books

For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Still Not Enough: Coming of Age, Coming Out, and Coming Home

In 1974, playwright Ntozake Shange published a choreopoem called For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf. The book/play/poetry would go on to inspire legions of women for decades and would later become the subject and title of a hugely popular movie in the fall of 2010. While the film was selling out movie theaters, young black gay men were literally committing suicide in the silence of their own communities.

In the same time period, a young Rutgers University student named Tyler Clementi took his own life after a roommate secretly videotaped him in an intimate setting with another young man. In response, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry to inspire young people facing harassment. Their message, It Gets Better, turned into a popular movement, inspiring thousands of user-created videos on the Internet. Savage’s project targeted people of all races, backgrounds and colors, but Boykin has created something special “for colored boys.” The new book responds to the crisis of youth development and suicide in the black community, and more specifically among young gay men of color. For Colored Boys is designed to educate and inspire those seeking to overcome obstacles in their lives.

Rob Smith is thrilled to make his literary debut as a contributing author to For Colored Boys, which will be released in March of 2012.  Click here to preorder.

Secret Soldier:  Coming of Age as a Gay Man in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Army

At 17, Rob Smith was another gay Midwestern teen looking for an escape from his small-town existence.  By 21, he was a decorated Iraq-war veteran who had spent the past 4 years coming to terms with his sexuality while performing one of the most dangerous jobs the U.S. Army has to offer.  Secret Soldier is an account of his experiences as a gay African-American male enduring basic training in the deep south, his clandestine and sometimes dangerous exploration of sexuality while negotiating the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the U.S. Armed Forces, and his experiences as an infantry ground solder in Iraq shortly after the American invasion.

    Secret Soldier is a brutally honest and no-holds-barred perspective on what life is really like for a gay soldier on the ground.  Alternately funny, sad, sexy, and harrowing, this is a story that has never been told, offering a ground-level view of life on the front lines of race and sexuality in the United States military from a unique and powerful voice.  Secret Soldier is equal parts gay coming of age story and military memoir, its themes of first love and sexuality marrying those of struggle, brutality, and survival.

Secret Soldier will be released in the fall of 2012.  Check back for more updates.