Five Black LGBTQ2IA+ trailblazers

During Pride month last year, we published a series of Facebook posts highlighting often-overlooked Black LGBTQ2IA+ trailblazers. Below is the series, condensed into one post.

Pearl Alcock (1934-2006)

Pearl Alcock was a bisexual Black artist who ran underground gathering spaces (a bar, and later a coffee shop) for gay people in South London during the 1970s and '80s. Her businesses became some of the only safe spaces for LGBTQ2IA+ people of color during a period of time where the gay scene was mostly white. Read more about Alcock here.

Claude McKay (1889- 1948)

McKay was a Jamaican poet during the Harlem Renaissance. His work, including the groundbreaking poem "If We Must Die," illustrates key social and political concerns from his perspective as a Black man in the United States. Though he was not open about it, it is thought that he was bisexual. Read more about Claude McKay here.

Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955-1989) 

A photographer born in Nigeria, Fani-Kayode's portraits and compositions explore tensions created by race, culture, and sexuality. He worked to portray gay male sexuality, spirituality and culture during the height of the worldwide AIDS epidemic, and Fani-Kayode died in 1989 from complications of the disease. He was 34. Click here to see his artist profile at the Guggenheim, including images of his work.

Berto Pasuka (1911-1963) 

Pasuka was a Black Queer Jamaican dancer, choreographer and painter. In 1946, he co-founded Les Ballet Negres, a groundbreaking Black dance company, which performed sold-out tours throughout Europe. Check out his UK National Portrait Gallery page here.

Ivor Gustavus Cummings, OBE (1913-1992) 

Cummings was an openly gay Black man in the UK during a time period when homosexuality was illegal in that country. He was widely known as the 'gay father of the Windrush generation' in the UK, welcoming Carribean immigrants and helping them find housing and jobs. Read more about Cummings here.