Black History Month

It is not enough to tell us that one was a brilliant poet, scientist, educator, or rebel. Whom did he love? It makes a difference. I can't become a whole man simply on what is fed to me: watered-down versions of Black life in America. I need the ass-splitting truth to be told, so I will have something pure to emulate, a reason to remain loyal. 

The closing lines of Essex Hemphill's essay "Loyalty", published in his seminal collection Ceremonies (Plume Press, 1992), speak to his lifelong work of making Black gay life and history visible in spite of the state and society's oppressive heteronormativity on top of exclusionary White gay and lesbian politics. In February (and every month thereafter), we take up Hemphill's words as a reminder that Black History Month must necessarily include Black Queer History. We are honored to share works by the thinkers, writers, artists, activists, whose work speaks to black queer struggle, possibility, and enduring commitment to being in the life.