Actor's Express in Atlanta is producing Tarell Alvin McCraney's Choir Boy, running August 8-30, 2026. Actors Brandon L. Smith and Clinton Harris speak to how the play's music and story of a young queer choir leader mirror their own journeys as Black queer men. Director Amanda Washington, the theater's associate artistic director, says the production speaks to the time we’re living in, amid ongoing attacks on queer and civil rights, offering both comfort and a call to confront uncomfortable truths within Black families and communities.

This final installment in the Louis Graham Virtual Roundtable series brings together Charles Stephens, Dr. Robert Aronson, and Dr. William Lopez to reflect on the late Dr. Louis Graham—a public health scholar, UMass-Amherst professor, and Morehouse School of Medicine alumnus who died suddenly in December 2019 before age 40. The panelists, who knew Graham as a mentee, doctoral advisee, and postdoctoral collaborator respectively, describe his groundbreaking research linking racism, mental health, and physical health outcomes among Black gay men, along with his hands-on, community-based participatory research approach that prioritized marginalized voices often left out of academic conversations. The discussion closes the roundtable series by honoring Graham as both an intellectually fearless researcher and a deeply generous friend whose sudden loss cut short a partnership—including his role in inspiring Stephens to found the Counter Narrative Project—that was poised for even greater impact.

This second installment in the Louis Graham Virtual Roundtable series, hosted by Charles Stephens of the Counter Narrative Project in partnership with Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), honors the legacy of the late public health researcher, UMass-Amherst professor, and MSM alumnus who died suddenly in December 2019. Panelists Stephens, Dr. Kisha Braithwaite, and Dr. Ugo Edu reflect on Graham's brilliance, his fearless advocacy against injustice, and his gift for translating public health research into accessible, community-centered knowledge. The discussion frames Graham's innovative approach to mental health disparities in Black and queer communities, along with his emphasis on relationship-building over transactional research, as a model of excellence for aspiring scholars and health equity advocates.

This first installment in the Louis Graham Virtual Roundtable series brings together Dr. Lance McCready, Justin Smith, and Charles Stephens of the Counter Narrative Project to honor Dr. Louis F. Graham, a public health researcher and advocate for Black queer communities who died in December, 2019. The panelists trace Graham's journey from Carleton College through his MPH at Morehouse School of Medicine and DrPH at UNC-Greensboro, highlighting how he overcame intersecting barriers of racism, homophobia, and classism to build a research legacy of over 1,000 citations centered on Black transgender and queer communities. The discussion frames Graham as a fearless, community-driven scholar whose commitment to ground-up, culturally grounded research continues to shape and inspire public health scholarship today.

That volume, which I spotted on the shelves of the Glad Day Bookstore in Boston, was Joseph Beam’s In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, and the front cover image, featuring two fly brothers drawn by Deryl Mackie, and its back cover photo of a very beautiful, dark brown man, Joseph Beam himself, along with a description of the book’s contents and Beam’s rationale for producing the book, were akin to me finding the most precious and life-giving essence I had long dreamt of. In fact, that back cover précis pointed out that Beam “began collecting this material after years of frustration with gay literature that had no message for--and little mention of--Black gay men.”  

During the late 1980s, Beam wrote as if time were leaking, when to be Black and gay was to live inside a series of narrowing spaces:  within a country that congratulated itself on progress while perfecting new forms of racial abandonment; within Black communal spaces that guarded masculinity like a border; within gay worlds that mistook whiteness for universality.

When writer Joseph Beam published In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology with Alyson Publications in 1986, he helped usher in a new era of Black lesbian and gay publishing. This moment marked the rise of journals, magazines, newsletters, pamphlets, and zines created in the United States and the Caribbean. After Joe passed away just two years later, that work didn’t slow down. In fact, it expanded.

William Johnson, the Director of PEN America’s Florida office, writes this tribute to poet Jubi Arriola-Headley.

The Red Dress Run in New Orleans is famous for its spectacle, but its true impact and meaning for the Black queer community remain complex and deeply debated. Dr. Deion Hawkins explores how visibility, philanthropy, and Black queer joy intersect, and sometimes collide, at one of the city’s most colorful events.

Mr. Loverman is a quietly stunning drama about a 74 year old Antiguan-born British patriarch who has hidden a decades-long same-sex affair with his best friend and soulmate. The story of love, regret, and longing, inside the glass closet, is told through theatrical storytelling and remarkable performances.

Craig Washington discusses his archive at the Auburn Avenue Research Library, which preserves Black queer history, honors untold stories, community, and courage.

While it is important to highlight fatherhood and those who shepherd their children into adult life, we frequently forget to ask a critical question: who gets the opportunity (and privilege) to be a father if desired? For many men who identify as queer, there is a delta between wanting a child and having one.

Considered a brilliant organizer with an aptitude for detail, he’s the exacting architect of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, an unprecedented demand for civil rights which drew a quarter of a million people to the National Mall -- and catapulted Martin Luther King Jr. into national prominence.

Each February, via Black History Month,  our nation has the opportunity and privilege to reflect on the legacy of Black Americans. From Google Doodles to corporate banks to federal proclamations, reaching far beyond slavery, observing Black History Month allows us to celebrate the substantial contributions that African Americans have made to The United States of America’s history, culture, vibrancy, and soul.

On this episode of The Reckoning, we are honoring National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (#NBHAAD) with Dr. Deion Hawkins.

Last January, I attended Sundance, an acclaimed film festival known to spotlight noteworthy and potentially Oscar-award-winning films. While I was blown away by nearly every movie, one documentary certainly stole the show- Kokomo City.

On this special live episode of Revolutionary Heath, #CNPTribe members Dr. Deion Hawkins, Sr. Editor of The Reckoning and Lamont White, The Gay Dating Coach, will unpack the recent crackdown on public intimacy in Atlanta and its impact on Black queer men.

On this episode Charles Stephens chats with Dr. Damian Denson about his personal journey to self through 2000’s Atlanta nightlife.

Last Spring, the nation was alarmed to hear of another infectious disease that was rapidly spreading. On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials, including the World Health Organization, declared Monkeypox, now called Mpox, a public health emergency of international concern.

Like most commencement weekends, the mood was festive and upbeat one weekend last month on the stately campus of Carleton College, a small liberal arts school just south of Minneapolis. The graduates, wearing everything from bright dresses and heels to shorts and sneakers beneath their gowns, filed into seats arranged in a broad, grassy field incongruously called The Bald Spot.