Looking back on 30 years of “B-Boy Blues”

Before “B-Boy Blues,” there was an admirer of “The Color Purple” who was so turned off by a AmNews Reader’s misogynistic criticism of the film after its release in 1985, he responded to in a letter to the editor. A few months later, the author of the letter became AmNews contributor, expanding the letter into a full-fledged commentary reminding black consumers of film and television that there is more than one way to tell a black story – and gaining his first published byline in the process.

“THE AmNews it was the only newspaper I bought; I looked forward to it every Thursday,” says James Earl Hardy, writer, commentator and future author of “Blues,” a true classic of black gay literature. “I loved the way the paper covered We and I didn’t apologize for it, so seeing my signature was a big business for me, as well as for my family. I felt like I had arrived as a writer, both professionally and culturally.

Hardy grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a block from where Spike Lee filmed “Do the Right Thing,” but he has lived in Kips Bay for 30 years. He wrote for several publications and released book after book over time, but earned a permanent place on library shelves with his debut album: “B-Boy Blues,” first released in 1994, which is considered as the first black-centered hip-hop love story. gay characters.

It hit like a hurricane with young black gay readers at the time; 30 years later, it still finds its place in the hearts of generations of readers who have succeeded it.

“At the time, I received handwritten letters sent in envelopes stamped with Ella Fitzgerald and MLK; today it’s social media posts and DMs,” he said.

Not that it’s easy. The 1990s were a difficult time for black authors; Alice Walker, author of “Purple,” publicly criticized Terry McMillan after the success of “Waiting to Exhale,” dividing black readers between more literary works aligned with the former and the rush toward contemporary storytelling associated with the latter that came to dominate. the decade. Hardy entered the sphere and would become one of the most visible gay authors of the era.

“You were expected to walk through a door: Black Or gay – and the novel unapologetically embraced and celebrated both,” he said. “For them, as for the rest of society, “gay” was a white thing while “black” was specifically seen through the prism of heterosexuality. “B-Boy” was too gay for some straight people, too black for some white people, just like fake a little gay for some white gays and fake a kind of Black for some black straight people.

Hardy added that “the question was always, ‘Who’s going to read a book that’s black on black?’ homosexual love story?’ Turns out the answer was everyone. I knew something special, something transcendent was happening when I was traveling in Brooklyn and there were sisters reading “B-Boy” on the A train. Lots of people who aren’t black and/or gay and /or males told me that they had put 50, 60 pages into the novel and had completely forgotten that it was about two men.

“Blues” became a series written by Hardy, a film adaptation that debuted on BET+ in 2021 and an off-Broadway stage adaptation in 2022.

The representation of black gay men in the media is having a bit of a moment, but is far from saturated. As “Blues” marks 30 years of lifespan, few black gay authors have been featured alongside Hardy in the same period.

“We’ve definitely evolved since the ‘Invisible Men’ days of the ’90s; it was really a wasteland back then,” he said, referring to his counterpart E. Lynn Harris, now deceased, and Harris’ first novel, “Invisible Life.”

“Today, we are more present in corporate entertainment, but too often we are the sidekicks, or even the outright accomplices, of a heterosexual woman. I want to see ourselves at the center of our own narratives, where we are not only featured but represented.

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