the young people's professor

This morning I received an urgent email from political activist, friend, and best-selling author Keith Boykin warning me--and several other black gay bloggers--about the homophobic, anti-gay concert that is set to take place on July 18th, 2006 here in New York City. Let me explain.

An organization called "LifeBeat" is a hip-hop oriented, non-profit company that (supposedly) "mobilizes the talents and resources of the music industry to raise awareness and funds in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and to provide support to the AIDS community." On July 18th, 2006 the organization is set to host the "Reggae Gold Live 2006: Summer Jumpoff" at Webster Hall. On their website, Lifebeat proudly announces "performances from some of reggae's hottest stars", most notably, Beenie Man and TOK.

Wait a minute, Beenie Man? Beenie Man, as in the same artist who once proudly encouraged black people to "Hang [a] chi chi gal wid a long piece of rope" (hang the dyke with a rope)? They're not serious, right?

Unfortunately they are. And this story gets even more interesting: Boykin contacted key representatives at LifeBeat (whose Board of Directors includes openly-gay black fashion guru and former VIBE editor Emil Wilbekin) to express his concern about the organization's complacency in including Beenie and TOK as headliners, upon which LifeBeat's executive director basically told him to "get over it." Or to use his words, refusing to hire homophobic artists at an event that is supposedly gay-friendly, "isnt his job." Keith discusses the entire nasty ordeal today on his website here.

Keith has asked several bloggers to aid him in launching an (inter)national black gay blogger media campaign against LifeBeat's uncritical support to these two overwhelmingly homophobic black artists. BET, Vibe, Music Choice, and Power 105.1 are all providing promotional support for this event. This is not acceptable.

Join in this struggle by contacting LifeBeat to express your concern about having anti-gay artists such as Beenie Man and TOK performing at this event. All details are pasted below.

What type of message do we send out as black consumers, artists, and executives when we allow Beenie Man, TOK, and their cohort to perform

HIV/AIDS is a crucially important issue that has had a profound impact on the global black gay/lesbian/queer community. But guess what, so is rampant homophobia and culturally sanctioned violence against queer people of color. In memory of the lives and deaths of Rashawn Brazell, Sakia Gunn, Laaron Morris, Kevin Tryals, as well as surviving victims like Dwan Prince, Kevin Aviance, and countless, name-less, Others, we as a black queer community are poised to let it be known that “fighting HIV/AIDS” and “fighting homophobia” does not, can not, and will not be mutually exclusive.