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A Quotation Book Includes Black Gays And Lesbians

While browsing the "New Books" section of the New York Public Library's Morningside Heights branch, I came across a copy of Bartlett's Familiar Black Quotations. At $40, it is very pricey but it is a volume worth having in one's home library. I hope one day to own a copy. In the meantime, I will enjoy the library copy.

Of particular interest to me is the high representation of gays and lesbians throughout. Among those included are Keith Boykin, Melvin Dixon, Audre Lorde, Joe Beam, Pat Parker, Samuel R. Delany, Jewelle Gomez, Randall Kenan, and Essex Hemphill.

A Singer And His Hat

I like Happy, the hit song by Pharrell Williams, but I hate the hat he's always seen wearing. It looks like someone sat on it before Williams put it on his head.

Touring Across The Soviet Union

"[Maya Angelou] won a role in a touring production of  Porgy and Bess and performed in 22 countries from 1954 to 1955," writes Elaine Woo in her Los Angeles Times obituary (May 28, 2014) of the world-renowned poet and memoirist.

That sentence brought to mind Truman Capote's 1958 nonfiction book, And the Muses Were Heard, in which he chronicled the activities of a troupe of African American actors traveling across the Soviet Union by train to perform Porgy and Bess. I'm certain that Maya Angelou, not mentioned by name, was one of the actors on that trip. The timeline seems to fit.

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