the young people's professor

This afternoon I was shocked and saddened to learn of the murder of 20 year old Brooklynite Roberto Duncanson. When I saw Roberto's picture I gasped: known as "Pancho," he was a very familiar face in the cosmology of black gay new york. I can remember numerous occasions when I saw him out and about at different clubs in Manhattan. Sadly I remember him as one those sweet guys that I would speak to in passing, but never had the opportunity to really exchange names. If I am not mistaken, Pancho was also involved in the ballroom scene, I can distinctly remember seeing him at several balls last year. This is an absolute tragedy.

The news of Pancho's murder is a sharp contrast to the celebration of love, life, and creativity that took place this weekend at the POCC Ball. Like Rashawn Brazell, Dwan Prince, and Michael Sandy, Pancho was attacked in Brooklyn. The growing laundry list of queer black men brutally beaten and/or killed in New York City over the past five years continues to grow, particularly those living in Crown Heights and Bedstuyvesant.

The sunday New York Daily News reports that police are looking for any and all information regarding the murder, which took place in my neighborhood, right on the corner of St. Marks and New York Avenue. Pancho was stabbed four times and died at King's County Hospital---the same hospital he was born.

Is it too simple, too juvenile, too naive, to state the obvious: Enough is enough.