the Inspector General of Police to arrest Kato, causing Kato and other attending members of SMUG to leave the conference immediately after he finished the speech. Bahati then made a "tirade against homosexuality" to the conference, resulting in massive applause and Martin Ssempa, an Evangelical Christian cleric, pounding his fist on the table in agreement.
By 2010, he had quit his job as a school teacher in order to focus on his work with SMUG in light of the events surrounding the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Kato was subsequently given a one year fellowship at the Centre for Applied Human Rights based at the University of York in the United Kingdom, a centre which provides fellowships to vulnerable and threatened Human Rights activists as a reprieve from the dangers they face in their own Countries.
Kato was among the 100 people whose names and photographs were published in October 2010 by the Ugandan tabloid newspaper Rolling Stone in an article which called for their execution as homosexuals. Kato and two other SMUG members who were also listed in the article — Kasha Nabagesera and Julian Patience "Pepe" Onziema — sued the newspaper to force it to stop publishing the names and pictures of people it believed to be gay or lesbian. The photos were published under a headline of "Hang them" and were accompanied by the individuals' addresses. The petition was granted on November 2, 2010, effectively ruling for the end of Rolling Stone. Gile Muhame, the paper's managing editor, commented: "I haven't seen the court injunction but the war against gays will and must continue. We have to protect our children from this dirty homosexual affront." On January 3, 2011, High Court Justice V.F. Kibuuka Musoke ruled that Rolling Stone's publication of the lists, and the accompanying incitation to violence, threatened Kato's and the others' "fundamental rights and freedoms;" attacked their right to human dignity; and violated their constitutional right to privacy. The court ordered the newspaper to pay Kato and the other two plaintiffs 1.5 million Ugandan shillings each (approx. US$600 as of May 2012).
On January 26, 2011, at around 2 p.m. EAT (11:00 UTC), after talking on the phone with SMUG member Julian Pepe Onziema a few hours before, It is alleged that Kato was assaulted in his home in Bukusa, Mukono Town by a male prostitute who hit him twice in the head with a hammer after Kato failed to pay him for the services rendered. The prostitute the fled on foot. Kato later died en route to the Kawolo Hospital. Kato's colleagues note that Kato had spoken of an increase in threats and harassment since the court victory, and they believe that his sexual orientation and his activism were the motive for the murder. Joe Oloka-Onyango, who worked with Kato on the court case, said, "This is a very strange thing to happen in the middle of the day, and suggests pre-meditation." According to reports in the New York Times and the Sydney Morning Herald, questions are being raised about the murder's being linked to Kato's sexuality. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both called for an in-depth and impartial investigation into the case, and for protection for gay activists. James Nsaba Buturo, the Ugandan Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity, is on record as having declared that "Homosexuals can forget about human rights".
A police spokesperson initially blamed the murder on robbers who have allegedly killed at least 10 people in the area over the last two months. Police arrested one suspect, Kato's driver, and were seeking a second. On February 2, 2011, police announced the arrest of Nsubuga Enock, saying that he had confessed to the murder. A police spokesperson described Enock as a "well-known thief" and local gardener, but stated as to Enock's alleged motive, "It wasn't a robbery and it wasn't because Kato was an activist. It was a personal disagreement but I can't say more than that." A police source alleged to the Uganda Monitor that Enock had murdered Kato because Kato would not pay him for sexual favors, an allegation that was repeated by the Ugandan ambassador to Belgium in a letter to European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek.
Kato's funeral was held on January 28, 2011, in Nakawala. Present at the funeral were family, friends and co-activists, many of whom wore t-shirts bearing his photo in front, the Portuguese phrase, ‘la luta continua’ (‘the struggle continues’) in the back and having rainbow flag colors inscribed onto the sleeves. However, the Christian preacher at the funeral preached against the gays and lesbians present, making comparisons to Sodom and Gomorrah, before the activists ran to the pulpit and grabbed the microphone from him, forcing him to retreat from the pulpit to Kato's father's house. An unidentified female activist angrily exclaimed "Who are you to judge others?" and villagers sided with the preacher as scuffles broke out during the proceedings. Villagers refused to bury Kato at his burial place; the task was then undertaken by his friends and co-workers, most of whom were gay. In place of the preacher who left the scene after the fighting, excommunicated Anglican Church of Uganda bishop Christopher Senyonjo officiated Kato's burial in the presence of friends and cameras.
The murder was decried by Human Rights Watch, with senior Africa researcher Maria Burnett adding that "David Kato's death is a tragic loss to the human rights community." Amnesty International stated that it was "appalled by the shocking murder of David Kato," and called for a "credible and impartial investigation into his murder." Both also asked the Ugandan government to protect other gay rights activists.
U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the State Department, and the European Union also condemned the murder and urged Uganda authorities to investigate the crime and to speak out against homophobia and transphobia. "I am deeply saddened to learn of the murder," Obama said. "David showed tremendous courage in speaking out against hate. He was a powerful advocate for fairness and freedom." Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke on behalf of the Anglican Communion, "Such violence [as the death of David Kato] has been consistently condemned by the Anglican Communion worldwide. This event also makes it all the more urgent for the British Government to secure the safety of LGBT asylum seekers in the UK. This is a moment to take very serious stock and to address those attitudes of mind which endanger the lives of men and women belonging to sexual minorities.”
For his newspaper's alleged role in the murder, Rolling Stone editor Giles Muhame stated "When we called for hanging of gay people, we meant ... after they have gone through the legal process ... I did not call for them to be killed in cold blood like he was." However, he stated, "I have no regrets about the story. We were just exposing people who were doing wrong."
The Gay Pride event in York, United Kingdom, held on 30 July 2011 commemorated Kato. A minute of silence was observed and hundreds of rainbow colored balloons were released in his memory by Member of Parliament for York Central Hugh Bayler and the Lord Mayor of York.
The David Kato Vision & Voice Award was established in his memory.
Accused murderer Sidney Nsubuga Enoch, a male prostitute, was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison on 10 November 2011 yet the trial and conviction is considered by many to little more than a cover-up of the facts leading to Mr. Kato’s murder.
Kato was interviewed by US filmmakers Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall for a documentary film on his life, Call Me Kuchu, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 11, 2012. A short film using footage from the film, They Will Say We Are Not Here, was posted to the New York Times website on the first anniversary of his death.
Born to the Kisule clan in its ancestral village of Nakawala, he was educated at King’s College Budo and Kyambogo University and taught at various schools including the Nile Vocational Institute in Njeru near Jinja. It was here that he became aware of his sexual orientation and was subsequently dismissed without any benefits in 1991. Later, he came out to his twin brother John Malumba Wasswa, before he left to teach for a few years in Johannesburg, South Africa during its transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy, becoming influenced by the end of the apartheid-era ban on sodomy and the growth of SGLT/LGBT rights in the country. Coming back to Uganda in 1998, he decided to come out in public through a press conference; he was arrested and held in police custody for a week due to this action. He continued to maintain contact with pro-LGBT activists outside the country.
When St Herman Nkoni Boys Primary School was founded in 2002 in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Masaka, Kato joined the faculty.
He became highly involved with the underground SGLT/LGBT rights movement in Uganda, eventually becoming one of the founding members of SMUG on March 3, 2004.
According to information leaked by Wikkileaks, Kato spoke during a November 2009 United Nations-funded consultative conference on human rights. During the conference, Kato spoke on the issue of LGBT rights and the anti-LGBT atmosphere in the country, but members of the Uganda Human Rights Commission "openly joked and snickered" during the speech, and a rumor circulated that David Bahati MP, the leading proponent of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, had ordered the Inspector General of Police to arrest Kato, causing Kato and other attending members of SMUG to leave the conference immediately after he finished the speech. Bahati then made a "tirade against homosexuality" to the conference, resulting in massive applause and Martin Ssempa, an Evangelical Christian cleric, pounding his fist on the table in agreement.
By 2010, he had quit his job as a school teacher in order to focus on his work with SMUG in light of the events surrounding the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Kato was subsequently given a one year fellowship at the Centre for Applied Human Rights based at the University of York in the United Kingdom, a centre which provides fellowships to vulnerable and threatened Human Rights activists as a reprieve from the dangers they face in their own Countries.
Kato was among the 100 people whose names and photographs were published in October 2010 by the Ugandan tabloid newspaper Rolling Stone in an article which called for their execution as homosexuals. Kato and two other SMUG members who were also listed in the article — Kasha Nabagesera and Julian Patience "Pepe" Onziema — sued the newspaper to force it to stop publishing the names and pictures of people it believed to be gay or lesbian. The photos were published under a headline of "Hang them" and were accompanied by the individuals' addresses. The petition was granted on November 2, 2010, effectively ruling for the end of Rolling Stone. Gile Muhame, the paper's managing editor, commented: "I haven't seen the court injunction but the war against gays will and must continue. We have to protect our children from this dirty homosexual affront." On January 3, 2011, High Court Justice V.F. Kibuuka Musoke ruled that Rolling Stone's publication of the lists, and the accompanying incitation to violence, threatened Kato's and the others' "fundamental rights and freedoms;" attacked their right to human dignity; and violated their constitutional right to privacy. The court ordered the newspaper to pay Kato and the other two plaintiffs 1.5 million Ugandan shillings each (approx. US$600 as of May 2012).
On January 26, 2011, at around 2 p.m. EAT (11:00 UTC), after talking on the phone with SMUG member Julian Pepe Onziema a few hours before, It is alleged that Kato was assaulted in his home in Bukusa, Mukono Town by a male prostitute who hit him twice in the head with a hammer after Kato failed to pay him for the services rendered. The prostitute the fled on foot. Kato later died en route to the Kawolo Hospital. Kato's colleagues note that Kato had spoken of an increase in threats and harassment since the court victory, and they believe that his sexual orientation and his activism were the motive for the murder. Joe Oloka-Onyango, who worked with Kato on the court case, said, "This is a very strange thing to happen in the middle of the day, and suggests pre-meditation." According to reports in the New York Times and the Sydney Morning Herald, questions are being raised about the murder's being linked to Kato's sexuality. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both called for an in-depth and impartial investigation into the case, and for protection for gay activists. James Nsaba Buturo, the Ugandan Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity, is on record as having declared that "Homosexuals can forget about human rights".
A police spokesperson initially blamed the murder on robbers who have allegedly killed at least 10 people in the area over the last two months. Police arrested one suspect, Kato's driver, and were seeking a second. On February 2, 2011, police announced the arrest of Nsubuga Enock, saying that he had confessed to the murder. A police spokesperson described Enock as a "well-known thief" and local gardener, but stated as to Enock's alleged motive, "It wasn't a robbery and it wasn't because Kato was an activist. It was a personal disagreement but I can't say more than that." A police source alleged to the Uganda Monitor that Enock had murdered Kato because Kato would not pay him for sexual favors, an allegation that was repeated by the Ugandan ambassador to Belgium in a letter to European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek.
Kato's funeral was held on January 28, 2011, in Nakawala. Present at the funeral were family, friends and co-activists, many of whom wore t-shirts bearing his photo in front, the Portuguese phrase, ‘la luta continua’ (‘the struggle continues’) in the back and having rainbow flag colors inscribed onto the sleeves. However, the Christian preacher at the funeral preached against the gays and lesbians present, making comparisons to Sodom and Gomorrah, before the activists ran to the pulpit and grabbed the microphone from him, forcing him to retreat from the pulpit to Kato's father's house. An unidentified female activist angrily exclaimed "Who are you to judge others?" and villagers sided with the preacher as scuffles broke out during the proceedings. Villagers refused to bury Kato at his burial place; the task was then undertaken by his friends and co-workers, most of whom were gay. In place of the preacher who left the scene after the fighting, excommunicated Anglican Church of Uganda bishop Christopher Senyonjo officiated Kato's burial in the presence of friends and cameras.
The murder was decried by Human Rights Watch, with senior Africa researcher Maria Burnett adding that "David Kato's death is a tragic loss to the human rights community." Amnesty International stated that it was "appalled by the shocking murder of David Kato," and called for a "credible and impartial investigation into his murder." Both also asked the Ugandan government to protect other gay rights activists.
U.S. President Barack Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the State Department, and the European Union also condemned the murder and urged Uganda authorities to investigate the crime and to speak out against homophobia and transphobia. "I am deeply saddened to learn of the murder," Obama said. "David showed tremendous courage in speaking out against hate. He was a powerful advocate for fairness and freedom." Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke on behalf of the Anglican Communion, "Such violence [as the death of David Kato] has been consistently condemned by the Anglican Communion worldwide. This event also makes it all the more urgent for the British Government to secure the safety of LGBT asylum seekers in the UK. This is a moment to take very serious stock and to address those attitudes of mind which endanger the lives of men and women belonging to sexual minorities.”
For his newspaper's alleged role in the murder, Rolling Stone editor Giles Muhame stated "When we called for hanging of gay people, we meant ... after they have gone through the legal process ... I did not call for them to be killed in cold blood like he was." However, he stated, "I have no regrets about the story. We were just exposing people who were doing wrong."
The Gay Pride event in York, United Kingdom, held on 30 July 2011 commemorated Kato. A minute of silence was observed and hundreds of rainbow colored balloons were released in his memory by Member of Parliament for York Central Hugh Bayler and the Lord Mayor of York.
The David Kato Vision & Voice Award was established in his memory.
Accused murderer Sidney Nsubuga Enoch, a male prostitute, was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison on 10 November 2011 yet the trial and conviction is considered by many to little more than a cover-up of the facts leading to Mr. Kato’s murder.
Kato was interviewed by US filmmakers Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall for a documentary film on his life, Call Me Kuchu, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 11, 2012. A short film using footage from the film, They Will Say We Are Not Here, was posted to the New York Times website on the first anniversary of his death.
Robert Reid-Pharr: Writer, Critical Essayist, Educator
Robert Reid-Pharr (1965) is an influential writer, critical essayist and Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
Robert Reid-Pharr was born in Charlotte, North Carolina to Robert Lyons Pharr and Joanna Reid Pharr. He attended Garinger High School where he excelled at music, drama, and journalism. Following High School he enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1987. He went on to earn an M.A. in 1989 in African American Studies and a Ph.D.in 1994 in American Studies from Yale University /
Robert Reid-Pharr currently serves as a critical essayist and Distinguished Professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Reid-Pharr is considered a foremost authority on both African American Writing and Twentieth-Century American Literature, especially Poetry, Literary History, Criticism, and Theory.
Before coming to the Graduate Center he was an assistant and associate professor of English at the Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he has been the “Jess and Sara Cloud Distinguished Visiting Professor of English” at the College of William and Mary, the “Edward Said Visiting Chair of American Studies” at the American University of Beirut, the “Drue Heinz Visiting Professor of English” at the University of Oxford, the “Carlisle and Barbara Moore Distinguished Visiting Professor of English” at the University of Oregon, and the “Frederic Ives Carpenter Visiting Assistant Professor of English” at the University of Chicago.
Robert Reid-Pharr was a research fellow of the “Alexander von Humboldt Foundation” from 2002 through 2003. He has also won grants from the “National Endowment for the Humanities”, and the “Library Company of Philadelphia”. His research and writing has also been supported through grants from the “Ford Foundation” and the “Mellon Foundation”.
Robert Reid-Pharr is a prolific public speaker, and had a part in the film ”The Watermelon Woman” directed by Cheryl Dunye. He has frequently collaborated with noted science fiction author Samuel R. Delany at panels and through his writing. His essays have appeared in, among other places, ”Callaloo”, ”Social Text”, “Transition”, “Studies in the Novel”, “Women and Performance”, “The African American Review”, “American Literary History”, “Fuse”, “AfterImage”, “Radical America”, “American Literature”, “Gay Community News”, and the “Washington Blade”.
His highly respected collection of essays, “Black Gay Man”, won the 2002 award for Best Gay Non-fiction given by the Publishing Triangle. His book, “Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, and the Black American Intellectual”, was a finalist for a Lambda Book Award. He is also the acclaimed author of “Conjugal Union: The Body, the House and the Black American” (Oxford University Press, 1999).
Robert Reid-Pharr worked with the now defunct Gay Rights National Lobby and the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays. In that capacity he became associated with such black gay literary and political figures as Essex Hemphill, Gil Gerald and Barbara Smith.
At present, he is working on a book that treats the relationship of African American intellectuals to Spain as well as a collection of the writings of the late, Essex Hemphill. Robert Reid-Pharr makes his home in Brooklyn.
Robert Reid-Pharr was born in Charlotte, North Carolina to Robert Lyons Pharr and Joanna Reid Pharr. He attended Garinger High School where he excelled at music, drama, and journalism. Following High School he enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1987. He went on to earn an M.A. in 1989 in African American Studies and a Ph.D.in 1994 in American Studies from Yale University /
Robert Reid-Pharr currently serves as a critical essayist and Distinguished Professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City. Reid-Pharr is considered a foremost authority on both African American Writing and Twentieth-Century American Literature, especially Poetry, Literary History, Criticism, and Theory.
Before coming to the Graduate Center he was an assistant and associate professor of English at the Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he has been the “Jess and Sara Cloud Distinguished Visiting Professor of English” at the College of William and Mary, the “Edward Said Visiting Chair of American Studies” at the American University of Beirut, the “Drue Heinz Visiting Professor of English” at the University of Oxford, the “Carlisle and Barbara Moore Distinguished Visiting Professor of English” at the University of Oregon, and the “Frederic Ives Carpenter Visiting Assistant Professor of English” at the University of Chicago.
Robert Reid-Pharr was a research fellow of the “Alexander von Humboldt Foundation” from 2002 through 2003. He has also won grants from the “National Endowment for the Humanities”, and the “Library Company of Philadelphia”. His research and writing has also been supported through grants from the “Ford Foundation” and the “Mellon Foundation”.
Robert Reid-Pharr is a prolific public speaker, and had a part in the film ”The Watermelon Woman” directed by Cheryl Dunye. He has frequently collaborated with noted science fiction author Samuel R. Delany at panels and through his writing. His essays have appeared in, among other places, ”Callaloo”, ”Social Text”, “Transition”, “Studies in the Novel”, “Women and Performance”, “The African American Review”, “American Literary History”, “Fuse”, “AfterImage”, “Radical America”, “American Literature”, “Gay Community News”, and the “Washington Blade”.
His highly respected collection of essays, “Black Gay Man”, won the 2002 award for Best Gay Non-fiction given by the Publishing Triangle. His book, “Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, and the Black American Intellectual”, was a finalist for a Lambda Book Award. He is also the acclaimed author of “Conjugal Union: The Body, the House and the Black American” (Oxford University Press, 1999).
Robert Reid-Pharr worked with the now defunct Gay Rights National Lobby and the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays. In that capacity he became associated with such black gay literary and political figures as Essex Hemphill, Gil Gerald and Barbara Smith.
At present, he is working on a book that treats the relationship of African American intellectuals to Spain as well as a collection of the writings of the late, Essex Hemphill. Robert Reid-Pharr makes his home in Brooklyn.
Djola Branner: Performance Artist, Director, Educator
Djola Branner is an interdisciplinary artist/educator who combines movement, sound and light to create compelling portraits of American life for the stage. His original full-length and one-act dramas give voice to individuals historically absent from the theater, and explore a diverse and complex range of human experiences.
Co-founder of the award-winning performance group Pomo Afro Homos, Branner toured nationally and internationally with their shows Fierce Love: Stories from Black Gay Life and Dark Fruit, performing in venues as varied as college cafeterias and the Lincoln Center. His work has been supported the Creative Capital, Jerome, McKnight and Bush Foundations; and published in the anthologies Colored Contradictions, Staging Gay Lives and Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Lesbian and Gay Black Writers.
He has taught dance, acting and dramatic writing for more than twenty-five years in community and academic settings including City College of San Francisco, Stanford University, University of Minnesota, Macalester College and American Musical and Dramatic Academy, among others. Branner is currently dean of the School for Interdisciplinary Arts and associate professor at Hampshire College. sash & trim and other plays is the first collection of his dramatic work.
Co-founder of the award-winning performance group Pomo Afro Homos, Branner toured nationally and internationally with their shows Fierce Love: Stories from Black Gay Life and Dark Fruit, performing in venues as varied as college cafeterias and the Lincoln Center. His work has been supported the Creative Capital, Jerome, McKnight and Bush Foundations; and published in the anthologies Colored Contradictions, Staging Gay Lives and Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Lesbian and Gay Black Writers.
He has taught dance, acting and dramatic writing for more than twenty-five years in community and academic settings including City College of San Francisco, Stanford University, University of Minnesota, Macalester College and American Musical and Dramatic Academy, among others. Branner is currently dean of the School for Interdisciplinary Arts and associate professor at Hampshire College. sash & trim and other plays is the first collection of his dramatic work.
Jafari Sinclaire Allen: Anthropologist, Educator
Professor Allen, jointly appointed with the Department of African American Studies, works at the intersections of [queer] sexuality, gender and blackness -- in Cuba, the US, and transnationally. A recipient of fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council Sexuality Research Program, and Rockefeller Foundation [Diasporic Racisms Project]; he teaches courses on the cultural politics of race, sexuality and gender in Black diasporas; Black feminist and queer theory; critical cultural studies; ethnographic methodology and writing; subjectivity, consciousness and resistance; Cuba and the Caribbean.
Dr. Allen’s critical ethnography, ¡Venceremos?: Sexuality, Gender and Black Self-Making in Cuba [Perverse Modernities series of Duke University Press, Fall 2011], marshals a combination of historical, literary, and cultural analysis-- most centrally, ethnographic rendering of the everyday experiences and reflections of Black Cubans—to show how Black men and women strategically deploy, re-interpret, transgress and potentially transform racialized and sexualized interpellations of their identities, through “erotic self-making.” ¡Venceremos? argues that mutually constituting scenes in Havana and Santiago de Cuba-- like semi-private, extra-legal parties of men who have sex with men; HIV education activism; lesbian performance and incipient organizing of women who have sex with women; hip-hop and la monia (US R&B/soul music) parties and concerts; sex labor; cigar “hustling”; and informal Black consciousness raising networks-- represent a gravid space for becoming new revolutionary men and women, with new racial, gender and sexual subjectivities.
His current research project, Black Queer Here and There: Movement and Sociality in the Americas, traces cultural and political circuits of transnational queer desire—in travel, tourism, (im)migration, art and activism
Dr. Allen’s critical ethnography, ¡Venceremos?: Sexuality, Gender and Black Self-Making in Cuba [Perverse Modernities series of Duke University Press, Fall 2011], marshals a combination of historical, literary, and cultural analysis-- most centrally, ethnographic rendering of the everyday experiences and reflections of Black Cubans—to show how Black men and women strategically deploy, re-interpret, transgress and potentially transform racialized and sexualized interpellations of their identities, through “erotic self-making.” ¡Venceremos? argues that mutually constituting scenes in Havana and Santiago de Cuba-- like semi-private, extra-legal parties of men who have sex with men; HIV education activism; lesbian performance and incipient organizing of women who have sex with women; hip-hop and la monia (US R&B/soul music) parties and concerts; sex labor; cigar “hustling”; and informal Black consciousness raising networks-- represent a gravid space for becoming new revolutionary men and women, with new racial, gender and sexual subjectivities.
His current research project, Black Queer Here and There: Movement and Sociality in the Americas, traces cultural and political circuits of transnational queer desire—in travel, tourism, (im)migration, art and activism
Marvin K. White : Poet, Playwright, Performance Artist, Visual Artist, Arts Organizer
Marvin K. White, is a poet, performer, playwright, visual artist and community arts organizer. His poetry has been anthologized in The Road Before Us: 100 Black Gay Poets; My Brothers Keeper; Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians: New Gay Writing; Things Shaped in Passing; Sojourner: Writing in the Age of AIDS; Bum Rush the Page; Role Call; and Think Again, as well as other local and national publications.
He is the co-editor of If We Have to Take Tomorrow: HIV, Black Men & Same Sex Desire. An ex-member of the critically acclaimed Pomo Afro Homos, he has led creative arts and writing workshops for a range of audiences, from youth centers for runaway kids to black gay support groups to literary conferences and social justice organizations. White was co-founder of B/GLAM (Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement), a Bay Area, California, organization whose goal was to preserve, present and incubate black gay artistic expressions He currently holds a fellowship in the national African-American poetry organization, Cave Canem; and sits on the board of Fire & Ink, a national black LGBT writers organization. Marvin K. White, author of Last Rights (finalist for Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award), Nothin’ Ugly Fly (finalist for Lambda Literary Award), Our Name Be Witness and Status, is a poet, performer, playwright, visual artist and community arts organizer.
His poetry has been anthologized in The Road Before Us: 100 Black Gay Poets; My Brothers Keeper; Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians: New Gay Writing; Things Shaped in Passing; Sojourner: Writing in the Age of AIDS; Bum Rush the Page; Role Call; and Think Again, as well as other local and national publications. He is the co-editor of If We Have to Take Tomorrow: HIV, Black Men & Same Sex Desire. An ex-member of the critically acclaimed Pomo Afro Homos, he has led creative arts and writing workshops for a range of audiences, from youth centers for runaway kids to black gay support groups to literary conferences and social justice organizations. White was co-founder of B/GLAM (Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement), a Bay Area, California, organization whose goal was to preserve, present and incubate black gay artistic expressions He currently holds a fellowship in the national African-American poetry organization, Cave Canem; and sits on the board of Fire & Ink, a national black LGBT writers organization.
He is the co-editor of If We Have to Take Tomorrow: HIV, Black Men & Same Sex Desire. An ex-member of the critically acclaimed Pomo Afro Homos, he has led creative arts and writing workshops for a range of audiences, from youth centers for runaway kids to black gay support groups to literary conferences and social justice organizations. White was co-founder of B/GLAM (Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement), a Bay Area, California, organization whose goal was to preserve, present and incubate black gay artistic expressions He currently holds a fellowship in the national African-American poetry organization, Cave Canem; and sits on the board of Fire & Ink, a national black LGBT writers organization. Marvin K. White, author of Last Rights (finalist for Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award), Nothin’ Ugly Fly (finalist for Lambda Literary Award), Our Name Be Witness and Status, is a poet, performer, playwright, visual artist and community arts organizer.
His poetry has been anthologized in The Road Before Us: 100 Black Gay Poets; My Brothers Keeper; Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians: New Gay Writing; Things Shaped in Passing; Sojourner: Writing in the Age of AIDS; Bum Rush the Page; Role Call; and Think Again, as well as other local and national publications. He is the co-editor of If We Have to Take Tomorrow: HIV, Black Men & Same Sex Desire. An ex-member of the critically acclaimed Pomo Afro Homos, he has led creative arts and writing workshops for a range of audiences, from youth centers for runaway kids to black gay support groups to literary conferences and social justice organizations. White was co-founder of B/GLAM (Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement), a Bay Area, California, organization whose goal was to preserve, present and incubate black gay artistic expressions He currently holds a fellowship in the national African-American poetry organization, Cave Canem; and sits on the board of Fire & Ink, a national black LGBT writers organization.
Willi Ninja: Dancer, Performance Artist
Willi Ninja (1961-2006) was an American dancer, performance artist, and choreographer best known for his “vogueing” style of dance. He was featured in the ball community documentary film “Paris is Burning”.
Born William Roscoe Leake in the New York City borough of Queens, he grew up in Flushing, and began dancing at age seven. By the early 1980’s he was vogueing in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village and at drag balls throughout Harlem. He was tall and athletic, and stood out with his clean moves, stylized dancing, and swiftly moving arms and hands deeply inspired by the martial arts - hence his adopted name, Ninja. Willi Ninja was a self-taught dancer who was perfecting his vogueing style by his twenties.
Vogueing - with its angular body movements, exaggerated model poses and intricate mime-like choreography - and the colorful characters who populated Willi Ninja’s world were introduced to the public at large by “Paris Is Burning,” the award-winning 1990 documentary about New York’s drag vogue-ball scene. Later in his career, Willi Ninja also performed in works by postmodern choreographers including Doug Elkins, David Neuman and Karole Armitage. Vogueing had been around for years, but “Willi Ninja brought it to a level of visibility and perfection in performance that no one had ever reached before”, said Sally Sommer, a professor of dance at Florida State University. Willi Ninja is featured in Ms. Sommer’s documentary, “Check Your Body at the Door”.
Willi Ninja caught the attention of “Paris is Burning” director Jennie Livingston, who first heard of him fellow voguers in New Yorks Washington Square Park, and chose to feature Ninja prominently in his film. It became a critical and box office success, serving as a springboard for Ninja. He parlayed his appearance into performances with a number of dance troupes and choreography gigs. Willi Ninja was also featured in the 2006 documentary release “How Do I Look” directed by Wolfgang Busch.
Willi Ninja participated in Harlem's drag balls with "children" from his House of Ninja. Like other ball houses, House of Ninja was a combination of extended social family and dance troupe, with Willi as its “House Mother”. Willi Ninja became a New York celebrity, known as much for his quick wit and sharp tongue as for his darting limbs. His ensembles included a coat made of braided synthetic hair, a suit jacket with a skirt and Doc Marten boots — also turned heads wherever he went. An androgynous, self-described “butch queen,” Willi Ninja taught vogueing throughout Europe and Japan, modeled in runway shows for fashion designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler and danced in music videos.
He also taught models how to strut, giving stars like Naomi Campbell pointers early in their careers. Later he would go on to work with socialite Paris Hilton, whose red carpet sashay has since become her signature.
Willi Ninja was a fixture of ball culture at Harlem's drag balls who took inspiration from sources as far-flung as Fred Astaire, Olympic gymnasts, Japanese dance moves and the world of haute couture to develop a unique style of dance and movement. His style served as an inspiration to Madonna, who immortalized it in her 1990 hit song and music video "Vogue." He also starred in the earlier music video for Malcolm McLaren's "Deep in Vogue” and "I Can't Get No Sleep" by Masters At Work featuring India. In 1994, he released his single "Hot" (another Masters At Work production) on Nervous Records.
In 2004, he opened a modeling agency, EON (Elements of Ninja), but continued to dance, appearing on televisions series “America’s Next Top Model” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and dropping in at local clubs.
Willie Ninja died of AIDS-related heart failure in New York City on September 2, 2006, at the age of 45.
(Provided by Stephen Maglott and Zen Getty)
Born William Roscoe Leake in the New York City borough of Queens, he grew up in Flushing, and began dancing at age seven. By the early 1980’s he was vogueing in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village and at drag balls throughout Harlem. He was tall and athletic, and stood out with his clean moves, stylized dancing, and swiftly moving arms and hands deeply inspired by the martial arts - hence his adopted name, Ninja. Willi Ninja was a self-taught dancer who was perfecting his vogueing style by his twenties.
Vogueing - with its angular body movements, exaggerated model poses and intricate mime-like choreography - and the colorful characters who populated Willi Ninja’s world were introduced to the public at large by “Paris Is Burning,” the award-winning 1990 documentary about New York’s drag vogue-ball scene. Later in his career, Willi Ninja also performed in works by postmodern choreographers including Doug Elkins, David Neuman and Karole Armitage. Vogueing had been around for years, but “Willi Ninja brought it to a level of visibility and perfection in performance that no one had ever reached before”, said Sally Sommer, a professor of dance at Florida State University. Willi Ninja is featured in Ms. Sommer’s documentary, “Check Your Body at the Door”.
Willi Ninja caught the attention of “Paris is Burning” director Jennie Livingston, who first heard of him fellow voguers in New Yorks Washington Square Park, and chose to feature Ninja prominently in his film. It became a critical and box office success, serving as a springboard for Ninja. He parlayed his appearance into performances with a number of dance troupes and choreography gigs. Willi Ninja was also featured in the 2006 documentary release “How Do I Look” directed by Wolfgang Busch.
Willi Ninja participated in Harlem's drag balls with "children" from his House of Ninja. Like other ball houses, House of Ninja was a combination of extended social family and dance troupe, with Willi as its “House Mother”. Willi Ninja became a New York celebrity, known as much for his quick wit and sharp tongue as for his darting limbs. His ensembles included a coat made of braided synthetic hair, a suit jacket with a skirt and Doc Marten boots — also turned heads wherever he went. An androgynous, self-described “butch queen,” Willi Ninja taught vogueing throughout Europe and Japan, modeled in runway shows for fashion designers Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler and danced in music videos.
He also taught models how to strut, giving stars like Naomi Campbell pointers early in their careers. Later he would go on to work with socialite Paris Hilton, whose red carpet sashay has since become her signature.
Willi Ninja was a fixture of ball culture at Harlem's drag balls who took inspiration from sources as far-flung as Fred Astaire, Olympic gymnasts, Japanese dance moves and the world of haute couture to develop a unique style of dance and movement. His style served as an inspiration to Madonna, who immortalized it in her 1990 hit song and music video "Vogue." He also starred in the earlier music video for Malcolm McLaren's "Deep in Vogue” and "I Can't Get No Sleep" by Masters At Work featuring India. In 1994, he released his single "Hot" (another Masters At Work production) on Nervous Records.
In 2004, he opened a modeling agency, EON (Elements of Ninja), but continued to dance, appearing on televisions series “America’s Next Top Model” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and dropping in at local clubs.
Willie Ninja died of AIDS-related heart failure in New York City on September 2, 2006, at the age of 45.
(Provided by Stephen Maglott and Zen Getty)
Ana-Maurine Lara: Afro-Latina Poet
Ana-Maurine is an an award-winning author. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in numerous literary journals including Calalloo, The Encyclopedia Project, Sable LitMag and Torch Magazine. Her debut novel Erzulie's Skirt was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist in 2007; her second (unpublished) novel received Third Prize for the 33rd Annual Chicano/Latino Literary Prizes. Lara is a Cave Canem Fellow and a member of The Austin Project, a collaborative workshop between artists, activists and scholars. Lara coordinates We are the Magicians, the Path-breakers, the Dream-makers LGBTQ POC Oral History Project. Currently, she is working on a Ph.D. at Yale University in African American studies and anthropology.
Rahsaan Patterson: Singer, Songwriter
Rahsaan Patterson (1974), soul vocalist and songwriter. Rahsaan Patterson is another in the line of new-school R&B singers (Maxwell, and Erykah Badu) with a bit more integrity than most of the chart-toppers during the 1990s. His singing and songwriting style are reminiscent of Stevie Wonder, while his voice has also drawn comparisons to Chaka Khan. After singing in church from the age of six, Rahsaan moved with his family from New York to California
to star in the children's show KIDS Incorporated. He was cast as "The Kid", and remained on the show for the next few years, appearing alongside such future stars as Fergie, Mario Lopez and Shanice.
He later moved back to the East Coast, resuming his career with small TV roles and assorted commercials, but returned to Los Angeles in the early '90s to record demos and contribute backing vocals to albums by Martika and Brandy, among others. He proved himself a more than competent songwriter as well, penning hits like Tevin Campbell's "Back to the World" and Brandy's "Baby." Those successes finally earned him a recording contract with MCA, which issued his self-titled debut album in early 1997, collaborating with Keith Crouch and Jamey Jaz, among others. Receiving positive reviews from critics, the album failed to find a large audience (the single "Where You Are" did receive attention on R&B radio). Patterson did, however, develop a loyal following both in the United States
and abroad. Patterson went to work on his followup, Love in Stereo, with Jamey Jaz and new collaborators such as Van Hunt. When Love in Stereo was released in late 1999 it received better reviews than its predecessor, although the mainstream overlooked it.
Although Patterson and MCA parted ways, he remained busy, continuing to perform live, working as a session singer, and contributing to both soundtracks (Brown Sugar) and compilation albums (Steve Harvey's Sign of Things to Come), while working on his next album.
After Hours, Patterson's third album, was released internationally early in 2004, again garnering positive reviews. With the forming of his own label, After Hours saw release in the United States
in late October 2004. Further collaborative efforts followed. Patterson's album, Wines and Spirits (again featuring collaborations with Keith Crouch and Jamey Jaz) was released in September 2007, and debuted at #42 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, his best showing on that chart to date.
Patterson co-wrote with Australian Soul singer Guy Sebastian the single Beautiful Life off the Beautiful Life album. Rahsaan worked as co-producer on a new project in Australia
called SugaRush Beat Company. His most recent album is ‘Bleuphoria’.
Patterson is openly gay. In a 2008 discussion about being a gay artist with gay station Logo, for example, he said that "For me, it's not about being 'the gay artist'; I'm an artist." In an interview with BET's Daily Voice, Patterson further clarified that "I've never been in the closet or hiding anything."
(Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrWSNUcSbQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEjF28Wpd7I; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GZozGDWm70&list=RD02PEjF28Wpd7I; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Q06ojzfh8)
to star in the children's show KIDS Incorporated. He was cast as "The Kid", and remained on the show for the next few years, appearing alongside such future stars as Fergie, Mario Lopez and Shanice.
He later moved back to the East Coast, resuming his career with small TV roles and assorted commercials, but returned to Los Angeles in the early '90s to record demos and contribute backing vocals to albums by Martika and Brandy, among others. He proved himself a more than competent songwriter as well, penning hits like Tevin Campbell's "Back to the World" and Brandy's "Baby." Those successes finally earned him a recording contract with MCA, which issued his self-titled debut album in early 1997, collaborating with Keith Crouch and Jamey Jaz, among others. Receiving positive reviews from critics, the album failed to find a large audience (the single "Where You Are" did receive attention on R&B radio). Patterson did, however, develop a loyal following both in the United States
and abroad. Patterson went to work on his followup, Love in Stereo, with Jamey Jaz and new collaborators such as Van Hunt. When Love in Stereo was released in late 1999 it received better reviews than its predecessor, although the mainstream overlooked it.
Although Patterson and MCA parted ways, he remained busy, continuing to perform live, working as a session singer, and contributing to both soundtracks (Brown Sugar) and compilation albums (Steve Harvey's Sign of Things to Come), while working on his next album.
After Hours, Patterson's third album, was released internationally early in 2004, again garnering positive reviews. With the forming of his own label, After Hours saw release in the United States
in late October 2004. Further collaborative efforts followed. Patterson's album, Wines and Spirits (again featuring collaborations with Keith Crouch and Jamey Jaz) was released in September 2007, and debuted at #42 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, his best showing on that chart to date.
Patterson co-wrote with Australian Soul singer Guy Sebastian the single Beautiful Life off the Beautiful Life album. Rahsaan worked as co-producer on a new project in Australia
called SugaRush Beat Company. His most recent album is ‘Bleuphoria’.
Patterson is openly gay. In a 2008 discussion about being a gay artist with gay station Logo, for example, he said that "For me, it's not about being 'the gay artist'; I'm an artist." In an interview with BET's Daily Voice, Patterson further clarified that "I've never been in the closet or hiding anything."
(Video Links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrWSNUcSbQ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEjF28Wpd7I; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GZozGDWm70&list=RD02PEjF28Wpd7I; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Q06ojzfh8)
Bishop Tonyia Rawls: Pastor, Religious Leader, Activist
Bishop Rawls is the Founding Pastor of Unity Fellowship Church Charlotte, and in April 2008, was consecrated as one of the first women Bishops in the Los Angeles-based Unity Fellowship Church Movement’s (UFCM) history. She is prelate of the Southern Jurisdiction and Vice President of the National Board. In the role of Vice President she oversees the denomination’s day-to-day business operations. She also guides the work of the Office of Laity Relations and the National Office of Communications.
Bishop Rawls is a social, spiritual and criminal justice activist committed to the liberation of those who are on the margins of society. Her rapidly growing Charlotte, NC church is the first of the denomination's churches to open in the Carolinas. The church’s various ministries touch areas as broad as domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, literacy, theater and wellness. Members of her congregation are committed to building their faith and community. Some highlights of their work: Charlotte’s first Black Gay Pride; South Carolina’s first Black and Latino Gay Pride; helped to reshape policy in reference to the police department’s response to and treatment of domestic violence within the LGBT community in Mecklenburg County; been leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS; wrote, produced and acted in several theatrical productions that addressed complex sociopolitical issues in a cultural context; and courageously established the first openly LGBT and affirming ally contingency to march in the Citywide Charlotte MLK, JR Parade. She has received numerous awards, including the Equality Award from The Human Rights Campaign of The Carolinas and The Charlotte Business Guild's Don King Service Award.
She consistently works at the intersections of race, class, gender, religion and sexual orientation. She is Co-Founder of Charlotte-based Black Clergy United Against AIDS, Co-Founder of People United For Education, which advocated for urban youth in the Mecklenburg County School System and is Founder and Executive Director of The Freedom Center for Social Justice. The Freedom Center is currently hosting the TransFaith in Color Conference which is designed to address the social, spiritual and justice needs of the transgender community. She is also the former Director of Grassroots Leadership’s Keeping Faith: A Religious Response to the Prison Crisis Program. The focus of this program is the mobilization of faith communities across the country in ways that address issues of over incarceration, prison privatization and criminal justice.
Bishop Rawls was born and raised in northern New Jersey. She and her wife Gwendolyn have been married since 2002 and, are currently co-parenting 4 school-aged children; are parents of three adult children and grandparent to 5. She is a graduate of Duke University and has been a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the National Black Justice Coalition and the Diversity and Inclusion Council of the Human Rights Campaign in addition to other boards. Bishop Rawls has been a reviewer for the Journal of African-American Studies and is published in Black Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies (In Press).
Bishop Rawls is a social, spiritual and criminal justice activist committed to the liberation of those who are on the margins of society. Her rapidly growing Charlotte, NC church is the first of the denomination's churches to open in the Carolinas. The church’s various ministries touch areas as broad as domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, literacy, theater and wellness. Members of her congregation are committed to building their faith and community. Some highlights of their work: Charlotte’s first Black Gay Pride; South Carolina’s first Black and Latino Gay Pride; helped to reshape policy in reference to the police department’s response to and treatment of domestic violence within the LGBT community in Mecklenburg County; been leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS; wrote, produced and acted in several theatrical productions that addressed complex sociopolitical issues in a cultural context; and courageously established the first openly LGBT and affirming ally contingency to march in the Citywide Charlotte MLK, JR Parade. She has received numerous awards, including the Equality Award from The Human Rights Campaign of The Carolinas and The Charlotte Business Guild's Don King Service Award.
She consistently works at the intersections of race, class, gender, religion and sexual orientation. She is Co-Founder of Charlotte-based Black Clergy United Against AIDS, Co-Founder of People United For Education, which advocated for urban youth in the Mecklenburg County School System and is Founder and Executive Director of The Freedom Center for Social Justice. The Freedom Center is currently hosting the TransFaith in Color Conference which is designed to address the social, spiritual and justice needs of the transgender community. She is also the former Director of Grassroots Leadership’s Keeping Faith: A Religious Response to the Prison Crisis Program. The focus of this program is the mobilization of faith communities across the country in ways that address issues of over incarceration, prison privatization and criminal justice.
Bishop Rawls was born and raised in northern New Jersey. She and her wife Gwendolyn have been married since 2002 and, are currently co-parenting 4 school-aged children; are parents of three adult children and grandparent to 5. She is a graduate of Duke University and has been a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the National Black Justice Coalition and the Diversity and Inclusion Council of the Human Rights Campaign in addition to other boards. Bishop Rawls has been a reviewer for the Journal of African-American Studies and is published in Black Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies (In Press).
Duane Cramer: Photographer, Businessman, Activist
Duane Cramer’s clean, intimate photographic style grew out of an ingrained aesthetic that was planted early on in his childhood psyche by the (photographic) representations of his ancestral lineage.
This familial dialogue underscores the diverse collection of creative works by this photographer, activist and family archivist. Alongside fashion editorials, media campaigns, and portraiture, Cramer has photographed countless celebrities (Samuel L. Jackson, Sheryl Lee Ralph), advocates and politicians (Marjorie Hill, PhD, Bill Clinton, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters), and writers (Toni Morrison, Armistead Maupin).
While showcasing a rich array of his evocative images Duane Cramer is visually articulating a relationship between the impressionable, familial imagery which surrounded him as a child and the richly inspired portraits he crafts today. Look, for example, at his iconic portrait of RuPaul. Classically presented in inky black and white the image is steeped in flattering grey tones throughout. While the “Supermodel” herself is sheathed in a provocative lace stocking-dress splayed with faux fur in tow, Cramer’s mastery softens the camp and undulating sexual ambivalence while placing focus on the sweeping motion of the statuesque and glamorized beauty. Ru is undeniably captured with both vigor, and presence—“boldness” as Cramer describes. The framing breathes while gently containing a personality of grand proportions. Our eyes and attentions are directed to the proud and humanized gaze of his subject—an authenticity to which the creator demands. (Following is from an interview with Duane Cramer by A&U Magazine)
Sean Black: What led you to photography and why are you so passionate about it as a medium for expression?
Duane Cramer: Growing up, there was a lot of art in my house, family portraits, photo albums, and, looking at them, I fell in love with the idea of recording special people and memorable events. As a child I loved looking through the beautiful photo albums and listening to the stories about the people in them. It gave me a sense of possibility for myself as well as a sense of pride in the accomplishments of my relatives. Capturing those special moments in the lives of others is something that animates and inspires my work to this day. My passion for photography comes from its immediacy and its ability to record unique moments in time like those I saw as a child of relatives and family friends.
You are noted for crafting “insightful images” that “intimately reveal the richness and humanity” of your subjects—could you expand upon this?
I love showcasing the humanity and inner beauty in each person; I have an eye for the unusual and unexpected which allows me to expose what is unique and special in each person. Showing the beauty and boldness, I love being able to show other people what I get to see through my images.
When did you decide to use your talents to communicate creative messages?
I’m not sure that there was a specific moment or point in time exactly. In my own way, I’ve always tried to imbue my work with a creative spirit, when I worked at a big corporation and now through my photography. When I was diagnosed with HIV I began to advocate on behalf of HIV awareness, prevention education, and social justice. For a decade working full-time on photography, I focused on portraiture and developing and creating concepts and imagery for social marketing campaigns. It’s been my joy.
Who are some of your heroes?
That’s a tough one because I’ve met so many inspiring people over the years. In general, I’m inspired by those who’ve dared to do the unexpected and who both remind me and show me that there is another way in which to see and understand the world in which we live. Heroes that first come to mind outside of my own ancestry are: Gordon Parks, James Van Der Zee, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, and President Barack and Michelle Obama.
You reference world leaders, writers, and activists, as well as photographers. How do you think that photography can “show” others a form of hope?
Yes, the actions of our greatest leaders have not only positively changed our point of view, but also our direction. Photographs have the ability to reveal, document and change people’s hearts and minds. I hope my work shifts how people see the world and acts as a catalyst to create a better way.
Having lost your father to an AIDS-related illness and living with HIV yourself since 1996, how have your own life experiences
advanced your keen sense of portraiture?
HIV forever changed the meaning and importance of life for me. It is now the lens through which I see and experience life. I realize that life is short but offers infinite possibilities through which changes to our situations and life circumstances can occur. Even when we think we are at the end of our own rope a new perspective or opportunity is often right around the corner—I know this firsthand.
The life stories of my family have played a significant role in my sense of portraiture (photographic and paintings). When my father died there was significant stigma and shame attached to HIV/AIDS. Remembering those days animates my activism to eliminate stigma and discrimination. Seeking and identifying the unique aspects of soulful strength in each person comes from my deep belief that true liberation is the freedom to live one’s life with dignity, purpose and a sense of one’s place in the world. I try to bring that out and share that in my work. (Source: http://aumag.org/wordpress/2013/05/22/ancestry-artistry/)
This familial dialogue underscores the diverse collection of creative works by this photographer, activist and family archivist. Alongside fashion editorials, media campaigns, and portraiture, Cramer has photographed countless celebrities (Samuel L. Jackson, Sheryl Lee Ralph), advocates and politicians (Marjorie Hill, PhD, Bill Clinton, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters), and writers (Toni Morrison, Armistead Maupin).
While showcasing a rich array of his evocative images Duane Cramer is visually articulating a relationship between the impressionable, familial imagery which surrounded him as a child and the richly inspired portraits he crafts today. Look, for example, at his iconic portrait of RuPaul. Classically presented in inky black and white the image is steeped in flattering grey tones throughout. While the “Supermodel” herself is sheathed in a provocative lace stocking-dress splayed with faux fur in tow, Cramer’s mastery softens the camp and undulating sexual ambivalence while placing focus on the sweeping motion of the statuesque and glamorized beauty. Ru is undeniably captured with both vigor, and presence—“boldness” as Cramer describes. The framing breathes while gently containing a personality of grand proportions. Our eyes and attentions are directed to the proud and humanized gaze of his subject—an authenticity to which the creator demands. (Following is from an interview with Duane Cramer by A&U Magazine)
Sean Black: What led you to photography and why are you so passionate about it as a medium for expression?
Duane Cramer: Growing up, there was a lot of art in my house, family portraits, photo albums, and, looking at them, I fell in love with the idea of recording special people and memorable events. As a child I loved looking through the beautiful photo albums and listening to the stories about the people in them. It gave me a sense of possibility for myself as well as a sense of pride in the accomplishments of my relatives. Capturing those special moments in the lives of others is something that animates and inspires my work to this day. My passion for photography comes from its immediacy and its ability to record unique moments in time like those I saw as a child of relatives and family friends.
You are noted for crafting “insightful images” that “intimately reveal the richness and humanity” of your subjects—could you expand upon this?
I love showcasing the humanity and inner beauty in each person; I have an eye for the unusual and unexpected which allows me to expose what is unique and special in each person. Showing the beauty and boldness, I love being able to show other people what I get to see through my images.
When did you decide to use your talents to communicate creative messages?
I’m not sure that there was a specific moment or point in time exactly. In my own way, I’ve always tried to imbue my work with a creative spirit, when I worked at a big corporation and now through my photography. When I was diagnosed with HIV I began to advocate on behalf of HIV awareness, prevention education, and social justice. For a decade working full-time on photography, I focused on portraiture and developing and creating concepts and imagery for social marketing campaigns. It’s been my joy.
Who are some of your heroes?
That’s a tough one because I’ve met so many inspiring people over the years. In general, I’m inspired by those who’ve dared to do the unexpected and who both remind me and show me that there is another way in which to see and understand the world in which we live. Heroes that first come to mind outside of my own ancestry are: Gordon Parks, James Van Der Zee, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, and President Barack and Michelle Obama.
You reference world leaders, writers, and activists, as well as photographers. How do you think that photography can “show” others a form of hope?
Yes, the actions of our greatest leaders have not only positively changed our point of view, but also our direction. Photographs have the ability to reveal, document and change people’s hearts and minds. I hope my work shifts how people see the world and acts as a catalyst to create a better way.
Having lost your father to an AIDS-related illness and living with HIV yourself since 1996, how have your own life experiences
advanced your keen sense of portraiture?
HIV forever changed the meaning and importance of life for me. It is now the lens through which I see and experience life. I realize that life is short but offers infinite possibilities through which changes to our situations and life circumstances can occur. Even when we think we are at the end of our own rope a new perspective or opportunity is often right around the corner—I know this firsthand.
The life stories of my family have played a significant role in my sense of portraiture (photographic and paintings). When my father died there was significant stigma and shame attached to HIV/AIDS. Remembering those days animates my activism to eliminate stigma and discrimination. Seeking and identifying the unique aspects of soulful strength in each person comes from my deep belief that true liberation is the freedom to live one’s life with dignity, purpose and a sense of one’s place in the world. I try to bring that out and share that in my work. (Source: http://aumag.org/wordpress/2013/05/22/ancestry-artistry/)
Duane Cramer Photographs
Pam Spaulding: Blogger, Columnist, Editor, Activist
Pam Spaulding is the editor and publisher of Pam's House Blend (pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com), honored as "Best LGBT Blog" in the 2005 and 2006 Weblog Awards.
Pam has guest posted/contributed to Americablog, Pandagon, Firedoglake, The Rude Pundit, OurChart.com, The Bilerico Project, Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory on Salon, and written for The Independent Weekly. She has a monthly column for the Raleigh News & Observer's The Durham News; the first out lesbian columnist for this major newspaper. Her advocacy extends to social media as well with over 11,000 Twitter followers; 6,200 Facebook friends and subscribers, and more than 7,000 on Google Plus+.
With roots in North Carolina and New York City, Pam considers herself to have "dual citizenship" status as a Southerner and a Yankee -- and brings that perspective and voice to her blog, which focuses on current political events, LGBT and women's rights, the influence of the far Right, and race relations.
Pam's House Blend is ranked in the top 50 progressive political blogs. Michael Rogers, editor and publisher of gay blog PageOneQ.com: "Pam is certainly the most important lesbian blogger in America. She's a lesbian in a gay blogging world that is overwhelmingly gay men. She's a blogger as a woman in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world and she's of color and the internet is so skewed to the privileged." Mike Airhart of Ex Gay Watch says, "Thanks to efforts by bloggers such as Spaulding, XGW can spend less time analyzing the religious right and more time focusing on ex-gays."
Spaulding has provided commentary on CNN during the 2008 presidential election cycle, spoken at national forums, and performed the first-ever live-blogging events for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s annual dinner in May 2006 and the National Black Justice Coalition's Second Annual Black Church Summit in March 2007.
Pam has landed exclusive interviews with the first openly gay man to run for the U.S. Senate, Jim Neal, as well as the only out lesbian serving in Congress, Tammy Baldwin.
In 2006 she received Distinguished Achievement Award from The Monette-Horwitz Trust for making significant contributions toward the eradication of homophobia. Pam was named one of Huffington Post's Ultimate Game Changers in Politics in 2009, honored with the 2009 Women’s Media Center Award for Online Journalism, received the 2009 Courage Award from the New York City Anti-Violence Project and selected as one of the OUT 100 for the year.
In 2012 she was honored with the Bob Page Equality Champion Award by the Equality NC Foundation for her online and offline work against Amendment One, the ballot initiative that bans legal recognition of same-sex couples.
Spaulding has a B.A. in Media Studies from Fordham University and in the non-virtual world, serves as Information Technology Manager at Duke University Press. She is a board member of The Institute of Southern Studies, which publishes the award-winning investigative journalism publication Southern Exposure, and the blog Facing South. Pam is on the organization's Media Advisory Group. The Blend received credentials to cover the 2008 Democratic National Convention as part of the general press pool.
She lives Durham, NC with her wife Kate – they legally married in Vancouver in 2004 -- and their two dogs. Update: After a decade, Pam has announced she is discontinuing her blog. Having suffered for many years with rheumatoid arthritis she has decided to take care of her health.
Pam has guest posted/contributed to Americablog, Pandagon, Firedoglake, The Rude Pundit, OurChart.com, The Bilerico Project, Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory on Salon, and written for The Independent Weekly. She has a monthly column for the Raleigh News & Observer's The Durham News; the first out lesbian columnist for this major newspaper. Her advocacy extends to social media as well with over 11,000 Twitter followers; 6,200 Facebook friends and subscribers, and more than 7,000 on Google Plus+.
With roots in North Carolina and New York City, Pam considers herself to have "dual citizenship" status as a Southerner and a Yankee -- and brings that perspective and voice to her blog, which focuses on current political events, LGBT and women's rights, the influence of the far Right, and race relations.
Pam's House Blend is ranked in the top 50 progressive political blogs. Michael Rogers, editor and publisher of gay blog PageOneQ.com: "Pam is certainly the most important lesbian blogger in America. She's a lesbian in a gay blogging world that is overwhelmingly gay men. She's a blogger as a woman in an overwhelmingly male-dominated world and she's of color and the internet is so skewed to the privileged." Mike Airhart of Ex Gay Watch says, "Thanks to efforts by bloggers such as Spaulding, XGW can spend less time analyzing the religious right and more time focusing on ex-gays."
Spaulding has provided commentary on CNN during the 2008 presidential election cycle, spoken at national forums, and performed the first-ever live-blogging events for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s annual dinner in May 2006 and the National Black Justice Coalition's Second Annual Black Church Summit in March 2007.
Pam has landed exclusive interviews with the first openly gay man to run for the U.S. Senate, Jim Neal, as well as the only out lesbian serving in Congress, Tammy Baldwin.
In 2006 she received Distinguished Achievement Award from The Monette-Horwitz Trust for making significant contributions toward the eradication of homophobia. Pam was named one of Huffington Post's Ultimate Game Changers in Politics in 2009, honored with the 2009 Women’s Media Center Award for Online Journalism, received the 2009 Courage Award from the New York City Anti-Violence Project and selected as one of the OUT 100 for the year.
In 2012 she was honored with the Bob Page Equality Champion Award by the Equality NC Foundation for her online and offline work against Amendment One, the ballot initiative that bans legal recognition of same-sex couples.
Spaulding has a B.A. in Media Studies from Fordham University and in the non-virtual world, serves as Information Technology Manager at Duke University Press. She is a board member of The Institute of Southern Studies, which publishes the award-winning investigative journalism publication Southern Exposure, and the blog Facing South. Pam is on the organization's Media Advisory Group. The Blend received credentials to cover the 2008 Democratic National Convention as part of the general press pool.
She lives Durham, NC with her wife Kate – they legally married in Vancouver in 2004 -- and their two dogs. Update: After a decade, Pam has announced she is discontinuing her blog. Having suffered for many years with rheumatoid arthritis she has decided to take care of her health.
G. Winston James: Poet, Editor
G. Winston James is a Jamaican-born poet, short fiction writer, essayist and editor. He received his BA from Columbia College, Columbia University and holds an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He is the author of the Lambda Literary Award and Ferro-Grumley Award finalist collection, Shaming the Devil: Collected Short Stories, as well as the poetry collections The Damaged Good: Poems Around Love and the Lambda Literary Award finalist collection Lyric: Poems Along a Broken Road. James is also co-editor of the historic anthologies, Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 Years of Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing and the Lambda Literary Award finalist publication Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity.www.gwinstonjames.com
James is the founder of Top Pen Press and a former executive director of the collective Other Countries: Black Gay Men Writing. Founded in New York City in 1986, Other Countries is an organization of writers and artists dedicated to the development, dissemination and preservation of literature and other forms of cultural expression of gay men of African heritage.
James is the founder of Top Pen Press and a former executive director of the collective Other Countries: Black Gay Men Writing. Founded in New York City in 1986, Other Countries is an organization of writers and artists dedicated to the development, dissemination and preservation of literature and other forms of cultural expression of gay men of African heritage.
Carolivia Herron: Writer
Carolivia Herron (1947) is a Jewish American writer of children’s and adult literature, and a scholar of African-American Judaica.
Carolivia Herron was born in Washington D.C. she converted to Judaism in adulthood. She has paternal-line Jewish descent from her grandmother via Jewish Geechees, and she is a founding member of "Jews of African Descent."
She has a B.A. in English from Eastern Baptist College in Pennsylvania (now Eastern University). She earned an M.A. in English from Villanova University in 1973, and an MFA in creative writing and a Ph.D. in comparative literature and literary theory from the University of Pennsylvania. Herron spent a postdoctoral research year at Brandeis University investigating the subject of African-American Jews.
Her debut novel, Thereafter Johnnie, a semi-autobiographical portrayal of African-American life, was critically well received.
Her critically acclaimed picture book Nappy Hair, a call and response story based on her own experiences as a child, was the cause of massive controversy when a New York City public school teacher was accused of racism after using it in the classroom.
Herron edited the papers of Angelina Weld Grimke for Oxford University Press.
Many of her writings, including her multimedia novel in progress, "Asenath and Our Song of Songs," refer to the intersections between Judaic and African.
Her latest children's book, Always an Olivia, recounts the coming of Herron's Jewish ancestors from Tripoli, Libya, to the Georgia Sea Islands in the Americas.
Carolivia Herron has taught literature at many institutions, including Harvard University, Mount Holyoke college, Brandeis University, and Marien N'Guabi University in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
She also teaches children directly.
Her scholarship includes work on African-American Judaica. Her scholarship also includes work on children’s literature, multicultural literature, and Star Trek. Herron is currently developing Epicenter Stories to assist in her work with children, literacy, and multiculturalism.
Carolivia Herron was born in Washington D.C. she converted to Judaism in adulthood. She has paternal-line Jewish descent from her grandmother via Jewish Geechees, and she is a founding member of "Jews of African Descent."
She has a B.A. in English from Eastern Baptist College in Pennsylvania (now Eastern University). She earned an M.A. in English from Villanova University in 1973, and an MFA in creative writing and a Ph.D. in comparative literature and literary theory from the University of Pennsylvania. Herron spent a postdoctoral research year at Brandeis University investigating the subject of African-American Jews.
Her debut novel, Thereafter Johnnie, a semi-autobiographical portrayal of African-American life, was critically well received.
Her critically acclaimed picture book Nappy Hair, a call and response story based on her own experiences as a child, was the cause of massive controversy when a New York City public school teacher was accused of racism after using it in the classroom.
Herron edited the papers of Angelina Weld Grimke for Oxford University Press.
Many of her writings, including her multimedia novel in progress, "Asenath and Our Song of Songs," refer to the intersections between Judaic and African.
Her latest children's book, Always an Olivia, recounts the coming of Herron's Jewish ancestors from Tripoli, Libya, to the Georgia Sea Islands in the Americas.
Carolivia Herron has taught literature at many institutions, including Harvard University, Mount Holyoke college, Brandeis University, and Marien N'Guabi University in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
She also teaches children directly.
Her scholarship includes work on African-American Judaica. Her scholarship also includes work on children’s literature, multicultural literature, and Star Trek. Herron is currently developing Epicenter Stories to assist in her work with children, literacy, and multiculturalism.
Rev. James Cleveland: Multi-Grammy Winning Gospel Singer, Religious Leader
Rev. James Cleveland (1931 - 1991) was a several-time Grammy Award winning gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of hard gospel and jazz and pop music influences to arrangements for mass choirs. He is known as the King of Gospel music.
Born in Chicago, he began singing as a boy soprano at Pilgrim Baptist Church, where Thomas A. Dorsey (the father of black gospel music) was minister of music and Roberta Martin was pianist for the choir. He strained his vocal cords as a teenager while part of a local gospel group, leaving the distinctive gravelly voice that was his hallmark in his later years. The change in his voice led him to focus on his skills as a pianist and later as a composer and arranger. For his pioneering accomplishments and contributions, he is regarded by many to be one of the greatest gospel singers to ever live.
In 1950, James Cleveland joined the Gospelaires, a trio led by Norsalus McKissick and Bessie Folk, who were associated with Martin. Martin hired him as a composer and arranger after the group disbanded. His arrangements of songs such as "(Give Me That) Old Time Religion" and "It's Me O Lord" transformed them, giving a rocking lilt and insistent drive to old standards.
James Cleveland subsequently went to work for Albertina Walker (Queen Of Gospel Music) and the Caravans as a composer, arranger, pianist and occasional singer/narrator. In November 1954, Albertina Walker provided him the opportunity to do his very first recording. By staying out of the studio for a while, she convinced States Records to allow him to record with her group. He continued to record with The Caravans until States closed down in 1957. He left and returned to the Caravans a number of times to join other groups, such as the Gospel All-Stars and the Gospel Chimes, where he mixed pop ballad influences with traditional shouting. In 1959 he recorded a version of Ray Charles' hit "Hallelujah I Love Her So" as a solo artist.
James Cleveland signed with Savoy Records and recorded albums with the group, The Angelic Choir, including his critically acclaimed 1962 debut album Peace Be Still.
He became known by more than just the professionals within gospel music with his version of the Soul Stirrers' song, "The Love of God", backed by the Voices of Tabernacle from Detroit. Rev. Cleveland migrated to Los Angeles,Ca., as Minister of Music at Grace Memorial Church of God and Christ.
During his stay in Los Angeles Rev. Cleveland attained even greater popularity working with keyboardist Billy Preston and the Angelic Choir of Nutley, New Jersey; his recording of "Peace Be Still", sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
In part, due to Rev. Cleveland's emotional command, his popularity grew to great acclaim causing him once again to return to the road, this time with the newly organized James Cleveland Singers, consisting of Odessa McCastle, Georgia White, and Eugene Bryant, along with Billy Preston. Rev. Cleveland & The James Cleveland Singers traveled extensively throughout the United States and Abroad, performing in all major venues, from 1962 until 1990.
Rev. James Cleveland capitalized on his success by founding his own choir, the Southern California Community Choir, as well as a church, Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church, which went from a handful of congregants to thousands of members during his lifetime. His influence stretched even further. Like Thomas A. Dorsey before him, he taught others how to achieve the modern gospel sound through his annual Gospel Singers Workshop Convention, put on by the Gospel Music Workshop of America ("GMWA"), an organization that Cleveland founded,and now which has over 30,000 members in 150 chapters. The GMWA has produced, among others, John P. Kee.
The musical style James Cleveland pioneered — large disciplined organizations who used complex arrangements and unusual time signatures to turn their massive vocal power to achieve the propulsive rhythms, intricate harmonies and individual virtuosity of the greatest groups of gospel's Golden Age — was still the wellspring for the mass choirs of that era.
The Rev. James Cleveland died in 1991. Though his death is often recognized euphemistically as having been a result of heart failure, there has been an enduring controversy as to whether or not Cleveland actually succumbed to AIDS-related complications. Neither are widely discussed within the gospel music community.
Towards the end of his life he moved beyond internalized homophobia, which kept him closeted for many years, to become active in the fight against AIDS. (See his videos below)(http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sBK9np69W3A ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8OWTlGDdNnY)
Born in Chicago, he began singing as a boy soprano at Pilgrim Baptist Church, where Thomas A. Dorsey (the father of black gospel music) was minister of music and Roberta Martin was pianist for the choir. He strained his vocal cords as a teenager while part of a local gospel group, leaving the distinctive gravelly voice that was his hallmark in his later years. The change in his voice led him to focus on his skills as a pianist and later as a composer and arranger. For his pioneering accomplishments and contributions, he is regarded by many to be one of the greatest gospel singers to ever live.
In 1950, James Cleveland joined the Gospelaires, a trio led by Norsalus McKissick and Bessie Folk, who were associated with Martin. Martin hired him as a composer and arranger after the group disbanded. His arrangements of songs such as "(Give Me That) Old Time Religion" and "It's Me O Lord" transformed them, giving a rocking lilt and insistent drive to old standards.
James Cleveland subsequently went to work for Albertina Walker (Queen Of Gospel Music) and the Caravans as a composer, arranger, pianist and occasional singer/narrator. In November 1954, Albertina Walker provided him the opportunity to do his very first recording. By staying out of the studio for a while, she convinced States Records to allow him to record with her group. He continued to record with The Caravans until States closed down in 1957. He left and returned to the Caravans a number of times to join other groups, such as the Gospel All-Stars and the Gospel Chimes, where he mixed pop ballad influences with traditional shouting. In 1959 he recorded a version of Ray Charles' hit "Hallelujah I Love Her So" as a solo artist.
James Cleveland signed with Savoy Records and recorded albums with the group, The Angelic Choir, including his critically acclaimed 1962 debut album Peace Be Still.
He became known by more than just the professionals within gospel music with his version of the Soul Stirrers' song, "The Love of God", backed by the Voices of Tabernacle from Detroit. Rev. Cleveland migrated to Los Angeles,Ca., as Minister of Music at Grace Memorial Church of God and Christ.
During his stay in Los Angeles Rev. Cleveland attained even greater popularity working with keyboardist Billy Preston and the Angelic Choir of Nutley, New Jersey; his recording of "Peace Be Still", sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
In part, due to Rev. Cleveland's emotional command, his popularity grew to great acclaim causing him once again to return to the road, this time with the newly organized James Cleveland Singers, consisting of Odessa McCastle, Georgia White, and Eugene Bryant, along with Billy Preston. Rev. Cleveland & The James Cleveland Singers traveled extensively throughout the United States and Abroad, performing in all major venues, from 1962 until 1990.
Rev. James Cleveland capitalized on his success by founding his own choir, the Southern California Community Choir, as well as a church, Cornerstone Institutional Baptist Church, which went from a handful of congregants to thousands of members during his lifetime. His influence stretched even further. Like Thomas A. Dorsey before him, he taught others how to achieve the modern gospel sound through his annual Gospel Singers Workshop Convention, put on by the Gospel Music Workshop of America ("GMWA"), an organization that Cleveland founded,and now which has over 30,000 members in 150 chapters. The GMWA has produced, among others, John P. Kee.
The musical style James Cleveland pioneered — large disciplined organizations who used complex arrangements and unusual time signatures to turn their massive vocal power to achieve the propulsive rhythms, intricate harmonies and individual virtuosity of the greatest groups of gospel's Golden Age — was still the wellspring for the mass choirs of that era.
The Rev. James Cleveland died in 1991. Though his death is often recognized euphemistically as having been a result of heart failure, there has been an enduring controversy as to whether or not Cleveland actually succumbed to AIDS-related complications. Neither are widely discussed within the gospel music community.
Towards the end of his life he moved beyond internalized homophobia, which kept him closeted for many years, to become active in the fight against AIDS. (See his videos below)(http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sBK9np69W3A ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8OWTlGDdNnY)
Jamil A. Fletcher: Publisher, Marketing and Fundraising Strategist for Health Initiatives
When he first started chasing dollars for community causes, the recipient of Jamil Fletcher’s skills wasn’t the fight against HIV/AIDS. It was sickle cell anemia. A group organizing a tennis tournament approached Fletcher (who’s an avid player) to help get funding for sickle cell anemia. He pursued that cause for years before making the jump to HIV/AIDS fund-raising for the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC). Soon, Fletcher signed up more black HIV/AIDS organizations to his client list. He has secured funding for community programs and services with the Los Angeles–based Black AIDS Institute; Us Helping Us in Washington, DC; and Palmetto AIDS Life Support Services in South Carolina.
HIV/AIDS prevention is a cause dear to my heart. I’ve lost many friends and family who were affected by the virus. I felt fund-raising was the best way for me to fight for the cause. It allowed me to utilize my business and marketing expertise to secure resources.
Today, Fletcher is the director of development for the Goldberg Center for Community Pediatric Health at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. There he manages the center’s teen HIV prevention programs and services. Fletcher is also the co-publisher of Swerv magazine, a DC-based publication serving same-gender loving men and women.
SWERV was created by Jamil Fletcher and author/publisherMichael-Christopher in the fall of 2009. Prior to the debut ofSWERV, the two published Black Pride Resource Guide, and annual magazine promoting black pride events around the country.
“Our quarterly publication focuses on African-American LGBTQ men and women in the arts, film, television, politics, sports, health and fitness, and other fields,” said Jamil A. Fletcher, 48, of Upper Marlboro, Md., SWERV’s founder and publisher. “Its circulation is 30,000 copies to a projected readership of 150,000 (five readers per issue) in more than 70 cities and 27 states. It’s distributed free in nightclubs, bookstores, and health clubs, among other places.”
SWERV depends on freelance writers for articles. Advertising comes primarily from pharmaceutical companies specializing in HIV/AIDS medications, due to the high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the LGBTQ community. “These companies support us,” said Fletcher. “Nobody else does that. Advertisers still don’t see the need to address a same gender-loving community of color.”
Next year, Fletcher plans to publish six SWERV issues annually, upload more video coverage on SWERV’s website, and create a SWERV YouTube channel.
“With SWERV, I’ve created a forum to discuss issues important to a particular demographic. The stories of black LGBTQ people get lost in African-American heterosexual and white gay publications. The openness of LGBTQ African-Americans prevents [their lives] from being explored in black mainstream media – although that’s changing a bit – and their blackness prevents them from being covered in [the predominantly white] gay media.”
“We celebrate those stories and allow LGBTQ African-Americans to tell them authentically. We go into the full depth of who they are.”
SWERV may contribute to the African-American heterosexual community’s evolving opinions on homosexuality. In a 2009 Pew poll on civil unions and same-sex marriage, 64 percent of African-Americans said homosexuality is “morally wrong.” But a 2012 ABC News-Washington Post poll on same-sex marriage showed 59 percent of African-Americans support it. The figure increased from 41 percent, after President Obama publicly expressed personal support for marriage equality.
“I want to demonstrate to African-Americans outside of the LGBTQ community that we too are black,” said Fletcher. “We are black, first and foremost. Many try to drive a wedge between us, but we are influential and involved in the black community. We should be able to work together.”
Fletcher’s advice for others who want to start African-American LGBTQ-oriented publications is, “Stay positive and keep moving forward. Perseverance is needed because [this market] is so misunderstood by those not a part of the community.”
HIV/AIDS prevention is a cause dear to my heart. I’ve lost many friends and family who were affected by the virus. I felt fund-raising was the best way for me to fight for the cause. It allowed me to utilize my business and marketing expertise to secure resources.
Today, Fletcher is the director of development for the Goldberg Center for Community Pediatric Health at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC. There he manages the center’s teen HIV prevention programs and services. Fletcher is also the co-publisher of Swerv magazine, a DC-based publication serving same-gender loving men and women.
SWERV was created by Jamil Fletcher and author/publisherMichael-Christopher in the fall of 2009. Prior to the debut ofSWERV, the two published Black Pride Resource Guide, and annual magazine promoting black pride events around the country.
“Our quarterly publication focuses on African-American LGBTQ men and women in the arts, film, television, politics, sports, health and fitness, and other fields,” said Jamil A. Fletcher, 48, of Upper Marlboro, Md., SWERV’s founder and publisher. “Its circulation is 30,000 copies to a projected readership of 150,000 (five readers per issue) in more than 70 cities and 27 states. It’s distributed free in nightclubs, bookstores, and health clubs, among other places.”
SWERV depends on freelance writers for articles. Advertising comes primarily from pharmaceutical companies specializing in HIV/AIDS medications, due to the high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the LGBTQ community. “These companies support us,” said Fletcher. “Nobody else does that. Advertisers still don’t see the need to address a same gender-loving community of color.”
Next year, Fletcher plans to publish six SWERV issues annually, upload more video coverage on SWERV’s website, and create a SWERV YouTube channel.
“With SWERV, I’ve created a forum to discuss issues important to a particular demographic. The stories of black LGBTQ people get lost in African-American heterosexual and white gay publications. The openness of LGBTQ African-Americans prevents [their lives] from being explored in black mainstream media – although that’s changing a bit – and their blackness prevents them from being covered in [the predominantly white] gay media.”
“We celebrate those stories and allow LGBTQ African-Americans to tell them authentically. We go into the full depth of who they are.”
SWERV may contribute to the African-American heterosexual community’s evolving opinions on homosexuality. In a 2009 Pew poll on civil unions and same-sex marriage, 64 percent of African-Americans said homosexuality is “morally wrong.” But a 2012 ABC News-Washington Post poll on same-sex marriage showed 59 percent of African-Americans support it. The figure increased from 41 percent, after President Obama publicly expressed personal support for marriage equality.
“I want to demonstrate to African-Americans outside of the LGBTQ community that we too are black,” said Fletcher. “We are black, first and foremost. Many try to drive a wedge between us, but we are influential and involved in the black community. We should be able to work together.”
Fletcher’s advice for others who want to start African-American LGBTQ-oriented publications is, “Stay positive and keep moving forward. Perseverance is needed because [this market] is so misunderstood by those not a part of the community.”
Barbara Smith: Educator, Writer, Activist
As a black woman and a lesbian, Barbara Smith (1946) has felt first-hand the ugly sting of racism, sexism, and homophobia. Born into segregation, Smith was no stranger to these harsh realities, however she was dismayed to find that they also existed within progressive rights movements. As a feminist, she fought against sexism, yet found that white women in the movement often excluded blacks. As a black feminist, she fought against both sexism and racism, yet found that other black women in the movement shunned her because she was a lesbian. In the fight for gay and lesbian rights, she found that white gays and lesbians did not embrace the struggles of their black brothers and sisters.
Oppressed on all sides, Smith did not cower, rather she broadened the scope of her activism, becoming a champion of the need to recognize the interconnectedness of oppressions--race, sexuality, gender, and class. For Smith, the struggle for gay rights is the struggle for black rights, anti-Semitism is as vile as homophobia, and women--black, white, straight or gay--all have a stake in the women's movement. Smith's ultimate hope is that, as she told Ace Weekly, "we can recognize the humanity of people's differences, and try to treat each other more humanely."
Barbara Smith and her twin sister, Beverly, were born on November 16, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio. The twins grew up in an extended family of women that included their mother, Hilda, their maternal grandmother, and a great aunt. Without men around, the twins learned the strengths of a woman as caretaker and provider. They also learned something much harsher—the cruelty of racism and sexism. Watching their mother and aunts ignored by shopkeepers and insulted by white strangers, the twins sensed that there was something wrong. Smith wrote in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, "The cold eyes of certain white teachers...the Black men who yelled from cars as Beverly and I stood waiting for the bus convinced me that I had done something horrible. "
Raised by Strong Women
Fortunately, she lived in a house of strong women. Education and reading were not just encouraged, but expected. Their mother had been one of the first in the family to graduate from college. Though she died when the twins were just nine, her belief in education strongly influenced the twins. Smith's aunt held a job at the Cleveland Public Library and brought home bags full of books. Despite the demons of racism and sexism looming outside their door, at home Smith and her sister enjoyed a sanctuary of books, a place to let their minds grow and their dreams unfold.
Smith began to learn that there was nothing wrong with her, but that there was something very wrong with society. Watching the dramas of the Civil Rights Movement first-hand, she was moved. "I'm kind of a natural activist," she told Patricia Bell-Scott in Ms. magazine. "By the time I was eight I noticed that things were not fair." She attended her first demonstration when she was in high school and found one part of her calling--activism. The other part was writing. She told Ms., "I wanted to be a writer as soon as I found out that you could be one."
In high school, Smith pursed writing and joined the school newspaper. At age 18, she left for the prestigious campus of Mount Holyoke College and immersed herself in writing courses. As a sophomore, she took a short story course with a rising literary star who was also a white male. He criticized her work and embarrassed her tirelessly. His dismissal of her writing aspirations affected Smith so deeply that she abandoned her dream of writing and focused on literary criticism instead.
Smith was particularly interested in studying black literature, especially that of black women. Unfortunately, such a field did not yet exist. Not one to be dismayed, Smith designed her own course of study on black writers. Following graduation, she obtained a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971 and took her first job at the University of Massachusetts. She assumed that she would pursue the life of an academic and only write within that context. However, "the feminist movement altered my expectations about everything," she wrote in Truth.
Joined to Feminist Movement
Being a "natural activist," she was drawn to the feminist movement as a thirsty woman to a rushing stream. It gave voice to many of her feelings about oppression. Moreover, she finally found a place for her writing in the numerous journals that had sprouted up in tandem with the movement. It was an empowering time for Smith, both as a woman and as a writer. With this empowerment also came the courage to come out as a lesbian. She wrote in Truth, "coming out in the mid-seventies was a crucial factor in finding my voice."
In 1974 Smith co-founded the Cohambee River Collective in Boston, a community-based black feminist group. One of the most important legacies of the group was that it was actively committed to not only struggling against the oppression of black women, but also against sexual, racial, and class oppression. She told Ms., "We understood that dealing with sexual politics didn't mean you weren't a race woman, and that speaking out about homophobia didn't mean that you didn't want to end poverty."
After a brief stint as a book reviewer for the National Observer, Smith made an important discovery about herself. "I decided that I would never again put myself in the position of having to make my writing conform to someone else's standards of beliefs," she wrote in Truth. She made good on that decision at a 1977 National Conference of Afro-American Writers with the presentation of her seminal work, Towards a Black Feminist Criticism. It was the first study to explore black female literature and the role of black lesbians in it, the book is considered one of the major factors in opening the field of black women's literature.
At the Kitchen Table
Realizing that mainstream publications were not very interested in what women of color had to say, Smith co-founded the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press in 1980. Envisioned as a place for all women of color--black, Latino, Native American--to be able to publish their work, Kitchen Table, was as much a political outlet as it was a literary one. "We do not simply publish a work because it is by a woman of color, but because it consciously examines the specific situations and issues that women of color face from a positive and original perspective," Smith told Ace Weekly.
Kitchen Table Press published many important works including two publications that have contributed significantly to black feminist literary criticism: Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Smith and This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Smith worked as editor, contributor, and publisher for the press until 1995. However, Kitchen Table Press was a labor of love and activism, not one of profit. Smith struggled to get by on teaching positions, fellowships, speaking engagements, and occasional publication fees.
Even though she wrote throughout her years with Kitchen Table, she was never able to give herself to it fully. The work she had produced had been published in small journals or by independent presses and had yet to reach a wide audience. The Truth That Never Hurts, was her response to this. Featuring selected essays from 1968 to 1998, Truth presented an overview of Smith's philosophies, struggles, truths, and accomplishments.
"Reading through Smith's book is having the constant double feeling that 'things have changed' while also remaining largely unchanged," a Lambda Book Report reviewer wrote. Smith's book pointed out that, even as black and homosexual men and women assume high positions of power in government and business, others are still beaten by strangers, shunned by neighbors, and harassed by police. Smith told the Boston Phoenix,"I think there are black people like Clarence Thomas, for instance, who actually thinks he has arrived, but all he had to do is be in his car in the wrong white neighborhood to be disabused of this notion."
Just as oppression has not changed in the years since Smith began her work as an activist and author, neither has Smith's message. She continued to call for awareness that racism, sexism, and homophobia do still exist, and that they affect all people. Despite still feeling the sting of racism herself--she was once run off the road by a white driver in Watertown, Massachusetts--and homophobia--a group of black youths set her car on fire because she was a lesbian--she remained committed to her work. She told Between the Lines, "Of course I get discouraged, but I don't get despondent. I know I'm part of a long, strong struggle, and that when I'm gone there will be others to carry on." With her powerful writing, her total commitment to crushing oppression in all its forms, and her exquisite faith, Smith has created a legacy that will not soon be forgotten. Those who come after her will find that the path she has carved out is full of hope and humanity.
Awards Outstanding Woman of Color Award, 1982; Women Educator's Curriculum Award, 1983; Stonewall Award for Service to the Lesbian and Gay Community, 1994; Radcliffe College, Bunting Institute, fellow, 1996-97; City University of New York, Humanities Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, Rockefeller fellow, 1998-99.
Education: Mount Holyoke College, B.A., 1969; University of Pittsburgh, M.A., 1971; University of Connecticut, A.B.D., 1981.
Career Educator. University of Massachusetts, instructor, 1976-81; Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, director and publisher, 1981-95; Barnard College, instructor, 1983; New York University, instructor, 1985; University of Minnesota, visiting professor, 1986; Hobart William Smith College, visiting professor, 1987; Mount Holyoke College, visiting professor, 1988; Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, scholar in residence, 1995-96; writer in residence at numerous colleges; freelance writer and lecturer.
Life's Work
Works
Selected Writings
· (Editor with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia Bell Scott) All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies, Feminist Press, 1982.
· (Editor) Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983.
· (Editor with Elly Bulkin and Minnie Bruce Pratt) Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism, Firebrand Books, 1984.
· The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender and Freedom, Rutgers University Press, 1998.
Further Reading
Books
· Smith, Barbara, ed. Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983.
· Smith, Barbara, The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender and Freedom, Rutgers University Press, 1998.
Periodicals
· Ace Magazine (Kentucky), September 29, 1999.
· Between the Lines (Detroit, Michigan), February 2000.
· The Boston Phoenix, February 1999.
· Lambda Book Review, January 1999.
· Ms., January/February 1995.
— Candace LaBalle
Oppressed on all sides, Smith did not cower, rather she broadened the scope of her activism, becoming a champion of the need to recognize the interconnectedness of oppressions--race, sexuality, gender, and class. For Smith, the struggle for gay rights is the struggle for black rights, anti-Semitism is as vile as homophobia, and women--black, white, straight or gay--all have a stake in the women's movement. Smith's ultimate hope is that, as she told Ace Weekly, "we can recognize the humanity of people's differences, and try to treat each other more humanely."
Barbara Smith and her twin sister, Beverly, were born on November 16, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio. The twins grew up in an extended family of women that included their mother, Hilda, their maternal grandmother, and a great aunt. Without men around, the twins learned the strengths of a woman as caretaker and provider. They also learned something much harsher—the cruelty of racism and sexism. Watching their mother and aunts ignored by shopkeepers and insulted by white strangers, the twins sensed that there was something wrong. Smith wrote in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, "The cold eyes of certain white teachers...the Black men who yelled from cars as Beverly and I stood waiting for the bus convinced me that I had done something horrible. "
Raised by Strong Women
Fortunately, she lived in a house of strong women. Education and reading were not just encouraged, but expected. Their mother had been one of the first in the family to graduate from college. Though she died when the twins were just nine, her belief in education strongly influenced the twins. Smith's aunt held a job at the Cleveland Public Library and brought home bags full of books. Despite the demons of racism and sexism looming outside their door, at home Smith and her sister enjoyed a sanctuary of books, a place to let their minds grow and their dreams unfold.
Smith began to learn that there was nothing wrong with her, but that there was something very wrong with society. Watching the dramas of the Civil Rights Movement first-hand, she was moved. "I'm kind of a natural activist," she told Patricia Bell-Scott in Ms. magazine. "By the time I was eight I noticed that things were not fair." She attended her first demonstration when she was in high school and found one part of her calling--activism. The other part was writing. She told Ms., "I wanted to be a writer as soon as I found out that you could be one."
In high school, Smith pursed writing and joined the school newspaper. At age 18, she left for the prestigious campus of Mount Holyoke College and immersed herself in writing courses. As a sophomore, she took a short story course with a rising literary star who was also a white male. He criticized her work and embarrassed her tirelessly. His dismissal of her writing aspirations affected Smith so deeply that she abandoned her dream of writing and focused on literary criticism instead.
Smith was particularly interested in studying black literature, especially that of black women. Unfortunately, such a field did not yet exist. Not one to be dismayed, Smith designed her own course of study on black writers. Following graduation, she obtained a master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1971 and took her first job at the University of Massachusetts. She assumed that she would pursue the life of an academic and only write within that context. However, "the feminist movement altered my expectations about everything," she wrote in Truth.
Joined to Feminist Movement
Being a "natural activist," she was drawn to the feminist movement as a thirsty woman to a rushing stream. It gave voice to many of her feelings about oppression. Moreover, she finally found a place for her writing in the numerous journals that had sprouted up in tandem with the movement. It was an empowering time for Smith, both as a woman and as a writer. With this empowerment also came the courage to come out as a lesbian. She wrote in Truth, "coming out in the mid-seventies was a crucial factor in finding my voice."
In 1974 Smith co-founded the Cohambee River Collective in Boston, a community-based black feminist group. One of the most important legacies of the group was that it was actively committed to not only struggling against the oppression of black women, but also against sexual, racial, and class oppression. She told Ms., "We understood that dealing with sexual politics didn't mean you weren't a race woman, and that speaking out about homophobia didn't mean that you didn't want to end poverty."
After a brief stint as a book reviewer for the National Observer, Smith made an important discovery about herself. "I decided that I would never again put myself in the position of having to make my writing conform to someone else's standards of beliefs," she wrote in Truth. She made good on that decision at a 1977 National Conference of Afro-American Writers with the presentation of her seminal work, Towards a Black Feminist Criticism. It was the first study to explore black female literature and the role of black lesbians in it, the book is considered one of the major factors in opening the field of black women's literature.
At the Kitchen Table
Realizing that mainstream publications were not very interested in what women of color had to say, Smith co-founded the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press in 1980. Envisioned as a place for all women of color--black, Latino, Native American--to be able to publish their work, Kitchen Table, was as much a political outlet as it was a literary one. "We do not simply publish a work because it is by a woman of color, but because it consciously examines the specific situations and issues that women of color face from a positive and original perspective," Smith told Ace Weekly.
Kitchen Table Press published many important works including two publications that have contributed significantly to black feminist literary criticism: Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, edited by Smith and This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Smith worked as editor, contributor, and publisher for the press until 1995. However, Kitchen Table Press was a labor of love and activism, not one of profit. Smith struggled to get by on teaching positions, fellowships, speaking engagements, and occasional publication fees.
Even though she wrote throughout her years with Kitchen Table, she was never able to give herself to it fully. The work she had produced had been published in small journals or by independent presses and had yet to reach a wide audience. The Truth That Never Hurts, was her response to this. Featuring selected essays from 1968 to 1998, Truth presented an overview of Smith's philosophies, struggles, truths, and accomplishments.
"Reading through Smith's book is having the constant double feeling that 'things have changed' while also remaining largely unchanged," a Lambda Book Report reviewer wrote. Smith's book pointed out that, even as black and homosexual men and women assume high positions of power in government and business, others are still beaten by strangers, shunned by neighbors, and harassed by police. Smith told the Boston Phoenix,"I think there are black people like Clarence Thomas, for instance, who actually thinks he has arrived, but all he had to do is be in his car in the wrong white neighborhood to be disabused of this notion."
Just as oppression has not changed in the years since Smith began her work as an activist and author, neither has Smith's message. She continued to call for awareness that racism, sexism, and homophobia do still exist, and that they affect all people. Despite still feeling the sting of racism herself--she was once run off the road by a white driver in Watertown, Massachusetts--and homophobia--a group of black youths set her car on fire because she was a lesbian--she remained committed to her work. She told Between the Lines, "Of course I get discouraged, but I don't get despondent. I know I'm part of a long, strong struggle, and that when I'm gone there will be others to carry on." With her powerful writing, her total commitment to crushing oppression in all its forms, and her exquisite faith, Smith has created a legacy that will not soon be forgotten. Those who come after her will find that the path she has carved out is full of hope and humanity.
Awards Outstanding Woman of Color Award, 1982; Women Educator's Curriculum Award, 1983; Stonewall Award for Service to the Lesbian and Gay Community, 1994; Radcliffe College, Bunting Institute, fellow, 1996-97; City University of New York, Humanities Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, Rockefeller fellow, 1998-99.
Education: Mount Holyoke College, B.A., 1969; University of Pittsburgh, M.A., 1971; University of Connecticut, A.B.D., 1981.
Career Educator. University of Massachusetts, instructor, 1976-81; Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, director and publisher, 1981-95; Barnard College, instructor, 1983; New York University, instructor, 1985; University of Minnesota, visiting professor, 1986; Hobart William Smith College, visiting professor, 1987; Mount Holyoke College, visiting professor, 1988; Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, scholar in residence, 1995-96; writer in residence at numerous colleges; freelance writer and lecturer.
Life's Work
Works
Selected Writings
· (Editor with Gloria T. Hull and Patricia Bell Scott) All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies, Feminist Press, 1982.
· (Editor) Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983.
· (Editor with Elly Bulkin and Minnie Bruce Pratt) Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism, Firebrand Books, 1984.
· The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender and Freedom, Rutgers University Press, 1998.
Further Reading
Books
· Smith, Barbara, ed. Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983.
· Smith, Barbara, The Truth That Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender and Freedom, Rutgers University Press, 1998.
Periodicals
· Ace Magazine (Kentucky), September 29, 1999.
· Between the Lines (Detroit, Michigan), February 2000.
· The Boston Phoenix, February 1999.
· Lambda Book Review, January 1999.
· Ms., January/February 1995.
— Candace LaBalle
Dr. Horace L. Griffin: Theologian, Minister, Educator
Horace L. Griffin teaches pastoral theology and is Director of Field Education at the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church. An ordained priest in the Episcopal Church, USA, Griffin also serves as an associate at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Glen Rock, N.J.
In 1990, Griffin began his professional career as a college professor at the historical black Fisk University while completing his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt.
At Fisk, he chaired the Department of Religious and Philosophical Studies from 1993-1996, becoming the first openly gay Department chair in the University's 127 year history. In 1992, he received the "Professor of the Year Award" for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts. During this period, he also co-chaired the Lesbian and Gay Coalition for Justice, a civil rights organization for gay citizens in Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
Griffin has a Bachelor of Arts in Religion degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga.; a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology in Boston, Mass.; and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University Graduate Department of Religion in Nashville, Tenn.
As a graduate student concentrating in gender and sexuality issues, he developed a slide presentation addressing black pastoral issues and the AIDS epidemic. Called "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray," the presentation became a teaching tool for black pastors at conferences and in black faith communities. As a result of his AIDS work, Griffin was invited to serve as a board member (1994-1996) of Nashville Cares, an AIDS agency for the Greater Nashville community.
In 1996, Griffin joined the religious studies faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia as Assistant Professor of African-American Religions. He taught courses on African-American religions, religion and human sexuality and religion and homosexuality. In 1999, Griffin resigned, in part, because the university president and administrators refused to include sexual orientation in the university's non-discrimination policy.
Later that year, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., where he taught courses such as Pastoral Care and Congregations, Sexuality and Pastoral Care, and Cross Cultural Pastoral Care. He also directed the Chicago Collegiate Seminarians Program, a Lilly funded grant for college students considering ordained ministry.
Griffin has published numerous articles and essays in peer journals and anthologies, including Revisioning Christian Ethical Discourse on Homosexuality: A Challenge for the 21st Century in the Journal of Pastoral Care, and Toward a True Black Liberation Theology: Affirming Homoeroticism, Black Lesbian and Gay Christians and their Relationships in Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic. His most recent work, Black Machoism and Its Discontents will be published in 2008 in Face to Face: A Discussion of Critical Issues in Pastoral Theology.
His first book, Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black Churches (Pilgrim Press 2006) was awarded the 2006 Lambda Literary Award in LGBT studies in the spring of 2007. This groundbreaking work also received a Stonewall Award nomination. The LGBT African American Roundtable convened a panel of scholars and clergy offering a critical examination of the book at its 2007 annual meeting. In its second printing, Their Own Receive Them Not is a useful text currently being studied and discussed in college and seminary classrooms and black faith communities.
In 1990, Griffin began his professional career as a college professor at the historical black Fisk University while completing his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt.
At Fisk, he chaired the Department of Religious and Philosophical Studies from 1993-1996, becoming the first openly gay Department chair in the University's 127 year history. In 1992, he received the "Professor of the Year Award" for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts. During this period, he also co-chaired the Lesbian and Gay Coalition for Justice, a civil rights organization for gay citizens in Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
Griffin has a Bachelor of Arts in Religion degree from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga.; a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology in Boston, Mass.; and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University Graduate Department of Religion in Nashville, Tenn.
As a graduate student concentrating in gender and sexuality issues, he developed a slide presentation addressing black pastoral issues and the AIDS epidemic. Called "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray," the presentation became a teaching tool for black pastors at conferences and in black faith communities. As a result of his AIDS work, Griffin was invited to serve as a board member (1994-1996) of Nashville Cares, an AIDS agency for the Greater Nashville community.
In 1996, Griffin joined the religious studies faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia as Assistant Professor of African-American Religions. He taught courses on African-American religions, religion and human sexuality and religion and homosexuality. In 1999, Griffin resigned, in part, because the university president and administrators refused to include sexual orientation in the university's non-discrimination policy.
Later that year, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., where he taught courses such as Pastoral Care and Congregations, Sexuality and Pastoral Care, and Cross Cultural Pastoral Care. He also directed the Chicago Collegiate Seminarians Program, a Lilly funded grant for college students considering ordained ministry.
Griffin has published numerous articles and essays in peer journals and anthologies, including Revisioning Christian Ethical Discourse on Homosexuality: A Challenge for the 21st Century in the Journal of Pastoral Care, and Toward a True Black Liberation Theology: Affirming Homoeroticism, Black Lesbian and Gay Christians and their Relationships in Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic. His most recent work, Black Machoism and Its Discontents will be published in 2008 in Face to Face: A Discussion of Critical Issues in Pastoral Theology.
His first book, Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians and Gays in Black Churches (Pilgrim Press 2006) was awarded the 2006 Lambda Literary Award in LGBT studies in the spring of 2007. This groundbreaking work also received a Stonewall Award nomination. The LGBT African American Roundtable convened a panel of scholars and clergy offering a critical examination of the book at its 2007 annual meeting. In its second printing, Their Own Receive Them Not is a useful text currently being studied and discussed in college and seminary classrooms and black faith communities.
Mark Noble: TV Producer, News Correspondent
Mark Noble (on left along with Earnest Winborne, Executive Producer of No More DownLow TV) is Senior Field Producer for Access Hollywood, the daily entertainment news magazine show, and guest correspondent for TV One Access, the monthly spin-off showcasing Black Hollywood as well as a correspondent for No More DownLow TV, an online TV company that covers news relevant to the black and people of color LGBTQ community.
During his tenure at Access Hollywood, Mark has covered several high-profile events, amongst them, the Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmys and Grammy Awards. Mark’s work at Access Hollywood earned him a NAACP Nomination for the News segment “Color of Hollywood.” Noble has also explored the visibility of LGBT People in Hollywood including his report on “Black and Gay in Hollywood.” Prior to joining Access Hollywood, Mark’s professional career took him through stops at WABC-TV in New York as well as “Inside Edition” and “Extra.”
Mark graduated from Castleton State College in Vermont, and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, OUT AT NBC, as well as a volunteer for the GLAAD Media Awards.
During his tenure at Access Hollywood, Mark has covered several high-profile events, amongst them, the Oscars, Golden Globes, Emmys and Grammy Awards. Mark’s work at Access Hollywood earned him a NAACP Nomination for the News segment “Color of Hollywood.” Noble has also explored the visibility of LGBT People in Hollywood including his report on “Black and Gay in Hollywood.” Prior to joining Access Hollywood, Mark’s professional career took him through stops at WABC-TV in New York as well as “Inside Edition” and “Extra.”
Mark graduated from Castleton State College in Vermont, and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, OUT AT NBC, as well as a volunteer for the GLAAD Media Awards.
Viktor Kearney: Blogger, Educator, Activist
Viktor Kerney is a writer, blogger and activist. He serves as the Co-chair of the Jordan Rustin Coalition, an organization devoted to the empowerment of the LGBT African American community in Greater Los Angeles. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and a Master’s degree in Business and Public Affairs.
Viktor is also the Assistant Director of Residential Education overseeing Student Development and Leadership at the University of Southern California. In his spare time, he runs the blog "Maybe It's Just Me..." (southern4life.blogspot.com) where he talks about life, politics, comic books, horror movies and the LGBT movement. Viktor currently resides in Los Angeles with his partner, Jamie.
Viktor is also the Assistant Director of Residential Education overseeing Student Development and Leadership at the University of Southern California. In his spare time, he runs the blog "Maybe It's Just Me..." (southern4life.blogspot.com) where he talks about life, politics, comic books, horror movies and the LGBT movement. Viktor currently resides in Los Angeles with his partner, Jamie.
Cheryl Clarke: Poet, Educator, Feminist Writer
Cheryl Clarke is the author of four books of poetry: Narratives: Poems In The Tradition Of Black Women (1982), Living As A Lesbian (1986), Humid Pitch (1989), and Experimental Love (1993). She served as a member of the editorial collective of Conditions, a feminist literary journal with an emphasis on writing by lesbians, from 1981-1990. Her book, After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement was published by Rutgers University Press in January of 2005. The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry, 1980-2005 was published by Carroll and Graf in 2006. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications since 1981, most recently in the summer 2010 issue of Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, The Book of Villanelles (Finch and Mali, eds., 2011) from Everyman Library, the Sinister Wisdom Special Issue on Adrienne Rich (Vol. 87, 2012), and “By Its Absence,” an article on literature and social justice in the forthcoming Handbook on Social Justice (Reisch, ed.) from Routledge (2013).
Since 2009, she has been the Dean of Students for the Livingston Campus. In this position, she is part of a team of deans of students on each campus who direct and assist undergraduates in gaining access to appropriate campus resources. Prior to this position, she was the founding Director of the Office of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian/Gay Concerns (1992-2005), which became the Office of Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities (2005) and had specific responsibilities for LGBTQ students, diversity awareness education, and accommodations for students with disabilities (1992-2002). Dean Clarke formerly coordinated the university-wide Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes (2006-2012) and the New Brunswick-wide Bias Prevention Education Committee (1992-2012). She has also taught courses on contemporary black women's writing, the black freedom movement, and queer black writers in the age of AIDS. She received her B.A. from Howard University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Rutgers. She is completing a manuscript of poetry entitled By My Precise Haircut. She is retiring in July 2013 from the Division of Student Affairs, where she has worked since 1980. She has been a member of the Rutgers community since 1969.
Since 2009, she has been the Dean of Students for the Livingston Campus. In this position, she is part of a team of deans of students on each campus who direct and assist undergraduates in gaining access to appropriate campus resources. Prior to this position, she was the founding Director of the Office of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian/Gay Concerns (1992-2005), which became the Office of Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities (2005) and had specific responsibilities for LGBTQ students, diversity awareness education, and accommodations for students with disabilities (1992-2002). Dean Clarke formerly coordinated the university-wide Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes (2006-2012) and the New Brunswick-wide Bias Prevention Education Committee (1992-2012). She has also taught courses on contemporary black women's writing, the black freedom movement, and queer black writers in the age of AIDS. She received her B.A. from Howard University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Rutgers. She is completing a manuscript of poetry entitled By My Precise Haircut. She is retiring in July 2013 from the Division of Student Affairs, where she has worked since 1980. She has been a member of the Rutgers community since 1969.
Jasmyne Cannick: Journalist, Social Critic, Activist, Organizer
Jasmyne Cannick is a critic and commentator based in Los Angeles who writes about the worlds of pop culture, race, class, and politics as played out in the African-American community. An award-winning journalist and blogger, Jasmyne was selected as one of ESSENCE Magazine's 25 Women Shaping the World and is a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s "News and Notes."
Jasmyne’s thought provoking commentaries have been featured in the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Daily News to name a few.
As a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, she’s a strong advocate for the Black press. Her columns have appeared in Black newspapers from coast to coast including the Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles Wave, L.A. Watts-Times, Our Weekly, the New York Amsterdam, Washington Afro, Chicago Defender , Sacramento Observer, Michigan Citizen, Oakland Post, and Atlanta Daily World.
Online, she's a regular contributor to the Electronic Urban Report, Blackcommentator.com, BlackAmericaWeb.com, The Daily Voice, and the BlackAgendaReport.com. Her writings have also been featured on AllHipHop.com, AOL’s BlackVoices.com, and Blackplanet.com.
On air, Jasmyne has appeared as a regular commentator on the American Urban Radio Network's award-winning talk show “The Bev Smith Show,” National Public Radio's “News & Notes,” and “Tell Me More,” Radio One's XM station The Power 169, and locally in L.A. on KJLH 102.3 FM's “The Front Page.”
As a trusted source by reporters, she's been quoted in the New York Post and Los Angeles Times and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, BET, Access Hollywood, NBC's Dateline, NPR's "Talk of the Nation," and more.
Jasmyne continues to be a popular speaker at colleges, universities, conferences, and events discussing culture, race, sexuality, and politics.
She co-founded the National Black Justice Coalition, the nation's Black gay civil rights group and continues to work on behalf on Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women in bringing awareness and insight into the racism that exists in the gay community and the homophobia in the Black.
In 2007, after a long battle with depression and insecurity, Jasmyne lost over 75 pounds and gained a whole lease and outlook on life. She currently leads a weekly hike for women of color in the Hollywood Hills in the hopes of inspiring more women to take control of their health and lives. 2008 will see the premiere of her first documentary film “The Incredibly True Adventures of Sistas of the Canyon.” A candid take on the ties that bind a group of African-American and Latina women in Los Angeles. Voices of mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends, and lesbian women spanning different generations, shapes, and sizes redefine unity and sisterhood by testing their physical and emotional boundaries that begin at the mountaintop.
Jasmyne’s thought provoking commentaries have been featured in the Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Daily News to name a few.
As a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, she’s a strong advocate for the Black press. Her columns have appeared in Black newspapers from coast to coast including the Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles Wave, L.A. Watts-Times, Our Weekly, the New York Amsterdam, Washington Afro, Chicago Defender , Sacramento Observer, Michigan Citizen, Oakland Post, and Atlanta Daily World.
Online, she's a regular contributor to the Electronic Urban Report, Blackcommentator.com, BlackAmericaWeb.com, The Daily Voice, and the BlackAgendaReport.com. Her writings have also been featured on AllHipHop.com, AOL’s BlackVoices.com, and Blackplanet.com.
On air, Jasmyne has appeared as a regular commentator on the American Urban Radio Network's award-winning talk show “The Bev Smith Show,” National Public Radio's “News & Notes,” and “Tell Me More,” Radio One's XM station The Power 169, and locally in L.A. on KJLH 102.3 FM's “The Front Page.”
As a trusted source by reporters, she's been quoted in the New York Post and Los Angeles Times and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, BET, Access Hollywood, NBC's Dateline, NPR's "Talk of the Nation," and more.
Jasmyne continues to be a popular speaker at colleges, universities, conferences, and events discussing culture, race, sexuality, and politics.
She co-founded the National Black Justice Coalition, the nation's Black gay civil rights group and continues to work on behalf on Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender men and women in bringing awareness and insight into the racism that exists in the gay community and the homophobia in the Black.
In 2007, after a long battle with depression and insecurity, Jasmyne lost over 75 pounds and gained a whole lease and outlook on life. She currently leads a weekly hike for women of color in the Hollywood Hills in the hopes of inspiring more women to take control of their health and lives. 2008 will see the premiere of her first documentary film “The Incredibly True Adventures of Sistas of the Canyon.” A candid take on the ties that bind a group of African-American and Latina women in Los Angeles. Voices of mothers, sisters, daughters, girlfriends, and lesbian women spanning different generations, shapes, and sizes redefine unity and sisterhood by testing their physical and emotional boundaries that begin at the mountaintop.
George Middleton, Louis Glapion and the Middleton/Glapion Home: One of the Oldest Historical Homes in Boston
During the time of the American Revolution, George Middleton (1735-1815) was recognized as a great fighter for liberty and independence, and a respected leader among the community of blacks living in Boston, Mass. Local politicians, neighbors and other contemporaries viewed him as a central figure in promoting and garnering freedoms while advancing America's cause. Throughout his life, Middleton possessed an unconventional style of leadership, a commanding voice and an encompassing presence that motivated the allegiance of those connected to him.
Middleton stands out in Boston and queer histories because of his relationship and the home he built and shared with Caribbean friend Louis Glapion. According to the History Project's "Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and Gay History from the Puritans to Playland," Middleton and Glapion maintained a peculiar relationship. As bachelors, they "built the oldest standing house on Beacon Hill," and "lived together until 1792, when Glapion married and the house they shared was divided in two." In 1781, Middleton married Elsey Marsh. According to the 1790 census record, Middleton was the head of household for a family of three. While there exists no concrete proof that Middleton and Glapion had a romantic relationship, it was common at the time for gays and lesbians to marry individuals of the opposite sex and have children, while maintaining separate same-sex relationships. At his time of death, Middleton left his possessions to his
“true friend Trimstom Babcock.”
Life was probably nothing short of interesting on Beacon Hill. Middleton and Glapion live in a home together. Glapion, who was from the French West Indies, ran a hair salon out of the house, and maintained the business throughout his years (his wife later ran the business from 1813-32 at the Middleton House). The home probably served as a central place for community organizing and other social gatherings for the early abolitionist movement. Lydia Maria Child, one of their white neighbors, recalls the house being "thronged with company." Middleton's home is a featured stop on the Boston African-American National Historic Site Tour.
For the most part, Middleton was well-liked and received by most of his neighbors. Child's father, who had a "natural compassion for the ignorant and the oppressed," always greeted Middleton. He enjoyed listening to Middleton play the violin each summer evening, and would often visit the Middleton home to see Middleton's "power in subduing mettlesome colts." Despite this recognition and respect from her father, Child stated that Middleton was "not a very good specimen of the colored man," and had questionable morals for being "passionate, intemperate and profane" -- perhaps attributes that would later advance Middleton's causes for independence.
Source: Kevin Trimell Jones is founder and lead curator for the Black LGBT Archivists Society of Philadelphia. He is a behavior researcher at University of Pennsylvania, has served as a trainer for the Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy and is a founder of the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan, and graduate degrees from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the University of Pennsylvania.
Middleton stands out in Boston and queer histories because of his relationship and the home he built and shared with Caribbean friend Louis Glapion. According to the History Project's "Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and Gay History from the Puritans to Playland," Middleton and Glapion maintained a peculiar relationship. As bachelors, they "built the oldest standing house on Beacon Hill," and "lived together until 1792, when Glapion married and the house they shared was divided in two." In 1781, Middleton married Elsey Marsh. According to the 1790 census record, Middleton was the head of household for a family of three. While there exists no concrete proof that Middleton and Glapion had a romantic relationship, it was common at the time for gays and lesbians to marry individuals of the opposite sex and have children, while maintaining separate same-sex relationships. At his time of death, Middleton left his possessions to his
“true friend Trimstom Babcock.”
Life was probably nothing short of interesting on Beacon Hill. Middleton and Glapion live in a home together. Glapion, who was from the French West Indies, ran a hair salon out of the house, and maintained the business throughout his years (his wife later ran the business from 1813-32 at the Middleton House). The home probably served as a central place for community organizing and other social gatherings for the early abolitionist movement. Lydia Maria Child, one of their white neighbors, recalls the house being "thronged with company." Middleton's home is a featured stop on the Boston African-American National Historic Site Tour.
For the most part, Middleton was well-liked and received by most of his neighbors. Child's father, who had a "natural compassion for the ignorant and the oppressed," always greeted Middleton. He enjoyed listening to Middleton play the violin each summer evening, and would often visit the Middleton home to see Middleton's "power in subduing mettlesome colts." Despite this recognition and respect from her father, Child stated that Middleton was "not a very good specimen of the colored man," and had questionable morals for being "passionate, intemperate and profane" -- perhaps attributes that would later advance Middleton's causes for independence.
Source: Kevin Trimell Jones is founder and lead curator for the Black LGBT Archivists Society of Philadelphia. He is a behavior researcher at University of Pennsylvania, has served as a trainer for the Gay Men's Health Leadership Academy and is a founder of the Black Gay Men's Leadership Council. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Michigan, and graduate degrees from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the University of Pennsylvania.
Ernest Hardy: Art and Cultural Critic, Essayist, Poet, Short Story Writer
Ernest Hardy writes about film and music from his home base of Los Angeles. His criticism has appeared in theLA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, Vibe, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Source, Millennium Film Journal, Flaunt, Request, Minneapolis City Pages, and the reference books 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die andClassic Material: The Hip-Hop Album Guide, among others. He’s written liner notes for Chuck D Presents: Louder Than a Bomb, the box-set Say It Loud: A Celebration of Black Music in America, Curtis Mayfield: Gospel; the box-setSuperstars of Seventies Soul; and the Luther Vandross box-set, Love, Luther; he is the winner of the 2006 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for excellence, honoring his liner notes for the Chet Baker CD, Career 1952-1988. A Sundance Fellow and a member of LAFCA (Los Angeles Film Critics Association), he’s sat as a juror for the Sundance Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival and Los Angeles Outfest. He’s also co-programmed the FUSION Film Festival in Los Angeles. Blood Beats: Vol. 1, Hardy’s first collection of film and music criticism, won a 2007 PEN/Beyond Margins Award. Blood Beats: Vol. 2, published February 2008, is his second volume of film and music criticism.
Ernest Hardy is available for cultural criticism on topics ranging from queer sexualities in hip-hop (ex: a feminist-filtered read on the layers and meaning of Lil' Kim; gay hip-hop porn) to the work of visual artist Mark Bradford; from the political currents of House music and culture to the racial and sexual politics of contemporary mainstream and indie film. He is also available to read as a poet and short story author.
Ernest Hardy is available for cultural criticism on topics ranging from queer sexualities in hip-hop (ex: a feminist-filtered read on the layers and meaning of Lil' Kim; gay hip-hop porn) to the work of visual artist Mark Bradford; from the political currents of House music and culture to the racial and sexual politics of contemporary mainstream and indie film. He is also available to read as a poet and short story author.
Pat Parker: Poet, Essayist, Educator
Southern born and educated, Pat Parker (1944 – June 19, 1989) began her life in Houston, Texas, on January 20, 1944, as the youngest of four daughters in a Black working class family. Urged by her father to take "the freedom train of education," Parker later emigrated to Oakland, California, in the early 1970s to pursue work, writing and opportunities for activism. Working from 1978 to 1987 as medical coordinator at the Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center, which grew from one clinic to six sites during her tenure, Parker also participated in political activism ranging from early involvement with the Black Panther Party and Black Women's Revolutionary Council to formation of the Women's Press Collective to wide-ranging activism in gay and lesbian organizations and positions of national leadership regarding women's health issues, especially concerning domestic and sexual violence.
From all these stages of her life, Parker developed a narrative poetry, often taking on a call and response form recognizable in black and working class oral traditions, and often speaking of generations of women and men engaged in human rights battles. Parker's poetry generally escapes didacticism because of her deft use of humor, insistence on frank language, presentations of events and images long silent, and sharp analysis of injustices. The goal, Parker said in an interview with Kate Rushin, is to "try to put the poetry in the language that we speak, to use that language, take those simple works and make out of them something that is moving, that is powerful, that is there. "
Parker gave her first public reading of her poetry in 1963 while married to playwright Ed Bullins. The challenge of "competing in a male poetry scene" as the wife of a writer, Parker notes, helped develop not only her voice but also her willingness to write about contemporary issues -- about civil rights and Vietnam as well as an emerging African-American lesbian feminist perspective on love and lust. Reading before women's groups beginning in 1968 brought Parker notice and satisfaction, especially as she joined Judy Grahn, a white working class Bay Area poet, to read lesbian poetry in public, arranging readings not only at women's bookstores, but also intermixing poetry with musical performances at local women's bars, coffeehouses and festivals.
"It was like pioneering," Parker said to Rushin. "We'd go into these places and stand up to read poems. We were talking to women about women, and, at the same time, letting women know that the experiences they were having we shared by other people . . . I was being gay, and it made absolute sense to me that that was what I had to write about. " Critics like Barbara Smith and Cheryl Clarke agree that Parker's poems were designed to be spoken, designed to confront both black and women's communities with, as Clarke notes, "the precariousness of being non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual in a racist, misogynist, homophobic, imperial culture. "
Parker's five collections of poetry take their central images and process of self-creation as well as political analysis from autobiographical moments in Parker's life and from publicized incidents or community discussions related to race, class, gender, sexuality. The Firebrand Books' edition of Movement in Black -- with its title poem and a collection of poems from three earlier Parker collections -- is the only work by Parker that remains consistently in print. A well-crafted compilation, Movement in Black reflects key patterns in Parker's work: "It is the moment of her creative impulse to communicate: the love, the anger, the fear, that powerful sense of justice -- and injustice -- the cynicism, the humor that she gives us," Cheryl Clarke notes in a review of this collection. Of the work overall, Clarke continues, "Her themes are circular and cumulative. The earlier poems. . .are monothematic, short, sharp; the later poems. . .are multi-thematic, reaching back to older themes to integrate them into newer, expanded concepts, completing the circle and sharply demarcating the black lesbian poet's space in the hermetic world of Afro-American letters. "
The "Goat Child" of Child of Myself, Parker's first collection, chafes at the confinement and conformity she's expected to learn in marriage, and then tentatively comes out as a lesbian via several love poems to women. Often a bold speaker, the poet opens Pit Stop, a 1974 publication, with the line "My lover is a woman" in a poem that addresses interracial relationships. She also offers readers the sweet "I Kumquat You" and strident "Bitch! / I want to scream" in love poems that line up before the collection's long title poem addressing alcoholism: "a pit is a coward's suicide / a hearty drink to anything. " Pit Stop is also infused with dreams, "not [just] Martin's" or Malcolm's or those of political allies, but "a simple dream" that juxtaposes the dreams of human/racial equality with gay liberation: "In my dream - / I can walk the streets / holding hands with my lover" without fear of retaliation or disdain from erstwhile allies.
By 1978, Parker had gained a larger audience for her poetry. Recorded anthologies in collaboation with Judy Grahn brought the sound of Parker's poetry to women across the U.S. , and an ever-growing feminist press brought collections like Womanslaughter into feminist bookstores and women's studies classrooms across the country. This collection, like the later Jonestown and Other Madness, places family legacies, humorous skepticism, and political exposition at the center of what Grahn calls "continuing Black tradition of radical poetry," creating a body of work that reveals, as Clarke explains, "a black lesbian-feminist perspective of love between women and the circumstances that prevent our intimacy and liberation. " All of this -- from humor to liberation -- is apparent in the often circulated poems "For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend" and "For The Straight Folks Who Don't Mind Gays But Wish They Weren't So BLAT
From all these stages of her life, Parker developed a narrative poetry, often taking on a call and response form recognizable in black and working class oral traditions, and often speaking of generations of women and men engaged in human rights battles. Parker's poetry generally escapes didacticism because of her deft use of humor, insistence on frank language, presentations of events and images long silent, and sharp analysis of injustices. The goal, Parker said in an interview with Kate Rushin, is to "try to put the poetry in the language that we speak, to use that language, take those simple works and make out of them something that is moving, that is powerful, that is there. "
Parker gave her first public reading of her poetry in 1963 while married to playwright Ed Bullins. The challenge of "competing in a male poetry scene" as the wife of a writer, Parker notes, helped develop not only her voice but also her willingness to write about contemporary issues -- about civil rights and Vietnam as well as an emerging African-American lesbian feminist perspective on love and lust. Reading before women's groups beginning in 1968 brought Parker notice and satisfaction, especially as she joined Judy Grahn, a white working class Bay Area poet, to read lesbian poetry in public, arranging readings not only at women's bookstores, but also intermixing poetry with musical performances at local women's bars, coffeehouses and festivals.
"It was like pioneering," Parker said to Rushin. "We'd go into these places and stand up to read poems. We were talking to women about women, and, at the same time, letting women know that the experiences they were having we shared by other people . . . I was being gay, and it made absolute sense to me that that was what I had to write about. " Critics like Barbara Smith and Cheryl Clarke agree that Parker's poems were designed to be spoken, designed to confront both black and women's communities with, as Clarke notes, "the precariousness of being non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual in a racist, misogynist, homophobic, imperial culture. "
Parker's five collections of poetry take their central images and process of self-creation as well as political analysis from autobiographical moments in Parker's life and from publicized incidents or community discussions related to race, class, gender, sexuality. The Firebrand Books' edition of Movement in Black -- with its title poem and a collection of poems from three earlier Parker collections -- is the only work by Parker that remains consistently in print. A well-crafted compilation, Movement in Black reflects key patterns in Parker's work: "It is the moment of her creative impulse to communicate: the love, the anger, the fear, that powerful sense of justice -- and injustice -- the cynicism, the humor that she gives us," Cheryl Clarke notes in a review of this collection. Of the work overall, Clarke continues, "Her themes are circular and cumulative. The earlier poems. . .are monothematic, short, sharp; the later poems. . .are multi-thematic, reaching back to older themes to integrate them into newer, expanded concepts, completing the circle and sharply demarcating the black lesbian poet's space in the hermetic world of Afro-American letters. "
The "Goat Child" of Child of Myself, Parker's first collection, chafes at the confinement and conformity she's expected to learn in marriage, and then tentatively comes out as a lesbian via several love poems to women. Often a bold speaker, the poet opens Pit Stop, a 1974 publication, with the line "My lover is a woman" in a poem that addresses interracial relationships. She also offers readers the sweet "I Kumquat You" and strident "Bitch! / I want to scream" in love poems that line up before the collection's long title poem addressing alcoholism: "a pit is a coward's suicide / a hearty drink to anything. " Pit Stop is also infused with dreams, "not [just] Martin's" or Malcolm's or those of political allies, but "a simple dream" that juxtaposes the dreams of human/racial equality with gay liberation: "In my dream - / I can walk the streets / holding hands with my lover" without fear of retaliation or disdain from erstwhile allies.
By 1978, Parker had gained a larger audience for her poetry. Recorded anthologies in collaboation with Judy Grahn brought the sound of Parker's poetry to women across the U.S. , and an ever-growing feminist press brought collections like Womanslaughter into feminist bookstores and women's studies classrooms across the country. This collection, like the later Jonestown and Other Madness, places family legacies, humorous skepticism, and political exposition at the center of what Grahn calls "continuing Black tradition of radical poetry," creating a body of work that reveals, as Clarke explains, "a black lesbian-feminist perspective of love between women and the circumstances that prevent our intimacy and liberation. " All of this -- from humor to liberation -- is apparent in the often circulated poems "For the white person who wants to know how to be my friend" and "For The Straight Folks Who Don't Mind Gays But Wish They Weren't So BLAT