I saw this film on a Sunday in mid-June and was moved on more levels than this post alone can capture. Being Black-or of color in general, and different carries a uniquely burdensome stigma within our community. Without sounding exclusionary, and writing only from my own experiences of being Black and different, I found this film a head-noddingly accurate depiction of the seldom bespoken caveats.
Brother to Brother is the semi-fictitious narrative tale of friendship between recently denounced gay art student, Perry and a now homeless Richard Bruce Nugent; famed Harlem Renaissance pioneer. The fortuitous union of these two brilliant minds is where the story begins; at the base of the stairs of a brownstone in Brooklyn, New York.
Brother to Brother is a story rich in history, art, culture, love and character. Each of its characters replete with pride, rebellion and joie de vivre; Brother to Brother toggles seamlessly between the present and the past, the real and the imagined. The film dissects and sheds light on the struggle to find the delicate balance of acceptance between two worlds; Blackness and homosexuality. Then and now, the names, faces, and places change but the struggle remains the same.
Wallace Thurman, Langston Hughes, Richard Bruce Nugent, “Perry”, and this film: Black, gay and brilliant!
When I originally penned this review, one of my regular Tea & Honey Bread readers made the following opening statement in his comment: “This is the ‘difference within the difference’”. Compendiously all encompassing; “the difference within the difference”. But how, why? On the heels of the March for Equality, I have to open this up for discussion.
Moms of Hue readers, what are your thoughts on homosexuality? Gay rights and equality? Are we/they different? Or are we all equal? How so, and why?
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