Last Updated on December 22, 2023 by Kittredge Cherry
Rare artworks of a queer black Jesus and a black gay church family are presented here along with new books and other black LGBTQ resources in honor of Kwanzaa. The week-long celebration of African American culture starts Dec. 26. Kwanzaa is rooted in African culture, but people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds are welcome to join the holiday.
People celebrate Kwanzaa by giving gifts, lighting a set of seven candles in the African colors of red, green, and black, and sharing an African feast on New Year’s Eve. Each of the seven days honors a principle from African heritage: unity (umoja), self-determination (kujichagulia), collective responsibility (ujima), cooperative economics (ujamaa), purpose (nia), creativity (kuumba), and faith (imani). Kwanzaa was created in 1965-66 by Maulana Karenga, chairman of black studies at California State University in Long Beach based on harvest festivals in Africa.
“Joyous Kwanzaa” by Andrea Noel
During Kwanzaa, it is customary to greet others with the Swahili phrase “Habari gani,” which means “What’s the news?” The proper response is to say the principle of the day.
“Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday, but a cultural one with an inherent spiritual quality,” Karenga writes on the official Kwanzaa website. Kwanzaa can be celebrated in addition to Christmas or as an alternative to it. Many families and congregations have adopted Kwanzaa into their spiritual life.
Karenga welcomes people to celebrate Kwanzaa in different ways. “The original vision and values of Kwanzaa must be maintained… However, two principles of Kwanzaa encourage creativity, diversity and flexibility within this general rule. These are Kuumba (creativity) and Kujichagulia (self-determination),” he wrote.
In that spirit, this blog highlights a variety of black LGBTQ Christian resources as Kwanzaa begins.
It’s almost impossible to find a Christ figure that expresses both LGBTQ identity AND non-white racial / ethnic identity. “Jesus for All” by Andrea Noel and “Neither” by David Hayward are two of these uncommon treasures.
Black Christ affirms LGBTQ people in “Jesus for All”
A black Christ welcomes LGBTQ people in “Jesus for All” by Andrea Noel, an Afro-Caribbean artist based in Baltimore. Her Jesus expresses queer solidarity through bright rainbow colors that stream from the head of Christ. The rainbow rays include LGBTQ symbols: linked female signs, linked male signs and a transgender symbol. This Jesus has dreadlocks and dark skin marked with lighter streaks that unite him with all races. He is surrounded by dynamic patterns inspired by Noel’s Trinidadian roots.
“Jesus for all” by Andrea Noel
She is a self-taught artist, born in Selma, Alabama, but raised in Trinidad and Tobago. Noel developed her artistic style 20 years ago by drawing with Sharpie markers to reduce stress from her demanding classes as a chemical-engineering student at Howard University in Washington, DC.
“Over time, drawing moved from a stress reliever, to a spiritual practice, and now my life’s work,” Noel writes on her website anoelcreatesart.com. “… My goal as an artist is to inspire customers and clients to manifest the passions inside of them that will nurture soulful connections to self, others, and the Sacred.”
Noel’s “Joyous Kwanzaa” piece is also featured here for the holilday. It shows the seven-branched Kwanzaa kinara or candelabra with candles burning brightly in Noel’s characteristic bold, vibrant style.
Her art is available as prints on her website and at her Etsy shop: A Noel Creates. She illustrates a variety of themes, including social justice, LGBTQ, women, spirituality, and Christianity. Noel agreed to share more of her art with Q Spirit, so watch for it in the future here on the Q Spirit blog.
“Neither” reveals a queer black Jesus
“Neither” shows a dark-skinned Jesus who is male on one side and female on the other in the style of the Hindu deity Ardhanarishvara. He/she has a rainbow halo and holds a transgender symbol.
“Neither” by David Hayward
The title “Neither” comes from the Bible: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). Thus it embodies Kwanzaa principles of unity and faith.
“Neither” was painted by Canadian artist David Hayward, also known as Naked Pastor. The Canadian artist uses gentle humor to open hearts, minds and church doors to LGBTQ people and others who have been excluded. He has a master’s degree in theology and 30 years of pastoral experience. This artwork and many more are available at the Nakedpastor Etsy shop. Click for more cartoons and info.
“Bless This Family” shows black gay couple as gospel singers
Kwanzaa is often seen as a holiday about family togetherness and fun for children, but it’s hard to find images of black LGBTQ families in a Christian context. One of these exceptional images is “Bless This Family” by Felix d’Eon, a Mexican Latinx painter and activist dedicated to the art of queer love, romance, and sensuality.
“Bless This Family” by Felix d’Eon. Prints are available at his Etsy shop.
“Bless This Family” shows a black gay couple as gospel singers in choir robes. They are holding hands in front of a stained-glass window with their children in their arms. The models for the painting are Terrell and Jarius Joseph of Atlanta and their two-year-old twins Ashton and Aria. Terrell and Jarius are a married couple and “social media influencing brand” who blog about gay parenting.
Black and queer liberation theologies
Black theologian James Cone advocated powerfully for the black Jesus. In his classic 1970 book “A Black Theology of Liberation,” he wrote:
The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God’s own condition. This is the essence of the Biblical revelation. By electing Israelite slaves as the people of God and by becoming the Oppressed One in Jesus Christ, the human race is made to understand that God is known where human beings experience humiliation and suffering.”
It may be useful to ask: How does the blackness of God relate to the queerness of God and the gay Jesus? Where does the queer black Jesus fit? Cone objected to consistent portrayals of Jesus as white, just as queer theologians question the pervasive heterosexual assumptions about Jesus.
Cone discussed the value the black Jesus in a 1989 interview with USA Today, using arguments similar to what queer theologians say about the queer Christ:
It’s very important because you’ve got a lot of white images of Christ. In reality, Christ was not white, not European. That’s important to the psychic and to the spiritual consciousness of black people who live in a ghetto and in a white society in which their lord and savior looks just like people who victimize them. God is whatever color God needs to be in order to let people know they’re not nobodies, they’re somebodies.
Queer Christ figures provide the same service by showing LGBTQ people that they are somebodies. Cone himself sees the connections. In a 2015 interview, he told Huffington Post, “God is red. God is brown. God is yellow. God is gay…I don’t use blackness as a way to exclude anyone.”
Queer Kwanzaa in community
A video by black feminist Alexis Pauline Gumbs introduces the queer traditions for celebrating Kwanzaa as a community practice in New York City and Detroit, Michigan.
Queer Kwanzaa: A MobileHomecoming PSA from Alexis Pauline Gumbs on Vimeo.
LGBTQ African American Christian books
Recent books on LGBTQ African American Christians and related subjects are highlighted here as an extra Kwanzaa gift:
2024
“Queering Black Churches: Dismantling Heteronormativity in African American Congregations” by Brandon Thomas Crowley. Published by Oxford University Press.
2023
“Hidden Histories: Faith and Black Lesbian Leadership” by Monique Moultrie. Published by Duke University Press.
“Holy Queer: The Coming Out of Christ” by Karmen Michael Smith.
“Alabama Grandson: A Black, Gay Minister’s Passage Out of Hiding” by Cedrick D. Bridgeforth.
“The #BlackLivesMatter Movement: Toward an Intersectional Theology” by Edward Donalson III.
“Black, Gay, British, Christian, Queer: Church and the Famine of Grace” by Jarel Robinson-Brown.
“Proclaim! Sharing Words, Living Examples, Changing Lives: An Exploration of Episcopal Liturgy from a Black, Queer, Millennial Perspective” by Marcus George Halley.
“Black Trans Prayer Book” by J Mase III and Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (editors).
“God, a Lesbian, and the Space in Between” by Michelle Johns.
“Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life” by Troy R. Saxby.
“Bayard and Martin: A Historical Novel About Friendship and the Civil Rights Movement” by Frederick Williams, Lane Denton, and Sterling Zinsmeyer.
“Filled with the Spirit: Sexuality, Gender, and Radical Inclusivity in a Black Pentecostal Church Coalition” by Ellen Lewin.
“Live Through This: Surviving the Intersections of Sexuality, God, and Race” by Clay Cane.
“Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility” by Ashon T. Crawley.
“Religion, Flesh, and Blood: The Convergence of HIV/AIDS, Black Sexual Expression, and Therapeutic Religion” by Pamela Leong.
“Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology” by Pamela R. Lightsey.
“LGBT: In The Name of God: The Black Church’s Response to the LGBT Community” by Christopher James Priest with a foreword by Benjamin L. Reynolds.
“A Queering of Black Theology: James Baldwin’s Blues Project and Gospel Prose” by E.L. Kornegay.
“In the Life and in the Spirit: Homoerotic Spirituality in African American Literature” by Marlon Rachquel Moore.
Happy Kwanzaa from Kittredge Cherry and the Jesus in Love blog at Q Spirit! Habari gani?
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Related links:
Queering Kwanzaa: How the seven principles remind me of QTPOC power (Black Youth Project)
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Top image credit:
Left to right: “Jesus for All” by Andrea Noel, “Joyous Kwanzaa” by Andrea Noel, and “Neither” by David Hayward. Prints are available at the ANoelCreates Etsy shop and the Nakedpastor Etsy shop.
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, events in LGBTQ history, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit in December 2016, was expanded with new material over time, and was most recently updated on Dec. 22, 2023.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
This article, the artwork it speaks about and christianity literally have zero to do with Kwanzaa. If the writer had done some actual research instead of a quick google search, maybe she would have seen that.
I’m doing what I can to celebrate African American culture and educate myself and my readers.