Black LGBTQ Narratives

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E. Patrick Johnson is Dean of the School of Communication and Annenberg University Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University. He is a 2020 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. A scholar/artist, Johnson performs nationally and internationally and has published widely in the areas of race, gender, sexuality and performance. Johnson is a prolific performer and scholar, and an inspiring teacher, whose research and artistry has greatly impacted African American studies, Performance studies, and Gender and Sexuality studies. He is the author of Appropriating Blackness: Performance and the Politics of Authenticity (Duke UP, 2003), Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South—An Oral History (University of North Carolina UP, 2008); Black. Queer. Southern. Women.—An Oral History (University of North Carolina Press, 2018), and, Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women (Duke UP, 2019). He is the editor of Cultural Struggles: Performance, Ethnography, Praxis by Dwight Conquergood (Michigan UP, 2013); No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies (Duke UP, 2016); and the co-editor (with Mae G. Henderson) of Black Queer Studies—A Critical Anthology (Duke UP, 2005); and (with Ramón Rivera-Servera) of solo/black/woman: scripts, interviews, and essays (Northwestern UP, 2013) and Blacktino Queer Performance (Duke UP, 2016). 

He has received multiple awards for his scholarship, including the Lilla A. Heston Award, the Errol Hill Book Award, Hurston/Wright Legacy Book Finalist, Stonewall Book Award Honor Book, Lambda Literary LGBTQ Studies Book Award Finalist, the Randy Majors Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to LGBT Scholarship in Communication, Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction Finalist, Lambda Literary LGBTQ Anthology Award Finalist.

Johnson’s performance work dovetails with his written work. His staged reading, “Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales” is based on his book, Sweet Tea, and has toured to over 100 college campuses from 2006 to the present, and his full-length stage play, Sweet Tea—The Play, premiered in Chicago and toured to Austin, Texas, Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, Providence, Rhode Island, Durham, North Carolina and the National Black Theater Festival. The playscript was published by Northwestern University Press (2020). He is one of the subjects and co-executive producer (with John L. Jackson, Jr.) of the documentary, Making Sweet Tea, based on his book and play.

Johnson has received many awards for his performance work, including the Leslie Irene Coger Award for Outstanding Contributions to Performance from the National Communication Association, the Bert Williams Award for Best Solo Performance, from the Chicago Black Theater Alliance, and the René Castillo Otto Award for Political Theater. And his film Making Sweet Tea has also received several awards, including the Judges’ Choice Award at the Longleaf Film Festival, Best Documentary Audience Award at the Kansas City International Film Festival, Best LGBTQ Film at the San Diego Film Festival, Best Documentary Audience Award at the Out on Film Festival, and the Silver Image Award from the Association of American Retired Persons (AARP) for Positive Representation of LGBTQ People over Fifty at the Chicago Reeling LGBTQ Film Festival. In 2010 he was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.

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Thandiwe Thomas DeShazor is an Atlanta based actor, writer, producer, and director. He is an alumnus of Oakland University's Meadowbrook Theater Apprenticeship Program and a recipient of the San Francisco's Queer Cultural Center Grant for his one-man-show “Children of the Last Days”, a comedy about the intersections of Black church and the LGBT community. Thandiwe has performed and collaborated on new and experimental work throughout the country including “Before the Dream: The Mysterious Life and Death Of Richard Wright” (Oakland Public Theater), “Pomo Afro Homo's Fierce Love” (National Tour), and “Armstrong’s Kid" (off-Broadway). Thandiwe is a founding board member of Oakland LGBT Pride and served as their marketing chair in 2010 and 2011. Thandiwe served as the Artistic Director director of Black Girlz Productions a touring urban theater company.

Since moving to Atlanta, his theater credits include, “Tomcat”, The Legend Of Georgia McBride” (Actor’s Express”) and “Angels in America” (Actor’s Express). Thandi’s tv credits include Homicide Hunter, Swamp Murders Fatal Attraction. He can be seen in 2018 in Murder Chose Me and in a re-occurring role in AMC’s Lodge 49. Thandi’s artist collaboration business, Thandi & Company has partnered with Blake Vision Entertainment to write and produce musical biographies of soul music legends, Little Richard, Diana Ross, and Aretha Franklin and tour throughout metro Atlanta.

Since the pandemic, Thandi accidentally became an essential worker. He began the year teaching acting/improv to at risk emerging adults interested in careers in the arts. Because the facility provides essential needs (showers, food, etc.) he’s become essential.

He’s also been directing productions and readings in the zoom platform; “one in two” by Donja R. Love, “The Grand Transsexual Draweth Nigh” by Sloka Krishnan and currently The Harlem Connection: Paris, Negritude, and the Harlem Renaissance with Théâtre du Rêve, Atlanta’s French language theater company.

He and his husband live in Atlanta with their 7 year old daughter.

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TAYLOR ALXNDR (they/she) is a DIY musician, drag performer, and community organizer based in Atlanta, GA. Raised in the rural edges of the metro area, ALXNDR has been creating in and captivating Atlanta and beyond since 2011.

ALXNDR is the co-founder and current executive director of Southern Fried Queer Pride (SFQP), an Atlanta-based non-profit organization empowering Black queer and QTPOC centered communities in the South through the arts. They are also the mother of the House of ALXNDR, an Atlanta-based drag family and events hub, creating drag-centered, inclusive events.