Culture

Film Review: Rag Tag

April 10, 2015 by Rashid

A few months ago, I watched a film called Rag Tag that had been in my Amazon wish list for literally years. I hadn’t made a point of watching it because I hadn’t been given any particular recommendations to do so. But thank goodness for Netflix.

I apologize for the sparseness of this review. I had really, really intended to write a review within a week of watching it. Then life happened. Oops.

So Rag Tag is essentially a gay black love story set in the UK. Basic premise: two boys who are best friends are separated in their adolescence and reunited in their early to mid 20s. Both have lived their lives trying to conform to heteronormativity, but have failed because they were essentially in search of one another.

The bad news is that this is a low-budget film which often looks like it. But isn’t that the case with so many pieces of art that emerge in support of the black gay aesthetic? Drawing on my own experience, I know that my first novel Lazarus was not a masterpiece, but it remains a sentimental favorite for many of the readers who knew me way back when.

Similarly, Rag Tag is not perfect, but it is necessary. There is a dearth of black gay romance on television and in film, so this movie fills the void (somewhat). It feels authentic. It feels right.

As a bonus, the viewer will also get to see this story unfold on two continents, neither of which includes the Americas. The portion of the story centering on Africa drags at times, but it so important in deepening the story of Rag and Tag.

Rag Tag didn’t win any Academy Awards, but it did remind me that it will have a special place in the hearts of every black gay boy who needed to see themselves depicted in a positive and realistic way.

Find it on your favorite streaming video platform or be a pal to the filmmakers and purchase the DVD.

Ferguson, Social Media, and Good White Folks

December 3, 2014 by Rashid

It seems as though we are entering into a new era of the civil rights movement and the onus is on white people to put their heads into the game.

There are many other writers who are versed in social justice generally and Ferguson specifically that can address the details of what’s going on globally. As for me, I just want to focus on what I’m observing in my own social media sphere.

I see people of color who are hurting. I am hurting. We’ve had enough. We are tired of being the only people speaking out when another black person gets killed at the hands of the police, or at the hands of cowards who think they are the police.

We’re tired of being the go-to people when good white folks need to get their thoughts organized. But thankfully, good white folks are finally getting it! This time, things have been different for me. I haven’t been sent a lot of personal messages on what white people should do, or say, or how they should act, or where they should volunteer or donate.

Now I see my white friends (my real white friends, not the ones I happen to be connected to) actually engaging their own circles. They are speaking out first on these injustices. They are being intentional in their outreach to each other. They are acknowledging their whiteness and the privilege it entails.

In fact, #WhitePrivilegeWednesday arose as a means of white folks talking to each other about their privilege. It’s a day I get to be silent (if I choose) and let white people talk it out themselves. I can only do so much as a ~~magical negro~~ ~~patient black man~~ person, but white folks can actually listen to each other, challenge each other, and somehow come to an understanding on the complex issues we’re facing.

I am proud of Good White Folks. They are also fighting against the fallacy of “black on black violence” and other distracting debates.

And you know what?

It’s all because they learned how to Google the same shit I Googled when I needed to learn more about these things myself. They follow the same blogs I do, read the same books I have, and otherwise educated themselves. They don’t rely solely on my worldview. However, they do give me the space to be pissed, to cuss, and to say “Fuck white people” without them chiming in with “Not all white people.”

There is still a lot of work to be done, though. Good White Folks still have to educate the white folks who call us “animals” and “savages” when we riot and loot. They have to educate the white folks who believe in the myth of the bootstraps. They have so much work to do, but they can do it.

But I’ll tell you one thing…it took me years to get to the point where I am only connected to white people who are committed to dismantling white supremacy.

And…

Trust…

I know a-plenty of black folks who rely on white supremacy to build their own personal wealth. I mean, I did go to Georgetown. As my mom told me at a young age, when the revolution comes, some black folks are gonna have to go, too.

“We will not accept your cages…”

December 2, 2014 by Rashid

Richard II

September 18, 2014 by Rashid

Last night, a character on Red Band Society (great new show on Fox) recited a line from Henry V. And it was cute or whatever, but it reminded me how I fell in love with Samuel West’s portrayal of Richard II when I went to England way back in 2000. Truth be told, I had to creatively gain credits in order to graduate on time, and Georgetown’s “Shakespeare: Text and Performance” course was a good way to earn six credits and two courses in four weeks. Plus, I’d get to see the UK. (Note: It looks like they shortened the program. That’s too bad.)

I believe we saw six (or seven?) plays all together, four of which were Shakespearean (Richard II, Henry IV parts one and two, and Romeo and Juliet), and then The Rivals and the the Mystery Cycles (religious vignettes) at York Minster.

(Typing those words makes me feel smarter than I really am.)

I am still friends with several folks I met on that trip and I really want to go back to the UK some day, for an extended period if I can. Reflecting on it, I felt both incredibly aware of my blackness in England yet also incredibly free. Certainly the British have racism and racists and privilege and all of that (and I would NEVER go back to York if I could help it), but I also felt like I was part of the diaspora in ways I do not feel here in the states.

I suppose in some ways when you are not home, and you’re black, you look for color everywhere. And England is indeed colorful.

Back to Richard II. The version we saw was at “The Other Place” which was the smallest of the three theaters making up the Royal Shakespeare Company’s properties. It was a “white box” with minimal scenery and gorgeous costumes designed by Sue Willmington.

I really wish there was a DVD of this performance. It was so good.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to have traveled overseas at an age where it mattered so much in my development into manhood and into writerhood. I look at this performance of Richard II and I can see now how much it informs the stories I tell, particularly that my protagonists are often not terribly sympathetic and are deeply flawed.

Just a little trip down memory lane. Sometimes I am amazed at the things I was able to do before I learned how to worry.

Novels that have influenced me

September 4, 2014 by Rashid

One of the many memes going around Facebook these days is a reinvigorated “Top Ten Novels” list. Several people have challenged me to list ten novels which have impacted my life in some way. Obviously Lazarus, Covenant, Epiphany, and Birth of a Dark Nation impacted my life the most! However, here are ten other novels which also influenced me or changed my life in some way:

The White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty. This is one of the most brilliant books I have ever read. Paul Beatty truly inspired me to take my writing seriously at a young age. He was a poet-turned-novelist, something like me, and his lyricism and vocabulary came together in ways I had never seen before.

The Resurgence of DC Black Pride

May 28, 2014 by Rashid

Last weekend, as is every Memorial Day Weekend, was DC Black Pride, sometimes referred to as DC Gay Black Pride by those of us who aren’t ashamed of the word “gay.”

I went to my first Pride in the year 2000. It was epic. I think everyone’s first Pride is epic, no matter how small it becomes. I didn’t attend my next Pride until the year 2004. That year I sat in the lobby at the feet of author Brent Dorian Carpenter as he held court, selling his book and making new friends. It’s because of Brent that I knew I could publish without the aid of an agent or traditional publishing house. The following year, 2005, I participated in Pride as an author and vendor for the first time. Since then, I have attended Pride each year, if even only for a few minutes.

A few years ago, DC Black Pride “fell off.” Not only were the crowds dwindling due to competition from circuit parties and for-profit LGBT-related vacations, it could also be said that Pride itself had not trained the next generation of leaders to take it over from the elders. For me, the last straw was last year, when I was told rather flippantly that there would be no authors forum.

You have to understand, in addition to all the parties that Pride is known for are the more important workshops and “daytime” events, such as the Poetry Slam, the Film Festival, the Author’s Forum. It’s not just vendors… this is an opportunity for authors to directly connect with their readers, get new readers, and inspire other writers – just as I was inspired by Brent.

Perhaps even more importantly is that the people who attend Pride are those who want to be on the forefront of new movements in the black gay community, politically and artistically. If I hadn’t been an avid Pride attendee, I would have never known about black gay films like The Ski Trip and black gay shows like Noah’s Arc.

So it was a heartbreaker that they eliminated the Writer’s Forum.

But this year they brought it back and I was invited! As usual, I had a ball. Wyatt O’Brian Evans did a more than capable job as the moderator. I was joined on the panel by old friends BuddahDesmond and LaToya Hankins and new friends J. Omarr and Tiana Meek (T’Ego). I think it was the right size, diverse mix of opinions, and a good vibe overall. The audience had great questions, too. I was lucky to reconnect with other old friends from my Georgetown days.

I would say that DC Black Pride is definitely alive and well. The audiences, though smaller than they were in the mid-00’s, are growing again. The spirit was back. Nobody seemed defeated or tired or unhappy. The name finally matched the feeling – PRIDE.

I hope this message encourages all of you who had written Pride off to make it your Memorial Day Weekend destination once more. The writers are still writing and we are again being included. Let’s make it even bigger next year, okay?