Doug Cooper-Spencer: The View From Here

The Visitation, 1964 (A True Story of Spiritual Awakening)

2012-01-11T07:52:00.000-08:00

He asked me if I knew Oscar. I told him no. He said Oscar was my uncle and that he had just entered the room.
I thought about it, aware of the room we were in, small and crowded with tattered books and old newspapers. The furniture on which we sat had seen its day. Bishop Nickerson sat behind his desk, a large wooden one. There was so much on his desk, but the only thing that stood out to me was a large book and a tin of smoking tobacco.
“You sure?” Bishop Nickerson asked.
Nodding my head I told him, “Yes sir. To the best of my knowledge.”
“Well he just entered the room and he’s telling me he’s your uncle.”
I moved around a bit in the lumpy old chair I was sitting in, feeling my hands move across the cracked leather, and I glanced at the door that had been closed, then to the corner behind the bishop. Nothing.
“Okay,” Bishop Nickerson said. Then he turned a bit to his right and spoke to the invisible guest, “Guess you got the wrong place Oscar.” The bishop said this with a laugh and I laughed too, more out of relief. But I was there for a reason and I wanted results.

After all, hadn’t I been brought there by my father because of a drawing I had shown him and the story behind the drawing? It was a sketch of a dream I had been having off and on for almost ten years since 1964. A dream in which I awoke in my bedroom with a stranger sitting across the room from me. I recalled looking for my older brother who shared the bed with me, but he wasn’t there, just me and the stranger, a boy, sitting in a high back wooden chair staring out the window with his back to me. In the dream I can recall getting out of bed and walking to the boy who, by his stature, appeared to be my age at the time.

As I walked up to him I saw what held his attention. Outside the window were brilliant lights of orange and yellow that danced against the window and filled the sky. I stood a bit behind the boy and stared at the lights in awe. I remember that neither I, nor the boy had been frightened by the display of lights because there was no sense of danger just fascination. It was as if the lights were somehow connected to our being there. But to the boy it seemed as if it was more. He sat silently, his feet dangling from the chair, looking ahead transfixed by the lights as if the lights were relating to him, as if there was something silent going on between them.

I wanted to see who the boy was, so I leaned around to look at his face and suddenly I was snapped back to only seeing his profile. I tried again and was back to my original position. No matter how hard I tried to look at the front of the boy’s face I would find myself back to only seeing his profile. It was there the dream ended. The dream had haunted me for years recurring once or twice a year from the time I was a child to becoming a young man. Now I was nineteen years old and needed some answers.

I had heard about Bishop Nickerson from my family and the wondrous things he could do, but I doubted them. The only wondrous thing I had known him to do was to wean my father off booze, something none of us thought anyone could do. To me that was the only wondrous thing about this man.

There had been times when I had been invited to meet him, but me being a young college student, a rational thinker, I had always turned the invitations down. But that Saturday afternoon, the day after having another glimpse of the dream I went to my father with the drawing I had made. My father felt it was time for me to meet the bishop. So there we were, the bishop and me, sitting in the small crowded office that smelled of warmth, leather and old books.

“So tell me how things are going with school,” the bishop asked. He asked the question partly out of interest with my life, but also to fill time until a revelation came.
I sat back and looked at him. He was a short man, maybe five-two, with a complexion of the color of coal, a fleece of silver woolen hair cut close to his head and shocking crystal blue eyes. “School’s alright, I guess.”
“You guess?” He laughed and shifted himself on the old seat pillows he sat on to raise him to his desk. “You’d better be sure!” he remarked. “College is a good thing. We need more of our people in college.”
“Yessir,” I remarked. I could hear my father out in the sanctuary of the small church cleaning and setting up chairs for service the next day.

We talked a bit more about what I had been doing with my life besides school. I told him only things I wanted him to know because I was beginning to learn to be cautious about the fact that I liked men. I wouldn’t tell him that, of course.
After a while of talking the bishop stopped and looked across the room. “You sure you don’t know an Oscar? He’s still standing here and he insists he’s your uncle.”
This time I thought more about it. Had either of my parents ever mentioned an Oscar in their stories? I couldn’t remember that name ever being mentioned.
“Call your father in here,” Bishop Nickerson said.
I called my father who came into the office. The bishop asked him the question and my father thought and rubbed his chin. “Can’t say I do.”
“What about Sister Cooper? She didn’t have a brother named Oscar?”
“No. Nope,” my father said, shaking his head.
“Well you really got the wrong office,” Bishop said to the invisible man to his right. We all had a laugh and my father went back out into the church.

A few minutes later, as Bishop Nickerson and I continued talking, my father tore through the door. “Oscar!” He stood with a bright face and his eyes were full of tears. “I forgot about Oscar! He was my older sister’s husband. He died--”
Bishop Nickerson held up his hand. “In 1932.”
“Yeah,” my father said, suddenly remembering. “He always said I was his favorite brother-in-law. My sister was much older than me, so Oscar was like a father to me. My daddy died when I was real young, so I can’t recall too much about him. But then my sister married Oscar and he became like a father to me.”

The bishop nodded with a smile. “Oscar’s laughing. He remembers that too.”
My father went on. “I remember me and him used to sit on the back porch; him in his favorite rockin’ chair with me at his feet every mornin’ and watch the sun rise and we would just talk.” My father continued with the memories coming back. “And he always plowed the field with…”
“His left suspender unbuckled,” the bishop and my father said together.
“That’s Oscar,” my father said. He went on to tell how Oscar had contracted cancer, and how he, my father would sit with him on the back porch knowing that Oscar would be leaving him soon. “And one morning, while was sittin’ on the porch watchin’ the sun rise Oscar’s hand slowly dropped beside his rockin’ chair. I got up and looked at him, and then I went in the house and woke everybody up to tell’em Oscar was gone.”
“Thanks Brother Cooper,” Bishop Nickerson said. “That’s all we need now.”

I watched my father leave the office. I was stunned by the revelation. It was all there: morning, the wooden chair like Oscar’s rocking chair, the boy watching lights almost the color of a sunrise and a ten year old boy (my father would have been ten in 1932). I looked at the door my father had just closed, my mouth open, and then I looked back at the bishop.
“Now he’s talking to me,” Bishop Nickerson said as he listened to Oscar. “He said what happened to you that morning wasn’t a dream. That he came into your room to visit you.”
“But why?”
“He says you remind him so much of your father that he just wanted to talk with you.”

The bishop commenced to tell me what happened that morning. Oscar had come into my room and woke me. He said Oscar didn’t wake the physical self, but he woke my spiritual self so the two of us could spend some time together. I asked what Oscar had shown me, and the bishop said things that I shouldn’t remember. It was why I can only remember flashing lights instead of what he showed me outside the window. And in answering why the boy in the chair, who was obviously me, would never let me see his face, the bishop said whenever a person sees someone in a dream but can’t see his or her face then the person is the dreamer. I was the boy in the chair.

Time went by as the bishop told me things that Oscar was telling him. Things about me, and how I should not live in fear and that I would travel many places and meet many people, and to trust and have faith because things would be all right.
Then with a twinkle in his eyes, Bishop Nickerson listened more to Oscar, and then, turned to me. “Oh, and Oscar says that thing you’re struggling with? You’ll be okay.”

I left the bishop’s office that day stunned but feeling so happy that all I had doubted had been replaced with hope and most of all, with faith. As my father and I drove home he didn’t ask me anything. We simply talked about life.
(A true story, by Doug Cooper Spencer... Photo by Gregory Cooper Spencer)

Short Story: 'A Question of Commitment' (What happens to love when life goes wrong?)

2012-01-11T07:44:00.000-08:00

They had been standing on the platform waiting for a train the night they first met. The fragrance of the man’s cologne caught Cliff’s attention and he asked the man about it. The man’s name was Tye and he said the fragrance was called Vetiver.
The two of them continued to talk that night as they waited for the train and Cliff was drawn to Tye’s polite manner. Finally the train arrived and they got on as they continued their conversation. It was small talk: the weather, the city, then back to Vetiver. Cliff asked where he could find the cologne and Tye told him it was an oil that he got from his barber.

The train arrived at Tye’s stop. “This is my stop,” Tye said. He and Cliff shook hands. “I’ll see you around.”

The following week Cliff made it his business to be on the same platform at the same time. He looked around to see if he could find Tye, but he had no luck. For the next two nights he came to the platform but still he didn’t see him.

It wasn’t until later that spring, as he came down to catch a train that Cliff saw Tye again. Tye told Cliff he had been hoping to see him because he had purchased a bottle of the oil just for him. But he said now he didn’t have the oil with him.
“Maybe tomorrow? We can meet up someplace.”

“Damn. Man, I opened it and started using it for myself,” Tye said. “But look. I’m going for a haircut Saturday. If you trust my barber, we can go together and I’ll buy you a bottle.”
That Saturday they met up at the barbershop and then went out to lunch. And that was how they met seventeen and a half years ago.

Now Cliff raised his head as he remembered that night. The fragrance from the garden came through the back window. Tye had planted the garden near the window just for him, just so Cliff would always remember the fragrance and that night.
Mrs. Dunphy came into the room. “Are you hungry?”
Cliff took another deep breath, and told her he was.
“Let’s change your bag first and clean you up,” she said as she moved his wheelchair from the window.
Mrs. Dunphy washed his body. He felt the washcloth move across his face, the water cool on his skin…

She was texting! It was raining hard and she was texting! It was the last thing he saw before the blackness. Then the rain woke him. He could feel it pouring onto his face as he lay in the street in front of the car. He saw the crowd around him and he heard the cries of the woman who had hit him. Then another woman leaned over him with her umbrella to shield him from the rain. He wanted to say ‘thank you’ but he couldn’t speak. He lay there hearing the voices from the crowd, the roar of the rain against the woman’s umbrella and the cry of the woman who had hit him. And now, it was moments like this, having Tye or Mrs. Dunphy, or a family member, or friends do small things like wipe his face that reminded him just how transient freedom can be. Once-simple acts like removing a piece of lint from his eyebrow, or scratching his nose were now dependent upon others.

The months in the hospital were trying, but they would have been insufferable if Tye hadn’t been there. He visited Cliff everyday after he got off from work. He would bring things from home: clean clothes and toiletries; and he would update the audio books. Then they would sit and talk, watch T.V. in his room until Cliff would tell him to go home and get some rest. Some nights Tye would sleep over because he said he didn’t want to sleep alone in their bed. The hospital staff understood and so did Cliff’s family. It’s why they agreed that when Cliff was able to leave he should go home with the man who shared his life and to their home.

But at home Cliff felt even more helpless than when he was at the hospital. At home he lay in bed or sat in his chair unable to do anything more than watch Tye work around the house. Conversation to keep Tye company was about all he could do. Sometimes at night, after Tye had put him to bed and had fallen asleep, Cliff would cry but he had learned to cry inside because he didn't want to wake Tye. He knew if Tye awoke that Tye would also feel sad and he would have to wipe the snot from Cliff’s nose and the tears from his face. It was something Cliff didn’t want.
Cliff and Mrs. Dunphy watched TV after they finished dinner.

It was Tye’s late night. He usually had two a week. Sometimes three.
“Ruthie’ll be taking care of you while I’m on vacation,” Mrs. Dunphy said.
“That’s good. I like her.”
“Yeah. She’s good.”
“You and Tony got everything ready for your trip?”
“Pretty much.” Mrs. Dunphy flipped through a magazine and looked at the TV every few minutes.
“London is nice,” Cliff said.
“Hm. Rains a bit too much for me, but he has family there.” She continued reading the magazine. They didn’t talk much about vacations since the one the four of them took two years before.

Two years ago Mrs. Dunphy and her husband, Tony invited them down to Antigua while Mrs. Dunphy checked on the family house her grandmother had left.
It was Cliff and Tye's first vacation since the accident. Tye and Mrs. Dunphy had made arrangements for Cliff's comfort and the four of them headed down to the Caribbean.

Cliff had sat on the balcony of the hotel with Tye that first night there. They had asked for a hammock to be set up and the two of them swayed together, relaxing under a large white moon that sat above the sea. They talked and ate and sipped on drinks until they drifted off to sleep.

The next day they woke to a bright warm morning. Tye got them ready and soon they were on a boat floating in the warm waters just off the shore of St. John.
Tye and Tony went snorkeling while Cliff and Mrs. Dunphy watched. There were several people in the water being watched over by one of the instructors from the boat who darted in and out of the waves as if he had been born in the sea itself. He moved among the tourists making sure they were okay. He chatted and played with the tourists as he swam among them. The naps on his head caught drops of water forming a small crown of jewels that set off his dark complexion. He swam over to where Tony and Tye were and the three of them talked a bit before laughing and diving underwater. Suddenly the instructor dunked beneath the waters once again, and this time he came up with a starfish in his hand. He swam over to Tye and presented it to him. Tye shook his head and thanked him, but the man urged him on, showing him how harmless it was to hold it. Finally Tye took it from him and admired it and the two of them laughed at Tye's amazement.

"Get a shot of that," Cliff said. "The look on Tye's face is priceless."
Mrs. Dunphy agreed and took the shot. "Priceless," she seconded.
Later that afternoon Tony and Mrs. Dunphy dropped them back off at the hotel and made plans to meet for dinner. She told them what time they would pick them up and they drove off, leaving Cliff and Tye to take a nap.

During the afternoon Cliff awoke and he turned his head to watch Tye sleeping beside him with his arm across Cliff’s waist. He slept soundly with his face near Cliff’s, so close that Cliff could smell the sweetness of cane and coconut on his breath. Quietly he leaned in and kissed Tye on the forehead.

The bar was crowded that evening. Cliff and Tye sat at a table and watched Mrs. Dunphy and Tony with the others on the dance floor. Tye leaned against Cliff’s chair and drummed his fingers to the rhythm of the music.
“Why don’t you get out there?”
“Nah, I’m cool,” Tye said.
“C’mon, you know how you love to dance.”
“Man, just hush. I’m doing fine right here.” He raised a drink to Cliff’s mouth. “I’m just here to chill with my baby.”

The next day Tony and Mrs. Dunphy took them to see her grandmother’s house. The house was small and brightly colored and sat along a shaded side street.
“And here is where I spent a lot of my summers,” Mrs. Dunphy said.
“Really nice,” Tye said.
“Looks comfortable, like a place I wouldn’t mind having, Babe,” Cliff said to Tye who nodded in agreement.
“Her brother’s returning today,” Tony said. “He’s been watching the place.”
“He’s been doing a good job,” Tye said.
The sounds of women talking in front of the small houses and the children playing along the street rose in the warm shade.
“Frankly, I think he could be doing a better job,” Mrs. Dunphy replied. They got out of the van and went inside where Mrs. Dunphy showed them around. The rooms were small and cool, resting before the sun crossed over the roof of the house to warm them.
Mrs. Dunphy said her brother paid a cleaning woman to come in once a week. She said if she had stayed on the island she would come in once a week herself to clean the house even if she had chosen not to live in it.
After they left the house Mrs. Dunphy and her husband took them on a tour of the city. The congestion of traffic caused the van to trudge slowly through the streets.
“It’s always like this,” Tony said as he rested on the steering wheel. They were at a stoplight. “But then you expect it. It’s all about the tourists.”
Their final stop was to be St. John’s Cathedral, but before going there they needed lunch. Tony found a parking space and he and Tye got out and went into a store while Cliff and Mrs. Dunphy waited in the van.

When Tye and Tony came out of the store they were talking with another man. Mrs. Dunphy saw him first and her stare pulled Cliff ‘s attention. It was the lifeguard from the boat. Cliff watched them as they stood in front of the store and talked. Finally, Tye waved good-bye as he and Tony came back to the van.
“That was the guy from the boat,” Tye said.
“I see,” Mrs. Dunphy replied.
Cliff didn’t say anything. He silently watched the radiance in Tye’s face as Tye looked once more at the man.

Tony glanced at his wife in the mirror and pulled off.
In all they encountered the man two more times that week. It might have been a third if Mrs. Dunphy hadn’t gone up to the man on the beach and spoken to him. She had decided he was probably nothing more than someone out to hustle tourists and she wasn’t having it.

Once they were home, life settled as usual: Tye put all of his attention on Cliff; feeding him, changing his clothes and adjusting him so he sat upright in his chair. But now Cliff watched Tye as he never had. The glow of something anticipated was gone from Tye replaced by duty and commitment. This is what Cliff saw in him.
One night, as he lay in bed, he watched as Tye undressed and lower himself onto the bed. He heard an exhausted breath come from him as Tye finally relaxed after a long day. Tye moved close to Cliff and cuddled him.
“Babe.” Cliff spoke softly.
“Hm?”
“I’m ready to make some changes.”
“Let’s not have that conversation again.” Tye spoke, mumbling against Cliff’s face.
“Not that one. I know you don’t want me in a nursing home.”
“What is it, then?”
“You need to start taking more time out for yourself.” He listened for Tye’s response, but there was none. “I want you to start going out more like you used to.”
Tye sighed. “No.”
“I’ll be okay. We can see if Mrs. Dunphy would be willing to spend a little more time with me. And if not, we can get someone part-time, you know, for when you need to go out.”
“A babysitter,” Tye mumbled as he shook his head. “Cliff, you don’t need anyone to watch over you. Only when I’m at work. And Mrs. Dunphy is already doing that.”
“But you need more,” Cliff said. “You know you do, and so do I. And I’m pretty sure Mrs. Dunphy sees that. You need to go out and enjoy yourself.”
Tye rolled over on his back and stared at the ceiling in silence.
“I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be around,” Cliff started.
“Stop it,” Tye said.
“We need to be honest. It might one year--”
“Or twenty,” Tye interjected.
“Or twenty,” Cliff agreed. “And that’s why you need to take care of yourself as well. You need to live life.” Cliff turned his head to him. “You know you do. And I want that for you, too. Tye, I want you to be happy.”
“Man, you always say that. Damn. How happy do you want me to be? I am happy. I mean… how happy am I supposed to be?”
“Like when you were with the guy in Antigua.”
“What?”
“I saw how you were whenever you were near him.”
“C’mon, we can’t afford you getting on some self-pitying trip. Go to sleep. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes I do… And you do, too. Tye, I understand. I’ve been thinking about it ever since we’ve been back and I look at you. The way you looked when you were with him was the way you used to look when we were out together.”
“I’m going to sleep,” Tye said. “If you need me to get you something to help you sleep, cool. If not, just lie there and be quiet.” Tye turned his back to him and went to sleep.

The next morning they were in the kitchen. Tye prepared Cliff’s medicines for the day. The sunlight coming through the window caught the line of small bottles on the counter. The radio that sat nearby played the morning news as Tye moved along the row of meds, removing tops off the bottles and taking out the pills before covering the bottles once again, creating a snapping sound with each effort. He did it all in silence as if something was on his mind.

“I want you to start seeing other people.” Cliff spoke up, his voice moving over the news anchor’s voice on the radio. He saw Tye slow a bit in what he was doing. “I thought about it and I just want you to know I’m fine with it. Promise me though,” he continued. “Promise me you won’t stop loving me.”
Tye leaned forward on the counter, his back still to his husband, and Cliff could see his shoulders heave as he began to cry. Tye turned around. “I won’t ever do that.” Then he pulled up a chair and sat in front of Cliff and laid his head in Cliff’s lap and cried.

It was difficult the first time it happened. Tye had told him he would be home late that night. He looked at Cliff to make his point. Cliff understood.
The rest of that day Cliff listened to Mrs. Dunphy and watched her move around the house. He watched TV and listened to the stereo, but his thoughts kept going to Tye and what was about to happen. He didn’t want to imagine Tye naked with another man, so every time that image came to his head he moved it aside. Yet his thoughts would always come back to Tye and the other man. He wondered who the man was. What was his name and how did he look? Was he of average height and build, like he, himself, once was? He had gotten smaller in the frame since he’d taken to the wheelchair. Was the man light skinned or dark skinned or just average brown skinned like himself? Tye never seemed to have too much of a preference when it came to that.

All he knew was Tye had told him he had met a friend, and that was all. No name, nothing. Not even what the man did for a living or where he lived. But Cliff understood. He really didn’t want to know. He wanted to know as little about the man as possible.

That first night after he came home and they had gone to bed Tye held onto Cliff, but not like he usually did; that was cuddling. But that night he clung to him, tight.
There had been no rules discussed because the rules had been set by love and respect so nothing was ever said about the man since Tye had announced him as a friend, and every late night Tye came home at the same time.

One of the shows on TV had gone off and Mrs. Dunphy asked what he would like to see next. She understood the late nights and did all she could to ease Cliff’s mind.
“Doesn’t matter,” he answered.

Around ten o’clock, Mrs. Dunphy looked at her watch. “We’d better start getting you ready for bed,” she said. It was almost time for Tye to come in; he always made sure he was home by ten, and she knew he would rather have Cliff prepared for bed so they could relax before falling off to sleep.

When Tye came home he sat for a bit and talked with Cliff and Mrs. Dunphy before her husband came to pick her up. They had a drink together (although Tye had had one or two already) and Tye walked Mrs. Dunphy out to the car, stood for a minute and chatted with Tony and came back inside.

“They really want us to go to London with them,” he said. “What do you think?”
“Sounds good to me. You know I can use some travel time,” Cliff said as Tye lifted him from his chair and laid him in bed.
“Yep.”
“Maybe we can take a train over to Paris.”
“You know how to speak French?” Tye asked as he walked to his side of the bed and began to undress.
“Yeah. Well, a little.”
“I guess that should be enough to get by,” Tye said as he climbed in bed. “Then we should start planning our trip, huh?”
“Yeah.”
Tye cuddled Cliff and stroked his hair. “It’s time for you to get a haircut,” he said sleepily.
“Yeah, I know. And we need some more Vetiver.”
“More Vetiver,” Tye agreed.

(2011, by Doug Cooper Spencer)

Now on Nook, Kindle and in All Bookstores. Read chapters at www.Dougcooperspencer.Com

2011-10-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

Read chapters at www.Dougcooperspencer.Com

A gay man returns home to confront the minister and the ex-lover who destroyed his life. (This Place of Men. Book 1 in series)

A married man comes to terms with his sexuality, forcing him to come out of the closet. (People Like Us. Book 2 in series)

A gay father fights to save the son he never knew from a life in the streets and the darkness that haunts him. However, the father has his own demons and finds he must save his own life as well. (Leaving Gomorrah, Book 3 in series)

A Letter to a Friend on Living As A Gay Man: November 14, 1999 (To Greg While We Were Dating)

2011-09-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Greg,
I hope this letter finds you well, or at least in a better place than when we last talked. I know I promised not to bother you for the next (what, few weeks? Months? You never really said) while you decided whether or not you wanted to live your life as a gay man. Believe me, I want you to make that decision because it’s the life you will have to live. But I want to give you some things to think about while you make your decision. They are thoughts about being gay that most people don’t understand or don’t want to. They are points that I hope will make things clearer to you about who you are as a gay man.

You said your family is unhappy now that they know you’re gay. You said they refuse to believe it and that you’re simply going through a phase that’s being helped along by bad influences. Believe me, their response is quite usual. Just like so many others, they say they have your best interest at heart—and this might be true, though sometimes it’s their own self-interest that’s at stake. Still, quite often their ignorance gets in the way of their understanding, and it’s ignorance that has been passed down from old ways of thinking. It’s their misunderstanding that results in their disdain of your sexual orientation.

While they might not understand being gay, it should be your duty to understand because it’s your life. The life you have been given.

Greg, this letter is from my heart to you because of the love I have for you. And whatever decision you make I want to know that you made it with a clear mind and with understanding. It’s the best I can offer you at this time, and I hope you appreciate what I’m about to tell you. Well, here goes:

Your Homosexuality is Merely a Difference
~Let me start off by saying that homosexuality is no more exclusive than differences in height or weight; from those who might have a natural tendency towards obesity compared to some who for the life of them can’t gain weight at all. It’s no different than those who are born to function primarily with their left hand while others who are born without hands at all; or those who have near incomparable physical strength and those whose frailty allowed them to live only for a day.

In nature’s tendency towards diversity we’ve been given people whose minds mainly grasp abstractions while others, logic. It’s the will of the force of nature that deals in diversity—just look around at the different races and characteristics on this planet. If nature can offer such diversity, why then would homosexuality not be part of that diversity? Your homosexuality is not so much an aberration as merely a difference, a variation that compliments the natural diversity of life.

The Cause of Social Trauma
~There will be some who will tell you the fact that you might choose to live your life as an openly gay person would only cause pain to your loved ones. Don’t believe them. As someone who has been out for a long time (even before you were born *smile*) I can tell you that all of your loved ones won’t be against you. Nonetheless, your sexuality will not be the cause of pain for those who might claim ‘to suffer’. It’s not your sexuality that’s causing their pain, but ignorance, fear and their own bias that’s causing them pain. It’s the same ignorance that at one time made society turn its back on the physically challenged, or those today who claim their problems on ‘the others’.

Sadly, it’s never the pain brought on by the detractors’ own social or personal maladies that’s investigated. Instead they choose to make others the source of their discomfort. Quite often people will form fragile matrixes in which to house their own shortcomings.

Oh, and please Do Not let your detractors get away with trying to lump you into the category of rapists and molesters. Rapists and molesters harm. Heterosexual and homosexual rapists and molesters cause harm. Heterosexuality and homosexuality in and of themselves does not cause harm.

Nature’s Way?
~Some people say homosexuality is unnatural. I don’t believe this and I hope you come to agree. Your homosexual orientation developed as a course of nature, it was not artificially induced. Therefore it’s natural (just as it is in many other species of animals). Quite often what is meant by those who use the terms ‘unnatural’ or ‘not normal’ is that your sexual orientation doesn’t match that person’s moral beliefs; the same term was used decades ago in matters of interracial marriage.

That stated, understand that the implications of such an argument goes further than it appears. It underscores the reasoning that homosexuality is a matter of choice (in that case, why not heterosexuality as well). It’s the implication that since it’s a choice and not of nature, it’s not of God; therefore it can be (and should be) undone.

Look, only you know the depth and history of your feelings, only you know if you ‘chose’ your sexual orientation- - of course I know you didn’t, just as your ‘straight’ siblings didn’t choose theirs. However, only you know this and you do not owe anyone else an explanation unless you choose to do so. Given the pain and the disenfranchisement that many LGBT persons go through in life, I doubt many would have ‘chosen’ their sexuality.

And let’s not forget the ‘anatomical fit’ argument. Some will call attention to ‘incorrect’ anatomical fit as an argument to support their claim of the unnaturalness of homosexuality. This claim is ridiculous. To use that argument clearly shows ignorance towards an understanding of sexual orientation. A person’s sexual orientation, whether homosexual or heterosexual, is how a person feels and perceives sexually. It doesn’t clearly define the types of sexual acts a person will engage in. A celibate heterosexual is still heterosexual because of the way he or she sexually feels and perceives more than the sexual act the person engages in.

Also, to use such an argument of anatomical correctness would preclude any sexual act aside from penis to vagina. While some might say ‘yes’ to this, it’s clearly not human to live that way. There are other sexual acts that heterosexuals perform that are ‘anatomically incorrect’ as well. Let’s see how many of them will stop engaging in oral sex! Besides, other than reasons of public health or a clear violation of another’s wish for life and safety, why should society come into anyone’s bedroom anyway?

All of these arguments can get so crazy. However, I want you to remember to love yourself just as you love the skin you’re in. It’s the gift God gave you. It called Life. Yours.

God and Morality
~Let’s start with morality, first. The matter of morality will often come up when people discuss gay lifestyle. Here’s something I hope you will remember: We think of morality as inflexible codes of conduct. But in fact our values and our moral precepts are not so inflexible. They can be very pliant. History has shown us that. For instance, the difference between the moral standards that once held the idea of women as an adjunct to men, or ones that supported the belief of the inferiority of black people to whites are vastly different than moral standards of today.

Morality can be used to protect and enlighten in the most divine way, or it can be actualized as an agent of great harm and destruction. Only accept those things in life that do not harm others or yourself and things that nurture and create a positive energy for both you and your environment. So unless it can truly be proven that being gay works against this positive force, feel free to embrace it with the warmth your beliefs and your values deserve no matter what others might think.

~Now, of course the subject of morality always leads to conversation about God. It’s a touchy subject, but this is what I’d like to propose: God is an abstract concept that humankind has honed to explain phenomena such as being, death and circumstance, inexplicable matters that govern life. There are many views, all of which claim divine providence.

To say the concept of God is an abstraction is not to suggest that God doesn’t exist. I, for one believe God does exist in some form or another. It’s just that our ability to fully understand this power we term ‘God’ is greatly lacking. It’s very difficult to understand something that can’t be fully realized as fact.
Even to the point that we have come to apply anthropomorphic terms to describe God speaks of our desire to explain It. In the end, we can only come to terms with It, not explain It. We can’t explain or understand something so powerful, so infinite as the energy we have chosen to call God.

Beyond it all, this is where faith comes into play. So many people profess faith when all they really have is belief. Someone once described belief as wishing things to be as you are told they should be, and faith as a letting go of expectation, to be able to throw your arms open and accept what is not known or understood. Our beliefs are shaped by cultural, political and to some degree, personal influence, but very little faith. Personally, I can say that belief taught me fear, but now, my faith informs me of love.

Finally, regarding God, I can’t leave this subject without addressing the idea that God does not condone homosexuality. Using our concept of God, I challenge such a notion to be proven. If God is omniscient, then It knows who is going to be gay.

Of course, such a reply will almost always lead to a discussion about Free Will—the belief that through the grace of God, we are given a chance to make choices in life. Such reasoning fall’s short in its rationalization. To accept the idea of free will as an explanation of my homosexuality would be akin to accepting the argument of ‘choice’. Even the idea of free will as grace from God is arguable if it’s set within the context of retribution. If God punishes us for our choices then free will was not given out of grace. I do not believe a divine entity that possesses omnipotence has need for free will. It would simply control what we do, not allowing us to fail, and therefore would have no need to resort to retribution.

We have no idea of the wonder of ‘The Mystery’ we have chosen to call God. ‘The Mystery’ simply Is. How much control we have in divining our lives is small compared to the greatness of The Mystery.
The Mystery, God, created me to be in this life at this time and I will love Its wisdom without question because I know I live a life that has far more love and meaning than what some have tried to deny me. In that I take solace.

Speaking of God and spirituality, while you and I have talked about it on many occasions, let me warn you that people will attempt to use their religious beliefs to sway you to see things their way. I know because just like everyone else, I’ve been subjected to such, and here’s what I’ve decided: I’ve come to refuse beliefs that are borne of culture and politic. I choose a faith that liberates me from such precepts and simply embraces the idea that everyone has the right to become self actualized towards a spirit that causes no harm to self or others, a nurturing spirit. Therefore, I choose to walk a spiritual path (stumbling sometimes as humans do), than a religious one. The two are not the same because religion is man-made and is prone to all the influences I stated above, while spirituality is the essence of God. Many seek religion (earthly power), but few seek spirituality.

This is what I’ve come to use to shape my spiritual view. Use it if you so desire.

Love
~Greg, you are a very kind and loving person. I know that. So don’t let anyone convince you that because you’re gay, you are less than that: A kind and loving person. And let that carry you like a vessel to kind and loving people and to kind and loving experiences.

People define love in so many ways; some are on the mark, while others, I think, miss it completely. The best definition of love I’ve ever read is by M. Scott Peck. He defines love to be “The will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” I choose to love myself in this way and seek this kind of love from others. I will demand it so I might know it. I have all the right in the world to seek the nurturance of my spirit free from the whims of others. I reject the games people play in their attempt to gain dominance over my life; it’s been done to many throughout the ages.

I understand that when you learn to love yourself, you’re able to love others and you grow beyond the borders of religious doctrine and demagoguery towards a true spiritual journey. You become open to wondrous things about your life, about Life period. You become the person God meant you to be.

In the end, I accept that the brilliance of ‘The Mystery’ we call God and Life will probably always continue, and will probably never be understood. And that ‘The Mystery’ is not as frightening as it might sound. It is fear that holds most of us captive to lives of trepidation, hatred and inconsequence while love sets us free.

Procreation
~By now I’m sure you’ve heard time and again that homosexuality is contagious and could bring about the end of procreation. When I first heard this as a young man I was horrified because I felt like I was taking part in ending life as we know it. But I was so much younger then!

Life is much more of a force than we might want to consider. I don’t believe if those of us who are homosexual act on our nature, then everyone will become homosexual and procreation would cease. Everyone would not become homosexual if someone who is homosexual chooses to live his or her life. Humans are not that monolithic.

Besides, if procreation is the prime reason for the validation of our existence, then we are all in step to miss the fullness that makes us human. I believe the positive growth of our individual spirit (one imbued in love) is the prime agent of our individual lives, not the extension of the physical self. And anyway, given our tenuous relationship with the ecosystem, adoption would be a suitable fit.

The propagation of life is a powerful force. We do not know that sexual intercourse is exclusively needed to procreate. All living beings don’t engage in sexual intercourse in order to procreate (asexual reproduction). Therefore, we shouldn’t assume humans, if given the fate of the cessation of intercourse would no longer generate offspring. It might sound strange, but it is biologically plausible. Life and the reproduction of life have proven to be just that powerful.

Family
~ Given what you’ve told me about your family, they aren’t any different from other families. They are a solid unit. This is good. However, be prepared to have people tell you that homosexuality causes the destruction of the family. This doesn’t have to be true. If a family is firmly entrenched in love it will not allow the fact that one of its members is gay destroy it. If it does, then it needs to re-evaluate its shortcomings because matters of diversity as well as adversity will always arise within the family structure. That is the challenge of love. That is the challenge of family.

Life After Coming Out
~Right now it might seem to you that there can be no future living as a gay person. But that’s because you have little to go by in referencing living as an affirming gay man. Over the past year we’ve been together, though you’ve been hesitant to see the community you can be a part of, I want you to know that it is a great community full of the diversity, adversity, joy and pain that any community can have. And it’s large! No, HUGE! It’s a community that reaches every part of the world and one that has existed in one form or another since the existence of human kind.

Aside from the boy-hood dating and sex of your adolescence you’ve told me about, all you’ve seen of gay life has been just that: secret sex and adolescent romance. But there is so much more. Believe me.
You’ve seen my life and you know that I am living it just as well as any other person, with just as much joy and pain as anyone would encounter in life. And this, coming from someone who had to go through so much more than you have to go through today, having come out when I did.

1972 was not the greatest year to come out. There were strict laws against gay people. Arrests. Brutality against us that went without punishment. Housing and job discrimination (I personally have been denied housing and was also kicked out of the military, but one day I believe even that will change). It was horrible. But I, like so many, made it through, stumbling and getting back up many, many times. The journey wasn’t without merit, though. It wasn’t without merit because with each whack of the stick, each smash of the fist, each door closed in the face and each act of rejection the way was paved for the equality that is finally coming.

You have a community that can offer you great friends and experiences the world over. It’s a community that does have many, many straight allies who will embrace you for who you are. But more than anything, it’s a community that can show you that life goes on in a wondrous way. Please believe that.

Greg, I know growing up gay is a challenge. I’ve been there and so have many others before you. In a hostile world that refuses to validate your existence, being same-gender loving or even transgender quite often requires giving up modes of self-validation and refuting self-worth. From the day you first realize your difference, you immediately draw strategies of defense. Those measures can range anywhere from outright confrontation to secrecy and denial. Now, also consider self-love in your strategy.

This is why I have written this letter. During the clamor in your life surrounding your coming out, I hope you will find a quiet space to read this letter. Then take what I’ve written you and live the life you know will bring you the most happiness and that will allow you to pass your joy on to others.

Forever,
Doug

Part I: American Religious Right: Promoting Homophobia in Black Africa (An essay in a Series: First Post)

2011-08-07T01:55:00.000-07:00

The hungry eyes of the world are on Africa once again, but this time the hunger is for a piece of Africa because the Mother Land is also seen as the Mother Lode due to its natural resources, and the world is aching to get part of that wealth.

But there’s another race for Africa, and that is the competition for control within African societies. It’s a race to establish social, cultural and political dominance on the continent to bring the nations of Africa in line with the cultural and political vision of those seeking a foothold on that soil. One of the more energetic launches into this race is the role of religion, particularly of the conservative American Religious Right.

For the last two decades or so, members of American conservative religious groups have been making their way across the African continent, many of them hyping humanitarian aims, but often not without proselytizing, and their eyes are on one prize: the minds of the African people, because to control cultural perspective influences politics and the effects of wealth. Evangelists and missionaries are flocking to Africa with their continued images of white gods and black servants, oh and one more thing: of evil homosexuals.

Entities of the Religious Right like Scott Lively of Abiding Truth Ministries (a group listed as a hate group by The Southern Poverty Law Center); the group, Family Watch International; Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church; and the influential group known as The Fellowship (aka ‘The Family’), led by Doug Coe have all made inroads onto the African continent to promote their support of the suppression, even decimation, of same-gender loving people, and the effect has been devastating.

At first glance you might wonder, ‘why would the decimation of homosexuals be part of a race to gain political dominance’? The answer is, to establish a theocracy, especially one that mirrors their conservative views. After all, what better place and time to establish your own theocratic government than in nations who stand on the verge of world power? If the Religious Right can do that, then they can have the type of leveragethey no longer have on their own soil of America. It would set into play their view of a perfect world (actually, that ‘perfect world’ view might also include keeping whites in dominance over people of color, but for now that matter would be handled with kid gloves).

By now, we all know that homosexuals are the bane of the Religious Right so influencing African religious/cultural views against gay rights is an important step in setting in play their particular brand of God. The Religious Right knows that to control culture is to control politics and economic influence. After all, why would the Religious Right want nations that stand on the verge of great wealth to use its economic clout to promote a moral world-view antithetical to theirs? To do so would only add to a growing world-view that embraces equality for all, even same-gender loving/trans people. So not only is there a race to gain control over one type of Africa’s natural resources, but over another as well—the human spirit.
(Note: Also, if you are gay/lesbian/SGLT/LGBT, or an ally with personal stories to share relevant to this series, please feel free to contact me at: Authordougcooperspencer@Gmail.Com; Face Book (Doug Cooper Spencer) or at this blog. I most welcome personal stories of living as a gay person in Africa.)
(Thank you to my hubby, Gregory Cooper Spencer for his photography and artwork)

Part 2: Being Gay in Democratic Republic of Congo (Anonymous Correspondence, As told to Doug Cooper Spencer)

2011-08-07T01:44:00.000-07:00

In the coming months, I'll present correspondences from gay Africans living in nations that are on the verge of homosexual genocide, and some who have fled those nations, all of whom want to speak to us of what it is like to live in that environment, and I’ll post other relevant pieces as well. For the safety of some of these African authors, their identities will be kept anonymous, but their stories will be told. Some of pieces will be from a correspondent whom I'll call 'W' (for warrior). The series will be called, 'Notes From the Underground: Homophobia in Black Africa and the American Religious Right'. Here is the first piece by ‘W’.
(Note: Due to matters of translation of language and culture, I asked for some clarification on some points from ‘W’ and got a response. The questions I asked and ‘W’s’ response follows the essay. Also, the identity of 'W' is being kep anonymous for his safety. There will be more pieces from 'W' as I get them. ~ Doug)

Being Gay in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (by 'W')
To be homosexual is subject of disadvantage in the majority of the countries and the democratic Republic of Congo does not avoid this rule. In this huge State of central Africa dominated by Bantu culture, the perception of homosexuality does not differ from other African countries.

A gay is considered to be a man without manliness. This fact is often attached to poor minds. *In this society, a homosexual is also a healthy person of mind but which to become rich or have power is obliged of credit of intercourse with the persons of the same sex.

The association of homosexuality in mystical practices has can be led people to interpret love affairs badly between two men and to link this form of relation to sorcery and to occultism.

*For most Congolese, in general, homosexuality is also a phenomenon of modern society imported from Occident. According to them, it is the Europeans who introduced this mode of sexuality in Africa during colonization. No person wants to acknowledge only private relations between two men or two women could exist in the past in our traditional societies.

Until now, there is no legislation against LGBT in DRC. But, a law penalizing homosexuality is in study in the cultural commission of the Congolese Parliament. Initiated in October, 2010 by the Deputy and preacher Ejiba Yamapia, this bill made a lot of noise in so national mass media as international. During his presentation in the Parliament, his author had mobilized the population to support her idea. Public opinion had openly shown its hostility towards the homosexuals. The Deputy Yamapia is a Christian who considers homosexuality as an offense to the African society.

Religion also encourages homophobia in Africa. It classifies the homosexuals as persons had by diabolic minds. Televisions and newspapers don’t help to change things in Congolese society. The broadcasting of programs approaching homosexuality in a negative way favours a dangerous stigmatization in the long term. On the streets of Kinshasa, to be freely homosexual is very difficult. In the Congolese capital, homosexual are victims of hostility and mistrust. *Any gay or lesbian have been killed till now in this country. But, in Uganda, a neighbor country of Congo, homophobia is very strong and a gay activist named David Kato was killed last January.

In Kinshasa, most of gay are living in the closet. Some of them prefer to go abroad instead of staying there and living in the society and family pressure. Situations are sometimes very difficult for them because of lack of information especially about HIV and others sexual diseases.

Doug’s Questions to ‘W’:

Doug: Could you expound more on your comment, ‘A gay is considered to be a man without manliness’.
W: In Africa, a man must be manly and strong. It must not be effeminate. This conception of masculinity comes from ancient belief that a man is supporting the defender of the family. If a man is gay, he has no consideration for the society even if he may be very masculine.

Doug: How are lesbians treated?
W: Lesbians do not have also a consideration. A woman who loves women is considered useless in society. In Africa, a woman must be a wife. She must have children and raise them. Finally, she must submit to the man. So she cannot have sex with a woman. She should be feminine, not masculine.

In recent years, lesbianism has spread to Kinshasa, the capital of DRC. A few years ago, homosexuality was more masculine.
The lesbianism was more secret then relations between men several years ago. In the '80s, a phenomenon had swept in the DRC. It was named Carine. It was born in the dormitories of boarding schools for girls. It consists for a girl to have friends as a young girl she kept under her protection. This became popular outside the dorms and touched the entire city. It was immediately denounced because that friendship was a homosexual relationship. During the mid-90s, the phenomenon disappeared after the pressures of society.

There is an association in Kinshasa called in French “Si Jeunesse Savait”
(If Youth Knew) headed by a lesbian named Françoise Mukuku.

Doug: Could you clarify the statement, ‘In this society, a homosexual is also a healthy person of mind but which to become rich or have power is obliged of credit of intercourse with the persons of the same sex.’ Do you mean ‘to become rich or have power you must have sex with the opposite sex?

W: I mean that In African belief, a homosexual is a man to get rich and have the authority is obliged to have sex with men. This belief is due to the fact that relationships between same sex persons are considered satanic. So homosexuality is not taken as a simple fact of being. Rather, it is classified as acts related to mysticism.

For most Congolese, in general, homosexuality is also a phenomenon of modern society imported from Occident. According to them, it is the Europeans who introduced this mode of sexuality in Africa during colonization. No person wants to acknowledge only private relations between two men or two women could exist in the past in our traditional societies. (Note from Doug ~ I interpret W’s statement to mean that the matter of homosexual sex is seen as an imported contingent of people in power using their power in ways learned from outside of Africa, that since it’s not of the common person, it’s seen as ways learned.)

Doug: Could you give some examples of homosexuality in traditional societies?

W: I have no real evidence about homosexuality in ancient African society. But relations between same sex persons have always existed in Africa but in secret. It was probably not the modern form we know today: living together, deeper relationship, and so on.
For more information, you can consult the book Servant Boy-Wives and Female Husbands (African studies of homosexuality) by Stephen O. Murray and Will Roscoe. (Note from Doug ~ Much of the knowledge many contemporary black Africans have of their history has been skewed by the teachings of Western culture during times of ‘colonization’, just as blacks of the African Diaspora have experienced in Europe, the Americas, etc, during slavery.)

Doug: With your statement, ‘Any gay or lesbian have been killed till now in this country’. Do you mean there have been no gay murders recorded until recently? If so, could you give me some examples from the media?

W: There has not yet been formally proven murder or killing of homosexuals as is the case in Uganda, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. But with the negative image conveyed by the media about homosexuality, I fear that homophobia will become stronger.
Violence against gays is more verbal and moral. There are insults and jokes against homosexuals constantly in DRC. I think that moral violence is the hardest thing you can do to a person. The society kills you slowly. It's very hard to bear. Therefore, some homosexuals leave the country to avoid the pressures of the family.
When you're a man in Africa you have to marry and have children before a certain age. When you have over 30 years and you're still single, you have to justify it.
Some homosexuals marry wife and start a family. Others become bisexual and have a double life. However, the majority remains homosexual. They are persecuted morally every day.
This has created a new form of immigration: immigration based on sexual orientation. In Congo, most homosexuals fleeing the pressure to leave for South Africa, France, Belgium, Canada, etc..
I don’t have some example from media concerning homosexuals’ murders or assassination in DRC because any media relate news about gay. When they do it it’s always in a negative way.

(Thanks to ‘W’ for speaking out on the conditions of black same-gender loving persons in Democratic Republic of Congo. W is currently working on a series of interviews we’ve put together for future posts. If there are any other Africans here or in other countries who would like to join the conversation, please contact me at www.Dougcoopespencer.Blogspot.com; at Facebook or at Authordougcooperspencer@Gmail.Com and thanks to my hubby Gregory Cooper Spencer for his photography and artwork).

Organizations/contacts to stand up against homophobia in Africa:

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/takeaction/partners/868.html

U.S. Mission to the United Nations
http://archive.usun.state.gov/Issues/Contact2.html

National Black Justice Coalition
http://www.nbjc.org/about/contactus.html

International Federation of Black Prides
http://ifbprides.org/ifbp_contact.php

White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

U.S. Department of State
http://contact-us.state.gov/app/answers/list

Ghana Orders the Arrest of All Homosexuals

2011-08-07T01:34:00.000-07:00

Speak Out Against This Atrocity Contacts:
Organizations/contacts to stand up against homophobia in Africa:

International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/takeaction/partners/868.html

U.S. Mission to the United Nations
http://archive.usun.state.gov/Issues/Contact2.html

National Black Justice Coalition
http://www.nbjc.org/about/contactus.html

International Federation of Black Prides
http://ifbprides.org/ifbp_contact.php

White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

U.S. Department of State
http://contact-us.state.gov/app/answers/list
(Also, read 2 pieces from a series: Homophobia in Black Africa & American Religious Right)

25th Anniversary of 'She's Gotta Have It' and We Came to Know Spike Lee

2011-08-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

NOW ON KINDLE AS WELL AS BOOKSTORES (BOOK 3, CHAPTER 1)

2011-08-07T01:23:00.000-07:00

She would have to die that way. Holding that damn bag in her hand. They said she had been sitting there for almost a week. Just sitting there with her eyes open, holding onto that damn bag.

They asked him if he wanted it, and he almost said no. But something wouldn’t let him get rid of it. Now it sat somewhere at the bottom of his suitcase - a bag containing his baby hair, nail clippings and three small pebbles that once was his feces, dried in the sun, now just small pebbles.

He looked at his father, who sat across from him swaying as the train rushed through the tunnels, a slight look of confusion crossing his eyes.

Antonio always knew he would meet his father one day because she had told him he would. Some nights she would sit by his bed and tell him stories about his father and that one day he would return. She never told him who his father was and where he had gone, but he guessed it was someplace where his father had no choice because if he was as good a man as his mother had said, he wouldn’t have left him in such a fucked up place. Maybe the house he grew up in wouldn’t have been so full of sadness and maybe the insanity that gripped his mother wouldn’t have happened.

Eventually, as the years passed and days wandered with no apparent end, he gave up ever seeing his father until a few years ago when his mother called him and told him his father had returned. And with that done, she closed herself back into the darkness of the small house - her life complete - while he moved away with the man he waited so long for. Now she was gone and he was living with the man who appeared before him every night just before he went off to sleep.

The train pulled into the Atlantic Avenue station and he and his father got off. They had gone back to Cincinnati to attend his mother's funeral. It had been a small gathering of people at the funeral, but it was complete. Very clear, very said-and-done because anything anyone ever thought about his mother had been set. She lived with abandon and she died alone.

After they put his mother in the ground he and his father collected a few photos and the small bag, and they returned to New York City.

They walked through the train station and made their way out into the busy daylight of Brooklyn and walked the few blocks to their apartment. Neither one of them had spoken much about the old woman because it was so hard to put her life in words, and even more difficult was putting all their lives together in one salient thought.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry,” his father said. “Let’s stop off and pick something up.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You sure? You haven’t eaten anything all day.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. You go ahead.”

His father looked at him for a second. “Alright, I’ll be home in a little bit.”

“Okay.” He walked away without looking back at his father, yet he could feel his father’s eyes on him. It had been that way since he moved in with him. His father was always watching him.

Antonio lugged his suitcase up the four flights to the apartment and went inside. He had told the guy he would meet him around seven, so he rushed back out to catch the train over to Union Square.

Sitting on a bench, he watched people passing by. He wondered how so many of them could have so much to smile about. He didn’t hate them for it, he only wondered.

A man fitting the description of the man he was waiting for walked close to the bench, causing Antonio to sit up straight, but it wasn’t him. The man gave a curious glance and continued across the street.

Eventually, another man came towards the bench. Antonio watched him as he approached. Five-eleven; dark curly hair; jeans and green and yellow tennis shoes. He couldn’t see if his eyes were hazel since the man was too far away.

As the man approached he caught sight of Antonio, then, slowing, he came up to the bench. “Antonio?”

Antonio stood up. “Yeah.”

The man smiled. “Julian.”

The two of them walked across the park and down a street.

An hour later, Antonio stood at the bathroom sink, washing himself. The man came in and stood beside him. “God…” He smiled as he watched Antonio’s dick.

Antonio grinned. “You make a lot of noise. You know that?”

“I’m just glad my roommate wasn’t here.”

“What’s he about?”

“It’s a she.”

“What’s she about?”

“Everything. Like me.”

“So y’all cool like that? She gay?”

“Not really. She does the lesbian thing every once in a while, but not really.”

“Think she would be into me?”

Julian laughed. “God yeah,” he said as he palmed Antonio’s dick. “Hell yeah.”

“Maybe next time.”

After he got dressed, the man gave him the other half of the money.

“Thanks,” Antonio said.

“No. Thank you,” Julian replied as he leaned up to kiss Antonio.

Antonio pulled back, “Nah, I don’t do that.”

Julian shrunk away. “Okay.”

“You got my number. Call me when you feel like it.”

“I will.”

Leaving Union Square, he headed uptown and got off on 135th Street, then walked a few blocks over to the apartment of two friends: LaVonte and Kamon. He rang the buzzer, announced himself and walked up to the apartment.

“What’s up nigga? Where’s yo’ key?” Kamon greeted as he let Antonio in.

“I left it at home.”

“So how was it?” Kamon asked.

“It was a’ight.”

“Nigga pay money though, don’t he?”

“Hell yeah.”

“Told you. How much he give you?”

“Nigga you act like you my pimp or some shit.”

Kamon looked at him for a second before bursting into laughter. “A'ight, a'ight. Come on, let's head out,” he said as he slapped Antonio's back.

They headed back down to 34th Street where LaVonte was waiting nearby for them in Herald Square. He sat with his face away from them watching the streets.

Kamon and Antonio nudged each other and crept up beside him.

Grinning, Kamon leaned down. “Whatchou doin’, bitch?” he demanded.

LaVonte jumped up, his crippled legs almost causing him to fall backwards. Antonio and Kamon howled at how frightened he was.

“Damn, man!” he exclaimed. “Don’t be doin’ no shit like that!”

Kamon and Antonio continued to laugh.

“Where the fuck you been?” LaVonte asked as he held onto the bench to steady himself. “I been waitin’ here almost half an hour.”

“Stop whining. We got all night.”

“No we don’t. Me and Tonio gotta get up for work tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Antonio agreed. “So let’s get goin’.”

The three of them walked back over to 34th Street with Antonio and Kamon pacing themselves so LaVonte could keep up. They grabbed a bite to eat.

The night was warm and sticky.

Antonio sat eating a slice of pizza and watched the rush and flow of midtown. Even after almost three years, the constant movement of people, cars and lights still amazed him. Taking one last draw from his cola, he stood. “Let’s go. We got a lot to do.” And the three young men headed out into the night.
(Read more at: www.Dougcooperspencer.Com)

A gay father fights to save the son he never knew from a life in the streets and from the darkness that haunts him. However, the father has his own demons and finds that he must not only save his son's life, but his own life as well. Leaving Gomorrah brings together all the main characters from the first two books - 'This Place of Men' and 'People Like Us' - and is the final book in the 'This Place of Men Trilogy'.

NOW ON KINDLE AS WELL AS BOOKSTORES (BOOK 2, CHAPTER 1)

2011-08-07T01:19:00.000-07:00

Terrell knew his wife didn’t want him around. It was never spoken, but he saw it in her eyes, for they were full of contempt whenever he stood near her. It was evident she wanted him away from her and the kids, but she decided when and for how long, so every day after work he came to this park and waited for her to fall asleep. Once she was asleep he knew he could go home.

He sat on the fender of his car feeling the heat as it escaped into the cold air. Overhead the clouds moved slowly on furrows of gray. Soon he would become cold, but he would barely notice it because his thoughts occupied so many places. Right now his thoughts were on Karen and the kids. But soon they would move on to other things because these days, so many words and outcomes crowded his head.

It had been a little over four weeks since he had told her. And each day since then, in incremental pushes and shoves, she moved him farther and farther away, allowing him entry only for the sake of the kids because they both understood that what they were going through should not affect the children.

He knew what his fate would be, though after the month or so since their conversation he still struggled with it. At times this fate held him with a sense of righteousness, while at other times he would find himself gathering at the wounds of dishonor.

But the words had been spoken and with an artisan’s precision, those words had created a monument so demanding that neither he nor Karen could ignore it.

He had told her of his love for men. He told her how he longed for the company of men, but not just as friends or associates. He longed for the touch of large, rough hands. He longed for the rumble of deep voices that moved from their chests. He told her these things, things he thought he had forgotten long ago.

And this is now what took him to such a place on such a cold and silent evening.

Gay. Karen was unprepared for his admission.

After all, she had lived a remarkably stable life. Everything she had been told should be, had been, and out of thanks for such a life she had always given to the less fortunate. Now she was in need of help.

She still recalled how she had watched him sitting across from her in the kitchen, across from her but near her, close enough to take his deserved blows in case she lashed out or to catch her if she fell forward in disbelief- - she wasn’t sure which.

She remembered how she had jumped up, sending her chair crashing backwards, and covered her face. Then she began sobbing into her palms wishing they could push away his words and her pain. She remembered thinking of the kids, how she was thankful he’d taken them to stay with his mother. How he had stood and came toward her to comfort her and how she had tried to turn away from him. Suddenly, she had felt so ugly there in her robe. But he had turned her around, her hands still covering her face and he had held her to his chest.

Now, there were times at night when she would sit in a room and cry, hoping Kenya and Abassi couldn’t hear her. Then her pain would turn into hate. But the hate would give way to love and memories and more tears. She knew she would have a good life after the pain settled, that God wouldn’t give her more than she could bear; but for now, just getting there was difficult.
(Read more at: www.Dougcooperspencer.Com)

A married man comes to terms with his sexuality, forcing him to come out of the closet. Now the ex-couple must confront their new lives: She as a woman scorned by her gay husband and who suddenly finds herself facing the world as a single woman; and he as a man who must find a way to hold his family together while navigating his new life as an out gay man-- And what about the kids?

NOW ON KINDLE AS WELL AS BOOKSTORES (BOOK 1, CHAPTER 1)

2011-08-07T01:14:00.000-07:00

Sometimes he saw things when he drank. But that was only when he drank too much. He didn’t drink often, but sometimes he would become careless of his burden when he sat before a glass, and the one glass would become a full bottle until his head would fill and the visions would come.

They had been happening most of his adult life, the visions. They began to occur while he was in prison. They started as reflections he would have at night; then they transformed themselves into quick momentary sightings during the day until finally turning into resonant narratives that gripped him whenever he was inebriated. He wanted to tell people who looked at him when he was drunk that once, when he was younger, he had dreams. He had had dreams like every young man, but now he saw things, no dreams. And sometimes he even wondered if calling the images visions was appropriate, so he would have told them he simply saw things. That’s what he would have told them if he spoke to them, but he rarely spoke to anyone about his life.

Once he saw a man stumbling through an alley with his throat slit. It was one night while he was getting his dick sucked. At first he didn’t notice the man; he was watching the kid’s head going back and forth at his crotch. Probably some student from NYU whose parents didn’t know they had sent him all the way to New York to suck dicks.

It was the kid who saw the man first. He fell back against the wall and gasped, ‘Oh my God!’, his eyes wide with terror.

He turned to see what had startled him, and there he was. A man was stumbling, his hand to his throat. It was too dark to see the wound, but he saw the blood, like searching fingers down the front of the white shirt and he knew by the position of the man’s hand and by the hollow wheeze that rose through the closed hot alley what had happened.

The boy jumped up and ran from the alley, but he had stood for a second and assessed the matter. Then, realizing his own possible endangerment and the fact that the kid had run out without paying him, he too ran towards the street.

At least that’s what he thinks happened. He knew there was a man who stumbled through the alley, and he knew it had startled him and the boy, but he was never sure if the man’s throat had been cut. He never heard the sirens or saw the EMT racing to the alley as he stood a bit away, or the gathering of a crowd; in fact passersby moved across the entrance of the alley with no awareness of the assault. It was times like that when he would assume that what he saw had not really happened.

But all his visions were not so gruesome. Some of them would be pleasant. They would be of better times so long ago: sitting in his car, his arm around him, watching the tops of trees against the remaining light of day, neither one speaking; the soft lime glow of the radio dial against their faces. The low music, warming them in spite of the chill of a winter’s eve, and how they would talk of their love for each other. . . but at that point the silence would set in; it always set in, the dark, covering silence. And he would drink more to fill that silence, the darkness and the pain.

But today he wouldn’t drink much. In fact, he hadn’t drunk too much in the last few weeks in anticipation of his return. He knew he would need everything in tact for his return. So now he sat and looked out the window of the bar and assessed the changes of his hometown. It had been a long time since he left home, but now he was back. He had arrived in Cincinnati two days ago but hadn’t let anyone know he had returned except for his younger sister with whom he was staying. He chose to lay low because he knew he would have to account for the years away; and after all those years away people might want to know the reason for his return. The first deed wouldn’t be too difficult to explain. After all, everyone knew of the circumstances that drove him away. But it was the second question that would be hard to answer because he wasn’t sure why he returned.

He turned the glass that held his drink and watched as the amber liquid splashed against its sides. How many times over the years had he done that? How many times had he held the same thoughts that now crowded his head? He was tired of nursing drinks and memories. Things would be different now.

Raising the glass to his mouth he finished his drink with one swallow. Then rising from the bar, he turned and walked out onto the street. Yes. Things would be different now.
(Read more at: www.Dougcooperspencer.Com)
After twenty years a gay man returns home to confront the minister and the ex-lover who destroyed his life. During his return he uncovers many secrets, including one that will change him forever.

The Wounded Gardener (short story by Doug Cooper Spencer)

2011-08-07T00:55:00.000-07:00

Calvin stood behind the store during his break. He sipped his coffee and studied the trees in the near distance; their leaves moved crimson red against a deep blue sky. Autumn was heading towards winter and he wondered if spring would be kind to Roosevelt this year. The last few years the season had been less than gracious to his hometown, unlike the town of Campton where he worked. But more than anything, he worried about his garden. No matter how much he cared for it, every plant that tried to grow eventually died leaving sorrowful strings of brown along the rows of soil. If he had a way of moving his garden to Campton where it would survive, he would because his garden was the only thing that lived for him.

When his break was over he went back inside and started to arrange the cans on the shelf. He knew by day’s end they would be knocked over once again by his co-workers just so they could mess with his head but for now he did what he could do. He looked at his watch; it was a little more than an hour and forty-five minutes before he got off work.
“I don't know why you lookin' at your watch. It ain't like you got shit to do.” It was Broderick, one of the ringleaders. The other workers laughed.
“You don't know what I got goin' on,” Calvin snapped.
“Probably one ‘a them gay hotlines,” Broderick scoffed as the laughter turned into howls.

Five o’clock. Calvin zipped up his jacket and tucked his hands deep into his pockets as he walked across the lot to the bus stop. He always hid his hands. He sat on the bench and raised his face to feel the last warm rays of the late autumn sun before it lowered itself beyond the trees.

His co-workers tore out of the lot and sped past him. No one looked his way. If only the bus would get there before the sun was gone and the chill set in. He leaned forward and looked down the road. There were only a few buses that came to their town so he knew he had a while to wait; but that would all end once he got his car out of the shop. The last car drove out of the lot.
Just as the sun started to disappear, the bus came up the road. 'Finally,' he whispered as if this was an unexpected event. After all, the bus came the same time every day. He got on the bus and paid his fare. He looked for a seat near the front so he wouldn’t have to walk past the curious eyes of the riders as they dissected him, probably making up tales in their heads about what he did when he was out of their sight. There were no seats at the front of the bus so he began to search for one that was empty or at least one that held an unconcerned rider. There was only one. An elderly woman sat with a bag. She smiled at him and let him slide in beside her. He put his hands back in his jacket pockets and looked out the window as the bus headed down the road.

By the time he got home the few street lamps that dotted his street had come on. They lighted the ragged asphalt of the road until they stopped just short of the house he lived in. It was as if the town had suddenly run out of money two homes from the one in which he lived, but at least the porch light was on as the only friend that greeted him each night.
It was good to be home away from the smart-ass remarks and the stares. Some of the stares were from those who mocked him, but most of the stares were from people who pitied him or simply wanted to understand him: why was he ‘that way’? After all the years you'd think either they would have gotten used to him or at least he would have grown thicker skin, but neither had happened so he simply endured.

He fixed dinner and sat down in the living room to eat. Every once in a while he looked over at the desk in front of the window. It was covered with papers stacked neatly in small piles and beside each pile were envelopes. He would be sending out his story once again this weekend, then wait for the rejections to come.

It was a Friday night without his car so he had no way of going up to Breckfield which was the nearest town with a black gay bar. Even though the ride was a two and a half hour drive, just being around people who didn't gawk at him was worth it. At 'Mama's' he could dance, talk and laugh with people who knew him. After the bar closed he would sleep over at a friend's house instead of making the long drive back. He didn't go often but when the people of Roosevelt got on his last nerve he would jump in his car and head up there. Other than that he spent his weekends in the house and visiting his parents. He had no real friends in Roosevelt.

It was late, and after having dozed off twice while watching a movie, he decided to go to bed. Later, he was awakened by a knock at the door. He looked at the clock by his bed. Three fifty-two. He got up and walked down the hall to the living room, looked out the window then opened the door. (Read Entire Story at www.Dougcooperspencer.Com)

Amid Criticism on Downgrade of U.S., S.&P. Fires Back

2011-08-07T00:50:00.000-07:00

Now, is it enough for Congress to understand what the majority of the population is saying: Pursue a mixed-bag/less partisan solution. New York Times article.

After 33 Years Together, Married at Last in NYC

2011-08-07T00:45:00.001-07:00

After 33 years, this handsome couple was finally married in Brooklyn as a result of New York's passage of same-sex marriage/marriage equality. I'd love to find out more about this couple. Can anyone help me out?

Race as a Political Construct: The Subject of an Interesting Book

2011-08-07T00:34:00.000-07:00

Race as a political construct that cannot be overlooked, yet race as a biological reality just isn't so. Read the interview with the author, Dorothy Roberts at The Root. It's an interesting read.

Black Prides? Why Not Just Gay Pride? My Response:

2011-08-07T00:20:00.000-07:00

A Face Book friend asked on his wall: Is there a need for Black Prides, or should everyone celebrate under one Gay Pride? Here's what I think: I've always felt, given the diversity of the SGL-T community, that it's okay to have Prides that celebrate the particular groups within the gay community.

Each group brings with it a history that continues to affect where that group stands today-- even within the gay community. And who better to work through the issues of that group than the members who are living through those issues?
Some say, "but it divides the community". I disagree. I think it brings the community together, because only when the various groups, comprised of those members who most understand each other due to a shared history, work through the issues that most affect them, can they come together with others. Remember Maslov's Hierarchy of Needs? Yeah, it's like that. You have to grow through your own life, work out your own problems before you can move on to other things. It's the same with womyn's groups. I understand that.

Then, there is the matter of the baggage members of the gay community bring with it from the larger society and culture. All the ills out there are within the gay community, so naturally, all the perceptions of privilege and disenfranchisement exists there too.

When we started a black gay group in Cincinnati many years ago, we got the same flack from 'The Gay Community' that we were being divisive. Of course the leaders of 'The Gay Community' were privileged white males with economic clout and social standing that gave them firm footing in their place at the leadership table. Back then I argued for diverse gay groups, each one working, within the context of gay equality (even as that group defined gay equality) on the particular issues that most affect their group, then coming together in Cincinnati every few months for a Congress of sorts, to lay out an agenda and to follow up with regular sessions. My idea went nowhere because those with power within the gay community were disturbed at sharing that power.

I still feel that the gay community isn't much different from any group in American society in that it seeks to gain a place at the table we call equality. But to gain a seat, we have to be honest about the problems that besiege the gay community, the problem of INEQUALITY WITHIN THE SGL-T COMMUNITY.

Yes, I believe it's fine, even beautiful to have BLACK PRIDES, LATINO PRIDES, ASIAN PRIDES, WOMYN PRIDES, etc. because only those groups can recognize what they need to move their communities forward. Okay, that's it. What do you think?

Film Project: The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project. Please Donate: UBLEProject@gmail.com

2011-08-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

Please Donate: UBLEProject@gmail.com

Black Enterprise Magazine: Black LGBT Community Diversity in Corporate America

2011-08-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

About This Issue: Coming Out At Work
We’re not going to pretend this was an easy topic for Black Enterprise to consider...

by Sonia Alleyne Posted: July 6, 2011

We’re not going to pretend this was an easy topic for Black Enterprise to consider. Let’s face it—the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is one of which our society whispers, mocks, ignores, and, in extreme cases, vehemently rejects. For Black members of this community, the emotional backlash can be even more intense. Editor-at-Large Carolyn M. Brown and I spent months producing this feature. Due to the topic’s controversial nature, we had some difficulty finding subjects. Even some of those who agreed to participate in our cover story, “Black and Gay in Corporate America,” felt some trepidation about how revealing their sexual orientation would affect relationships with family, friends, and associates outside the workplace.

Who is the gay Black professional? If you were to rely on media images, they are overtly flamboyant and dramatic male hairstylists and fashion designers. Depictions are often skewed comedic renderings of members of a community who in real life too often lead separate lives to buffer themselves—and their families—from ridicule. “Many professionals are out in their community but private in the world,” says Sharon J. Lettman-Hicks, executive director and CEO of the National Black Justice Coalition, a civil rights organization that seeks to empower the African American LGBT population. “There’s a healthy Black, educated professional class of the gay, lesbian, and transgender community in this country. But there’s no recognition of their existence. There’s no protection for their rights—for silent or overt discrimination. Black people in general treat the existence of gays and lesbians and transgender people in the African American community like ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” the former U.S. policy governing homosexuality in the military.

That code of silence has been the mode in which many LGBT employees have operated for decades. It’s one of the reasons we structured our 40 Best Companies for Diversity differently this year. In addition to listing companies based on the percentage of African American and ethnic minority employees, senior managers, and board members, and on the procurement spend with Black and minority firms, we identified those corporations that also made the Human Rights Campaign’s Best Places to Work list for LGBT employees. It’s an indication that these firms believe in the power of full inclusion, and also that they’re choosing not to overlook an $800 billion-plus market.

What also drove the development of our feature is the growing number of professionals who have decided to share with the world their true selves (see sidebar on CNN anchor Don Lemon). Advocacy is never an easy journey, particularly when an individual has been thrust into such a position. The need to live behind a protective shield is very real to those who have suffered rejection, embarrassment, humiliation, and sometimes even violence. Sometimes, however, it becomes evident that coming forward with a personal testimony and an example of success could help improve the lot of others. We developed this feature to communicate that anyone can make a significant contribution. They just need to gain the opportunity to stand up and be counted.

Be sure to pick up the July 2011 issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE when it hits national newsstands Tuesday, July 19 and look for more of our Black LGBT coverage all month long at www.BlackEnterprise.com/BlackLGBT.

Someday We'll All Be Free, by Donny Hathaway

2011-08-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

Religious Leader Shoots 4 Year Old Boy To Death Because He Might Be Gay

2011-07-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

A religious leader in North Carolina shot to death his four-year old step son because he thought the boy, Jadon Higganbothan, might be gay.

Abuse of children because of another's homophobia happens more than is usually acknowledged. This isn't the first time this has happened-- a child being murdered because of another person's homophobia. I've also heard stories of siblings stomping and kicking another sibling while the parents stood by and watched and I've seen fathers punch their sons hard in the chest because 'he might grow up to be a faggot. I'm tryin' to make him into a man.'... What, a man like you? A man who batters a defenseless child? A man who quite possibly might fear himself instead of the child he batters? Word up, YOU AIN'T NO MAN, BRUH!

However, the most flagrant charges of abuse, is often done every day by various churches and religious organizations that promote homophobia through 5,000 year old, outdated tribal ethos that they have accepted as their religious edict... It's time to call everyone on this type of insanity, from the crazed parent to the practice of homophobia in the church and any other organization. (Read more of the original story)

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:52:00.002-07:00

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 most recent 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 has recently gone on to work as co-producer on a new project in Australia called SugaRush Beat Company.

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." (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:52:00.001-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Rahsaan Patterson

2011-07-01T13:44:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Nona Hendryx of LaBelle

2011-07-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

Since her teens, Nona Hendryx (born, 1944; vocalist, producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress) 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. (See her videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Nona Hendryx of LaBelle

2011-07-01T13:42:00.001-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Nona Hendryx of LaBelle

2011-07-01T13:41:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Nona Hendryx of LaBelle

2011-07-01T13:40:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Nona Hendryx of LaBelle

2011-07-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music: Tevin Campbell

2011-06-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

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. (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music: Tevin Campbell

2011-06-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music: Tevin Campbell

2011-06-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music: Tevin Campbell

2011-06-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music: Tevin Campbell

2011-06-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Billy Porter

2011-06-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Billy Porter (born September 21, 1969 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a Broadway performer and pop vocalist. He graduated from the Musical Theatre Program at Anderson High School's School of Drama before going on to graduate of 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).

In spite of recording, however, Billy Porter, being firmly rooted in musical theater garners most attention from his cabaret performances that have gotten rave reviews. (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Billy Porter

2011-06-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Billy Porter

2011-06-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Billy Porter

2011-06-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Last Offence

2011-06-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

Nobody saw him coming, but he came onto the scene and he brought with him something quite unexpected. But the truth is: Last Offence didn't expect to be in this position himself.

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 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.

Lasto first grabbed the attention of the gay hip hop scene with street singles "Truth Be Told", "Trouble" & "Don't Forget".

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. 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.

In the here and now, Last Offence continues working on his debut album and performing at venues across the US. (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Last Offence

2011-06-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Last Offence

2011-06-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Last Offence

2011-06-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Darryl Stephens

2011-06-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

Darryl 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.

Although Stephens is reluctant to discuss his personal life, he is openly gay and his roles address issues of classism and sexuality.

In 2010, Stephens released his first single "Envious Moon" and is set to record his first Music Project. He also guest starred in an episode of Private Practice, playing a pre-op transgendered character. (See his video below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Darryl Stephens

2011-06-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Me'Shell NdegeOcello

2011-06-30T10:37:00.000-07:00

Meshell Ndegeocello (born, Michelle Lynn Johnson in 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, bassist and multi-instrumentalist. 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. (See her videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Me'Shell NdegeOcello

2011-06-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Me'Shell NdegeOcello

2011-06-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Me'Shell NdegeOcello

2011-06-30T10:33:00.002-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Me'Shell NdegeOcello

2011-06-30T10:33:00.001-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Me'Shell NdegeOcello

2011-06-30T10:31:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: SoulKiss (R&B Vocal Group)

2011-06-30T10:27:00.001-07:00

The members of Soul Kiss are:

Tim Dillinger:

A singer/songwriter, poet, author, and speaker whose work has been receiving recognition on an international scale since 2004 when he released his debut album, "Love Is On My Mind".

With his 2006 album, "The Muse", Tim proved he was more than just a singer with a four-octave range. Lamenting the state of R&B music, he wrote about the trappings of the music industry, racism and his own journey into authenticity with a candor and vulnerability rarely shown in contemporary music. "The Muse" received critical acclaim as well as a half dozen awards and nominations from within the Independent Soul community and heightened Tim's reputation as an outspoken and prolific poet.

Harmony has always been Tim's first love. He learned to sing harmony listening to his musical hero, Reba Rambo-McGuire sing with her family. Other harmony groups would influence him: Lady Flash, The Caravans, The Davis Sisters, The Two Tons of Fun. The staple of his early shows was the unique chemistry Tim had established with his background singers. Upon moving to New York, Tim began singing with his brothers, Kare Alford & David Sosa and together, these three make up Soulkiss.

Kare Alford:

A singer, songwriter and actor, Kare Alford makes up 1/3 of Soulkiss. His penchant for acting influences his singing via his impeccable phrasing and delivery. He began professionally recording house music with producer Issac Santiago on the now defunct Nu-Groove Records. His first single release, which he also wrote, was "068". He then began recording on Gravity Holdz Records, working with producer John Moore. He further expanded by singing back up for various artists and groups (gospel group "Sons & Daughters" and Jazz & R&B group "Amafugo's Mood Swing"). In the interim, he decided to audition for director Reginald McNeely who was directing and producing "For Colored Boys", in which he was cast as The Man In Purple. Bitten by the acting bug, he pursued other opportunities and was cast in various other plays ("Burnt Orange" by Alan Arnold, "The Day Eazy-E Died" by James E. Hardy & "Before It Hits Home" by Cheryl West to name a few). With Soulkiss, Kare, blends his love of harmony with lyrical introspection, giving him the space to sink his teeth into songs that allow him to do what he does best: melt the hearts of the audience with his sultry baritone, while dramatizing the story at full tilt.

David Sosa:

David Sosa is a singer/song writer who dares to try a little bit of everything musically. His versatility and powerhouse vocal range leaves audiences dazzled every time he hits a stage. He was first vocally trained to sing Broadway Show tunes and received theatre/stage training by the late, great Lillian Coran. He then took up Opera and Classical Jazz. Just out of high school he joined a trio of R&B singers from Long Island named Tres (3 in Spanish). They performed in the Tristate area for 4 yrs until they broke up in late 2001. David is currently completing his first solo album. David enjoys all music but his heart is in the Soul/R&B music of the late 60's -80's! This is where he draws his influences from. Compared to Al Green and Phil Perry, David is a vocal tornado, thus completing the musical circle of Soulkiss. (See their videos below).

Source: Soul Tracks online magazine.

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: SoulKiss (R&B Vocal Group)

2011-06-30T10:16:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: SoulKiss (R&B Vocal Group)

2011-06-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Foxxjazell

2011-06-30T10:09:00.000-07:00

"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 GLBT 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.' " (See her videos below).

(From ‘Transgriot’ blog)

elebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Foxxjazell

2011-06-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Foxxjazell

2011-06-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Little Richard

2011-06-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), 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.

Little Richard began his recording career in 1951 by imitating the gospel-influenced style of late-1940s jump blues artist Billy Wright, but did not achieve 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. (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Little Richard

2011-06-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Little Richard

2011-06-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Clarence Bekker (a.k.a. CB Milton (Suranimese/Dutch Singer)

2011-06-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

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). (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Clarence Bekker (a.k.a. CB Milton)(Suranimese/Dutch Singer)

2011-06-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Clarence Bekker (a.k.a. CB Milton)(Suranimese/Dutch Singer)

2011-06-30T09:47:00.002-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Clarence Bekker (a.k.a. CB Milton)(Suranimese/Dutch Singer)

2011-06-30T09:47:00.001-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Clarence Bekker (a.k.a. CB Milton)(Suranimese/Dutch Singer)

2011-06-30T09:46:00.001-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Johnny Mathis

2011-06-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

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. (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Johnny Mathis

2011-06-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Johnny Mathis

2011-06-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Johnny Mathis

2011-06-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Johnny Mathis

2011-06-30T08:09:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Clara Ward

2011-06-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

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. (See her videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Clara Ward

2011-06-30T08:03:00.001-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Clara Ward

2011-06-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Carl Bean, Archbishop

2011-06-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

Archbishop Carl Bean, Unity Fellowship Church recorded what is considered one of the first gay affirming anthems for not only Motown Records, but on any major label. His song, ‘I Was Born This Way’ was recorded on the Motown label in 1977.

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. (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay//SGL-T Music Month: Carl Bean, Archbishop

2011-06-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay//SGL-T Music Month: Carl Bean, Archbishop

2011-06-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Tracy Chapman

2011-06-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

(1964) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles, ‘Fast Car’, ‘Talkin’ ‘bout A Revolution’ and more. She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award winning artist. A singer of social consciousness, she often performs at and attends charity events such as Make Poverty History, amfAR and AIDS/LifeCycle.

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. (See her videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Tracy Chapman

2011-06-30T07:50:00.001-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Tracy Chapman

2011-06-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Tracy Chapman

2011-06-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Baron (aka Artist Baron)

2011-06-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

Diversely inspired by hip-hop, new wave, rock and alternative, Baron blends his powerful vocals and songwriting talents to create a phenomenal mix on his sophomore album "Celebrity". "Celebrity" a celebration of life album is meant to be a musical experiment to rediscover one's own celebrity. Baron released his freshman poetry album "Troubled Man" in '04.

At a young age, Baron who was raised by his grandmother, channeled his outlandish imagination into music and a love for writing. In 2003 Baron moved from the urban mecca of Newark, NJ to the bright lights of New York City to pursue his passion for the arts, and break into the entertainment industry. His unique looks, creative mindset and unwavering determination resulted in Baron uncanny ability to win over audiences of diverse backgrounds across the world.

Sensing a changing of the tides in music, Baron decided to utilize his entrepreneurship to forge ahead without a major record label and create his own. With the immerse benefit of keeping complete creative control and remaining true to art, Baron continues to deliver provocative music that keeps his fans wanting to know what will he do next. (Watch his videos below)

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Baron (aka Artist Baron)

2011-06-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Baron (aka Artist Baron)

2011-06-30T07:35:00.001-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Baron (aka Artist Baron)

2011-06-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Vicki Randle, Tonight Show Band, Multi-Instrumentalist/Vocalist

2011-06-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Randle currently has residences in Venice Beach and Oakland, California. She is openly lesbian. (Watch her videos below)

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Vicki Randle, Tonight Show Band, Multi-Instrumentalist/Vocalist

2011-06-30T07:31:00.000-07:00

Vicki Randle, Tonight Show Band, Multi-Instrumentalist/Vocalist

2011-06-30T07:28:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Tim'm West

2011-06-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

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. And his soon to be released: ‘Fly Brotha’. (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Tim'm T. West

2011-06-30T07:21:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Tim'm T. West

2011-06-30T07:20:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Tim'm Tim'm T. West

2011-06-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Bessie Smith

2011-06-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

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. (See her videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Bessie Smith

2011-06-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Ephraim Lewis

2011-06-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

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. (See his videos below).

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Ephraim Lewis

2011-06-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

Celebrating Black Gay/SGL-T Music Month: Ephraim Lewis

2011-06-29T16:20:00.000-07:00