Fiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Using traditional storytelling and nontraditional verse to chronicle the course of love returning in the lifetimes of one woman-loving-woman named bull-dog-jean, the bull-jeanstories give cultural documentation and social commentary on African-American herstory and survival. Set in the rural South of the 1920s, THE BULL-JEAN STORIES herald the spirit of African-American people. "BULL-JEAN STORIES by Sharon Bridgforth isn't a book that you read, it's a book that you hear...The language in THE BULL-JEAN STORIES is sweet and intense, as are the thoughts and exploits of bull-dog-jean. Every passage sings...This book gets my unqualified recommendation and also a suggestion: if you can get Austin performance artist Bridgforth to your town for a reading, do it. You won't be disappointed."—Sara Look "The book [THE BULL-JEAN STORIES] brings to life the sights and sounds of the rural south in the 1920s with stories that leap to you from the well of love and life, untangling open heart wounds with words and uncovering the strength of the author in pure character. ..Bridgforth's talent as a storyteller is purposeful and loving. Consistent in THE BULL-JEAN STORIES is the cultural shadow that bull-jean, an 'all-my-heart' revolutionary, secretly and outwardly conquers with nobility and ease, but not without pain...The book carries you with it, not the other way around."—Sandra Beckmeier "...Set in the rural South of the 1920s, these stories are infused with a mother tongue that will work its magic on you, transporting you in time and place...The non-linear structure of her poetic/circular storytelling in the bull- jean stories makes for a natural transition from page to stage. It also is a very ingenious way to highlight what is the essence of oral tradition: how it sounds...Here the rhythm and the flow of the words and the dialect come together as if in song. These jazzy poetic riffs need to be read aloud. This is one book that should come with a CD—Bridgforth's language begs to be heard."—Debra Hiers "It reads like a play, speaks like a poem, visualizes like scenes from a movie, and lingers in your ear like your favorite song. Hooray for sharon bridgforth on her first published performance stories. It includes all the literary elements you expect in a novel: setting—the rural south of the 1920s; a round character—bull- dog jean la rue; plot and conflict—will she or won't she find 'Lovve'?; and style, tone, and language woven in the oral tradition of Southern dialect. Yet it's not (a novel, that is)...Perhaps the brilliance of the work is the way bridgforth infuses historical data into humor, sentiment, and lyrical prose, illuminating what it meant to be an African-American butch lesbian living in the South...Truly, what bridgforth has done with this collection, THE BULL-JEAN STORIES, is sure to set a precedent for future storytelling writers. It is a must-have in your repertoire."—Lambda Book Report

The Bull-Jean Stories

Literature & Fiction

Bridgforth, Sharon

United States

RedBone Press

Literary Nonfiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Spirituality. SPIRITED: AFFIRMING THE SOUL AND BLACK GAY/LESBIAN IDENTITY is a collection of essays that centers on the relationships between spirituality, religion and self-acceptance.

Spirited: Affirming the Soul And Black Gay/lesbian Identity

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Poetry. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Gay Men's Poetry. Stonewall Book Award Finalist. "The poems collected in LAST RIGHTS portray caring, humanness, family or kinship, humor, despair, ordinary problems and unqualified love as they occur in the everyday lives of homosexuals. With the quiet dignity of these poems Marvin K. White challenges us to consider how homophobia may distort what we behold"—The Washington Post.

Last Rights

White, Marvin K.

Poetry

Poetry. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Lambda Literary Award finalist. "In NOTHIN' UGLY FLY, Marvin K. White follows his celebrated last rights by charting the course from being a boy 'dangerous and unexpected' to being a man who becomes 'expected' through loving another man. The black bird that is his poetry emerges out of the relation between what is said and what is only hinted in the voice and music of his work. In his best poems, the self asserted is fiercely witty and soul-filled, and it embodies the whole flock of men he acknowledges, honors and celebrates. This is a book that lifts off and lifts up"—Forrest Hamer.

Nothin' Ugly Fly

Fiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Drama. LOVE CONJURE/BLUES is performance literature/a novel that is constructed for breath. The piece is not meant to be theater/a concert/an opera or a staged reading but is. LOVE CONJURE/BLUES places the fiction- form inside a traditional Black American voice/inviting dramatic interpretation and movement within the fit of a highly literary text—filled with folktales poetry haints prophecy song and oral history. LOVE CONJURE/BLUES considers a range of possibilities of gender expression and sexuality within a southern/rural/Black working class context that examines the blues as a way of life/as ritual—in concert with Ancient practices and new creations. The past the present the future the living and the dead co-exist together/at the same time in a weave of dreams/Prayers/Love/Spirit expressed.

Love Conjure/Blues

Poetry. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. WHERE THE APPLE FALLS resides at the intersections between woman and female—both human and environmental—and the concepts to which she is often linked: death, rebirth, victim, sexual/perverse. Seasons are crucial: from the birth of Spring through Autumn's final harvest, the work suggests a recasting of the farmer; a reclamation of both the fall and redemption/death/(re)birth on her own terms. Finally, WHERE THE APPLE FALLS highlights the resilience of strength. Even strength denied does not die. Instead, it continues to grow in power, waiting for its calling. WHERE THE APPLE FALLS reminds us to imagine, encourages us to answer the call, to revel in the beauty and possibility that we all embody, to consider our direction and route. "In her debut collection WHERE THE APPLE FALLS, Samiya Bashir demands we listen and hear the symphony of stories that 'sail on the ochre cushion of these moonlit poems.' In 'Moon Cycling,' she writes: 'Don't come by my door/ Smellin' fresh like that/ Sizzling like summer/ Steak medium rare/ I'll think you are/ My supper.' But she opens the door and her words and images grab us and never let go. She challenges ideas of edginess, religion, beauty, sexuality and imagination. Bashir's language is vivid and compelling in lines like 'Crooked back bowed into the new black moon.' There's remarkable womanness, vulnerability, pain and insight in these lines…WHERE THE APPLE FALLS can at times be a difficult read, as many poems are dense and complex. But here is a new and provocative voice comfortable in the skin of her poems, secure in her poetic vision." —Black Issues Book Review "Bashir's first book of poems is a moving blend of personal narrative and lyric grace. Poems that deal with the legacy of slavery are haunting, such as the intimacy and danger in 'Floating Down the Delaware': 'Black skin rots cerulean blue. The/ two bodies were found on Thursday/ night. No wonder I can't keep track/ of time.' Bashir's finely crafted lines touch on migration, faith, urban life and the lives of women, never letting their reach slacken." —Curve Magazine "[E]xpand[s] the range of questions American poetry can and should ask. Bashir zooms in on exquisite details—from childhood rituals to her lover's lips—then her topics explode outward as she grapples with war, violence against women, and the legacy of slavery. A tendency to make lists sometimes dilutes Bashir's voice, but overall, her writing is precise with rage, intelligence, and tenderness shimmering through." —Girlfriends Magazine

Where the Apple Falls

Bashir, Samiya

Literary Nonfiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Film and Music Criticism. Winner of a PEN America 2007 Beyond Margins Award. Finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Writing from a critical center that is melanin-based/feminist/pro- queer/unabashedly-leftist, LA-based writer Ernest Hardy (a Sundance Fellow and member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vibe, the Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly and more) pens essays, interviews and reviews whose subject matter ranges from underground hip-hop and American indie film to modernFrench cinema; from revealing interviews with Warren Beatty, Meshell NdegeOcello and Les Nubians to an essay on gay rappers and queer rap audiences that pushes beyond the clichés of the media-stoked "down-low" phenomenon.

Blood Beats: Vol. 1 Demos, Remixes & Extended Versions

Hardy, Ernest

History & Criticism

Cultural Writing. African American Studies. Gay & Lesbian Studies. Film and Music Criticism. Writing from a critical center that is melanin-based/feminist/pro-queer/unabashedly-leftist, LA-based writer Ernest Hardy pens essays, interviews and reviews whose subject matter ranges from underground hip-hop and American indie film to modern French cinema; from revealing interviews with Carl Hancock Rux, Sarah Schulman, Meshell NdegeOcello, visual artist Mark Bradford, legendary French filmmaker Agnes Varda, and Ledisi to essays on the Fugees, Kanye West, Eminem and gay hip-hop porn.

Blood Beats: Vol.2 / the Bootleg Joints

Arts & Photography

Music

Fiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Debut Fiction. Set in the age of urbanization in the Dominican Republic over the course of several lifetimes, ERZULIE'S SKIRT is a tale of how women and their families struggle with love, tragedy and destiny. Told from the perspectives of three women, ERZULIE'S SKIRT takes us from rural villages and sugar cane plantations to the poor neighborhoods of Santo Domingo, and through the journey by yola across the sea between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. It is a compelling love story that unearths our deep ancestral connections to land, ritual and memory.

Erzulie's Skirt

Lara, Ana-Maurine

Literary Nonfiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Winner of a Lambda Literary Award. BROTHER TO BROTHER, begun by Joseph Beam and completed by Essex Hemphill after Beam's death in 1988, is a collection of now-classic literary work by black gay male writers. Originally published in 1991 and out of print for several years, BROTHER TO BROTHER "is a community of voices," Hemphill writes. "[It] tells a story that laughs and cries and sings and celebrates...it's a conversation intimate friends share for hours. These are truly words mined syllable by syllable from the harts of black gay men. You're invited to listen in because you're family, and these aren't secrets-not to us, so why should they be secrets to you? Just listen. Your brother is speaking." This new edition includes an introduction by Jafari Allen.

Brother to Brother: New Writing by Black Gay Men

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