In celebration of National LGBTQ+ Pride Month, Bailey Contemporary Arts Center in Pompano Beach will present an author talk exploring Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami Before 1940 by Dr. Julio Capó, Jr. and Letters to a Gay Black Boy by Terry Dyer. This moderator-led discussion will explore current issues within the LGBTQ+ community at large, while also recognizing the history and diversity of the local LGBT+ community. The free event takes place on Thursday, June 23, 2022, at 6:30pm, in West Gallery at Bailey Contemporary Arts (BaCA). Guests are also invited to explore BaCA’s current exhibition Black, White and Gray All Over by ArtsUnited.

Each author will share their perspectives on their respective books, and their experiences and motivations in writing them. There will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions and engage in discussion with the writers about the topics presented. The authors will be available to sign their books, which will be available for purchase. Light refreshments and a cash bar will be available.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Dr. Julio Capó, Jr.

An associate professor of History and the Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab at Florida International University in Miami, Capó is a transnational historian who researches inter-American histories, with a focus on queer, Latinx, race, immigration, and empire studies. He addresses the historical intersection of gender and sexuality with constructions of ethnicity, race, class, nation, age, and ability. His first book, Welcome to Fairyland: Queer Miami Before 1940 (UNC Press, 2017), highlights how transnational forces to and from the Caribbean shaped Miami’s queer past. The book has received six awards and honors, including the Charles S. Sydnor Award from the Southern Historical Association for the best book written on Southern history.

Capó’s research extends to his commitment to public history and civic engagement. He curated Queer Miami: A History of LGBTQ Communities for History Miami Museum (2019). He also participated in a National Park Service initiative to promote and identify historic LGBTQ sites, and contributed a piece on Miami’s queer past for its theme study. Prior to entering graduate school, he worked as a broadcast news writer and producer, and his work has appeared in several outlets including The Washington Post, Time, The Miami Herald, and El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico).

Capó is the recipient of several awards including the Audre Lorde Prize from the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender History and the Carlton C. Qualey Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society. He currently serves as the co-chair of the Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender History and on the Editorial Board for the Journal of American History.

Terry DeWayne Dyer

Letters to a Gay Black Boy takes an in-depth look into the life and development of the writer. Dyer describes an authentic, raw, and emotional ride to finding himself. Motivated by homosexuality, race, family, and love, his first book sparks an inspiring and much needed conversation within our community.

His professional background includes talent acquisition management, recruitment, client services, and program management with Fortune 100 and 500 companies, including San Francisco State University Center for Research and Education on Gender Studies (CREGS), STOP AIDS Project, Robert Half International, Alluma, and XOJET. In 2010 while working with STOP AIDS Project, POZ Health Magazine named him African-American Person of the Month.

Additionally, Dyer has volunteered his time to various organizations throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento communities. Since 2007, he has served as a member of the San Francisco LGBTQ Speakers Bureau. He and that organization aim to dispel homophobic and transphobic violence by educating people about the everyday lives of those in the community. In December 2020, he was the recipient of the Kujichagulia Award for self-determination, presented at the Black Brothers Esteem (San Francisco AIDS Foundation) Annual Kwanzaa event.

About the Moderator

G. Wright Muir is an LGBTQ+ advocate, attorney, educator and writer. As part of her LGBTQ+ advocacy work, she co-produces Thou Art Woman (TAW), an event series using the arts to celebrate LGBTQ+ women and allies. After coming out, she co-founded TAW in 2014 to address a lack of spaces for queer women, especially BIPOC women, to express themselves in safe non-judgemntal spaces. In 2021, G co-founded the non-profit, Black LGBTQ+ Liberation, Inc. to expand her work in the community.

G has been recognized for her advocacy by the South Florida Gay News OUT50 list and with the Florida Diversity Council’s LGBT Leader Award. She also received the Legacy Magazine 40 Under 40 Leaders of Today and Tomorrow Award, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc. Women of Distinction Award, Urban League of Broward County GenNext Momentum Award, and the T.J. Reddick Bar Association Achievement Award.

G is of Jamaican descent and writes for the Caribbean-American magazine Island Origins. Her articles “Cowfoot by Candlelight” and “Coming to America: A Caribbean Perspective on Blackness in the U.S” have been recognized by the Florida Magazine Associaiton’s Charlie Awards. She also writes for the SunSentinel South Florida 100 and received the Pauline Scheer Fellowship for the 2021-2022 Memoir Incubator program at GrubStreet in Boston.