Essex Hemphill

Between 2014 and 2017, McClodden revived the work of deceased Black queer artists who were active during the 1980s AIDS epidemic, including the poet and activist Essex Hemphill. Here, McClodden remakes a scene from Marlon Riggs’s essay-film Tongues Untied (1989), in which Hemphill recites a passage from writer Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984). McClodden describes the video as “a portrait of self-contained conflict and rage,” with Hemphill gazing directly into the camera. Conceived as a “duet” between Hemphill and Lorde, it also underscores Hemphill’s commitment to Black feminist thought, highlighting the transfer of language and influence from one poet-activist to another. [Overview Courtesy of MoMA]

African-American documentary filmmaker Marlon Riggs was working on this final film as he died from AIDS-related complications in 1994; he addresses the camera from his hospital bed in several scenes. The film directly addresses sexism and homophobia within the black community, with snippets of misogynistic and anti-gay slurs from popular hip-hop songs juxtaposed with interviews with African-American intellectuals and political theorists, including Cornel West, bell hooks and Angela Davis.

A collage of erotic images and a call to arms, with a feverish hip-hop energy that celebrates the lives of African American men.

A look at what it's like to be gay and black in America.

Imagens de performances, cenas chocantes, entrevistas sérias, críticas mordazes à homofobia em filmes negros, pessoas em close recitando poesia ou simplesemente contando suas vidas, formando um retrato de energia inesgotável tanto dos negros quanto dos homossexuais.

Imagens de performances, cenas chocantes, entrevistas sérias, críticas mordazes à homofobia em filmes negros, pessoas em close recitando poesia ou simplesemente contando suas vidas, formando um retrato de energia inesgotável tanto dos negros quanto dos homossexuais.