NUBIAN KNIGHTS NETWORK: I LOVE THESE ADS!GOSH, THEY ARE SO SAME GENDER LOVING AFFIRMING

QUOTATIONS OF "BLACK"

"Whenever I use BLACK it relates to some history of Africans in that particular place. It’s the idea of the color BLACK as a metaphor, or as a representation of African-Americans. It’s the notion of BLACK- BLACKNESS - and all its other meanings in relation to the history of race..."

- Fred Wilson

"Most of my fortitude to continue doing the work comes from the moral outrage I feel about the injustices that Black people endure disproportionately daily."

- N. Abdul-Wakil

"In the end, what matters is not skin shade but pan-African consciousness. Loving your complexion, your nose, lips, hair length and texture, no matter what the politics or trends decide, and simply be. That's the problem with us (African folks). We're still learning how to love ourselves. So used to glorifying others and putting others first..."

- Dredlocks Tree

Saturday, August 1, 2009

I LOVE THESE ADS!
GOSH, THEY ARE SO
SAME GENDER LOVING AFFIRMING

I just absolutely love these ads. They are so adorable, sensual and same gender loving. I wish I had seen these kinds of ads growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. It would have done so much for my self-esteem and confidence as I grew up struggling with my own sexuality.

Beautiful ads!

I have to quote Kenyon Farrow, a friend, who said it best "This is the way to do social marketing for HIV prevention for Black and Latino Gay men. My friends at the Institute for Gay Men’s Health at GMHC continue to break the mold in terms of how to do effective, interesting, and NON-STIGMATIZING HIV prevention."

_____________________

This "I AM GAY: AND THIS IS WHERE I PLAY" ad was absolutely brilliant and groundbreaking to me. I can identify with the sports element in this ad as a Black SGL brutha who does play sports. Also, it depicts masculine (all things being relative) bruthaz around the idea of sports play, too. A total connection for me and hopefully others less informed or playing into stereotypes. I have blogged (twice already in July 2009) about my LOVE of sports and how most Black SGL bruthaz in my circle aren't really into sports. And you don't really here about Black SGL men in sports reported on in the mainstream (unless a player retires and reveals himself after the fact to be homosexual - and I have no value judgment on that. It's most certainly a personal decision).

Well, I had the privilege of seeing a huge 80 foot long (I'm guessing) monstrosity (I mean that in a most excellent and grand way) affixed to a building wall at the corner of 125th Street and Lenox Avenue - If you never got to see the ad below in person, can you image it in the middle of the heart of HARLEM, USA?????! It blew my damn mind. YOU READ ME?!!! YOU HEARD?!!! The scale was huge and it was most certainly in your face and totally unavoidable. It no doubt sparked a lot of dialogue. And dialogue is definitely needed in the Black community.

I personally don't identify with the word "gay" at all,
instead I use the self-naming, cultural affirmation and pro-Black term SGL (Same gender loving). You'll see MY use of the term throughout my blog and if we communicate via email or in person. However, this ad caught my total attention as I stopped on the corner, stared at it for many moments and looked around to see if anyone saw me looking at it. LOL!

There hasn't been anything bold like this since I saw the controversial (wording) "I Know My Son Messes Around With Other Men..." ad back in the late 1990s on the inside of the trains themselves. Phenomenal! Dat's wassup!