Famous queer/lesbian African American women

This year for Black History month, on Old(er) Lesbians, the Facebook page I founded and co-administer, we posted a photo and brief summary each day of February celebrating and honoring notable out lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer African American women past and present. I've re-posted it all here. Enjoy!

1. Wanda Sykes

For day one, here is Comedian Wanda Sykes, who is out and proud, and married with two kids!


2. Seimone Augustus

For day two, here is WNBA superstar and Olympic gold medalist Seimone Augustus with her fiancé Lataya Varner. Last year they were Grand Marshals for Twin Cities Pride and helped to support the defeat of the MN anti gay marriage amendment.


3. Audre Lorde

For day three we celebrate the late, great Audre Lorde. A fiercely out poet, writer, feminist, activist - her legacy lives on. If you want to learn more about her, and good place to start is "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name."


4. Ruthie Foster

For day four, here is the amazing, out, folk and blues singer/songwriter Ruthie Foster. Known for incredible live performances, her albums are also fantastic. If you don't know Ruthie, check out her music! She lives in Austin, Texas with her partner and their child.


5. Barbara Jordon

On day five we honor the late, great Barbara Jordan. Known best as the first southern African American woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, she also served as a Texas State Senator, was a lawyer, civil rights activist, and a professor. She achieved all this while battling M.S. Intensely private about her personal life, she never publicly stated she was a lesbian (being out would have surely prevented her career as a politician), but her long-time partner Nancy Earl was listed in Jordan's obituary.


6. Angela Davis

 On day six we celebrate the fierce activist, author and professor Angela Davis. In the 60s she first became known for her close ties with the Black Panther Party and membership in the Communist Party. She has been a life long champion of the rights of the oppressed including radical prison reform, civil rights, women, class and poverty. She publicly came out in the 90s. She currently teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz.


7. Marsha P. Johnson

For day seven we honor Marsha P Johnson, transgender rights activist and popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene from the 1960s to the 1990s. Johnson was a leader in clashes with the police amid the Stonewall Riots. She was a co-founder, along with Sylvia Rivera, of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.) in the early 1970s. She also was the "mother" of S.T.A.R. House along with Sylvia, getting together food and clothing to help support the young drag queens and trans women living in the house on the Lower East Side of New York. (Source - Out for Equity, St Paul MN Public Schools)


8. Meshell Ndegeocello

For day eight we celebrate the incomparable and openly bi/queer Meshell Ndegeocello. From the release of her first album Plantation Lullabies to her current album Pour une Âme Souveraine: A Dedication to Nina Simone, she has brought her unique mix of funk, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and more to us. Known for her deep songwriting, sultry vocals and mean bass guitar, she is one bad sister!

9. Barbara Smith

For day nine we honor and take our hats off to Barbara Smith, who was a key leader in defining and building Black feminist lesbianism in the 1970s and 80s. She was a founder of the Combahee River Collective, created to build and sustain a framework for a black feminist lesbian political organizing and activism. She was one of the founders of the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and wrote the sentinel "Toward a Black Feminist Consciousness." She continues her work as an activist and organizer today.

Alice Walker (second post for day 9)

 We have to post a second photo today in honor of Alice Walker's 69th birthday. She has openly discussed her bisexuality and relationship with Tracy Chapman (though Tracy has never publicly stated her sexuality). Thank you, Alice Walker, for revolutionary petunias, the color purple, your search for Zora Neale Hurston, womanism and so much more!

10. Cheryl Dunye

For day ten we celebrate out filmaker and actor Cheryl Dunye. Her first feature film was The Watermelon Woman, which explored the history of Black lesbians in film. She also directed Strangers Inside, about the experiences of African American lesbians in prison. She directed and co-wrote The Owls, about a group of "Older, Wiser Lesbians" who accidentally kill a younger woman and try to cover it up. Check out her work if you 
haven't already!

11. Mabel Hampton 

For day 11 we honor Mabel Hampton. Born in 1902, she lived her life as an out and proud lesbian, and was in a 46 year partnership with Lillian Foster. She was an activist for the rights of African Americans, women, and the LGBT community up until her death in 1989. She founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives in 1974. In 1979, she marched in the first National Gay and Lesbian March on Washington. So much more here: http://www.qualiafolk.com/2011/12/08/mabel-hampton/

12. Bessie Smith, Gladys Bentley, Ma Rainey, Zora Neale Hurston, Josephine Baker, Alberta Hunter

For day 12 we honor a group of amazing women, all artists during/around the Harlem Renaissance period (1920s) and long after. All either "rumored to be, admitted to, didn't hide, never said" that they were lesbian or bisexual, and we proudly claim today. Pictured here: Bessie Smith, Gladys Bentley, Ma Rainey, Zora Neale Hurston, Josephine Baker, Alberta Hunter. Here's Ma Rainey's "Prove it on me Blues" to celebrate these incredible artists: 

13. Linda Villarosa

For day 13 we celebrate Linda Villarosa, a journalist, author and editor. She has written for numerous magazines, has a column on AfterEllen called “Outside the Lines,” and is a regular contributor to The Root. She was twice editor for Essence magazine - where she came out in the 1990s. Her books include "Passing for Black" and "Body & Soul: The Black Women’s Guide to Physical Health and Emotional Well-being." She lives in New York with her partner and two children.

14. Mandy Carter

On day 14 we give extra love to Mandy Carter, who has organized for social justice, racial equality, and LGBTQ rights for more than four decades. In 1993, she was one of the co-founders of the amazing Southerners On New Ground (SONG), which works to build progressive movements across the South by developing transformative models of organizing that connect race, class, culture, gender, and sexual identity. One of many of her accomplishments. Read more here.

15. Octavia Butler

For day 15 we honor Octavia Butler, one of the greatest writers of our time. She was a science fiction writer, but her work was popular beyond the genre. Her books are astounding. She won a MacArthur genuis grant in 1995 and many Hugo and Nebula awards. She never stated her sexuality, but some articles suggest she was possibly lesbian or asexual. Whatever the truth may be, she certainly explored sexuality among many issues 

in her writing. If you don't know her work, start with Fledgling.

16. June Jordan

For day 16 we honor June Jordan, passionate poet, writer, professor and activist in the civil rights, feminist, antiwar and GLBT movements. June Jordan was openly bisexual and the author of more than twenty-five major works of poetry, fiction and essays, and many children's books. She died of breast cancer in 2002, but continues to inspire and challenge through her work and legacy.

17. Staceyann Chin

For day 17 we celebrate the out, fierce, spoken word poet, author, and activist Staceyann Chin. She first became known as a slam poet, including in the famed Nuyorican Poets Cafe. She was born in Jamaica and lives in New York. Her memoir, "The Other Side of Paradise" is a must read. She has one young daughter, born in 2012.

18. Linda Tillery

For day 18 we celebrate singer and percussionist Linda Tillery. Many lesbians were introduced to her during her time with Olivia Records, but she has been a prolific musician since the mid 60s. In addition to her albums and live performances, she is known for her work in musical preservation, In 1992, she formed the Cultural Heritage Choir, a Grammy nominated, percussion driven, vocal ensemble whose mission is to preserve and share the rich musical traditions of African American roots music. Fascinating article here.


19. Andrea Jenkins

For day 19 we celebrate Andrea Jenkins, an award winning poet, writer, performance artist and community activist. She has two chapbooks and was published in the anthology Gender Outlaws II: The Next Generation. When asked how she identifies, she said, "I am an African American, Transgender, GenderQueer woman." Andrea is the senior policy aide to a Minneapolis City Council member and serves on many local boards 


20. Pat Parker

For day 20 we honor poet and fierce activist Pat Parker. She was part of the Black Feminist Lesbian movement. She was a member of the Black Panther Movement, toured with Varied Voices of Black Women, founded the Black Women's Revolutionary Council, and contributed to the formation of the Women's Press Collective. She was also a contributor to This Bridge Called by Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. She was just 45 when she died of breast cancer in 1989.


21. Lorraine Hansberry

For day 21 we honor playwright, author and activist Lorraine Hansberry. She is best know for "Raisin the the Sun," the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. Though she was married until just before her death in 1965, she had begun to claim her identity as a lesbian in a 1957 letter to a lesbian periodical, The Ladder. She also joined joined the country’s first-ever lesbian political organization, the Daughters of Bilitis. She was just 35 when she died of cancer but her legacy lives on. Fascinating article here. 


22. Jewelle Gomez

For day 22 we celebrate Jewelle Gomez, who is an author, playwright, poet, and activist. She worked in public television and philanthropy for many years. Her book The Gilda Stories, published in 1991, is an amazing lesbian feminist vampire story about an escaped slave who comes of age over 200 years. She has published several other books and her work has appeared in many anthologies and magazines.

23. Cheryl Clarke

For day 23 we celebrate writer, poet, and activist Cheryl Clarke. Part of the Black Feminist Lesbian movement, her books include Experimental Love, Living as a Lesbian, and Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Persistent Desire: A Butch-Femme reader. She is an academic and served in various roles at Rutgers University, where she also received her PhD.

24. Carol Mobley

For day 24 we celebrate Carolyn Mobley. She was the first woman to co-chair the African-American Lesbian/Gay Alliance, which was a smaller part of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays. She was raised a devout Christian in a petite, segregated Florida municipality. But her Baptist Church condoned her lesbian sexuality despite her work as a Christian educator. The organization served to bridge the gap between the civil rights movement and the LGBT movement. She is an ordained minister in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. She and her partner Minister Adrian Bowie created the Ministry of Inspiration.

25. Toshi Reagon

For day 25 we celebrate the amazing Toshi Reagon. She is a singer/songwriter and has been performing for over 20 years. The is the daughter of Bernice Johnson Reagon, who founded Sweet Honey in the Rock. Her band BIGlovely is a favorite at Mich Fest and other festivals and venues. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and daughter.


26. Karen Williams

For day 26 we celebrate the hilarious standup and out comedian Karen Williams. Featured in the award-winning comedy/documentary We're Funny That Way, and in Logo's Laughing Matters. She's worked as a comedy writer and is the former television host of the New York variety show In the Life. 


27. Tracy Chapman, Joan Armatrading, Queen Latifah

For day 27 we celebrate three amazing musicians and performers who are rumored to be, reported to be, probably are, others have said they are, but to our knowledge have never publicly said, "Yes I am." We love them anyway. They have a huge lesbian fan base and they can be as public or private about their lives as they want to be! Big ups (and swoons) for Tracy Chapman, Joan Armatrading, and Dana Owens (Queen Latifah).


28. President Barack Obama

For the last day of our Black History month celebration we salute President Barack Obama for his support of the LGBTQ community and the steps he has taken to protect gay and lesbian people and same-sex couples. In May 2012, he became the first president of the United States to voice his personal support for the freedom to marry, and in the weeks leading up to the November 2012 election, he weighed in on four ballot initiatives - the campaigns to win marriage in Maine, Maryland and Washington and to block an anti-gay amendment in Minnesota - and urged people to support marriage for same-sex couples. He has made clear time and again - in his inauguration speech last month, when he announced that he thought the so-called Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional - that he supports same-sex couples, their families, and their marriages. We appreciate and applaud his support and urge him to continue his positive steps toward improving the lives of LGBTQ people and their families. 

Photo caption: Because of her work on LGBT equality as the Executive Director of OutFront Minnesota, Monica Meyer (right) was invited to a White House holiday celebration. Monica brought her wife, Michele Steinwald. What this photo does not show is that the nervous guests chatted too much and both hugged Michelle Obama when she reached her hand out for a handshake. I think they are smiling a little extra in the photo because of the follies. 

Kwanzaa was a chosen (interracial) family affair

My chosen family. We banded together over time beginning in about 1985 as a potpourri of multiracial families who mostly lived in or near the Powderhorn Park area of Minneapolis. 

Twenty five years later we still connect. Our now adult kids consider each other "cousins" and we adults "auntie," "uncle," "friend." And the grandkids are hatching. Some of them are friends, and even call each other "cousin." Our chosen family is now three generations strong. 

We still camp together once a year on Memorial weekend - the original parents, now in our fifties and sixties; the "kids," now in their twenties and thirties; and the next generation, who are toddlers, preschoolers, and grade schoolers. We've added new families along the way - the circle is ever expanding, ever welcoming.

But back in the day one of our most important times of celebration was Kwanzaa. We gathered yearly on New Year's Day and embraced all of its meaning and all of who we were. I wrote the piece below in the early nineties as a celebration of us, my chosen family.


Happy Kwanzaa! 

~~~~~

Family


It was our interracial families that brought us first together, but it's our history that binds us still. I feel drenched, no quenched, as I watch us at our annual Kwanzaa gathering at Karen's house this New Year's Day. We draw together in ritualistic ways, each year a rhythm of camping, storytelling, of gathering up this chosen family of ten families, our Kwanzaa ritual embedded at the center of the cycle. It's like the Thanksgivings of my childhood family, the cousins, aunts and uncles gathered 'round, each meal the same — turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, a salad with pomegranate seeds, cranberry sauce, two pies for dessert, pumpkin or mince meat, cool whip or ice cream, a comfort to be counted on.


Kwanzaa is an African American celebration, by black people for black people. But we claim it too, all of us, together. It's a refuge really, no one staring, no one glaring at our vibrant messy mix — black, white, Puerto Rican, Mexican, married, single, divorced, widowed, straight, lesbian. Our rowdy children flow among us, a striking swirl of texture, line, shape and hue.


We bring food and gifts to share. Black beans and rice, chicken wings, Pamela's Florida gumbo, my spicy black-eyed peas, sweet potato pie, Kathy's North Dakota double chocolate bars.


The gifts, called zawadis, are songs, games, crafts, stories or poetry. Tonight each zawadi seems a perfect reflection of the giver. Like Katie's, who's a social worker, who loves anything that helps us share our feelings. Tonight she gives each of us a page of mailing labels and a marker. She tells us to write down "people praises" on the labels, then walk around and stick them on each other. Soon our shirts are covered with stupid, corny messages that make us laugh, make me cry.


You're nice.
I like your style.
Your feet are cute.
You dare to be different.
You make me smile.


Even the boys play. Usually they circle around the edges of our gatherings, hanging back, hanging tough, hanging cool. But tonight, Oberika, who is fourteen and obsessed with slasher movies, slides past me and slyly slips his praise on me — Thanks for being nice to me. And from my son Anthony — You're the best mom in the world.


We catch up on our lives and offer up our pain here. The daughter who ran away, the failing marriage, the struggle with MS, the house lost to unpaid debt.


I remember the night I read some of my secret lesbian poetry. Still married, still not out, I chose to break my long silence here.


The Kwanzaa after Karen's husband Donnie died, his best friend Terryl read a poem for him and we all lit candles for him. Then, to honor him, we put on some funky funky funkadelic music and danced and danced for him.


Tonight we're funkified again. We line up for Jr. Walker and the All Stars and as the saxaphone blasts and the beat slams down we clap and shout while each dancer takes a run down the chute. The little kids jump up and down, teenagers do the tootsie roll, and we parents bump and grind the best we can.


The house fills with our noise, every corner, every inch awash in us. It's chaos — too many kids, not enough room, too much motion, but we don't care. I close my eyes and zoom away high into space like a camera for the closing take. I look again and see us still, a little speck of light, sparkling in our corner of the black black night.


January, 1995


(Quilt painting also by me, 1987)

Should queer people marry?

Four years ago today my handsome wuzband and I got legally married in Massachusetts. We have the marriage license framed and hung on the wall, along with some photos, and the broom we jumped over. 

To mark this day, I am posting a paper my (now) 24-year-old daughter wrote when she in high school (around 2003). The assignment was to write a position paper, and much to my surprise, she wrote about and took a position in favor of gay marriage. (Note: My spouse was not yet in our lives.)

At that time in her life she was somewhat embarrassed of her queer mom and was not fully "out" to her friends (I came out and left her dad when she was eight). Yet she wrote this. If a kid gets it, well what else is there to say?

Gay Marriage Position Paper

Right now in the United States there is a law called the Defense of Marriage Act.  The law says that it is illegal for gay and lesbian people to get married. It also says that each state can decide if it will accept or not accept any gay or lesbian marriage that takes place in a state or country where gay marriage is legal.  My position in this paper is that law should be changed so that gay and lesbian people can choose to get legally married.


There is going to be a big fight about that law. Recently, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that civil marriage was open to anyone, including gays and lesbians. That is a big step forward for gays and lesbians toward getting their rights. But there are a lot of people who think this is wrong and don’t agree with it. They think marriage should only be between a man and a woman. So this is going to be a big political issue as gay and lesbian people fight for their rights and other people try to stop them. It could even affect the presidential race – it’s that big. 


Since this country began, different groups of people have been fighting for their rights, and slowly things have changed. At first only white men could vote. Then women fought for the right to vote and won. Then African American people fought for the right to vote and won.  Just 30-40 years ago in some states people of different races couldn’t marry and African Americans had no civil rights. Now that’s changed. There is a pattern of more and more people fighting for what they believe in and winning. Now gay and lesbian people are taking up that fight.

I support this fight because I think two people who love each other should be
able to choose to get married. It shouldn’t matter if they are two men or two women or of different races. People should get to marry who they love.

There shouldn’t be laws that govern private things like love. Our country should support love. Some of the same people who think that people shouldn’t live together before marriage are also against gay and lesbian people getting married. Now how ridiculous is that! That means that if two men or two women are committed to each other and want to share their lives together, they have to live together and not be married. Gay and lesbian people are fighting to get to live their lives how they want to and not be frowned upon.

In our society some people also think gays and lesbians shouldn’t have children. They think that being gay or lesbian is perverted and will rub off on the kids. This is not true. Gay and lesbian parents are no different than straight parents. Kids who have gay and lesbian parents see all of the easy and hard things that go with trying to make a marriage and family work. And gay and lesbian people are going to have kids no matter what. So we should support them and let them get married.  

Besides, if they get married, they are the ones who have to live with each other. So it should be up to them. It’s hard to keep a marriage and family together, and even harder if society isn’t supporting you. 

Personally, I don’t think it’s anyone’s business who someone chooses to love. I would be mad if there was a law saying I couldn’t marry someone I loved and wanted to marry.  

In conclusion, everyone who is straight and supports the rights of gay and lesbian people should speak up and help make change. If you are against it, just mind your own business. It’s not your place to make other people unhappy just because you don’t believe in it. Just give people room to be themselves and live their lives. I hope the law changes because the more people who have their rights, the better this country will be.
~~~
Anniversary - Tony Toni Tone (How could I NOT post this!)

Queer Voices: A Reading of GLBT Writers & Friends --April 22

Sherry Quan Lee, Ann Freeman, Lori Young-Williams

 
I've never doing a reading from my blog before so this is exciting!

Intermedia Arts in partnership with Hamline University 

presents 

Queer Voices: A Reading of GLBT Writers & Friends 

hosted by curators Andrea Jenkins and John Medeiros 

Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 7:00 p.m.

Hamline University
1536 Hewitt Avenue
Giddens Learning Center, 100E
St. Paul, Minnesota 55104

LORI YOUNG-WILLIAMS is a prose poet born in St. Paul. She comes from a working class family that believes in laughter, crying, and praying when times are good, bad or otherwise. She received her degree in Human Relationships with an emphasis in family relationships from the University of Minnesota, and works a 9-5 job in Human Resources and Finance, though her passion is her writing. Most of her poetry is about her family—family relationships and how they impact her life. She has been published in Interrace magazine, the Turtle River Press, the National Library of Poetry, Quill Books, Dust & Fire. She has self-published two chapbooks, and has read in various bookstores, coffee shops, and spoken word events throughout the Twin Cities. Lori recently was accepted as a participant for the Givens Black Writers Retreat, with Sonja Sanchez and Carolyn Holbrook.

ANN FREEMAN is an artist, writer, connector, wannabe DJ, mother, grandmother, queer girl, whitegirl in an otherwise brown family, and still dancing after all these years. She is an infrequent yet enthusiastic performer in the Twin Cities art scene. She will be reading from her blog, Embrace Your Age ‘Cause You Livin’! Ann is an interloper in tonight's reading. She is totally queer, once thought she was straight, but has never been narrow.

SHERRY QUAN LEE, author of Chinese Blackbird, 2002 (“an underground favorite”), and How to Write a Suicide Note, 2008, approaches writing as a community resource and as culturally based art of an ordinary everyday practical aesthetic. Currently she is the Program Associate for the Split Rock Arts Program summer workshops and the Online Mentoring for Writers Program at the University of Minnesota where she also earned her MFA in Creative Writing. Recently retired from ten years of teaching Creative Writing at Metropolitan State University, Sherry Quan Lee continues to mentor and teach community writing workshops. She was a first year participant of Cave Canem, a writing retreat for Black poets, and previously curated cabaret performances and edited journal anthologies for the Asian American Renaissance.

For more information, call 651-523-2047

The GLBT Reading Series, presented by Intermedia Arts and Hamline University, celebrates the rich diversity of queer voices that make up the Twin Cities community of writers, readers, and their audiences, offering public readings by both emerging and established local writers and poets.

My wuzband is a drag king (and queen)

Images:
Tina Turner
Dressed for New Year's Eve
Barry White
Patti LaBelle

Wuzband:
My legally married spouse, a delicious blend of male/female. She calls herself a woman loving woman. Too queer for easy definition.

Drag King:
As a drag king she is simply slipping further into her natural maleness. She wears men's clothes anyway -- kind of an old school hip-hop surfer dude look. And she loves to sport expensive, tailored, kick-ass suits for special events. Barry White is just a step beyond the every day.

Drag Queen:
As a drag queen, she gender bends to her other self, her not as natural femaleness (which is different from her womaness) She works a woman like a man dressed as a woman because in essence that's what she is. Yet not.

Video clip -- Patti LaBelle

Video Clips -- Al Green

Latecomer blogger -- let me introduce myself

Welcome to my brand new blog! Let me introduce myself. I am a 52 year old artist, connector and wannabe DJ. I am also a mother and grandmother and queer girl extraordinaire. Got legally married to my handsome wuzband in MA 2 1/2 years ago. I am the white girl in a brown family and a mostly brown community of friends. So my life crosses a lot of interesting intersections. I am going to blog about those intersections and more.

For example, I will surely be blogging about what it's like to be a whitegirl in my world, some of the things I've learned along the way, and how the world looks through the lens of my specific eyes -- which are near sighted, far sighted, and full of astigmatism -- so it's sometimes an interesting worldview.

I will likely blog about what it means for me that our new president is biracial, and was raised by a white mother and white grandparents given that I raised two biracial kids. I could say a lot about that. A lot. But not now, later. This is my intro blog.

I am very interested in blogging about getting older. That could be the topic of most of my blogs. I did not realize I was passing out of regular adulthood into older adulthood until I was almost 50. Seriously. I was still a regular club goer and general merry maker. I had no idea I was shifting into the young side of the golden years until I realized most of the people in the clubs were the age of my kids -- until I ran into my actual kids in the clubs. I'm just sayin. I was shocked into reality.

So aging has become a subject of endless fascination for me as I really have no idea what it means to be getting older but I do know I am extremely happy to be alive, having survived a lot so far. Aging thought for the day: Billions in advertising dollars are spent each year to tell women how to look younger. What if those same dollars went into telling us how to live better?

Oh, and I stay up on world events and feel compelled to opine from time to time. My favorite TV show ever is "The Wire." That's the kind of stuff you might find me blogging about here. Politics. Race relations. The media. Poverty. Prison reform. Father's rights. The needs of undocumented people. You know, light fluffy stuff.

I love music and am an armchair critic. So I'll tell you what I think about a musician, a concert, or an album now and then. Artist recommendation of the day: Ruthie Foster. Favorite song: Up Above My Head (there is music in the air).

Since I am an artist of sorts, you never know when a poem or piece of creative nonfiction might get posted here as well.

So an anything goes blog. We'll see how it goes!

Let me end this introduction by saying I try to live by this African proverb: Don't look at your feet to see if you're doing it right. Just dance!

And remember, embrace your age cause you livin'!

Welcome! I invite your comments!