How does C.C. Carter do it? Just days before her national Black LGBT poetry slam (see pics this issue) she put together, with the help of Materville Studios, an amazing herstorical collection of some of the best national and local women slam poets and performers, from C.C. herself to Staceyann Chin, T'ai Freedom Ford, Duriel E. Harris, e. nina jay, Lucy Smith, and many more. And she's updating the month-old CD to be a two-CD collection of even more significance. See details about the Best of Pow-Wow Wednesdays at www.CCCarter.com . Many of the poets perform Wednesdays at Leo's Den during C.C.'s weekly Pow Wows.
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Sharon Bridgforth, the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of the bull-jean stories (Redbone Press), and her daughter Sonja Perryman (a senior at NYU, Perryman is the singer on the bull-jean stories CD) have released a spoken word/ music CD called amniotic/flow.
Take a listen and buy it now at: www.sharonbridgforth.com .
This 14-track CD features mother-daughter team Sharon Bridgforth and Sonja Perryman blending original music (Amy L. VanPatten, Lourdes Perez & Camille Rocha), sung & spoken vocal arrangements; innovating a soulful and poetic word-based, music-driven story articulating the experiences of lesbian mother-straight daughter/urban raised southern Spirited Black American wy'mn/growing.
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Bayard Rustin, the famed openly gay African-American organizer, taught Martin Luther King, Jr., strategies of nonviolence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, launching the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. With Aug. 28, 2003 marking the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington, what a perfect time to read more about the man—in his own words. Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin, is now available from Cleis Press.
Edited by Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise, the book includes 48 essays and 20 photos by the man acclaimed as the founding father of modern Black protest. He was a key organizer of the March on Washington, but long before that he put his life on the line to challenge racial segregation. His open homosexuality, however, remained a point of contention among Black church leaders, with controversy sometimes embroiling even King himself.
The book showcases the extraordinary career of this Black gay civil-rights pioneer. Spanning five decades, the book combines classic texts ranging in topic from Gandhi's impact on African Americans, white supremacists in Congress, the antiwar movement, and the assassination of Malcolm X, with never-before published selections on the call for gay rights, Louis Farrakhan, affirmative action, AIDS and women's rights.
'There has never been a better time to read what Bayard Rustin has to say,' said Chicagoan John D'Emilio, author of Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. 'He devoted his life to the causes of racial justice, a world without violence, and economic democracy, and his words are filled with thought-provoking wisdom.'