Though I have written many essays over the years relevant to black queer community, “Lesbianism: an act of resistance,” which first appeared in the iconic This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color and “The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community,” which was published in the equally iconic Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology continue to be favorites.

“Lesbianism: an act of Resistance

Orig.: published: C. Moraga and G. Anzaldua, eds.: THIS BRIDGE CALLED MY BACK, Persephone Press.

Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF Reprinted in CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006

Reprinted in James, et. al, STILL BRAVE: THE EVOLUTION OF BLACK WOMEN’S STUDIES, The Feminist Press, 2009.

1982: 

“Black, Brave and Woman Too,” a review essay on ALL THE WOMEN ARE WHITE, ALL THE BLACKS ARE MEN, BUT SOME OF US ARE BRAVE: BLACK WOMEN’S STUDIES, orig. published in Sinister Wisdom, 20

Reprinted in THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE,, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006

1983:

“The Failure to Transform: Homophobia in the Black Community

Orig.: published in B. Smith, ed. HOME GIRLS: A BLACK FEMINIST ANTHOLOGY, Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.

Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006

“New Notes on Lesbianism”

Orig. published in SOJOURNER, January, 1983

Reprinted in Kahn, ed., FRONTLINE FEMINISM—1975-1995, Aunt Lute Books (1995)

Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006

1987

“The Space in Me Where Baldwin Lives,

 Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006.

1988, 89, 90

“Two Rich and Rounding Experiences” (review essay), CALLALOO, Vol.11, No. 2, 1988

“Silence and Invisibility: Costly Metaphors,” orig. published GAY COMMUNITY NEWS BLACK HISTORY MONTH ISSUE, February 19-25, 1989

“She Still Wrote Out the Word Kotex on a Torn Piece of Paper Wrapped up in a Dollar Bill, orig. published in McCorkle, ed., CONVERSANT ESSAYS: CONTEMPORARY POETS ON POETRY.  1990

“Knowing the Danger and Going There Anyway,” orig. published in SOJOURNER: THE WOMEN’S FORUM, v. 16, n. 1. 1990

All Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006.

1991

“Saying the Least Said, Telling the Least Told: The Voices of Black Lesbian Writers, orig. published in Makeda Silvera, ed., PIECE OF MY HEART: A LESBIAN OF COLOUR ANTHOLOGY, anthologized by SISTER VISION PRESS.

“The Everyday Life of Black Lesbian Sexuality, orig published in Warland, ed., INVERSIONS: WRITING BY DYKES, QUEERS, AND LESBIANS, Press Gang Publishers. 

“The Homoerotic Other,” orig. published in THE ADVOCATE, February

Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006.

1993

“Living the Texts Out: Lesbians and the Uses of Black Women’s Traditions, orig. in S. James, ed., THEORIZING BLACK FEMINISMS: THE VISIONARY PRAGMATISM OF BLACK WOMEN, Routledge.

Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006

1995

“Race, Homosocial Desire, and ‘Mammon’ in Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, orig published in Haggerty and Zimmerman, PROFESSIONS OF DESIRE, Modern Language Association of America.

1996

“An Identity of One’s Own: A Review of PUSH by Sapphire. Orig. published in THE HARVARD GAY & LESBIAN REVIEW, 1996. 

Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006.

1997

“A House of Difference: Audre Lorde’s Legacy to Lesbian and Gay Writers, orig. published in

Douglass, et. al, eds., MAKA: CONTEMPORARY WRITING BY QUEERS OF AFRICAN DESCENT, Sister Vision Press, 1997. (Reprinted from “The Audre Lorde Memorial Lecture, given at the Feb. 24,1996 Outwrite Conference

“A Father Scarce as Hen’s Teeth,” orig. published in Wade-Gayles, FATHER SONGS: TESTIMONIES BY AFRICAN-AMERICAN SONE AND DAUGHTERS., Beacon Press. 

Reprinted in Schneider, ed., THE BEST OF THE HARVARD GAY & LESBIAN REVIEW, 1997.

1999

“A House of Difference: Audre Lorde’s Legacy to Lesbian and Gay Writers. In McFarlane, Douglas, Silvera, Stewart, eds. MÁ-KA DIASPORIC JUKS: CONTEMPORARY WRITING BY QUEERS OF AFRICAN DESCENT, 

“Transferences and Confluences: The Impact of the Blak Arts Movement on the Literacies of Black Lesbian Feminism, orig. published in DANGEROUS LIAISONS: BLACKS AND QUEERS FIGHTING FOR EQUALITY, New Directions.

Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006.

2000/04/05

“Lesbianism, 2000” orig. published in Anzaldua and Keating ‘THIS BRIDGE WE CALL HOME, Routledge, 2000.

“The Prong of Permanency, a Rant, orig. published in I DO/IDON’T QUEERS ON MARRIAGE, Suspect Thoughts Press, 2004.

Reprinted in Clarke:  THE DAYS OF GOOD OF GOOD LOOKS: THE PROSE AND POETRY OF CHERYL CLARKE, 1980-2005, Carroll & Graf, 2006.

2006

“Ecstatic Fallacies: The Politics of the Black Storefront,” in Ramsamy and Tate, eds., THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA: Second Edition, Kendall Hunt Publishing Co. (Orig. to be published SODOM AND ME: QUEERS ON FUNDAMENTALISM, Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005.  Press went out of business and did not publish this collection, though the press had accepted “Ecstatic Fallacies” for publication.) 

“Ecstatic Fallacies: The Politics of the Black Storefront,” in Ramsamy and Tate, eds., THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA: Second Edition, Kendall Hunt Publishing Co. (Orig. to be published SODOM AND ME: QUEERS ON FUNDAMENTALISM, Suspect Thoughts Press, 2005.  Press went out of business and did not publish this collection, though the press had accepted “Ecstatic Fallacies” for publication.) 

2014

“By Its Absence: Literature and the Attainment of Social Justice Consciousness, in Reisch, ed., THE ROUTLEDGE INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF SOCIAL JUSTICE., Routledge.

2024

“Gladys Bentley: Mannishly Modernist”: a prose poem written for an exhibit on Gladys Bentley by Tiona Nekkia McClodden. 

2026

“What is Left: Reflections on Assata Shakur,” forthcoming in ACTS OF RESISTANCE AND ARCHIVAL ENCOUNTERS, Sinister Wisdom Press

“Morning, Mourning, and Mo’nin’ in Audre Lorde’s “Sister, Morning Is a Time for Miracles,”

forthcoming in WHOSE BELOVED COMMUNITY,University of Illinois Press

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