Helene Johnson Helene Johnson (1907-1995) was one of the youngest of the poets associated with the Harlem Renaissance and in her short literary career, published some 30 poems in various magazines. These were never collected, and when she voluntarily disappeared from the literary scene in the 1930s, she was quickly forgotten, though later anthologized as one of the few African American female poets of enduring worth. As with others in her cohort (Dorothy West, Mae Cowdery), not even the feminist recuperation of African American women writers could bring her reputation up to the level of the male poets who dominated the Harlem Renaissance. Some of this is due to the paucity of her output, but she was also – to put it bluntly – less than first-rate. Lines from her poem, entitled “Poem,” can be downright embarrassing. Gee, brown boy, I loves you all over. I’m glad I’m a jig. I’m glad I can Understand your dancin’ and your Singin’, and feel all the happiness And joy and don’t care in you. But she hit the bulls-eye at least once with the poem, “Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem.” Not a false note struck and the first characterization, as far as I know, of the street dude that eventually took over the Black lyric with the advent of hip hop. . . . . . . #HarlemRenaissance #AfricanAmericanPoets #BlackLiterature #PoetryCommunity #LiteraryHistory #FemalePoets #LiteraryLegacy #HistoricalPoetry #CulturalHeritage #PoeticExpression

“Foolish Man Blues” by Bessie Smith All of the major exponents of the Classic Blues of the 1920s were queer, mostly bisexual, but, with rare exceptions, they espoused the heterosexual norm in the songs they sang. At least, however, they acknowledged the existence of same-sex activity – usually for comic or derisive purposes. Bessie Smith, herself bisexual, wrote and recorded “Foolish Man Blues” in 1927. The “mannish-acting woman” and the “skippin’ twistin’ woman-acting man” are just two instances of the foolish behavior she catalogs in her song. Because it’s not susceptible to queer recuperation, “Foolish Man Blues” is little known and has never been covered outside of Bessie’s original version. Claude McKay quoted the lyrics in his queer-friendly novel, “Home ot Harlem,” and on the basis of that, we included its performance in “Congo Cabaret,” our narrative short derived from the novel. Ebulliently performed by Parisa Fitz-Henley, ours is the only other version of “Foolish Man Blues” out there. Watch “Congo Cabaret” in its short but glorious entirety by following the link via our linktree to our Vimeo On Demand Page. . . . . . . #ClassicBlues #BessieSmith #QueerHistory #LGBTQMusic #1920sMusic #BisexualArtists #MusicHistory #QueerLiterature #ShortFilm #VimeoOnDemand

Purim Purim will be celebrated from tomorrow evening (Friday) to Saturday at sundown. Purim follows the template of many Jewish holidays, viz. “They tried to kill us; they didn’t succeed; let’s eat!’ The story of Purim is related in the Book of Esther, a Jewish woman in Persia who becomes queen of Persia and thwarts a genocide of her people. It is a strange mixture of vengeful pride, a coming out story that ends much better than imagined, virtue (actually sex appeal) rewarded, evil vanquished, and Jews getting to kill their enemies. (Up until the mid-twentieth century, Jews *never* got to kill their enemies. Please do not read this as an endorsement of the war in Gaza.) . . . . . . #Purim #JewishHoliday #BookOfEsther #QueenEsther #PersianJews #CelebrationTime #FeastMode #HolidayVibes #FestivalOfPurim #EstherAndMordecai

Centenary - The Harlem Renaissance Launches More than 100 publishers, magazine editors, artists and writers gathered at New York City’s Civic Club on March 21, 1924 to acknowledge and celebrate the emerging abundance of black creative talent. The event was the first of a number of interracial promotional events organized by Charles S. Johnson, sociologist and editor of the Opportunity, the house organ of the National Urban League, to draw attention to the young writers of the Harlem Renaissance. The site of the dinner, the Civic Club, was one of the few places in New York City that welcomed both black and white members. The appointed master of ceremonies for the affair was Alain Locke. The philosopher and scholar had already served as mentor to several of the writers recognized at the dinner, and many were looking to him to provide further intellectual leadership to the new generation of black writers and artists. With the Civic Club dinner having set the stage, the movement advanced further with the establishment of literary prizes for plays, essays, poetry, and short stories published in Opportunity and Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races magazines. White publishers backing the works of black writers saw themselves both as assisting the cause of such writers and simultaneously providing American literature overall with a much-needed shot of new energy and inspiration. African-Americans were encouraged to celebrate their heritage and to become "The New Negro," a term appropriated in 1925 by Locke. Although the Civic Club dinner was supposed to be a celebration of a deservedly forgotten novel by Jessie Redmon Fauset, the only female midwife of the Renaissance, she and her book were hardly mentioned during the course of the lengthy ceremonies. To find out more, follow the link to our blog post, “Jessie Fauset Gets Dissed.” . . #HarlemRenaissance #BlackCreativity #NewYorkCity #CivicClub #AlainLocke #LiteraryPrizes #AfricanAmericanHeritage #TheNewNegro #JessieFauset #BlackWriters

Lucille Bogan Lucille Bogan a.k.a Bessie Jackson is infamous in the history of the Blues as a “dirty blues” musician. Her songs mainly covered the themes of drinking, sex and her sexual affinity for women. She recorded over 100 sides and wrote some of the most sexually explicit songs ever committed to record. Her jaw-dropping song 'Shave 'Em Dry', recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson, begins: "I've got nipples on my titties as big as the end of my thumb. Got somethin' 'tween my legs 'll make a dead man come!" "B.D. Woman's Blues" was the most explicit lesbian blues ever recorded. "B.D." was short for "bull dykes," and Lucille Bogan laid it right on the line. B.D. women, they all done learned their plan, B.D. women, they all done learned their plan, They can lay their jive just like a natural man. Shoga Films quoted “B.D. Women Blues” in our documentary, “T’Ain;t Nobody’s Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s. Follow our linktree link to our film webpage to find out how to rent, download or purchase a DVD. . . . . . . #LucilleBogan #DirtyBlues #BluesMusic #QueerBlues #BessieJackson #ShaveEmDry #BullDykes #TaintNobodysBizness #BluesHistory #ShogaFilms

“No Man’s Mama” sung by Ethel Waters In 1926, Ethel Waters recorded a comic declaration of female independence that has not yet been recuperated by the queer or feminist movements. “No Man’s Mama.” Although it was the A side of the pressing put out by Columbia records, the song was eclipsed by the B side, “Shake That Thing,” which scandalized many listeners, both Black and White, by its unsubtle reference to the human appendages involved in SEX! Like its more famous musical companion, “No Man’s Mama” was a comic song. The singer proclaims her independence from what we have now labeled “the patriarchy.” This is made explicit by the song’s alternative title, “A Woman’s Choice.” The lyrics are quite inventive and humorous, and since the song is sadly unknown, they deserve to be partcially quoted. You may wonder What's the reason For this great big smile; Say I haven't Been so happy For the longest while; Got a big load off my mind; Here's the paper, Sealed and signed And the judge was nice and kind All through the trial; This ends the five year war. I am myself once more; I can go where I please; I can come when I please; I can flit, fly, and flutter Like the birds in the trees Because I'm no man's mama now. In a weird bit of Black-Jewish synergy that prompted so much American musical culture of the early 20th century, the lyricist, Lew Pollack, and composer, Jack Yellin, were the same team that produced Sophie Tucker’s famous Jewish-themed hit, “My Yiddische Mama.” We quote a bit of “No Man’s Mama” on the soundtrack of our documentary, “T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s.” Follow the link to our film webpage to rent, download or purchase a DVD. . . . . #EthelWaters #NoMansMama #1920sMusic #QueerHistory #FeministAnthem #MusicHistory #BluesMusic #FemaleIndependence #VintageMusic #DocumentarySoundtrack

Happy Birthday Clara Smith Born on this day in 1894,Clara Smith was as famous a blues singer in her day as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey. In fact, only Bessie Smith outsold her in terms of recorded sides.Of the three prominent Smith women (unrelated) who were amongst the first cohort of recorded blues divas, Mamie was heterosexual (“Crazy Blues”), Bessie was bisexual (“Young Woman’s Blues”), and Clara was also bisexual. Clara Smith was billed as “Queen of the Moaners,” though her voice was light and sweet. She started singing in the vaudeville circuits in the South before moving to New York in 1923, where she was signed to the Columbia record label. Her songs frequently centered on sad and gloomy stories of lost love. She recorded with Bessie Smith, as well as Louis Armstrong and Coleman Hawkins. Although she was the second most-recorded diva of the classic blues period, she is all but forgotten today. Clara gave Josephine Baker her first taste of show business in 1920 (and bulldagger delights) when she gave the thirteen year old girl a job as her dresser in her touring company. Read our blog, “Whatever Happened to Clara Smith,” on our website to find out more about this now-forgotten exponent of the Classic Blues. . . . . . . queerharlemrenaissance #queerandblack #blackandqueer #queerwomen #queerhistory #bluesinger #classicblues #singtheblues #queerblues #lesbianhistory #historicallesbians #bluescareer #clarasmith #blues #columbiarecords #bessiesmith #louisarmstrong #colemanhawkins

My Sister Alice By Dr. Robert Philipson My sister Alice contributed to women’s history as an early pioneer of lesbian parenting and as an activist lawyer during the worst years of the AIDS epidemic who didn’t take a case unless it mattered. She litigated for gay men to obtain medical treatment, represented them when they were fired for their HIV status, protected their personal health information, and forced insurance companies to honor their health policies. She was one of the original volunteer attorneys who established the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, which provided no-cost legal services to people living with HIV. Alice also provided legal advice to women with cancer through the Women’s Cancer Resource Center and was an early member of the National Center for Lesbian Rights’ “brain trust.” In 1998, Alice convinced California courts for the first time to give legal standing to lesbian parents in guardianship and child custody cases, a huge advance for all lesbian mothers in the state. As Out magazine wrote, “Philipson blasted open California's courthouse door for lesbian families.” Alice was herself a two-time cancer survivor but finally succumbed to mounting pain and decreasing mobility in July of 2022. She is still deeply missed. . . . . . #LesbianParenting #AIDSEpidemic #ActivistLawyer #HIVAdvocacy #LegalServices #WomensCancer #LGBTQRights #Guardianship #CancerSurvivor #InMemoryOfAlice

The Women’s History Podcast Drops In 1954, at seventeen, Doris Hale started living with my family two days a week, which rapidly turned into five days a week. My mother hired her to help clean the house, do the laundry, and look after the kids. "Looking after the kids" became the dominant component of her job. ​​What role did Doris play in our family's life? Ours was much more than a commercial relationship – the exchange of services for money – but what was it? We never asked the question and in the relative innocence of the latter half of the 20th century, we never gave it any thought. In the early 90s, I had the idea that I wanted to write a family memoir. I taped an interview with Doris and eventually turned it into a chapter called "Skinny." A voiceover artist recorded the chapter itself and we present it as the Shoga Speaks podcast for Women’s History Month. There you can hear Doris describe her life in her own words as a not-quite-member-of-the-family. "Skinny" was recorded and mixed by Joyce Licorish. . . . . . . #WomensHistoryPodcast #FamilyMemoir #ShogaSpeaks #WomenInHistory #PodcastRecommendations #VoiceoverArtist #FamilyHistory #20thCenturyLife #FamilyStories #PodcastProduction

Shoga Peeks in the Kitchen Today the Shoga newsletter drops and because March is Women’s History Month, we turn our gaze to what’s going on in the kitchen because that’s where you’ll find the women more often than not. And if you’re in a household that depends on the services of a maid/nanny/cook, you’ll find them in the kitchen as well. African American women have a long tradition of working in kitchens – their own and those of their (usually) white employers. The opening essay, “The Two Maids of Ethel Waters,” examines how one of the greatest actresses of the 20th century embodied the menial roles that represented the limits of Black female representation at the time. Our First Person essay, provocatively titled “She’s Just Like A Member Of The Family, ”rehearses my own family history with our own Black babysitter/housecleaner/companion. In the accompanying podcast, “Skinny,” you’ll get to hear Doris in her own voice. For the song of the month, we’re going to The Happy Place because there’s always a tune in a menial’s heart. On a more celebratory note, we announce the premiere of a new play by our former Board member, Jewelle Gomez. “Unpacking in P’Town” plays at the New Conservatory Theater Company throughout the month of March. Intrigued? We hope so. It might be too late to receive the March newsletter, but go on to our website and subscribe for the future ones. You’ll be glad you did! . . . . . . #WomensHistoryMonth #AfricanAmericanWomen #EthelWaters #BlackFemaleRepresentation #Podcast #HappyPlace #NewConservatoryTheater #Newsletter #Subscribe

The Greatest Mammy Role Ever When Carson McCullers adapted her bestselling novel, “The Member of the Wedding,” for the stage, she created one of the great mammy roles on Broadway. To the greatest mammy role came one of the greatest Black talents of the twentieth century. Ethel Waters had been scoring “firsts” and successes ever since she began her career recording blues sides for Black Swan records in 1921. Thirty years and 300 pounds later, she had lived through, suffered, and triumphed enough to bring true gravitas to McCullers’ menial. The maids and grannies that Waters played so effectively represented the limits of Black female representation in popular culture up until the cultural revolution of the 1960s. (Black Sirens and Tragic Mulattoes were the other allowable stereotypes.) Still, even with those constraints, an authentic chord could be struck. Check out the closing scene of the 1952 movie. This is an excerpt of the blog that anchors our March newsletter which drops on Wednesday. To read the entire blog, follow the link to “The Two Maids of Ethel Waters.” . . . . . #CarsonMcCullers #TheMemberOfTheWedding #EthelWaters #BlackSwanRecords #BlackFemaleRepresentation #CulturalRevolution #BlackSirens #TragicMulattoes #EthelWatersMovie #MarchNewsletter

Georgia Douglas Johnson We kick off women’s history month with a poem by Georgia Douglas Johnson of Washington, DC. Though she has been subsumed into the Harlem Renaissance, her first and best-known books of poetry were published in 1918 (The Heart of a Woman) and 1922 (Bronze), well before the literary flow unleashed by the Renaissance itself. Johnson’s direct influence on the Harlem Renaissance stemmed from the weekly Saturday night salons that she held in her home on S Street. The salon was a meeting place for writers in Washington, D.C., including Jean Toomer,, Alain Locke, and Angelina Weld Grimké. It was at the Saturday night salon that Langston Hughes met Richard Bruce Nugent and persuaded him to relocate to Harlem Douglas’ most famous poem, “The Heart of a Woman,” eloquently testifies to the limited prospects of a woman whose best hope in life was presumed to be found in marriage. The heart of a woman falls back with the night, And enters some alien cage in its plight, And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars. . . . . . . #WomensHistoryMonth #GeorgiaDouglasJohnson #HarlemRenaissance #PoetryCommunity #LiteraryHistory #WashingtonDC #WomenWriters #BlackHistory #PoetryLovers #HistoricalSalons

The Origin of “The New Negro” We end the month of February making the same point as at the beginning: Black history is not completely Black. Alain Locke’s 1925 publication of the anthology, “The New Negro,” announced the arrival of the Harlem Renaissance to both Black and white America and stands as an impressive achievement still relevant almost 100 years later. But how did it come about? Charles S. Johnson, a Black sociologist, was giving a presentation to a group of progressive whites about the up and coming crop of new writers. Paul Kellogg, the white editor of a magazine of popular sociology, Survey Graphic, determined that these writers should have wider exposure. He approached the Black professor of philosophy and promoter of the arts, Alain Locke, to edit a special edition of Survey Graphic entitled, “Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro.” The number was a smashing success, and Locke was able to parlay that into a serious expansion published by the white (Jewish) publishing house Albert and Charles Boni. Read more about Alain Locke by following the link to our blog post, “Gay Dean of the Harlem Renaissance.” . . . . #BlackHistory #HarlemRenaissance #AlainLocke #TheNewNegro #AfricanAmericanHistory #LiteraryHistory #CulturalHeritage #HistoricalNarratives #SocialJustice #IntellectualLegacy

The DC Connection: Langston Hughes In 1924, Hughes landed in Washington, DC and moved in with his mother after his wanderjahre in Africa and Europe. He had no money, although his poems were beginning to get published, but his mother threatened to stop feeding him if he didn’t get a job. During his fifteen months in DC, Hughes failed at one job after another. He turned his final job, as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel, into a public relations coup. At the time, a then-famous poet, Vachel Lindsay, was preparing to give a dinner presentation of his verse at the hotel. As a Black busboy, Hughes would not have been allowed into the dining room. But in a brazen display of courage and self-confidence, Hughes slipped into the room before the event and left three poems near the famous Lindsay’s plate. The ploy was a success. In front of an audience of reporters the following morning, Lindsay read the poetry and announced that he had discovered a busboy poet. The story of Lindsay and Hughes was picked up by the Associated Press and ran in newspapers up and down the East Coast. Hughes obligingly posed in his busboy uniform. N.B. The name of the well-known DC-based chain, “Busboys and Poets,” is a direct reference to this episode.The restaurant/coffee houses were Black and progressive from birth and provide a haven for leftist ideologies – and the food is good too! . . . . . . #LangstonHughes #DCConnection #BusboysAndPoets #AfricanAmericanPoets #PoetryCommunity #LiteraryHistory #BlackHistory #ProgressiveDC #WardmanParkHotel #VachelLindsay

Father of Black History Month Almost Lynched in Red Summer Riot During the Red Summer of 1919, the deadliest and most prolonged orgy of race-based violence in American history (now pretty much forgotten), historian Carter G. Woodson, future founder of Black History Week (later Month), had been newly appointed as a dean at Howard University. He was living in Washington, DC when a four-day riot allowed white mobs to roam the city and kill any African Americans they managed to capture. Dr. Woodson narrowly escaped harm by hiding as a mob approached. Others weren’t so lucky. Woodson later recalled what he witnessed: “They had caught a negro and deliberately held him as one would a beef for slaughter, and when they had conveniently adjusted him for lynching, they shot him. I heard him groaning in his struggle as I hurried away as fast as I could without running, expecting every moment to be lynched myself.” Click on the link in our BIO to read our blog, “The Red Summer of 1919” to find out more. . . . . . . #BlackHistory #RedSummer #CarterGWoodson #HowardUniversity #AfricanAmericanHistory #RaceBasedViolence #ForgottenHistory #HistoricalTrauma #SocialJustice #BlackLivesMatter

The Great Migration Everybody has different definitions of the Harlem Renaissance itself in terms of dates. From my own studies, I date it rather precisely from 1925 to 1935. During that time, the great migration from the southern part of the United States to the northern cities, Chicago, Detroit and New York, had been in swing for several decades and had culminated in a major displacement of the black population to the urban centers of the north and in Harlem in particular, but also in Chicago, there was a mixing of ideologies of people, African Americans from different experiences and backgrounds and not just African Americans, but black Caribbeans as well that created a cosmopolitan urban setting for an artistic flowering from this newly urbanized population. To find out more about The Great Migration and its effect on Harlem, follow our link to The Queer Harlem Renaissance, A Prospectus” on our YouTube channel. . . . . . . . #GreatMigration #HarlemRenaissance #BlackHistory #Urbanization #AfricanAmericanArt #NorthernCities #CulturalMixing #ArtisticFlowering #QueerHistory #HistoricalMigration

The Origin of the Black National Anthem In 1900, James Weldon Johnson and his brother J. Rosamond Johnson wrote “Lift Every Voice And Sing” as a school children’s tribute celebrating the birthday of Lincoln, then known as “the Great Emancipator.” The Johnson brothers moved to New York and went on to an extraordinary career as writers of popular songs, but the song they left in Jacksonville migrated from school to school through the school children who continued to sing it and became teachers of other schoolchildren later. Among the African American population, it went viral and came to be known as the Negro National Anthem. Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chastening rod, Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; Thou who hast by Thy might Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; Shadowed beneath Thy hand, May we forever stand. True to our God, True to our native land. . . . . . . #BlackNationalAnthem #JamesWeldonJohnson #JRosamondJohnson #AfricanAmericanHistory #CivilRightsMovement #LiftEveryVoiceAndSing #NegroNationalAnthem #BlackHistory #SocialJustice #BlackExcellence

Jonathan Rowan articulates his involvement in “The Knowing” As the San Francisco Independent Film Festival winds down, we want to share a bit of the filmed Q&A that accompanies the virtual screening of “The Knowing.” (The fractured heart was Jonathan’s early draft of a possible publicity poster.) Director Jonathan Rowan discusses his desire to direct a queer narrative, especially one which examines the Dark Ages of the AIDS epidemic, before the introduction of antiretrovirals, from a racialized perspective. Until the end of the festival, on Sunday, February 18, you can watch a virtual screening of “The Knowing,” which is part of a shorts program called “Four Stories.” Please follow the link in our link tree to the festival’s ticket page. . . . . . . . #SFIndieFilmFest #TheKnowingFilm #QueerCinema #AIDSEpidemic #ShortFilmFestival #IndieFilm #LGBTQFilmmaking #FilmFestival #VirtualScreening #DirectorJonathanRowan

Negroes Wrest Romance For Themselves On Stage Here’s a Valentine’s Day story for you. Up until 1921, romance between “Negroes” was not to be seen in any type of theatrical representation. Darkies were stereotypes, buffoons, and incapable of an uplifting love that white audiences, who basically paid the theatrical piper, felt properly belonged to them. Then, in 1921, without asking anybody’s permission, the writers and composers of “Shuffle Along,” the first Black musical to play on (or near) Broadway in twelve years, built part of their story around a romantic hero and heroine who sang love songs to, or about, each other. One of these, “Love Will Find A Way,” was such a beautiful, soaring composition from the genius of Eubie Blake, that the show’s producers worried that there might be a riot on opening night. Nothing of the sort happened. To find out more about the importance and entertainment value of “Shuffle Along,” watch “Shuffle Along For Better And Worse” on our YouTube channel.

The Problem of the Hero SF/Indie Fest screened an unexpectedly relevant film to Shoga on Sunday, “The Problem of the Hero.” The movie is a film adaptation of a play the centers on the creative and ideological differences between Richard Wright and the now-forgotten Pulitzer prizewinning playwright Paul Green as they adapt Wright’s famous novel, “Native Son,” for the Broadway stage. The play relies on a lot of historical knowledge that most spectators are not going to have, but Shoga has it because we are in development of part two of The Body and Soul Project, “The Hollywood Left.” One of the main characters in the documentary is the Black actor Canada Lee. (Lee is now also pretty much forgotten, but he needs to be recuperated.) Canada Lee came to prominence in a time when there were few roles for Black actors on the stage that weren’t menial or stereotypical because of a New Deal program called the Federal Theater Project, which supported the arts with government funding. Canada Lee achieved stardom playing challenging roles, especially under the direction of Orson Wells. Wells directed the adaptation of “Native Son,” starring Canada Lee, and that part intersects with the story told in “The Problem of the Hero.” The film itself is a worthy contribution and the final confrontation between Wright and Green recaps the arguments about to what extent a white man can tell an black man’s story that Shoga has been wrestling with. Betraying its origins as a play, the film is talky and frequently tendentious, but we like that! “The Problem of the Hero” (as well as “The Knowing”) can be virtually screened through the run of the festival until February 18. . . . . . . #IndieFilm #SFIndieFest #TheProblemOfTheHero #RichardWright #PaulGreen #NativeSon #CanadaLee #OrsonWells #BlackActor #FederalTheaterProject

“The Knowing Premieres” It’s already happening. In line with its commitment to virtually screen all of its selections throughout its ten day run, the San Francisco Independent Film Festival made Shoga’s latest narrative short, “The Knowing,” available to the general public as part of a shorts program entitled “Four Stories.” As of NOW, you can purchase a ticket on the Eventive website to “Four Stories + Q&A.” There will be no Q&A after the in-theater screening so the only opportunity you’d normally have to hear the directors and producers talk about their films is as part of the virtual screening package. Both the film director, Jonathan Rowan and writer/producer Dr. Philipson participated. Dr. Philipson stands in front of the Roxie Theater where the in-theater premiere takes place tomorrow, February 10, at the less-than-ideal time slot of 12:15 pm. (At least it’s not competing against Superbowl Sunday.) Team Shoga would much prefer to have the film, in all its 4D glory, screened in a movie house with an audience, but not all the films in the festival are granted an in-theater screening, so we comfort ourselves with the thought that there will be many more eyes on the film in this brave new world of virtual and hybrid film festivals than would have otherwise been the case. Accordingly, we encourage you to follow our linktree to the virtual screening ticket page and take in this provocative story. . . . . . . . #SFIFF #TheKnowing #ShortFilmFestival #VirtualScreening #IndieFilm #FilmPremiere #FilmFestival #VirtualCinema #SupportIndieFilm #FilmIndustry

Today, on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, we pause to remember and honor the countless lives we've lost in the Black community to this ongoing epidemic. Our stories, though filled with joy and resilience, are also marked by this struggle that has taken too many, too soon. As we reflect, let's also reignite our commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS. Through awareness, education, and proactive health measures, we can work towards a future where no more stories are cut short. Let’s unite in this battle, for every lost voice and for every life we can still save. Together, we can turn the tide against HIV/AIDS in our communities. . . . . . . #NBHAAD #EndTheEpidemic #BlackHealthMatters #LGBTQ #HIVAIDS #HIVPrevention #HealthAwareness #PublicHealth #EndStigma #HealthEquity #SocialJustice #TogetherWeCan #CommunitySupport #BlackCommunity #Empowerment

The February Newsletter – A Contrarian Perspective February is Black history month, and Shoga makes its annual homage to the subject like everybody else. Only this year we take a slightly subversive approach, as the newsletter title indicates: “Shoga Challenges Identity Politics, Or What’s So Black About Black History?” Our blog considers the inconvenient allyship of one of the greatest boosters of the Harlem Renaissance, Carl Van Vechten. A description of my unfortunate and short-lived career as a white Africanist follows with perplexing philosophical questions in its train. Our song of the month is that great black torch song, indissolubly associated with both Ethel Waters and Lena Horne, “Stormy Weather,” written by Jewish songwriter Harold Arlen when he worked as the house composer for The Cotton Club. The big news of the February newsletter, however, is the world premiere of Shoga’s latest short, “The Knowing,” at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival. “The Knowing,” written and produced by Dr. Philipson, was directed by Jonathan Rowan (Black) and stars Jack Perry (a gay white man playing a gay white man), Deon L. Jones (a gay Black man playing a gay Black man), and Me’Lisa Sellers (a Black lesbian playing a Black lesbian). That seems straightforward enough, until a curve ball gets thrown in the final third of the film. The work of three Black collaborators probably makes this a work of Black art, and the fact that the story takes place in 1983 before the introduction of antiretrovirals made HIV/AIDS a manageable disease probably qualifies it as Black history, except that the writer is white and the story is autobiographical. Damn! We just can’t keep the boxes separate! To find out more about Carl Van Vechten, follow the link to our blog, “The First White Promoter of the Blues. . . . . . #ShogaNewsletter #BlackHistoryMonth #SanFranciscoFilmFestival #IndependentFilm #HarlemRenaissance #BlackArt #IdentityPolitics #ShortFilmPremiere #EthelWaters #LenaHorne

“Rockland Palace” Accepted Into Its First Film Festival What better way to kick off Black History Month than the get an acceptance notice for our new Queer Harlem Renaissance (short) short, “Rockland Palace”? ​​Organized by the Black Hamilton Lodge of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows, the Hamilton Lodge Ball was known simply as the Faggots’ Ball by the 1920s and attracted up to 8,000 dancers and spectators at the height of its popularity. Shoga’s stylized film contextualizes snippets of conversation actually heard at the drag and published in the scandalous 1933 gay novel, “The Young and Evil.” TAG! Queer Shorts Festival is an international showcase, based in Portland, Oregon, featuring works made exclusively by queer and trans directors. The next festival plays April 6-7, and “Rockland Palace” will be in its line-up. Stay tuned for further information as the date approaches. Also check out our new website film page on “Rockland Palace.” . . . . . . #QueerHarlemRenaissance #RocklandPalace #BlackHistoryMonth #QueerShortsFestival #FilmFestival #LGBTQFilmmakers #HarlemRenaissance #QueerFilm #IndieFilm #FilmFestivalPortland

Happy Birthday, Langston Tomorrow we celebrate the birthday of Langston Hughes, born 1901. This rather unattractive headshot of Langston dates from 1921. At that time he moved to New York, ostensibly to study engineering at Columbia University at the behest (and financial support) of his father, but he confessed to a different motivation in his autobiography. “Shuffle Along was a honey of a show. “To see Shuffle Along was the main reason I wanted to go to Columbia." Columbia’s unremitting racism eventually drove Langston away from his academic studies. Hughes worked at various odd jobs before serving a brief tenure as a crewman aboard the S.S. Malone in 1923, spending six months traveling to West Africa and Europe. He lived the life of a penniless expatriate until he returned to Washington, DC in 1924 to live with his mother. He had been writing poetry all this time. When the Harlem Renaissance exploded the following year, Langston rode the wave to fame and kept it for the rest of his life. . . . . . . #LangstonHughes #HarlemRenaissance #PoetryCommunity #BlackHistory #LiteraryLegacy #ColumbiaUniversity #AfricanAmericanArt #PoetLife #HistoricalFigures #CreativeExpression

Black Broadway Centenary - The Chocolate Dandies 1924 saw the production of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake’s second Broadway musical, “The Chocolate Dandies.” After the huge financial and critical success of their 1921 show, “Shuffle Along,” the duo had the ambition and financial backing to put on the most ambitious and expensive Black musical to play the Broadway boards: a cast of 125 and a lavish stage production including three horses that ran a race onstage. Their intention was to attain the production values of white shows, while leaving some of the racial stereotypes behind. Financially the show was a disaster, closing after 96 performances and deep in the red. And white critics scolded it for — wouldn’t you know? – being too white. “There is too much so-called politeness, too much platitudinous refinement and not enough of the racy and the razor-edged. There is, in a word, too much “art” and not enough “Africa.” A few songs experienced a slight second life – “Manda,” and “Dixie Moon” – mostly because Eubie experienced a huge rediscovery as a composer in the 1970s. Nothing to rival the hits of “Shuffle Along.” To find out more about “Shuffle Along” and its place in Black Broadway history, follow the link to our website blog, “The Impossible Legacy of Shuffle Along.” . . . . . . #BlackBroadwayCentenary #TheChocolateDandies #NobleSissle #EubieBlake #ShuffleAlong #BroadwayMusical #BlackMusical #BlackHistory #BroadwayHistory #MusicalTheatre

It Came From Iowa Carl Van Vechten, one of the great cultural arbiters in the early 20th century, was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa – not a place you’d associate with championing the avant garde or promoting Black achievement. Active and successful in many cultural endeavors (novelist, music critic, journalist, booster of Gertrude Stein), Van Vechten is best remembered today for his vigorous promotion of the Harlem Renaissance and his celebrity photography. 'I am determined never again to visit that unloved town,” Carl Van Vechten once said of of Cedar Rapids. His disdain for his birthplace was manifest for all to see in his highly successful satirical novel, “The Tattooed Countess.” Like many young fags who felt as if they’d been dropped into the conservative midwest from an alien planet, Carl grew up loving art, music and theater while other boys were interested in baseball. Another barrier to fitting in was that he grew into an unusually tall, gangly, awkward boy with two enormous front teeth that looked like squares of broken crockery. Unusually for his environment, however, his parents held liberal views. His father, Charles, instructed him to refer to the Black people who worked on their property as Mr. and Mrs., a practically unheard-of courtesy. Charles also helped found the Piney Woods School in Mississippi, an elementary school for Black children, in 1909 As soon as he graduated high school (one of nineteen), he went to the Big City to matriculate at the University of Chicago and never looked back. . . . . . #IowaArtists #CedarRapidsCulture #HarlemRenaissance #AvantGardePromotion #BlackAchievement #CulturalArbiters #CelebrityPhotography #MidwestArtScene #ArtMusicTheater #PineyWoodsSchool

January Song of the Month Written for the 1927 musical "Show Boat," “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” became an instant classic, along with “Old Man River” and “Bill.” The theme of our January newsletter was on the various flavors of biracial identity. In the musical, "Can't Help Lovin' That Man"signals the African American ancestry of Julie, the star of the Cotton Blossom who is passing for white and has a white husband. When Queenie, the black cook, comments that it is strange that light-skinned Julie knows the song because only Black people sing it, Julie becomes visibly uncomfortable. Written by Jerone Kern, the song is lovely, of course, and its first set of lyrics, penned by Oscar Hammerstein II, sit squarely in the torch song tradition of a good woman loving a bad man. The theme is particularly apposite to “Show Boat” where there are two examples of good women abandoned by bad men. The Julie of the 1936 film, Helen Morgan, made her reputation as a torch singer and “owned” her version of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” until her death in 1941. To find out more about the torch song genre, follow our link to “A Torch Song Mash-up” on our YouTube channel. . . . . . . #ShowBoat #Can'tHelpLovinThatMan #BiracialIdentity #TorchSong #Musical #JeromeKern #OscarHammersteinII #HelenMorgan #Classic #YouTubeChannel

Rustin on Gay Liberation Bayard Rustin was an activist all of his adult life – a peace activist, an apostle of non-violence, one of the most important civil rights organizers in the heroic heyday of the movement. He was also gay and was outed as such by his 1953 conviction for “sex perversion” while on a lecture tour in California. This did not make Rustin a gay activist. His homosexuality was something that he and his allies had to maneuver around in order to advance their agendas. Rustin began to speak out as a proponent of gay liberation when he met his life partner, Walter Naegle, white and 37 years his junior, in 1977. When the two moved in together, Rustin adopted Naegle in order to provide him some legal recognition and protection in the likely event that the older man would predecease his partner. (Same-sex marriage was illegal throughout the United States.) This, in fact, turned out to be the case when Rustin passed away in 1987. Rustin's obituary in The New York Times did not mention the partnership, describing Naegle as his "administrative assistant and adopted son". . . . . . . . #BayardRustin #GayLiberation #CivilRightsMovement #Activism #LGBTQHistory #SocialJustice #NonViolence #Equality #Intersectionality #Progress

Rustin defends King’s actions When Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, embroiled in a political dispute with King, threatened to tell reporters that King was having an affair with Bayard Rustin, convicted of “sex perversion” seven years earlier in 1953, King broke off all contact with his mentor and advisor. When I attributed this “failing” to black homophobia, Youstorian helpfully pointed out that Rustin hadn’t been the victim of black homophobia but of American homophobia. “This is the era of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and the afterlife of McCarthyism and the ongoing Lavender Scare. So there is a much larger context than what is happening within black civil rights and political circles. But more than that, people like Adam Clayton Powell and Andrew Jackson Young, very conservative Christians, do not capture the complexity of ways that black people related to queerness in the middle of the 20th century.” Bayard Rustin himself said, "it is difficult to know what doctor King felt about gayness except that I'm sure he would have been sympathetic and would not have had the prejudicial view. Otherwise he would not have hired me. He was under such extraordinary pressure about his own sex life. J Edgar Hoover was spreading stories, and there were very real efforts to entrap him. I think out of given point he had to reach a decision. My being gay was not a problem for Dr King but a problem for the movement." . . . . . . #CivilRightsMovement #BayardRustin #BlackHistory #LGBTQRights #AmericanHistory #PoliticalDispute #JEdgarHoover #McCarthyism #BlackHomophobia #Queerness

Bayard Rustin Arrested For “sexual perversion” with two men in a parked car in my hometown of Pasadena, CA in 1953. In spite of this public outing, Rustin continued his work as an activist for peace and civil rights. The older man mentored Dr. King in his growth as a national civil rights leader, introducing him to the principles of Ghandian nonviolence and helping King organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1956. After the organization of the SCLC, Rustin and King planned a civil rights march adjacent to the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles to put pressure on the party to strengthen its civil rights platform. At the behest of the Democratic Party, Harlem congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. threatened to spread the false rumor that King and Rustin were having an affair. The strategy worked. King canceled the march, and Rustin was distanced from King’s inner circle until planning for the 1963 March on Washington became a priority for the movement. All this history, and more, is recounted in the recently released biopic “Rustin” starring the gay Black actor Coleman Domingo as the gay Black civil rights activist. . . . . . . #BayardRustin #CivilRights #Activism #Peace #GhandianNonviolence #SCLC #DemocraticNationalConvention #Harlem #AdamClaytonPowellJr #RustinBiopic

Community Screening of “The Knowing” on Saturday This excerpt from Shoga’s new short, “The Knowing,” will give you some idea of the drama that an AIDS diagnosis produced in the early days of the plague before antiretrovirals made it a manageable disease and before humane protocols were established so that AIDS patients were not made to feel like lepers and outcasts. Appropriately enough, since Shoga Films is based in Oakland, the film will have its very first screening at the Oakland LGBGTQ Center at 4:00 pm tomorrow (Saturday) with the Shoga producer and film writer in attendance. The address of the Center is at 3207 Lakeshore Ave. (entrance on Rand Ave.) Please come. The screening is free, and the issues that the film brings up are still sadly relevant. . . . . . . . #TheKnowing #ShogaFilms #Oakland #LGBTQ #AIDSDiagnosis #FilmScreening #CommunityEvent #ShortFilm #FilmIndustry #FilmLovers

The January Newsletter Drops Today The newsletter title is “The Biracial Conundrum,” and the accompanying photo also introduces the blog entry, “The Inescapable Blackness of Jean Toomer.” At the time Toomer was composing his modernist masterpiece “Cane,” he was aided and abetted in this process by a then-famous Jewish writer, Waldo Frank. Toomer was light enough to pass for white but once “Cane” established his reputation as a Black writer, he couldn’t escape it – much as he wanted to. In “First Person,” I talk about “My Coloured Friend” (and please read the section before you get all righteously offended). Miscegenation (such a quaint term!) also points us to our song of the month, “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man.” But we can’t hold ourselves in any longer! Our latest narrative short, “The Knowing,” will have its world premiere next month at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival. All of this is in the January newsletter and more! If you haven’t subscribed, you didn’t get it! However, you can read the Jean Toomer/Waldo Frank blog on the Shoga website by following our linktree. . . . . . . . #JanuaryNewsletter #TheBiracialConundrum #TheInescapableBlackness #JeanToomer #Cane #FirstPerson #Miscegenation #Can'tHelpLovinThatMan #TheKnowing #SanFranciscoIndependentFilmFestival

Oakland LGBTQ Center Hosts Community Screening of “The Knowing.” Oakland is our home town, so it’s particularly appropriate that the LGBTQ Community Center is the place where Shoga’s latest short, “The Knowing,” will see the light of day. As its founder, Joe Hawkins, tells us, the Oakland Center was conceived as a place where queer people of color could find community and receive services without having to deal with the subtle or overt racism of the overwhelmingly white queer community across the bay. In that regard, “The Knowing” aligns perfectly with this angle of vision. Although the story is set in 1993 in a time before the introduction of antiretrovirals made HIV/AIDS a manageable disease, the interracial dynamics, brilliantly explicated by the film’s Black lesbian character, are brought to the fore in a way that is rarely foregrounded elsewhere. The film’s producer and writer, Dr. Robert Philipson, will be at the screening and will participate in the lively discussion that the film will ignite. This will make it better than a film festival screening where there might be a Q&A with the director but no substantive grappling with the still-sadly-relavent issues that “The Knowing ‘’ brings up. “The Knowing” will screen at 4:00 p.m. this Saturday, January 13 at the Oakland Center, 3207 Lakeshore Ave. (entrance around the corner on Rand Ave.) For more information, follow the linktree to “The Knowing” film page (and trailer) on our website . . . . . . . #Oakland #LGBTQ #CommunityScreening #TheKnowing #QueerCommunity #BlackLesbian #FilmScreening #InterracialDynamics #SocialJustice #FilmDiscussion

The Trailer for “The Knowing” Drops on YouTube Shoga has a new narrative short to offer. It’s called “The Knowing,” and we’ll be going into detail about the synopsis in the future. We have a trailer on YouTube but kept it unlisted until we were assured of a screening and film festival acceptance. We now have both (details to follow). In the meantime, check out our 60 seconds worth of trailer. To find out more about the film and to watch the entire trailer, please follow the linktree to our “Knowing” film page on our website. . . . . . . . #TheKnowing #TrailerDrop #YouTube #ShortFilm #FilmFestival #IndieFilm #FilmCommunity #FilmLovers #MovieTrailer #ComingSoon

Introducing Jean Toomer “When one is on the soil of one’s ancestors,” Jean Toomer wrote in his 1923 masterpiece “Cane,” “most anything can come to one.” “Cane” was definitively about the African American experience, both in the rural South and in Washington, DC where Toomer was born and raised. Though Black by the “one-drop” rule of the time, he was majority white in ancestry and in appearance, racially indeterminate. He grew up amongst the Black bourgeoisie of DC but passed as white in New York and the midwest. In 1921 Toomer took a job for a few months as a substitute principal at a new rural agricultural and manual labor college for African Americans in Sparta, Georgia. This extended stay in the Black Belt unlocked a torrent of creativity that led ultimately to the assembly and publication of “Cane,” an astonishing leap of High Modernist writing. Given his wide experience and his desire to transcend all racial categories, he grudgingly accepted the label of Negro writer at the insistence of his publisher. He quickly regretted it, however, and refused to identify further as African American or to take advantage of the publishing opportunities offered by the Harlem Renaissance as it took off later in the 20s. . . . . . #JeanToomer #Cane #AfricanAmericanExperience #BlackBelt #HighModernist #NegroWriter #HarlemRenaissance #Literature #AmericanAuthors #BlackHistory

New Year 2024 Shoga welcomes the new year during which we will premiere our new narrative short, “The Knowing.” Pictured here are key members of the Shoga team at a sneak preview sponsored by We Make Movies during their film festival: Adam McMath, Executive Director of Shoga Films, Jonathan Rowan, film director, and Robert Philipson, writer and Executive Producer. “The Knowing” will have its premiere at a soon-to-be-revealed film festival in the Bay Area. The mists of mystery will clear in just a little over a week’s time. Stay tuned! In the meantime, check out our website page for a synopsis and trailer of “The Knowing.” . . . . . . . . #ShogaFilms #TheKnowing #FilmFestival #BayArea #NewYear2024 #ShortFilm #WeMakeMovies #FilmPremiere #FilmIndustry #IndieFilmmaking

Shoga’s Most Viewed 2023 Post And the winner is … a clip from the 2001 documentary, “Trembling Before G-D,” in which gay rabbi Steven Greenberg talks about his struggle to bring his sexual orientation in line with Orthodox Judaism. I suspect, however, that the picture of the two Jewish men looking soulfully into one another’s eyes is what put this one over. The film’s consulting producer, Marc Smolowitz of 13th Gen Films, has worked in a similar capacity for all of Shoga’s narrative shorts. For further commentary on the intransigence of Orthodox Jews in accepting queer orientations, read our blog “Leviticus 18:22” on our website. Shoga’s Most Viewed 2023 Post And the winner is … a clip from the 2001 documentary, “Trembling Before G-D,” in which gay rabbi Steven Greenberg talks about his struggle to bring his sexual orientation in line with Orthodox Judaism. I suspect, however, that the picture of the two Jewish men looking soulfully into one another’s eyes is what put this one over. The film’s consulting producer, Marc Smolowitz of 13th Gen Films, has worked in a similar capacity for all of Shoga’s narrative shorts. For further commentary on the intransigence of Orthodox Jews in accepting queer orientations, read our blog “Leviticus 18:22” on our website. . . . . #TremblingBeforeG-D #OrthodoxJudaism #QueerOrientations #GayRabbi #JewishMen #Documentary #Intransigence #Leviticus1822

Centenary - Ma Rainey Begins Her Recording Career In December of 1923, Ma Rainey cut the first eight sides of her extensive recording career for Paramount Records. Among these sides was the delightful and mysterious “Boll Weevil Blues,” written by Ma Rainey herself. The lyrics seem to report a curious dialogue between the singer and the insect that was ravaging the principal agricultural export of the South. “Don’t sing them blues,” she implores the insect. Bo-weevils are everywhere. “I got the blues, and I got to sing ‘em,” the insect replies. Then we jump to a seeming non-sequitur where the singer confesses that men are so evil that she’s afraid they’d poison her tea. But she must want a man because she goes downtown to buy a new hat, brings it home and lays it on the shelf, looks at the empty bed and admits she’s tired of sleeping by herself. At least that’s the best exegesis I can come up with – but, please, try your own hand at it. Hey, boll weevil, Don’t sing them blues no more, Boll weevils here, boll weevils everywhere you go I’m a lone boll weevil, been out a good long time, I’m gonna sing this tune to ease a boll weevil’s lonesome mind. I don’t want no man to put no sugar in my tea, Some of them are so evil, I'm ‘fraid they might poison me. I went downtown and bought me a hat, I brought it back home, I laid it on the shelf, looked at my bed, I’m gettin’ tired of sleeping by myself. This reel combines a still of the famous boll weevil statue of Enterprise, Alabama, an excerpt of our short, “The Real Ma Rainey,” and a reproduction of plate 9 in Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. To see the entire Shoga Treat, follow the link to “The Real Ma Rainey” on our YouTube Channel. . . . . . . #MaRainey #RecordingCareer #BollWeevilBlues #ParamountRecords #BluesMusic #MusicHistory #EnterpriseAlabama #JacobLawrence #MigrationSeries

An Impoverished Christmas In his classic memoir of growing up Black in the South, Richard Wright describes an impoverished Christmas that occurred shortly after the end of World War I when he was still a boy. Christmas came and I had but one orange. I was hurt and would not go out to play with the neighborhood children who were blowing horns and shooting firecrackers. I nursed my orange all Christmas day; at night, just before going to bed, I ate it, first taking a bite out of the top and sucking the juice out of it as I squeezed it; finally I tore the peeling into bits and munched them slowly. This is Richard Wright in top form. A simple description of action increases our understanding of the boy’’s psychological state: not simply hurt but hurt nuanced by hunger, voluptuousness, meditativeness. Wright’s ability to describe psychology through action contributes to his stature as a major American author. Read more of what Dr. Philipson has to say about Richard Wright in his academic study, “The Identity Question: Blacks and Jews in America and Europe.” Follow the link to our “Shop” page. . . . . . . . #ImpoverishedChristmas #RichardWright #Memoir #GrowingUp #South #WorldWarI #PsychologicalState #AmericanAuthor #IdentityQuestion #BlacksAndJews

Repost – Eartha Kitt sings “Santa Baby” When we tried to present last December’s Song of the Month on social media, Eartha Kitt’s suggestive rendition of “Santa Baby” was blocked for copyright reasons. Now, apparently, that is no longer the case, and so we repost. We are completely mystified. “Santa Baby” holds the distinction of being the only Christmas-themed recording to come under a radio ban – in the South, of course, whose reputation for priggish Yahooism remains untarnished. Southern DJs feared their listeners might take offense at such naughty lyrics as “Santa cutie, fill my stocking with a duplex and checks./Sign your 'x' on the line.” The singer also requests other baubles, such as a yacht, a 54 convertible too (light blue), a sable fur coat, and a platinum mine. The song is the possibly prurient “Santa Baby,” sung by the definitely prurient Eartha Kitt in the not-so-prurient early 1950. Kitt’’s delivery is pitch perfect, balancing faux naivete with the calculated sexuality of a consummate gold-digger. She’s hysterical. . . . . . . #EarthaKitt #SantaBaby #ChristmasMusic #HolidayTunes #ClassicSongs #MusicHistory #VintageMusic #ThrowbackThursday #SongOfTheMonth

Centenary – Countee Cullen publishes “To a Brown Boy” In 1923 at the age of 20, Countee Cullen published a poem in The Bookman, the first fruit (pun intended) of the crop that was later to be assembled under the rubric of the Harlem Renaissance to receive national exposure. “To a Brown Boy” was dedicated to Langston Hughes, and the romantic overtones may not have been immediately evident, but Hughes was so embarrassed that he never mentioned this sub rosa love letter sent through a national magazine. In this excerpt from our Queer Harlem Renaissance series, historian Steven Watson breaks it down for you. For further information on Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and the Queer Harlem Renaissance, follow the link to our QHR webpage and watch our short, “Shoga Films Presents the Queer Harlem Renaissance” narrated by Daveed Diggs. . . . . . . #Centenary #CounteeCullen #ToABrownBoy #HarlemRenaissance #LangstonHughes #QueerHarlemRenaissance #History #Poetry #Literature #BlackAuthors

Gay Black Actor Receives Golden Globe Nomination for Portraying Gay Black Activist Last Monday, Colman Domingo received a nomination at the 81st Golden Globe Awards for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama for his titular role in Rustin. The political biopic follows the life of Bayard Rustin, advisor to Martin Luther King Jr. and organizer of the March on Washington Movement. The film covers Rustin’s life up to 1964, one of his supreme achievements. The screenwriters (gay) and director (gay) shoehorn a fabricated subplot about a romance between Rustin and a hot Black preacher, but Rustin didn’t take up gay rights until the 1980s and then only because his much younger romantic partner, Walter Neagle, pushed him into it. Since same-sex marriage was inconceivable, in 1982 Rustin legally adopted Neagle as his son in order to provide some legally recognized relationship. Good thing too ‘cause Rustin died five years later. Congratulations to Colman, and we’ll see if Hollywood’s Oscars-so-white repentance extends to Black gays. . . . . . . #GoldenGlobeNomination #ColmanDomingo #RustinMovie #BayardRustin #MarchOnWashington #BlackActivist #PoliticalBiopic #OscarsSoWhite #BlackLGBTQ #RepresentationMatters

Hanukkah Ends On this eighth day of Hanukkah, we find out if the young Daveed Diggs did indeed get his “Puppy for Hannukah.” Once this epic question is resolved, we find out just how Digg’s Hannukah song came to be written, a secret he divulges on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. The pic preceding the reel is Daveed’s real puppy, a Labradoodle named Moose. Daveed bought Moose for himself, so nothing to do with Channukah. Sharp-eyed readers will note that the *person* in the pic is not the famous actor/rap star. That person is Dountes Diggs, father to Daveed and grandfather to Moose. . . . . . . . #HanukkahEnds #DaveedDiggs #PuppyForHanukkah #HanukkahSong #JimmyKimmelShow #Labradoodle #Channukah #DountesDiggs #Family #Celebration

“Shylock, Uncle David, and Me” podcast drops As announced in our newsletter last week, we’re posting a new episode of “Shoga Speaks.”. The topic is an exposition of my diffuse yet distinct identity as a non-practicing Jew, as the son of non-practicing Jews, and as the great nephew of the once-famous Rabbi David Philipson, one of the first Reform rabbis to be educated and ordained in America. Where does Shylock fit in? You know who he is; everyone knows who he is. If he figures in your mental landscape, whether you’re familiar with the Shakespeare play or not, imagine how he looms for the Jew? This excerpt retails the unfortunate “treyfa banquet” of 1883 held in honor of the first graduating class of Hebrew Union College. Featuring several courses of non-kosher foods (treyf), it offended a number of guests and provided the opening salvo of the rift within American Reform Judaism which eventually led to the birth of Conservative Judaism. To quote the facetious tone of the essay upon which this podcast is based, “I find it oddly appropriate that the great doctrinal differences in Judaism stem from food preferences.” . . . . #PodcastDrops #ShogaSpeaks #JewishIdentity #NonPracticingJew #RabbiDavidPhilipson #ReformJudaism #ConservativeJudaism #TreyfaBanquet #FoodPreferences #JewishCulture

A gambling toy goes holy Dreidels, like other Hanukkah traditions (latkes, chocolate coins) have nothing to do with the Hanukkah story of the Jews driving out the their Syrian overlords, reclaiming and rededicating the desecrated temple in Jerusalem in 168 BC. The dreidel is a Jewish variant of a gambling toy found in many European cultures. Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet: נ‎ (nun), ג‎ (gimel), ה‎ (hei), ש‎ (shin). which serves as a measure of the amount that is won with the spin of the dreidel in a gambling game: nothing, everything, half, and neither won nor lost. That wasn’t quite godly enough for the rabbis, however, so when the dreidel entered Ashkenazi culture, a folk etymology arose that the letters represented the Hebrew phrase “a great miracle happened there,” referring to the legend that the one day’s worth of oil during the rededication lasted eight days.

Puppy for Hanukkah, night 4 You’ll notice a lot of dreidels in Daveed’s video, “Puppy for Hannukah.” Dreidels, like other Hanukkah traditions (latkes, chocolate coins) have nothing to do with the Hanukkah story of the Jews driving out their Syrian overlords, reclaiming and rededicating the desecrated temple in Jerusalem in 168 BC. The dreidel is a Jewish variant of a gambling toy found in many European cultures. Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet: נ‎ (nun), ג‎ (gimel), ה‎ (hei), ש‎ (shin). Which serves as a measure of the amount that is won with the spin of the dreidel in a gambling game: nothing, everything, half, and neither won nor lost. That wasn’t quite godly enough for the rabbis, however, so when the dreidel entered Ashkenazi culture, a folk etymology arose that the letters represented the Hebrew phrase “a great miracle happened there,” referring to the legend that the one day’s worth of oil during the rededication lasted eight days. . . . . . #PuppyForHanukkah #HanukkahTraditions #DreidelGame #JewishCulture #HanukkahStory #Rededication #JewishTraditions #MiracleOfHanukkah #Hanukkah2021 #HanukkahCelebration

Puppy for Hannukah, night 2 Jewish holidays start at sundown and so Hannukah, Judaism’s best-known (to Gentiles) holiday, began last night. Hanukkah is actually a less important holiday for Jews than Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in October, but it is Judaism’s only bulwark against the Christmas juggernaut. Also, it lasts eight days. In many Jewish households one present is given to the children each night – eight presents in all. One candle is lit each night so the menorah holds not only those but also the lighting candle which is called the shamash. (Pay attention! That word is in the lyrics, and there might be a pop quiz afterwards.) As the menorah is being lit, the traditional Hanukkah blessing is chanted – in Hebrew. All of the blessings – and there are many – are recited in Hebrew. For most American children, there’s no expectation that they’ll master Hebrew to read and speak it with any fluency. They just have to parrot the traditional sounds. Hence many “learn” Hebrew phonetically all the way up to and including a rather lengthy passage from the Torah, which is “read” during the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony. Hanukkah had precious little to offer in terms of holiday songs – the dreidel song barely rises above the pathetic. However, when the Disney studios asked Daveed Diggs to write a Hanukkah song, he not only applied his characteristic wit and rapping skills to the task, he drew from first-hand experience. Daveed was brought up by a Jewish mother, went to Hebrew school, and somehow escaped psychologically unscathed. But he knows whereof he speaks, and you now have some of the background you need in order to appreciate his description of night two. Will he get a puppy for Hannukah? Stick around. We have six more nights to go. Read more about why Hanukkah got blown up into a “major” religious festival by following the link to our holiday blog, “Chanukha vs. Christmas – The Underdog Loses.” . . . . . . . #Hanukkah #JewishHolidays #Menorah #HolidayTraditions #HebrewSchool #PuppyLove #FestivalOfLights #NightTwo #HolidayBlog #UnderdogLoses

The December newsletter drops tomorrow This lovely 15th century woodcut depicts the exsanguination (look it up) of a Christian child for the unholy requirements of Jewish ritual, a medieval slander that lives on to the present day. Such is the subject of our opening blog. Somehow the Blood Libel, as it is called, gets linked to the documentary classic “Grey Gardens” in the First Person section. However, we return to our holiday cheer by noting, in our Song of the Month, that the most widely recorded Christmas song – written by a Jew, of course – earned $19 million dollars over time for its composer – and, no, it wasn’t Irving Berlin. Have we whetted your appetite yet? It’s not too late to go to our website and subscribe. Give yourself the gift of Shoga! . . . . . . . . #DecemberNewsletter #15thCenturyWoodcut #BloodLibel #GreyGardens #SongOfTheMonth #ChristmasSong #IrvingBerlin #HolidayCheer #WebsiteSubscription #Shoga

Centenary - Cane is published In 1923, Boni and Liverwright published a baffling, magical potpourri of poetry, prose, drama and metaphysical architecture entitled “Cane.” It was the first gigantic achievement of African American modernism and is still, 100 years later, unsurpassed. Cane’s author, Jean Toomer, was as difficult to racially classify as his book, which didn’t help the sales of its first printing, which were dismal. A few kindred souls were able to peer with awed understanding through the sharp facets of the diamond that was Cane, but for the most part it was ignored and not reprinted until 1967. Langston Hughes addressed this in his famous essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" “'O, be respectable, write about nice people, show how good we are,' say the Negroes. 'Be stereotyped, don’t go too far, don’t shatter our illusions about you, don’t amuse us too seriously. We will pay you,' say the whites. Both would have told Jean Toomer not to write Cane. The colored people did not praise it. Although the critics gave it good reviews, the public remained indifferent. Yet Cane contains the finest prose written by a Negro in America.” . . . . . . . . #Cane #AfricanAmericanModernism #JeanToomer #NegroArtist #LangstonHughes #RacialMountain #LiteraryHistory #Prose #Poetry #Drama

World AIDS Day Today, December 1, marks World AIDS Day, an annual event that reminds us of the global struggle to end HIV-related stigma, an opportunity to honor those we have lost, and a rallying cry to continue working toward a day when HIV is no longer a public health threat. Billy Porter, the narrator of our short, “Smoke, Lilies and Jade,” revealed that he had been hiding his HIV-positive status for 14 years. Growing up Black and gay in a religious family, he was locked in the shame of its stigma. It is because of that stigma that 50% of Black men who have sex with other men will contract the disease. One in two. “Shame is a destroyer,” he says, echoing the major, if unspoken truth, of our new short, “The Knowing,” which will premiere in 2024. Follow the link to “The Knowing” film page on our website. . . . . . . . . #WorldAIDSDay #EndHIVStigma #HonorTheLost #PublicHealth #HIVAwareness #BlackMenHealth #LGBTQCommunity #ShortFilm #TheKnowing #FilmPremiere

Centenary - Runnin’ Wild The Black musical, “Runnin’ Wild” of 1923, was such a shameless sequel to the fantastically successful “Shuffle Along” of 1921 – same blackface comedy team (Miller and Lyles) playing the same characters in the same “Jimtown” – that its white producer only relinquished its original title, “Shuffle Along of 1923,” under threat of a lawsuit. However, Runnin’ Wild was the closest any Black musical comedy of the era came to repeating Shuffle Along's success. Two notable songs survived the flimsy plot: “Runnin’ Wild” itself (most memorably sung by Marilyn Monroe in “Some Like It Hot”) and “The Charleston.” The dance typified the Black-inspired high-stepping of the era: gawky, zesty, and irresistible. It was choreographed by an African American woman, Lida Webb, who put on a group of chorus dancers performing the "Charleston" number accompanied by the cast” patting Juba,” clapping and stamping out the accents. This show-stopping number introduced the Charleston to the general public where it became the iconic dance of the 1920s. Find out more about the history of The Charleston by following the link to our blog,”The Miscegenated Origins of the Dance that Defined a Decade.”

Rockland Palace Drops Today, as we near the end of the month containing Trans Awareness Week, we unveil the latest (short) short in our Queer Harlem Renaissance series, “Rockland Palace.” The Harlem ballroom of that name hosted the largest and queerest drag ball of the late 20s and early 30s. This historical “wreck-creation” smashes snippets of dialogue taken from the drag ball dance floor against jeering newspaper headlines (“Coy Imitators Simper Sweetly at Affair Attended by 7,000”) with drag queens flying offscreen to the deeply problematic (but catchy) Fletcher Henderson song, “Harlem Madness.” You have to experience it for yourself, and so you can by following the link to our YouTube channel. It’s pretty dense and goes by fast, so you might want to watch it more than once. . . . . . . . #TransAwarenessWeek #QueerHarlemRenaissance #RocklandPalace #HarlemBallroom #DragBall #LGBTQHistory #HarlemMadness #ShortFilm #YouTubeChannel #FilmHistory

Centenary: Bessie Smith Releases “Downhearted Blues” In 1923, Bessie Smith released her first recording for Paramount Records, “Downhearted Blues,” written the previous year by blues pianist Lovie Austin with lyrics by Alberta Hunter. Although Hunter sang it at during her engagement at the Dreamland Cafe in Chicago, Bessie was the first to record it, and it proved to be a sensation, selling almost 800,000 copies within the first six months. This groundbreaking record uncovers, in part, the erased dominance of women and a proto-feminist perspective in the first monster hits of the early blues. The composers were women; Bessie Smith’s explosive entry with her first release and continued success financially stabilized Paramount Records. The lyrics themselves retailed the familiar complaint of a good woman done wrong by a bad man, but this blues trope is followed by a stanza of astonishing assertiveness: I got the world in a jug, the stopper’s in my hand I got the world in a jug, the stopper’s in my hand I’m gonna hold it until you men come under my command. Find out more about Bessie and the other “Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s” by following our link to the Shoga Films web page “T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness.” There you will find multiple options for renting or purchasing this popular documentary. . . . . . . . . #BessieSmith #DownheartedBlues #BluesMusic #WomenInMusic #ParamountRecords #ProtoFeminism #QueerBluesDivas #1920sMusic #ShogaFilms #Documentary

The Faggots’ Ball Rockland Palace was the home of the Hamilton Lodge Ball, the largest and queerest of the drag balls during the 1920s and early 30s. Founded by the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in Harlem, Lodge 110 was set up as a fraternal order for affluent African Americans. Costume balls organized by the Hamilton Lodge began as early as 1869 but by the 1920s, the queer attendees were so dominant that the event came to be known as The Faggots’ Ball and attracted up to 8,000 dancers and spectators at the peak of its popularity. Langston Hughes wrote about the ball: “During the height of the New Negro era and the tourist invasion of Harlem, it was fashionable for the intelligentsia and the social leaders of both Harlem and the downtown area to occupy boxes at this ball and look down from above at the queerly assorted throng on the dancing floor.” Check-in on our YouTube channel after the Thanksgiving break when we drop our imaginative and informative short, “Rockland Palace,” on an unsuspecting world. . . . . . . . #RocklandPalace #HamiltonLodgeBall #QueerHistory #Harlem #AfricanAmericanHistory #NewNegroEra #LangstonHughes #DragBalls #CostumeBalls #YouTubeChanne

Masculine Women, Feminine Men In anticipation of dropping our Shoga Treat on the biggest and most elaborate of the Harlem drag balls, we present a popular American song, "Masculine Women, Feminine Men", released in 1926 and recorded by numerous artists of the day. Masculine women, Feminine men Which is the rooster, which is the hen? It's hard to tell 'em apart today! And, say! Sister is busy learning to shave, Brother just loves his permanent wave, It's hard to tell 'em apart today! Hey, hey! Girls were girls and boys were boys when I was a tot, Now we don't know who is who, or even what's what! Knickers and trousers, baggy and wide, Nobody knows who's walking inside, Those masculine women and feminine men! . . . . . . . . #HarlemDragBalls #ShogaTreat #MasculineWomenFeminineMen #1920sMusic #GenderBending #LGBTQHistory #DragCulture #VintageSongs #GenderFluid #QueerArtists

Netflix drops biopic of Bayard Rustin Bayard Rustin was an adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. and the organizer behind the 1963 March on Washington. His legacy as a leading figure in the civil rights movement was little known at the time of his death in 1987 because he refused to remain in the closet. His homosexuality cost him that visibility and was considered by some as a hindrance to the movement's success. Rustin was the target of homophobic attacks by other black leaders (most viciously by Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. who threatened to spread a false story about an affair between Bayard and MLK in order to get King to back off from leading a demonstration at the Democratic convention of 1960) and was sidelined by other leaders at key moments during a movement he helped steer. All of this is brought out with Hollywood panache in the Rustin biopic, starring an excellent Coleman Domingo, dropping on Netflix today. . . . . . . . . . . #BayardRustin #CivilRightsMovement #MarchOnWashington #Netflix #Biopic #Hollywood #ColemanDomingo #LGBTQ+ #Activism #SocialJustice

Trans Awareness Week - Alexandra Grey Shoga Films had the good fortune to cast transgender actress Alexandra Grey as the female love interest in “Smoke, Lilies and Jade.” This is a taste of her performance where she catches her boyfriend holding hands with a man during a concert. She’s trying to keep her cool and pretend that she didn’t see anything, but her displeasure clearly shows. Although Alexandra is cast as a cis woman for this role (and not for the first time), she has made her name in trans roles in such acclaimed series as “Empire,” “Transparent,” and HBO’s “Equal.” Alexandra grew up in the foster care system of Chicago and coming out as trans got her bounced out of her foster parents’ home at the age of 20. “What have I got to lose?” she thought. “I’m going out to L.A. and become an actress!” And, by God, that’s exactly what she did! You can catch Alexandre’s entire performance a Velma by going to our website page for “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” and finding out where to rent this beautiful short. . . . . . . . #TransAwarenessWeek #AlexandraGrey #TransActress #TransRepresentation #LGBTQ+Representation #TransVisibility #TransRights #TransCommunity #TransPride #InclusiveCasting

Trans Awareness Week - Masha P. Johnson In recognizing trans awareness week (November 13-17), we begin, appropriately enough with Marsha P Johnson, a self-identified Black drag queen who was an early outspoken advocate for gay rights. Johnson was known as the "mayor of Christopher Street" for being a welcoming presence in the streets of Greenwich Village. She was present for the landmark events of the early gay rights movement in New York: the Stonewall Rebellion of June 28, 1969, the Christopher Street Liberation Parade on that date of 1970, which became the first Gay Pride Parade. Although the term hadn’t been coined yet, Johnson was a trans woman and an advocate for trans people.. Like many trans women of color, she was forced into sex work to survive and claimed to have been arrested 100 times. Also like many trans women of color, she was probably murdered, although the circumstances of her death remain murky. Still, given the hard path she trod – Black, trans, and poor – she accomplished a great deal not only for herself but for her community. . . . . . . . . . #TransAwarenessWeek #MarshaPJohnson #TransRights #LGBTQAdvocate #StonewallRebellion #TransVisibility #GenderEquality #IntersectionalActivism #SocialJustice #InclusiveCommunity

Alberta Hunter Sings for the troops We pay homage to Veterans Day by highlighting Alberta Hunter’s service in the USO during World War II and the Korean War. In the 1940s when the United States entered the war, Hunter was one of the few stars of the Harlem Renaissance who still enjoyed an active career. In 1944 Hunter led the first Black USO troupe, the Rhythm Rascals, to Casablanca and continued entertaining troops in both the European and Pacific theaters for the duration. Her final WW2 performance was for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in June 1945. Hunter loved performing for the troops and loved the connection she established with them so much that she was in Korea on her 7th USO tour in 1957 when she learned that her mother died. This led her to seek a radical career change. . . . . . . #AlbertaHunter #USO #VeteransDay #HarlemRenaissance #WW2 #KoreanWar #RhythmRascals #Casablanca #EntertainingTroops #USOTour

Centenary: The Cotton Club Opens In 1923, white gangster Owney Madden, just out of Sing Sing, took over a Harlem nightclub started by the former Black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and renamed it the Cotton Club. True to its name, the Cotton Club was decorated as “a stylish plantation environment” for its white clientele. Only a few highly successful African Americans were allowed as customers and racist stereotypes abounded (The superbly sophisticated music produced by Duke Ellington who led the house band from 1928 to 1931 was touted as “jungle music.”) This handbill is an example of the racial hierarchy used in advertising that made the Cotton Club so successful. The major players of the #QueerHarlemRenaissance never went because they were too dark, too poor, and/or insufficiently famous. Amongst the few Black patrons admitted was Langston Hughes, who was no fan. The Cotton Club, he commented, was “a club for gangsters and monied whites.” Nonetheless the Cotton Club’s elaborate musical revues featured the greatest names in jazz and blues, including Ethel Waters, Bill Robinson and house bands led by Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway. This combination of unapologetic racism coupled with the most sophisticated and professional Black entertainment made the Cotton Club legendary – so much so that its name still evokes the glamor of Jazz Age Harlem. . . . . . . . #CottonClub #HarlemNightlife #JazzAgeHarlem #DukeEllington #CabCalloway #EthelWaters #BillRobinson #BlackEntertainment #HarlemRenaissance #JungleMusic

Getting Rid of Garvey From Lisbeth Gant-Britton, author of Holt African American History Garvey was extremely outspoken. He was, some people would say, almost bombastic. He wanted to take over Africa and had elected himself as president of Africa – without consulting the Africans, unfortunately. Determined to achieve economic independence for African Americans, Garvey launched the Negroes Factories Association in 1919 and a shipping company called the Black Star Line, which he planned to use to transport passengers back to Africa. During the time that Garvey and the UNIA were trying to launch the Black Star Line, they solicited funds from investors for stock options through the mail, and this resulted later on in allegations of mail fraud, and Garvey was convicted, and sent to prison. After serving five years in prison, Garvey was deported. . . . . . . . . . #Garvey #AfricanAmericanHistory #BlackStarLine #UNIA #NegroesFactoriesAssociation #LisbethGantBritton #HoltAfricanAmericanHistory #EconomicIndependence #AfricanDiaspora #BlackHistory

The November Newsletter Dropped This Week Titled “Shoga Grieves – The Arab-Israeli Bloodbath Never Ends,” the Shoga newsletter went out to our subscribers on Wednesday. Though we normally don’t comment on current affairs, we deal with Jewish subject matter and Dr. Philipson is himself Jewish. As he writes in his First Person essay, “As a Jew, I feel helplessly and unwillingly connected to this ongoing mess,” referring, of course, to the Israeli-Hamas war. But since our bailiwick is on Black-Jewish interrelations, we took the opportunity to remind our readers that the Middle Eastern conflict provided one of the first ruptures in the historic cooperation between the two peoples, known as The Grand Alliance, in the first half of the 20th century. And since the West Bank of the Jordan River is always in dispute, we chose Paul Robeson’s rendition of the spiritual “Deep River” as the song of the month. November 13-19 is also Trans Awareness Week, and we take the opportunity to recognize the work of our actress friend, Alexandra Grey, who co-starred in “Smoke, Lilies and Jade.” It’s a meaty newsletter, and you really *should* sign up for it, which you can do by going to our website. While you’re there, read our latest blog post referenced above, “The Grand Alliance Falls Apart.” . . . . . . . . #NovemberNewsletter #ShogaGrieves #ArabIsraeliBloodbath #JewishSubjectMatter #BlackJewishInterrelations #TheGrandAlliance #WestBankDispute #DeepRiver #TransAwarenessWeek #SmokeLiliesAndJade

Centenary: Marcus Garvey Imprisoned for Mail Fraud It’s 1923. How do you get rid of the most dangerous Black man in America? Jamaican immigrant Marcus Garvey lit up the Black masses with a quixotic vision of Black pride and Black power. At its height, his organization, the United Negro Improvement Assoocation, had 1,900 divisions in over 40 countries. There were parades, there were rallies, there were uniforms and women’s auxiliaries, and there was The Negro World, a weekly newspaper that reached a circulation of 200,000. This was not a decorous movement on bended knee. Mainstream organizations that set themselves up as African American leaders didn’t like the Garvey movement – too volatile and populist – and neither did the federal government. So how do you “get” Garvey? You look at his accounting and find out where he broke the law. Garvey was a terrible businessman, and he lost a lot of money on his Black Star Line folly, so there was plenty of low-hanging fruit. On June 18, 1923, Garvey was convicted for the federal crime of mail fraud and given a maximum sentence of five years. His crime was selling stock in the worthless Black Star Line through the mail. Anybody who looks closely at the case will see that it was an operation targeting Garvey (fomented by a young J. Edgar Hoover, no less!), but Garvey didn’t help matters with his public threats and fulminations (remind you of somebody?) and the arrogant folly of representing himself in court. . . . . . #MarcusGarvey #BlackPride #BlackPower #UNIA #BlackStarLine #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistory #MailFraud #HistoryLesson #SocialJustice

Happy Birthday, Ethel Waters Ethel Waters, born October 31, 1896, pursued a stellar career as a singer and actress on film and stage throughout the first half of the 20th century. She broke through any number of racial barriers in the recording industry, Broadway, and Hollywood because of her talent. She got her start recording blues for the African-American owned Black Swan label in the 1920s. At the same time, she fell in love with a Black female dancer, and they moved into a Harlem apartment together – an episode which she conscientiously buried as her fame and accomplishments grew. What was more shameful about Waters’ career were the degrading stereotypes imposed on her by the world of white entertainment that allowed her many “firsts,” but usually as maids, mammies, and sexless mothers. This 1933 short, “Rufus Jones For President,” has Waters singing a craven coon song, “Stay On Your Own Side Of The Fence,” that would have soothed the hearts of segregationists everywhere. The child on her lap is a young Sammy Davis, Jr. Ick! Discover more about Ethel Waters’ buried lesbian episode by renting or purchasing our documentary, “T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s.” Find out how on the website page devoted to the film. . . . . . . #EthelWaters #BlackSwanLabel #Blues #Broadway #Hollywood #AfricanAmerican #QueerBluesDivas #Film #20thCentury

Fire!! Is Conceived Dr. Philipson, in his interview with the British scholar Jack Bowman, talks about the origin of the now-famous art journal Fire!! Featuring some of the marquee names of the Harlem Renaissance as well as introducing Nugent’s “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” to the world. “In that brownstone lived Wallace Thurman, Richard Bruce Nugent, Langston Hughes spent a summer there. He was actually going to school at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, but during the summer break, he came and lived with his friends in the brownstone. Hurston was an occasional visitor. These folks came up with the idea, mostly inspired by Thurman and to a lesser extent Nugent, that they were going to publish an art quarterly called Fire!!. And it was going to be very much a declaration of independence. We are African American writers, but we write about what we want to write about. We're not writing to impress white people. We're not going to be confined to our subject matters. We're not going to hide our dirty laundry. We're going to present African American life in all its complexity and messiness.” Find out more about Fire!! And its place of conception, dubbed Niggerati Manor by Zora Neale Hurston, in our extraordinary short, “Shoga Films Presents the Queer Harlem Renaissance” on our website. . . . . . . . #Fire #Conceived #HarlemRenaissance #ArtJournal #Nugent #SmokeLiliesAndJade #AfricanAmericanWriters #DeclarationOfIndependence #QueerHarlemRenaissance #ShogaFilms

Origins of the “Renaissance” Label Dr, Philipson explains the queer origin of the label “Harlem Renaissance” “Where does the word Renaissance come from? It comes from the Italian Renaissance, obviously. So it was Locke who was promoting this idea of a Harlem renaissance. “Why? Because the Italian renaissance celebrated male beauty and Alain Locke also wanted to celebrate, he introduced the idea of generations into African American history, and he wanted to celebrate male beauty. He was oriented towards it. So the very term Harlem Renaissance comes out of a queer sensibility.” If you’d like to listen to the entire interview, “The Harlem Renaissance in Black and Pink,” follow the link to our Shoga Speaks podcast on Spotify or find it on your regular podcast platform. . . . . . . #HarlemRenaissance #QueerHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory #ArtisticRevival #CulturalMovement #LGBTQArtists #BlackExcellence #HistoricalContext #ArtisticExpression #PodcastRecommendation

Alain Locke Dr. Philipson, in his interview with the British scholar Jack Bowman, introduces Alain Locke, editor of “The New Negro” and dubbed Dean of the Harlem Renaissance. Bowman: “Alain Locke, who you've mentioned the kind of older figure, often coined Dean of the movement, I think, you know, definitely one of the old guard. Almost famously gay, but, but very closeted about it.” Philipson: “That's right. He was, he was effeminate, prissy, very precise in his speech, extremely intelligent. He was the first Black Rhodes scholar and held academic positions in Howard all of his teaching life. And of course, with Alain Locke, who, as you say, was the Dean of the Harlem Renaissance, because he really edited the first literary announcement of the Harlem Renaissance, a book called ‘The New Negro.’ And he was closely involved in the production and evaluation of literature coming out of the Harlem Renaissance.” . . . . . . . #AlainLocke #HarlemRenaissance #TheNewNegro #BlackHistory #Literature #RhodesScholar #HowardUniversity #GayDean #CulturalMovement #AfricanAmerican If you’d like to read more about Locke, follow the link to the blog on our website, “Gay Dean of the Harlem Renaissance.”

Wallace Thurman Dr, Philipson introduces the gay writer Wallace Thurman, novelist, editor, playwright, alcoholic, and iconoclast extraordinaire of the Harlem Renaissance. “Wallace Thurman was queer, as was Richard Bruce Nugent. And they were also very much iconoclasts they were part of the younger generation that was in rebellion against the Victorian mores and literary styles of the previous generation, the older generation. Many of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance came to Harlem from elsewhere, and that was true with Wallace Thurman as well. He had grown up in the West, came to Harlem from California, and entered on a meteoric career as an editor, and a writer, and a leader of the younger, iconoclastic generation of Harlem Renaissance writers. He lived in a boarding house on 135th Street in Harlem that became known, I believe the term was Zora Neale Hurston says Niggurati Manor.” To find out more about Wallace Thurman, follow the link to the Queer Harlem Renaissance page on our website and click on our introductory short, “Shoga Films Presents the Queer Harlem Renaissance.” . . . . . . . #WallaceThurman #HarlemRenaissance #QueerHistory #Iconoclast #LiteraryRevolution #LGBTQWriters #HarlemCulture #BlackArtists #ArtisticRebellion #CulturalMovement

Intro to Langston Dr. Philipson recounts how queer poet Langston Hughes met gay artist Richard Bruce Nugent. “Langston Hughes is probably the best known writer to come out of the Harlem Renaissance. He made his initial reputation as a poet but practiced all the genres and had a productive and long lived career into the 60s. He was living in D. C. in early 1925 because that's where Langston Hughes' mother lived and Langston Hughes was still establishing himself as a writer, didn't have much money, and as a matter of fact, worked as a waiter in a downtown hotel. But he went to this salon. There he met Richard Bruce Nugent, and they struck it off. They were both young men with literary ambitions. Langston Hughes was a bit older, had already had some recognition for his writing in Harlem, and he told Richard Bruce Nugent that Harlem was the place to be.” If you’d like to listen to the entire interview, “The Harlem Renaissance in Black and Pink,” follow the link to our Shoga Speaks podcast on Spotify or find it on your regular podcast platform . . . . . . . . #LangstonHughes #RichardBruceNugent #HarlemRenaissance #queerpoet #gayartist #literaryambitions #ShogaSpeaks #podcast #Spotify #Harlem

Bruce Nugent in DC Dr, Philipson describes the early life of gay artist Richard Bruce Nugent before he met Langston Hughes and joined the Harlem Renaissance. “Richard Bruce Nugent was born into an African American version of high society. He came from a middle class, well-connected family in Washington, D. C. He had a peripatetic life. He bounced between Washington, D. C. and New York until he was 19 years old, and he was living with his mother in Washington, D. C. at the time, and gravitated towards a salon that was helmed by a poet by the name of Helene Douglas Johnson, and there he met Langston Hughes.” If you’d like to listen to the entire interview, “The Harlem Renaissance in Black and Pink,” follow the link to our Shoga Speaks podcast on Spotify or find it on your regular podcast platform. . . . . . . . . #BruceNugent #DC #HarlemRenaissance #AfricanAmerican #HighSociety #WashingtonDC #NewYork #Salon #Poet #LangstonHughes

Gay Icon (The Living) Michael Jackson Today, musical writer Michael R. Jackson will be the featured 2023 gay icon for LGBT History Month. When I was in NYC for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, I took in a few shows about Black queer characters. One of them was the final performance of an off-Broadway musical called “A Strange Loop.” I knew nothing about it and entered the theater unprepared for the witty, dazzling, and provocative meditation on being fat, Black, queer, and an aspiring writer of musicals. You wouldn’t think this show would have wide appeal, but I wasn’t the only one who was blown away. When “A Strange Loop” moved to Broadway in 2020, it snagged the Tony and the Pulitzer for Best Musical. Its author, Michael R. Jackson, was in the lobby accepting the congratulations of the closing night audience. I was so high from what I’d just seen that I asked him to take a picture with me, just like any groupie – not my normal behavior. . . . . . #lgbthistorymonth #MichaelJackson #LGBTQHistory #MusicalTheatre #Broadway #BlackQueer #AStrangeLoop #TonyAwards #PulitzerPrize #GayIcon #MusicalWriter

National Coming Out Day National Coming Out Day is an annual queer awareness day observed on October 11 to support anyone "coming out of the closet". First celebrated in the United States in 1988, the initial idea was grounded in the feminist and gay liberation belief that “the personal is the political.” The most basic form of activism was, according to this perspective, coming out to family, friends and colleagues and living life as an openly queer person. The founders believed that homophobia thrives in an atmosphere of silence and ignorance and that once people know that they have loved ones who are queer, they are far less likely to maintain homophobic or oppressive views. Journalist Steve Osunsami’s, Nigerian immigrant parents, reacted badly to the news, as his testimony reveals, but they ultimately “came around.” That is not always the case for people who come out, either of their own accord or involuntarily, and queers, especially those born into communities holding deeply entrenched homophobia (most of Black Africa) or fundamentalist beliefs (name the bigoted religion of your choice), can lose their families, their communities, the jobs, and, if they’re Ugandan, their lives. For those who come out of their own accord, it’s brave, but it ain’t easy. . . . . . . . #NationalComingOutDay #LGBTQ+ #QueerVisibility #Pride #ComingOut #BeYourself #LoveIsLove #BreakingBarriers #Equality #Inclusion

The Neglected Native American Component In protest against the traditional American holiday of Columbus Day, observed on October 12, a tradition of counter-holidays celebrating the heritage of native Americans has developed officially and unofficially since the 1990s. In 2021 President Biden officially commemorated the second Monday of October as Indigenous People’s Day by proclamation (though still not an official federal holiday). Although Native American and African American history has been intertwined since the beginning of this country, African Americans have tended to look for their cultural cues far more towards European rather than native American culture. You will find little to no discussion of native American culture or influence during the Harlem Renaissance. Except, of course, in racist white writings which tried to equate the two peoples as “primitive,” either positively as Noble Savages or negatively as simply Savages. Charlotte Osgood Mason, one of the most wrongheaded and manipulative patrons of the Harlem Renaissance, tried to force a Primitavist perspective on, amongst others, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke (!), and Aaron Douglas. But this was two decades after she had performed a similar “service” for Native American culture. When Mason inherited her husband’s considerable fortune in 1903, she resolved that she would use her inheritance to cure the spiritual disintegration her husband had diagnosed in Western civilization. Mason began by returning to the Southwest with the ethnomusicologist Natalie Curtis. Together, the two women collected tales and songs for what became The Indians’ Book, which Mason considered “an eternal glory” for the rest of her life. She found the artists of The Harlem Renaissance to be far less malleable. . . . . . . . . . #IndigenousPeople #NativeAmericanHeritage #ColumbusDayProtest #IndigenousCulture #HeritageCelebration #HarlemRenaissance #CulturalIdentity

Queer Harlem Renaissance Soundbite Langston Hughes Meets Richard Bruce Nugent Langston Hughes is probably the best known writer to come out of the Harlem Renaissance. He made his initial reputation as a poet but practiced all the genres and had a productive and long lived career into the 60s. He was living in D. C. in early 1925 because that's where Langston Hughes' mother lived and Langston Hughes was still establishing himself as a writer, didn't have much money, and as a matter of fact, worked as a waiter in a downtown hotel. But he went to this salon. There he met Richard Bruce Nugent, and they struck it off. They were both young men with literary ambitions. Langston Hughes was a bit older, had already had some recognition for his writing in Harlem. . . . . . . #QueerHarlem #RenaissanceSoundbite #LangstonHughes #RichardBruceNugent #HarlemRenaissance #PoetsofHarlem #LiteraryAmbitions #CreativeExpression #LGBTQArtists

The October Newsletter Drops Today Who is that intriguingly ambiguous character in the little black dress with the daring purple accessories? Read “Fear of a Little Black Dress” in the October newsletter to find out! This month’s theme is “Shoga Cross Dresses” because going through life with just one gender is so unimaginative! Also, we’re taking the opportunity presented by LGBT History Month to remember The Pansy Craze, which we guarantee you haven’t heard about. Our song of the month, “Mad About the Boy,” was written by Noel Coward; our Ally of the Month, BeBe Zahara Benezet was not only the first winner of the RuPaul Drag Race but is the subject of an excellent documentary, Being Bebe, that came out in 2021. For those of you who haven’t yet gone to our website (link in the linktree) to sign up for the monthly newsletter, you can read our blog of the month, “The Forgotten Pansy Craze,” on our website. But, really, it’s about time you signed up. . . . . . . . #OctoberNewsletter #Fall2023 #ShogaCrossDresses #LGBTQHistoryMonth #PansyCraze #MadAboutTheBoy #NoelCoward #BeBeZaharaBenezet #BeingBebe

LGBT History Month October is LGBT History Month, an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights movement. It was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodney Wilson. The LGBT community is the only community worldwide that is not taught its history at home, in public schools or in religious institutions. LGBT History Month celebrates the achievements of 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Icons. Each day in October, a new LGBT Icon is featured with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images and other resources on the website lgbthistorymonth.com. This year we will promote two of the icons with which Shoga has a connection: Miss Major Griffin-Gracy and Michael R. Jackson. Also, in honor of LGBT History Month, many of our social media posts will be soundbites about the participants of the Queer Harlem Renaissance, our particular bailiwick. For further information on this historical phenomenon, follow the link to Queer Harlem Renaissance page on our website. . . . . . . . #LGBTHistoryMonth #LGBTQ #LGBTQHistory #LGBTHistory #LGBTIcons #LGBTCommunity #QueerHistory

Libby Holman, Bisexual Libby Holman, a Jewish performer profiled in our documentary, “Body and Soul: An American Bridge,” had a variety of relationships with both men and women, including Tallulah Bankhead, Josephine Baker, and writer Jane Bowles. Her most prominent lesbian relationship was with DuPont heiress Louisa d'Andelot Carpenter. The couple's relationship lasted until Holman's death in 1971. During Libby's Broadway career in the 1920s, they went to parties and jaunts in Harlem dressed identically in men's suits and bowler hats, joined by other lesbian and bisexual contemporaries such as Tallulah Bankhead, Beatrice Lillie, and Joan Crawford. Carpenter was to play a significant role throughout Holman's lifetime. They raised their children and lived together and were openly accepted by their theater companions. She scandalized some by dating much younger men, such as American actor Montgomery Clift (also bisexual), whom she mentored. Find out more about Holman’s role in establishing the 1930 composition, “Body and Soul,” by performing it on Broadway to great acclaim. Follow our link to rent the documentary on Vimeo. . . . . . . . . #LibbyHolman #BisexualVisibility #BodyAndSoulDocumentary #LGBTQHistory #RepresentationMatters #JewishPerformer #LesbianRelationships #BisexualIcons #BroadwayHistory #LoveisLove

Claude McKay, Bisexual Although Claude McKay has been fully recuperated as a “gay icon,” he was, in fact, bisexual. When he emigrated to America at age .., he corresponded for two years with a Jamaican sweetheart who joined him in New York shortly after he moved there in 1912. McKay’s wife left the marriage after six months and gave birth to a daughter back in Jamaica. McKay never saw his wife again nor met his daughter. To quote McKay’s best biographer, Wayne F. Cooper, “McKay never openly explored or publicly acknowledged homosexuality as an aspect of his personal life… As in other areas of his life, he remained … highly ambivalent about his sexual preferences and probably considered bisexuality normal for himself, if not all mankind.” Find out more about McKay’s sexual proclivities by clicking the link to our website blog, “Claude McKay’s Bisexual Peekaboo.” . . . . . . #ClaudeMcKay #BisexualIcon #LGBTQ+History #Bisexuality #JamaicanSweetheart #NewYork #1912 #BisexualAwareness #BisexualHistory

Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement This from the central Jewish liturgical poem of Yom Kippur, chanted while the Torah Ark is open and the congregants are standing. “A great shofar will be blown, and a small still voice will be heard. The angels will make haste, and be seized with fear and trembling, and will say: "Behold, the day of judgment!"... On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on the Yom Kippur fast it is sealed, how many will pass and how many will be created, who will live and who will die, who in his time and who not in his time…” “But repentance, prayer, and charity remove the evil of the decree... For You do not desire a person's death, but rather that he repent and live. Until the day of his death You wait for him; if he repents, You accept him immediately.” . . . . . . . . . #YomKippur #DayOfAtonement #JewishTradition #HighHolidays #Repentance #Prayer #Charity #TorahArk #Shofar#Jud

Tomorrow, we celebrate a day of love, unity, and visibility. Bi-Visibility Day, this Saturday, September 23rd, is a vibrant reminder that love knows no boundaries. 💖💜💙 In the kaleidoscope of our diverse community, every color shines with its unique brilliance. Bisexual individuals bring a spectrum of stories, experiences, and love that enriches our collective tapestry. Join us in embracing and celebrating bisexuality! Share your stories, your triumphs, your journey. Use #BiVisibilityDay and let’s flood the digital world with a cascade of colors and voices. Remember, your existence is revolutionary. Your voice is powerful. Your love is boundless. Let’s stand together, hand in hand, and continue to forge a world where every shade of love is seen and celebrated. . . . . . #BisexualVisibility #BiPride #BisexualCommunity #BiVisibilityDay2023 #LoveIsLove #UnityInDiversity #CelebrateEveryShade

Carl Van Vechten, Bisexual Many historical figures who have been routinely labeled as “gay” were actually bisexual, but the context or agenda of the writer encouraged the foregrounding of the gay identity. This is absolutely the case with Carl Van Vechten, the most prominent white participant and promoter of the Harlem Renaissance. Although “Carlo,” as his friends called him, pursued a string of short-lived and longer liaisons with men (no Blacks, interestingly enough) all of his adult life. He was also married all of his adult life, not once but twice. His marriage to actress Fania Marinoff lasted from 1914 to his death in 1964, and there was obviously passion at its base. Fania tolerated her husband’s affairs with men, but the marriage was a sometimes turbulent journey plagued by fighting, alcoholism on both parts, and even physical violence. When Fania occasionally left or threatened to leave, a distraught Carl begged her to return. The character of Carl Van Vechten figures prominently in our short “Bessie Shows Her Ass,” currently in development. Stay tuned for further details – and an opportunity to contribute to its production costs. . . . . . . . #CarlVanVechten #BisexualHistory #HarlemRenaissance #QueerHistory #BisexualRepresentation #HistoricalFigures #BisexualVisibility

September 18th is National HIV and Aging Day, we pause to acknowledge the resilience and strength of those living with HIV, especially our elders who've been at the forefront of this journey. As the years have passed, the narrative around HIV and the stories of those who live with it have evolved. Aging with HIV presents its own unique challenges, but it's also a testament to the advancements in care, the power of community, and the indomitable spirit of those affected. Let's continue to support, uplift, and honor the experiences of our older HIV community members. Their stories are a beacon of hope, a reminder of our shared history, and an inspiration for the future. Having just completed an AIDS narrative that takes place in 1993, before the advent of antiretrovirals that turned what was once a death sentence into a "manageable disease," Shoga is all too familiar with the paradox of aging for a generation of LGBTQ folks who never thought they'd live that long. Look for "The Knowing" when it's released to the public. . . . . . #HIVandAging #NationalHIVandAgingDay #Resilience #Strength #HIVCommunity #Elders #AdvancementsInCare #PowerOfCommunity #SharedHistory #BeaconOfHope

Happy 5784 You won’t hear this a capella version of Rosh Hashanah in a synagogue, but you’ll wish you had. Tonight we enter the High Holy Days, beginning with the celebration of the Jewish New Year (the first two days of the seventh month, Tishrei 1 and 2 ) on the Jewish calendar. Yes, 5784 years ago, Jehovah created Adam and Eve — we have it on Good Authority! The lyrics of Six13’s spot-on recreation of the Chicago hit, “25 or 6 to 4,”  refers to the sweetness of the holiday, apples dipped in honey. And the Holy Days begin with a blast of the shofar, a ram’s horn. (Blowing into a whisky jug is not an acceptable substitute.) Rosh Hashanah is a time of celebration, but it wouldn’t be Jewish without a dollop of guilt, a slice of repentance, and the endless feast of prayers to our jealous and demanding G-D. In 10 days’ time — Yom Kippur.  L’Shana tova to Jews and Gentiles alike. . . . . . #RoshHashanah #JewishNewYear #5784 #HighHolyDays #Tishrei #Shofar #LShanaTova #Jewish

Happy Birthday, Alain Locke Today, September 13, we celebrate the birthday of Alain Locke, born in 1885! Locke was the first African American Rhodes scholar and an influential professor of philosophy who spent most of his academic career at Howard University. In 1925 he edited The New Negro, introducing the writers of the Harlem Renaissance to the literary scene. Though closeted himself, Locke introduced homosexuality as a Grecian ideal to a number of his students. He helped Countee Cullen, among others, accept his sexual orientation and acted as an emotional advisor. Click on our linktree to read our blog, “Gay Dean of the Harlem Renaissance." . . . . . . #HappyBirthdayAlainLocke #AlainLockeBirthday #1885Birth #AfricanAmericanScholar #RhodesScholar #HarlemRenaissance #HowardUniversity #TheNewNegro #LGBTQHistory #Harlem

Researching the Federal Theatre Project Dr. Philipson is in DC to research The Federal Theatre Project as part of the development of Shoga’s new documentary, “Body and Soul: The Hollywood Left.” The Federal Theatre Project was established in 1935 during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs. It was created not as a cultural activity but as a relief measure to employ artists, writers, directors, and theater workers. National director Hallie Flanagan shaped the FTP into a federation of regional theaters that created relevant art, encouraged experimentation in new forms and techniques, and made it possible for millions of Americans to see live theater for the first time. Although The Federal Theatre project consumed only 0.5% of the budget from the WPA and was widely considered a commercial and critical success, Republicans and Dixiecrats hated the project because of its leftwing orientation and integration of productions and audiences. Using accusations of Communist infiltration, Congress succeeded in canceling its funding in 1939. One of these integrated productions was a staging of Marlowe’s “Dr. Faustus,” directed by and starring Orson Welles and featuring the famous African American actor, Rex Ingram (pictured here with The Seven Deadly Sins), as Mephistopheles. . . . . . . #FederalTheatreProject #Research #Documentary #HollywoodLeft #NewDeal #HallieFlanagan #DrFaustus #OrsonWelles #RexIngram #TheaterHistory

Philipson in the Peace Corps Every two years, the cohort of Peace Corps Volunteers who served in the Central African Republic in the 70s and 80s have a reunion to share a special set of memories that only we know about and to raise money for Water for Good, the one NGO that still finds a way to operate in that war-torn country. Somebody volunteers to host the gathering – usually around 35 people – so it moves around every two years. This year, and right now, we’re having our reunion in Deep Creek, Maryland. It’s remarkable how deeply affected we all were by our Peace Corps service. It was a long time ago, and yet the memories are fresh and the stories still worth telling. It was my first time living in a Black country. I was 24 and remarkably naive – didn’t even know about white privilege. I found out soon enough. The C.A.R. was ruled at the time by a half-demented dictator, but we were protected from his whims by our Peace Corps status. Sadly the reign of Emperor Bokassa was the last period of stability in the country’s history. It is now a bleeding corpse, rented by the Wagner group and sectarian violence. If you’re interested in my take on what went so drastically wrong, you can read my blog, “The Central African Republic: Requiem For A Failed Nation.” . . . . . . . #PeaceCorps #CentralAfricanRepublic #VolunteerLife #Reunion #Memories #WaterforGood #DeepCreek #Maryland #ServiceAbroad #NGO

September newsletter drops Our September newsletter drops today, and, September being the month of the High Holy Days, we’re pivoting towards our Jewish content – but with a queer twist. The blog briefly examines the accursed status of homosexuality within traditional Judaism. On a more positive note, our Song of the Month is “Diva” performed by the famous Israeli trans woman Dana International. We also give a shout-out to Shahar Zahav, San Francisco’s LGBTQ synagogue. . . . . . . . #SeptemberNewsletter #HighHolyDays #JewishContent #QueerTwist #TraditionalJudaism #Diva #LGBTQSynagogue #DanaInternational #ShaharZahav

Queer Judaism 2: Trembling Before G*D Trembling Before G-d is a 2001 American documentary film about gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews trying to reconcile their sexuality with their faith. It was directed by Sandi Simcha DuBowski, an American who wanted to compare Orthodox Jewish attitudes to homosexuality with his own upbringing as a gay Conservative Jew. The film received ten award nominations, winning seven, including Best Documentary awards at the 2001 Berlin and Chicago film festivals. Shoga Films is proud to announce that the film’s consulting producer, Marc Smolowitz of 13th Gen Films, has also worked in a similar capacity for all of Shoga’s narrative shorts. . . . . . . #QueerJudaism #TremblingBeforeGOD #LGBTQ+ #OrthodoxJews #SexualityAndFaith #DocumentaryFilm #AwardWinning #ShogaFilms #MarcSmolowitz

Queer Judaism 1 Eyes Wide Open is a 2009 Israeli film, widely acclaimed internationally, which competed in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival in the category "Un Certain Regard.” In an ultra orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem, two devout Jews meet and fall in love. Their passion is so visible that the community steps in and ensures that the two lovers will be separated. The first-time Israeli feature-length narrative director, Haim Tabakman, was only thirty-four when he made the film, but given its groundbreaking subject matter, probably only someone of the younger generation would have attempted it. The film was certainly an outlier in its frank and sympathetic depiction of gay desire amongst the Heradi, although it was joined in 2017 by Disobedience, an American film which performed the same service for the lesbian love amongst the Orthodox. . . . . . . #QueerJudaism #EyesWideOpen #IsraeliFilm #UnCertainRegard #LGBTQ+ #LoveIsLove #BreakingBarriers #FilmFestival #InclusiveStorytelling #CulturalDiversity

Benny Goodman Trio Breaks Color Line Jazz bandleader Benny Goodman (“The King of Swing”) has gone down in history as an early promoter of integrated public performances when he hired pianist Teddy Wilson and vibraphonist Lionel Hampton into his orchestra in the mid-1930s. As this excerpt from our documentary “Body and Soul: An American Bridge” reveals, he was not enthusiastic about the idea when it was first presented to him. As concert promoter Helen Oakley says, “Benny said, ‘I can’t present a Black musician in a white band. People would be upset and wouldn’t know what to think. Benny felt they were asking him to risk everything.” Quickly after the success of this social experiment, however, Goodman became a staunch advocate of integration. Goodman hired the artists he wanted to work with and if they were Black, he wouldn’t let institutional racism stop him. As he put it, “I’m selling music, not prejudice.” For the first time in several years, the doc is available for streaming to the general public on Vimeo. Follow the link to the film page on our website to read more about it or go directly to the film’s Vimeo On Demand page. . . . . . . #BennyGoodman #TheKingofSwing #IntegrationInMusic #BodyAndSoul #AmericanBridge #JazzHistory #MusicLegends #VimeoStreaming #VimeoOnDemand #Documentary

Benny Goodman Trio Plays “Body and Soul” Author David Lehman and musician Karlton Hester both comment on the groundbreaking performance of “Body and Soul” in 1935 which revealed the song as a swing classic. Their version was so widely admired that it led to Goodman playing with Black pianist Teddy Wilson during a concert, thus breaking the color barrier in jazz performance. This excerpt from our documentary “Body and Soul: An American Bridge” gives only a taste of the song’s excellence and the fine collaboration of Goodman, Wilson, and drummer Gene Krupa, who made up The Benny Goodman Trio. Also, in the film Goodman’s biographer Ross Firestone declares, “Goodman said that “Body and Soul” and “After You’ve Gone” (also recorded during the same session) were two of the finest sides he ever recorded, and I believe he’s right.” For the first time in several years, the doc is available for streaming to the general public on Vimeo. Follow the link to the film page on our website to read more about it or go directly to the film’s Vimeo On Demand page. . . . . . . #BennyGoodmanTrio #BodyAndSoul #SwingClassic #MusicHistory #JazzPerformance #ColorBarrier #AmericanBridge #DocumentaryFilm

New Shoga Speaks Podcast Is An Interview About “Body and Soul: An American Bridge” When “Body and Soul: An American Bridge” was selected to be the closing night film for the San Diego Jewish Film Festival, it screened to an audience of nearly 1,000 spectators in four theaters simultaneously. To mark that occasion, Dave Drexler of the San Diego jazz station 88.3 interviewed Dr. Philipson, director of the documentary, about the content of the film and the lessons learned during its production. The interview was turned into a Shoga Speaks podcast and dropped earlier this month. Follow our linktree to Spotify to listen to that episode or follow Shoga Speaks wherever you listen to your podcasts. . . . . . . #ShogaSpeaks #NewPodcast #BodyandSoul #AmericanBridge #JazzMusic #DocumentaryFilm #InterviewEpisode #Spotify

Louis Armstrong’s Jewish Connection Louis Armstrong wore a Star of David for much of his adult life. The story is that he was grateful to the Karnovskys, a family of immigrant Jews from Eastern Europe who provided him with work and sometimes kindness and a family meal when he was an impoverished child in New Orleans. In some unfinished autobiographical writing, he spoke of the Karnovskys affectionately, misremembering the song he thought they sang around the dinner table as “A Russian Lullaby.” It was actually written by Irving Berlin in 1927. In our documentary, “Body and Soul: An American Bridge,” we place Armstrong’s text against footage of a Polish shtetl in the 1930s with the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald crooning the Berlin song on the soundtrack. For the first time in several years, the doc is available for streaming to the general public on Vimeo. Follow the link to the film page on our website to read more about it or go directly to the film’s Vimeo On Demand page. . . . . . #LouisArmstrong #JewishConnection #Karnovskys #EasternEurope #NewOrleans #ImmigrantJews #IrvingBerlin #RussianLullaby #BodyandSoul #AmericanBridge

Louis Armstrong Records “Body and Soul” Louis Armstrong began recording jazz versions of popular songs at the behest of his white manager, who wanted to see him crossover to a wider audience than just African Americans or jazz aficionados. He took to it and recorded “Body and Soul” in 1930, not long after its composition. Although the Armstrong version introduced the song to the jazz repertoire and has withstood the test of time, the most popular of the early recordings, at least in the U.S. was that of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra. (You may cringe here.) In this excerpt from “Body and Soul: An American Bridge,” jazz bassist legend Richard Davis lauds the originality not so much of Armstrong’s playing (he’d already established his towering mastery in his Hot 5 and Hot 7 recordings of the 1920s), but of his singing, virtually inventing jazz phrasing for the voice. For the first time in several years, the doc is available for streaming to the general public on Vimeo. Follow the link to the film page on our website to read more about it or go directly to the film’s Vimeo On Demand page. . . . . . . #LouisArmstrong #BodyAndSoul #JazzMusic #MusicHistory #AmericanBridge #RichardDavis #DocumentaryFilm

Libby Holman Sings “Body and Soul” Part of what boosted the popularity of “Body and Soul” shortly after it was composed was its interpolation into a successful Broadway revue, “Three’s A Crowd,” in 1930. Libby Holman, a famous torch singer of the time, was given the song, and after some initial hesitation about how to deliver it, arranger Ralph Rainger came up with a torchy version that played upon Holman’s exaggerated sensuality. This clip from our recently re-released documentary, “Body and Soul: An American Bridge,” tells the story. For the first time in several years, the doc is available for streaming to the general public on Vimeo. Follow the link to the film page on our website to read more about it or go directly to the film’s Vimeo On Demand page. . . . . . . #LibbyHolman #BodyandSoul #TorchSinger #Broadway #ThreesACrowd #RalphRainger #Documentary #AmericanBridge #StreamingNow #VimeoOnDemand

Happy Birthday, Wallace Thurman Shoga wishes a posthumous happy birthday to Wallace Thurman, born August 16 in 1902. Thurman was an interesting writer of minor talent but a major player in the Queer Harlem Renaissance, the aspect of his life and work we celebrate. A self-hating homosexual who drank himself to death at the age of 32, he nonetheless made significant contributions, including the novel, Infants of the Spring, describing life at Niggerati Manor and editing the one and only edition of the arts journal, Fire!!, which brought Nugent’s prose poem “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” into the world. This clip from “Brother to Brother” depicts a meeting of the editorial board (Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, and Richard Bruce Nugent) at the Manor in which Thurman (played by Ray Ford) introduces the literary conflagration of “respectable” Negro writing that he hoped Fire!! would destroy. His ally here – of the “whores and queers” line – is Nugent (Duane Boutté). The first part of the clip introducing Thurman comes from our short, “Mood Lavender: A Prospectus.” Follow the link in our linktree to watch this fascinating aerial view of the Queer Harlem Renaissance. . . . . . #HappyBirthdayWallaceThurman #QueerHarlemRenaissance #MinorTalentMajorPlayer #InfantsOfTheSpring #NiggeratiManor #FireJournal #LiteraryConflagration

“Body and Soul: An American Bridge” Released to the General Public Today What is the story behind this studio publicity shot of composer Johnny Green and an unidentified Black actor (I assume) dressed as a waiter? I have no idea, but one can endlessly speculate. Anyway, it is as good a visual representation as any of the theme of our documentary, “Body and Soul: An American Bridge,” which illustrates the various aspects of Black-Jewish interrelations in American popular music. Big topic encapsulated within the early formance history of this jazz standard composed by Johnny Green. The doc did the film festival circuit 2017 - 2018 where it played in such relatively prestigious venues as the Atlanta Jewish FF, the American Documentary FF, and the Piccolo Spoletto festival. We put it on Vimeo for a while, then pulled it to make some revisions and to correct a few mistakes which we won’t tell you about. 😁 Anyway, IT’S BACK!, available for streaming on Vimeo On Demand. Follow the link in our linktree to go to the website page on the film. From there you can click on a “View Now” button that takes you to the VOD page. . . . . . . #BodyandSoul #AmericanBridge #DocumentaryFilm #BlackJewishRelations #MusicHistory #JohnnyGreen #VimeoOnDemand

Happy Birthday, Gladys Bentley Tomorrow, August 12, marks the birthday of Gladys Bentley, a major figure of the Queer Harlem Renaissance. It seems clear that musician and nightclub performer Bentley was born and had to live in the wrong gender all of her life. She pioneered a publicly male persona, wearing men’s tuxedos on stage, flirting with the women in her audience, and even claiming to have married a white woman in New Jersey. Because she was genuinely talented and a novelty as an out and unapologetic masculine-presenting lesbian (“bulldyker” was the Harlem slang for it), her career flourished in the 1920s and into the 30s. However, the increasing conservatism and homophobia of America in the 40s and 50s slowly foreclosed her performing career and eventually forced her to repudiate the persona that had made her famous. She died in 1960 forgotten and obscure. Until she was rediscovered by mainstream media looking to burnish their LGBT credentials. In 2019 the New York Times belatedly published her obituary in a series called “Overlooked.” A year later, PBS American Masters devoted a 12-minute biography to her as part of their “Unladylike” series. But let us boast. Our documentary, “T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: Queer Blues Divas of the 1920s,” was the first, back in 2010, to devote any screen time to this now-acknowledged lesbian trailblazer. You’re welcome. Rent or download “T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness” by clicking on the link. https://www.shogafilms.com/taint-nobodys-business . . . . . #HappyBirthdayGladysBentley #QueerHarlemRenaissance #LGBTQTrailblazer #GladysBentley #UnapologeticLesbian #Bulldyker

The Bridge of “Body and Soul” “Body and Soul” was a uniquely challenging popular song when Johnny Green composed it in 1930. The chords change every two beats and move through many tonal centers. Also it contains both diatonic and chromatic chordal movement. Although the lyrics are passionate and the tune itself is flowingly beautiful, the bridge in its originality and complexity was absolutely stunning. It modulated up a half key, a unique move then, and by the time the bridge had gone through its own chord progressions, Green had to innovate a series of chromatic changes to get back to the original key of the verse. To quote Johnny Green’s daughter, Babbie, “By the time jazz musicians got their hands on it, they were gone!” This excerpt from our documentary, “Body and Soul: An American Bridge,” presents the importance of this musical structure. Our documentary, which has been out of circulation for a couple of years now, will be re-released for streaming on Vimeo next Monday. Follow the link to the film page on our website to read more about it. As of Monday, you can also rent it through Vimeo on Demand. https://www.shogafilms.com/body-soul . . . . . . #BodyAndSoul #musichistory #jazzmusicians #musicdocumentary #AmericanBridge #JohnnyGreen #chordprogressions #Vimeo #streaming #musicfilm