Jewelle Gomez facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jewelle Gomez
Gomez in 2008
Born	Jewelle Lydia Gomez (1948-09-11) September 11, 1948 (age 76) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Writer, critic
Notable work	The Gilda Stories
Spouse(s)	Diane Sabin, m. 2008

Jewelle Lydia Gomez (born September 11, 1948) is an American author, poet, and playwright. She is also a critic, meaning she writes reviews and opinions about books, movies, and art.

Jewelle Gomez lived in New York City for 22 years. There, she worked in public television and theater. She also worked in philanthropy, which means she helped manage money given to good causes. Later, she moved to the West Coast of the United States. Her writing includes stories, poems, essays, and cultural reviews. Her work often focuses on the experiences of women, especially women of color who are part of the LGBTQ community. She has also been featured in documentaries about equal rights and culture.

Early Life and Family History

Jewelle Gomez was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 11, 1948. Her mother, Dolores Minor LeClaire, was a nurse, and her father, John Gomez, was a bartender.

Jewelle was raised by her great-grandmother, Grace. Grace was born on Indian land in Iowa. Her mother was African-American, and her father was from the Ioway tribe. Grace moved back to New England before she was 14. She later married John E. Morandus, who was Wampanoag and a descendant of Massasoit. Massasoit was a famous leader for whom Massachusetts was named.

Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, Jewelle was greatly influenced by her great-grandmother Grace and grandmother Lydia. Their stories of being independent and sometimes treated differently in their African-American community appear in her writing. For example, the story "Grace A." from her book Don't Explain is about her great-grandmother.

During her high school and college years, Jewelle Gomez was involved in Black political and social movements. These experiences also shaped much of her writing. In New York City, she worked in Black theater. She was a stage manager for many off-Broadway plays.

Later, she became involved in movements for women's equal rights and published articles in magazines. She was part of Conditions, a literary magazine for women. More recently, her writing has also explored her Native American heritage, including her Ioway and Wampanoag roots.

Exploring Jewelle Gomez's Writing

Jewelle Gomez has written seven books. She has been called a "foremother of Afrofuturism." This is a genre that combines African culture with science fiction and fantasy.

Her most famous book is The Gilda Stories, which won two Lambda Literary Awards. This novel has been in print since 1991. It tells a new kind of vampire story from a unique perspective. It's an adventure about an escaped slave named Gilda. She grows up and learns about life over two hundred years. A scholar named Elyce Rae Helford said that Gilda's journey also shows how life is part of many communities. These communities are often on the edges of mainstream American society.

Jewelle Gomez also wrote a play based on The Gilda Stories. The play, called Bones and Ash, toured 13 U.S. cities starting in 1996. The Urban Bush Women Company performed it. For the 25th anniversary of The Gilda Stories, a new edition was released with a new introduction by Gomez.

Her other books include:

• Don't Explain: A collection of short stories.
• 43 Septembers: A collection of essays about personal and political topics.
• Oral Tradition: Selected Poems Old and New: A collection of her poems.

These books often use a style where stories connect in a series of events. This shows how today's fights for freedom are linked to social and political movements from the past.

Her stories and poems are in over a hundred collections. These include Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (2000), which was the first collection of Black speculative fiction. Her work also appears in Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, Daughters of Africa, and Best American Poetry of 2001.

Gomez has written reviews of books and films for many publications. These include The Village Voice, the San Francisco Chronicle, Ms., and The Black Scholar. She has said that The Village Voice especially helped her become a better writer.

She has been interviewed often in magazines and journals. In a 1993 Advocate article, she talked about how she started writing and her political interests. She was also interviewed for a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies about funding for women's activism. This interview connected her work in philanthropy with her political background. She was also interviewed for the 1999 film After Stonewall.

Gomez also wrote a funny novel called Televised. It tells the stories of people who survived the Black Nationalist movement. Parts of this novel were included in the 2002 book Gumbo.

In 2010, she wrote a play about the writer James Baldwin called Waiting For Giovanni. She worked on this with Harry Waters Jr., an actor and professor. Readings of the play have been held in several cities. Gomez also wrote the play Leaving the Blues, which is about the singer Alberta Hunter. This play first opened in 2017 in San Francisco.

Both Waiting for Giovanni and Leaving the Blues have been produced by TOSOS Theatre Company in New York City. Leaving the Blues was nominated for a 2020 Audelco Award for Best Play. It also won awards for its lead actress and featured actor.

Gomez contributed to the book Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times (2017). Her letter in the book, "Not a Moment but a Movement," honors her great-grandmother, Grace A.

A new play by Gomez, Unpacking in Ptown, was set to premiere in 2021. It is the third play in her "Words and Music" trilogy.

Activism and Equal Rights

Jewelle Gomez's work for equal rights for all people is based on the history of race and gender in America. In an essay called "The Marches," she wrote that "no one of us should feel we can leave someone behind in the struggle for liberation." This means everyone should work together for freedom and equality.

Gomez was part of the first staff for Say Brother (now Basic Black). This was one of the first weekly Black television shows, starting in 1968 in Boston. In 1984, she was also on the founding board of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). This group works to fight unfair portrayals of LGBTQ people in the media.

She also served on the early boards of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation and the Open Meadows Foundation. Both of these groups provide money to women's organizations and activities. She was also a member of a group in San Francisco called 100 Lesbians and Our Friends. This group helped educate women about using money for good causes and the benefits of philanthropy. They raised over $200,000 in two years for women's groups.

Gomez has given speeches at many universities. She was a keynote speaker twice for Gay Pride in New York City and a host for Pride San Francisco.

Jewelle Gomez and her partner, Dr. Diane Sabin, were among the people who sued the state of California for the right to legally marry. This case was brought to court by the City Attorney of San Francisco, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Gomez has written a lot about gay rights since the 1980s. She wrote articles about equal marriage in Ms. Magazine and was often quoted during the court case.

In May 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that marriage between same-sex couples was allowed in California. Gomez and Sabin were among 18,000 couples who got married in California. However, Proposition 8, which banned further same-sex marriages in California, was approved by voters later that year.

Professional Career

Jewelle Gomez has had a long career in philanthropy, which is about giving money and time to help others. She used to be the executive director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University. She was also the director of Cultural Equity Grants at the San Francisco Arts Commission. Before that, she directed the Literature Program for the New York State Council on the Arts.

She has given lectures and taught at many colleges and universities. These include San Francisco State University, Hunter College, Rutgers University, and the University of Washington.

Currently, she works as the Director of Grants and Community Initiatives for Horizons Foundation. This is the oldest foundation in the U.S. that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. She also used to be the President of the San Francisco Public Library Commission.