Commentary by tnichlsn
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Welcome to this weeks special "mash-up" editions of Black Kos and WGLB. We undertake this diary exchange in the hope of mending fences and/or at least fostering understanding. The way I see this disconnect, it is simply a disagreement in how best the Obama administration can or should push forward our parallel but slightly askew agendas. And the fact that our two blogging communities are now somewhat at odds on how this is best achieved is, to me at least, understandable. As dopper0189 mentions in his commentary for WGLB, there is significant overlap between our communities both here at DailyKos and in the real world.
With the new ground Barack Obama has broken by winning the presidency last year, communities of color have been placed in the precarious position of having anything less than a resoundingly successful 8 years from his administration set their community back years if not longer in their march towards full inclusion in American society. And to that ends, they consider any overly harsh criticism of the president as detrimental to it's ultimate legacy.
continued below the fold-
On the other hand, the GLBT community sees this administration, with it's large majority in Congress, as the first opportunity in a generation to push forward our civil rights agenda with any real hope of gaining ground. I believe the only color seen by most GLBT activists when looking at our president is blue, which is why the criticism, that the president has stated he welcomes, keeps flowing towards Pennsylvania Avenue. He has undeniably already done much more by way of GLBT recognition and inclusion than any previous administration in history.
From my personal perspective, I do understand this disconnect... and can't understand why others can't. And while both of our communities continue to push towards the same ends, this may be one instance where we may find each other exerting pressure at cross purposes.
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Eudy Simelane was raped and murdered in South Africa for playing the game she loved, where 'corrective rape' is an everyday threat to lesbians. Please sign our WGLB petition to have FIFA honor her at the World Cup being held in South Africa later this year.
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The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times.
Eudy Simelane loved football. In other countries the 29-year-old who rose through the ranks to become captain of the women’s national football team would have been hailed as a star. In South Africa it cost her her life. Her sexuality and supposedly butch looks were a death sentence in a country in which the sport is still considered a man’s game by many. As well as being one of South Africa's best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equal rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema. Her brutal murder took place in April of 2008 and since then a tide of violence against lesbians in South Africa has continued to rise. Human rights campaigners say it is characterized by what they call "corrective rape" committed by men behind the guise of trying to "cure" lesbians of their sexual orientation. Simelane had lived for soccer, as a midfielder for the gallant but struggling national women's football team, Banyana Banyana ("The Girls"). S.A. women’s soccer struggles because it’s still far from getting the respect and funding that men’s soccer gets — according to one player, the team often played with worn-out shoes. After Simelane stopped playing, she stayed in the sport as a referee, and became an activist after she came out. Her memorial service took place at the local Methodist Church; she was buried next day. Simelane leaves behind a grieving lesbian partner, Sibongile Vilakazi.
A report by the South African Human Rights Commission condemns the culture of impunity around these crimes, which it says are going unrecognized by the state and unpunished by the legal system. The report calls for South Africa's criminal justice system to recognize hate crimes, including corrective rape, as a separate crime category. It argues this will force police to take action over the rising violence and ensure the resources and support are provided to those trying to bring perpetrators to justice.
The ferocity and brutality of Simelane's murder sent shock waves through Kwa Thema, where she was known for bringing sports fame to the sprawling township. Her mother, Mally Simelane, said she always feared for her daughter's safety but never imagined her life would be taken in such a brutal way. "I'm scared that these people are going to come and kill me too because I don't know what happened," she said. "Why did they do this horrible thing? Because of who she was? She was a sweet lady, she never fought with anyone, but why would they kill her like this? She was stabbed, 25 holes in her. The whole body, even under the feet."
Lesbians in townships in Johannesburg and Cape Town say they are being deliberately targeted for rape and that the threat of violence has become an everyday ordeal. "Every day I am told that they are going to kill me, that they are going to rape me and after they rape me I'll become a girl," said Zakhe Sowello from Soweto, Johannesburg. "When you are raped you have a lot of evidence on your body. But when we try and report these crimes nothing happens, and then you see the boys who raped you walking free on the street."
Research released last year by Triangle, a leading South African gay rights organization says it is dealing with up to 10 new cases of "corrective rape" every week. "What we're seeing is a spike in the numbers of women coming to us having been raped and who have been told throughout the attack that being a lesbian was to blame for what was happening to them," said Vanessa Ludwig, the chief executive at Triangle.
A statement released by South Africa's national prosecuting authority said: "While hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritized as a specific project." The failure of police to follow up eyewitness statements and continue their investigation into another brutal double rape and murder of lesbian couple Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Massooa in July 2007 has led to the formation of the 07-07-07 Campaign, a coalition of human rights and equality groups calling for justice for women targeted in these attacks. Sigasa and Massooa were tortured, gang raped and shot near their homes in Meadowland, Soweto in July 2007, shortly after being verbally abused outside a bar.
Human rights and equality campaigners are hoping that the public outrage and disgust at Simelane's death and the July trial of the three men accused of her rape and murder will help put an end to the spiraling violence increasingly faced by lesbians across South Africa. Despite more than 30 reported murders of lesbians in the last decade, Simelane's trial has produced the first conviction, when one man who pleaded guilty to her rape and murder was jailed last month. On sentencing, the judge said that Simelane's sexual orientation had "no significance" in her killing.
In Soweto and Kwa Thema, women seem unconvinced that Simelane's case will change anything for the better. Phumla talks of her experience of being taught a "classic lesson" by a group of men who abducted and raped her when she was returning from football training in 2003. She says that "practically every" lesbian in her community has suffered some form of violence in the past year and that it will take more than one trial to stop this happening. "Every day you feel like its a time bomb waiting to go off," she said. "You don't have freedom of movement, you don't have space to do as you please. You are always scared and your life always feels restricted. As women and as lesbians we need to be very aware that it is a fact of life that we are always in danger."
please sign this petition also.
from the UK Guardian-
On September 21, 2009, Themba Mvubu, 24, was found guilty of murdering, robbing and being an accessory to the rape of Simelane. Activists at the magistrates court in Delmas, Mpumalanga province, hailed the judgment as "extremely important" in drawing attention to cases of murder and corrective rape against lesbians in South Africa. Simelane was one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema township, near Johannesburg. A keen footballer since childhood, she played for the South African women's team and worked as a coach and referee. She hoped to serve as a line official in the 2010 men's World Cup in South Africa.
"Eudy Simelane suffered a brutal, undignified death," Judge Ratha Mokgoathleng told the court, where the victim's parents sat with heads bowed. "She was stripped naked, stabbed, assaulted, raped. What more indignity can a person endure?" He continued: "The accused has shown no remorse whatsoever. He steadfastly maintains he was not to blame for the death of the deceased. That is his right. It's painful to send a young person to jail, but if the young person behaves like an adult with criminal conduct, he cannot expect to hide behind his youthfulness."
Mvubu, wearing a hooped brown and cream sweater, sat looking at the floor with hands behind his back for much of the hearing. Questioned by reporters, he muttered "I'm not sorry" as he was led from the dock to jeers from the public gallery.
He was the second man convicted of the crime. Earlier this year Thato Mphithi pleaded guilty to murder, robbery and being an accomplice to the attempt to commit rape. He was imprisoned for a total of 32 years.
Two more men, Khumbulani Magagula, 22, and 18-year-old Johannes Mahlangu were acquitted today of their alleged part in the attack. "God will be their judge," said Judge Mokgoathleng.
from the NY Times-
South Africans are obsessed with the violent crime in their midst, and earlier this month the new police minister, Nathi Mthethwa, tried to reassure them. "We are tired of waving nice documents like the Constitution" at criminals, he said, vowing instead to "meet the thugs head-on, and if it means we kill when we shoot them, so be it."
The problem with such tough talk, gay and lesbian groups say, is that it often excludes crimes directed at them. They claim they are special targets of violence, and snickering, abusive police officers do little to protect them or pursue their complaints.
The Simelane case has been central to a campaign to bring attention to attacks against lesbians and gay men. But sexual orientation was never established as a motive at the trial. Judge Mokgoathleng was uncomfortable with the term lesbian itself. "Is there another word that you can use instead of that one?" he asked the prosecutor.
Phumi Mtetwa, executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, said today: "This judgment is extremely important. It doesn't state that she was killed as a lesbian but because she was known. "How did people know her in the township? She was a soccer player who was 'butch' and was known. People are killed because of who they are." Simelane's mother, Mally, 65, said: "I'm happy. I'm released. My life will come right again."
"Most survivors of these attacks do not report them. We believe there are hundreds of people who have been targeted," Phumi Mtetna, 36, the director of the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, told The Times. "Men are unemployed and feel traditional male preserves — such as football or drinking in a bar — are under attack. That was Eudy’s crime. An aggravating factor was that she did not look like a typical female. People are just getting killed here because they are different, like HIV-positive people have been killed in the past. What is important is to get a verdict which includes murder," she said.
Lesbians and gay advocacy organizations say that the problem has not been helped by a lack of support from the authorities in a society that is still highly traditional. South Africa has one of the most liberal constitutions in the world, but the reality often proves far less tolerant. "If a lesbian tries to report a rape, police will say something like, ‘Who would rape someone looking like you’?", Ms Mtetna said.
In a report this year, the British charity ActionAid said that "corrective rape" attacks were on the increase as gay women suffered a backlash from men feeling that traditional male dominance was at risk. Support groups emphasized that the issue had to be looked at from the wider perspective of growing violence against women in general and increasing rape incidents. South Africa has one of the highest incidences of rape in the world. Nearly 150 women are reported to have been raped every day, although activists say that the figure is much higher.
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Sylvester (James) was fierce! Enough said...
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Sylvester was fierce, even as a spry brown-skinned little gay boy, his voice and spirit of equal and magnanimous proportions. Standing, with the assistance of an apple box, tall and proud before the congregation and wailing Aretha Franklin's "Never Grow Old" just like the Queen herself. Tearing up the church and causing the Holy Ghost to break out all over the Tabernacle. It was only a foretelling sign of things to come. He was a force of nature even then, barely six and singing like he held some secret that the world knew nothing of, just yet. Somehow, he was born perfectly comfortable in his skin. He knew who he was and operated as though it was the world's mission to catch up and catch on to his fabulousness.
He was Sylvester.
Sylvester James was born in to a slightly bourgeoisie family in Los Angeles and was raised by his mother and stepfather, Letha and Robert Hurd. Many of the facts of his early life are uncertain. One thing is certain though, Sylvester was a child gospel star. Encouraged to sing by his grandmother, the 1920s and 1930s jazz singer Julia Morgan, James' talent first surfaced at the Palm Lane Church of God in Christ in South Los Angeles, and soon he was making the rounds and stirring up audiences at churches around Southern California and beyond, sometimes billed as the "child wonder of gospel." Sylvester's home life disintegrated when he was a teenager. He clashed with his mother and stepfather, finally running away from home at age 16. For several years he lived on and around the streets of Los Angeles, but managed to finish high school and enroll at Lamert Beauty College. James moved to San Francisco in 1967 and by his own account, his life began at that time.
James was his last name, but Diva was a title he wore as readily and easily as the opulent attire (never drag) that he adorned. But Sylvester James-performance artist, recording star, Disco icon, advocate, activist, soul singer-was more than just a Tall Man In Drag. Sylvester was a revolution! Born September 6, 1947, he was a strong-willed Virgo, who had an opinion about everything and wasn't afraid or ashamed to share it. Sylvester knew at an early age that there was a creative force within that had to come out. After the church couldn't contain his fiery behavior and his parents could not tolerate his wild ways, he ran away from the "quiet streets" of his Los Angeles suburbs and found himself, literally and figuratively, in San Francisco.
He started as many would have expected, performing drag, as "Ruby Blue," in clubs where he was an innovator, singing live and evoking Billie Holiday and the blues icons his grandmother had poured into his musical ear. He would still sing in church and felt completely comfortable doing both, unlike Marvin Gaye, Prince and other artists who struggled with the polarity of their Spirituality and their Musicality. Sylvester was alright with God and truly believed that God was alright with him. He felt like he could express himself any way he pleased and he was pleased when The Cockettes, a performance arts group that dabbled in drag and drugs, made him a part of their act and later got him to teach them to sing, instead of just pantomiming to other people's songs. He made them believe that they could do more.
That unwavering belief and talent would take Sylvester and the troop from sold-out shows to New York and back. But he couldn't stay there long. He wanted and needed much more.
Sylvester didn't really find his voice, his authentic voice, until he started to record. After a few failed attempts at recording, he found his niche, when in 1975, he went against the grain again and instead of trying to find thin, cute singers for the audience's eye, he enlisted Two Tons o' Fun and gave the people something for their ears! Martha Wash and Izora Armstead were two women, who though not traditional beauties, were the kind of performers that the Gay-infused Disco era adored. They could wail and didn't mind doing it. The Trio was signed to Fantasy Records, and after a slow start, released two of Disco's biggest hits in 1977 with "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" and "Dance (Disco Heat)." The singer would use that success to not just ride to the top of the charts, but to prove that he was a real stylist. On March 11, 1979, Sylvester recorded "Living Proof," a rare live album that did not adhere to the disco genre that he was becoming known for. He used the album to perform such classics as Billie Holiday's "Lover Man (Where Can You Be?)", The Beatles' "Blackbird," and Patti LaBelle's classic "You Are My Friend,". The latter song can be found on many Quiet Storm playlists, and it often plays in its entirety, including the solo riffs by Martha and Izora. Sylvester commented that "your ear has got to be in your foot to not know these girls can sang y'all." Sylvester was on fire that night, and the Mayor had declared it Sylvester Day, but back in his new home of San Francisco, everyday was already Sylvester Day. Patti LaBelle even commented "Sometimes I think we are the same person. We perform alike. We look alike. We even sound alike. I really like me... but I feel exactly the same way about him."
The year 1986 proved to be monumental for Sylvester for two reasons. Super-producer Narada Michael Walden invited him and new background singer Jeannie Tracey, to sing background on The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin's new album. Those are their voices wailing on "Freeway of Love" and "Another Night" on Aretha's blockbuster Who's Zoomin' Who album. Tragically, that same year, his producer and good friend, Patrick Cowley, died from AIDS complications. Sylvester's lover Rick, whose wedding ring he showed off on national TV, when he appeared on "The Tonight Show," with guest host Joan Rivers, died soon after that late-night triumph. Imagine Sylvester, in full colorful garb, flowing hair and great spirit, sitting with sharp-tongued Joan, talking about his husband and showing diamonds, while Middle America watched the show that had long been a late-night staple in their households. There was no fanfare or press backlash. Sylvester's quiet revolution was that he was comfortable with his truth. He laughed and sang and entertained America that night and then simply dropped the "oh by the way" of his life and his love and was congratulated by the sassy comedienne for being so talented, so loved and so brave. Joan knew that there were hundreds of gay entertainers in the industry-actors, singers, and behind the scenes success stories-but none of them would have done what Sylvester did that night in 1986. He simply told the truth.
Realizing that he could access the press proved powerful for Sylvester, when the AIDS pandemic hit the Gay community and no one would listen. People all around him were dying at an alarming rate and Sylvester knew he had to speak out. When he was diagnosed with AIDS, he was public about it. He did it with a quiet dignity, which allowed him to go to Pride events in a wheelchair and a smile, when his health deteriorated. But while still in good health and good spirits, he would speak to JET magazine again, this time about AIDS. "It bothers me that AIDS is still thought of as a white male disease" he said in 1987, "The black community is at the bottom of the line when it comes to getting information, even when we've been so hard hit by the disease. I would like to think that by going public with this, I can give other people the courage to face it." As for the Black community's then (and still) "belief" that AIDS is a spiritual retribution, Sylvester said simply "I don't believe that AIDS is the wrath of God. People have a tendency to want to blame everything on God."
Sylvester James did so much while he was here. He changed our lives in ways that cannot be measured. He was an out black gay man who spoke directly to the Black community, challenging it to confront its own homophobia and prejudices, and stayed true to himself while he did it. Two decades after his death, his contributions are still groundbreaking and confirm his status as a pop and political icon that can never be devalued or under-appreciated.
Sylvester had a platform, much bigger than the little apple box he first sang from. But he sang, spoke and lived with the same fervor as that little gay boy, whose fabulousness and fire will never grow old.
From- The Fabulous Sylvester by Joshua Gamson.
Later. when everyone was sick or dying, on the day 1986 turned into 1987, Sylvester---who had not been Doonie for almost twenty years---made an appearance on The Late Show, where Joan Rivers was hosting a festive New Years Eve. High on his head was a poofy, shoulder-length red wig he’d bought on Seventh Ave in New York;friends called it his Lucy Ricardo wig, and it indeed resembled the hair of a slutty Lucille Ball emerging from a wind tunnel. One of Sylvester’s lapels sparkled with a silver design, and braclets twinkled and jangled on his wrist. Backed by a mostly white band and two big black women singers, he sang "Someone Like You," a pop song that was getting good radio play, though nothing like what his big disco hits had gotten ten years before. He jumped and danced as he sang, but his voice was off: scratchy and strained, as if his chops weren’t quite right.
Sylvester plopped down on the couch next to preceding guest, the Tony Award-winning actor and seventies game-show fixture Charles Nelson Reilly. It was hard to imagine a queenier trio: Reilly, whose childhood nickname was Mary; gossipy Rivers, the drag queen without a penis; and Sylvester. After a bit of chitchat about jewelry and furs and Sylvester’s boyfriend, Rick, Sylvester reminded Rivers and Reilly that they had all three done one of the earliest AIDS benefits together several years earlier, before AIDS benefits were the thing to do: "the two of you," he said, and "me, that black drag queen you always talk about." Apparently, Ms. Rivers did not hear the warning in his words or the hurt he had felt at being reduced to a label. "What do you wear in real life, when you just want to be Mrs. Rick?" she asked, plainly assuming that Rick played mister to Sylvester’s missus. Sylvester laughed, despite the hint of strained patience on his face, and spoke vaguely about having "something for everyone." Joan Rivers persisted. "So what did your family say when they found out you were going to be a drag queen?" she asked. Sylvester gave her a look. "I’m not a drag queen!" he exclaimed sharply but with a big,full-toothed smile, sitting in his wig, make-up, and jewelry. He threw his head back and held his arms to his chest in a small slef-hug, laughing. "I’m Sylvester!"
Joan Rivers stumbled and stammered a bit ("But---well you sometimes---I know---sometimes..." as Sylvester stepped back in to smooth out the conversation. He looked up towards the ceiling for a second. "What did my parents say," he repeated, and then he looked at Joan Rivers and explained the situation as nicely and succinctly as he could manage. "When I was little I used to dress up, right? And my mother said, ‘You can’t dress up. You can’t dress up. You’ve gotta wear these pants and these shoes, and you have to, like, drink beer and play football.’ And I said, "No, I don’t,’ and she said, ‘You’re very strange,’ and I said, ‘That’s okay.’"
My own personal guilty pleasure-
from Wikipedia-
Pressure from the label to "butch up" his image would result in him attending meetings in full-on drag. A drag photo shoot, which he staged and presented to label heads as a gag (calling it his "new album cover") would later grace the cover of Immortal after Sylvester died; it was the label's way of paying tribute to his spirit. In 1985, one of his dreams came true as he was summoned to sing back-up for Aretha Franklin on her Who's Zoomin' Who? comeback album. His sole Warner Bros. Records album was Mutual Attraction in 1986; a single from the album, "Someone Like You", became Sylvester's second #1 hit on the U.S. dance chart and featured original cover art by Keith Haring.
Sylvester was fierce!
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The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s saw the GLBT community come stepping out of the closet.
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At the outset of the 20th century, a GLBT subculture, uniquely Afro-American, began taking shape in New York's Harlem. Throughout the so- called Harlem Renaissance period, roughly 1920 to 1935, black lesbians and gay men were socializing in public at cabarets, at rent parties, and even worshiping in church on Sundays; creating a language, a social structure, and a complex network of institutions. Some were discreet about their sexual identities; while others openly expressed their personal feelings. The community they built attracted all races, creating friendships between people of disparate ethnic and economic backgrounds and building alliances for progressive social change. But the prosperity of the 1920s was short-lived, and the Harlem gay subculture quickly declined following the Stock Market crash of 1929 and the repeal of Prohibition, soon becoming only a shadow of its earlier self. Nevertheless, the traditions and institutions created by Harlem lesbians and gay men during the Jazz Age continue to this day.
The key factor in this development of the GLBT subculture in Harlem was the massive migration of Afro-Americans to northern urban areas after the turn of the century. Since the beginning of American slavery, the vast majority of blacks had lived in rural southern states. American participation in World War I led to an increase in northern industrial production and brought an end to immigration, which resulted in thousands of job openings in northern factories which became available to blacks. Within two decades, large communities of black Americans had developed in most northern urban areas. So significant was this shift in population that it is now referred to as the "Great Migration." Black communities developed in Chicago, Detroit, and Buffalo, but the largest and most influential was Harlem, which became the mecca for Afro-Americans from all over the world. Nowhere else could you find a geographic area so large, so concentrated, really a city within a city, populated entirely by blacks. There were black schoolteachers, black entrepreneurs, black police officers, and even black millionaires. A spirit was in the air-of hope, progress, and possibilities- which proved particularly alluring to the young and unmarried. Harlem's streets soon filled with their music, their voices, and their laughter.
They called themselves "New Negroes," Harlem was their capital, and they manifested a new militancy and pride. Black servicemen had been treated with a degree of respect and given a taste of near-equality while in Europe during the World War; their experiences influenced their expectations when they returned home. Participation in the war effort had given the entire black community a sense of involvement in the American process and led them to demand their place in the mainstream of American life. Marcus Garvey, the charismatic West Indian orator, had thousands of followers in his enormous black nationalist "Back to Africa" movement. W. E. B. DuBois and his National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), with its radical integrationist position, generally appealed to a more educated, middle- class following, as did Charles W. Johnson's National Urban League, but were just as militant in their call for racial justice. A variety of individuals and organizations generated Afro-American pride and solidarity.
The New Negro movement created a new kind of art. Harlem, as the New Negro Capital, became a worldwide center for Afro-American jazz, literature, and the fine arts. Many black musicians, artists, writers, and entertainers were drawn to the vibrant black uptown neighborhood. Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, and Ethel Waters played in Harlem nightclubs. Langston Hughes, Zora Hurston, and Countee Cullen published in the local newspapers. Art galleries displayed the work of Aaron Douglas and Richmond Barthé. These creative talents incorporated the emerging black urban social consciousness into their art. The resulting explosion of self-consciously Afro-American creativity, now known as the "Harlem Renaissance," had a profound impact on the subsequent development of American arts.
The social and sexual attitudes of Harlem's new immigrants were best reflected in the blues, a distinctly Afro-American folk music that was born in rural southern black communities following the Civil War. Structurally simple, yet open to countless subtleties, the blues told of loneliness, homesickness, and poverty, of love and good luck, and provided a window into the difficult, often brutal world of the New Negro immigrant.
from Eric Garber-
Homosexuality was clearly part of this world. "There's two things got me puzzled, there's two things I don't understand," moaned blues great Bessie Smith, "that's a mannish-acting woman and a lisping, swishing, womanish-acting man." In "Sissy Blues," Ma Rainey complained of her husband's infidelity with a homosexual named "Miss Kate." Lucille Bogan, in her "B.D. Women Blues," warned that "B.D. [bulldagger] women sure is rough; they drink up many a whiskey and they sure can strut their stuff." The "sissies" and "bull daggers" mentioned in the blues were ridiculed for their cross-gender behavior, but neither shunned nor hated. "Boy in the Boat" for example, recorded in 1930 by George Hanna, counseled "When you see two women walking hand in hand, just shake your head and try to understand." In fact, the casualness toward sexuality, so common in the blues, sometimes extended to homosexual behavior. In "Sissy Man Blues," a traditional tune recorded by numerous male blues singers over the years, the singer demanded "if you can't bring me a woman, bring me a sissy man." George Hanna's "Freakish Blues," recorded in 1931, is even more explicit about potential sexual fluidity. The blues reflected a culture that accepted sexuality, including homosexual behavior and identities, as a natural part of life.
Despite the relatively tolerant attitude shown toward homosexuality by Afro-American culture, black lesbians and gay men still had a difficult time. Like other black migrants, they soon learned that racism crossed the Mason-Dixon line. Economic problems, unemployment, and segregation plagued black communities across the North. High rents and housing shortages made privacy a luxury for Harlem's newcomers. Moreover black homosexuals, like their white counterparts, were continually under attack from the police and judicial systems. In 1920, young lesbian Mabel Hampton, recently arrived in Harlem from Winston- Salem, North Carolina, was arrested on trumped-up prostitution charges and spent two years in Bedford Hills Reformatory. Augustus Granville Dill, distinguished business editor of the NAACP's Crisis and personal protégé of DuBois, had his political career destroyed when he was arrested for soliciting sex in a public restroom. But in spite of racial oppression, economic hardship, and homophobic persecution, black lesbians and gay men were able to build a thriving community of their own within existing Afro-American institutions and traditions.
Private parties were the best place for Harlem lesbians and gay men to socialize, providing safety and privacy. "We used to go to parties every other night... The girls all had the parties," remembered Mabel Hampton. Harlem parties were extremely varied; the most common kind was the "rent party." Like the blues, rent parties had been brought north in the Great Migration. Few of Harlem's new residents had much money, and sometimes rent was hard to come by. To raise funds, they sometimes threw enormous parties, inviting the public and charging admission. There would be dancing and jazz, and bootleg liquor for sale in the kitchen. It is about just such a party that Bessie Smith sang her famous "Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer."
Nina Simone's version-
On any given Saturday night there were scores of these parties throughout Harlem, often with those in attendance not knowing their hosts. The dancing and merriment would continue until dawn, and by morning the landlord could be paid. Lesbians and gay men were active participants in rent parties. The New York Age, one of Harlem's newspapers, complained in 1926:
One of these rent parties a few weeks ago was the scene of a tragic crime in which one jealous woman cut the throat of another, because the two were rivals for the affections of a third woman. The whole situation was on a par with the recent Broadway play [about lesbianism, The Captive], imported from Paris, although the underworld tragedy took place in this locality. In the meantime, the combination of bad gin, jealous women, a carving knife, and a rent party is dangerous to the health of all concerned.
Gay men could always be found at the literary gatherings of Alexander Gumby. Gumby, who had arrived in Harlem near the turn of the century, immediately became entranced with the theatrical set and decided to open a salon to attract them. He worked as a postal clerk and acquired a patron, eventually renting a large studio on Fifth Avenue between 131st and 132nd streets. Known as Gumby's Bookstore because of the hundreds of books that lined the walls, the salon drew many theatrical and artistic luminaries. White author Samuel Steward remembers being taken to Gumby's one evening by a lesbian friend and enjoying a delightful evening of "reefer," bathtub gin, a game of truth, and homosexual exploits.
Certainly the most opulent parties in Harlem were thrown by the heiress A'Lelia Walker. Walker was a striking, tall, dark-skinned woman who was rarely seen without her riding crop and her imposing, jeweled turban. She was the only daughter of Madame C. J. Walker, a former washerwoman who had made millions marketing her own hair-straightening process. When she died, Madame Walker left virtually her entire fortune to A'Lelia. Whereas Madame Walker had been civic-minded, donating thousands of dollars to charity, A'Lelia used most of her inheritance to throw lavish parties in her palatial Hudson River estate, Villa Lewaro. and at her Manhattan dwelling on 136th Street. Because A'Lelia adored the company of lesbians and gay men, her parties had a distinctly gay ambience. Elegant homosexuals such as Edward Perry, Edna Thomas. Harold Jackman, and Caska Bonds were her closest friends. So were scores of white celebrities. Novelist Marjorie Worthington would later remember:
We went several times that winter to Madame Allelia [sic] Walker's Thursday "at-homes" on a beautiful street in Harlem known as,Sugar Hill...." [Madame Walker's] lavishly furnished house was a gathering place not only for artists and authors and theatrical stars of her own race, but for celebrities from all over the world. Drinks and food were served, and there was always music, generously performed enthusiastically received.
Everyone from chorus girls to artists to socialites to visiting royalty would come at least once to enjoy her hospitality.
Another Afro-American institution that tolerated, and frequently encouraged, homosexual patronage was the "buffet flat." "Buffet flats were after-hours spots that were usually in someone's apartment," explained celebrated entertainer Bricktop, "the type of place where gin was poured out of milk pitchers." Essentially private apartments where rooms could be rented by the night, buffet flats had sprung up during the late 1800s to provide overnight accommodations to black travelers refused service in white-owned hotels. By the 1920s, buffet flats developed a wilder reputation. Some were raucous establishments where illegal activities such as drinking, gambling, and prostitution were available. Others offered a variety of sexual pleasures cafeteria style. A Detroit buffet flat of the latter sort, which Ruby Smith remembered visiting with her aunt, Bessie Smith, catered to all variety of sexual tastes. It was "an open house, everything goes on in that house":
They had a faggot there that was so great that people used to come there just to watch him make love to another man. He was that great. He'd give a tongue bath and everything. By the time he got to the front of that guy he was shaking like a leaf. People used to pay good just to go in there and see him do his act... That same house had a woman that used to... take a cigarette, light it, and puff it with her pussy. A real educated pussy.
In Harlem, Hazel Valentine ran a similar sex circus on 140th Street. Called "The Daisy Chain" or the "101 Ranch," it catered to all varieties of sexual tastes, and featured entertainers such as "Sewing Machine Bertha" and an enormous transvestite named "Clarenz." The Daisy Chain became so notorious that both Fats Waller and Count Basie composed tunes commemorating it.
There were also buffet flats that particularly welcomed gay men. On Saturday nights pianist David Fontaine would regularly throw stylish flat parties for his many gay friends. Other noted hosts of gay male revelry were A'Lelia Walker's friend Caska Bonds, Eddie Manchester and the older Harlem couple, Jap and Saul. The most notorious such flat was run by Clinton Moore. Moore was an elegant, light-skinned homosexual, described as an "American version of the original... Proust's Jupien." Moore had a fondness for celebrities, and his parties allegedly attracted luminaries like Cole Porter, Cary Grant, and society page columnist Maury Paul. Moore's entertainments were often low-down and dirty. According to Helen Lawrenson, Clinton Moore's... boasted a young black entertainer named Joey, vho played the piano and sang but whose specialty was to remove his clothes and extinguish a lighted candle by sitting on it until it disappeared. I never saw this feat but everyone else seemed to have and I was told that he was often hired to perform at soirees of the elite. 'He sat on lighted candles at one of the Vanderbilts',' my informant said.
Somewhat more public-and therefore less abandoned-were Harlem's speakeasies, where gays were usually forced to hide their preferences and to blend in with the heterosexual patrons. Several Harlem speakeasies though, some little more than dives, catered specifically to the "pansy" trade. One such place, an "open" speakeasy since there was no doorman to keep the uninvited away, was located on the northwest corner of 126th Street and Seventh Avenue. It was a large, dimly lit place where gay men could go to pick up "rough trade." Artist Bruce Nugent, who occasionally visited the place, remembered it catering to "rough queers... the kind that fought better than truck drivers and swished better than Mae West." Ethel Waters remembered loaning her gowns to the transvestites who frequented Edmond's Cellar, a low-life saloon at 132nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Lulu Belle's on Lenox Avenue was another hangout for female impersonators, named after the famous Broadway melodrama of 1926 starring Leonore Ulric. A more sophisticated crowd of black gay men gathered nightly at the Hot Cha, at 132nd Street and Seventh Avenue, to listen to Garland Wilson play piano.
Decidedly safer were the frequent Harlem costume balls, where both men and women could dress as they pleased and dance with whom they wished. Called "spectacles in color" by poet Langston Hughes, they were attended by thousands. Several cities hosted similar functions, but the Harlem balls were anticipated with particular excitement. "This dance has been going on a long time," observed Hughes, "and... is very famous among the male masqueraders of the eastern seaboard, who come from Boston and Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Atlantic City to attend." Taylor Gordon, a noted concert singer, wrote in 1929:
The last big ball I attended where these men got the most of the prizes for acting and looking more like ladies than the ladies did themselves, was at the Savoy in Harlem.... The show that was put on that night for a dollar admission, including the privilege to dance, would have made a twenty-five dollar George White's "Scandals" opening look like a side show in a circus.
The largest balls were the annual events held by the Hamilton Lodge at the regal Rockland Palace, which could accommodate up to six thousand people. Only slightly smaller were the balls given irregularly at the dazzling Savoy Ballroom, with its crystal chandeliers and elegant marble staircase. The organizers would obtain a police permit making the ball, and its participants, legal for the evening. The highlight of the event was the beauty contest, in which the fashionably dressed drag queens would vie for the title of Queen of the Ball.
But drag balls lacked the primary allure of the buffet flat: privacy. These cross-dressing celebrations were enormous events and many of those who attended were spectators, there to observe rather than participate. It was not unusual to see the cream of Harlem society, as well as much of the white avante garde, in the ballroom's balconies, straining their necks to view the contestants.
It was during this era that a peculiarly Afro-American gay subculture was permitted to develop. Gay men, lesbians and bisexuals were considered natural and were consistent with the sexual fluidity of the blues community. Many of the queer white population flocked to Harlem at night for "rent parties," "buffet flats," and underground speakeasies.
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Calaloo, Strange Calaloo... Mysterious curious roux
Try as you might to avoid the hoodoo... Sooner or later we're all in the stew
We got Crab and pigtail... Squid ink and fish scale
Okra and daheen leaves... Chitchat and chatter
Fill up the platter... With a garnish of pure make believe.
-- Jimmy Buffet, "Callaloo".
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Callaloo-
What is Callaloo?
Callaloo is THE Jamaican green that reportedly brings Jamaicans their vitality and long, healthy lives. The plant produces large delicious green leaves and the stems are also edible. There seem to be be many different varities of Callaloo. Callaloo is a variety of Amaranth. It is technically called Amaranth Tricolor or Amaranth Gangeticus. You may find Amaranths grown for their leaves, under many different names; Shen Choy, Chinese Spinach, Indian Spinach, Hin Choy, Bush Greens and many other names.
Why Callaloo?
For those who like nutritious greens , Callaloo is an excellent choice. The leaves of the Callaloo are very delicious when cooked. They are similar in flavor to a cross between spinach, collards and Swiss chard. These leaves also contain protein. The plant grows quickly, reaching maturity in 30-40 days. It can grow up to 6-7 feet tall. The Callaloo plant grows well even in poor soil. It is a good substitute for spinach because it likes hot weather and flourishes in the summer heat.
Growing Information:
Callaloo is a sun loving plant. I tried to start the plants early inside. They grew to 1 to 2 inches, formed their first set of leave but even after 30 days they did not grow or form their second set of leaves. The following year I put that flat outside in the spring sun and the plants germinated and formed their first set of leaves and then continued to develop normally. From that experience I learned that these plants need full sun before they can develop. The plants grew well in the flat but eventually had little room to develop. I separated the plants carefully but the roots were entangled, I am sure I tore some roots off accidentally but even with that, they survived and flourished. I think it would be good to transplant the plants after they have developed 8 to 10 leaves. Put them in the ground with lime and time released fertilizer. Use only a moderate amount as these plants use the fertilizer efficiently and too much will make the leaves tough. The plant seems to have a size recognition system. The plant forms a primary root ball then, at a certain time, it sends down one or two roots to determine the depth of its environment and a second root ball is formed. This is what I observed in my garden The plants rate of growth and size could be determined by this process, so let your plants develop in the flat until they are strong enough to be transplanted and get the plants into the ground.
West Indies Pepper Pot Soup
Recipe courtesy Walter Staib
Show: Cooking LiveEpisode: White House Eats
Serves: 10
Ingredients:
3/4 pound salt-cured pork shoulder, diced
3/4 pound salt-cured beef shoulder, diced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium white onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 Scotch bonnet pepper, seeded and chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped
1 pound taro root, peeled and diced
4 quarts (1 gallon) chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound callaloo or collard greens, rinsed and chopped
Salt
Directions:
In a large stockpot, saute the pork and beef in the oil over high heat for 10 minutes, until brown. Add the onion, garlic, and Scotch bonnet pepper; saute for 3 to 5 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the scallions and saute for 3 minutes. Add the taro root and saute for 3 to 5 minutes more, until translucent. Add the chicken stock, bay leaves, thyme, allspice, and ground pepper. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook about 30 minutes, until the meat and taro root are tender. Stir in the callaloo. Reduce the heat and simmer about 5 minutes, until wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve in a tureen or divide among individual soup bowls.
The Jamaican Classic
Courtesy of Patric Juillet
Ingredients:
1 bunch freshly cut callaloo (six or seven stalks)
1/4 cup water
1 chopped onion
1 diced ripe tomato
1/3 scotch bonnet pepper finely chopped (seeds will add extra heat!)
3 sprigs of thyme
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 table spoon butter or margarine
Directions:
Clean callaloo by removing any debris and the old leaves. Using a knife, strip off the outer transparent covering from each stalk. Chop and place in a bowl. Rinse well with cold water... discard rinsing water. Place callaloo in a large pot and add onion, tomato, thyme, pepper, butter, salt, and water. (-Optional: replace water with 1/2 cup of coconut milk to make the final product even tastier.) Cover the pot and simmer. Allow the calaloo to steam slowly on the low flame until fully cook (pieces of stalks will be fork tender) Serve with your starch of choice.
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Photos of my Community Garden in Boston, where I learned about callaloo from one of our many Jamaican gardeners. I was elected to lead the Worcester Street Community Garden back in 2007. Last spring we replaced the railroad tie plot borders, which were installed 20 odd years ago and were leeching toxic chemicals into the soil (barely evident in the first of photos below), with bluestone slabs, donated by a local quarry. It was quite the undertaking and back breaking labor (shown in the second and third photo below) but ultimately made our soil much safer and our crops much healthier, and will remain my legacy to future generations in the South End of Boston, where gays, straights, Blacks, Whites, Latinos and Asians, of all ages, ethnicities and income levels toil in the soil and share their day to day lives for at least a few months each year.
- before (yes, that's me!):
- during the border replacement/soil remediation project:
- upon completion last spring:
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