Study

Come into my study. I have here a short piece I wrote some years ago when I was head cook and bottle-washer of The Jamaica Gaily News, and two poems, one I wrote recently when my house was stoned (I know, it's Y2K, but this is Jamaica).

I enjoy writing, but don't do so very often. I read a lot, mostly spiritual stuff, like Conversations With God, Books 1 & 2 by Neale Donald Walsch. Book 1 deals with personal issues while Book 2 takes a more global approach to questions we have all asked at one time or another. Simply presented warm wisdom, with a sense of humour. Well worth reading and deserving of the acclaim they are being accorded.

Buy the Book Today!

Book 3 is also just out, I believe, but it hasn't got here yet so I haven't read it. If you beat me to it, drop me a line and tell me what you think.

Another good, easy read is Inner Simplicity by Elaine St. James who suggests that we cut out a lot of the unnecessaries and get down to basics. Our inner life is already so full and rich that we should be able to find peace and satisfaction without the external distractions.

I also recommend Growing Myself: A Spiritual Journey Through Gardening by Judith Handelsman, former garden columnist for Vogue and New Age Journal along with Machaelle Small Wright's Behaving As if the God in All Life Mattered. Both of these attempt to put us back in touch with nature and with that part of ourselves which is connected to the whole.

Two books that have just about blown me away are Joel Goldsmith's The Art of Spiritual Healing and Satyam Nadeen's From Onions to Pearls. Though written a generation apart, they share a direct, almost abrupt, no-nonsense approach to spiritual realization. To give you a taste, Goldsmith writes
There is no need to struggle. Relax in the realization that in all this universe, there is only God appearing as you and me: God's own undivided Selfhood is individualized as you and me. Divine harmony is your destiny.
While Nadeen says
You are free to be exactly as you are right now.
Any changes in your makeup will come from Source.
Everything is exactly the way it should be - all is well - all is good!
These two have really made an impression on me. Here's the link to Satyam Nadeen's page.

I'm also reading Queer Spirits: A Gay Men's Myth Book by Will Roscoe - a lot of good stuff to feed the gay psyche and imagination. There are stories from across many times and cultures demonstrating the timelessness and universality of the homosexual sensibility.

I enjoyed very much reading Pryor Rendering by Gary Reed, a novel I picked up surprisingly at a local mainstream bookstore. It's the coming- out story of a young boy in rural Oklahoma. Very evocative and beautifully written. It should be made into a black and white movie in the manner of The Last Picture Show.

Thanks to Sample in Atlanta for sending me Shade: An Anthology of Fiction by Gay Men of African Descent, edited by Bruce Morrow and Charles Rowell, and E. Lynn Harris' third novel And This Too Shall Pass. I enjoyed them both. As with many anthologies, the moods and textures differ from story to story, some more successful than others. If you haven't read Harris' other two books in the trilogy, then you should do so right away. They are Invisible Life and Just As I Am. My favourite of the three is the second one, Just As I Am which somehow seemed more realistic, it flowed better and was not as tortured as the first nor as contrived as the third. I wonder if Mr. Harris is running out of juice? It will be interesting to assess his fourth novel If This World Were Mine which is now out but I haven't got it yet.

JUST OUT AND A MUST READ

Among the many myths created about Africa, the myth that homosexuality is absent or incidental is one of the oldest and most enduring. Historians, anthropologists, and many contemporary Africans alike have denied or overlooked African same-sex patterns or claimed that such patterns were introduced by Europeans. Among African Americans questions surrounding sexuality and gender in traditional African societies have become especially contentious. In fact, same-sex love was and is widespread in Africa. Boy-Wives and Female Husbands documents same-sex patterns in some fifty societies, in every region of the continent. Essays by scholars from a variety of disciplines explore institutionalized marriages between women, same-sex relations between men and boys in colonial work settings, mixed gender roles in East and West Africa, and recent developments in South Africa, where lesbians and gays successfully made the nation the first in the world to constitutionally ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Also included are oral histories, folklore, and translations of early ethnographic reports by German and French observers. The first serious study of the subject, Boy-Wives and Female Husbands is a significant contribution to anthropology, history, and gender studies, offering new, often surprising views of African societies, while posing interesting challenges to recent theories of sexuality. An invaluable resource for everyone interested in the continent's history and culture, Boy-Wives and Female Husbands reveals the denials of African homosexualities for what they are--prejudice and willful ignorance.

Historians, anthropologists, and many contemporary Africans alike have denied or overlooked African same-sex patterns or claimed that such patterns were introduced by Europeans. Among African Americans questions surrounding sexuality and gender in traditional African societies have become especially contentious. In fact, same-sex love was and is widespread in Africa. Boy-Wives and Female Husbands documents same-sex patterns in some fifty societies, in every region of the continent. Essays by scholars from a variety of disciplines explore institutionalized marriages between women, same-sex relations between men and boys in colonial work settings, mixed gender roles in East and West Africa, and recent developments in South Africa, where lesbians and gays successfully made that nation the first in the world to constitutionally ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. An invaluable resource for everyone interested in the continent's history and culture, Boy-Wives and Female Husbands reveals the denials of African homosexualities for what they are - prejudice and willful ignorance.

Look out for Respecting the Soul: Daily Reflections for Black Lesbians and Gays by Keith Boykin published in paperback - 400 pages - in April 1999 by Avon Books. It should prove to be a good complement to Iyanla Vanzant's Acts of Faith: Daily Meditations for People of Color.

APPEAL
I'm looking for material pertaining to CLAUDE MCKAY, Jamaican writer and poet, who is known to have had homosexual relationships while in Europe. Please send leads, references and bibliography. We need to research, document and disseminate this important part of our gay Jamaican heritage.

Waanti Waanti - poem written in Jamaican with English translation

Mango Season - prose piece

Sounds Like A Stone's Throw - poem

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