Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales

Scholar and artist E. Patrick Johnson is currently Chair and Directorof Graduate Studies in the Department of Performance Studies, as well
as Professor of African American Studies, at Northwestern University.
His one-man-show, Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their
Tales, is based on the oral histories collected in Johnson’s book,
Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South — An Oral History, published by
the University of North Carolina Press. The oral histories are from
black gay men who were born, raised, and continue
to live in the South and range in age from 19 to 93.

This performance covers the following topics:
coming of age in the South, religion, sex, transgenderism, love stories,
and coming out. The show tells of Chaz,
a transgendered person who lives as a man on Sunday so he can sing in
the church choir, but lives as a woman during the rest of the week;
Freddie’s story of being raised by parents who did not want him is
heartbreaking, but also delivered with an ironic twist; Countess
Vivian, the oldest narrator, recounts his life during the 1920s and
the 1930s on the streets of New Orleans. Johnson embodies these and
other stories in the show.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Performance Studies and New Sexualities RFGs,
the Dept. of Black Studies, Dept. of English, Center for Black
Studies, Dept. of Theater, Dept. of Feminist Studies, the
MultiCultural Center, the IHC, Black Quare, Associated Students, and
the Women’s Center with special support from the following
individuals: Stephanie L. Batiste, Ingrid Banks, Mireille Miller
Young, and Christina McMahon.

hm 5/1/09