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LOVE the poet, and Cave Canem fellow, t’ai freedom ford headline intimate salon-styled poetry tour this week.

October 3, 2011– Black lesbian poets tour the east coast in a salon styled poetry tour October 6-15, 2011. In private homes in Washington, DC, Chicago, Philadelphia and Brooklyn, THE REVIVAL hosts a night of music, libation and poetry- in – concert. Touring troupe and special guests break the envelope of safe space for today’s queer and trans artists and allies while sharing the written word.

After a successful tour last year, THE REVIVAL adds new members to its roster and a new city! Cave Canem fellow, t’ai freedom ford joins the ranks alongside Washington acoustic duo, Solrose and Punany poet, Revival veteran, LOVE the poet.

“Last year’s tour was awesome, a really tremendous experience. It was really interactive—the audience was just as much a part of the stage as we were. It was a give and take process that allowed for something different to happen. I think lives were definitely changed,” says new author of Black Marks on White Paper, LOVE the poet.

With presenting sponsors, The Rainbow Collective, Poets & Writers, and The Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies, each night of the tour features food, music, and a local poet:

Thursday, October 6, 2011: Washington DC with Bettina Judd
Friday, October 7, 2011: Brooklyn, NY with R. Erica Doyle
Saturday, October 8, 2011: Philadelphia, PA with E. Kairo Miles
Friday, October 14, 2011: Chicago, IL with Patience Soprano

Promotional videos can be found here and here.

For addresses and tickets visit www.cereusarts.com/revival2011

About Cereus Arts: Cereus Arts is an arts initiative that promotes the visibility of queer women of color through media, literature and community events. For  press passes and interviews please contact cereusarts@gmail.com

“Why Do You Write/Read and How Do You Succeed?” Join panelists Cheril N. Clarke, Yvonne Fly Onakeme Etaghene, John Keene, Tawanna Sullivan, and Rev. Kevin E. Taylor as they discuss what motivates them to produce work, and how the books they read and the lives they live inform their writing in terms of subject matter, style, form, target audience and other literary choices. These authors will also tackle the complex question of what “success” means to them as individuals, artists and educators in today’s literary and media marketplace and how they are striving to achieve that success. Moderated by Darnell Moore, and hosted by Fire & Ink!

Essex County College, Main Bldg. (entrance on MLK Blvd.), 4th level Multipurpose Room, 303 University Ave., downtown Newark, NJ 07102.

7 p.m. June 7, 2011; free!

Filmmaker Tiona McClodden and publisher Lisa C. Moore announce their collaboration for a feature-length documentary film, Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project. UBLEP will highlight interviews with black lesbian elders in their 60s, 70s and 80s from across the United States and situate them in a range of black historical movements, spanning the decades between the 1930s and 1980s.

Black Girl Love is a collection of (mostly) stories by Anondra “Kat” Williams.

These 32 pieces reveal love in all of its guises. Where there is love there is always an undercurrent of vulnerability, of danger. These characters take the risk of revealing themselves to each other; they hold up a mirror to our own fears, anxieties and passionate successes.

Nearly every week, as the host of Sippin On Ink, Anondra brings to the forefront the best the lgbt community has to offer. Black Girl Love fits firmly in that category.

Lesbian Couples: Love and Passion
Editor: Radclyffe
Publisher: Cleis Press
Deadline: September 15, 2011 (Publication Date: Fall/Winter 2012)
Payment: $50 and 2 contributor copies

Theme: Romance and passion among long-term lesbian couples

Banked fires burn hotter, and none flame as brightly as the passion that grows between women after the first flare of attraction subsides. We seek short fiction featuring lesbian couples who know how to keep the home fires alive with romance and passion. Surprise us with romantic, sexy tales of married-with-children pairs, golden anniversary celebrants, or modern adventurers who re-write the rules of partnering: date nights, spur of the moment getaways, trysts in the middle of the afternoon, surprises and secrets of keeping love and desire blazing after the wedding bells stop pealing. Erotic content and emotional/romantic elements should be given equal weight

Deadline for Submissions: September 15, 2011

Guidelines for Submissions
- Published or unpublished short stories or novel excerpts (Previously published material acceptable if published between Jan 1, 2011 & February 28, 2012)
- Word count: 5000 words or less
- Electronic submissions only to: radclyffe.bsb@gmail.com
- e-mail header: Couples_ AuthorName or Pseudonym _Title
- .rtf attachment (story)
- e-mail body: story title, author legal name, pseudonym if any, address, phone/fax, e-mail address, word count, if story previously published: anthology title/publisher/Pub date, 50 word bio

Story Format:
- Arial; 12 pt; .rtf
- double-spaced; number pages upper right; standard paragraphing; no HTML
- file name: AuthorName or Pseudonym_Title

General Info:
- You will receive email confirming submission receipt with 7 days
- Submission decisions will be provided by e-mail by Feb 2012
- Multiple submissions (no more than 2) accepted
- Payment: $50 and 2 contributor copies
- Please send questions to: radclyffe.bsb@gmail.com

Have you been keeping up with travel-blogger Skye? Recently, she visited the Hong Kong Museum, saw a performance by Drum Cat (an all female percussion group), has explored several cities, and shares her discoveries and adventures with us.

For example, here’s a taste of Korean Hip Hop:

Got your passport ready? Head over to Skyeview for a virtual tour.

Jewel Thais Williams: Owner of the Oldest Black SGL-T Club in America/ Humanitarian – A Life of Service
by Doug Cooper Spencer

In a time when black patrons had to show I.D. to get into white owned gay clubs – sometimes even two pieces of I.D. were required, all while we stood to the side and let the white patrons waltz by with impunity – Jewell Thais Williams, a black lesbian, took it upon herself to open The Catch One in L.A. The year was 1972, making Catch One the oldest black owned gay and lesbian clubs in the country.

Over the years Jewell went on to not only own the club, but to actually purchase the land on which it stands as well. Today, Catch One is the oldest black owned gay club in the country.

If you’ve ever been to L.A., most likely you’ve partied at Catch One. I know I did for many years back in the 1970’s and ‘80’s when I lived on the West Coast. What began as a single bar ensconced in a large building on Pico Boulevard, eventually became an entire playground as Jewel Thais Williams came to own the entire site transforming the single bar into a multi-level club with three dance floors and three bars as well as a restaurant.

But not only is the complex for partying, Jewel, having always been a humanitarian and one dedicated to wellness, has also opened up a holistic health clinic, offering health care to the underserved and the underinsured of the community, in another part of the site.

Even if you’ve never been to Jewel’s Catch One you’ve probably seen it. It’s been the location for many events over the years, from music videos, to films and T.V., shows like the T.V. series, ‘Cold Case’, films like ‘I’m Gonna Get You Sucker’ and BAPS (the Halle Berry film). However, many will recall Catch One as the location for some episodes of ‘Noah’s Arc’ (especially the one in which Noah and friends did the drag number at the end of one of the shows). The Catch One has also served as host of many, many political and humanitarian events over the decades as well.

But there would be no Catch One, no community health center or vegetarian restaurant without the spirit and the energy of Jewel Thais Williams. Not only was it Jewel’s vision to offer a place for black gays and lesbians to socialize during a period when both homophobia as well as racial discrimination worked against the black SGLT community, but she has also been a longtime HIV/AIDS and wellness activist for many years, co-founding the Minority AIDS Project and opening Rue’s House for women and children with HIV/AIDS during the height of the AIDS crisis.

Jewel is also certified in alternative Chinese medicine and opened the non-profit Village Health Foundation to provide holistic healthcare to the underserved and the uninsured in the community.

The clinic, which is situated next door to the club – on property she also purchased – was opened by Jewel to provide quality supplemental and medical care to everyone, regardless of race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or their financial situation.

Jewel and her spouse Rue, also founded Rue’s House, the first residential home in the nation, for homeless women and children with HIV/AIDS.

Rue’s House, no longer needed due to the medical advancements in the AIDS community, closed its doors in 1997 and reopened as The Village Manor currently serving recovering adults with substance abuse issues. In addition to these endeavors, they have recently established the Vegan Village Internet Cafe, again, spreading Jewel’s message of wellness by offering an organic vegetarian menu.

The road hasn’t been easy for Jewel, though. I can recall sitting and talking with her so many years ago, hearing her tell of the death threats against her and threats of arson against her property – some, it appeared, even from within the gay community, white gay club owners who felt she was ‘siphoning’ offer their black gay clientele – I would hear of Feds threatening to shut her business down. We would talk and she would tell me how exhausting it could become, and with that smile and that warm demeanor, she would tell us how she would persist because she knew what she was doing was right.

That was many years ago when we would sit at the bar and talk, and today at age, 71, looking as spry as ever, Jewel keeps going.

In an era that seems to focus so much on self-indulgence and escapism in the black LGBT community, Jewel Thai Williams’s life offers a treatise on the real value of life, wellness and service to others. Thank you so much, Jewel.

Director M. Asli Dukan is making an anthology horror film based on stories from Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson. Donations to this project are tax deductible.