fiction and musings from a gay black dude with delusions above his station
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…
{Ed. note: Much of the biographical information in this article is supported by Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn by David Hajdu (North Point Press, 1996).} By the time the Duke Ellington Orchestra went on their first State Department-sponsored tour, which yielded The Far East Suite, long-time Ellington co-composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn was already a…
In 1956, during the halcyon days of the Cold War and immediately after the McCarthy era, the US State Department began an interesting experiment. Take some of America’s top jazz talent and put them on tour to spread goodwill and music to the people’s of the world. They selected Dizzy Gillespie, a showman’s showman, to…
A group of us went to lunch regularly on Thursdays. On this particular Thursday, sometime in 2002 or so, we decided to try the Pakistani-Indian restaurant that moved into the space formerly occupied by Bison Brewery on Telegraph. As we were leaving, we noticed some small white business cards written in English, Arabic, Urdu, and…
After the lights dimmed, the familiar hum began as four men of color came on the stage. They stood in a circle, humming and snapping fingers, swaying back and forth. Then, one by one, each introduced us to the evening to come, an evening of storytelling. I first saw Pomo Afro Homos perform in 1990…
