CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

This panel was one of many held during CLAGS’ Black Nations/Queer Nations? conference held at the Graduate Center from March 9 to 11 1995. It brought together famed, queer, black literary figures Samuel R Delaney, Coco Fusco, and Essex Hemphill. This panel is especially noteworthy as it was one of Essex Hemphill’s last public appearance before he died from AIDS-related complications later that year. Both the panel and this conference as a whole addressed the issue of being queer and also being part of the African diaspora. Black Nations/Queer Nations? was part of CLAGS’ commitment to host annual conferences devoted to the latest research in the field of queer studies and was also the subject of an experimental documentary by Third World Newsreel.

Although formally instituted at the CUNY Graduate Center in 1991, CLAGS: The Center for LGBTQ Studies was first conceived 5 years earlier by Martin, Duberman, one of the first historians to embrace the, then infantile, field of Queer Studies. Duberman sensed the need for a formal center devoted to queer research. As the first university-based center for LGBTQ research, CLAGS continues to demonstrate its dedication to advancing Queer Studies, by hosting public events showcasing queer research and sponsoring fellowships to support queer scholars. Among its many notable contributions, CLAGS annually puts on at least one major conference and holds the Kessler Award Lecture every fall to celebrate a queer scholar who has made a notable contribution to the field of queer studies.