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The BMX- NY Gatekeepers  e-Newsletter

APRIL  13th, 2012
Black Men's Xchange-National
  The BMX-New York Chapter
~ Celebrating 10 YEARS ~
December 2002 - December 2012

BMX-NY - Celebrating X Years



 
In This Week's Gatekeepers Issue
This Friday's BMX-NY Topic:
Taking Care of Yourself
Friday Forum Recap (03|30|12): BUILDING A SAME GENDER LOVING LIBERATION MOVEMENT: A Dialogue with Same Gender Loving Sisters
Upcoming Topics: BMX- NY 2012 Spring Calendar
Community Corner Announcements
SGL Black Heroes:
Claude McKay
The Bawabisi SGL Symbol
About The BMX-NY Chapter...
BMX Mission Statement
Black Men's Xchange National Gatekeepers e-Newsletter Archive Homepage
 
 

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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 & Broadway
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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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.Welcome To The Black Men's Xchange National Gatekeepers e-Newsletter. This e-newsletter is for the BMX-New York chapter gathering  on Friday, April 13th, 2012.


 

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. 

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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-New York

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PLEASE NOTE: 

As he moves in the direction of doctoral study, it is with tremendous pride, gratitude and love that BMX-NY Director of Operations, John-Martin Green passes on the reins of leadership to the Steering Committee.

 

 

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In the coming weeks Friday night dialogues will move to the Penthouse of the Dorothy Day Houses, located at 583 Riverside Drive, 7th floor (on the north corner of Riverside at 135th St.) .  

 

Please be on the lookout for the date of the move.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

The BMX National Annual Leadership Summit & Retreat 

For Diverse Black Men Who Love Men


In the beautiful California, Wine Country and Coastline,

May 10-14, 2012  

 

 

BMX National Leadership Retreat Flyer 2012 (CC)  

Official Website: BlackLeaderEvents.com  

  

This year's retreat is located one hour north of San Francisco in Guerneville, California. The town is minutes from the famous, Bodega Bay beach coastline and mountain recreation territories.  The retreat will be hosted by the luxurious

West Sonoma Inn & Spa Center, which borders the Russian River.

It's centrally located to dining and cafes.

 

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE!

 
Date: May 10-14, 2012
Site Location: West Sonoma Inn & Spa
14100 Brookside Lane, Guerneville, CA

GOOGLE MAP


Cost: $300 to $450.00 (Sliding scale)  

 

 

            

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BMX- NY  Topic  For  This  Friday,  April  13th2012 

 

 

Taking Care of Yourself

    

Facilitated by Tommie Thompson    


Hands of Sunlight


How do you take care of yourself?  What does health self-care look like?

 

What do you do that feels good but isn't good for you?

Black Man With Headache 

 

What do you need to start doing?  What illnesses run in your family/are you susceptible to?

 

 
Black Man In Mirror 

When you think of your health through your sexuality/SGLness, what concerns you the most?
 

What would you look and feel like at your healthiest?

Apple of Health 
 

  

 
  
           
 

 

Friday  Forum  Recap

(BMX- NY Topic  Hi- lites  From  March  30th,  2012) 

 

BUILDING A SAME GENDER LOVING

LIBERATION MOVEMENT:

A Dialogue with Same Gender Loving Sisters 

   

Facilitated by JM Green & Carmen Neely

 

Harlem Pride's Camen Neely (@ Marcus Garvey Park) 

         

 

In a scintillating BMX-NY dialogue between same gender loving women and men about Building a Same Gender Loving Liberation Movement, participants took up the following questions:

 


Are there fundamental human rights of which we are still deprived in our community?  If so, what are they?     

 

"Tolerance...Just having the right to do what we want to do..."


"The right of liberty...to be free...that we're not enslaved...to [be able to] talk to our parents about who we are...to talk on the job about who we are...in church..."


"That's something I'm going through now...I'm in therapy now...For me it's a fear...[I'm] Seeing someone...I'm dating...[And, around] public displays of affection [it's scary] if I want to kiss my boyfriend in front of [hetero Black folk]...How will they react?...My fear is [of] being looked at differently...Feeling free to fully express myself [is a fundamental human right I am still deprived of]..."


{Facilitator says, "Yes, there is a connection between risk and rights...Risk-taking is scary...Is the freedom to express ourselves fully a human right?...As long as it doesn't infringe on others' rights, I think so...I've been in a quandary about whether or not I infringed on my own freedom in a work context...Team teaching a leadership training workshop in a high school a couple of weeks ago, my partner asked the students if they had any questions for us, and one asked what we did outside of the context within which we engage with them...When it was my turn, I spoke of my work as a theatre practitioner, and as a singer and said that I run a Black men's empowerment organization, leaving out the same gender loving part of that description which I typically cite...And, I wondered if I hadn't backslid into an old shame-based or fear-based relationship to my same gender lovingness...or rather, if I wasn't operating within some constraint...or perceived constraint within the job context...Either the Dept. of Ed. or the agency I'm working with the DOE for..."


{Co-Facilitator says, "I know exactly what you're talking about...I'm a sixth grade teacher...I see our young bloods grappling [with their budding sexuality]...I am constrained by law...I'm not free to see a youth struggling and go to them and say, 'I see you, and there is nothing wrong with what you feel,' without running the risk of winding up down at 65 Court Street, being accused of trying to produce homosexuals..."}


"At work or at school, as a teacher [acknowledging my sexuality] would be grounds for my dismissal...They asked me to do a voiceover today...[A guy said] 'I like your voice...No homo, no homo...I just like your voice'...I never feel free to express myself outside of home..."


"I feel free now in college...I write short stories about gay relationships...I try to break down stigma...In the latest story, I wrote a scene where [one male character] looking into the [other male character's] eyes, takes his hand and says, 'I've never met anyone like you...I think I'm falling in love with you'...And [my classmates] said...'That doesn't happen...All gay people think about is sex'...And I said, 'I'm gay, and I look for love'...And we started arguing and the Professor told them, 'You'll have to take that up with him outside of class'...[But] Around my elders down in North Carolina I [still] don't feel free..."


"I don't feel free yet...I'm from North Carolina, where I conducted the choir in church...They have this saying...'Let not your good be evil spoken of'...I was not able to be free in church...When I came here...I'm still conducting a choir [but, in an SGL congregation]...[Now] I don't have to worry about my job being in jeopardy...I still don't feel free at home [though] with my eighty-year-old uncle I stay with..."


"I am a Reverend...an interfaith minister, and I don't feel safe on my Facebook page...It's not that I'm not out...You just can't put everything on Facebook...When I think about my parishioners, I want them to see God first...My daughter who was so, 'Mommy's gonna' burn in hell' [has come around now]..."

 


How active are we in our communities (e.g. local communities, Black communities, Civil Rights or Gay Liberation initiatives?)


"The agency I work for, they're supportive...The IT department for the city...And I work in EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity)...I've certainly been an advocate for a lot of people...But I had a birthday party recently...A really big [SGL] birthday party...But I didn't feel comfortable inviting my co-workers...I didn't know what they would say...if they would feel comfortable...I felt more comfortable inviting White people than Black people...My brother is in jail for several BnE's (Breaking and Enterings)...and I wrote to him and told him I was gay...and he wrote back and said, 'You're my brother and I love you'...And then started quoting scripture about who will not inherit the kingdom of God...My sister used to ask me, 'Are you gay?'...'Are you gay?'...'Are you gay?'...And I would say, 'No'...I finally said, 'Yes,' and she said, 'You faggot!'...I should be free [to be who I am]...Nobody's paying my bills...I shouldn't have to answer to them for anything..."


{Facilitator says, "I'm going to push back a little where you say, 'nobody's paying my bills'...I recognize that sentiment as a standard justification for observing the right to privacy, as distinct from an assertion of the right to be present in our sexuality...And [with regard to] the notion that one shouldn't have to answer to others...By my reckoning, [where we would observe change] there's no such thing as 'should,' there is only what is...And we take that and make the best of it that we can...Which leads to the question, how is freedom achieved?...And, where do rights come from?...Do people give us our rights?...For that matter, did Lincoln [simply] free the enslaved Africans?..."}  [Participants respond variously,,,'No'...'You take your rights'...'We fought for them'...]

 


Is it possible that our political inactivity/invisibility might be related to conflict around self-worth?


"For a long time I had a problem making my sexuality equivalent with my Blackness...I am an effeminate Black man...And I get so tired of Black people saying, I'm not a real man...I get so pissed off about Black people being so ignorant...I wear Moshood because I like his designs...Once I was on the A- train...and I was wearing a head wrap...And I was [attacked] by these ignorant [guys] who were [challenging my manhood]...I get so tired of Black people's ignorance...I can't get over it...And I don't know what to do..."


{Facilitator asks, "What does one do to get over others' ignorance?..."}


{Co-Facilitator says, "I'm not a 'lipstick lesbian,' but I like to get my hair done and put on a little makeup sometimes...[So] Some people say to me, 'You're not a lesbian'...I deal with energy...[It's important that I am mindful of how I use my energy]...If I give my energy over sometimes I say, 'It's very unfortunate you feel that way,' and keep it moving...Cause all the people in our community have all these defined labels...That sort of ignorance [can be difficult to challenge]... That's why you have to be present in the community, so they can see all the different [kinds of people we are]...This young Brother at the Pride launch last year saw me on TV with my hair done and makeup [and came to me] and asked me, 'Are you a lesbian?'...I told him, 'I [love women] too'...It has to be your definition of [manhood or womanhood you're asserting]..."}


{Facilitator says, "I agree with Carmen...It is imperative that we be present in our sexuality in the community so that they can become acquainted with the full spectrum of our collective humanity...What is vital is that we train ourselves to take a deep breath and remain calm when confronted with ignorance so that we can embody the difference between what they think and what is real... I find that, as I speak plainly and honestly and intelligently to people, it's surprising how often they can hear what I'm saying..."}


"I was raised in a strict Pentecostal home...My husband and I are both ordained elders in the Holiness church...First we had a commitment ceremony, and then when it became legal, we got married...There came a point when I had to take inventory of myself...[I decided] I'm tired of lying to myself...And lying to everybody else...Saying I was married to a woman...[After all] If you go to a Holiness church, who's there but homosexuals?...I went to a panel [titled] 'Can You be Saved and Gay?'...Of course you can...You asked the question, how do you become free?...Within yourself [first]...I got fed up of hiding and lying to myself...[I asked myself] 'Why am I going to hide?'...[Out in public now] we hold each others' hands...We kiss sometimes..."


"I don't think we're a-hundred-percent free...If we can't hold hands...People think we're so fearless...But, sometimes, even [my man and I] are afraid [to express affection publically]...I used to be jealous of lesbians [and the way they seem to be freer than we]...I have issues with my family [around my inability to be free with them]...I've come some ways from where I started, but [I've still a ways to go]..."


{Facilitator says, "Yes, the right to express affection for the object of one's affection might be construed as a basic human right...A few weeks ago I was down in DC on some BMX business, and I met a Brother there with whom I clicked, and we went out to a dance concert one evening, and as we left the theater, he took me by the hand and we walked along hand in hand for a long time together...And we walked through and by a lot of Black people and...along with feeling proud to be holding the hand of this powerful Brother, it was really refreshing to be among family being intimate the way we be intimate..."}


"How did they react?..."


{Facilitator says, "A few looked, but for the most part, there was no reaction...That's the funny thing about fear...Sometimes the biggest Boogie-man is the one in our minds..."}


"Why is there a division between SGL Brothers and Sisters?...We're in the same type of war..."


"I came out in the seventies and it was my [SGL] brothers who helped me through that struggle...[I remember] Even just looking at my girlfriend on the subway...Brothers would notice, and I might get into a fight...As time went on, [SGL Sisters and Brothers] moved in different directions...I think it's economic...When I came out, none of us were working and we all cooked and hung out together...But then, as they started working, and I was raising kids and whatever else I was doing, we moved in different directions..."


{Co-Facilitator says, "I've always had my Brothers around me...My closest friend is an SGL Brother...But there are the extremes...Brothers who don't like 'fish,' as they call us...and the Sisters who don't like the Brothers...Like [a segment of] the women's feminist movement...And I don't think we can change those extremes...But those of us who can associate with each other should...We need each other...About Sisters being freer...That [latitude] is about a male fantasy...We have to come together ...We have these [common] issues...You can picket...You can march...But in the end, it's about casting a vote..."}


"Freedom is gon' start with yourself...And you're going to have to fight for it...With words, and sometimes with your fists...I have to live my truth...I wanted to hold hands [with a boyfriend] and he said, 'We can't hold hands'...And, I said, 'Why can't we hold hands?'...And, so we did...I started carrying my little knife with me...If I'm going to die, you're going to die first...You're no less a man because you're effeminate...That's somebody else's reality..."

 


Is the LGBT Movement enough?  If not, do we need a movement to address our issues?  And, if so, are we capable of building and sustaining such a movement?


"No...The 'G' in LGBT, I don't feel represents any of us...I read an article recently about how it get's better...about how Dan Savage...a gay commentator [has been] instrumental in raising awareness about anti-gay bullying...But [he] never once showed people of color...We have it worse when we come out [in our community] because we don't have institutions [and property] like Chelsea, etcetera, to come out to...We have to take something back like our dignity and self-determination... Savage is worried about his own...We have to be worried about our own..."


"No, the LGBT Movement is not enough...Earlier we talked about how it's more acceptable for lesbians to hold hands [publically]...Straight girls can do it too...It's not uncommon to hear heterosexual women saying to each other, 'Your breasts are so beautifully round'...Men don't do that with each other...We don't talk about how beautifully shaped each other's penises are...We can't do it by ourselves...We need Sisters..."


"[Reading from the internet about human rights] 'The right to live, to property, free speech, to express his or her sexual orientation'...Has not been effective for us...Because we're not out, we don't seize the opportunity to teach people things...If we don't remove the preconceived ideas, who will?...Some honestly are just trapped in preconceived ideas...If we don't step up...They keep tapping us on the shoulder, and then when we look to see who's tapping, they [go around the other side and] snatch something away from us...We have resiliency...And they want it...So, what do they do?...They distract us...They took away our African values and teach us materialism...They take away our unity and give us distractions..."


"Part of the reason SGL women have reached farther than SGL men is that they're seen as more manly...stronger...Whereas, same gender loving men might be viewed as more womanly...weaker..."


"Also because men aren't threatened by women's sexuality..."


"In the eighties same gender loving men and women partied together...TRAX [was one place]...By the late eighties, early nineties, we separated...[amid] the AIDS crisis...The women who were bisexual felt we were infecting them..."


{Facilitator asks, "In the here and now, would we agree that we need a movement to address our issues?..."}  [Participants respond, "Yes."]  {How do we go about building and sustaining such a movement?..."}  [Participants respond, "By coming together in meetings like this,"..."By reaching out to each other"..."Remembering that SGL males' and females' issues are the same"..."Nobody is going to save us but us..."]

 


 Trayvon Martin

Trayvon Martin

SUNRISE: February 5th, 1995 to SUNSET: February 26, 2012

(Age 17)   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming  Topics:  BMX- NY  2012  Spring  Calendar          

(PLEASE NOTE THAT TOPICS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE; 
WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTERS WILL REFLECT ANY NEW CHANGES) 
 

Under Construction


  

        

 

 

 

 Community  Corner  Announcements


The BMX National Annual Leadership Summit & Retreat 

For Diverse Black Men Who Love Men


In the beautiful California, Wine Country and Coastline,

May 10-14, 2012 

  

BMX National Leadership Retreat Flyer 2012 (CC)
Official Website: BlackLeaderEvents.com

    

This year's retreat is located one hour north of San Francisco in Guerneville, California. The town is minutes from the famous, Bodega Bay beach coastline and mountain recreation territories.  The retreat will be hosted by the luxurious

West Sonoma Inn & Spa Center, which borders the Russian River.

It's centrally located to dining and cafes.

  

SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE!

 
Date: May 10-14, 2012  

Site Location: West Sonoma Inn & Spa

14100 Brookside Lane, Guerneville, CA

GOOGLE MAP


Cost: $300 to $450.00 (Sliding scale)    

 

 

  


SGL  Black  Heroes 

Claude  McKay  (1889  -  1948) 

 

 Claude McKay 1

   

 

By Freda Scott Giles
 

Claude McKay 2
McKay, Claude (Sept. 15th, 1889 - May 22nd, 1948), poet, novelist , an d journalist, was born Festus Claudius McKay in Sunny Ville, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, the son of Thomas Francis McKay and Hannah Ann Elizabeth Edwards, farmers. The youngest of eleven children, McKay was sent at an early age to live with his oldest brother, a schoolteacher, so that he could be given the best education available. An avid reader, McKay began to write poetry at the age of ten. In 1906 he decided to enter a trade school, but when the school was destroyed by an earthquake he became apprenticed to a carriage and cabinetmaker; a brief period in the constabulary followed. In 1907 McKay came to the attention of Walter Jekyll, an English gentleman residing in Jamaica who became his mentor, encouraging him to write dialect verse. Jekyll later set some of McKay's verse to music. By the time he immigrated to the United States in 1912, McKay had established himself as a poet, publishing two volumes of dialect verse, Songs of Jamaica (1912) and Constab Ballads (1912).

Having heard favorable reports of the work of Booker T. Washington, McKay enrolled at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama with the intention of studying agronomy; it was here that he first encountered the harsh realities of American racism, which would form the basis for much of his subsequent writing. He soon left Tuskegee for Kansas State College in Manhattan, Kansas. In 1914 a financial gift from Jekyll enabled him to move to New York, where he invested in a restaurant and married his childhood sweetheart, Eulalie Imelda Lewars. Neither venture lasted a year, and Lewars returned to Jamaica to give birth to their daughter. McKay was forced to take a series of menial jobs. He was finally able to publish two poems, "Invocation" and "The Harlem Dancer," under a pseudonym in 1917. McKay's talent as a lyric poet earned him recognition, particularly from Frank Harris, editor of Pearson's magazine, and Max Eastman, editor of The Liberator, a socialist journal; both became instrumental in McKay's early career.

As a socialist, McKay eventually became an editor at The Liberator, in addition to writing various articles for a number of left-wing publications. During the period of racial violence against blacks known as the Red Summer of 1919, McKay wrote one of his best-known poems, the sonnet, "If We Must Die," an anthem of resistance later quoted by Winston Churchill during World War II. "Baptism," "The White House," and "The Lynching," all sonnets, also exemplify some of McKay's finest protest poetry. The generation of poets who formed the core of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes and Count�e Cullen, identified McKay as a leading inspirational force, even though he did not write modern verse. His innovation lay in the directness with which he spoke of racial issues and his choice of the working class, rather than the middle class, as his focus.

McKay resided in England from 1919 through 1921, then returned to the United States. While in England, he was employed by the British socialist journal, Workers' Drednought, and published a book of verse, Spring in New Hampshire, which was released in an expanded version in the United States in 1922. The same year, Harlem Shadows, perhaps his most significant poetry collection, appeared. McKay then began a twelve-year sojourn through Europe, the Soviet Union, and Africa, a period marked by poverty and illness. While in the Soviet Union he compiled his journalistic essays into a book, The Negroes in America, which was not published in the United States until 1979. For a time he was bouyed by the success of his first published novel, Home to Harlem (1928), which was critically acclaimed but engendered controversy for its frank portrayal of the underside of Harlem life.

His next novel, Banjo: A Story without a Plot (1929), followed the exploits of an expatriate African-American musician in Marseilles, a locale McKay knew well. This novel and McKay's presence in France influenced L�opold S�dar Senghor, Aim� C�saire, and other pioneers of the Negritude literary movement that took hold in French West Africa and the West Indies. Banjo did not sell well. Neither did Gingertown (1932), a short story collection, or Banana Bottom (1933). Often identified as McKay's finest novel, Banana Bottom tells the story of Bita Plant, who returns to Jamaica after being educated in England and struggles to form an identity that reconciles the aesthetic values imposed upon her with her appreciation for her native roots.

McKay had moved to Morocco in 1930, but his financial situation forced him to return to the United States in 1934. He gained acceptance to the Federal Writers Project in 1936 and completed his autobiography, A Long Way from Home, in 1937. Although no longer sympathetic toward communism, he remained a socialist, publishing essays and articles in The Nation, the New Leader, and the New York Amsterdam News. In 1940 McKay produced a nonfiction work, Harlem: Negro Metropolis, which gained little attention but has remained an important historical source. Never able to regain the stature he had achieved during the 1920s, McKay blamed his chronic financial difficulties on his race and his failure to obtain academic credentials and associations.

McKay never returned to the homeland he left in 1912. His became a U.S. citizen in 1940. High blood pressure and heart disease led to a steady physical decline, and in a move that surprised his friends, McKay abandoned his lifelong agnosticism and embraced Catholicism. In 1944 he left New York for Chicago, where he worked for the Catholic Youth Organization. He eventually succumbed to congestive heart failure in Chicago. His second autobiography, My Green Hills of Jamaica, was published posthumously in 1979.

Assessments of McKay's lasting influence vary. To McKay's contemporaries, such as James Weldon Johnson, "Claude McKay's poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the 'Negro Literary Renaissance.' " While his novels and autobiographies have found an increasing audience in recent years, modern critics appear to concur with Arthur P. Davis that McKay's greatest literary contributions are found among his early sonnets and lyrics. McKay ended A Long Way from Home with this assessment of himself: "I have nothing to give but my singing. All my life I have been a troubadour wanderer, nourishing myself mainly on the poetry of existence. And all I offer here is the distilled poetry of my experience."


Bibliography

The bulk of McKay's papers is located in the James Weldon Johnson Collection at Yale University. Numerous letters are widely scattered; some sources include the Schomburg and H. L. Mencken collections at the New York City Public Library; the William Stanley Brathwaite Papers at Harvard University; the Alain Locke Papers at Howard University; the NAACP Papers in the Library of Congress; the Eastman Papers at the University of Indiana, Bloomington; the Rosenwald Fund Papers at Fisk University; and the Countee Cullen Papers at Dillard University. Selected Poems of Claude McKay, an extensive collection, was published in 1953. American Mercury, The Crisis, The Liberator, and Opportunity are among the wide range of periodicals in which McKay's poems, articles, book reviews, and short stories appear. Early poems can be found in the Jamaican newspapers Jamaica Times and Kingston Daily Gleaner. Late poems appear in Catholic Worker. Extensive bibliographies can be found in several unpublished dissertations.

Published full-length biographical and critical studies include Wayne F. Cooper, Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance, a Biography (1987); Tyrone Tillary, Claude McKay: A Black Poet's Struggle for Identity (1992); and James R. Giles, Claude McKay (1976). Stephen H. Bronz, Roots of Negro Racial Consciousness: The 1920s, Three Harlem Renaissance Authors (1964); Addison Gayle, Claude McKay: The Black Poet at War (1972); and Wayne F. Cooper, ed., The Passion of Claude McKay (1973), are also useful bibliographic and biographical resources. An obituary appears in the New York Times, 24 May 1948.


Source: http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-01105.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Wed Mar 21 11:26:06 2001 Copyright (c) 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved..

     

 

 

 

 



The Bawabisi SGL Symbol

Bawabisi SGL Symbol (Partial Transparency)

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.





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 

 



BMX  Mission  Statement

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THE 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)... 

 

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BMX-NY MMM Photos 11
 
The Black Men's Xchange-New York And Our Allies At The Millions More Movement (MMM) In Washington, DC
(October 15th, 2005) 
 
 

 

 





 
 

Healing, Strategic, Discovery, Black Love (Vertical Strip Banner)

 


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