For Colored Boys: Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough
Gregory Mason
Social • Nov 6th, 12
In 1974, playwright Ntozake Shange published a choreopoem called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf. The book would go on to inspire legions of women for decades and would later become the subject and title of a hugely popular movie in the fall of 2010.
While the film was selling out movie theaters, young black gay men were literally committing suicide in the silence of their own communities. It was around that time when Keith Boykin, a New York Times bestselling author, and Magnus Books publisher Don Weise first discussed the possibility of working together on a book in response to the outbreak of suicides among young men of color.
In the same time period, a young Rutgers University student named Tyler Clementi took his own life after a roommate secretly videotaped him in an intimate setting with another young man. In response, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry to inspire young people facing harassment. Their message, It Gets Better, turned into a popular movement, inspiring thousands of user-created videos on the Internet. Savage’s project targeted people of all races, backgrounds and colors, but Boykin wanted to create something special “for colored boys.”
The new book, For Colored Boys, addresses longstanding issues of sexual abuse, suicide, HIV/AIDS, racism, and homophobia in the African American and Latino communities, and more specifically among young gay men of color. The book tells stories of real people coming of age, coming out, dealing with religion and spirituality, seeking love and relationships, finding their own identity in or out of the LGBT community, and creating their own sense of political empowerment.
This collection includes writers who are African American, Latino, Asian American, British, and Jamaican. Their ages span over five decades from young to old, and they represent all parts of the country and a wide cross-section of occupations, including students, published authors, recording artists, reality TV stars, military veterans, doctors, and lawyers.
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