R E M E M B E R I N G
ESSEX HEMPHILL

Information this Page:




MEMORIAL FUND

A fund has been established in memory of Essex Hemphill. Donations may be sent to the following address:
National Capital Bank of Washington
c/o Essex Hemphill Memorial
316 Pennsylvania Southeast
Washington, DC 20003



A LITERARY TRIBUTE

This issue of STANDARDS includes works by Essex Hemphill that have long been out of print. We thank Essex, Frances Goldin, Literary Agent, and Mantalene Hemphill, for their help in making this tribute possible.

Colleagues and friends of Essex's are also invited to submit short pieces in honor of Essex's memory. We hope to include as many remembrances as possible. See the Submissions Page for further information.



COMMUNITY DEBATES AND DIALOGUES

Commentaries in some of the national lesbigay newsgroups have brought to the forefront, once more, the tensions surrounding the handling of funerals and memorial services among the families of origin and the queer communities who are both suffering the loss of one who is loved. We are saddened that the grief and rage has cleaved further divisions within these communities. As one newsgroup participant wrote, this is not what Essex wanted.


The issues surrounding the perceptions of the way Essex's family handled his funeral bring to the fore some of the most important issues of our times. Yet, as Essex's sister, Lois Holmes, pointed out, the public debate naming her family did not include direct dialogue with the family members themselves. I had spoken with Essex's mother, Mantalene Hemphill, for nearly two hours, the week after Thanksgiving, and felt strongly that she would not want to have her family set up as scapegoats for the national debate on whether Black families try to erase the gay identities of their loved ones, at funerals. Lois determined to engage in this debate, from the point of view of the family. It is our hope that this will open a larger dialogue on the idea of whether a Black gay man "belongs" to the queer communities, his family of origin, or to both---this is the idea of bringing unity from division, which was, after all, a central component of Essex's life-long project, even when it hurt.

Canéla Analucinda Jaramillo
Editor-in-Chief
STANDARDS


Relevant contributions to this ongoing debate
may be found by following the links below:


"An Open Letter For Essex, My Brother"by Lois Holmes

"Funny Thing, Essex," by Steven G. Fullwood

Deb Price's Interview with Essex Hemphill, in Same Gender Loving, Bi and Transgendered People of the African Diaspora

Chuck Tarver's reprinted 1990 Interview with Essex, in The Black Stripe

Digest of Related Newsgroup Postings on the Subject of Essex Hemphill

GLBPOC Postings on Essex Hemphill


Forward to "An Open Letter for Essex, My Brother," by Lois Holmes
Go to Remembering Essex Hemphill
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Original Graphics © 1996 by Jim Davis-Rosenthal

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