MARY CONWAY revels in a powerful reminder that human lives are not defined by physical perfection
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A queer black life
Radical Jamaican-American novelist and poet Claude McKay (1889-1948) left the Caribbean in 1912 to study
in the US, where he developed as a radical with communist sympathies. His were the first poems to be published in
Jamaican patois and he later became a key figure in the Harlem literary renaissance.
The queer and black aspects of his London life from 1919 to 1921 are discussed by Gemma Romain and Caroline
Bressey in this extract from a new book on the queer histories of London
PAUL DONOVAN recommends the fine performances in this account of the pre-war meeting between the US president and the British king
TECLYN AROD relishes an intimate celebration of jazz improvisation that mixes local and national musicians
The missing sister, the vengeful WAG, cruise ship claustrophobia, and reanimated Avengers
Three great releases of lost concerts by Duke Ellington Orchestra, John Taylor & Stan Sulzman, and Joe Henderson
To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
TO UNDERSTAND queer identities such as McKay’s, we must not solely seek to look for “evidence” of queerness in relation to McKay’s sexual relationships; queer black histories cannot just be examined by declared mentions and moments of same-sex sexuality.
How McKay’s queer identity surfaced and was performed is more complex. McKay’s writing, which commented upon his identity or the “queer” way in which he viewed the world and lived his life, was often implicit and subtle.
Writing about “queer London” includes writing about, and researching beyond, the boundaries, lived and archival, of London; for London includes those whose lives were influenced by and lived within empires, diasporas, political communities — at city, transregional and transnational scales. Londoners were not bounded in their personal geographies.
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