GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

SEPTEMBER 27, 1996

Evenings Out

2ND TIME AROUND

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James Earl Hardy

by Jon Dallas

James Earl Hardy, author of the "seriously sexy, fiercely funny black-on-black gay love story" B-Boy Blues, has written a sequel to his 1994 novel.

2nd Time Around continues the love story between Raheim, a streetwise young man, and Mitchell, a more conservative journalist. Both stories are told from a positively Africentric, gay, hip-hop point of view.

One of the few out African-American authors writing today, Hardy uses his craft to challenge the stereotypes about how African-American gay men are perceived in this culture, and to address the issues of invisibilty regarding this group. Hardy is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism. I had the chance to talk with James Earl Hardy in a recent interview.

Jon Dallas: What motivated you to begin writing your first novel B-Boy Blues? James Earl Hardy: I just wanted to read a story that reflected my life, so I decided to write it myself.

How much of your writing reflects your past experiences?

The story as it unfolds in the first novel is not my story, but experiences and events that I'm familiar with, because I've seen other people go through [them].

What was your inspiration to write about a character like Raheim?

Well, I know gentlemen like Raheim, and one never sees images of same-gender-loving men who fit his description. It was very important to show that African-American gay and bisexual men are not a monolithic group; we come in all sizes, shapes, colors and persuasions. I wanted to show that diversity.

The character Raheim has no plans to come out of the closet. What was the reaction of your family and church when you came out of the closet?

I've been out of the closet for over a

decade. There certainly have been relatives that have not been able to deal with who I am, but my family has been very supportive of me, particularly in my fiction-writing career.

I think that's because after reading B-Boy Blues and now 2nd Time Around, they have a clear idea and understanding of who gentlemen like me are like, and the type of lives that we lead. [They see] that there's so many things that are distinctly different about our lives as same gender-loving men, but that we do the same things that heterosexual people do, particularly when it comes to love.

I've had many of my relatives and other individuals who are heterosexual, particularly female, say, "I was 60-70 pages into the book and completely forgot that I was reading a story about two African-American gay men who fall in love, because I could identify with many of the other things that Mitchell and Raheim were saying." Both novels are very universal stories even though they are very much about us [African-American gay men].

In B-Boy Blues and 2nd Time Around, you offer the reader a candid view of urban African-American males in our society. How do you feel the average AfricanAmerican gay male is viewed by society? I don't particularly think that there is such

a thing as an "average" African-American gay male. I believe that society, particularly white gay society, would like to think that there is such a thing, but we are not a monolithic group and it was important in both of my novels to depict that.

In fact, that's one of the reasons why I chose the characters of Raheim and Mitchell to come together because, first of all, in fiction you almost never see two AfricanAmerican men in any type of relationship. Secondly, most of the African-American gay men are protagonists in fiction and have drifted in the white gay world. They are comfortable in being gay men but rather uncomfortable as black men, and so [they're] on a search to discover themselves by taking this journey in[to] the arms of a white man.

It's an image that's much easier for white homosexuals, and to an extent black heterosexuals, to digest.

B-Boy Blues and 2nd Time Around breaks that mold by placing us in a world that most of us live and love. In doing so, you get the viewpoint and ideas of different types of African-American gay and bisexual men, many of them who don't identify themselves as gay or bisexual men., like Raheim and his buddies.

There are class, cultural and even racial differences between these characters that you don't even see explored in fiction by African-American heterosexuals. There is no such thing, in my opinon, as an average AfricanAmerican gay man, but I would certainly call Mitchell, B.D. and Babyface [characters from both novels] 'ordinary' examples of African-American gay and bisexual men because they are American-born, gay and black. They have their own value and belief system to coexist in an Africentric world.

Would you encourage other AfricanAmerican gay men to come out of the closet? Why or why not?

I would definitely encourage gentlemen of African descent to come out of the closet. I also believe that a climate has to be created in which African-Americans feel safe. I don't think that environment exists in the AfricanAmerican community, or in the so-called lesbian and gay community.

I know that there's this concept that many of us like to use of “coming home," in which we can be ourselves without our families in the black community. I don't believe in that concept, because I don't think that anyone can create a home for you. You need to do that yourself.

It also places us in the position, quite frankly, where we're expected to be embraced by people who might not normally embrace us. We need to look inside for that affirmation and validation, instead of looking for it from African-American heterosexuals and the white homosexual commuContinued on next page

JAMES EARL HARDY