the black gay cultural renaissance and the politics of violence /
First Statement of Responsibility
Darius Bost.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Chicago :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
The University of Chicago Press,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2019.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
181 pages :
Other Physical Details
illustrations ;
Dimensions
24 cm
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Introduction: On black gay being -- The contradictions of grief: violence and value in Blacklight magazine -- Loneliness: black gay longing in the work of Essex Hemphill -- Postmortem politics: the other countries collective and black gay mourning -- The future is very uncertain black gay self-making in Melvin Dixon's diaries -- Epilogue: Afterimage.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Evidence of Being opens on a grim scene: Washington DC's gay black community in the 1980s, ravaged by AIDS, the crack epidemic, and a series of unsolved murders, seemingly abandoned by the government and mainstream culture. Yet in this darkest of moments, a new vision of community and hope managed to emerge. Darius Bost's account of the media, poetry, and performance of this time and place reveals a stunning confluence of activism and the arts. In Washington and New York during the 1980s and '90s, gay black men banded together, using creative expression as a tool to challenge the widespread views that marked them as unworthy of grief. They created art that enriched and reimagined their lives in the face of pain and neglect, while at the same time forging a path toward bold new modes of existence. At once a corrective to the predominantly white male accounts of the AIDS crisis and an openhearted depiction of the possibilities of black gay life, Evidence of Being above all insists on the primacy of community over loneliness, and hope over despair.
PARALLEL TITLE PROPER
Parallel Title
Black gay cultural renaissance and the politics of violence
PERSONAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Dixon, Melvin,1950-1992.
Hemphill, Essex.
Hemphill, Essex.
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
African American gay men-- New York (State)-- New York.