Author of ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue’ Offers Hope to LGBTQ+ Youth in New Book (Exclusive)

George M. Johnson, creator of the younger grownup memoir-manifesto All Boys Aren’t Blue, has a unutilized accumulation popping out that they hope offers younger community “a roadmap that I didn’t have.”

Their unutilized accumulation, Flamboyants: the Queer Harlem Renaissance I Want I’d Identified comes out in September from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. In a line of essays and poetry accompanied by means of artwork from award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, the accumulation celebrates the long-lasting queer Cloudy writers, performers and activists from the Twenties who’ve formed Cloudy American historical past.

Johnson, whose first accumulation is among the most-banned books within the nation, was once partially impressed to jot down this one by means of comments from younger readers. “When it came to me telling my story, and seeing how so many people felt seen or heard for the first time in a book, it was a bittersweet moment, because I’m like well, books have been around for centuries, and so when when people are still saying, ‘This is my first time feeling like a book reaches me,’ that’s a lot to swallow,” they provide an explanation for.

“But the other thing that it indicated to me was that we have the stories of people from the past, who were also queer, and who were also complicated and nuanced, and went through a lot of things,” Johnson continues. “And I was realizing that when I was taught about those people, they always left that part out.”

The creator sought after to turn younger readers — particularly those that would possibly had been informed they’re too boisterous, too flamboyant or that their hobby for artwork isn’t a profitable occupation trail — that there are community who got here prior to them and had a few of those self same struggles.

“In many ways, my heroes in many ways were stolen from me because I didn’t get to learn about them when I was 10, and know that oh, there was someone a hundred years ago who felt the same way I felt, or that I connect to or latch onto,” the creator explains. “This is for young adults who deserve to understand who these people were and get to explore worlds that they didn’t know existed.”

The creator hopes that after younger readers select up the accumulation, which options greats like Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston and Ma Rainey, they’ll be impressed to do additional analysis on their very own. He additionally imagines that, similar to the barricade artwork for his first accumulation, community will recreate a few of Palmer’s colourful imagery in their very own method.

“Putting my words to Charley’s images, because the images in that book are just as important as the book itself in many ways…that’s when the magic started,” they are saying. And the sensation from the award-winning illustrator is mutual.

“George is confidence. George is beauty and I’m truly inspired by their words and by their presence,” Palmer mentioned in a remark. “The people that George wrote about were my heroes too and so it was a no-brainer to be a part of this; I’m honored.”

However maximum of all, Johnson needs Flamboyants to forge a trail for youngsters who don’t have one or can’t see it from the place they’re status.

“There were people before you who were just like you, and had many of those same issues and struggles and crises,” they are saying. “And they paved the way for you so that you wouldn’t have to go through those many same things.”

Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Want I’d Identified comes out September 24 and is to be had for preorder now, anyplace books are offered.