This October is LGBTQ+ History Month, a month where we celebrate and honor the achievements, struggles and lives of folks in the LGBTQ+ community. While the LGBT Resource Center is hosting many events and programs through the month for the Syracuse University and SUNY ESF community, the student assistant team would also like you to consider incorporating more Black queer art into your daily life. Check out these five contemporary queer Black artists who are creating revolutionary music, poetry, films, makeup looks and even TikToks!
Janelle Monáe
While some of us may know them as our first queer crush from a 2012 Sonos TV commercial, Janelle Monáe has made numerous incredible songs about queerness, blackness and a range of other social matters that celebrate diversity in all its forms. In 2016, Monáe made their big-screen debut with their role of Teresa in “Moonlight.” Monáe has distanced themselves from the binary, both in their work and a tweet in January of 2020 with the hashtag #IAmNonbinary. They identify as pansexual and have no preferences for pronouns. Janelle Monáe has the incredible talent of making you think about your identities while allowing you to feel open and free. The more you look into them and their work, the more you will be amazed.
Frank Ocean
Frank Ocean is a singer, songwriter, producer and photographer who captures the nuanced and subtle aspects of queerness through his art. He began his career as a songwriter in 2006, and since then has written songs for artists like Justin Bieber and Alicia Keys and is featured on tracks with Kanye West and Beyonce. Ocean released a powerfully vulnerable letter in 2012 before the release of his first studio album, Channel Orange, detailing his personal experiences exploring his sexuality as a young man falling in love with another young man. As a Black musician, Ocean’s act of coming out has been credited with shattering a glass ceiling and paving a way for other queer Black artists to express themselves fully and authentically. Frank Ocean’s highly anticipated third album is predicted to be released sometime in late 2020.
Jamila Woods
Jamila Woods is a black queer singer, songwriter and poet from Chicago. Woods has published a chapbook and two studio albums focusing on contemporary Black life as a Black woman. Her poetry work has been featured in various anthologies, such as “Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls” and “The UnCommon Core: Contemporary Poems for Learning & Living.” Woods draws influence from many other great Black artists, and she honors them in her latest R&B and soul studio album, “LEGACY! LEGACY!,” by titling all of the songs after them. Some of these include “Basquiat” (Jean-Michel Basquiat), “Sun Ra,” “Baldwin” (James Baldwin) and “Zora” (Zora Neale Hurston). In many of her songs, we can understand the dynamic of her relationships and life through the lens of a queer Black woman. Woods sings about situations that are very relatable to the queer Black woman experience by showcasing themes of vulnerability, love and Black history and pride. Check out Woods’s latest release, two versions of a single titled “SULA” referencing Sula Peace, a fictional character in Toni Morrison’s novel Sula.
serpentwithfeet
Serpentwithfeet, born Josiah Wise, is an experimental Black queer artist based in Brookyn, New York. He was raised in the church as a child with his father as the owner of a Christian book store and his mother a choir director. These influences can be heard in his music, as his music often takes on a haunting, mystifying tone. Wise explains that he was closeted growing up, partially out of fear, but also out of a lack of language to express himself. As he’s gotten older, Wise has learned to express himself to the fullest extent through his music. The serpentwithfeet experience is exactly that—an experience. Serpentwithfeet expresses himself through his music in a way that is so unique and authentic to him that experiencing his work is like no other. His latest EP “Apparition” was released in April 2020, and is a further piece of self exploration.
Dainty Funk
Maud Acheampong, known professionally as Dainty Funk, is a non-binary Black creator. Their work reached new levels of fame on TikTok, where videos they directed, created and starred in began amassing hundreds of thousands of views. Dainty Funk uses their face as a canvas for their work, using makeup and costume to step into these characters that often act as reflections of Dainty Funk themselves. They also write and deliver poetry, often in costume. Dainty Funk clearly has a strong grip on contemporary art and issues while displaying their understanding of the world in a way that is engaging, fun and honestly, sometimes a little scary. Their work can be found on TikTok (@thedaintyfunk,) and YouTube. Their next long form piece “Ampersand” will be available on YouTube and Vimeo on Halloween 2020.
Written by Alex Middleton ’22, College of Arts and Sciences; Andrew Hamann ’21, College of Engineering and Computer Science; Berri Wilmore ’22, College of Visual & Performing Arts; Nicole Aramboles ’22, Newhouse School of Public Communications