The AIDS Memorial on Instagram and Facebook invited me to write a post about black gay writers during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s. I came out around that time and quickly saw the devastation the disease caused within the black gay literary community. Writers whose works I came to know and lean on for support suddenly started dying.
I met poet Assotto Saint at the 1st OutWrite writers conference in San Francisco, 1990. He went around to all the young black folks to make sure that we hooked up and knew each other. Thus, he introduced me to poet Alan Miller, who at the time lived half a mile from me in Oakland. We’ve been friends ever since.
Assotto died of AIDS in June, 1994, just four years after we met at OutWrite.
Here is the post. I thank the AIDS Memorial for keeping alive the memory of so many lost to AIDS.
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