Darius Bost is assistant professor of ethnic studies in the School for Cultural and Social Transformation at the University of Utah.
"Darius Bost's Evidence of Being is an impressive and deeply moving
examination of Black gay artistic expression in Washington, D.C.,
and New York City from the 1970s through the early 1990s that he
christens the Black gay renaissance. This era essentially marks the
years of the AIDS crisis, although the timing is understood to be
somewhat coincidental to the social and political organizing that
reached critical mass in D.C. and Baltimore in 1978 with the
formation of the National Coalition of Black Gays. With this
juncture, Bost combines historical research with close reading of
published as well as archived works, focusing on the most
recognizable artists of this movement: Essex Hemphill, Joseph Beam,
and Melvin Dixon."-- "African American Review"
"An exemplary work of cultural studies research, Bodies of Evidence
is a dynamic piece of scholarship and a resource for understanding
an often marginalized segment of gay history. Although Evidence of
Being rigorously engages with contemporary threads in queer
studies, it remains accessible to audiences interested in this
history of male cultural production and activism. Bost manages to
offer alternatives to antirelational and theory-centric turns in
queer studies, providing a grounded discussion illustrating the
marginalization experienced by gay black artists in the form of
state violence, antiblackness, and homophobia while cata-loguing
their artistic and activist strategies responding to these
forces."-- "QED"
"Darius Bost's Evidence of Being: The Black Gay Cultural
Renaissance and the Politics of Violence is a somber and beautiful
engagement with the art and activism of black gay men in the latter
decades of the twentieth century...a theoretically sophisticated
and intellectually rigorous work that signals Bost's arrival as a
major voice in black literary and cultural studies, ethnic studies,
and queer studies."--Ashvin R. Kini "Journal of African American
History"
"Moving, theoretically rich, and original. . . . Evidence of Being
is an important book that should impact the contours of Black and
Queer Studies. Bost's recuperation of the history of black gay
cultural expression opens new lines of inquiry for scholars
concerned with black sexuality, loss, history, and memory."--
"Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies"
"Evidence of Being conjures up late twentieth-century African
American struggles for recognition in a society that barely noticed
the calamity of the AIDS crisis. Bost assembles an impressive array
of original writings and revealing documents that illuminate
defiant figures negotiating overlapping structures of prejudice.
His book is a black gay interpretive turning point: as readable as
it is teachable, as original as it is indispensable."-- "Kevin
Mumford, author Not Straight, Not White"
"Evidence of Being critically and brilliantly moves away from
claims about the anti-relational and pessimistic natures of
blackness and queerness, doing so with historical attentiveness and
theoretical sophistication. There is no book that provides a more
comprehensive history of black gay male activism and cultural
production in the seventies and eighties than this one."--
"Roderick Ferguson, author of Aberrations in Black"
"Evidence of Being is both a compelling and informative study and
an emotionally moving ritual that beckons present and future black
fugitive subjects to remember the importance of the literary arts
in surviving and thriving against the perils of anti-black and
anti-gay violence, politics, and culture. Bost eloquently answers
Melvin Dixon's call to remember 'with broad vision' the empowering
force of black gay being and cultural imagination."-- "L. H.
Stallings, author of Funk the Erotic"
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