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In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology
Literary Nonfiction. Fiction. Poetry. Essays. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. In IN THE LIFE, 29 black authors explore what it means to be doubly different—both black and gay—in modern America. These stories, verses, works of art and theater pieces voice the concerns and aspirations of an often silent minority. They can be poignant, erotic, resolute, or angry, but always reflect the affirming power of coming together to build a strong black gay community. In the introduction to the original 1986 edition, editor Joseph Beam wrote, "The bottom line is We are Black men who are proudly gay. What we offer is our lives, our love, our visions...We are coming home with our heads held up high." This twentieth anniversary edition includes a new introduction by James Earl Hardy.
585 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 7, 2020
A collection of poetry, essays, interviews and short fiction from Black gay writers in the 1980s. Most of the work addresses racism and homophobia, and it is terribly sad that it still resonates to this day. An important collection and what an immeasurable loss that many of the contributors died during the AIDS crisis. Grateful to the late Joseph Beam for bringing this to existence and for all the contributors.
August 23, 2018
Some essays are way better than others, but this book, and others like are essential and should be shared and taught in LGBTQ studies as well as African American history courses.
September 24, 2023
very powerful
April 20, 2022
BLACK MEN LOVING BLACK MEN
In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, edited by Joseph Beam, was released in 1986 by Alyson Publications. Twenty-four black gay writers contributed 38 essays, poems, short stories, interviews, and one theater piece that indelibly describe and dissect what it means to be a black gay man in America in the 1980s. Groundbreaking. Revolutionary. Powerful. The impact and significance of In the Life cannot be underestimated. Every piece of writing in In the Life is worth discussing at length, but I will only mention several of the pieces in this indispensable collection of black gay writings.
The poems by Essex Hemphill are highlights of the collection. His anger in “Cordon Negro” is explosive: “I’m dying twice as fast / as any other American / between eighteen and thirty-five” and “I’m sick of being an endangered species, / sick of being a goddamn statistic.” In “Better Days,” Hemphill bemoans, “A false safety / compels me to think / I will never need kindness, / so I don’t recognize that need in someone else.”
Daniel Garrett’s essay “Creating Ourselves: An Open Letter” is eloquent. Garrett expresses his desire for a better country than the America in which he finds himself: “A great country will be when men and women, Africans and Europeans and Latins and Asians are accepted as human, as valuable, as persons with economic, educational, legal, moral and sexual choices.”
At a little over three pages, Sidney Brinkley’s short story “Passion” appears smack-dab in the middle of the book. It beautifully and erotically depicts how a relationship between two men can grow from plain old lust to lasting love: “But for now I lie awake and savor the moment for I want to remember this—all of this—when there was no space but this space, no time but this time, and no man but this man.”
The two poems by Brad Johnson are short and to the point. In “Protest Poem,” he writes, “the press is preparing / us for a war / soon / / fuck the war.” “The Buddy System” describes “two marines in the grips / of an unabashed and near / idolatrous worship of / each other’s manhood.”
The longest piece in the collection, “Samuel R. Delaney: The Possibility of Possibilities,” is an absorbing interview with Delaney conducted by Joseph Beam. Delaney magisterially reflects on his life and writing career: “Some blacks were more open about being gay than many whites . . . we had less to begin with, in the end we had less to lose.”
In his poem “Beautiful Blackman,” Blackberri encourages a man who is experiencing discrimination in the bars to believe in himself: “You’re such a beautiful blackman / but somehow you’ve been made to feel / that your beauty’s not real. / You’re such a beautiful blackman / Come on, put a smile on your face / Be proud of your race.”
As the editor of In the Life, Joseph Beam had the authority to place his powerful essay “Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart” as the final piece in the collection. Instead, he makes it the penultimate selection in favor of placing Assotto Saint’s theater piece “Risin’ to the Love We Need” as the last work in the collection. In his essay, Beam struggles with how to control his anger because “Anger unvented becomes pain, pain unspoken becomes rage, rage released becomes violence.” Beam famously writes, “Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act of the eighties.” Beam poetically concludes his essay: “Black men loving Black men is a call to action, an acknowledgement of responsibility. We take care of our own kind when the night grows cold and silent. These days the nights are cold blooded and the silence echoes with complicity.”
In 2008, Redbone Press published a marvelous reissue of In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology. Deryl Mackie’s classy cover drawing of two dapper black men in tuxedos (considered out-of-style for the twenty-first century?) was replaced by the beautiful photograph of Joseph Beam that appeared on the back cover of the original edition. In a new introduction, James Earl Hardy describes the impact that In the Life, or ITL, as he affectionately calls it, had on him: “These literary warriors . . . celebrated the beauty of black gay life, black gay love, black-on-black gay love . . . Another black man . . . called me brother.”
In her publisher’s note, Lisa C. Moore mentions that two of the contributors to the original edition of In the Life, Daniel Garrett and Sidney Brinkley, would not allow their pieces to be reprinted. Brinkley’s short story and Garrett’s essay are two of my favorites from the original edition. I’m happy that I own the original edition.
To the best of my knowledge, nine of the 24 contributors to In the Life were lost to AIDS: Joseph Beam, James S. Tinney, Melvin Dixon, Donald W. Woods, Assotto Saint, Craig A. Reynolds, Essex Hemphill, Brad Johnson, and Craig G. Harris. Deryl Mackie died in 2007.
A new generation of black gay men is grappling with and studying the issues that Joseph Beam and his brothers confronted three decades ago. They are continuing Beam’s conversation and continuing his legacy through the lens of intersectionality. I assumed that the concept of intersectionality was fairly recent. I was wrong. I found a review by Charles Henry Fuller that appeared in Gay Community News (February 8-14-1987) soon after the original edition of In the Life was published. In his review, Fuller writes: “[In In the Life], Black gay men discuss the intersection of race and sex in their lives . . . how they cope with the limitations that they and others place upon them because of their race, sexual preference, and class.” The concept of intersectionality is not new at all.
In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, edited by Joseph Beam, is as relevant today in 2022 as it was when it was first published in 1986, over thirty years ago.
The 2008 Redbone Press edition of In the Life is still in print.
In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, edited by Joseph Beam, was released in 1986 by Alyson Publications. Twenty-four black gay writers contributed 38 essays, poems, short stories, interviews, and one theater piece that indelibly describe and dissect what it means to be a black gay man in America in the 1980s. Groundbreaking. Revolutionary. Powerful. The impact and significance of In the Life cannot be underestimated. Every piece of writing in In the Life is worth discussing at length, but I will only mention several of the pieces in this indispensable collection of black gay writings.
The poems by Essex Hemphill are highlights of the collection. His anger in “Cordon Negro” is explosive: “I’m dying twice as fast / as any other American / between eighteen and thirty-five” and “I’m sick of being an endangered species, / sick of being a goddamn statistic.” In “Better Days,” Hemphill bemoans, “A false safety / compels me to think / I will never need kindness, / so I don’t recognize that need in someone else.”
Daniel Garrett’s essay “Creating Ourselves: An Open Letter” is eloquent. Garrett expresses his desire for a better country than the America in which he finds himself: “A great country will be when men and women, Africans and Europeans and Latins and Asians are accepted as human, as valuable, as persons with economic, educational, legal, moral and sexual choices.”
At a little over three pages, Sidney Brinkley’s short story “Passion” appears smack-dab in the middle of the book. It beautifully and erotically depicts how a relationship between two men can grow from plain old lust to lasting love: “But for now I lie awake and savor the moment for I want to remember this—all of this—when there was no space but this space, no time but this time, and no man but this man.”
The two poems by Brad Johnson are short and to the point. In “Protest Poem,” he writes, “the press is preparing / us for a war / soon / / fuck the war.” “The Buddy System” describes “two marines in the grips / of an unabashed and near / idolatrous worship of / each other’s manhood.”
The longest piece in the collection, “Samuel R. Delaney: The Possibility of Possibilities,” is an absorbing interview with Delaney conducted by Joseph Beam. Delaney magisterially reflects on his life and writing career: “Some blacks were more open about being gay than many whites . . . we had less to begin with, in the end we had less to lose.”
In his poem “Beautiful Blackman,” Blackberri encourages a man who is experiencing discrimination in the bars to believe in himself: “You’re such a beautiful blackman / but somehow you’ve been made to feel / that your beauty’s not real. / You’re such a beautiful blackman / Come on, put a smile on your face / Be proud of your race.”
As the editor of In the Life, Joseph Beam had the authority to place his powerful essay “Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart” as the final piece in the collection. Instead, he makes it the penultimate selection in favor of placing Assotto Saint’s theater piece “Risin’ to the Love We Need” as the last work in the collection. In his essay, Beam struggles with how to control his anger because “Anger unvented becomes pain, pain unspoken becomes rage, rage released becomes violence.” Beam famously writes, “Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act of the eighties.” Beam poetically concludes his essay: “Black men loving Black men is a call to action, an acknowledgement of responsibility. We take care of our own kind when the night grows cold and silent. These days the nights are cold blooded and the silence echoes with complicity.”
In 2008, Redbone Press published a marvelous reissue of In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology. Deryl Mackie’s classy cover drawing of two dapper black men in tuxedos (considered out-of-style for the twenty-first century?) was replaced by the beautiful photograph of Joseph Beam that appeared on the back cover of the original edition. In a new introduction, James Earl Hardy describes the impact that In the Life, or ITL, as he affectionately calls it, had on him: “These literary warriors . . . celebrated the beauty of black gay life, black gay love, black-on-black gay love . . . Another black man . . . called me brother.”
In her publisher’s note, Lisa C. Moore mentions that two of the contributors to the original edition of In the Life, Daniel Garrett and Sidney Brinkley, would not allow their pieces to be reprinted. Brinkley’s short story and Garrett’s essay are two of my favorites from the original edition. I’m happy that I own the original edition.
To the best of my knowledge, nine of the 24 contributors to In the Life were lost to AIDS: Joseph Beam, James S. Tinney, Melvin Dixon, Donald W. Woods, Assotto Saint, Craig A. Reynolds, Essex Hemphill, Brad Johnson, and Craig G. Harris. Deryl Mackie died in 2007.
A new generation of black gay men is grappling with and studying the issues that Joseph Beam and his brothers confronted three decades ago. They are continuing Beam’s conversation and continuing his legacy through the lens of intersectionality. I assumed that the concept of intersectionality was fairly recent. I was wrong. I found a review by Charles Henry Fuller that appeared in Gay Community News (February 8-14-1987) soon after the original edition of In the Life was published. In his review, Fuller writes: “[In In the Life], Black gay men discuss the intersection of race and sex in their lives . . . how they cope with the limitations that they and others place upon them because of their race, sexual preference, and class.” The concept of intersectionality is not new at all.
In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, edited by Joseph Beam, is as relevant today in 2022 as it was when it was first published in 1986, over thirty years ago.
The 2008 Redbone Press edition of In the Life is still in print.
November 10, 2019
Reissued in 2008 with a new introduction by James Earl Hardy, In the Life features essays, poems, theater pieces, and short stories by more than 25 black gay authors which were originally collected and published by editor Joseph Beam back in 1986 to give voice and visibility to a doubly marginalized community.
Beginning with Hardy's excellent introduction, which firmly situates In the Life in the socio-political context of 1986, the book then segues into six loosely arranged thematic sections (Stepping Out, Cut Off From Among Their People, Creating Community, Brother/father/lover/son, Speaking for Ourselves, Stepping into Tomorrow) before concluding with updated detailed contributor biographies. Through a variety of formats, the contributors to these sections address issues such as immigration, religion, hook up culture, and fatherhood.
I should be clear that I'm not the intended audience for this book: I'm neither gay nor black, nor even male, and when this book was first published in 1986 I was still schlepping my mid-day meals to school in a She-Ra lunchbox. I say this only to point out that the voices that echo so strongly for me here - Reginald Shepherd's blistering "On Not Being White," Samuel R. Delaney's reflective "The Possibility of Possibilities," and pretty much every gorgeous poem by Essex Hemphill - must ring like trumpets at the walls of Jericho in the heads of those who more clearly see themselves in its pages. And if it's like that now, I can only imagine it knocked people flat thirty years ago.
Although occasionally uneven in the way of all anthologies, In the Life feels surprisingly fresh for a book published in 1986. And as long as we still haven't reached the milestones contributor Max C. Smith expected to see by 2000 - self-acceptance, full civil rights, complete support from the religious community - it will remain an important and necessary read.
Beginning with Hardy's excellent introduction, which firmly situates In the Life in the socio-political context of 1986, the book then segues into six loosely arranged thematic sections (Stepping Out, Cut Off From Among Their People, Creating Community, Brother/father/lover/son, Speaking for Ourselves, Stepping into Tomorrow) before concluding with updated detailed contributor biographies. Through a variety of formats, the contributors to these sections address issues such as immigration, religion, hook up culture, and fatherhood.
I should be clear that I'm not the intended audience for this book: I'm neither gay nor black, nor even male, and when this book was first published in 1986 I was still schlepping my mid-day meals to school in a She-Ra lunchbox. I say this only to point out that the voices that echo so strongly for me here - Reginald Shepherd's blistering "On Not Being White," Samuel R. Delaney's reflective "The Possibility of Possibilities," and pretty much every gorgeous poem by Essex Hemphill - must ring like trumpets at the walls of Jericho in the heads of those who more clearly see themselves in its pages. And if it's like that now, I can only imagine it knocked people flat thirty years ago.
Although occasionally uneven in the way of all anthologies, In the Life feels surprisingly fresh for a book published in 1986. And as long as we still haven't reached the milestones contributor Max C. Smith expected to see by 2000 - self-acceptance, full civil rights, complete support from the religious community - it will remain an important and necessary read.
January 24, 2020
"I have been forced by society to pay a price for being Black. I don’t want to pay another price when I come home."
April 24, 2020
The last section of this book is everything.
June 2, 2024
Lot of good poetry
February 5, 2025
Pretty great collectiion
February 2, 2018
"In The Life" is an excellent book to read along with "Brother to Brother" & Martin Duberman's "Hold Tight Gently," both of which I read recently. Joseph Beam edited this first anthology of writing by gay black men. Then he wanted to get more voices out into the world so he started a call for the next book "Brother to Brother," unfortunately he died before he could finish it. Essex Hemphill took over the process to bring "Brother to Brother" to completion. Martin Duberman's book brings this history to life, Joseph's mother welcomed Essex into her home so Essex could finish what Joseph had started. She recognized the importance of her son's work. This trilogy of books gives much history and perspective on gay life and black men, whether they identify with being gay or not. In fact, one of the essays on religion makes the distinction between black gay men and gay black men.
I loved reading Joseph Beam's interview with Samuel R. Delaney, who lived a very unconventional life for back in the early 60s, he was married due to a pregnancy, but openly gay with a wife who was accepting of his gayness. As a writer I love his quote, "When you talk about something openly for the first time—and that certainly, was the first time I'd talked to a public group about being gay—for better or worse you use the public language you've been given. It's only later, alone in the night, that maybe, if you're a writer, you ask yourself how closely that language reflects your experience. And that night I realized my experience had been betrayed."
Three quotes of Joseph Beam from his essay, Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart:
"Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act of the eighties."
"And the one thing about honesty is that all of ours is different."
"Living a lie is one thing, but it is quite another to die within its confines."
It was also inspiring was to read some of the same writers who were in "Brother to Brother," part of a play by Assotto Saint, which had been performed at Stoneway Repertory, and early Essex Hemphill poems.
I loved reading Joseph Beam's interview with Samuel R. Delaney, who lived a very unconventional life for back in the early 60s, he was married due to a pregnancy, but openly gay with a wife who was accepting of his gayness. As a writer I love his quote, "When you talk about something openly for the first time—and that certainly, was the first time I'd talked to a public group about being gay—for better or worse you use the public language you've been given. It's only later, alone in the night, that maybe, if you're a writer, you ask yourself how closely that language reflects your experience. And that night I realized my experience had been betrayed."
Three quotes of Joseph Beam from his essay, Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart:
"Black men loving Black men is the revolutionary act of the eighties."
"And the one thing about honesty is that all of ours is different."
"Living a lie is one thing, but it is quite another to die within its confines."
It was also inspiring was to read some of the same writers who were in "Brother to Brother," part of a play by Assotto Saint, which had been performed at Stoneway Repertory, and early Essex Hemphill poems.
December 20, 2012
Brotherhood in literature and life
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews