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.

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.

On this show Charles Stephens sits down with Journalist Linda Villarosa. Linda is the Program Director at The City College of New York, and she wrote a piece for the New York Times entitled “America's Hidden HIV Epidemic: Why do America's black gay and bisexual men have a higher HIV rate than any country in the world?”

This conversation was taped in 2017.

On this podcast episode Johnnie Kornegay chats with Singer, Songwriter, Producer and Arranger Donnie about his album The American Mythology, and his personal journey to liberation.

This conversation was taped on June 20, 2016.

The urgency for unity within the Black community is palpable, but the question of how to unify Black men is elusive.

In the 1984 essay "Brother to Brother: Words from the Heart," Joseph Beam wrote, "Black men loving Black men is an autonomous agenda for the eighties, which is not rooted in any particular sexual, political, or class affiliation, but in our mutual survival."

How do we come together to heal and press forward with love and intentionality?

Ask the Thomas husbands, Reginald, 27, and Kelvin, 47, about when the idea for Gay Couples Collective was born, and you might get the same story but told quite differently.

Together for six years and married for two, the pair has created a group specifically for gay male couples who are intentionally building lasting connections, cultivating experiences, and empowering other married or engaged same-sex male couples.

Ian L. Haddock, 35, Executive Director of The Normal Anamoly Initiative, vividly recalls the strange dichotomy of his late mother, Valerie Walker, hurling anti-gay slurs at him. But as hurtful as her colorful language could be, she was steadfast in her determination to keep him away from the illegal drug activities and prison sentences that consumed the lives of his two older brothers in Texas City, TX.

An effeminate Black queer child raised in a trap house with his mother and brothers, Haddock says he played football for a while to prove his masculinity. But he ultimately immersed himself in the Black church experience as one of two options given to Black boys in the football-centered Texas town as alternatives to the less desirable and dangerous elements chosen by many Black men in his orbit for survival.

"I knew I was different," Haddock says. "Showing up as any part of myself as a young kid was very difficult because I was really smart. But I was bullied for being a geek. I was bullied for being poor and dirty, and I was bullied for being feminine."

The bullying wasn't isolated to Haddock's experience with other students at LaMarque High School, where he attended. It was also a constant presence inside his home.

"My brothers tried to beat it out of me," he says. "My mother tried to ridicule it out of me. When I was younger, I was very much in fear of my brothers. My brothers would fight my mama. They didn't care. It was a very abusive situation."

On November 12, 2017, at 6:49 pm, I received a text that read: “Antron has transitioned.”

The official cause of death was cancer, but HIV was the cause. I’ve never written that publicly before, although it’s true. Antron-Reshaud Olukayode was a poet, artist, and community activist, but more importantly, he was my friend.

2017 was an important year for me as a creative. In retrospect, it’s hard to wrap my head around just how much work I was able to curate. I produced podcasts and multiple live events, shot countless photoshoots, produced a music video, co-curated an art display at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and even won an award.