PUNCH ME UP TO THE GODSA MemoirBy Brian Broome In the 1990s, during the peak of the AIDS crisis, the writer Daniel Garrett founded Other Countries, a workshop for Black queer writers that would publish three anthologies of poetry, essays and visual art focused on the complex lived experiences of Black queer people.
In his introduction to the collective’s second volume, “Sojourner: Black Gay Voices in the Age of AIDS,” Garrett noted that the collective’s works were of critical importance because they were creating culture.
Garrett continued with a striking assertion: “We are experiencing ourselves as a people, and shaping the consciousness of ourselves as a people.