#Essex Hemphill
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#black men#black gay pride#juneteenth#Desmond Richardson#essex hemphill#assotto saint#julius eastman#Christopher John Rogers#brandon blackwood#black art#Ruby Nell Sales#K-Swift
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...Don't waste time measuring whose in more pain than whom, eradicate pain, create nurturing realities...
...we need the unconditional help of one another...
...a comittment that doesn't waver...
Essex Hemphill
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.
Black men loving black men is the revolutionary act.
Tongues Untied, Marlon Riggs (1989)
#Marlon Riggs#Joseph Beam#Chris Harris#Essex Hemphill#Reginald Jackson#Steve Langley#Alan Miller#Donald Woods#Vivian Kleiman#Alex Langford#1989
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American Wedding By Essex Hemphill
In america,
I place my ring
on your cock
where it belongs.
No horsemen
bearing terror,
no soldiers of doom
will swoop in
and sweep us apart.
They’re too busy
looting the land
to watch us.
They don’t know
we need each other
critically.
They expect us to call in sick,
watch television all night,
die by our own hands.
They don’t know
we are becoming powerful.
Every time we kiss
we confirm the new world coming.
What the rose whispers
before blooming
I vow to you.
I give you my heart,
a safe house.
I give you promises other than
milk, honey, liberty.
I assume you will always
be a free man with a dream.
In america,
place your ring
on my cock
where it belongs.
Long may we live
to free this dream.
Black gay poet/activist Essex Hemphill passed on November 4, 1995. You can learn more about him and listen to an interview with him here.
#this poem made me burst out into tears#rest in power Essex#static#Essex Hemphill#gay poetry#poetry#LGBT#Poem
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Lyle Ashton Harris, Essex Hemphill, 1992
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“American Wedding” by Essex Hemphill
In america,
I place my ring
on your cock
where it belongs.
No horsemen
bearing terror,
no soldiers of doom
will swoop in
and sweep us apart.
They’re too busy
looting the land
to watch us.
They don’t know
we need each other
critically.
They expect us to call in sick,
watch television all night,
die by our own hands.
They don’t know
we are becoming powerful.
Every time we kiss
we confirm the new world coming.
What the rose whispers
before blooming
I vow to you.
I give you my heart,
a safe house.
I give you promises other than
milk, honey, liberty.
I assume you will always
be a free man with a dream.
In america,
place your ring
on my cock
where it belongs.
Long may we live
to free this dream.
Art: Sable Elyse Smith, Coloring Book 61, 2020
Screen printing ink and oil stick on paper, 60 x 50 in.
Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53015/american-wedding
#blackpoetry#black poetry#blacklivesmatter#lgbtqplus#lgbtq artist#sable elyse smith#essex hemphill#poetry#art
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"I have to do this
to stay alive.
To be acknowledged.
Fire calls. I slither
to the flames
to become birth."
Essex Hemphill, The Father, Son, and Unholy Ghosts
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In america,
I place my ring
on your cock
where it belongs...
They don’t know
we are becoming powerful.
Every time we kiss
we confirm the new world coming.
from “American Wedding,” Essex Hemphill
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Hold Tight Gently Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDs by Martin Duberman, 2014, pages 171-172
#gay#lgbtq#queer#lgbt#lgbt pride#lgbtqplus#lgbt history#queer community#queer history#gay history#lgbtq history#lgbtqia#tw aids#aids#aids epidemic#aids crisis#essex hemphill#blacklivesmatter#black beauty#black history#black americans#harlem renaissance
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#30DaysofPride: Day 21- Essex Hemphill
I wrote this post last year when I was interning at CLAGS and so it’s a little CLAGS-centered but I really like this one!!! So today I bring you an important person in the black gay community, Essex Hemphill.
Property of the estate of Robert Giard
Essex Hemphill was born in Chicago and grew up in Southeast Washington, DC. A poet and performer known for his political edge, he openly addressed…
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#30DaysOfPride#activism#Essex Hemphill#Hold Tight Gently#lgbt#LGBTQIA#Marlon Riggs#Martin Duberman#queer#queerhistory#trans#visibility
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full poem here.
someone reads it here.
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The government pays me
nine thousand dollars a year
to protect the East Wing
So I haunt it.
Visiting hours are over.
The silent sentry is on duty.
An electric eye patrols the premises.
I’m just here
putting mouth on the place.
Modigliani whispers to Matisse.
Matisse whispers to Picasso.
I kiss the Rose in my pocket
and tip easy through this tomb of thieves.
I’m weighted down with keys,
flashlight, walkie-talkie, a gun.
I’m expected to die, if necessary,
protecting European artwork
that robbed color and movement
from my life.
I’m the ghost in the Capitol.
I did Vietnam.
My head is rigged with land mines,
but I keep cool,
waiting on every other Friday,
kissing the rose,
catching some trim.
I’m not protecting any more Europeans
with my life.
I’ll give this shit in here away
before I die for it.
Fuck a Remb-randt!
And if I ever go off,
you’d better look out, Mona Lisa.
I’ll run through this gallery
with a can of red enamel paint
and spray everything in sight
like a cat in heat.
Visiting Hours by Essex Hemphill
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Essex Hemphill in the Winter 86 issue of RFD Magazine
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American Wedding
In america,
I place my ring
on your cock
where it belongs.
No horsemen
bearing terror,
no soldiers of doom
will swoop in
and sweep us apart.
They’re too busy
looting the land
to watch us.
They don’t know
we need each other
critically.
They expect us to call in sick,
watch television all night,
die by our own hands.
They don’t know
we are becoming powerful.
Every time we kiss
we confirm the new world coming.
What the rose whispers
before blooming
I vow to you.
I give you my heart,
a safe house.
I give you promises other than
milk, honey, liberty.
I assume you will always
be a free man with a dream.
In america,
place your ring
on my cock
where it belongs.
Long may we live
to free this dream.
— Essex Hemphill.
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youtube
#essex hemphill#gay black men#lgbt artist#lgbt author#lgbt poet#gay activism#Youtube#aids activism#aids and hiv#lgbt activism
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