The podcast bringing to life an archive of Black queer Britain
‘Black queer people fall between the cracks,’ activist and podcaster Marc Thompson tells Metro.co.uk.
His words ring true for many Black people in the LGBTQ+ community, as Black queer history in Britain can be hard to find.
During Black History month, the stories amplified usually focus on straight people, while, when it comes to LGBT+ history, those accounts tend to come from those who are often white. Which means there’s little space left for stories about Black queer people. ‘Our stories usually aren’t recognised in any one of those,’ adds Thompson.
However, with so many remarkable people to have changed the face of Black queer Britain, he says it’s viral they don’t go unhonoured.
‘We don’t really celebrate what I like to call the extra-ordinary people,’ explains Thompson, who also works as a mentor. ‘The people who made our lives really special, who by just simply existing got us to where we are today.’
Determined to change that, he joined forces with journalist and writer Jason Okundaye to create Black and Gay, Back in the Day, a digital community archive of Black queer history curated by the pair.
Their aim was to challenge the dominate narratives of both Black and LGBT+ history, by documenting the stories over the decades of queer Black Britain through photos submitted by the community.
Launched in February 2021, Instagram became the perfect space for the conversation to begin, and the account was an instant success.
Many young Black people, were able to really engage with the people, places and stories coming through in the photos, with many, myself included, rarely having had access to such a plethora of images of older Black queer people in Britain.
It also impacted the older generation who were able to memorialise lost friends, reminiscence and reconnect with others and share their stories.
Now, in an exciting next step, the photos are being brought to life in a different way through an ambitious podcast series.
Allowing the images to be explored in more depth, the podcast ‘gives us an opportunity to delve deeper into a lot of the stories and to think a bit more deeply about the scenes,’ explains Thompson.
Each episode will reflect on an image from the archive, featuring an intergenerational conversation, exploring what it was like to be Black and gay in the UK during the time the picture was taken. Comparing and contrasting the past and the present and exploring themes such as love, community and activism.
As someone who is constantly searching for Black queer history, I was really excited to be asked to work on the podcast as an Assistant Producer.
In many instances when we learn about historical figures, we might discover what they did but we rarely get to know who they were, which is something Thompson hopes the podcast will be able to change. ‘We delve deep into the individual’s lives, and people get to know these older people on a really personal level,’ he explains.
As a young Black lesbian, I cherish any opportunity to speak to older Black people from the LGBTQ+ community, because for so long I didn’t know that there was such a rich Black queer history in the UK.
I didn’t know about all the Black queer movements that were happening across the UK. I certainly didn’t expect to find it in the areas of London I grew up in, on the streets I would walk to school and round the corner from where I went to get my hair done.
For episode one of Black and Gay, Back in the Day, I got the opportunity to speak to Ted Brown, a writer and lifelong activist.
Ted isn’t shy of accolades – he was heavily involved in the UK branch of the Gay Liberation Front, and helped to set up the Black Lesbians and Gays Against Media Homophobia (BLAGAMH), who were instrumental in leading the campaign addressing homophobia in the media and the horrific treatment towards the first openly gay footballer Justin Fashanu.
The photograph we reflect on during his episode features Brown in the early 1970s, straddling a bicycle with a copy of Gay News, the paper he was writing for at the time, strapped on the back. Gay News launched in 1972 and was the first independent newspaper for gay men and lesbians.
In preparation for my chat with Ted I went to the BishopsGate Institute, home to one of the most extensive collections on LGBTQ+ history, politics and culture in the UK, to see if I could find a copy of that paper.
I met Brown at Housman’s bookshop, a radical place and the epicentre of so many important political causes like the lesbian and gay movement, the UK branch of the Gay Liberation Front and the women’s movement.
The photograph was the perfect starting point to unpack Brown’s story. I really wanted to understand what it was like for a gay Black man in Britain during the 1970s in a world that, according to Brown, described homosexuality ‘as a mental illness, perversion or immoral, if it was mentioned at all.’
It was against this backdrop, that Brown came out to his mother, after struggling to cope when a close friend of his, who he suspected might be gay, took his own life. Like most people coming out, he was worried about his mother’s reaction.
But Brown’s mum was heavily involved in the American civil rights movement when they lived in the US before emigrating to the UK, so was no stranger to the work of gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin.
Having heard Rustin’s inspiring speeches about the plight of the Black gay community, her main concern was how difficult life would be for her son.
However, Ted was determined to make a difference to the media landscape despite sometimes feeling patronised by his white colleagues. Encouraged by his mother’s activism, he worked hard to highlight that the gay community doesn’t begin and end with white gay men.
As a lesbian journalist, I was also really interested in what it was like to work at an LGBTQ+ publication, and the battles Brown faced.
When I was searching through the Gay News archives, it struck me how much of the content was focused on men even though it was a magazine for queer people.
Brown echoes this: ‘Most of my writing was trying to make sure they introduced more women, because it was totally male,’ he explained during our conversation.
As someone who has had to fight to include stories about lesbians and the Black queer community countless times during my career, it saddens me that this is a still the case with a lot of LGBTQ+ publications today, unless they are specifically aimed at queer women.
What strikes me most though, through my chat with Brown and the other conversations throughout the series, is that the realities for most Black LGBTQ+ people in the UK isn’t that different from in the 70s, 80’s and 90s.
As Thompson explains: ‘Sometimes it can be quite sad when you hear about the racism or the sexism we face today, because things are going on and probably will go on to another generation.’
But what is great about talking to people with whom you have a shared understanding, Thompson points out, is that ‘it helps you to understand some of the tools and skills that you might need to develop to help you go through that.’
Season one of Black and Gay, Back in the Day features loads of thought provoking conversations from a variety of members from the Black British queer community, including multidisciplinary artist Jacob V Joyce, artist, curator, archivist and activist Ajamu X. Lesbian activist and founder of Challenge Consultancy Femi Otitoju, Asexuality activist and influencer Yasmin Benoit, and Chantelle Ayanna a DJ and music producer.
To Thompson, the episodes feel like the older generation passing the baton to a younger on, in a bid to carry on their work. ‘It really enables you to understand that you come from a very, very rich history that teaches you lessons and enables you to go forward,’ he reflects.
Being part of the podcast also inspired me to think about the ways in which I’m archiving the world around me.
As for Thompson one key piece of advice that he wants to give to Black queer people today is to ‘Archive, archive, archive!’
He adds: ‘Keep a journal, keep your mementos from things that you’ve been to, or events you attended. Put it all down on paper, because in 15-20 years, it’s going to be really valuable to you and for the people around you.’
Ultimately, Thompson says, ‘I hope that it sparks people’s curiosity, to go and learn more about the individuals featured, but also to discover more about the really rich tapestry that has gone before and to hopefully continue to add to it for future generations.’
You can listen to Abi’s conversation with Ted Brown here and subscribe to Black and Gay, Back in the Day wherever you get your podcasts.
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Black History Month
October marks Black History Month, which reflects on the achievements, cultures and contributions of Black people in the UK and across the globe, as well as educating others about the diverse history of those from African and Caribbean descent.
For more information about the events and celebrations that are taking place this year, visit the official Black History Month website.
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