“Some of Us Are Brave”: Profiles of Black Lesbians in Publishing

Some of us love women in secret. Some of us love women after work and on the weekend. And then there are those of us who stay up day and night building new ways for women, and the love of women to be visible, available and remembered. Some of us write our names on the walls. Some of us print our marks on the future. Some of us dig for a usable past. Some of us press our stories into healing. Some of us are brave. This series celebrates women who have used publishing to make space for the experiences of black lesbians. May we cherish and continue their brave and revolutionary work.

Written By: RedBone Press/Alexis pauline Gumbs
Posted On: March 3, 2008 @ 8:07 PM PST
Category: Events

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PHOTO © 2005 BY BERNARD MORRISETT.

Does Your Mama Know?
Lisa C. Moore was driving her younger sister’s friend home one day when the younger woman, who had noticed the pink triangle sticker on Moore’s car, asked her an unanswerable question. “Do you have any coming out stories about black lesbians?” That conversation awakened a decade-long commitment to letting black lesbian and gay youth know that other black same gender loving people have gone before them and lived to tell about it. And Moore shows no signs of stopping.
In 1997, Moore self-published the groundbreaking anthology does your mama know?: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Coming Out Stories, collecting personal stories from some of the most inspiring black lesbians in the country including Alexis De Veaux, Cheryl Clarke, Letta Neely and Shay Youngblood (all women who will be featured here in the Some of Us Are Brave section in the coming months). The (white) feminist presses that Moore researched while compiling the book all said that there was no market for a book about the coming out experiences of black women, so Moore was forced to publish the book on her own. In the process of making a successful classic out of a book that publishing “experts” said no one would ever buy, Lisa Moore fell in love with publishing. “I loved every aspect of publishing, and the harder work of marketing and distributing.”
And out of this love, RedBone Press was born. Operating the only press specifically dedicated to raising the literary voices of black lesbians and gay men, Moore says, “I consider myself an activist just by virtue of publishing black lesbian and gay work.” And Moore’s activism manifests not only in the written word, but also in her leadership on the board of Fire & Ink, an advocacy organization for black gay and lesbian writers, and the writing retreats for black gay and lesbian authors she coordinates.
In addition to publishing and supporting today’s most innovative and talented black gay and lesbian writers, Moore is also committed to making sure the stories of black gay and lesbian ancestors who have gone before are not forgotten. RedBone Press recently re-released Brother to Brother, a collection of essays by gay black men put together by Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam, two giants in the black gay literary movement who both died early deaths from AIDS. Moore did an incredible amount of digging, researching and negotiating to ensure that their collection, which was out of print, could become available to a new generation of readers.
Moore’s work follows in the tradition of the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, founded in the early 1980s by black lesbians to respond to the silencing of the voices of women of color and especially lesbians of color. Indeed, the founders of Kitchen Table were some of Moore’s most important advisors when she was designing her plan for RedBone Press.
For Moore, mentorship is key to creating a sustainable black queer community, and the printed word is a crucial tool for connecting black queer people scattered across time and space. And RedBone Press makes the rich legacy and exciting future of black gay and lesbian literature irresistible. As she explains: “I just want to educate people. I want to connect people to each other. I want people to pick up these books and realize that they are not alone.”

For more information on Lisa C. Moore and RedBone Press see www.redbonepress.com and www.fireandink.org.

----Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a queer black trouble-makers. She a doctoral candidate in English, Africana Studies and Women’s Studies at Duke University, where she is currently writing a dissertation on black feminist publishing. She is also the founder of BrokenBeautiful Press (www.brokenbeautiful.wordpress.com).

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