Epistolary Lives: Letters Written by Black Gays and Lesbians

“Even tho (sic) I felt energized I also felt adrift, as if the past had not happened, and black lesbians and gays weren’t supposed to be connected to any of the movement that had gone before.” —Letter from Jewelle Gomez to Cheryl Clarke, July 29, 1996

Steven G. Fullwood, our in-house Curator of the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, discusses below the importance of handwritten letters, an intimate component of our newest exhibition, Curators' Choice: Black Life Matters. 

"This intimate exhibition aims to introduce visitors to the art of letters, their uniqueness as historical documents, and the stories they reveal. The epistolary form  intrigues, delights, and immerses readers in the radical act of creating narrative. Ten  handwritten, typed, and computer-generated letters from the late 1950s through  2004 tell stories of family, love, culture and history, visibility, identity, and gossip.

Written by notable black lesbians and gays, including James Baldwin, Jewelle Gomez, Lorraine Hansberry, Essex Hemphill, and Assoto Saint, these letters act as time capsules and capture their often understudied lives as poets, playwrights, editors, fictionists, and publishers. These writers and thinkers knew each other, were friends, lovers, and supporters of each otherʼs work. Together they tell us about what it was like as a black lesbian or gay man struggling for visibility, meaning, and justice in a racist, homophobic, and classist culture.

In an era where e-mails and texts are created in an instant in the palms of our hands, the handwritten or typed letter has become an almost forgotten art. This exhibition has been curated with an appreciation for letters and the intimate glimpses they offer into relationships, the writersʼ lives, and the emotions they experienced in a given historical moment, insights typically obscured in the writersʼ published works. From these letters, we can only attempt to understand and discover what the writer was passionate about or when they sought guidance or recounted a painful moment. We are peeking in on a private exchange not meant for our eyes."