We must always bury our dead twice – why we blog / archive / publish

In an interview with Steven Fullwood, Assistant Curator for the Schomburg Center’s Manuscripts, Acrhives, and Rare Books Division, Fullwood was asked about his latest book Black Gay Genius, an anthology of Joseph Beam’s Work.

Why is the observance of Joseph Beam’s life with an anthology important?

It is never up to mainstream culture to maintain or honor our dead; we must do that. I am specifically talking about black queer people. It is our duty. Joe Beam’s passion to learn, grow and provide an opportunity for others to speak their truths was inspired by the Black Power and Black Arts Movements. If you saw a need for something, you did it or you supported others that did. Beam identified the need and did that. Barbara Smith, writer, feminist, and co-founder of Kitchen Table Press, once wrote an essay about James Baldwin titled “We Must Always Bury Our Dead Twice,” which I took as a responsibility to make visible black queer life. In Black Gay Genius, Smith stated that “burying our dead twice, or three times or more means that we lift up their contributions, their legacy, their reputations and make them known in every way we possibly can” and I agree with her 100%.

This snippet pulled me to look into Barbara Smith’s tribute to James Baldwin. In “We Must Always Bury Our Dead Twice”, Smith describes her experience of attending Baldwin’s funeral on December 8th, 1987 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Baldwin’s existence as a powerful black gay writer had always been important. For Smith, “Baldwin’s homosexuality was also a hopeful sign. If nothing else, it indicated his capacity to radically nonconform, to carve out his own emotional freedom, lessons that I myself would need to learn” (Smith 76). To her disappointment, the many tributes offered to Baldwin, including words from Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka, did not mention the significance of his homosexuality.

If all of who James Baldwin was had been mentioned at his funeral in New York City on December 8, 1987, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, it would have gone out on the wire services and been broadcast on the air all over the globe. Not only would this news have geometrically increased the quotient of truth available from the media that day in general, it also would have helped alter, if only by an increment, perceptions in Black communities all over the world about the meaning of homosexuality, communities where those of us who survive Baldwin as Black lesbians and gay men must continue to dwell (Smith 79- 80).

Smith’s call to bury our dead twice is to honor all of who James Baldwin was because the larger community did not. Reading Smith’s second burial of James Baldwin reminds me of the significance of the work we are doing in Kim Hall’s Worlds of Shange class. In this class, we are studying the works and worlds of Shange in order to most justly work with the materials in her archives. It is important that we are blogging, juxtaposing her work with other media, including what reading her poetry and novels invokes in us as her work serves so many people in so many different ways. For Smith, we must always bury our dead twice for the “communities where those of us who survive Baldwin as Black lesbians and gay men must continue to dwell”. This archival work contributes to discourses on the Black Arts Movement, The Black Power Movement, perceptions of black girls, spaces of women of color, etc. We must continue studying and publishing because there will be remakes of for colored girls that do not honor our truth.

In our work this year, I hope that we are “geometrically increasing the quotient of truth available” for black women, women of color, queer women of color, all readers.