A Spoken Word Performance to Benefit Fire & Ink, A Writers Festival for GLBT People of African Descent

Over the years there have been many writer’s conferences. On September 2002 there was a first. A writer’s festival for GLBT people of African descent. It was the brainchild of a group that included Sharon Bridgforth, Dorothy Randall Gray, Reginald Harris, G. Winston James and Lisa C. Moore. (Read more about the conference here.)

Join Lisa C. Moore and others for A Spoken Word Performance to Benefit Fire & Ink.

Saturday December 6, at 7 PM
ChangeMakers, 6536 Telegraph Ave.,
Oakland, CA
Phone:  510-655-2405
$5-$12, sliding scale

Performers

host: Karen X Carla Trujillo
Earthlyn M. Manuel
Marvin K. White
Juba Kalamka
Tim'm West
Brigitte Roberts
Michelle Tea Marvin
K. White
Bahiyyih Maroon
Jennifer Argle
Gwendolyn Bikis
Mattie Richardson
Website: http://www.geocities.com/cleo2525/

A Cathartic Drive

My plan last evening was to see a play a co-worker was performing in at the West Angeles Theater for Performing Arts.  Going also meant I would be in Christine’s old neighborhood for the first time in months.  This was something I had been avoiding for a very long time and I tried very hard to talk myself out of doing this last night.  But, I felt I needed to address my fears and concerns and do it thus, I forced myself to dress – lavishly, I might add – put on makeup, layered my scents and prepared myself for the journey.  I felt if I my interior self was not feeling its best, at least my exterior self would appear stunningly chic and hopefully would mask what I felt inside.  [Read More]

David Neale battles ignorance and raises consciousness about black gays and lesbians through speaking, writing, and entrepreneurship. A Brown University graduate, he is the founder and resource manager of Black Lavender Resources.

Neale's crusade began during his senior year at an all male, Catholic high school in Maryland. Unwilling to remain silent any longer in the face of regular harassment from those who already perceived him to be gay, Neale came-out. The harassment intensified, but Neale — a straight-A, model student — received little support from the school's administration for his act of self-empowerment and self-acceptance. When the school's principal prevented him from publishing an article about his experiences as a gay student in the school newspaper, Neale took matters into his own hands. With the help of his mother, he made 800 photocopies of the 3-page article and distributed as many as he could himself before the administration confiscated the articles. Neale’s coming-out story is chronicled in Being Different: Lambda Youths Speak Out (Franklin Watts, 1995). [Read More]