Black gay artist
Think about how many mainstream hits from the last limited years you can easily recall.
Now, how many can you name that were created by openly black LGBTQ+ artists?
Sadly, that number is likely much smaller.
This stark difference highlights the ongoing fight for true advocacy and visibility in the music industry. Black LGBTQIA+ artists offer unique sounds and stories that should be at the forefront of popular music – not relegated to the sidelines.
Yet even with this imbalance, groundbreaking queer musicians are out there rewriting the rules. These artists aren't just shaping the future of melody, they are inspiring activism, fostering group, and embodying the transformative power that music holds. They are taking matters into their hold hands, showing the world just how vibrant and essential their voices are.
It is time to not only aid the brilliant shadowy queer singers who have carved and are carving their path today but work actively to dismantle systemic biases so that the next generation of artists can accept center stage without boundaries.
It's not enough to simply esteem their talent – we must also become active in their support. That me
The Queer Inky Artists Building Worlds of Desire
It is the picture of rebirth, an image of the unease of transition. Profusely the sweat gathers, beading across Prince Luxury’s tackle and chest. His almond-shaped eyes are shut as his tongue reaches across gold grills capped onto his teeth, licking away moisture from his upper lip. His body is there in the frame, but his mind is elsewhere. Looking at the artist Shikeith’s image titled Prince (2019), you wish to see what the figure sees, but you can’t. Luxury’s gaze is hidden behind his eyelids; like an awning, they provide cover. What vision is he masking? An action of his own making? An imagined destination where the sweat of his labor marks him of value? A place where he is the center of his own desire? Of this image, Shikeith has noted that he seems to have caught Luxury in the middle of “an act of deviance.” What is captured is an autoerotic freedom.
Utopia is not a word that has been widely considered in the contemporary photographic works of Black homosexual artists. Much of their art has been flattened into the politics of representation. But Shikeith’s impression of ecstasy is an utopian, a warm depiction that insist
20 Black LGBTQ+ artists
To listen to
After more than two weeks of protests supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and condemning police brutality, it looks like there is no near end to the situation. Of course, the entire system needs to be re-thought and re-formulated, a herculean task that will take a lot of time and resources, which at first sight seems too big of a oppose. However, it’s time to tremble the foundations of a rot, rotten system that has been the norm for way too long.
But to make it as clear as possible: all inky lives matter. What do I mean by that? After videos and images of a violent aggression to black trans Minneapolis woman Iyanna Dior at the hands of her Black peers/protestors went viral, it was obvious that the pro-Black, antiracist revolution isn’t enough. The changes the world is demanding have to extend to any Black person regardless of who they are: trans, cis, straight, gay, bi, asexual, rich, poor, religious, atheist, able or disabled – if not, just ask one of the most vocal activists of these past years, the disabled, black, trans model Aaron Philip.
But as many people know from listening to queer members of the Black comm
16 queer Black trailblazers who made history
From 1960s civil rights activist Bayard Rustin to Chicago's first woman loving woman mayor, Lori Lightfoot, Inky LGBTQ Americans have prolonged made history with innumerable contributions to politics, art, medicine and a host of other fields.
“As elongated as there have been Black people, there acquire been Black LGBTQ and same-gender-loving people,” David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, told NBC News. “Racism combined with the forces of stigma, phobia, discrimination and bias connected with gender and sexuality have too often erased the contributions of members of our community."
Gladys Bentley (1907-1960)
Bentley was a gender-bending performer during the Harlem Renaissance. Donning a highest hat and tuxedo, Bentley would sing the blues in Harlem establishments favor the Clam House and the Ubangi Club. According to a belated obituary published in 2019, The New York Times said Bentley, who died in 1960 at the age of 52, was "Harlem's most famous lesbian" in the 1930s and "among the best-known Black entertainers in the United States."
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
Rustin was an LGBTQ and civil rights activist best known f