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When & Where Are Our Chapter Spaces? | |
BMX-New York Chapter:
730 Riverside Drive
(@150th Street)* Suite 9E
Harlem, New York 10031 212-283-0219 Website: BMXNY.org
*PLEASE NOTE: THE DOOR ENTRANCE IS LOCATED ON 150th STREET. Ages 18 and up.
Time:
8:00 PM - 11:00 PM
(Every Friday night, except for our hiatus month in August)
Directions:
Take the #1 Train to 145th Street or the M4, M5, M101 or M100 to 149th Street & BroadwayGOOGLE MAP
BMX-Baltimore Chapter: 1609 Saint Paul Street* (Between East Lanvale and East Federal Streets) Baltimore, Maryland 21202 GOOGLE MAP *We are located across the street from the Amtrak train station. Our space is designated by the RED DOOR.Ages 18 and up.
Time: 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM (Every Sunday night)
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Contact Us | Black Men's Xchange-NY 730 Riverside Drive Suite 9E Harlem, New York 10031
Email: [email protected] Phone: 212-283-0219
Official BMX-NY Website: BMXNY.org
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Black Men's Xchange-Baltimore 1609 Saint Paul Street Baltimore, Maryland 21202 Email: [email protected] Phone: 410-637-3016
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Africentric Affirmation Community Links
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Black Men's Xchange National
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Greetings Brothers!
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. Welcome To The Black Men's Xchange National Gatekeepers e-Newsletter. This e-newsletter is for the BMX-New York chapter gathering on Friday, June 24th, 2011 and the BMX-Baltimore chapter gathering on Sunday, June 26th, 2011.
Brothers, please if you would take the time and tell us about your experience at a BMX-NY meeting. This is a confidential Survey with no names required. We appreciate your time and comments as we continue to try and make your experience at BMX-NY one of true community.
BROTHERS! Although not required, BRINGING A POTLUCK DISH AND/OR BEVERAGE of your choosing would be a generous offering for the repast after the group discussion! Your offering defrays a cost to the organization. Also, end of gathering DONATIONS are also greatly appreciated, too. THANK YOU!
ACHE!BMX National BMXnational.com Don't forget!! This Saturday, June 25th, 2011 2nd Annual Harlem Pride (At Marcus Garvey Park - Madison Avenue @ 122nd Street) 12 NOON - 6PM) GOOGLE MAPS
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Black Men's Xchange National
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BMX- New York Topic For This Friday, June 24th, 2011
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How Do We Flex Our Political Muscle
Facilitated by Anthony Truly
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What does it mean to be political?
What is political capital? How is it garnered? Do we have any? Where?
Is being pro-Black and pro-SGL radical?
Is radical bad?
Does the gay liberation movement address our issues?
Are there external and internal factors that might impede our ability as SGL Black men to build and flex our political muscle?
Is there a connection between having a personal voice and having political muscle in a community context?
What are some ways we can be more active in our community?
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Friday Forum Recap
(BMX- NY Topic Hi-lites From Friday, June 3rd, 2011)
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At Friday's exchange, towards Taking Responsibility for the 'L' in same gender loving (SGL), Brothers weighed-in on The Politics of Love through the following lenses:
What is love?
"The action of caring [for] or valuing someone unconditionally...without judgment..."
"It feels amazing, this...and overwhelming...It's a spiritual thing...How do you describe the wind?..."
"I live for my partner and my partner lives for me..."
{Facilitator reads dictionary definitions, "'A strong, complex emotion or feeling causing one to appreciate, delight in and crave the presence or possession of another and to please or promote the welfare of the other: devoted affection or attachment. Specifically, such feeling between a husband and wife or lover and sweetheart..."}
"I think it's unreasonable to call love unconditional...[It] is pie-in-the-sky or Pollyannaish...when you say, he has to earn this much, or look like this...those are conditions...For my family...They have to not abuse me...[Love is] being willing to accept people in spite of that which is unlikable about them..."
What is meant by the statement, 'The personal is political?'
"Living authentically...Bucking society...I might want to walk down the street holding my man's hand..."
"Us taking care of ourselves like we're doing right now is political...White gays called in to The Daily News [in response to the article about the Black church leaders speaking out against Harlem Pride...] and said, Harlem Pride is separatist..."
"Cointelpro was created in response to our taking care of ourselves..."
{Facilitator asks, "As same gender loving men, do we love differently than heterosexuals do?..."}
"We love the same, but our expression is a little bit different...When you love a woman, you buy her flowers and a ring...Most of us don't care for flowers..."
{Facilitator say, "Well!...I never!..."} [Laughter]
"If you love yourself, then you are able to love others...A lot of us are struggling with the ability to love ourselves...I grew up in a household where my parents never raised their voices at each other...When it came to my sexuality, my father said, 'He's special'..."
If Black people have to unlearn self-hatred resulting from Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome on the way to becoming self-actualized, what must same gender loving men do?
{Facilitator says, "We talk about hegemony, which is the domination, in all areas of experience...politics, education, economics, language, [etc.]...of one culture by another...What is insidious about white supremacy, which is the [name for] the hegemony under which we live, is that it has taught us to believe that [as Black people] we are unlovable...So, if that is the case for the average Black person...Then, how much harder might it be for me to love myself as a same gender loving Black man?..."}
"I get frustrated...on Oprah and all these shows they say, 'If you don't love yourself, you can't love anybody else...But how [do I love myself]?..."
"Psychologist, Eric Fromm defines love as a fusion of care, respect, knowledge and responsibility for the other's spiritual growth...Slavery made it all but impossible for Blacks to love...The focus was on survival [as distinct from love]...We have all been enslaved because we have all been taught to love hetereosexually...hegemonically, we have all been taught to love heterosexually...If I can't love myself, can I love?...[In addition to Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome] I think we are also going through Post Traumatic Sexuality Syndrome..."
"Does having the Harlem...Brooklyn...Black Pride and Black History Month keep us under the Slave Syndrome?..."
{Facilitator says, "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome is a psychological model conceived by Alwyn Nichols and elaborated on by Joy DeGruy...It was based on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, where the researchers compared symptoms experienced by returning veterans suffering with that anxiety disorder and discovered, symptom for symptom, they matched what Enslaved Africans and the generations of their offspring experience in our lives...When a person experiences trauma, they are taken to the hospital where they receive triage and then other kinds of remedies to treat the trauma...We have never received triage for the overwhelming assault of enslavement or for the traumas we've experienced since or continue to experience every day of our lives...If you've any question about what I mean...When you leave, go up to Broadway and hail a medallion cab..."}
"Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome is in the way we treat each other...When a Black person tell me something and I dismiss it...and then a White person tells me the same thing and I take it seriously...I've had to watch myself about that...It's something I used to do a lot..."
There is a movement for marriage equality, politicizing Homosexuals' right to love each other and have that love sanctioned socially, economically and otherwise. What are we doing about our love?
{Facilitator says, "Okay, it's time for the poll... How many among us are in committed relationships?..."} [Six people raise their hands] {That's about a-sixth of us...And, how many among us would like to be in a committed relationship?..."} [Most of the rest of the participants raise their hands] {"There is something to be said for the fact that, as is generally the case when we take these polls, many more of us profess to want to be in relationships than are...We talked about how our enslavement and how Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome has made learning to love ourselves a challenge...I submit that among the reasons why many more of us profess to want to be in committed relationships than are has some to do with these disruptions in our capacity to love ourselves and each other..."}
"Slavery broke up families...When I say I don't want to marry, I am saying, I am still a slave...I will not take a job unless there are domestic benefits [offered]...I am not three-fifths of a man...When I say I don't want the right [to marry], I'm saying I don't want the responsibility...I want to continue being a boy..."
If I must embody love in order to attract the love I seek, how do I learn to do that?
"I learn to love myself by loving...By affirming that I deserve to love and be loved...That I am good enough...Self-love is [not necessarily] polite or silent or easy..."
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Upcoming Topics: BMX- NY 2011 Summer Calendar
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(PLEASE NOTE THAT TOPICS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE; WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTERS WILL REFLECT ANY NEW CHANGES)
Saturday, June 25th, 2011 2nd Annual Harlem Pride (At Marcus Garvey Park - Madison Avenue @ 122nd Street) 12 NOON - 6PM) GOOGLE MAPS
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BMX- Baltimore Topic For This Sunday, June 26th, 2011
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THE MEDIA AND BLACK MEN:
Entertainment or Brainwash
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Upcoming Topics: BMX- Baltimore 2011 Summer Calendar
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(PLEASE NOTE THAT TOPICS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE; WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTERS WILL REFLECT ANY NEW CHANGES)
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011 Racial or Rational
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Community Corner Announcements
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Anthony Truly
Telephone: 212-928-1957
Email: inifinitygroup[at]yahoo.com
Website: BMXNY.org
Download: "I AM A MAN" Public Relations (PDF)
I AM A MAN: Black Manhood & Sexual Diversity In The Black Community (Forum)
Saturday, July 16th, 2011 @ 2:00PM
@ National Action Network
In response to the brewing controversy around Black Harlem church leaders' outcry against the Same Gender Loving (SGL) Liberation Movement, Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network has joined forces with The Black Men's Xchange National and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement to conduct a community forum on Black male diversity, sexuality, manhood, power and safety. Participants will chart a collective course for intra-community recognition at I AM A MAN: Black Manhood & Sexual Diversity in the Black Community on Saturday, July 16th at 2 PM at the National Action Network, located at 106 West 145th Street (near Lenox Ave.) The multi-media event will feature film and video footage, live performances, a panel discussion and community dialogue. The panel will feature National Action Network President, Al Sharpton, "Our World" TV Show Host, Marc Lamont Hill, and Black Men's Xchange National Founder & CEO, Cleo Manago. Pictured Left to Right: Al Sharpton, Cleo Manago and Marc Lamont Hill Recalling the signs carried by Memphis sanitation workers at the strike during which Martin Luther King was assassinated, used here, I AM A MAN is an affirmation of the common struggle of Black men, and a call for the inclusion of the SGL men among the collective. Reverend Sharpton said, "There is absolutely a need to have this discussion because, if I recall [correctly], in the early days of the Civil Rights movement, Bayard Rustin and James Baldwin were demonized because of that." In previous generations, in order to escape oppression, some very 'light-skinned' Blacks 'passed as White.' Today many SGL men pass as heterosexual, hiding in plain sight, to escape the pain of being regarded as less than "real men." 11-Year Old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover Over the last year, a rash of highly publicized homosexual teen suicides transpired across the country. Yet again, the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Black community is among Black men, most of whom are homosexual and bisexual. Some also identify as heterosexual. These and other currents are evidence of injury in Black communities nationwide. In response to these traumas, The Black Men's Xchange National, The National Action Network and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement are calling the community together in a forum around its collective healing. Says Cleo Manago, "For generations, the Black community has been so preoccupied with survival in America, or assimilation, we have rarely stepped out of this to figure ourselves out, or rationally address our perceived differences with each other. This forum is one of those rare opportunities on an essential issue." Black Men's Xchange NY Co-founder, John-Martin Green insists, "This human rights struggle - for diverse Black men to be fully present, respectfully representing our range - can only be won as we muster our courage as a community to face our fears and end misunderstandings that produce unhealthy behaviors and division among us. Any among us who feel compelled to hide any part(s) of ourselves are diminished in our capacity as freedom fighters on behalf of the collective. If we will function cohesively as a community in the continuing fight for human rights, we must recognize, as the saying goes, until all are free, no one is free." Join in building a stronger, safer community where hiding in plain sight is unnecessary because SGL, bisexual and heterosexual Black people are all respected and affirmed at I AM A MAN. AmAASI/BMX Founder Cleo Manago & Reverend Al Sharpton # # #
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SGL Black Heroes
Beauford Delaney (1901 - 1979)
Beauford Delaney was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1901. He and his younger brother, born 1904, both started out drawing at an early age. Delaney moved to Boston, Massachusetts when he was a teenager. He studied at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, The South Boston School of Art, and the Copley Society. Beauford lived an unsettling life as an artist and was in constant need of funds to continue his work and studies. Delaney managed to meet, sketch, or paint a host of celebrities and by 1929, he moved to Harlem, New York during the height of the Harlem Renaissance was in full bloom. Delaney got to know Countee Cullin, W.E.B. Dubois, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and several other instrumental figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Delaney did work as part of the Harlem Artists Guild and worked at the studio of Charles Alston.
In the late 1950's, Delaney was able to reach Paris due to the beneficence of a friend. Although many of Beauford Delaney's works were close to being classified as abstract art, he never fully wanted this distinction.
Baldwin
New York
His arrival in New York City at the time of the Harlem Renaissance was exciting. Harlem was then the centre of Black cultural life in the United States. But it was also the time of the "Great Depression" and it was this that Beauford was confronted with on his arrival. "Went to New York in 1929 from Boston all alone with very little money...this was the depression, and I soon discovered that most of these people were people out of work and just doing what I was doing - sitting and figuring out what to do for food and a place to sleep." Can Fire in the Park (oil on canvas, 1946) In time, Delaney would establish himself as a well known part of the bohemianism of the art scene of the period. His friends included the "poet laureate" of the period, Countee Cullen, and he would also become the "spiritual father" to the young writer James Baldwin, and friends with artist Georgia O'Keeffe, writer Henry Miller and many others. When he traveled to Harlem to visit his African-American friends and colleagues, Delaney made efforts to ensure that they knew little of his other social life in Greenwich Village. He feared that many of his Harlem friends would be uncomfortable or repelled by his homosexuality. While he worked to incorporate African-American influences, such as the "Negro" idiom of jazz, into his own artwork, he often preferred to visit one of the clubs when he was in Harlem rather than join in the serious socio-political discussions or "Negro art" questions that were taking place at the 306 Group or the Harlem Artists Guild. Though he resisted thinking of himself as a Negro artist, Beauford had tremendous pride in Black achievement. He was also pleased to participate in a number of Black artists exhibitions with fellow artists like Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Selma Burke, Richmond Barthe, Norman Lewis and his brother Joseph Delaney. Beauford Delaney's life and struggle as an aging American artist living in Paris ended at age seventy-eight from alcoholism and Alzheimer's Disease. Following his death, he was praised as a great and neglected painter but, with a few notable exceptions, the neglect continued. A retrospective of his work at the Studio Museum in Harlem, a year before his death, did little to revive interest in his work. It was not until the 1988 exhibition Beauford Delaney: From Tennessee to Paris, curated by the French art dealer Philippe Briet, at the Philippe Briet Gallery, that Delaney's work was again exhibited in New York, followed by two retrospectives in the gallery: "Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective [50 Years of Light]" in 1991, and "Beauford Delaney: The New York Years [1929-1953]" in 1994. In 1985 James Baldwin described the impact of Delaney on his life, saying he was "the first living proof, for me, that a Black man could be an artist. In a warmer time, a less blasphemous place, he would have been recognised as my Master and I as his Pupil. He became, for me, an example of courage and integrity, humility and passion. An absolute integrity: I saw him shaken many times and I lived to see him broken but I never saw him bow."[17] He further wrote, "Perhaps I should not say, flatly, what I believe - that he is a great painter - among the very greatest; but I do know that great art can only be created out of love, and that no greater lover has ever held a brush." Delaney's work has now been exhibited by, among others, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Art Institute of Chicago, Knoxville Museum of Art, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Newark Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Beauford Delaney Peintre � Painter 30 December 1901 - 26 March 1979 Born: Knoxville, Tennessee USA Died: Paris, France "I am home"
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The SGL symbol, the Bawabisi, is inspired by Nigerian Nsibidi script and West African Adrinkra symbols. The two facing semi-circles represent unity and love. The figure has been split symmetrically in half to suggest parts of a whole that mirror each other. Dots are often used in Adinkra symbols to represent commitment and pluralism. The split and dots, with the addition of color, suggest the concept of gender. The circle encompassing the figure reinforces the idea of connectedness despite duality, suggesting the idea of two-spirited.
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About The BMX- NY Chapter...
THE BLACK MEN'S XCHANGE - NEW YORK (BMX-NY) was founded in Harlem in 2002 and is a gathering for same gender loving (SGL) and bisexual Black men to powerfully and respectfully address issues that impact their lives, and to connect with one another in a positive, affirming, nurturing and transformational environment. Ages 18 and up.
BMXNY.org
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About The BMX- Baltimore Chapter...
THE BLACK MEN'S XCHANGE - BALTIMORE was founded in 2008 to provoke critical thinking; to teach Black men how to unlearn internalized oppression, and to give Black men the tools to deal with these issues. Ages 18 and up.
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BMX Mission StatementTHE BLACK MEN'S XCHANGE (BMX) was founded in 1989 by activist, writer and behavioral health expert Cleo Manago, as an instrument of healing and empowerment for same gender loving (SGL) and bisexual African descended men. The mission of the Black Men's Xchange (BMX) is to affirm, heal, educate, unify and promote well-being and critical thinking among Black people - 18 and up - diverse in sexuality, class, culture and philosophy. Black Men's Xchange (BMX) conducts activities that promote healthy self-concept, sexual health, constructive decision making, and cultural affirmation among same-gender-loving (SGL), bisexual and heterosexual Black populations. BMX affirms and educates Black men (and the community at-large) while providing tools for self-determination, community responsibility, self-actualization and the prevention of health threats (e.g. HIV, isolation, substance and other addictions, and mental instability). BMX creates an environment that advances Black culture and involves identifying and unlearning ingrained anti-homosexual and anti-black male and female conditioning.
BMX is built on a philosophy that embraces same gender loving experience as intrinsic to everyday Black life. Integral to BMX's approach is the understanding that, in order to decrease internal and external anti-homosexual thinking, and demystify differences around diverse ways of living and loving Black people must engage in supportive dialogue with each other and the community.
At BMX we believe that self-determination is crucial in achieving success toward healing and empowerment. We understand that our cultural and experiential uniqueness requires a uniquely focused and precise approach. Affirming strategies born out of our own experience is powerful; hence, the adoption of the terms, Black, African American and Same Gender Loving (SGL).
The Term Same Gender Loving (SGL)...
READ MORE...
The Black Men's Xchange-New York And Our Allies At The Millions More Movement (MMM) In Washington, DC (October 15th, 2005)
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