10 Must-Read Books Celebrating the Black LGBT Community

Commemorate LGBT Pride Month 2015 with these classics.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez - In The Gilda Stories, author Jewelle Gomez reframes the traditional vampire mythology through a lesbian feminist lens. Over a 200-year period spanning from 1850 to 2050, protagonist Gilda witnesses the evils of slavery and racism in North and South America as she struggles to fit into various communities. Fans of Octavia Butler's work would definitely approve!(Photo: Firebrand Books)
Queer Pollen: White Seduction, Black Male Homosexuality, and the Cinematic (New Black Studies Series) by David A. Gerstner - If you're a big non-fiction fan, then make sure to add Queer Pollen to your summer reading list. The award-winning book explores the unique ways in which three notable twentieth century artists — painter and writer Richard Bruce Nugent, author James Baldwin and filmmaker Marlon Riggs — used various media to digest their experiences living as queer Black men.(Photo: University of Illinois Press)
The Color Purple by Alice Walker - Cliché or not, Alice Walker's National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, deserves to be on any and every reading list, especially those with an LGBT focus. The landmark novel tells the story of Celie, a southern Black woman who suffers a lifetime of abuse from her father and, later, her husband before meeting Shug, a sultry, confident blues singer whose sisterhood helps Celie to come into her own.(Photo: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich)
Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual African American Fiction by Don Weise - Considered the most comprehensive collection of fiction by African-American lesbian, gay and bisexual writers ever published, the award-winning Black Like Us showcases the work of literary giants like Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker and many more. This is definitely a must-have fiction anthology for your library!(Photo: Cleis Press)Zami: A New Spelling of My Name – A Biomythography (Crossing Press Feminist Series) by Audre Lorde - Award-winning writer and activist Audre Lorde's ZAMI beautifully details her early life as a struggling Black lesbian in New York City and spotlights the women who shaped her life, romantically and platonically. "Every woman I have ever loved has left her print upon me," she writes.(Photo: Crossing Press)

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Queer Pollen: White Seduction, Black Male Homosexuality, and the Cinematic (New Black Studies Series) by David A. Gerstner - If you're a big non-fiction fan, then make sure to add Queer Pollen to your summer reading list. The award-winning book explores the unique ways in which three notable twentieth century artists — painter and writer Richard Bruce Nugent, author James Baldwin and filmmaker Marlon Riggs — used various media to digest their experiences living as queer Black men. (Photo: University of Illinois Press)

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