Divine Details: Material Sunshine (Joseph Beam)
Today is Joseph Beam’s birthday! i love celebrating Joseph Beam’s birthday as we bring the year to a close because his visionary magic and medicine, the bravery diligence and love that helped him create the first anthology of Black gay men’s writing is exactly what I (and can I say WE) need moving into a new year, and in this case a new decade. Among other inspiring affirmations, Joseph Beam said “I dare myself to dream.” And I believe that his lasting contributions have made generations of us more daring, more willing to invest our time and energy in our dreams for more loving communities.
i call the collage I made in honor of Joseph Beam “BrainBeam” because of the sunlight coming out of his head and his powerful way of making ideas real in our communities. As I look at the collage, it is of course not only his brain but his overflowing heart (with rays of color emerging from his right breast pocket) that shines upon us even now. He made it very clear that his work in the world was motivated by a deep love of his community. He was the one who explicitly taught us how revolutionary “Black men loving Black men” could be for everyone, and particular for the healing and growth of Black communities.
When I was a graduate student researching at the Schomburg Black Gay and Lesbian Archives curated by Steven Fullwood he told me that Joseph Beam’s mother Dorothy Beam was the person who ensured that his legacy of love would continue by working to organize and donate his personal archives. She also supported Essex Hemphill, who actually moved in with Mama Beam for a time, to complete the work Joseph Beam had started on the second anthology follow-up to In the Life, the crucial Brother to Brother. Steven Fullwood also told me that Joseph Beam’s father’s name was Sun Beam. What an amazing name. Joseph Beam’s middle name is Fairchild, and I wonder if his father’s was too. I haven’t been able to learn much about Sun F. Beam besides the fact he was a Philadelphia Security Guard and that he proudly attended the Philadelphia reading at Gay bookstore Giovanni’s Room for In the Life along with Dorothy Beam, offering an early (and for many community members the FIRST) example of what it looked like for Black parents not only to accept their gay Black children, but also to be committed and proud of their work on behalf of the larger Black gay community.
And so when I think of Joseph Beam I often think the phrase “son of the Sun Beam” thinking not only of the name (Fairchild hmm) but also of the love of parents who realized that their son was “bright” and who honored his light even after he passed away. I noticed a detail earlier this year in an article honoring Dorothy Beam upon her passing that she kept an archive of bow-ties for much of her life. And late in life she donated her bowtie collection to Frasier Dasent who, inspired by the healing quilts Dorothy Beam made over the years for babies with HIV, used the bowties at a quilting camp for young girls. My ceremony of recognition and love for Joseph Beam goes beyond the accomplishments of his accomplished and short life. It honors the love that flowed through him, from his parents and community, from his brother-comrade Essex Hemphill, for Steven Fullwood, Charles Stephens, Yolo Akili, Lisa C. Moore and other stewards of his legacy. I see the strips of color, wood, fabric and gold that come out of the top of his head, the back of his neck, his pockets as material sunshine. May our actions on behalf of our communities, may our honoring of the people we love become material sunshine on this planet, nourishing love.
To learn more about Joseph Beam and to participate in his powerful legacy please do:
Read In the Life and Brother to Brother both republished by Lisa C. Moore at Redbone Press. (Perfect reading group material!)
Read Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam’s Call edited by Steven Fullwood and Charles Stephens (I have an essay in their too based on the correspondence of Joseph Beam and Audre Lorde in his archival papers in the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive).
Visit the Black Gay and Lesbian Archive at the Schomburg Center in Harlem founded and curated by Steven G. Fullwood.
Support and participate in events by Counternarrative Project which builds community and power for and as Black Gay Men and intentionally embodies Joseph Beam’s vision of “Black men loving Black men,” every day.
Support, celebrate and collaborate with BEAM (Black Emotional and Mental Health) founded by Yolo Akili in the legacy of Joseph Beam’s bravery to talk about the revolutionary possibility of intimacy in our communities.
Also now, “BrainBeam” and all my ancestral collages are available online as prints in different sizes. All proceeds go to the ongoing work of Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind.
Speaking of daring ourselves to dream, you can sign up for Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind’s first online “Some Changes: June Jordan and the Decade We’ve Been Waiting For” right here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/some-changes-june-jordan-and-the-decade-weve-been-waiting-for-tickets-87614833325
