fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
My agent got me a gig on a public service announcement about Juneteenth, a 30-second ad to recognize and celebrate the new national holiday. Who’s doing it, the government? I asked. After a pause, he answered Step Right Up, Inc., real quick, like at 80 MPH. When he talked fast, that meant he wanted to…
Look what came in the mail today! I’m very honored and excited to be included in this fine anthology of New Fiction with so many amazing writers. I’m also very sad that we did not get to meet and read together at the festival. Such is the case in the age of COVID-19. But I…
In 1988, I wrote an article for 10 Percent, the former LGBTQ news magazine at UCLA about Christopher Street West. The article also included a bit of history about the Stonewall Rebellion. As I had learned in my Civil Rights History classes, Stonewall did not just up and happen. Stonewall happened in the context of…
For World AIDS Day this past Saturday, December 1, I read an excerpt from my novel Sin Against the Race. The story involves Alfonso Rutherford Berry, III, a young black gay man coming into his own, mourning the loss of his cousin Carlton, a long term AIDS survivor. Here, taken from Chapter 20, Alfonso explains to…
Excited! I’m attending my first #OutWriteDC conference this year…and I’ll be kept quite busy! I will co-facilitate a panel with legendary poet Philip Robinson entitled The Road Before Us: Black Queer Lit in the Post-Obama Era. Joining us on the panel will be La Toya Hankins, Larry Benjamin, and Cheryl Head. Please join us! Our panel…
This weekend I’m attending, for the first time, the Saints and Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans. In its 15th year, this gathering of LGBTQ writers has become one of the premier events of the queer literary world. Today, I presented on a panel discussing Queer Fiction as Social Commentary with authors Matthew Griffin, Nick…
Happy New Year! I’ll be reading with the perfectly fabulous Perfectly Queer again, this time in San Francisco. The theme: New Year, New Day, New Books. I’m on the bill with two other recently published authors: Lewis DeSimone and Randall Mann. The store will have copies of my novel Sin Against the Race available for sale. We’ll read,…
Amos Lassen is a well-known member of the LGBT community. For many years, he has tirelessly reviewed hundreds of books and movies to, as he puts it, “spread the word about our literary heritage.” During the many years I toiled on Sin Against the Race, I hoped that Mr. Lassen would review my work. I’m…
I’m holding a book launch celebration for Sin Against the Race…and everyone is invited! Date: Saturday, November 18, 2017 Time: 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm Place: The Octopus Literary Salon, 2101 Webster Street, Oakland Price: FREE Sin Against The Race follows the coming out journey of Alfonso Rutherford Berry III, son of a city councilman and grandson…
[Part of a series of posts previewing the novel Sin Against the Race.] Sin Against the Race did not start life as a “jazz novel.” When I first started this journey, I listened mostly to classical. Dvořák, Chopin, Mozart, Brahms, the usual suspects. My music habits changed after my mother died. Miles, Coltrane, and of course…
