An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted on 06/27/2026,
Pride Month 2026, having first been preceded by a portrait of former President
Barack Obama, in celebration of the opening of his Presidential Center on Juneteenth (June 19)
Prelude | 216 | 217 | 218 | 219 | 220 | 221 | 222 | 223 | 224 >> | Email |
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"They don't know we are becoming powerful. Every time we kiss we confirm the new world coming."
--from the poem American Wedding
Appropriate to Pride Month, today let us look at the impressive body of work of Essex Hemphill, poet, writer, and social advocate. Born in 1957 Chicago but raised in S.E. Washington, D.C. (in his words, "in poverty so deep I don't even want to remember it"), Hemphill dove into poetry as a creative outlet in his early teens. He originally attended the University of Maryland to pursue a degree in journalism but pivoted to English at the University of the District of Columbia (UDC); by that time he was already publishing (publishing his own chapbooks whilst working at a local print shop), and delivering spoken-word presentations throughout the D.C. art and literary scene. Over time he also performed at Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and UCLA.
Hemphill quickly became a fixture in local poetry and literary circles, as well as becoming an eloquent voice in the D.C. gay community; he came out in 1980 during a poetry reading at Howard University. His poems and performances ranged all over: covering exclusion, fetish, love, sex, heartbreak, and (particularly) loneliness. Never one to shy away from controversial or upsetting topics, over the years he wrote pointed essays critical of the government's slow-walked response to the AIDS epidemic, religious homophobia, photographer Robert Mappelthorpe's hyper-sexualized images of black men and the then-sordid "red light district" of 14th Street, N.W. Among Hemphill's publications were Earth Life in 1985, and Conditions in 1986. Also in 1986 his work appeared in Joseph Beam's seminal In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology, which unapologetically centered Black gay, lesbian, and trans perspectives. Beam himself died of AIDS in 1988; in his memory Hemphill would publish a follow-up: Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men.
Hemphill's work was very much autobiographical in nature; an intersection of his own identities and enthusiastic collaborations with many other artists, writers, and even filmmakers. One such project in 1989 saw Hemphill working with director Isaac Julien on Looking for Langston, arguably one of the first films to assertively depict Black gay desire in a once-thought-untouchable historic context: the Harlem Renaissance. The film challenged convention by depicting Hughes as being openly and comfortably homosexual; Hughes's estate refused permission for the use of Hughes's work and likeness in Looking for Langston. Another anecdote recalls the D.C. Commission for the Arts having asked Hemphill to remove the words "corruption" and "muthufucka" from a planned recitation of his poem Family Jewels at the 1987 Mayor's Arts Awards. Hemphill and his then-partner, musician Wayson Jones, at first agreed... then they went ahead and performed the poem in its entirety, uncensored.
"Some of us bake wonderfully, write, paint, do any number of things, have facilities with numbers that others don't have. Those are your blessings. Some of us are very strong and candid and some of us are nurturers or combinations of all of those things. Just be aware of what your particular things are and nurture them and use them toward a positive way of living."
--Hemphill, on being asked the meaning of his signature phrase "Take Care of Your Blessings."
Hemphill passed away of AIDS-adjacent complications in 1995 but the bulk of his work remained tied up in family litigation; much of his work was ultimately entrusted to the care of the New York Public Library and it is only relatively recently that Hemphill's work has re-emerged for new examination... and a new audience.
An examination of Love Is A Dangerous Word, a 2023 omnibus release of Hemphill's collected poetry
Take Care Of Your Blessings: a 2025 exhibition of Hemphill's work at The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.
Next lesson - Watch this space