Publisher's Synopsis
Growing up black and gay in the 1930s, '40s and '50s. Coming from places as diverse as coal mining towns, and inner-city streets to making their way to the streets of New York City, Paris, Hollywood - even to prison, the griots in A River Runs Beneath Us tell their stories. Using interviews, memoir, fiction, essays, and poetry we hear about the lives of Afro-American LGBTQ elders born before 1960. Through their stories we hear the names of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ashford and Simpson, Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen, Hugh Hefner, Prince, Glynn Turman, and others as people who some of these griots have known.
In a book that opens with a timeline of Black LGBTQ People in the Americas from 1591 to the present, the reader is then taken on a journey conducted by the voices and writings of griots who have gifted us with their stories. They are stories of and by people who lived through times when policies towards race and sex were most challenging. Yet these griots lived their lives authentically with persistence and resilience, all while being visible. A River Runs Beneath Us: Voices and Writings of The Griot Book Project not only entertains but is also a book of record.
