No Tea, No Shade

New Writings in Black Queer Studies

By: E. Patrick Johnson - editor

Narrated by: Kevin Free

Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The follow-up to the groundbreaking Black Queer Studies, the edited collection No Tea, No Shade brings together 19 essays from the next generation of scholars, activists, and community leaders doing work on Black gender and sexuality. Building on the foundations laid by the earlier volume, this collection's contributors speak new truths about the Black queer experience while exemplifying the codification of Black queer studies as a rigorous and important field of study. Topics include "raw" sex, pornography, the carceral state, gentrification, gender nonconformity, social media, the relationship between Black feminist studies and Black trans studies, the Black queer experience throughout the Black diaspora, and queer music, film, dance, and theater. The contributors both disprove naysayers who believed Black queer studies to be a passing trend and respond to critiques of the field's early US bias. Deferring to the past while pointing to the future, No Tea, No Shade pushes Black queer studies in new and exciting directions.

Contributors: Jafari S. Allen, Marlon M. Bailey, Zachary Shane Kalish Blair, La Marr Jurelle Bruce, Cathy J. Cohen, Jennifer DeClue, Treva Ellison, Lyndon K. Gill, Kai M. Green, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Kwame Holmes, E. Patrick Johnson, Shaka McGlotten, Amber Jamilla Musser, Alison Reed, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, Tanya Saunders, C. Riley Snorton, Kaila Story, Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley, Julia Roxanne Wallace, and Kortney Ziegler.

©2016 Duke University Press (P)2022 Audible, Inc.

Essential Writings in Black Queer Studies

First, I would like to thank Audible Studios for releasing in March 2022 an audio version of E. Patrick Johnson's groundbreaking anthology "No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies," first published in 2016. I had this book on my Amazon paperback wish list since November 2021 when I listened to his previous excellent book, "Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South," As I am too busy to read a book on paper anymore, and I'm trying to read through my stacks of books at home, I hoped that an audio version of Johnson's latest book would be made available. Periodically I checked my Amazon paperback/hardcover wish list to see if audio versions were available. When I saw that Audible Studios released an audio version of "No Tea, No Shade," I bought it as soon as I finished my previous book. While I may quibble about a cis-gendered male narrating all the essays instead of having the original contributors narrate them, I was so desperate to hear this book that I would have listened to Mickie Mouse read it if that was the only version available.

One of the things that thrilled me about this anthology was the depth and breadth of the essays on Black queer studies. Being a cis-gendered Black gay man, I heard essays I usually would not have listened to if they were separate--such as Black lesbian or Black trans theories. As a result of my vast exposure to a variety of people different than me, I am enriched and encouraged. I am thrilled to see our commonalities and differences and respect them by taking the time to listen.

Another thing that thrilled me was finding the language and the framework to describe my experiences. In the essay "On the Cusp of Deviance," Kaila Adia Story describes a watershed moment, the 2005 release of a Black queer studies volume that "gave me life. Indeed, it was in that volume that I first discovered the theoretical language for who I was, am." I feel the same way about Johnson's anthology--the joy of finding the language to describe who I was and am. Along the way, I discovered new terms for expressing my experiences. My favorite new term is Michel Foucault's "heterotopia"--other spaces that exist within other areas--and "heteroperpetuity" that La Marr Jurelle Bruce defines in the essay "The Body Beautiful: Black Drag, American Cinema, and Heteroperpetually Ever After" as political and social systems that perpetuate heteronormativity.

I discovered many things that saddened but did not surprise me, such as that 53% of all attacks on the LGBTQ+ community are on its Black members while Blacks account for 73% of all murders of LQBTQ+ people. Several essays wrote about how the heteronormative Black community does not recognize the deaths of its queer and trans members, designating them as Black lives that do not matter. Many essayists also pointed out the racism that White gays inflict upon Black gays. Zachary Blair's essay, "Boyston: Gay Neighborhoods, Social Media, and the Re(Production of Racism," describes the White gay gentrification of a neighborhood and the exclusion of Black gays.

"No Tea, No Shade" is such a dense listen that I will return to it from time to time to listen again. I will always discover something new I have not heard before. I am delighted that Audible Studios has made an audio version available. I highly recommend it.