A safe, empowering space for Black gay men to connect, read, and grow together.
📅 Once a Month on Zoom
🧘🏿♂️ Every session begins with a guided meditation inspired by themes from our reading.
📚 What We Read:
One short article, essay, or story AND
One longer novel or nonfiction book monthly.
All selections center on the lives, voices, and experiences of Black gay men.
🌱 What You’ll Gain:
A supportive, judgment-free space.
Deeper connection to yourself and others.
Insightful conversations and personal growth.
Book Club Ground Rules
A gathering for Black gay men who want to read, reflect, and root together.
Reading the book is not required. Come whether you’ve read the whole thing, a few pages, or nothing at all. This is a space for human connection, not performance.
We are a social club first. We use the book to spark conversation, not control it. We value presence over perfection, connection over completion.
This space is exclusively for Black gay men. All attendees should identify as such. No exceptions.
Come when and how you can. We honor real life. If you’re late, come anyway. If you miss a session, come back. Your belonging isn’t conditional.
Speak for yourself. Use “I” statements. No advice unless asked. No need to summarize or sound smart. Your truth is enough.
Listen with generosity. Let people finish. Sit with discomfort. Make room for difference without debate.
Confidentiality is sacred. What’s shared in the circle stays in the circle. Trust is non-negotiable.
Engage with curiosity, not certainty. We are here to learn, unlearn, and grow, not to be right.
Bring your full self. Emotions, contradictions, laughter, softness. Yes to all of it.
Keep showing up. This is about rhythm, not rigidity. We grow in community over time.
May
Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure―from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama―Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it―or perhaps because of it―they shine.
Armed with a deadpan wit, Purnell finds humor in even the darkest of nadirs with the peerless zeal, insight, and horniness of a gay punk messiah. Together, the slice-of-life tales that writhe within 100 Boyfriends are an inimitable tour of an unexposed queer underbelly. Holding them together is the vision of an iconoclastic storyteller, as fearless as he is human.
June- Author Spotlight
Special Guest- Rasheed Newson
Xavier C. Barlow, one of Hollywood’s young Black stars taking the industry by storm in the late 1950s, is Skyline Studios’s ambitious attempt to rival Sidney Poitier. His arrival into the industry is calculated, his charm is magnetic, and his seductive screen presence appeals to both audiences and celebrities across generations.
But years later, after Xavier dies at the height of his fame, Aaron Touissant—Skyline’s designated backlot fixer who helps the studio’s stars stay as deep in the closet as humanly possible—is finally ready to expose the powerful culprits responsible for his untimely death.
Written from Aaron's panoramic lens, There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood is a searing portrait of the movie industry as a manicured minefield and a compelling journey into the queer history of Los Angeles.
July
This is the vibrant story of George, Garrett, Rall, and Rasul—four children raised by Nanny, their fiercely devoted grandmother. The boys hold each other close through early brushes with racism, memorable experiences at the family barbershop, and first loves and losses. And with Nanny at their center, they are never broken.
George M. Johnson captures the unique experience of growing up as a Black boy in America through rich family stories that explore themes of vulnerability, sacrifice, and culture.
Complete with touching letters from the grandchildren to their beloved matriarch and a full color photo insert, this heartwarming and heartbreaking memoir is destined to become a modern classic of emerging adulthood.
Your Facilitator:
Jeffrey Charles Fleming, is an actor, educator, and published author. As a proud Alumnus of Howard University and a native of Richmond, VA, and a million other life experiences along the way, he is proud to add this experience of reading books with members of his community. As a current resident in the Nation’s Capital, he enjoys singing with the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, working out in the gym, spending time with family and friends and his babies at home: Treasure (turtle), Jesse, Jamal and Josiah (plants.) He thanks all of his family and friends for their love and support. Follow him on Instagram: @Sonofhoward
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