Joshua E McCoy I

Happy birthday, James Baldwin. In death, you still give us so much life.

June is Pride Month. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, 39% of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. identify as people of color. In USA Today, Earl Fowlkes, president of the Center For Black Equity, spoke about racial issues within the LGBTQ community. "Racism is a daily occurrence in the LGBTQ community, because it's reflective of what's going on in the general community. There's no difference." ———————— With conversations about race dominating the public domain, I will be highlighting 5 Black queer writers who've shaped American discourse. ———————— Bayard Rustin is a man whose life was shaped by the very prejudices the movement fought against, not only because of his race, but also because he was gay. Rustin would spend his life fighting for the rights of others, even while facing discrimination of his own. As told by History.com, While King spoke as the face of the civil rights movement, another man stood behind the scenes, an indispensable force within the movement. ———————— Rustin is best known as the chief organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He was posthumously receive the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in November 2013. ———————— Buzzfeed notes that neither Rustin's sexual openness nor his controversial political positions came without great costs. He wound up behind bars for practicing his nonviolent Quaker faith (from 1944 to 1946 in a Pennsylvania prison for conscientiously objecting to serving in World War II) and for practicing homosexuality (60 days in a California jail for "sex perversion" in 1953). And his many achievements — like pioneering one of the first Freedom Rides, refusing to give up his seat on a segregated bus in 1942, more than a dozen years before Rosa Parks did, and helping found the Southern Christian Leadership Coalition to support the efforts of a then young, largely unknown minister named Martin Luther King Jr. — often were tainted under the threat of exposure for his unpopular behavior and criminal convictions. ———————— More info in comments. Happy Pride. #BlackOutBookChallenge (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBPxFQ5BY33/?igshid=1xrhsmcjn47xq

June is Pride Month. According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, 39% of LGBTQ adults in the U.S. identify as people of color. In USA Today, Earl Fowlkes, president of the Center For Black Equity, spoke about racial issues within the LGBTQ community. "Racism is a daily occurrence in the LGBTQ community, because it's reflective of what's going on in the general community. There's no difference." ———————— The idea that Pride Month can't be observed at the same time as protests for racial equality, Walker said, is part of the "notion that black people aren't gay, and gay people aren't black." ———————— With conversations about race dominating the public domain, I will be highlighting 5 Black queer authors who've shaped American discourse. I welcome you to celebrate these literary figures with me, as I continue to learn out loud. ———————— Roxane Gay is a writer and professor of English at Purdue University whose work focuses on women's rights, race and identity. Her most recent book, Ayiti, is a collection of stories about the Haitian diaspora. ———————— She is also a contributing writer at the New York Times, as well as the author of the books An Untamed State, Bad Feminist, Difficult Women, Hunger, and World of Wakanda for Marvel. ———————— Roxane's book, The Hunger, is one of two of her titles that I hope to read this year. A memoir, she describes her trauma as the victim of a gang rape at 12 years old as the impetus for her overeating. As she told People Magazine, “I didn’t ever want to be over-powered again,” explains Gay, who reached 577 lbs. at her heaviest. “I thought if I’m fat, boys won’t come after me. I wanted to make myself bigger.” ———————— A self-proclaimed "Bad Feminist," Gay writes about and stands for gender equality and intersectionality of identity. In many of her published essays and public talks, she eschews the white-washed of feminism for a more inclusive version that respects the, at times, opposing identities every woman faces in her life. She is known for speaking about the dichotomy of womanhood and wants to see a society that doesn't force women into economic vulnerability, but ensures their agency as equals to men. Happy Pride. (at Atlanta, Georgia) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBNA7kuBBg4/?igshid=16o6zo3si1t2v

Calletta di Venice. December 2018
“Perchance even dearer in her day of woe.” December 2018⁣⁣
.
I loved her from my boyhood,—she to me
Was as a fairy city of the heart,
Rising like water-columns from the sea,
Of joy the sojourn and of wealth the mart;
And Otway, Radcliffe, Schiller, Shakespeare’s art, 
Had stamped her image in me, and even so,
Although I found her thus, we did not part,
Perchance even dearer in her day of woe
Than when she was a boast, a marvel, and a show
⁣⁣—Lord Byron, Venice⁣⁣
⁣
#streetphotography#streetphotographyincolors#ig_streetphotography #fromstreetswithlove#spicollective#streetbwcolor #wearethestreet #lensculture #everybodystreet#streetsgrammer#life_is_street#storyofthestreet#streetphotographers#streetphotographerscommunity#ourstreets#capturestreets#lensonstreets#streetfinder#spi#streetphotographyworldwide#streetphotographyinternational⁣ #veniceitaly #venicecanals (at Venice, Italy)
https://www.instagram.com/p/B41ST6mAsH9/?igshid=f47sdfweeoi7

Though fog, focus on the bright.⁣ ⁣ #therarejems (at Palm Beach, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4nrYYgguYV/?igshid=1r84dv1c1bfjb

Fondamenta di Venezia. December 2018
“To build a city where it is impossible to build a city is madness in itself, but to build there one of the most elegant and grandest of cities is the madness of genius.” ⁣
⁣
— Alexander Herzen⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#streetphotography#streetphotographyincolors#ig_streetphotography #fromstreetswithlove#spicollective#streetbwcolor #wearethestreet #lensculture #everybodystreet#streetsgrammer#life_is_street#storyofthestreet#streetphotographers#streetphotographerscommunity#ourstreets#capturestreets#lensonstreets#streetfinder#spi#streetphotographyworldwide#streetphotographyinternational⁣ #veniceitaly #venicecanals (at Venice, Italy)
https://www.instagram.com/p/B42zBPJgDQI/?igshid=1pbc508psksby

My little man is a big boy. 5.