somebody please review this show for me!

(Seriously. Contact me @ carla@spenational.org to write a 500-word review for exposure, the journal I edit, and thanks Delphine for sending the images!)

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHER DELPHINE FAWUNDU-BUFORD PRODUCES PHOTO-ESSAY
FEATURING OPENLY HOMOSEXUAL BLACK & LATINO MEN


Press Contact:
Dakar Media
Dakar.Media@publicist.com
(718) 783-2074 (Gallery)

Beyond Fierce: Photographs and Words of Black & Latino Men in the
Life opens at The Gallery at Harriet’s Alter Ego

Opening Reception June 3, 2007
Exhibition Dates June 3 – July 6, 2007

The Gallery at Harriet’s Alter Ego
293 Flatbush Ave.
(btw. St. Marks & Prospect Pl.)
Bklyn, NY 11217
718.783.2074 -- www.harrietsalteregoonline.com
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 11-7pm

Brooklyn, New York, April 24, 2007 -- Homosexuality has been under
intense criticism for as long as anyone can remember. Pair that
lifestyle with the scrutiny of being Black or Latino in America, and
it’s a double dose of backlash. We’ve seen the sensational side of
the gay Black and Latino man – the cross dressing fairies to the
overly-animated, finger snapping queens to more recently, the
controversial ‘Down Lo’ brother. Photographer, Delphine
Fawundu-Buford, investigates a community of openly homosexual Black &
Latino men in a new photography exhibition entitled, Beyond Fierce:
Photographs and Words of Black & Latino Men in the Life.

“This community is one that the general public only really knows
through stereotypes, the characters that we see on TV and in the
movies,” explains Delphine, a mid-career photographer and educator
based in Brooklyn. “As a social documentarian, I am constantly
producing work that dares us to think beyond common stereotypes and
question societal prejudices.”

Beyond Fierce opens at The Gallery at Harriet’s Alter Ego June 3rd
and will feature small- to medium-scaled color and black and white
portraits of men who take pride in who they are.

Described as a ‘living photo-essay,” Beyond Fierce includes text
alongside the images in the exhibition. Delphine’s subjects sound off
on myriad ideas and issues related to homosexuality: Are people born
homosexuals? What is homophobia? Can one be homosexual and religious?
Is it easy to come out? Gay Rights? Should marriage be allowed?
Thoughts on the DL? Do relationships work? What do the term gay mean
to some black men? These are some of the many questions for which
the men voice their opinions.

Some of the men photographed for Beyond Fierce are popular names such
as, Emil Wilberkin, the Vice-President of brand development for
designer Marc Ecko; power couple Nathan Williams and Keith Boykin;
DeVon Christopher, Publisher of Bleu Magazine, and celebrious
television and fashion personality Andre J. Delphine also documents,
students, corporate professionals and community organizers such as
Anthony Morgan of the Black Gay Network, John Martin Green of Black
Men’s Exchange and Francisco Roque, The Institute for Gay Men's
Health.

Delphine notes that homosexuality is something that African-Americans
want to believe isn’t prevalent in the community; it’s not a
mainstream lifestyle so it’s swept under the rug. “We acknowledge
that it’s there but we don’t really get much into it,” explains
Delphine It’s also more complex than meets the eye; the men presented
her with an array of perspectives, “no two men are the same,” she
notes, “the main common assertion was that they all have an inner
attraction to men.”

A photographer for over 15 years, Delphine Fawundu-Buford is among
the ‘young lions’ of Black photography. Her work has been exhibited
nationally including the International Center of Photography, the
Anacostia Museum in Washington, DC and most notably the Brooklyn
Museum of Art where her photograph graced the cover of the
catalog-book of the Committed to the Image exhibition. She recently
traveled to New Orleans as a Gulf Coast Fellow with the National
Association of Black Journalists.

For more information and media inquires contact Dakar.Media@publicist.com.