5 Women’s biographies continued from page 1 Legacy on Fire Celebrating GLBT literature from the African Diaspora at Fire & Ink By Patricia Justine Tumang T he first-ever Fire & Ink A Writers Festival for GLBT People of African Descent was a tough event to pull off. There was an impending storm brewing in Chicago. Conference Chair Lisa C. Moore’s apartment was gutted in a horrendous fire the week before. But Moore, publisher at RedBone Press, was not daunted. She, along with other conference organizers and volunteers, made a heroic effort to persevere, and ultimately, panelists and participants came in by the dozens. The conference, funded in part by an Astraea grant, celebrated the magic of LGBT literature from the African Diaspora and was held at the University of Illinois at Chicago on September 19-22, As an Asian lesbian feminist writer, I didn’t know what to expect from a conference like this. Would I be the only other non-Black person of color there who bore witness to the living breadth of this work—this legacy that began with James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Pat Parker, Essex Hemphill, Lorraine Hansberry and June Jordan Happily, while there were only a handful of others, it was amazing to share our own experiences and hear the work and insight of marvelously diverse and talented Black LGBT writers. The conference began with a tribute to the late June Jordan, Black poet, essayist, and bisexual activist, whose work greatly inspires my writing and activist pursuits. Writers Samuel Delany, Thomas Glave, C.C. Carter, Cheryl Clarke, Sharon Bridgforth, Pamela Sneed, Dorothy Randall Gray , James Earl Hardy, R. Erica Doyle, and Samiya Bashir, among others, enthralled us with their craft and artistic sensibilities. Stimulating workshops, readings, performances and rousing conversations filled the rooms with infectious energy and left participants hungry for the next conference. Fire & Ink conference attendees at work. PHOTO: SEAN DRAKES/BLUE MANGO, 2002
