Love: The Mix-Tape,
Love Stories of African-American Gay Elders Living in New York City

By Lamar Lovelace, 2011
Found in the Academic Commons
Listen to the audio documentary on sound4picturenyc.com

One of the generationally consistent challenges of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) human beings is the appropriation of Love. In addition to the minimal presence of non-stereotypical inclusions within popular culture, this dilemma is further exacerbated by the hegemony of hetero-normative narratives regarding family and gender roles articulated by religious organizations, mass media outlets, and political as well as legal institutions.

For individuals who develop and display the courage necessary to outwardly proclaim intimate attraction and desire for members of the same sex, ultimately a complicated journey begins. En route, the old glue of tradition quickly becomes a series of subconscious traps for which the reconciliation between, reformation of, and translation into the meaning, structure, and execution of one’s psychological framework or worldview that must be navigated for interpersonal Love to be freed.

Lamar Lovelace is the Director of Public Programs and Events for the Office of University Life at Columbia University. He previously served as the Director of Cultural Affairs and Student Engagement at Broward College.  Prior to that he was Assistant Director in the Office of Community Outreach for the School of the Arts at Columbia University in the City of New York.  He received an undergraduate degree in Speech and Hearing Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002, a graduate degree in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University in 2004, and received a graduate degree in Oral History from Columbia University in 2013.