It was very hard because I didn’t know if I would be accepted by my family, how friends would feel. When I turned 16 I accepted myself as being gay. Because there’s nothing like the support of your dad. Growing up gay and without a father was very hard for me. … My dad died when I was two years old and my stepfather was sent to prison when I was seven so my mom did her best at raising me. I guess I got tired of hiding who I really wanted to be. I was living a dream that everybody wanted me to live.
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Before I came out, I was the captain of the football team. I had to hide it, because people expected me to be who I wasn’t. I’m the first openly gay person in my family. When you’re staying in a rough neighborhood, you always gotta keep your guard up. I’m in the Spartan Legion Marching Band at Norfolk State as a Spartan Guard and I’m also involved in the LGBT organization “Legasi” at Norfolk State. I’m a 23-year-old college student at Norfolk State University and Tidewater Community College. My name is Tavaris “Teddy Ebony” Edwards and I’m a gay black man. The following piece is by Edwards, along with excerpts from interviews by Gannaway. Today he’s attending college part-time and hoping to better his life. Teddy is young gay man living in Chesapeake, Virginia, who came out at 16 years old and dropped out of school. We’re gonna do a dozen locations in 45 days, and have the issue hit the stands on December 10.Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Preston Gannaway began documenting the life of Tavaris “Teddy Ebony” Edwards when they met during Pride week at Norfolk State University last year. For us, the challenge is to connect as many dots as possible with the limited resources we have across the country, so that that network starts to build. It doesn't make sense to be safe on this project, to just engage contemporary artists or the people who are easy to access like the Instagram stars. A big part of this zine is creating a challenge. I think every society needs those things. Because for us, gay assimilation is moving towards whiteness, not celebrating as excellent anything that's happening in blackness.īeing black and being gay creates an interesting other space, because we feel like “others” in both of those larger communities, so we’re saying let's build our own institutions, lets support each other, let's create our own rules, our own sense of order. Assimilation is cool, but it has its downsides. Ultimately, the long-term goal may be that these kinds of publications are not necessary, though I'm not sure that's the case. We have, in publishing, created a space where we can exist in our own community.
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This is a larger critique that needs to happen. America is segregated, even in urban centers like New York. We wanted to do something that would allow us to be free, and recapture our youth and our artistic intent.īecause, in truth, our entire lives are uncomfortable. I think all black working professionals often feel the price of building commercial success, and it’s generally isolation, loneliness, detachment, a lot of pressure, and a lot of work. We wanted a project that allowed us to reconnect to this idea of community. We liked the idea of assembling around this collaborative work we were already doing, this kind of convenient community. Then we had this light bulb moment where we were like, “This feels like more than just a one-time photo series.”
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#MATURE GAY MAN WITH BLACK GAY TWINK SERIES#
So we did a series called Boys in the Studios, which we launched here in Brooklyn.
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Kyle Septh: About two years ago, Kyle, Andre, and I were feeling like we wanted to create images of beautiful black gay boys. As Septh prepared to embark on a 45-day road trip to capture the content for the magazine’s upcoming Americana-themed issue, I sat down with him to discuss the magazine’s origins and the impressive response it’s gotten. The Tenth is about recognizing queer black talent in all its manifestations.