Queer and black allow me to bring the personal and the political together without having one circumscribe the other, to invoke a critical position towards prescriptive theories of oppression and activism, and to open up the possibility of productive insights into the emerging feminism of this decade and their inherent power relations.
Laura Alexander Harris

Anderson, Michael. "'Education of Another Kind': Lorraine Hansberry in the Fifties." In Gender Nonconformity, Race and Sexuality: Charting the Connections, ed. Toni Lester. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.

Asanti, Ta'Shia. "Black Lesbians in Film." Lesbian News 25, no. 10 (May 2000): 34.

Atchison, Gabrie'l. "An Open Letter to Black Lesbian Teens." Sojourner 26, no. 10 (June 2001): 5+.

Bey, Marquis. Them Goon Rules: Fugitive Essays on Radical Black Feminism. Tucson: University of Arizon Press, 2019.

Bowen, Angela. "Enabling a Visible Black Lesbian Presence in Academia: A Radically Reasonable Request." In Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed, eds. Diane Bell, and Renate Klein. North Melbourne, Australia: Spinifex Press, 1996. Originally published in Lesbian Studies, eds. Bonnie Zimmerman, and Toni McNaron (New York: Feminist Press, 1996).

Bowleg, Lisa. "Triple Jeopardy and Beyond: Multiple Minority Stress and Resilence Among Black Lesbians." Journal of Lesbian Studies 7 no. 4 (2003): 87+.

Brody, Jennifer DeVere. "The Returns of Cleopatra Jones." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 25, no. 1 (Autumn 1999): 91-121.

Bullock-Jordan, Karen. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." In This is What a Lesbian Looks Like, ed. Kris Kleindienst. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1999.

Byrd, Rudolph P., Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Carter, Mandy. "The Emperor's New Clothes, or How Not to Run a Movement." In This is What a Lesbian Looks Like, ed. Kris Kleindienst. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1999.

Chaudhry, Varun V. "On Trans Dissemblance: Or, Why Trans Studies Needs Black Feminism." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 45, no. 3 (2020): 529-535.

Christian, Barbara. "No More Buried Lives: The Theme of Lesbianism in Lorde, Naylor, Shange, Walker." Feminist Issues 5, no. 1 (1985).

Clark, Patricia E. "Formation of United Lesbians of African Heritage." In GLBT History, 1988-1992. Great Neck Publishing, 2005, 26-28.

Clarke, Cheryl. "Being Pro-Gay and Pro-Lesbian in Straight Institutions." Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services. 3, no. 2 ((1995): 95-100.

          . "The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community." In Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, ed. Barbara Smith. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983.

          . "The Homoerotic Other." The Advocate 2 February 1990, 42.

          . "Knowing the Danger and Going There Anyway." Sojourner: The Women's Forum 16, no. 1 (1990): 14-15.

          . "Lesbianism: An Act of Resistance." In This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, ed. Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua. Watertown, MA: Persephone Press, 1981. Reprinted in Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, ed. Beverly Guy-Sheftall (New York: New Press, 1995).

          . "Living the Texts Out: Lesbians and the Uses of Black Women's Traditions." In Theorizing Black Feminisms: The Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women, eds. Stanlie M. James and Abena P.A. Busia. New York: Routledge, 1993.

          . "New Notes on Lesbianism." Sojourner: The Women's Forum. "31 January 1983, 6+.

          . "To a Bamboozled Soul Sister." Sinister Wisdom 3 (Spring 1977): 46-48.

          . "Transferences and Confluences: Black Arts and Black Lesbian Feminism in Audre Lordes The Black Unicorn". In After Mecca: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005.

Clarke, Cheryl, Jewell Gomez, Evelyn Hammonds, Bonnie Johnson, and Linda Powell. "Conversations and Questions:Black Women on Black Women Writers." Conditions Nine 3, no. 3 (1983): 88+.

Clay, Andreana. "'I used to be Scared of the Dick': Queer Women of color and Hip Hip Masculinity." In Home Girls Make Some Noise: Hip Hop Feminism Anthology, eds Gwendolyn D. Pough, et al. Mira Loma, CA: Parker Publishing, 2007.

          . "'Like an Old Soul Record': Black Feminism, Queer Sexuality, and the Hip-Hop Generation." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalsim 8, no. 1 (2008): 53-73.

Cole Johnnetta Betsch and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. "Black, Lesbian, and Gay: Speaking the Unspeakable" In Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women's Equality in African American Communities. New York: One World Ballantine Books, 2003.

Collins, Patricia Hill. "Prisons of Our Bodies, Closets For Our Minds: Racism, Heterosexism, and Black Masculinity." In Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Devereaux, Shaadi. Trans Women Live and in Color, 34 March 2015. Accessed 11/26/19.

Drury, Doreen M. "Love, Ambition, and 'Invisible Footnotes' in the Life and Writing of Pauli Murray." Souls 11 no. 3 (2009): 295-209.

Ferguson, Roderick A. "Something Else to be: Sula, the Moynihan Report, and the Negations of Black Lesbian Feminism." In Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique. Minnepolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.

Gilmore, Angela D. "It Is Better to Speak. "In Critical Race Feminism: A Reader, ed. Adrien Katherine Wing. New York: New York University Press, 1997.

Goldsby, Jackie. "Queen for 307 Days: Looking B(l)ack at Vanessa Williams and the Sex Wars." In Sisters, Sexperts, Queers: Beyond the Lesbian Nation, ed. Arlene Stein. New York: Plume, 1993.

          . "Queens of Language: Paris is Burning." In Queer Looks: Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Film and Video, eds. Martha Gever, John Grayson, and Pratibha Parmar. New York: Routledge, 1993.

Gomez, Jewell L. "Across the Glittering Sea." In Skin Deep: Black Women and White Women Write About Race, eds. Marita Golden and Susan Richards. New York: Nan A. Talese, 1999.

          . "Black Lesbians: Passing, Stereotypes, and Transformation." In Dangerous Liaisons: Blacks, Gays, and the Struggle for Equality, ed. Eric Brandt. New York: The New Press, 1999. Reprinted in Cultural Studies: From Theory to Action, ed Pepi Leistyna. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.

          . "Black Women Heroes: Here's Reality, Where's the Fiction?"The Black Scholar 17, no. 2 (1986):8-13.

          . "A Celebration of Butch-Femme Identities in the Lesbian Community." In Persistent Desire: A Butch-Femme Reader.Boston: Alyson Publications, 1992.

          . "A Cultural Legacy Denied and Discovered: Black Lesbians in Fiction by Women." In Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, ed. Barbara Smith. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983.

          . "Representations of Black Lesbians." Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review 6, no. 3 (July 1999): 32+

          . "Speculative Fiction and Black Lesbians." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 18, no. 4 (1993): 948-55.

Gomez, Jewell L, and Barbara Smith. "Taking the Home Out of Homophobia: Black Lesbian Health. "In The Black Woman's Health Book: Speaking For Ourselves, ed. Evelyn C. White. Seattle: Seal Press, 1994.

Gunning, Isabelle R. "On Being a Black Lesbian Mother." In Critical Race Feminism: A Reader, ed. Adrien Katherine Wing. New York: New York University Press, 1997.

Hall, Lynda. "Passion(ate) Plays 'Wherever We Found Space' Lorde and Gomez Queer(y)ing Boundaries and Acting In." Callaloo 23, no. 1 (2000): 394-421.

Hammonds, Evelynn. "Black (W)holes and the Geometry of Black Female Sexuality." Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 6, nos. 2-3 (1994):126-145. Reprinted in Feminism Meets Queer Theory, eds. Elizabeth Weed and Naomi Schor, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997). Reprinted in African American Literary Theory, ed. Winston Napier, (New York: New York University Press, 2000). Reprinted in Skin Deep, Spirit Strong: The Black Female Body in American Culture, ed Kimberley Wallace Sanders. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002). Reprinted in Feminism and 'Race', ed. Kum Kum Bhavnani. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)

          . "Toward a Genealogy of Black Female Sexuality." In Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader, eds. Janet Price and Margaret Shildrick. New York: Routledge, 1999. Reprinted in Feminist Geneologies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures, eds. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade. (New York: Routledge, 1997).

Harris, Laura Alexander. "Queer Black Feminism: The Pleasure Principle." Feminist Review 4, no. 4 (1996): 3-30.

Harris, Thomas Allen. "Black Feminism and Queer Families: A Conversation with Thomas Allen Harris." Interview by Laura A. Harris. African American Review 36, no. 2 (2002): 273-282.

Hayes, Eileen M. Songs in Black and Lavender: Race, Sexual Politics, and Women's Music. Urbana: University Of Illinois Press, 2010.

Isoke, Zenzele. "Can't I be Seen? Can't I be Heard? Black Women Queering Politics in Newark." Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 21, no. 3 (April 2014): 353-369.

          . "Mobilizing After Murder: Black Women Queering Politics and Black Feminism in Newark." In Urban Black Women and the Politics of Resistance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Holland, Sharon P. "The 'Beached Whale'." GLQ: Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 17, no. 1 (2010): 89-95.

James, Adilia E. "Queer Like Me: Black Girlhood Sexuaity on the Playgorund, Under the Covers, and in the Halls of Academia." Jounral of Lesbian Studies 15, no. 1 (2011): 41-48.

Johnson, Maria V. "'Jelly Jelly Jellyroll': Lesbian Sexuality and Identity in Women's Blues." Women and Music 31 December 2003, 31+.

          . "Pouring Out the Blues: Gwen 'Sugar Mama' Avery's Song of Freedom." Frontiers 25, no. 1 (2004): 93-110.

Jordan, June. "A New Politics of Sexuality." In Technical Difficulties. New York Pantheon, 1992. Reprinted in Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, ed. Beverly Guy-Sheftall (New York: New Press, 1995).

Lafrance, Melisse. "Textual Subversion: The Narrative Sabotage of Race, Gender, and Desire in the Music of MeShell Ndegeocello." In Disruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity, & Popular Music. Lori Burns and Melisse Lafrance. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Lee, Ryan. "Remembering the Warrior." Southern Voice 19, no. 41 (December 1, 2006): 37.

Lester, Toni, ed. Gender Nonconformity, Race, , and Sexuality: Charting the Connections. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002.

Lightsey, Pamela R. Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2015.

Lorde, Audre. I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities.Latham, NY: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1986. Reprinted in The Psychopathology of Everyday Racism and Sexism, ed. Lenora Fulani. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1988. Reprinted in Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras:Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color, ed. Gloria Anzaldua. (San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books, 1990). Reprinted in I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, eds. Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

          . "What's at Stake in Lesbian and Gay Publishing Today: The Bill Whitehead Memorial Ceremony." Callaloo 14 no. 1 (1991): 65-66. Reprinted in I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, eds. Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

          . "Turning the Beat Around: Lesbian Parenting 1986." In I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, eds. Rudolph P. Byrd, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

          . Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984.

Martin, Vera. "Being a Woman of Color and Surviving Racism." In This is What a Lesbian Looks Like, ed. Kris Kleindienst. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1999.

Mays, V.M. "Black Women Working Together: Diversity in Same Sex Relationships." Women's Studies International Forum 8, no. 1 (1985): 67-71

Miller, Cheryl. "Lesbians of Color: Celebrating Our Commom Bonds and Differences." Hot Wire: The Journal of Women's Music and Culture 4, no. 2 (31 March 1988): 28+.

Moore, Mignon R. "Lipstick or Timberlands? Meanings of Gender Presentation in Black Lesbian Communities." In Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 32, no. 1 (Autumn 2006): 113-139.

Nash, Jennifer. "Black Anality." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies. 20, no. 4 (2014): 439-460.

Ndegeocello, Meshell. "Gwendolyn Gone." In It's Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living, eds. Dan Savage and Terry Miller. NY: Dutton, 2011.

Negron-Muntaner, Frances. "Watching Tongues Untie(d) While Reading Zami". In Feminism, Multiculturalism, and the Media: Global Diversities, ed. Angharad N. Valdivia. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995.

Nnawulezi, Nkiru A., Shani Robin, and Abigail Sewell. "XII. Femme-inism: In Daily Pursuit of Personal Liberation." Feminism & Psychology 25, no. 1 (February 2015): 67-72.

Omosupe, Ekua. "Black/Lesbian/Bulldagger." Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 3, no. 2 (1991): 101-111.

Parkerson, Michelle. "Birth of a Notion: Towards Black Gay and Lesbian Imagery in Film and Video." In Queer Look: Perspectives on Lesbian and Gay Film and Video, eds. Martha Gever, John Greyson, and Pratibha Parmar. New York: Routledge, 1993.

Parks, Carlton W., Rhona Nicole Cutts, Kamilah M. Woodson, and Laurie Flarity-White. "Issues Inherent in the Multicultural Feminist Couple Treatment of African American, Same-Gender Loving Female Adult Survivors of Child SExual Abuse." Journal of Child Sexual Abuse 10, no. 3 (2001): 17-34.

Quilter, Yin. "Setting Relationship Limits: Lesbians, Survivor Issues and Strong Black Women." Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 7, no. 2 (1990): 45-47.

Phelps, Carmen. "Identifying Blues: An Interview with Lesbian Blues Musician and Lyricist Gaye Adegbalola." Jounral of Lesbian Studies 15, no. 1 (2011): 83-94.

Rawls, Tonyia M. "Yes, Jesus Loves Me: The Liberating Power of Spiritual Acceptance for Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisxual, and Transgender Christians." In Black Sexualities: Probing Powers, Passions, Practices, and Policies, eds. Juan Battle and Sandra L. Barnes. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Universtiy Press, 2010.

Richardson, Matt. "Make Me Wanna Holler: Meshell Ndegeocello, Black Queer Aesthetics, and Feminist Critiques." Journal of Lesbian Studies 18, no. 3 (July-September 2014): 237-251.

Richardson, Mattie. "What You See is What You Get: Building a Movement Toward Liberation in the Tweenty-First Century." In This is What a Lesbian Looks Like, ed. Kris Kleindienst. New York: Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1999.

Richie, Beth. "Queering Antiprison Work: African American Lesbians in the Juvenile Justice System." In Global Lockdown: Race, Gender, and the Prison-Industrial Complex, ed. Julia Sudbury. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Rupp, Leila J. and Verta Taylor. "Pauli Murray: The Unasked Question." Journal of Women's History 14, no. 2 (2002): 83-87.

Shockley, Ann Allen. "The Black Lesbian in American Literature: An Overview." Conditions Five 2, no. 1 (1979): 133-142.

Smith, Barbara. "Barbara Smith on Black Feminism." Sojourner: The Women's Forum 31 December 1984, 13+.

          "Doing it From Scratch: the Challenge of Black Lesbian Organizing." In This is What a Lesbian Looks Like, ed. Kris Kleindienst. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1999.

          . "The Fight is for Social, Political and Economic Justice." Gay Community News 23, no. 4 (1998): 40-41.

          . "Here's the Movement: Let's Start Building." Interview by Kim Diehl. Colorlines 3, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 28-31.

          . "Homophobia: Why Bring it Up?" In The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, ed. Henry Abelove, et al. New York: Routledge, 1993.

          . "Making History: An Interview With Barbara Smith." Lambda Book Report 6, no. 11 (June 1998): 1-3.

          . The Truth that Never Hurts: Writings on Race, Gender and Freedom. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998.

          . "'We Refuse to Be Bought Off': An Open Letter From Barbara Smith. " 23, no. 10 (June 1998): 8.

          . "Whose American History?: Gays, Lesbians, and American History." Gay Community News 20, no. 4 (1995): 9-12.

Smith, Beverly. "The Wedding." In Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, ed. Barbara Smith. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983. Originally published in Conditions Five 2, no. 2 (1979).

Smith, Beverly, Judith Stein, and Priscillia Golding. "The Possibility Between Us: A Dialogue Between Black and Jewish Women." Conditions Seven 3, no. 1 (1981): 25+.

Stallings, L.H. Mutha' is Half a Word: Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2007.

Story, Kai La Adia. "(re)Presenting Shug Avery and Afrekete: The Search for a Black, Queer, and Feminist Pleasure Praxis." Black Scholar 45, no. 4 (Winter 2015): 22-35.

Sullivan, Laura L. "Chasing Fae: The Watermelon Woman and Black Lesbian Possibility." Callaloo 23, no. 1 (2000): 448-460.

Sulter, Maud. "Black Codes: The Misrepresentation of Blacklesbians in Film". In An Intimacy of Equals: Lesbian Feminist Ethics. ed. Lilian Mohin. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1996.

Szymanski, Dawn M., and Arpana Gupta. "Examining the Relationship Between Multiple Internalized Oppressions and African American Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Questioning Persons' Self-Esteem and Psychological Distress." Jounal of Counseling Psychology 56, no. 1 (2009): 110-118.

Tinsley, Omise'eke Natasha. Ezili's Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders. Durham: Duke University Press, 2018.

Wallace, Michelle. "Angels in America, Paris is Burning and Queer Theory". In Dark Designs and Visual Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.

          . "Cheryl Dunye: Sexin' the Watermelon". In Dark Designs and Visual Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.

West, Cheryl. "Lesbian Daughter." Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women 4, no. 2 (1987): 42-44.

Williams, Rhonda. "Being Queer, Being Black: Living Out in Afro-American Studies." In Is Academic Feminism Dead: Theory in Practice, eds. The Social Justice Group at the Center for Advanced Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota. New york: New York University Press, 2000.

          . "Living at the Crossroads: Explorations in Race, Nationality, Sexuality, and Gender." In The House That Race Built: Black Americans, U.S. Terrain, ed. Wahneema H. Lubiano. New York: Pantheon, 1997.

Wilson, Bianca, and Verlena L. Johnson, eds. "Lesbians of African Descent: Contemporary Perspectives." Spec. issue of Journal of Lesbian Studies 15, no. 1 (2011).

Wilson, Debra. "Back in Black" Curve 14, no. 6 (October 2004): 49.

Woody, Imani. "Aging Out: A Qualitative Exploration of Ageism and Heterosexism Among Aging African American Lesbians and Gay Men." Journal of Homosexuality 61, no. 1 (January 2014): 145-165.

Young, Thelathia N. and Shannon J. Miller. "Ase and Amen, Sister!: Black Feminist Scholars Engage in Interdisciplinary, Dialogical, Transformative Ethical Praxis." Journal of Religious Ethics 43, no. 2, 2015: 289-316.

- click here to return to the top of page and menu -