Revolutionary Acts: Love & Brotherhood in Black Gay Britain

In Revolutionary Acts, Jason Okundaye explores the history of Black gay men in Britain, revealing a vibrant community full of courage, charisma, and good humor. Through their conversations, he seeks to reconcile the Black and gay narratives of Britain, highlighting their resilience and self-determination in the face of marginalization and discrimination. The book offers a singular portrait of Britain from the perspective of those buffeted by the winds of marginalization and is a valuable contribution to queer British history.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 07 March 2024
Publisher: Faber & Faber

Announcing the arrival of a major new talent, an astonishing work of social history which captures Black gay Britain as never before.

In this seminal book, Okundaye gives us juicy dialogue, tears and laughter, and vivid landscapes of memory.

MENDEZ, author of Rainbow Milk, Okundaye has done something extraordinary and made this work of vital social history seem like a late-night, electrifying conversation between good friends.

SHON FAYE, author of The Transgender Issue, Illuminating, heartbreaking, scandalous and galvanising. A crucial text not just of Black British history, but British history in itself.

BOLU BABALOLA, author of Honey & Spice, *** In this landmark work, Jason Okundaye meets an elder generation of Black gay men and finds a spirited community full of courage, charisma and good humour, hungry to tell its past - of nightlife, resistance, political fights, loss, gossip, sex, romance and vulgarity.

Through their conversations, he seeks to reconcile the Black and gay narratives of Britain, narratives frequently cleaved as distinct and unrelated.

Tracing these men's journeys and arrivals to South London through the seventies, eighties and nineties from the present day, Okundaye relays their stories with rare compassion, listening as they share intimate memories and reflect upon their lives.

They endured and fought against the peak of the AIDS epidemic, built social groups and threw underground parties; they went to war with institutions (and with each other) and created meaning within a society which was often indifferent to their existence.

Revolutionary Acts renders a singular portrait of Britain from the perspective of those buffeted by the winds of marginalisation and discrimination. It is a portrait marked by resilience and self-determination.

Weight: 508g
Dimension: 161 x 242 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780571372218
Edition number: Main