John R. Gordon (born 1964) is a British writer. His work – novels, plays, screenplays and biography - deals with the intersections of race, sexuality and class. With

Rikki Beadle-Blair Richard Barrington "Rikki" Beadle-Blair MBE (born July 1961) is a British actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, singer, designer, choreographer, dancer and songwriter of British/West Indian origin. He is the artistic director of multi-me ...

he founded and runs queer-of-colour-centric indie press Team Angelica. Although he was a "white person from a white suburb", according to Gordon, in the 1980s he became deeply interested in black cultural figures such as

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

, Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon, and they have influenced his work ever since.

Early work

Between 1993 and 2001 Gordon published three groundbreaking novels of Black gay British life, ''Black Butterflies'', ''Skin Deep'', and ''Warriors & Outlaws'' (the first two with Gay Men's Press, the third with Millivres/Prowler). In 1995 he directed his play ''Wheels of Steel'', about a closeted young thug paralysed in a joyriding accident and his flamboyant male nurse, at the Gate Theatre, London. It starred

and

Karl Collins Karl Collins is an English actor. He is known for his television roles as Danny Glaze in ''The Bill'', Louis Loveday in ''Hollyoaks'', and Shaun Temple in '' Doctor Who''. Early life and career Collins was born in Nottingham, and grew up on the ...

, who went on to play each other's estranged husbands in Beadle-Blair's Channel 4 series '' Metrosexuality''. He wrote a 1999 sitcom pilot ''The Melting Pot'' about a macho black British man (

Felix Dexter Felix Dexter (26 July 1961
Retrieved 22 October 2013

) coming to terms with his long-lost Jamaican brother's homosexuality. Although it never made it beyond Channel 4's Sitcom Festival to television, '' The Independent'' praised it for offering innovative characters and situations. It also starred Terry Alderton.

''Noah's Arc''

Gordon script-edited two seasons of Patrik-Ian Polk's television show '' Noah's Arc'' (2005–6) for the US cable channel Logo. He wrote two episodes of the second season,(''Desperado'' and ''Under Pressure''), and across 2007 co-storylined (with Polk and Q. Allan Brocka) the spin-off feature-film, subsequently co-writing the screenplay with Polk. The film, '' Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom'', was given a limited release in six American cities, where it played to sold-out houses at the end of October 2008 and recouped $500,000 in ticket sales alone. The "Jumping The Broom" script that Gordon and Polk wrote was nominated for an

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

Image Award, as was the film itself in the Best Independent Feature category. In April 2009 the film won the

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

Best (limited release) Feature Film Award. In 2020 he co-executive produced '' Noah's Arc: The "Rona Chronicles"'', a reunion episode written and directed by Polk, and presented by Gilead Sciences on 5 July. It starred all original cast members and included a feature cameo by

Wanda Sykes Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on ''The Chris Rock Show'', for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, ''Entertainm ...

as Noah's mother, for which she was nominated for a 2021

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Daytime Fiction Program. In January 2021 it was awarded a

Special Recognition Award.

''Souljah'' (short film)

His 10-minute short film ''Souljah'' – about a gay African former child soldier (B3/Angelica Entertainments 2007), and directed by

– premiered at the London Film Festival on 30 October 2007. In July 2008 ''Souljah'' won the award for Best Short Film at the

Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival The Rushes Soho Shorts Film Festival, more commonly known as Rushes Soho Shorts Festival, is a yearly display of short films hosted by Rushes Postproduction. It has taken place every summer since 1999. What began as a small series of screenings ...

. April 2009 it won Best International Short at the Toronto Reelworld Film Festival. It was directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair for Team Angelica Productions and produced by Beadle-Blair, Gordon and Carleen Beadle.

As publisher

In 2011, with Rikki Beadle-Blair he established the radical queer-of-colour-focused imprint Team Angelica Publishing. Its first book was Beadle-Blair's ''What I Learned Today''. In 2013 they published the well-received and groundbreaking short-story collection ''Fairytales for Lost Children'' by gay Somali author

Diriye Osman Diriye Osman ( so, Diriyeh Cismaan, ar, ديري عثمان) (born in 1983) is a Somali-British short story writer, essayist, critic and visual artist. He is the author of the short story collection ''Fairytales For Lost Children'', which won ...

. On 8 October 2014 ''Fairytales for Lost Children'' won the Polari First Book Prize. In 2015 they published

Roz Kaveney Roz Kaveney (born 9 July 1949) is a British writer, critic, and poet, best known for her critical works about pop culture and for being a core member of the Midnight Rose collective. Kaveney's works include fiction and non-fiction, poetry, revi ...

's novel, ''Tiny Pieces of Skull'', which went on to win the 2016 Best Trans Fiction

Lambda Literary The Lambda Literary Foundation (also known as Lambda Literary) is an American LGBT literature, LGBTQ literary organization whose mission is to nurture and advocate for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, prese ...

Award. In November 2017 they published the first ever gay African memoir, ''Lives of Great Men'' by

Chike Frankie Edozien Chiké Frankie Edozien is a Nigerian-American writer and journalist. He is currently the director of New York University, Accra. He directed the New York University Journalism Institute's Ghana based Reporting Africa program from 2008 to 2019. ...

. It was favourably reviewed in the London ''Financial Times'' and won the Best Gay Memoir/Non Fiction

Award in 2018. It went on to be republished by Jacana Books in South Africa, in July 2018, and by Ouida Books in Nigeria. In February 2018 they published ''Sista!'', an anthology of writings by same-gender-loving women of African/Caribbean descent with a UK connection, edited by Gordon, Beadle-Blair and UK Black Pride co-founder

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah Phyllis Akua Opoku-Gyimah (born November 1974), also known as Lady Phyll, is a British political activist known for her work for racial, gender and LGBT+ equality. She is co-founder of UK Black Pride and executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust ...

; it included writers such as Yrsa Daley-Ward and was shortlisted for a 2019 Lambda Literary Award. In 2020 he and Beadle-Blair contracted iconic gay African-American author

Larry Duplechan Larry Duplechan (born December 30, 1956, in Los Angeles, California) is an American novelist. He is best known for his novels ''Blackbird'', adapted in 2014 by Patrik-Ian Polk as a film starring Mo'Nique and Isaiah Washington, and ''Got 'til It' ...

to write a memoir of his love of film, ''Movies That Made Me Gay'': it was published October 2nd 2023.

''Black and Gay in the UK: an anthology''

Published on 20 October 2014, ''Black and Gay in the UK'' was co-edited with

for their Team Angelica imprint. Its 352 pages of poems, memoirs, fictional stories and essays exploring the lives of black gay men with some connection to the United Kingdom includes writers, artists and activists such as

Leee John Leslie McGregor "Leee" John (born 23 June 1957) is a British musician, singer, and actor of St Lucian descent. He was born in Hackney, London, and educated in New York City, later studying drama at the Anna Scher Theatre School. He is perhaps b ...

Travis Alabanza Travis Alabanza (born 15 November 1995) is a British performance artist, writer and theatre maker. Career Alabanza's poems were first published in 2015, in the ''Black and Gay in the UK Anthology''. Later that year Alabanza went on tour for th ...

Dean Atta Dean Atta is a British poet of Greek Cypriot and Caribbean descent. He has been listed by ''The Independent'' newspaper as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in the United Kingdom. In 2012, his poem "I Am Nobody's Nigger", written in res ...

, Adam Lowe,

David McAlmont David Irving McAlmont (born 2 May 1967) is a British vocalist, essayist and art historian. He came to prominence in the 1990s as a singer, particularly through his collaboration with Bernard Butler. In the 2010s he returned to academia, working ...

, Bisi Alimi, black British photographer Robert Taylor,

Topher Campbell Topher Campbell is a filmmaker, artist and writer who has created a range of works in broadcasting, film, theatre, television and performance. His works focus on issues of sexuality, masculinity, and the city, particularly in relation to race, h ...

and Jide Macaulay.

Other work

In 2009 he co-wrote the screenplay for the short film ''Manali Cream'' (dir. Navdeep Kandola). In summer 2009 his one-act play ''Afro-Pik - a play about Black Man Hair'', featuring Fisayo Akintunde was premiered at the Central School of Speech and Drama summer school. In summer 2010 his short play ''Work!'' premiered at Theatre503 as part of Golden Delilah's production, "7:1 Beyond Control". Gordon was art designer on the feature films '' Fit'', '' KickOff'', ''

Bashment Bashment may refer to: *Bashment, another name for dancehall, a type of Jamaican popular music that developed around 1979 *’’Bashment’’, a 2011 movie by Rikki Beadle-Blair, about a gay bashing at a reggae festival *''Bashment Time'', an ...

'', and the hour-long film ''Free'' (2014) (all Team Angelica productions). 2012–017 Gordon and Beadle-Blair co-mentored ''Angelic Tales'' at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, a lengthy development project for new writers culminating in two-week-long seasons of staged readings on the theatre's main stage. Several of the plays they developed, such as Somalia Seaton's ''Crowning Glory'' (2013),

Lynette Linton Lynette Linton (born 1990) is a British playwright and the artistic director at The Bush Theatre. She directed the award-winning Donmar Warehouse production of ''Sweat''. In 2019 she was named as one of ''Marie Claire''s "Future Shapers". Early ...

's ''Step'' (2013) and

Alexis Gregory Alexis may refer to: People Mononym * Alexis (poet) ( – ), a Greek comic poet * Alexis (sculptor), an ancient Greek artist who lived around the 3rd or 4th century BC * Alexis (singer) (born 1968), German pop singer * Alexis (comics) (1946–197 ...

's ''Slap'' (2018) have gone on to full productions and/or tours. In 2017 he dramaturged Linton's exploration of mixed race British identity, ''Lightie'', which played to sold-out audiences at the

Arcola Theatre Arcola Theatre is an Off West End theatre in the London Borough of Hackney. It presents plays, operas and musicals featuring established and emerging artists. The theatre building, in the former Colourworks paint factory on Ashwin Street, Dalst ...

; the playtext was published by Team Angelica, as was the playtext of ''Slap''. Gordon was script consultant and associate producer on Patrik-Ian Polk's feature film ''Blackbird'' (2014) – a Tall Skinny Black Boy/Hicks Media co-production, written by

and Polk, adapted from

's novel of that name, and starring Mo'Nique and

Isiah Washington Isaiah Washington IV is an American actor and media personality. Following a series of film appearances, he came to prominence for portraying Dr. Preston Burke in the first three seasons of the series '' Grey's Anatomy'' from 2005 to 2007. Was ...

''Faggamuffin'' (novel)

Gordon's fourth novel, ''Faggamuffin'', was published in 2012. It is about a gay Jamaican reggae producer - Cutty, a character who first appeared in ''The Melting Pot'' - on the run from the authorities.Hazelann Williams
"The plight of a 'faggamuffin'"
'' The Voice'', 3/ February 2012. On 3 November 2015 a theatrical version of ''Faggamuffin'', directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair and starring Nathan Clough, Marlon Kameka and Savannah Rae, was presented at the

Bush Theatre The Bush Theatre is located in the Passmore Edwards Public Library, Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 as a showcase for the work of new writers. The Bush Theatre strives to create a spa ...

as part of the ''Gay Buddies Week''. The novel inspired the formation in 2020 of the queer carnival activist group Faggamuffin Bloc Party.

''Souljah'' (novel)

On 22 September 2014 Gordon's sixth novel, ''Souljah'', was published by Team Angelica. It's an extrapolation of characters and situations first presented in the award-winning short film of the same name. It was favourably reviewed by ka-os.blogspot.com: "this is a story that deserves everyone's attention. Souljah is truly breathtaking, in scale, and in ambition. I cried like a baby at times, and as events rapidly escalated in the novel's final act, I just couldn't put it down" and in the Huffington Post: "...a novel that defies categorization. It's a mashup of the immigrant saga, a chilling gangster thriller, a state-of-the-nation novel, a coming-of-age story and an intimate family portrait with a harrowing war crime at its heart. The fact that Gordon never once drops the ball makes Souljah a sprawling, visually arresting masterpiece." On 4 March 2015 it was shortlisted for a Lambda Literary Award.

Yemi and Femi

Yemi and Femi are cartoon characters created by Gordon ('my lil' nephews'), British-Nigerian gay teen clubkid best friends, who first appeared in the graphic novella ''Yemi & Femi's Fun Night Out''. Published in September 2015, it is a 42-page black-and-white graphic novella about Yemi and Femi and Femi's boyfriend Mixtape, and their adventures one night after being thrown out of a nightclub. The graphic novella explores issues around HIV, safe sex,

PEP Pep is energy or high spirits; it may refer to: * Pep band, an ensemble of instrumentalists * Pep, the dog in ''Putt-Putt'' (series) * Neilson Dairy confectionery brand * Pep, New Mexico * Pep, Texas * Pep Cereal, by Kellogg * Pep Comics, b ...

(post-exposure prophylaxis), PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) and sero-discordancy in a comical way, in street-level language and urban slang. Gordon received an Arts Council grant to make copies available free to gay urban young people and sexual health charities. On 28 April 2016 Gordon's short HIV-themed comedy play ''Yemi and Femi go da Chemist'' was premiered at Team Angelica's ''Boom!'' event as part of the ''AmBush'' at London's highly respected

, to an enthusiastic response from the sold-out audience. He and Beadle-Blair co-dramaturged the event, which showcased thirty-eight writers over two nights. The text of the play was included in the Team Angelica anthology, ''Black and Gay in the UK''. On May 9th 2023 Gordon's one-act play, ''Yemi & Femi Go Windrush'', which sees the titular characters go back in time and encounter a gay Caribbean couple having a secret affair in 1950s Notting Hill, was presented as a staged reading as part of Tom Ratcliffe's Platform festival at the

King's Head Theatre The King's Head Theatre, founded in 1970 by Dan Crawford, is an off-West End venue in London. It is the second oldest operating pub theatre in the UK. In 2021, Mark Ravenhill became Artistic Director and the theatre focusses on producing LGBTQ ...

, dir. Rikki Beadle-Blair.

''Drapetomania'' (novel)

Published in May 2018, ''Drapetomania'' is a 500-page novel set in the American South. Ten years in the writing, it is an epic tale of black freedom, uprising, and a radical representation of romantic love between black men in slavery times. Patrik-Ian Polk has called it 'an all-out masterpiece'; Michael Eric Dyson has haled it as 'a dazzling work of imagination'; and Audre Lorde biographer

Alexis De Veaux Alexis De Veaux (born September 24, 1948) is a black, lesbian American writer and illustrator. She chaired the Department of Women's Studies, at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her surname also appears as DeVeaux. Life She was born o ...

described it as 'a riveting, masterful work'. It was favourably reviewed in the London Financial Times, which said it was 'a damning indictment of America's racist history... often deeply moving and gripping'. On 25 April 2019 it won the

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards prog ...

's prestigious Ferro-Grumley Award for best LGBTQ fiction.

''Hark'' (novel)

''Hark'', pub Sept 2020, is a gay teen interracial romance set in a present-day extrapolation of the Southern Gothic landscape of ''Drapetomania''. It contains a supernatural element exploring American's racially haunted past, and the turning of

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

photographs into postcards as souvenirs. Award-winning black gay fantasy writer Craig Laurance Gidney called it 'audaciously provocative, sexy and spooky all at once. And very much of the zeitgeist'; ''Blackbird'' author

described it as 'a welcome addition to the tradition.' It was listed as a Book of the Year by Books for Keeps.

A Curious World

With queer Rwandan performance artist Urban Wolf, in 2022 Gordon created a series of interlinked works, featuring the same cast of Black queer characters, set in 'the endz' in South London: the 40-minute grime audio drama ''Scooters, Shooters & Shottas: a Curious tale'' (launched at

Theatro Technis Theatro Technis is an independent multi-cultural arts centre with a 120 -seat theatre located in the heart of London Borough of Camden. It contributes in general and specific ways to the cultural and social life of the people of Lond ...

on 19th April) and a raucous 17-minute short film, ''Curious'' - both directed by

, about a closeted rapper's quest for self-expression and liberation, also starring Dior Clarke and Curtis Brown.

Published works

*''Black Butterflies'' (GMP 1993), winner of a New London Writer's Award in 1994 *''Skin Deep'' (GMP 1997) *"Immigrant" (short story) in ''New Century, New Writing'' (ed. P P Hartnett, Millivres-Prowler 2000) *''Warriors & Outlaws'' (Millivres/Prowler 2001). *''My Life in Porn: The Bobby Blake Story'' (

Perseus Books Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. It was named Publisher of the Ye ...

2008, cowritten with

Bobby Blake Bobby Blake (born Edgar Gaines; August 11, 1957) is a Baptist elder who acted in gay pornography until 2000. Biography Blake appeared in over 100 releases.. Retrieved on 2007-12-14. Bobby Blake was a long time partner with Flex-Deon Blake. B ...

) *''Faggamuffin'' (Team Angelica Publishing, January 2012) *"The Bridge" (short story) in ''Scarf'' magazine (June 2012) *''Colour Scheme'' (Team Angelica Publishing, January 2013) *''Souljah'' (Team Angelica Publishing, September 2014),

Award finalist 2015 *''Black and Gay in the UK: an anthology'' (Team Angelica Publishing, October 2014) (co-editor, with

, and contributor) *''Yemi & Femi's Fun Night Out: a graphic novella'' (Team Angelica Publishing, September 2015) *"The Parasite That Grew Bigger Than The Animal" (short story) in ''Speak My Language'' (ed. Torsten Hojer, Robinson Books, November 2015) *''Drapetomania, or the Narrative of Cyrus Tyler & Abednego Tyler, lovers'' (Team Angelica Publishing, May 2018), winner Ferro-Grumley Award 2019; Lambda finalist *''Hark'' (Team Angelica Publishing, Sept 2020), Polari Prize longlisted

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, John R English screenwriters English male screenwriters Living people People from Shepherd's Bush English gay writers English LGBT novelists 1964 births English male novelists