Essex Hemphill | Author

About the Author

One of the most important new voices on the gay literary scene, Hemphill has published poetry in several anthologies and essays in the gay press, most of which have been collected in his three books. The merits of his work have been rewarded with several fellowships, including one from the National show more Endowment for the Arts. Hemphill has also been involved in the production of three gay African American films: Looking for Langston, which is about Langston Hughes; Tongues Untied, a celebration of African American gay identity; and Out of the Shadows, an AIDS documentary. Hemphill says that his work has been informed by his efforts to "integrate all of my identities into a functioning self" and to "articulate and politicize my sexuality" (Ceremonies 53). As he makes clear, it is not easy to accomplish this in a racist and homophobic society. He deplores the racism that he finds in the gay community, in particular the sexual objectification of black men by white men, which he argues characterizes the art of the celebrated photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. He is equally critical of the sexism and homophobia of the African American community, which he believes informs the rhetoric of the key movement, Black Nationalism. But Hemphill also celebrates his sexual and racial identities, affirming his participation in both the gay and black communities even as he critiques them and American society at large, whose prejudices they sometimes share. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: Essex ed. Hemphill, Essex Hemphill, editor, Essex Hemphill - Various

Works by Essex Hemphill

Popular Recent

Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men (1991) — Editor; Contributor — 176 copies

Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (1782) 143 copies

Conditions: Poems (1986) 8 copies

Earth Life (1988) 5 copies

Ceremonies by Essex Hemphill (5-Jan-2001) Paperback 4 copies

Standing in the Gap (1999) 1 copy

Standards: An International Journal of Multicultural Studies 1 copy

James White Review (Volume 1, Number 4) "Inside All the Gay Pride" 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Boys Like Us: Gay Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories (1996) — Contributor — 396 copies

Growing Up Gay/Growing Up Lesbian: A Literary Anthology (1993) — Contributor — 285 copies

Hometowns: Gay Men Write About Where They Belong (1991) — Contributor — 252 copies

Gay and Lesbian Poetry in Our Time (Stonewall Inn Editions) (1836) — Contributor — 179 copies

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (2020) — Contributor — 174 copies

Erotique Noire/Black Erotica (1991) — Contributor — 158 copies

The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature (1998) — Contributor — 158 copies

In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology (1986) — Contributor — 143 copies

Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (1995) — Contributor — 91 copies

Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color (2018) — Contributor — 87 copies

Freedom in this Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men's Writing (2005) — Contributor — 82 copies

The Columbia Reader on Lesbians & Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics (1999) — Contributor — 79 copies

Lavender Mansions: 40 Contemporary Lesbian and Gay Short Stories (1994) — Contributor — 76 copies

The Name of Love: Classic Gay Love Poems (1995) — Contributor — 50 copies

Fighting words : personal essays by black gay men (1999) — Contributor — 40 copies

I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love (1994) — Contributor — 33 copies

Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS (2010) — Contributor — 32 copies

Tongues Untied (Gay Verse) (1987) — Contributor — 23 copies

OutWrite: The Speeches that Shaped LGBTQ Literary Culture (2022) — Contributor — 19 copies

Andy Warhol - Love, sex, and desire : drawings, 1950-1962 (2020) — Poet — 11 copies

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Common Knowledge

Legal name: Hemphill, Essex Charles
Birthdate: 1957-04-16
Date of death: 1995-11-04
Burial location: Cremated
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Place of death: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Places of residence: New York, New York, USA
Washington, D.C., USA
Education: University of Maryland
Occupations: poet
gay rights activist
AIDS activist
performance artist
Awards and honors: Lambda Literary Award

Members

Reviews

Ceremonies : prose and poetry by Essex Hemphill

Since I'm reading this as part of my New Year's Resolution to by-God read more books that are explicitly about race, I am specially noticing the parts I don't understand here. This is opaque to me; Hemphill's experience is so foreign that I am struggling to understand the emotional landscape here. Which is my flaw and not Hemphill's.

That said, I can judge the introduction: it's not very good. It's rambling, unorganized, and too long; it didn't add anything to my experience of reading the actual text, I think.

The combination of prose and poetry in the same volume was a struggle for me, although Hemphill can certainly write both. I liked the essays better than the poetry, by and large, but that is probably because I couldn't enter into the poems with the confidence I could the essays. "Voices" is a fabulous piece, the essay criticizing Mapplethorpe rocks, and "Ceremonies" is chilling in its description of the sexual culture in which Hemphill came to adulthood.… (more)

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cricketbats | Mar 30, 2013 |

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