Tonight and tomorrow there will be two exciting programs hosted by the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Tonight, lesbian writers Cheryl Clarke, Pamela Sneed and Linda Villarosa will read from their latest work. Cheryl Clarke will read from her new anthology, To Be Left with the Body, which she co-edited with BGLA project director Steven G. Fullwood. To Be Left with the Body is the third in a series of publications by the AIDS Project Los Angeles for black gay and bisexual men to explore the impact of HIV/AIDS on their lives. Clarke is the author of The Days of Good Looks, Experimental Love, Living as a Lesbian, and Narratives: Poems in the Tradition of Black Women. Pamela Sneed will be reading from her new manuscript "KONG." Sneed----a New-York-based writer, performer and actress---is the author of Imagine Being More Afraid of Freedom than Slavery. Linda Villarosa will read from her first novel, Passing for Black. Villarosa is a journalist and editor, author of Body & Soul: The Black Women’s Guide to Physical Health and Emotional Well-Being,  Finding Our Way: The Teen Girls’ Survival Guide with Allison Abner, and The Black Parenting Book with both Allison Abner and Dr. Anne Beal.

Tomorrow, August 19 at 7pm, Drs. LaMonda Horton-Stallings and Herukhuti will raise a provoking discussion about the politics of sexuality in communities of African descent in the U.S. with "A Frank Discussion about Sex, Sexuality and Black Folks." Dr. Horton-Stallings is the author of Mutha is Half a Word!: Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture which critically engages folk and vernacular theory, black cultural studies, and queer theory to examine the representation of sexual desire in fiction, poetry, stand-up comedy, neo-soul, and hip-hop created by black women. Herukhuti is a sociologist, sexologist, educator, shaman, BDSM practitioner, artist, cultural animator, and author. He is the author of Conjuring Black Funk and  founder of blackfunk.org. Horton-Stallings and Herukhuti will be joined by Steven G. Fullwood and Kimberly Q.

Both events will be held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at 135th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard. For more information please call (212) 491-2206. I hope you will join us for these exciting evenings.