Embedded Files
Biography
Biography
Pictured Left to right (Djola Branner, Brian Freeman, & Eric Gupton)
PostModern African American Homosexuals (Pomo Afro Homos) was an African-American gay identified three man performance troupe founded in San Francisco, CA in 1990 by Eric Gupton, Brian Freeman, and Djola Branner. Eric Gupton was a singer and a dancer who was born in Boston in 1960. He attended Antioch College in Ohio where he earned a Master’s degree in theater. He moved to San Francisco in 1984 where he would meet Brian Freeman. Brian Freeman was born in 1955 in Boston. He is a writer, director, and actor who was a member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. Brian served as the Director-In-Residence at the Public Theater from 1988-89 before he founded Pomo Afro Homos. Aside from his two works with Pomo Afro Homos Brian, he has also written A Night at the Apollo, I Think It’s Gonna Work out Fine, Slight Variance, and Civil Sex. Djola Branner, whose name means “share the wealth” in Yoruba, was born in Los Angeles in 1957. Djola received his Bachelor’s from UC Santa Cruz, one Master’s Degree from the New School in Playwriting, and one from San Francisco State University in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Pomo Afro Homos only created two pieces together: Fierce Love: Stories from Black Gay Life and Dark Fruit. Each piece in some way explores the lack of representation of three-dimensional lives of Black gay men in the theater. Their work was a critical response to complicated 90’s race politics and the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was prevalent in the black community. Pomo Afro Homos toured both nationally and internationally playing in spaces such as Lincoln Center and the Public. They also managed to garner awards along the way for their work. In 1991 they were banned from the National Black Theater Festival due to the explicit content of their work and their expression of black queer identity. Ultimately, the group disbanded in 1995 at which time the members all went their separate ways. Djola moved to Minneapolis. Brian moved to New York. Eric remained in San Francisco. Occasionally, a fourth member, Marvin K. White, would act and write scenes for the group. Pomo Afro Homos never got back together as a group after 1995 but their work lives on and saw a 2012 revival called Fierce Love: Remix played by different actors. Eric Gupton passed away in 2003. He was 43 years old.
Highlighted Play: Fierce Love: Stories from Black Gay Life
Highlighted Play: Fierce Love: Stories from Black Gay Life
Pictured Left to right (Brian Freeman, Eric Gupton, Djola Branner)
Synopsis
Synopsis
This play is made up of 12 vignettes depicting Black Gay Life in America. True to their postmodern name, these 12 pieces are a pastiche of a larger narrative of Black culture but do not have a traditional play structure held together by narrative and a through line of action but rather the play is held together by performative identity and political critique. The play opens with the song "We Are" sung by all three actors which sets the mode for the piece around larger cultural narratives. The 10th vignette is "Silently Into the Night," which is a monologue where an actor recounts the final days of a sick friend diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. The final vignette is "Toward a Black Queer Rhythm Nation," where the actors urge their community to come together and be proud of who they are and the stories they have to tell. The play ends with "We Are" (Reprise) closing the play like they opened it with a song lifting up their voices and spirits.
Where this play might be used in educational settings:
Where this play might be used in educational settings:
This play can be used in applied settings to probe the ideas of race, identity, and the concept of masculinity. The ideal demographic would be teenagers through adults.
Suggested Activity: Mirror Text
Suggested Activity: Mirror Text
After reading Fierce Love, the participants will create what is called a Mirror Text. In mirror text the participants will have 15 mins to make a creative written response telling his/her/their own story. This could be in the form of a poem, song, rap, or monologue. The purpose of this exercise is to encourage participants to take creative control of their own narratives. The participants then seal their creative piece in an envelope which is mailed to them at the completion of the class and/or workshop six months from the date of the activity. The purpose of receiving the mail six months later is to remind the participants to always (re)discover who they are.
Questions
Questions
1. What did you think about the play?
2. What are some of the structural storytelling devices Pomo Afro Homos use in Fierce Love?
3. Why do you think the scenes are ordered in the way they are?
4. How would you describe the tone?
5. In what ways do Pomo Afro Homos explore masculinity?
6. What are their views on love and relationships?
7. How does the idea of “passing” manifest in this play as well? (Particularly in the Sad Young Man monologue)
8. Are they more critical on black Culture, pop culture, or on gay Culture?
9. What genre would you classify this work as?
10. What do you think the message of this piece is?
11. What makes Pomo Afro Homos so Postmodern and if they created a work today what do you think some of the topics they might cover would be?
Additional Work
Additional Work
Dark Fruit
Dark Fruit
Synopsis
This avant-garde piece is made up of eight sketches that examine the reality of black gay men in the mid-90s. Each sketch operates independently and doesn’t present a cohesive traditional through line but rather this play is a pastiche of different portrayals of black gay men enduring their human condition. Dark Fruit examines racism, masculinity, the church, homophobia, and the meaning of community. This begins with "Auntie in America: Ephipanies ‘n Roaches" critiquing the portrayal of black men in contemporary American theatre. The play ends on a letter to society asking for support and allies for the cause but also assuring that a hero is not what they are looking for.
How this play can be used:
This play would work well in applied setting to teach teach monologue and scene study work. This play could also be used as an entry point into discussions about, race, identity, masculinity, or a historical discussion on Black America in the early 90s’. This play could be useful in working with queer youth of color to explore identity formation.
Comprehensive List of Plays
Comprehensive List of Plays
Pictured Left to right (Eric Gupton, Djola Branner, & Brian Freeman)
Pomo Afro Homos
Pomo Afro Homos
Fierce Love
Dark Fruit
Additional works by Djola Branner
Additional works by Djola Branner
Sash and Trim and Other Plays
Mighty Real: A Tribute to Sylvester
Additional works by Brian Freeman
Additional works by Brian Freeman
A Night at the Apollo
I Think It’s Gonna Work out Fine
Slight Variance
Civil Sex
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Clum, J. (1996). Staging gay lives: An anthology of contemporary gay theater (pp. 319-343). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Staging Gay Lives is an anthology of plays from contemporary queer playwrights amplifying the voices and issues of contemporary gay life. "The Forward" by Tony Kushner places emphasis the necessity of this anthology firmly in the lore of 20th Century ethos. Dark Fruit is POMO AFRO HOMOS second piece that explores race, love, and identity in a fragmented 20th century American construct.
Elam, H., & Alexander, R. (2001). Colored contradictions: An anthology of contemporary African-American plays (pp. 256-285). New York, NY: Bt Bound.
Colored Contradictions is an anthology of 12 contemporary stories of Black Life in America. Harry Elam and Robert Alexander compiles some of purest voices of playwrights of color to present fresh eyes on what it means to navigate marginalized life and the psychosis that goes along with it. This anthology contains POMO AFRO HOMOs first work Fierce Love. Fierce Love examines the double bind of being black and gay in America and how identity and self-perception is shaped by societal pejoratives.
Pictured Left to right (Eric Gupton & Brian Freeman)
Bibliography
Bibliography
Anderson, R. (2013). Fabulous: Sylvester James, Black Queer Afrofuturism and the Black Fantastic. Dancecult, 5(2). doi:10.12801/1947-5403.2013.05.02.15
Boykin, K. (2006). Beyond the down low: Sex, lies, and denial in black America. New York: Carroll & Graf.
Colmon, C. D. (2017). Queer Afrofuturism: Utopia, Sexuality, and Desire in Samuel Delanys “Aye, and Gomorrah”. Utopian Studies, 28(2), 327-346. doi:10.5325/utopianstudies.28.2.0327
Egner, J., & Maloney, P. (2015). “It Has No Color, It Has No Gender, It’s Gender Bending”: Gender and Sexuality Fluidity and Subversiveness in Drag Performance. Journal of Homosexuality, 63(7), 875-903. doi:10.1080/00918369.2015.1116345
Jones, J. H. (1992). The Tuskegee Legacy AIDS and the Black Community. The Hastings Center Report, 22(6), 38-40. doi:10.2307/3562949
Kuzmanovic, D. (n.d.). Queer Race Play: Kinky Sex and the Trauma of Racism. Disgust and Desire, 91, 69-88. doi:10.1163/9789004360150_006
Melton, M. E. (2016). Ive Got a Testimony: James Baldwin and the Broken Silences of Black Queer Men. James Baldwin Review, 2(1), 6-27. doi:10.7227/jbr.2.2
Roman, D. (1998). POMO AFRO HOMOS' Fierce Love Intervening in the Cultural Politics of Race, Sexuality, and AIDS. In Acts of intervention performance, gay culture, and AIDS (pp. 154-176). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Web page created by Durell Cooper (2018)
Report abuse