Inner City Sissy
A critical reflection and memoir about growing up African American and queer in inner city settings of the US.
About The Book
Table of Contents
About The Author
What is it like growing up Black and gay in the inner city?
Author David B. Green Jr critically reflects on this question, and his journey through life to discover joy and meaning, in this affirming memoir. Inner City Sissy is both a Dear Young Me letter and a love note to Black queer people “from the hood” as it touches on themes of identity, music, acceptance, and resistance through the life course from childhood to adulthood.
Ideal reading for students of Black and African American Studies as well as Queer & LGBT+ Studies, Sociology, literature and musicology, and related courses, this book brings lived experience to the studies of identity formation and intersectionality.
What is it like growing up Black and gay in the inner city?
Author David B. Green Jr critically reflects on this question, and his journey through life to discover joy and meaning, in this affirming memoir. Inner City Sissy is both a Dear Young Me letter and a love note to Black queer people “from the hood” as it touches on themes of identity, music, acceptance, and resistance through the life course from childhood to adulthood.
Ideal reading for students of Black and African American Studies as well as Queer & LGBT+ Studies, Sociology, literature and musicology, and related courses, this book brings lived experience to the studies of identity formation and intersectionality.
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Abstract
- A note on language
- Table of Contents
- Learning objectives
- Introduction story/ Black queer literacy
- Part I The inner city
- 1 Home/ Faggot
- 1. Faggot
- 2. The joy of stealing shit
- 3. Bethune Elementary
- 4. The Boys and Girls Club
- 5. The day I kicked his ass
- 1 Home/ Faggot
- Part II Mother
- 2 Prelude/ Memory
- 3 Angel Girl/ Motherhood
- 1. Black girlhood and love
- 2. A taste of the free life
- 4 Angela
- 1. Her legacy
- Part III School
- 5 Sissy/ Flute
- 1. Eugene Butler Middle School
- 2. “Get out of my classroom, you little punk”
- 3. Ms Milby
- 4. The clarinet thief
- 5. Becoming a music-loving warrior sissy
- 6. Him
- 7. Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
- 6 Broken/ Hearted
- 7 Black queer/ Lit
- 1. Douglas Anderson and summer reading
- 2. Can You Come to My Desk?
- 3. Mis/ reading. Spirit murder
- 4. Do you know who James Baldwin is?
- 5. Discovering Audre Lorde
- 8 From the hood to the hooded/ Black Queer Teacher:
- 1. Black queer boy at play
- 2. Lucky: My godmother
- 3. Shots!
- 4. AIM: TexasGatorGul
- 5. Love: Being a Black Queer Teacher
- 5 Sissy/ Flute
- Instructional activities/ Discussion questions
- Notes
- Index
David B. Green Jr PhD is an Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies at California State University, Los Angeles.
