It's all too easy to assume that being black and gay is incompatible. However, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Jazz Age on down, the images of black lesbians and gay men have been present, though sometimes hard to detect. This anthology cuts a wide swath through the literature to clear away the mists of obscurity, just as Afrekete (LJ 6/1/95) did for contemporary black lesbian writers when it was published in 1995). Written by the likes of James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Sapphire, Gloria Naylor, and Randall Kenan, the stories in this volume project a range of tonal qualities, almost as if they were musical compositions. This is a book to return to time and again. Highly recommended.

In a 1984 Village Voice interview, James Baldwin said, "The best advice I ever got was from an old friend of mine... who said you have to go the way your blood beats." As editor Ruff translates it, this means "live life instinctively, intuitively, with integrity and an awareness of consequences, and without self deception." Organized by themes, this rich array of short stories and novel excerpts ranges...