Nathan's Blog
Nathan's Interviews:
j. brotherlove: Navigating the Blogosphere!
Veteran blogger j.brotherlove has been pontificating on a wide variety of topics for 10 years now. With a big following and a fine sense of the relevant, he's always ready to "rock the apple cart" with his prose. I enjoyed an interesting conversation with "the brotherlove", and learned about him and his take on life, blogging, and his dreams for the future.
NJ: Why did you decide to enter into the Internet/blogging arena?
jb: My blogging history began in 1998, really before people used "blogging". I thought of it as a way to do my journal writing. I thought, in some twisted way, that if it was online, people would follow it. My personal blog has morphed in a big way, to address LGBT issues.
NJ: Why does the written word have such a attraction for you?
jb: I began writing when I was very young, short stories and things like that. I've always loved to express myself through writing. Next year, I'll be publishing something.
NJ: Are you a voracious reader?
jb: I used to be. I stopped reading a couple years ago. This year, I started reading Looker by Stanley Bennett Clay. I was hesitant at first because I hadn't read SGL fiction in a long time. But it was tightly written and it gave me hope for the genre.
NJ: Who are some of your favorite writers, and why?
jb: Toni Morrison, James Baldwin...I'm really trying to think of authors who make you feel the words. I'm attracted to spoken-word artists and poets. They're so evocative.
NJ: Would you consider yourself to be an leader in the gay community in general and the Black gay community in particular?
jb: That's a good question. I may be a leader by default because I've been blogging for so long.
NJ: What are some of the essential's that will propel the Black gay community to a higher ground in the United States and the world?
jb: I think it's essential for us to have communication. I think something else that cripples us is our unwillingness to accept the diversity of what we are. There's an uncomfortable divide between men and women in our community
NJ: Are you more a creative individual or a businessman?
jb: I'm more of an artist, definitely!
NJ: Some see you as iconoclastic. Why do you think that is?
jb: I pretty much say what needs to be said, even when it's not popular. That's how I was raised. I don't always go with the mob. I analyze the situation first. For example, I don't agree with Don Imus, but I think they went too far in punishing him.
NJ: Why do you spell your name in lower case letter's?
jb: I never thought about that! It's just the way it is.
NJ: Are you a " dare to be different" individual?
jb: Yes! I'm very independent.
NJ: How will your website be evolving?
jb: I may add advertising.
NJ: What are some of your interests outside of being an writer, journalist and author?
jb: Web design, development, and social networking.
NJ: What are some of your plans for 2008?
jb: Next year I'll finish my book, and collaborate on Web projects, as well as other mediums.
You can visit j.brotherlove at www.thebrotherlove.com. NAJO thanks j.brotherlove for this interview!
Maintaining a Balance: Evans on Jonathan Plummer and All That Drama!
Author Wyatt O'Brian Evans
Amid all the recent furor surrounding Jonathan Plummer (nee McMillan) and his controversial novel, Balancing Act, my friend and fellow author, Wyatt O'Brian Evans, did his due diligence and crafted a full-on look at Plummer, his book, and Plummer's marriage to, (and divorce from), author Terry McMillan. Balancing Act, which Plummer co-wrote with Pulitzer Prize winner Karen Hunter, is a fictional account of a male model who is swept up in romance with a powerful woman, only to realize his sexuality--and his heart--are pulling him in another direction.
Plummer has been excoriated by Terry McMillan for what she sees as his "deceitful, and improper" conduct during their marriage. Their bitter divorce has played itself out in the media and across the Internet. I recently had the opportunity to interview Wyatt about all this, which he covers well in his expose, Keeping A Balancing Act From Freefall.
NJ: In the preface to your article, Karen Hunter is quoted as saying "Through my writing, I want to inspire people to be who they truly are". To what degree do you think we're seeing the "true" Jonathan Plummer?
WOE: The way he's handled himself in promos doesn't look very good. I would think that because of the controversy, I wouldn't want to have negativity at all. I'd be crossing my T's and dotting my I's. I wouldn't be cancelling appearances at the last second.
NJ: Do you agree with those who say Balancing Act never should have been published?
WOE: Plummer, like everyone else, has the right to write a book. It's his story to tell, and the public will vote on the book's merits with their pocketbooks. For people to say Plummer shouldn't write, or for bookstores to refuse [to sell his book] amounts to censorship.
NJ: Terry McMillan decried Plummer's recording of a conversation with her in which she referred to him as a "faggot" several times. In light of the "Dog" Chapman fiasco, do you think McMillan is right to censure Plummer?
WOE: If Terry McMillan is derogatory towards the LGBT community in her remarks, she should be held just as accountable as "Dog" Chapman. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
NJ: In your article, Hunter describes Plummer as having a "childlike naivete". Did you also get that impression in your talks with him?
WOE: I thought Plummer was well aware of things going on around him. He's been given some poor advice on how to manage his career, but he's pretty sharp.
NJ: You mention that "gay lit" has been struggling this year. Balancing Act is trying to find its readers. To what do you attribute this trend?
WOE: "Mainstream" publishers still find themselves uncomfortable with "gay/lesbian" books. Even though there's a huge audience out there hungry for books, these [publishing] houses want to cater to the "majority" as they see it. Also, a publicist who gets assigned a gay-lit book to promote may say "Oh, God, I'm not going to promote this!" That's why it was important for Plummer to promote himself positively.
Check out Keeping A Balancing Act From Freefall at: www.imperiousent.com/latest/keeping-a-balancing-act-from-freefall-by-wyatt-o-brian-2.html#jc_allComments
It's an eye-opening look at the whole affair, and I guarantee you'll be intrigued. Nathan James Online would like to thank Mr. Evans for his thought-provoking commentary.
How Dare You Suggest That?
People of Color, gays, lesbians, and their historical connections
© 2007 by Nathan James
I awoke this morning to a televised report describing the opposition, by some prominent Black clergymen, to a proposed federal hate-crimes bill. The Rev. Dr. LaSimba Gray was quoted as saying he and members of his ministers’ group were against the bill, and its protections for gays and lesbians. “In all my 40 years of civil-rights work, I’ve never seen a gay water fountain and I’ve never seen a gay entrance to a building.” In a post on political blogger Taylor Siluwe’s website, further commentary indicates that Gray’s members were “offended” by the idea that the “black and gay communities are somehow connected”.
Now, I have written in the past that the LGBT and black communities were not only connected with one another, but that both owe each other all the benefits they enjoy today. For this, of course, I have been flogged unmercifully, as if it were set in stone somewhere that blacks and gays were mutually exclusive, and never the twain shall meet. At the risk of more public flogging, I stand by my position, and I enlist the historical record to aid in my defense. I think that the record speaks very well for itself.
It’s 1954. Rosa Parks has defied Jim Crow and refused to give her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white person, as the law required in those days. In response to her arrest, the local black community turned to a 26-year-old minister of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King, Jr. Meetings are held to devise a plan of action. Seeking guidance and direction on how to find the most effective means of protest, Rev. King looks to one Bayard Rustin, a black, gay advocate and strategist whose writings on nonviolence have impressed the young preacher. The fact that Rustin is gay, does not discourage King one iota. King knows that Rustin is the go-to man in matters of protest and petition.
Rustin travels to meet with King that year, and the counsel King receives from a gay man of color is crucial to the birth of the modern civil-rights movement, and establishes nonviolence as the means of protest. Rustin thus changes the course of history, and all people of color who live today, free of Jim Crow’s awful depredations, may add Rustin’s name to those to be thanked for their efforts.
Two years later, American literary icon James Baldwin writes and publishes the homoerotic novel Giovanni’s Room, establishing himself as a gifted writer of early gay lit. The book is banned from publication in the United States, but becomes a wild bestseller in Europe. Baldwin becomes known as both a gifted author of color and a gay man. These facts, however, do not deter Rev. King from seeking out and including Baldwin prominently in the civil-rights struggle during the 1960s. The FBI, in an attempt to separate King from men like Baldwin and Rustin, quietly warns King that both men are gay. King replies “I will not refuse the help of such wise and gifted men. As much as anyone, they have given our cause meaning and direction.” When his words are picked up by the Associated Press, the nominating committee for the Nobel Prize begins to understand that here is a man worthy of their accolades.
These are matters of undeniable fact, available for research by anyone with an Internet connection and an interest in the historical record. In spite of this, people continue to have the attitude that I speak heresy, whenever I cite the record. It is a mystery to me why so many people of color are “offended” by the idea that blacks and gays might ever share commonalities in their history. Gay men and women of color have contributed so much to the advancement of all people of color, that they are inextricably linked to the shared history of both. Conversely, people of color, through their tenacious and diligent struggles for equality, have opened the doors of tolerance for the LGBT community which would have remained locked, perhaps indefinitely.
In my studies of the art and literature of the civil-rights era, I find so many contributions to black history by gays and lesbians of color, it’s amazing. The great examination of the black experience of those days comes alive in the works of Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and numerous others. Their cries for social justice, together with the activities of Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, Rosa Parks, and the whole roll call of the era, all suggest a great need for acceptance of diversity. The sexual orientation of any or all of these great people was not an issue. Achieving the equality promised by our Constitution was the issue.
So, how dare I suggest a common history between people of color and the gays and lesbians among them? What issue do I address that is so uncomfortable to some? Perhaps there has never been a “gay water fountain”, or a “gay building entrance”. Yet there were barriers to equality for gays every bit as formidable as the legal and structural barriers faced by blacks under Jim Crow. There was a time when sodomy laws forbade homosexual activity in all but two states. There was a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association. There were no visible, structural barriers for gays because gays were considered to be deviant, criminal, and antisocial by their very existence, regardless of their color.
As people of color suffered under Jim Crow’s reign of subjugation and terror, gays of color suffered those hardships, plus the added stigma of being black and gay. To this day, debate rages over the need for, and type of, legal protection gays and lesbians should receive. This brings me back to the beginning of this essay. Hate-crimes legislation needs to afford the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law. For people of color to wish denial of these protections to a subset of their own community, is appalling. Some people are quick to deny the struggle, perseverance and triumph of those who came before them, and whose history they all share. In so doing, they diminish the value of the whole enterprise. How dare I suggest that!
Author's Showcase
This is the first in an ongoing series of articles which will introduce and highlight some of my fellow writers. I believe that supporting my colleagues helps to encourage diversity and broaden your reading experience. I hope you'll support them, as they have helped and supported me!
Stanley Bennett Clay is an accomplished author and actor. Over the past 30 years, he has appeared in such shows as Good Times, Police Story, numerous movies, as well as on stage. His new book, Looker, is available now, wherever books are sold. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Clay and discuss his book, and his unique perspectives on a wide range of issues. It was, of course, time well spent.
Nathan: Do you have any thoughts on the “truths of our time” which are depicted so well in Looker?
SBC: I think the most important thing to remember is that true love trumps everything. Sometimes it’s right under our nose. A problem in our society is that we sometimes discount the meaning of true love, and instead, concentrate on the “sexual aspects” of our relationships.
Nathan: Were there any moments from your life that found their way into Looker?
SBC: Not really, except emotionally, and through the experiences of people I know. I have a close friend who is transgendered, and I based [my TG character in the book] on the essence of her.
Nathan: How would you characterize the “quality of life” for today’s gays and lesbians of color?
SBC: It is a tradeoff. I came out in 1968. The gay movement was stronger and more unified in the past. Over the years, gays have split into the “white gay prides” and “black gay prides”. People of color got pushed out of the “gay mainstream”. AIDS, for example, really devastated the gay black male community, but was given little notice until white gays became afflicted.
Nathan: What are your thoughts on the gay romance genre?
SBC: It’s become very successful, although sometimes the quality isn’t as good as it could be. I’m a firm believer in self-publishing, but some writers shouldn’t be self-published, again, because the quality of the writing is poor. Having said that, self-publishing does give many black, gay authors a voice.
Nathan: Any future plans?
SBC: I’m getting ready to write my next book, and I will also return to acting soon.
Looker, published by Atria/Simon & Schuster, is a spellbinding read. It focuses on attorney Brando Heywood, whose one true love is right there under his nose, but Brando can’t see it. It’s a story about gays and lesbians, and the intrigues they encounter in today’s world. Readers will certainly relate to and understand the issues and dilemmas Brando and the other finely crafted characters face. I highly recommend this beautifully written book by Mr. Clay.