The Untold Histories of Black Gay Britain

Researching Black British history “often feels like a rescue effort, a race against time,” writes Jason Okundaye. In his first book, he narrates the mingled histories of seven astonishing lives in the Black gay community of South London during the 1980s.

The narrative he pieces together from oral history, archival research and even gossip (a vital historical record in its own right, he argues) is a fresh depiction of Black gay life on its own terms: from politics and activism to Aids, music, fashion, sex, love and grief.

He talks to Moya Lothian-McLean about undoing stereotypes of Black Britishness, working with a disappearing archive, and the creative art of non-fiction. Revolutionary Acts: Love and Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain is the first book from Okundaye, whose essays on politics and culture have appeared in the Guardian, GQ and the London Review of Books.

Read his 2021 article for Novara Media, Joy, for Me, Is the Black Queer Scene.

Photo by Ajamu X (Tyrone and Langford at Pride, Brockwell Park, 1992) via @blackandgaybackintheday