N.K. Jemisin Becomes First Black Woman To Win Hugo Award for Best Novel

Wow! Defying the predictions of most prognosticators, Nora Jemisin was the surprise winner of the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel for The Fifth Season. (See my A-/B+ review.) By my reckoning, Jemisin win is historic for multiple reasons: she's the first Black woman (and first Black person) to win science fiction's most prestigious award. And she did it after two years of intense debate (most of it online) in the speculative fiction community about the meaning, necessity and importance of diversity in the speculative fiction community. She also did it despite being nominated for (and losing) the Nebula award to Naomi Novik's Uprooted.

This is how The Guardian placed this year's awards in context with the ongoing Puppy fracas:

As in previous years, there had been attempts by two separate groups, the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies, to “game” the awards in favour of their preferred slates of works. Both groups claimed that science fiction has become dominated by a liberal, left-wing bias. 

The Hugos are voted on by those who purchase an attending or supporting membership to either the current or previous Worldcon events. Eligible voters can tick the “No Award” box if they don’t agree with any of the shortlisted works, a tool which has been used to block out Puppies recommendations previously. In 2015, five No Awards were given, including for the prestigious best novella and best short story categories; an unprecedented number, as No Award had only been presented as many times in the entire history of the prize, which began in 1953. 

In contrast, this year there were only two No Awards, in the smaller best related work and best fan-cast categories.

However one of the key ironies (also noted by The Guardian) in Jemisin's win is that the primary rabble-rouser of the rabid puppies, Theodore Beale (a.k.a. Vox Day) had previously been expelled from the Science Fiction Writers Association after he called Jemisin an "educated but ignorant savage." The group of Rabid Puppies has been trying to destroy the Hugo awards, by exerting undue influence over the nominations and winners but Jemisin becoming the first Black woman to win the top prize is the clearest repudiation of the recent actions of Beale's Puppies to "make science fiction great again."

Jason Collins Officially Becomes 1st Openly Gay NBA Player

The New York Times is reporting that Jason Collins, who last year came out as the first openly gay player to be competing in a major American professional sport, will become the first openly gay player in the NBA by joining the Brooklyn Nets for a 10-day contract. Collins had been playing for the Washington Wizards but when he came out the season for the team was over and he was technically not on any NBA team's roster. With his signing with the Nets, he will likely become the first openly gay player to compete in an official NBA game very soon, perhaps as soon as tonight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles (where Collins lives).

LOS ANGELES — Jason Collins, a 35-year-old N.B.A. center who announced last year that he was gay, has signed a 10-day contract Sunday to join the roster of the Nets. 

The signing is a significant step in transforming American professional sports into a welcoming environment for gay athletes. No N.B.A. game has ever taken place with an openly gay player on the floor. The N.F.L., Major League Baseball and the N.H.L. — which round out the continent’s four traditional major sports leagues — have also never had an publicly gay participant. 

The very act of Collins’s suiting up and stepping onto the court, then, would represent a milestone in the effort to change a sports culture that some feel has lagged far behind society at large in acceptance of gay people. Collins was expected be in uniform when the Nets played the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night at the Staples Center.

Congratulations to Jason (and the Nets) for breaking this lavender barrier!

SATURDAY POLITICS: Record 6 Openly LGBT Members of NYC City Council

Carlos Menchaca became the first openly gay councilperson elected in Brooklyn

New York City held its primary election this past Tuesday and although the results of whether Bill de Blasio made the required 40% to avoid a run-off are still not finalized, there were some exciting moments for the LGBT community despite the unsuccessful end of openly lesbian City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's run to become the first openly LGBT person elected to head the nation's largest city.

The Gay Politics blog of the Victory Fund reports:

Historic wins came in the outer boroughs, where Brooklyn’s Carlos Menchaca [pictured] upset incumbent Sara Gonzalez in the District 38 race with 58% of the vote. In the Bronx, voters in District 15 elected Ritchie Torres with 36% of the vote in a 6-way race. Both Menchaca and Torres will become the first openly gay Councilmembers from their respective boroughs. 

Incumbents Danny Dromm of District 25 and Jimmy Van Bramer of District 26 were unopposed in Tuesday’s primary elections, while District 2 Councilwoman Rosie Mendez fended off a primary challenge and secured a third term with 81% of the vote. Finally, Corey Johnson won the District 3 primary with 63% of the vote to succeed Council speaker Christine Quinn.

The New York City council will most likely have 6 openly LGBT members out of a total of 51 members, which is pretty good representation of 11.7%!

Congratulations to everyone.

MOVIE REVIEW: Pariah

The film Pariah has been enjoying a very positive buzz in film circles. I saw the short version of this film at the 2007 Fusion (LGBT People of Color) film festival in Los Angeles and was quite impressed. The 2007 short was only 27 minutes long but was clearly one of the best things at the film festival.

The production team for the feature film version of Pariah is the same as the one who created the original short: writer-director Dee Rees and producer Nekisa Cooper. Except this time the feature has some high-profile Executive Producers (most notably Spike Lee).

The plot is about the coming-of-age story of a Black lesbian named Alike (whose friends call her Lee and whose family members call her Alike). There is an astonishing scene in the beginning of the film in which Alike and her (rather butch looking) friend Laura are at lesbian club (complete with female strippers) where Alike is visibly uncomfortable but Laura fits right in. They take the bus home and Alike demurs when Laura asks whether she should stay on the bus past her own stop in order to see her friend safely home. The reason for this becomes clear. As soon as Laura leaves, Alike transforms herself from a gender non-conforming butch (though even under all her thuggish drag her female attractiveness still shines through) into a proper feminine daughter, applying make-up, putting on earrings, removing her do-rag and taking off her shirt to reveal a blouse underneath. It is an astonishing moment where the inherent conflict of the character is depicted with stark clarity: she has two identities, only one which is acceptable at home.

How the story evolves is not something that we haven't seen before (after all, at their core all coming-of-age stories and coming-out stories are basically the same) but it never seems pedestrian due to two things: the acting and the verisimilitude of the story. The performance by Adepero Oduye  lights up the screen and Kim Wayans as her mother is difficult to watch because it seems to real (and repellent). The story unspools in a very realistic manner which keeps the audience engaged and when it ends you are sad, but very happy that you went on the journey.

Title:  Pariah.
Director: Dee Rees.
Running Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some violent images and brief nudity.
Release Date: January 1, 2012.
Viewing Date: January 22, 2012.

Plot: B+.
Acting: A+.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: A.

Overall Grade: B/B+ (3.25/4.0).

Celebrity Friday: Blue Ivy Carter Born, Charts 1 Week Later

Beyonce and Jay-Z are the proud parents of Blue Ivy Carter,
who was born January 7, 2012

The world has been agog (and aghast) about the birth of Blue Ivy Carter, the newborn daughter of pop superstars Beyonce and Sean "Jay-Z" Carter in Brooklyn on January 7th, 2012.

Today comes word that Blue Ivy Carter is breaking a record as the youngest individual to appear on the Billboard music charts.

The newborn daughter of rapper Jay-Z and singer Beyonce, whose cries were sampled in her proud papa's newly-released single "Glory," became the youngest person to ever appear on the Billboard charts.

She is credited as a "collaborator" on the single, which has as its official title "Glory, Featuring B.I.C." (short for Blue Ivy Carter).

The song debuted at No. 74 on the charts.

Some of you may think that surely Stevie Wonder's brilliant song "Isn't She Lovely"  from his masterpiece Songs in the Key of Life which features the cries of his newborn daughter Aisha must be in the running for the record of youngest charting artist but apparently it wasn't released as a single until almost two years after it was recorded.

Eye Candy: Christopher Villa

Christopher Villa is a 26-year-old model from Brooklyn, New York. I found him myself but he's also available on Facebook. With friends like these who needs benefits? If you want to see more of Mr. Villa, check out this short film, directed by renowned photographer Carlos Arias. The shots shown here were taken by Rick Day.

Eye Candy: Ike Love

More stunning photographic work from Carlos Arias. The model is Ike Love, a straight, "ethnically ambiguous" 29-year-old from Brooklyn, NY. Ike is another find by David Dust.

Real World Brooklyn Features Gay and Transgender Members

J.D. (Latino gay man)


Katelynn

MTV's Real World stopped being in my DVR a looooong time ago but I may have to put the 21st edition of the show, Real World: Brooklyn because not only do they have a (cute!) gay Latino man in the cast but also a transgender named KateLynn who (along with a third castmember) all volunteer at the New York City Gay and Lesbian Community Center during this season.

What do you think? Are you gonna watch the show? There's also some dish around JD: He may or may not be Anderson Cooper's ex-boyfriend.

Mad Professah in Big Apple For Radical Math conference

Mad Professah will be in New York City (well, Brooklyn) this weekend for a Radical Mathematics conference which tries to put Mathematics and Social Justice in the same sentence.

I'm definitely looking forward to Saturday night's speech by McArthur "genius grant" fellow Bob Moses, the author of Radical Equations and the founder of the Algebra Project.