American Gay Community.” Callaloo 21 (1998):
399–416.
David Shane WallaceGo the Way Your Blood Beats: An
Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction
by African-American Writers
Shawn Stewart Ruff, ed. (1996)
Go the Way Your Blood Beats chronicles four de-
cades of fiction by African-American gays and
lesbians and distinguishes the work as a major
contribution to the contemporary African-Ameri-
can literary canon. As he notes in his introduction,
editor Shawn Stewart Ruff juxtaposes the work of
earlier African-American writers with the work of
notable present-day authors to weave a common
thread that represents the lives of gay and lesbian
African Americans. Although the collection is
organized thematically to direct gay or straight,
black or white readers toward a compassioned
understanding of the fears and intolerance that
same-gender–loving (SGL) people often face, his-
torically the overriding themes of the stories and
novel excerpts remain the same.
Go the Way is divided into five sections. The
first section, “Wet behind the Ears,” includes sto-
ries on self-discovery amid adversity and isolation.
“Bad Blood” opens with AMIRI BARAKA’s “The Al-
ternative.” African erotica is explored in “Behind
Closed Doors,” a section written by true imagists.
According to Ruff, the section “Blood, Sweat, and
Tears” concentrates on stories of sexual ambigu-
ity. He includes RICHARD WRIGHT’s, “Man of All
Work,” which features a “desperate cross-dresser”
(xxii), in this section. “Heartache” introduces
“Just Friends,” a series of journal entries writ-
ten by Brooke M. Stephens that documents the
spiritual and life journeys of two friends. “Hem-
orrhaging” opens with Orian Hyde Weeks’s “Dis-
simulations” and continues with “Afro Jew Fro,” a
story by Catherine C. McKinley. All of the stories
feature forms of self-abuse triggered by denial of
sexual orientation.
Go the Way’s strength lies in the variety, com-
plexity, and candid and credible voices that speak
in each entry. For example, in “The Women,” Gayl
Jones’s 11-year old Winnie Flynn recounts her
journey toward understanding that her mother is
a lesbian. In SAPPHIRE’s “There’s a Window,” a truly
touching image appears through nonsensual sex.
Two female prisoners engage in aggressive, latex-
protected sex. The sex is cold and callous and as
distant as the perverse imagistic wild West terrain
that the role-playing activities generate. Slowly,
though, sex is shown to be an escapist form of cop-
ing in prison. RICHARD BRUCE NUGENT’s stream-of-
conscious story “SMOKE, LILIES, AND JADE” paints
a portrait of the African-American writer, artist,
poet, and philosopher en route to discovering the
meaning of beauty. Wright’s story could easily
be read as a radio play. Every detail of the story,
every action, reaction, and emotion, is delivered in
crisp, vibrant dialogue. There is a constant sense
of entrapment to the chores and expectations, as if
Carl’s impersonation of his wife is truly awkward
and uncomfortable. When Carl is finally allowed
home, he is glad to be there as a man, as himself.
“To go the way your blood beats,” according
to Ruff, is to “live life instinctively, intuitively,
with integrity and an awareness of consequences”
(xxiii). In other words, Ruff suggests that there are
no overriding themes in life, no general terms to
guide us. Contributors to Go the Way Your Blood
Beats offer generous insights into the mysteries
that make all of us individual and whole.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ruff, Shawn Stewart, ed. Go the Way Your Blood Beats:
An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by Afri-
can-American Writers. New York: Henry Holt and
Company, 1996.
Lawrence T. Potter, Jr.Greatest Taboo: Homosexuality in Black
Communities, The Delroy Constantine-
Simms (2001)
Delroy Constantine-Simms, the editor of Great-
est Taboo, was born and educated in England. He
holds degrees in English, sociology, education, and
occupational psychology. He identifies as hetero-212 Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African-American Writers