"Every time someone thanks you, it raises your vibration. I sparkle, I light, & I vibrate so high. Thank you, Philip, for this award. It means a great deal to me because it comes from my community. I vow to do the good work until I die, and then some." Did you know that Steven once held a job as a children's librarian in his native Toledo, Ohio? "The job required me to think broadly about the needs of African-American children and to help their parents augment their children's education through books, film festivals, and other Black-focused programs," he said. His published works include Black Gay Genius: Answering Joseph Beam's Call (co-edited by Charles Stephens), To Be Left with the Body, (co-edited by Cheryl Clarke), and Carry the Word: A Bibliography of Black LGBTQ Books (co-edited by Lisa C. Moore).

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is a community cherished writer and Black feminist scholar. She was the first scholar to research in the papers of Audre Lorde at Spelman College and June Jordan at Harvard University, and her work to amplify the lessons of Black feminist writers is recognized around the world. . Her work to create the Mobile Homecoming Living Library and Archive with her partner Sangodare is a model for Black LGBTQ intergenerational engagement and care. She is the author of Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity, M Archive: After the End of the World which have transformed and enlivened Black feminist theory and poetics. Her co-edited volume Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines offers an expansive vision of mothering as a transformative way of nurturing life, grounded in the leadership of Black lesbian feminist activists of the 1970s and 80s. She and her partner live in Durham, North Carolina where they are in the early stages of creating an intergenerational assisted and independent living community to celebrate and center Black LGBTQ brilliance.

M Archive: After the End of the World is available here. (You can download the introduction to M Archive: After the End of the World here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-0-8223-7084-0_601.pdf)

Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity is available here.

Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines is available here.

Without Apology: Poems in Honor of Black Women by Clyde E. Gumbs is available here.

Listen to excerpts from M Archive: After the End of the World in my echolocation lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vELtF3-3jW8 Check out my conversation with Hortense Spillers on Left of Black here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui-EZQ1BTfE Get a sneak preview of the concept behind my current project "Visionary Daughtering" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBp8RVzPW8M&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3jGcaFWIFemTsBnZ6H3sTitWo52ayaHSuJ-9z_PiVYMUu67C6psSmw-t0

www.alexispauline.com www.blackfeminismlives.tumblr.com www.alexispauline.com/brillianceremastered www.mobilehomecoming.org www.brokenbeautiful.wordpress.com www.blackfeministmind.wordpress.com

It gives us great pleasure to honor Sampson McCormick with this Special Recognition Award. Sampson is a stand-up comedian, writer, lover of the theater, men, and black excellence. McCormick was born in Washington DC but currently resides in Los Angeles. He got his start in comedy at the age of 16. He has been featured on BET, TV One, and VICELAND. In 2018 he made history as the first LGBTQ comic to perform at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Mr. McCormick's body of works include an off-Broadway run of "BBoy Blues: The Stage Play," as well as films such as That Bitch Better Be Funny: Sampson Live at Howard Theater. Did you know that Sampson recently wrote, directed and starred in a short film? A DIFFERENT DIRECTION is the story of Frankie Bailey, a black, gay man in his 30's struggling to make ends meet while being forced to confront one of the biggest challenges of his life.

Mr. McCormick is this afternoon's featured performer

Perre has over a decade of experience engaging in LGBTQ community development and healing. This has taken the form of grassroots activism, social media campaigns, activism through expressive arts, and mental/behavioral health justice. Perre's current projects centralize trans, gender non-conforming (GNC), and non-binary experiences within the broader national discourse concerning the well-being of LGBTQ people and what it means, more specifically, for LGBTQ people of color to thrive. He takes the stories of those marginalized even within the larger LGBTQ community—such as LGBTQ people with disabilities; LGBTQ older adults, and LGBTQ asylum seekers, for example—and centers those stories in how the larger society develops and grows. It is his hope that through this work these, once invisible/ignored populations, become central to how we talk about community, movements, relationships, products and services, love, and other markers of a thriving society. Amongst his latest work is Perre's theory of trans-femme counterculture, which has been published in the Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, and some of his other writings will be published in an upcoming textbook as well as an upcoming handbook for clinicians. Currently, Perr? is a candidate for the Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) where he plans to continue his work in trans, GNC, and non-binary career vocational and community development as well as centering their narratives in how we develop across all sectors of our society.

Did you know that Perre Shelton once performed on Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam?

To see Perre's electrifying performance of "Dandelion" visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=Hx5lX69AE_g