Customer Reviews

Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry

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I don't remember when I first encountered Essex Hemphill,( all I recall is that I heard him at some poetry reading) but from the start I found his talent overwhelming. His dynamic writing captivated my imagination and has inspired part of my committment to articulating Black lesbian/gay experience. I am particularly struck by how few words it took for him to drive home his powerful points. A spare, but spiritually and artistically charged wordsmith, the literary world lost a giant when he passed. I simply adored this fine gay brother whose writings showed him to be a strong, loving and insightful spirit! BUY THIS BOOK!

"I have nothing to lose tonight" -- the line that starts it all. "Ceremonies" by the late Essex Hemphill is a collection of the poet/essayist/activist's remarkable prose and poetry culled over his many years of writing.

A DC native, Hemphill includes many of his experiences coming-of-age and living in the nation's capital all of which are detailed and brought to life through his rich and deeply-profound poetry. My favorites include "Heavy Breathing" -- which addresses the need we have for love and the misguided steps we sometimes take along the way. In the poem, he talks about his experiences roaming the halls of bathhouses "in search of Giovanni's Room" and the fatal killing of a middle-aged woman in a public park. In addition, I was struck by "In the Life." The poem, with its calming yet reassuring tone, is a gay man speaking to his mother about his lifestyle -- "Mother, do you know I roam alone at night? / I wear colognes, tight pants, and chains of gold, as I search for men willing to come back to candlelight / I'm not scared of these men though some are killers of sons like me. / I learned there is no mercy for men of color, for sons who love men like me." His poetry is rich with detail and his experiences are ones you can feel even if you've never experienced them for yourself. It's an adventure uninhibited by structure or convention.

Like many SGL brothers, I was introduced to Essex Hemphill when he appeared in Marlon Riggs groundbreaking PBS documentary "Tongues Untied." Many of the poems found in Ceremonies appear in the documentary including his famous poem "Homocide" -- "Grief is not apparel. Not like a dress, a wig or my sister's high-heeled shoes. It is darker than the man I love who in my fantasies comes for me in a silver, six-cylinder chariot."

With all of his words, I found identification and a narrative voice that reflects me and my experiences. Hemphill speaks with erudite intelligence, but none of it is pompous or hard-to-ascertain. Ceremonies challenges the conventions of what it is to black, what it is to be gay, what it is to be both and how one operates in such parameters. It touches on subjects that are still not addressed in the mainstream, even by countering the "sacred cows of gay culture." Hemphill exposes the hypocrisy and the cogs in the homo-hate machine fostered by the white-centered, patriarchal gay mainstream media. ("We have to be there for one another and trust less the adhesions of kisses and semen to bind us.")

The prose of Ceremonies is on-target and carefully assembled. From his deconstruction of the popular "homosexuality-as-antiblack" rhetoric being pumped by certain prominent black intellectuals (with the gem, "If Freud Were A Neurotic Colored Woman") to his graphic accounts of an out-of-the-closet exchange by two middle-aged black men on a public bus (with its shocking finale). Hemphill's book is definitely a page-turner. I found myself re-reading many portions over and over, not wanting to put it down.

The accounts are not only identifiable to just black gay men, they are profoundly human and transcendental. His words give voice to the marginalized, the misunderstood and the unspoken, muffled denizens of our era. I strongly recommend this book to any person who is "in the life" or anyone who would like to hear the selected experiences of SGL black men in contemporary America vocalized in a fascinatingly powerful way. Hemphill succumbed to AIDS complications in 1995, but his ideas and gifts continue giving in this and other works. A must read.

This has to be one of the most significant books on human rights...not just gay issues! Hemphill was responsible for supporting and bringing into the light many Black gay/gay Black writers, and doing so unselfishly. Of all the gay Black writers of his generation he is probably the most creative. This book is an important record of an incisive intelligence and a true human being. His poetry, ranging from brief lyric to complex sequence, is evocative and accomplished (a pity that it remains overlooked by White gay anthologists!)His essays read like finely-tuned, emotional short-stories, especially "Miss Emily's Grandson Won't Hush His Mouth". Ceremonies also contains probing attacks on racism and key thoughts about Mapplethorpe and the representation of the Black male. Essex Hemphill possessed a comprehensive political mind that embraced race issues, gender issues and class issues. In Ceremonies, his voice often rings out angrily in the name of human equality. It is a powerful voice that supports the vulnerable with concern and tenderness. A work of great honesty.

Ceremonies is an impressive collection of memorable poetry and commentary by Essex Hemphill, one of the few authors who dares to openly portray African American gay life. Raw, compelling, gut-wrenching verse is the hallmark of this serious and powerful compilation. American Hero: I have nothing to lose tonight./All my men surround me, panting,/as I spin the ball above our heads/on my middle finger./It's a shimmering club light/and I'm dancing, slick in my sweat./Squinting, I aim at the hole/fifty feet away. I let the tension go./Shoot for the net. Choke it,/I never hear the ball/slap the backboard. I slam it/through the net. The crowd goest wild/for our win. I scored/thirty-two points this game/and they love me for it./Everyone hollering/is a friend tonight./But there are towns,/certain neighborhoods/where I'd be hard pressed/to hear them cheer/if I move on the block.

Ceremonies brings to light the plight of gay black men in America. But this book is relatbale to all. Anyone who's ever been oppressed or marginalized can relate. The poetry is honest and incredibly raw and haunting. Its graphic in its talk about homosexuality and life in general, but its not gratuitious. Every word in this book is relevant and important. My favorite poem is "American Wedding." The pain and anguish of being gay in america, the beauty of loving someone is all evident in the poem. It is beautiful and still relevant today. Not for the faint of heart. But if you are looking for an honest, frank talk about homosexuality, the kind that doesnt just cater to white, middleclass men, then Essex Hemphill is your man.

Essex Hemphell is by far the most open, dynamic writer of our times. Each personal story rang true if not to my life, to those I know & love.