Ocean State Libraries

"Playful, poignant and wholly original, this coming-of-age memoir about Blackness, masculinity and addiction follows the author, a poet and screenwriter, as he recounts his experiences, revealing a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in." --

"In the style of New York Times bestsellers You Can't Touch My Hair, Bad Feminist, and I'm Judging You, a timely collection of alternately hysterical and soul-searching essays about what it is like to grow up as a creative, sensitive black man in a world that constantly tries to deride and diminish your humanity. It hasn't been easy being Michael Arceneaux. Equality for LGBT people has come a long way and all, but voices of persons of color within...

"When Darnell L. Moore was fourteen years old, three boys from his neighborhood tried to set him on fire as he was walking home from school. Darnell was tall and awkward and constantly bullied for being gay. That afternoon, one of the boys doused him with gasoline and tried lighting a match. It was too windy, and luckily Darnell's aunt arrived in time to grab Darnell and pull him to safety. It was not the last time he would face death. What happens...

In the violent criminal underworld, there is no room for weakness, so the idea of a growing gay mafia in Baltimore is rejected by most people. That doesn't stop kingpin Avery Nelson from striving to come out on top in his battle against Leroy Grant. Avery has faced adversity most of his life, and being a gay black male only adds fuel to the fire already burning within him. After experiencing rejection for so much of his life, Avery has stopped caring...

"From an international drag superstar and pop culture icon comes his most revealing and personal work to date-a deeply intimate memoir of growing up black, poor and queer in a broken home and discovering the power of performance, found family and self-acceptance."--

"A fierce and riveting queer coming-of-age story, following the personal and political awakening of a young gay Black man in 1980s NYC, from the television drama writer and producer of The Chi, Narcos, and Bel-Air Born into a wealthy Black Indianapolis family, Earl 'Trey' Singleton III leaves his overbearing parents and their expectations behind by running away to New York City with only a few dollars in his pocket. In the City, Trey meets up with...

Growing up Black and gay in America has never been easy. Before Porter was winning Emmys, Tonys and Grammys, he was a boy in Pittsburgh who was seen as different, who didn't fit in. At five years old Porter was sent to therapy to 'fix' his effeminacy; he was endlessly bullied at school, sexually abused by his stepfather, and criticized at his church. This is his story: of a boy whose talent and courage opened doors for him, but only a crack. Of a...

"This powerful book couldn't come at a more timely juncture. With our deep misunderstanding of racial identity, the murder of transgender women increasing at an alarming rate and the battle of faith and sexual orientation at churches across the country, we are in a cultural war of ideologies. Overwhelming prejudices have constricted our basic capacity for compassion and understanding. Live Through This is a collection of intimate essays about one...

"Ever since Oprah Winfrey told the 2007 graduating class of Howard University, 'Don't be afraid,' Michael Arceneaux has been scared to death. You should never do the opposite of what Oprah instructs you to do, but when you don't have her pocket change, how can you not be terrified of the consequences of pursuing your dreams? Michael has never shied away from discussing his struggles with debt, but in I Don't Want to Die Poor, he reveals the extent...

"An eloquent, restless, and enlightening memoir by one of the most thought-provoking journalists today about growing up Black and queer in America, reuniting with the past, and coming of age their own way. One of nineteen children in a blended family, Hari Ziyad was raised by a Hindu Hare K[ichGa mother and a Muslim father. Through reframing their own coming-of-age story, Ziyad takes readers on a powerful journey of growing up queer and Black in Cleveland,...