Week in Review – Click, Watch, Read

How to Cure Homophobia in Sports

Just when it seemed like the NBA was turning the corner on embracing gay athletes and employees, Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah hurled an anti-gay slur at a fan during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Kye … Read More

Best of Brooklyn: Bars

Pick your poison. Whether it’s a glass of white wine, whiskey or a rum and Coke without the rum, check out some of the borough’s most Black queer-friendly bars.*

ELIXHER recommends… Sweet Revenge 

What you’ll find… Strong drinks, great music … Read More

InspiHERed By: Unique Robinson

InspiHERed By spotlights phenomenal women in the Black queer community—everyone from artists to activists. Each week ELIXHER features someone whose personal journey and individual craft inspire us to dream bigger, laugh harder, and love deeper. This week we catch up with 23-year-old Unique Robinson, a Baltimore native and dynamic writer/performer.

ELIXHER: So what brought you to NYC?
UNIQUE: I got this job working with New York City AIDS Housing Network and V.O.C.A.L., which is this membership-led organization comprised of people with HIV/AIDS and formerly incarcerated people. Really great. Really freaking great. I was an organizer so I did some of the trainings and presentations on why we should organize and get the community together to rally around legislation effect and people with HIV/AIDS. Phenomenal right?

I did that literally fresh out of school. Like May I was graduated. June I was here. And I did that until this September. Unfortunately…fortunately or unfortunately, depending on who you talk to, it really took a toll on me physically. Emotionally, mentally, because one, I was the youngest person on staff. It was my first full-time position, first time really living in New York. It was just a lot to take on at once and it really fucked me over and burnt me out pretty badly. So I was like I’d much rather have my mental health in store.

I’m a creative person and I wasn’t able to nurture that working 50 workweeks. I was like I can’t do this anymore. I owe me too much. So I quit. And ever since September I just been like, thank the good Lord, I’ve been getting unemployment, but I’ve just been trying to nurture my creative side that’s been neglected for the last year and a half. Writing, performing, writing a ton, traveling, whatever I can do at twenty-three.

ELIXHER: What kind of writing do you do?
UNIQUE: I try to keep my hands in as many different pockets as possible. Poetry is my main vessel of communication—pretty much how I breathe. Spoken word because that’s the poetry that I perform, of course. A lot of it that isn’t performed is usually personal stuff. Plays. I’m writing plays with some of my peoples right now. Focusing on my own, trying to revise my play that I did for graduation. Short essays, creative non-fiction, a little bit of all of that. Raps.

ELIXHER: Are you also involved in the production of your plays?
UNIQUE: Yes! The one I did for my senior thesis, I really want to remaster, but I think right now it’s been put on the back burner because I am doing a collaborative project with two of my friends. I’m writing two acts and my friend is writing two, the other is writing two and we’ll put that together. You know, get some actors, get some grants and then try to put it on by June, but right now we’re still in the writing stages of it.

ELIXHER: When did you begin pursuing writing as a passion?
UNIQUE: I was ten. I don’t know whether it was so much a pursuit, but I definitely knew it was the form I wanted to communicate in for the rest of my life because it just felt so natural to me in a very unnatural setting. I was in school and they had this standardized test. They fucking bombarded us with standardized tests in Baltimore. And it was called “You’re a Poet, You Just Don’t Know It.” How cheesy is that? From then on I just started writing about any and everything. When I was in my early teens, like 14, I started becoming willing to bear my own burdens through writing, as well as comment on what the hell is going on in the world that I think people need to hear.

Read More

Week in Review – Click, Watch, Read

I Was Born a Boy

Janet Mock has an enviable career, a supportive man, and a fabulous head of hair. But she’s also got a remarkable secret that she’s kept from almost everyone she knows. Now, she breaks her silence.

… Read More

New on ELIXHER!

Hey folks–

Check out our new “Events” section for upcoming events. While you’re at it, scroll down on the homepage and take a look at our new Blogroll. Want to promote an event or website on ELIXHER? Got a suggestion? Email … Read More

Your Silence Will Not Protect You.

“I have come to believe, over and over again, that what is important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.” – Audre Lorde

Every day I … Read More

Fri., May 20: ‘The Untitled Black Lesbian Elder Project’ Fundraiser @ The NY LGBT Center

Event Date: Friday, May 20 2011 : 6:30pm – 8:00pm Location: The Center

The Untitled Black Lesbian Elders Project

Friday, May 20, 2011 Program starts at 6:30PM

Women’s Film Series presents The Black Lesbian Elder Project by Tiona McClodden and … Read More

Domestic Violence Happens

Myth. Lesbian and bisexual relationships can’t have domestic violence because two women are involved. Myth. Only the “butch” partner can be abusive. Myth. A physically smaller woman cannot abuse a larger partner. Myth. It’s not violence if your partner has … Read More

Fri., May 20: FASTER, PUSSYCAT! a dance party to benefit FEMINIST PRESS!

Show your love for indie, feminist publishing by partying with us!

116

116 MacDougal Street New York, New York

Co-hosted by: Bklyn Boihood The Desk Set Que(e)ry Librarians Riot Grrrl Ink with media sponsor Velvetpark: Dyke Culture in Bloom

music … Read More

InspiHERed By: Alexandria Smith

InspiHERed By spotlights phenomenal women in the Black queer community—everyone from artists to activists. Each week ELIXHER features someone whose personal journey and individual craft inspire us to dream bigger, laugh harder, and love deeper. This week 29-year-old artist and educator … Read More