Category Archives: September

Darlene Garner

September 28, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Darlene Garner was born on September 28, 1948. She is an ordained minister, LGBTQ activist, public speaker, and co-founder of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays (NCBLG). Darlene Onita Garner, of African, Cherokee, and Irish descent, was born in Columbus, Ohio, the oldest of five children. Her parents divorced when she was around two years old. She was raised in the National Baptist Convention, and baptized at age seven at the Union Grove Baptist Church. At age 10, […]

Categories: All, Garner, Darlene, September, September 28 • Tags: Darlene Garner, September 28, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Keith Barrow

September 27, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Keith Barrow was born on September 27, 1954 (to October 22, 1983). He was an R&B, soul, and disco singer and songwriter with a distinctive falsetto, best known for his 1978 hit, “You Know You Wanna Be Loved.” When he passed away at age 29 in 1983, Barrow became one of the earliest known deaths during the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the United States. Keith Errol Barrow was born in Chicago to Clyde Barrow, a welder, and noted […]

Categories: All, Barrow, Keith, September, September 27 • Tags: 1954, 1983, Keith Barrow, October 22, September 27, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Jair Trice

September 26, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Jair Trice was born on September 26. He is a writer, poet, essayist, spoken word artist, vocalist, arts curator, and activist popularly known as “The Literary Masturbator.” Trice was born Thomas Nathaniel Trice in Los Angeles, California, to Flora and John Trice. He is the youngest of ten children. His parents divorced, and his mother married Rev. Arthur Fudge. Trice began his primary education in Los Angeles, until his family moved to Inglewood, California, where he completed Clyde Woodworth Elementary School, […]

Categories: All, September, September 26, Trice, Jair • Tags: Jair Trice, Literary Masturbator, September 26, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Patrick Kelly

September 25, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Patrick Kelly was born on September 24, 1954 (to January 1, 1990). He was a celebrated fashion designer, style consultant, and influential trendsetter. Patrick Kelly was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to a working class African American family. His mother held a master’s degree, and worked as a home economics teacher. His father was a fishmonger, insurance agent, and cab driver. Kelly’s father left home, and he was raised primarily by his mother and grandmother, who worked as a cook for […]

Categories: All, September, September 24 • Tags: 1954, 1990, January 01, Patrick Kelly, September 24, Ubuntu Biography Project

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George C. Wolfe

September 23, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

George C. Wolfe was born on September 23, 1954. He is a highly celebrated American playwright, director of theater and film, and one-time actor who has earned five Tony Awards and countless other honors for his extraordinary work. In 2013, Wolfe was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. George Costello Wolfe was born in segregated Frankfort, Kentucky, the son of Anna Lindsey-Wolfe, an educator, and Costello Wolfe, a government clerk. He attended an all-Black private school, where his […]

Categories: All, September, September 23, Wolfe, George C. • Tags: 1954, George C. Wolfe, September 23, Ubuntu Biography Project

Ifalade Ta’Shia Asanti

September 23, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Ifalade Ta’Shia Asanti was born on September 23, 1961. She is an award-winning journalist, fiction writer, poet, performance artist, TV personality, spiritual teacher, literary consultant, and life coach. Ifalade Ta’Shia Asanti was born in Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Los Angeles. Her mother, Florence, was a teacher and an artist; her father, Herschel, was a doctor and Christian minister. Asanti became an activist when she was twelve, in response to the poverty and struggles she saw as a young child. She […]

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Alan Rogers

September 21, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Alan Rogers was born on September 21, 1967 (to January 27, 2008). He was an ordained pastor, a U.S. Army Major and Intelligence Officer, a civil rights activist in the gay, lesbian and bisexual military community, and the first known openly gay combat fatality of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The subsequent coverage of his death in the media sparked a debate over the effect of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and what information should be included in the biography […]

Categories: All, Rogers, Alan, September, September 21 • Tags: 1967, 2008, Alan Rogers, January 27, September 21, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Billy Porter

September 21, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Billy Porter was born on September 21, 1969. He is Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning singer, composer, actor, playwright, director, and LGBTQ activist. Billy Porter was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a close and loving family that included father William E. Porter, mother Clorinda Ford, and sister Mary Martha Ford. He attended the former Reizenstein Middle School, the Creative and Performing Arts High School’s School of Drama, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. […]

Categories: All, Porter, Billy, September, September 21 • Tags: 1969, Billy Porter, September 21, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Cleo Manago

September 21, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Cleo Manago was born on September 21, 1960. He is a Black human rights activist, socio-political analyst, behavioral health specialist, writer, and filmmaker who coined the term Same Gender Loving (SGL) for LGBTQ people who are Black or of African descent. He is also the founder and CEO of AmASSI Health and Cultural Centers, and Black Men’s Xchange (BMX). Manago was raised in “South Central” Los Angeles, attended Carson High School, and graduated from Compton High School in 1978. His […]

Categories: All, Manago, Cleo, September, September 21 • Tags: 1960, Cleo Manago, September 21, Ubuntu Biography Project

Jason Duval Hunter

September 20, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Jason Duval Hunter was born on September 20, 1968. He is a writer, producer, director, actor, mentor, supporter of the arts, and advocate for several causes, especially for child abuse survivors and issues surrounding sexually abused males. Jason Duval Hunter was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Willie George Lovelace, who was a “rolling stone,” and his mother, Mary Louise Hunter, who served as a single parent of ten children. His stepfather, Bishop Edward Speight, played an important role in Hunter’s young life, filling […]

Categories: All, Hunter, Jason Duval, September, September 20 • Tags: 1968, Jason Duval Hunter, September 20, Ubuntu Biography Project

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David Allan Blair

September 20, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

David Alan Blair was born on September 19, 1967 (to July 23, 2011). He was an award winning multi-faceted artist, poet, singer-songwriter, writer, performer, musician, community activist, and teacher. Known simply as “Blair,” David Alan Blair was one of five children born to Hildegard Blair and the late Herbert Blair, and grew up in Newton, New Jersey. Detroit, Michigan became his adopted home, beginning in the 1990s, and he often claimed he was “made in Detroit.” He loved the Motor […]

Categories: All, Blair, David Alan, September, September 19 • Tags: 1967, 2011, David Alan Blair, July 23, September 19, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Ellis Haizlip

September 17, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Ellis Haizlip was born on September 17, 1929 (to January 25, 1991). He was a pioneering broadcaster, television host, theater and television producer, and cultural activist. Ellis Haizlip was born in Washington, DC. Details of his early life are elusive, but rumors have persisted that his father was a diplomat who once served as the ambassador to the Court of St. James from Antigua (other accounts claimed Trinidad) and he may have spent many of his formative years in London. […]

Categories: All, Haizlip, Ellis, September, September 17 • Tags: 1929, 1991, Ellis Haizlip, January 25, September 17, Ubuntu Biography Project

Richard E. Pelzer II

September 17, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Richard E. Pelzer II was born on September 17, 1967. He is a business executive, talent booking agent, event producer, and community organizer. Richard Edward Pelzer II is the son of Richard Pelzer Sr., a finance executive for a Fortune 500 company, and Helen L. Pelzer, an elementary school teacher and housewife. He graduated from Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1985, before attending Ohio’s Kent State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in art history and business management. Pelzer was introduced to entrepreneurship […]

Categories: All, Pelzer II, Richard E., September, September 17 • Tags: 1967, Richard Pelzer, September 17, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Bobby Short

September 15, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Bobby Short was born on September 15, 1924 (to March 21, 2005). He was a Grammy Award-nominated cabaret star, pianist, and scholar best known for his interpretations of songs by popular composers of the first half of the 20th century, such as Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hart, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Fats Waller, Vernon Duke, Noël Coward, George and Ira Gershwin, and Billy Strayhorn. Robert Waltrip “Bobby” Short was born in Danville, Illinois, the ninth of ten children. […]

Categories: All, September, September 15, Short, Bobby • Tags: 1924, 2005, Bobby Short, March 21, September 15, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Claude McKay

September 15, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Claude McKay was born on September 15, 1889 (to May 22, 1948). The bisexual Jamaican-American writer and poet was a seminal figure of the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry was political and often gritty, and he was among the first Harlem Renaissance poets to openly address bisexuality. Claude McKay was born Festus Claudius McKay in Nairne Castle, Clarendon, Jamaica (called “Sunny Ville” by McKay and the locals). Although McKay’s birth certificate lists 1889 as his birth year, McKay would later state […]

Categories: All, McKay, Claude, September, September 15 • Tags: 1889, 1948, Claude McKay, May 22, September 15, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Ifti Nasim

September 15, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Ifti Nasim was born on September 15, 1946 (to July 22, 2011). He was a gay Pakistani American poet, writer, broadcaster, and activist who co-founded Chicago Sangat, an organization to support the LGBTQ South Asian community. Nasim was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1996. IIftikhar “Ifti” Nasim was born in Faisalabad, Pakistan (then called Lyallpur) in 1946, although an exact birthdate has been difficult to document. In an interview with “The Friday Times,” Nasim […]

Categories: All, Nasim, Ifti, September, September 15 • Tags: 1946, 2011, Ifti Nasim, July 22, September 15, Ubuntu Biography Project

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André Cooley

September 14, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

André Cooley was born on September 14, 1985. He is a lawyer, former deputy sheriff, youth advocate, mentor, and LGBTQ rights activist. He came to national prominence in 2010 when the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on his behalf following his termination as a corrections officer because he is gay. The lawsuit claimed that Cooley’s constitutional rights were violated by the Forrest County Sheriff’s Department (Mississippi) and his superior officers. André Cooley was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, […]

Categories: All, Cooley, André, September, September 14 • Tags: 1985, Andre Cooley, September 14, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Nell Carter

September 13, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Nell Carter was born on September 13, 1948 (to January 23, 2003). The star of the hit NBC sitcom “Gimme a Break!” was an acclaimed actress and singer, honored with both a Tony and Emmy for her work. Nell Ruth Hardy was born in Birmingham, Alabama, one of nine children of Horace and Edna Mae Hardy. When Carter was two years old, her father was electrocuted after he stepped on a live power line. As a child, she began singing […]

Categories: All, Carter, Nell, September, September 13 • Tags: 1948, 2003, Janaury 23, Nell Carter, September 13, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Alain LeRoy Locke

September 13, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Alain Locke was born on September 13, 1885 (to June 9, 1954). He was an important gay, Black writer, philosopher, scholar, and patron of the arts, who is often referred to as the “Father of the Harlem Renaissance.” Locke was the first person of African descent to be named as a Rhodes Scholar. Alain LeRoy Locke was the only child of Pliny Locke and Mary Hawkins. Although his parents were both from “old-line Philadelphia families,” they remained engaged for 16 […]

Categories: All, Locke, Alain LeRoy, September, September 13 • Tags: 1885, 1954, Alain LeRoy Locke, June 9, September 13, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Jann Halexander

September 13, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Jann Halexander was born on September 13, 1982. He is a singer, musician, composer, actor, producer, blogger, and activist. Halexander was born Aurélien Makosso-Akendengué in Libreville, Gabon, the son of Léonard Makosso-Akendengué, a Gabonese diplomat, and Anne-Cécile Frébeau, a French national and a teacher of piano and philosophy. Both bi-racial and bisexual, Jann Halexander adopted his stage name from South African artist Jane Alexander, whose sculptures personify unique hybrid beings. Jann Halexander grew up in the Gabonese Republic, a West African nation which gained its freedom from French colonialism in 1960. He has lived in many […]

Categories: All, Halexander, Jann, September, September 13 • Tags: 1982, Jann Halexander, September 13, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Gilbert Price

September 10, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Gilbert Price was born on September 10, 1942 (to January 2, 1991). He was an accomplished baritone singer and award-winning actor. Gilbert Price was born in New York City, one of three children born to Leon and Carmen Price. His father had had some experience in show business, having worked with Redd Foxx as a comic. His maternal grandmother was from St. Kitts. When Price’s parents separated, his father moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he fathered three other children […]

Categories: All, Price, Gilbert, September, September 10 • Tags: 1942, 1991, Gilbert Price, January 2, September 10, Ubuntu Biography Project

Jermaine Stewart

September 7, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Jermaine Stewart was born on September 7, 1957 (to March 17, 1997). He was a pop singer and dancer best known for his Billboard hits, “The Word Is Out” from his 1984 debut album of the same name, and “We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off,” from the 1986 album, “Frantic Romantic.” William Jermaine Stewart was born in Columbus, Ohio, to Eugene Stewart and Ethel M. Stewart. While in school, he would often give dance lessons to other […]

Categories: All, September, September 07, Stewart, Jermaine • Tags: 1957, 1997, Jermaine Stewart, March 17, September 7, Ubuntu Biography Project

Frank Malaba

September 7, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Frank Malaba was born on September 7, 1981. He is an acclaimed actor, poet, radio producer, and human rights activist. Frank Malaba was born the second child of five in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, to Malachi-Allen Malaba-Ncube, who was a soldier, and his mother, Sheirly Sihle Mlilo, a seamstress. He attended Founders High School in Bulawayo, where he graduated in 1999. While in school, Malaba was part of the debate club. It was also here that he discovered his love for poetry and writing, which you […]

Categories: All, Malaba, Frank, September, September 07 • Tags: 1981, Frank Malaba, September 7, Ubuntu Biography Project

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DeMarco Majors

September 6, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

DeMarco Majors was born on September 6, 1977. He is an actor, model, personal trainer, and television host. As a professional basketball star, Majors was the first active male player to come out as gay. DeMarco Majors was born in Evansville, Indiana, where he grew up in poverty with his mother and two sisters. For Majors, basketball was his escape—even though he started out playing soccer in school. “Growing up Black in Indiana in the ’80s—that wasn’t a great thing for me,” […]

Categories: All, Majors, DeMarco, September, September 06 • Tags: 1977, DeMarco Majors, September 6, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Sylvester

September 6, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Sylvester was born on September 6, 1947 (to December 16, 1988). The celebrated disco, R&B, and soul legend known as the “Queen of Disco” rocked to the top of the disco music charts in the late 1970s as an androgynous performer with a captivating falsetto voice. While others would later emulate his style, Sylvester was unique and groundbreaking, and considered a visionary in terms of his proud queerness, Blackness and artistry. “Billboard” ranked him as the 59th most successful dance […]

Categories: All, September, September 06, Sylvester • Tags: 1947, 1988, December 16, September 6, Sylvester, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Kevin E. Taylor

September 4, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Reverend Kevin E. Taylor was born on September 4, 1964. He is a highly respected pastor, author, television producer, writer, researcher, activist, empowerment coach, and proud father. Kevin Edward Taylor is one of eight children born in Washington, DC to Lee Williams and Louise Taylor. He was raised in the nation’s capital, where he attended Thomas Jefferson Junior High School, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School. As a kid, Taylor had to endure so much stress over being overweight and asthmatic, that […]

Categories: All, September, September 04, Taylor, Kevin E. • Tags: 1964, Kevin E. Taylor, September 4, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Doug Spearman

September 3, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Doug Spearman was born on September 3, 1962. The “Noah’s Arc” star is an accomplished actor, writer, producer, director, photographer, and humanitarian. Doug Spearman was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Hyattsville, Maryland, at the height of America’s civil rights movement. Although his parents had no qualms about his being gay while growing up, the one place his parents put their foot down was on his ambitions to take to the stage, or worse, Hollywood. From the moment Spearman could turn on […]

Categories: All, September, September 03, Spearman, Doug • Tags: 1962, Doug Spearman, Noah's Arc, September 3, Ubuntu Biography Project

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Billy Preston

September 2, 2017 by Ubuntu Biography Project

Billy Preston was born on September 2, 1946 (to June 6, 2006). He was a celebrated musician whose versatility included R&B, rock, soul, funk and gospel. In addition to his successful, Grammy Award-winning career as a solo artist, Preston collaborated with some of the greatest names in the music industry, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Nat King Cole, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, and Sly Stone. William Everett “Billy” Preston […]

Categories: All, Preston, Billy, September, September 02 • Tags: 1946, 2006, Billy Preston, June 6, September 2, Ubuntu Biography Project

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