To Be Heard In Print: Black Gay Writers in 1980s New York

Описание: New York City in the 1980s witnessed the establishment of several organizations founded by and for Black gay men. Among these organizations were two writing groups, the Blackheart Collective and Other Countries, both with ties to Greenwich Village. Begun in 1980 by a group of Black gay men involved in the arts and in politics, the Blackheart Collective was followed by Other Countries, a writing workshop established in 1986. Other Countries included several men who had been associated with Blackheart. Other Countries eventually grew to include a writing workshop (which continues today), a publishing initiative, and a performance program. The work created and presented by the Black gay men in the Blackheart Collective and in Other Countries represented continuing efforts by these men to make their presence known to both the Black community and the LGBTQ community and to leave a record of their ideas and of their lives.

Kevin McGruder, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of History at Antioch College. His interest in community formation led to a career in community development, with positions that included Program Director at Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Director of Real Estate Development with the Abyssinian Development Corporation (Harlem), and Executive Director of Gay Men of African Descent (New York City). Since the early 1990s he has been a member of the Other Countries, a New York City-based Black gay men’s writing collective that has published three anthologies, Other Countries: Black Gay Voices (1988), Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the Age of AIDS (1993), and Voices Rising: Celebrating 20 years of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Writing (2007). McGruder has a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University, an M.B.A. in Real Estate Finance from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the City University of New York. He is author of Race and Real Estate: Conflict and Cooperation in Harlem, 1890-1920 (2015) and Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem (2021), and editor of Home at Last: The Collected Writings of AIDS Journalist LeRoy Whitfield (2023).

Village Preservation are a member-based organization, so your support is essential to enabling us to provide this free programming for our community and continue our advocacy and preservation work. If you like what we do, join or make a donation.

Learn more at our website, villagepreservation.org, and please consider becoming a member or making a donation if you’re able at villagepreservation.org/donate.