Black Gay Genuis: On Joseph Beam and 'In the Life'

Contents:

• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
• BLACK GAY GENI: ANSWERG JOSEPH BEAM’S CALL
• INTERVIEW WH STEVEN FULLWOOD, CURATOR AND CO-EDOR OF "BLACK GAY GENI"
• BLACK GAY GENI

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

This month, Vtage Enty Prs is releasg the long-awaed llectn Black Gay Geni: Answerg Joseph Beam’s Call, an anthology examg the legacy of thor and edor Joseph Beam. To celebrate the llectn’s lnch, Lambda Lerary is repostg a nversatn between Black Gay Geni‘ edors Charl Stephens & Steven G. Our anthology Black Gay Geni: Answerg Joseph Beam’s Call (Vtage Enty Prs) was born out of a seri of nversatns, panel discsns, bat, and dners wh iends, lleagu and ras over the years, asssg the impact and legacy of Joseph Beam and the wrers of the In the Life generatn.

BLACK GAY GENI: ANSWERG JOSEPH BEAM’S CALL

We wanted to brg that dazzlg history of the black gay arts movement of the 1980s ont and center to ntemporary black gay life.

Black Gay Geni nsists of a seri of wrers, scholars, and activists rpondg to In the Life and the fluence of Joseph Beam. This dialogue was an opportuny for , the edors of the anthology Black Gay Geni, to scribe the procs and velopment of Black Gay Geni.

But the type of black gay experience Harris put forth, though entertag and affirmg some ways, and fely signifint, was far om the way I hoped to exist the world. I had iends certaly, and there were people around me, other gay men, but there was not the kd of timacy I longed for, the kd of timacy you n only experience wh those who share your ias and worldview. I regularly (and quietly) pesed the shelv for anythg black and homosexual bee back then wh the exceptn of Baldw the were two distct subjects.

INTERVIEW WH STEVEN FULLWOOD, CURATOR AND CO-EDOR OF "BLACK GAY GENI"

Then 1988 a iend of me went to the public library Cleveland, and disvered In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, eded by Joseph Beam, a book that anticipated my future as an edor and an archivist. Wrgs by several self intified black gay men. Homophobia.

Schomburg ho the papers of thor, poet, translator and profsor Melv Dixon (Vanishg Rooms); poet, edor, publisher and activist Assotto Sat, (The Road Before Us: One Hundred Black Gay Poets); and, of central signifince to me, Joseph Beam. Maybe even as this fully realized black gay man, he still felt like he was a kd of prison, which speaks to his lonels.

He, and certaly others, were perhaps of this generatn of black gay men, and certaly the black queer women that fluenced them, that rried this work and the movement on their shoulrs. There was no way for them to unrstand my unrfed, malnourished Negro homo-self, and how Joe was a hero to me—a word I don’t e much. One of the l om his letters to Essex Hemphill that hnts me the most, is when right before In the Life out, he shar his sadns at beg this very well-known black gay man, idolized, but not alt wh.

BLACK GAY GENI

Black gay men, like anybody, uld be as wonrful or as treachero as anyone else. The ia that there are muni of homo men wag for me is plited.

Charl Stephens has most recently ntributed to the anthology For Colored Boys Who Have Consired Suici When the Rabow Is Still Not Enough: Comg of Age, Comg Out, and Comg Home and is -edg the anthology Black Gay Geni about the legacy of Joseph Beam. He found the Black Gay and Lbian Archive 1999 to aid the prervatn of black lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, same-genr lovg, queer, qutng and the life history and culture.

BOOKS The edors of Black Gay Geni on Joseph Beam. Joseph Beam's In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology ( 1986) me at a time when there was a lack of cultural guiposts for, and thentic reflectns of, Black gay men. Fullwood and Charl Stephens to brg Black Gay Geni, an anthology of poems, says and terviews om activists, creators and amics.