This excited event will take place during NYC 2008 Gay Pride weekend, Saturday, June 28, 2008 @ 12:00pm - 4:00pm at the LGBT Community Center. 208 West 13th Street New York, NY 10011. Please check out the excerpt from her latest book The Highest Price for Passion. For more information, please contact Nick @ 646-241-9667 or email gbmbookclub@aol.com.

Books by Laurinda Brown

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With the help of our sponsors, Cherry Grove business partners, and private donors, Fire Island Black Out creates the ultimate party atmosphere where persons of all genders, sexual identities, and ethnicities can come together for that all-important "end-of-summer hurrah", while generating money for an organization taking the lead in raising the next generation of LGBT leaders.

Please visit fireislandblackout.com for more information and FIBO Bump and Dip dance party DJ line-up.

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Just to be a lil' different and still somewhat creative, I photographed this event in black and white. Enjoy!

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GBMNews is proud to announce a new syndication partnership with the British gay magazine Men of Color - MOC.

Starting next month articles from MOC will appear on this website. Likewise, MOC will publish articles from GBMNews on their website and in their print magazine.

With a focus on news, lifestyle and entertainment, MOC is the premier magazine for black gay men in the UK. 

We are extremely excited about this relationship and look forward to providing you our readers with more quality news content from our brothers in Great Britain.

The three-day conference is being organized by the National Black Justice Coalition - the nation's largest Black LGBT rights group, head by CEO and Executive Director Alexander Robinson.

The weekend of April 24th - 26th is promised to be the weekend of all weekends for the 50 national experts and attendees that will be attending 35 workshops, panel discussions, and question and answer sessions.

The National Black Justice Coalition gave this statement last month. "[It] is a powerful statement for a community that is rarely portrayed in media and entertainment,"

The NBJC's "Power of Us" conference will be exact that. and will platform a range of highly successful and influential men, women and youth who are making a difference in the community as openly Black LGBT people.

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Please contact Darly for more information: www.daryl202dc.com

The New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) announced today that it will present its 2008 OUTSPOKEN Award to Nobel Peace Prize recipient Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The award will be presented to the Archbishop as part of IGLHRC's A Celebration of Courage human rights ceremony on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, with the exclusive film of Tutu's address to be aired at the group's event in New York on April 28.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Congressman Tom Lantos

IGLHRC is one of the premiere international human rights organizations dedicated to documenting and fighting against the range of human rights abuses faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people and groups around the world. Since 1990, IGLHRC has played a critical role in drawing global attention to persistent human rights violations, such as police abuse and torture, arbitrary arrests, harassment, and discriminatory laws and treatment. IGLHRC works in partnership with local LGBTI groups so that they are equipped to build lasting change in their societies and greater justice around the world.

"There is really only one name in the world that immediately conjures up moral leadership in pursuit of dignity for all people on earth, and that is Desmond Tutu," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's Executive Director. "Archbishop Tutu's vision of a world in which human rights are respected has always explicitly included LGBT people, despite the fierce opposition he has faced from his peers and colleagues. He has challenged political apartheid in South Africa and continues to challenge spiritual apartheid within his religious community."

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The goal of the 2008 retreat is to give each attendee the opportunity to examine areas of their lives where barriers to joy may exist and develop a plan of action to tackle these challenges and cultivate a deeper sense of alignment with one's self, others, and their environment.

Workshops, African inspired rituals, daily affirmations and other activities will be inclusive of the above mentioned concepts. The purpose will be to stimulate consideration of resources that may be useful tools to begin to achieve predetermined goals.

We look forward to welcoming you on this adventure of exploration and celebration.

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The dates are Memorial Day Weekend, May 23rd through May 27th.

Special Performance by The Broadway Legend, Grammy, America Music, and Tony Award winning, Ms. Stephanie Mills.

On top of that, there are so many more things happenings, too many to mentioned, the list continues to grow and grow!!

Party passes to all events are $65.00 for the entire weekend!

For those of you, who are out of town guest, accommodates are available at the Host Hotel. Many scheduled events and special bonus deals, if you make reservations by April 9. 2008.

Avis car rental available with Avis discount code on Daryl Wilson's website.

For more information go to www.daryl202dc.com

Please note: This event will take place each year and is not affiliated with any other Memorial Day Weekend.

When I spoke to Daryl, he said, "We are creating a new fire in D.C."

I say to our readers, don't walk but run, don't wait, make your reservations now!

Be a part of history being made!

If you are interested in presenting work: please e-mail Kevin to confirm at kevmcgr@pipeline.com bring 8-10 copies of your work. (After the workshop, for those who are interested, we will have dinner at Spain on 13th between 6th and 7th Avenues). Below are guidelines for the workshop.

Other Countries Writing Workshop Discussion/Critique Guidelines

The Other Countries Writing Workshop is a peer-facilitated workshop. In order to ensure a supportive atmosphere and to encourage constructive criticism of work please keep the following in mind:

• Before reading their work, writers should introduce it by telling about the FAP (Focus, Audience, and Purpose) for the piece as well as its genre. They should think of specific questions they want answered by the workshop, e.g. “Is this ready for submission to literary journals?” “Does this first chapter pull you into my novel’s story?” “Does this character seem too cardboard or cliché?”

• The moderator will facilitate the discussion/critique of the work

• Participants should:

avoid cross talk between other participants while a comment is being made; address both positives and negatives in the work; avoid extraneous “amen-ing” (repeating the comments) of previous speakers; avoid personal commentary of the writer and others; provide suggestions for further development of the work, etc.