How does Literature act as a tool in understanding Queer Black people?

This memoir also talks about the queer black experience, but this has a rather personal approach. This memoir gives a glimpse in Jones’ life where he strives to make a place for himself, navigating through the turmoils of adolescence, as a young black gay man. As he fights to be himself, he comes face to face with his sexuality and race, and experiences love, power, grief and vulnerability.

This is a spellbinding biomythography that tells the reader what being gay and black, and female and poor in the ‘50s in New York City looked like, where the poet in Audre Lorde delicately describes a fraught relationship between her mother and her and the simple fact of loving women. As you read this book you realise that Audre somehow believes that lesbians form the only category of women that support each other and root for each other. She, her lovers and her friends come together in sisterhood, something that the feminist movement emphasized on, years later.

By the virtue of being a woman, one is already set up to fight for everything that is readily available to the other sex, right from birth. It has always been girls huddled together against a greater aloneness. This book covers the experiences of so many women like Audre, where they have to face prejudices of the school system, or the disappointment of limited life choices, in terms of love and work in adulthood. This book is a visionary text, having elements of history, myth, and biography, implying that many sources have been carefully brought together to make this beautiful piece of literature.

This is Janet’s Memoir where she shares her perspective on life as a multiracial transwoman, and speaks about the biases people have, and the unique vulnerabilities and challenges that come with being a part of a doubly marginalized community.

Her story does not end at her transition, but by speaking of her own childhood she goes a step further in reflecting the stories of most trans children who are made to believe that they are different because what’s between your legs apparently decides who you are as a person. Janet then goes on to show the alienation that results from society’s false beliefs where young trans people have to resort to sex work to survive.

Janet is a brave and inspirational woman and whether you are trans or if you are simply looking to educate yourself then pick this book right away. Yes it is non-fiction, but trust me, it is very moving.

With extensive research on history of black gay men from 1950-1990, this book talks about major queer movements like gay liberation and AIDS activism, that have influenced the discrimination faced by black homosexuals. This book really has a lot to teach and puts forth a moving narrative of the numerous lives lost to the AIDS epidemic with a compassionate voice. Since the book is backed by heavy research it comes as close towards portraying the roles of black gay man as possible.

This poetry collection is a provocative commentary on sexuality, race, homophobia, death, and AIDS. Some poems are very vivid in imagery while the others are immensely breath-taking. Yes, Danez talks about many things in his poems but what caught my attention was, how he tenderly captured an HIV diagnosis. Waiting for results after being diagnosed is really hard as accounted for hundreds of gay men who lived through the HIV epidemic. But he does this so thoughtfully. In addition, his poetry often has an angry tone, with a theme of rebellion consistent in each of his poems.

Smith shares his experiences of being a man who is HIV positive while also talking about violence and guns and police brutality all at the same time. His work is not only poetic, but it is also informative. There is this one instance where through his poem he accurately addresses a fact, substantiated by statistics from the Centre Of Disease control, which said that 1 in 2 black men who had gay sex, were HIV positive. If you want to have a meaningful read that changes your perspective on queer-black poetry, then I suggest you read this collection for it is rich with powerful imagery and yet very accessible.