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Homegoings
Homegoings cover art
Homegoings

鈥楾here鈥檚 nothing soft about being gay鈥�: A conversation with 65-year-old Toussaint St. Negritude

By Myra Flynn
Published March 27, 2025 at 4:24 PM EDT

Toussaint St. Negritude is a poet, teacher and musician who has chosen his own path and his own name. In this episode, Toussaint speaks about fierceness as a survival tool for Black queer men, like him, who were out and gay in the 1970s.

This is the latest episode of Homegoings, a podcast that features fearless conversations about race, and YOU are welcome here. Follow the show here.

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Toussaint St. Negritude is hard to miss. He dresses in tall hats, colorful scarves, round glasses and statement jewelry and sometimes carries a large bass clarinet, just in case he wants to break into poetry and accompany himself. But a musical instrument isn鈥檛 the only thing that Toussaint carries wherever he goes:

I鈥檝e really had to kind of carry my love with me, like in my chest, constantly, just like a constant mantra. - Toussaint St. Negritude

Toussaint鈥檚 name wasn鈥檛 always Toussaint. He chose it. Or, it chose him. 鈥淲hen I became Toussaint St. Negritude, which is really just me all along, it was really important for me to own my name.鈥�
Mike Dunn
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开云体育
Toussaint鈥檚 name wasn鈥檛 always Toussaint. He chose it. Or, it chose him. 鈥淲hen I became Toussaint St. Negritude, which is really just me all along, it was really important for me to own my name.鈥�

In this episode, Toussaint speaks to fierceness as a survival tool for Black queer men, like him, who were out and gay in the 1970s. And unearths the unexpected joy in every moment of struggle.

Nowadays it鈥檚 really kind of popular to make this distinction between thriving and surviving, and kind of putting down survival. Survival for us has been thriving. - Toussaint St. Negritude

Toussaint St. Negritude is Black joy personified; a living, breathing poem.

Show and Tell

Toussaint St. Negritude - Brothers and Brothers

"Brothers and Brothers" written and performed by Toussaint St. Negritude.

Credits

This episode was hosted and reported by Myra Flynn and edited by Aaron Edwards, with production support from Mike Dunn and James Stewart, our associate producer. Myra composed the theme music with other music by Toussaint St. Negritude and Blue Dot Sessions. Elodie Reed is the graphic artist behind this episode鈥檚 Homegoings artist portrait.

Thank you for listening. You can see a video version of this episode on our .

To continue to be part of the Homegoings family:

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Corrected: March 28, 2025 at 12:40 PM EDT
A version of this story incorrectly stated that Toussaint St. Negritude lived in the South in the 1970s when he in fact lived in San Francisco at this time.
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Homegoings New England News Collaborative
Myra Flynn
Myra Flynn joined 开云体育 in March 2021 and is the Host and Executive Producer of Homegoings. Raised in Vermont, Myra Flynn is an accomplished musician who has come to know the lay of dirt-road land that much more intimately through touring both well-known and obscure stages all around the state and beyond. She also has experience as a teaching artist and wore many hats at the Burlington Free Press, including features reporter and correspondent, before her pursuits took her deep into the arts world. Prior to joining 开云体育, Myra spent eight years in the Los Angeles music industry.
See stories by Myra Flynn