Graphic Design
Dealing with Minority Queer Issues?
So you say that "real" Black people aren't gay? Well,
according to the BlackList, a website listing of homosexual Black men and women,
you are wrong abut that. So, look and learn --there may be a few names that you recognize!
Alvin Ailey (1931-1989) Choreographer and founder of the world famous Alvin Ailey dance
troupe.
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), author of "A Raisin in the Sun" and the first
Black woman to have a play produced on Broadway.
Alice Walker (1944), author of "The Color Purple," "In Search of Our
Mother's Gardens," "The Temple of My Familiar" and "Possessing the
Secret of Joy," among others. In the 1996 February edition of Essence, Walker was
quoted as saying, "I am bisexual. I just live my life. I don't think I have to phone
in and tell everybody."
Josephine Baker (1906-1975) Entertainer who rose to fame in the Folies Bergere in Paris,
she was known to have many same-sex relationships.
Langston Hughes (1902-1967), a writer of poems, songs, novels, plays, biographies,
histories and essays, including "The Dream Keeper," "Tambourines to
Glory" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."
Reginald VelJohnson (1952) plays Carl Winslow, the full-figured father on ABC's
"Family Matters."
James Baldwin (1924-1987) Writer of such classics as "Giovanni's Room" and
"Go Tell It On the Mountain." He was also an active civil rights activist.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992) wrote many works, including "The Cancer Journals," and
"Sister Outsider." In "I Am Your Sister," she wrote: "When you
read the words of Langston Hughes, you are reading the words of a Black Gay man. When you
read the words of Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Angelina Weld Grimke, poets of the Harlem
Renaissance, you are reading the words of Black Lesbians. When you listen to the life
affirming voices of Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, you are hearing Black Lesbian women. When
you see the plays and read the words of Lorraine Hansberry, you are reading the words of a
woman who loved women deeply."