Going through some theme fittings
I think it’s time to update the style of my blog. Since I don’t have time to sit down and go through a bunch of CSS code to customize, I will be trying diffrent WordPress blog themes to see which one I like best. The goal is to go with something that is clean but not too sterile with easy access to links. I really would like my links section to be a real go-to resource.
Feel free to chime in with opinions if you stop by.
Becoming slightly obsessed with Esperanza Spalding
Her voice, her skills on the bass, her music in general has me mesmerized. Check out this David Letterman performance that led him to call her “the coolest person I’ve ever had on the show”.
Great film, check and see if it’s in your area soon.
Getting ready for this book club means that I have been exploring with a little more depth what it means for me to be black and lesbian. This is made all the more difficult because I don’t have any black, lesbian friends. In fact, I don’t have that many gay friends to begin with. I am finding it increasingly difficult to search out gay functions and be the token black or search out black functions and have to deal with homophobia. This is why I take the writer Pat Parker’s quote so close to heart.
“If I could take all my parts with me when I go somewhere, and not have to say to one of them, ‘No, you stay home tonight, you won’t be welcome,’ because I’m going to an all-white party where I can be gay, but not Black. Or I’m going to a Black poetry reading, and half the poets are antihomosexual, or thousands of situations where something of what I am cannot come with me. The day all the different parts of me can come along, we would have what I would call a revolution. “
A couple of months ago I had the pleasure of driving up to Hampshire College in Amherst to see a screening of a great movie about black lesbians. I’ve included the trailer below. It was great. The Q&A session with the director at the end was equally enlightening. Check it out then go to the MySpace page and WordPress blog for more information.
Starting July 1st! Online Book Club for Black Lesbians
I’m an avid follower of the AfterEllen website because I think it’s a great platform to find out about and discuss queer women in entertainment. And while it is way better than 95% of the other general LGBT websites at including women of color, there are still some gaps.
So when I came across an AE Forum asking about sites dedicated to African-American lesbians and saw that there was specifically an interest in a book club, I thought “God bless the child that’s got their own” and offered to use my blog to moderate such a club. After some private messaging between me and Lunakiss, we’ve come up with a format.
Starting July 1st, we will introduce the book for the month. As you can see from the pic it’s Linda Villarosa’s novel “Passing For Black”. After the introductory post, there will be subsequent posts every Friday of the month discussing the next part of the book. We are also looking for book suggestions for the coming months also. While we like a good erotic novel as much as the next person, we are going to try and steer the club toward a more intellectually substantial slant. That way we could have deeper and more involved discussions about the books.
So any interested black queer women feel free to leave comments and suggestions below and be sure to check back with us July 1st.
