Susie Bright

Co-written by Malcolm X's daughter, this riveting and revealing novel follows the formative years of the man whose words and actions shook the world. Malcolm Little's parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that's a pack of lies--after all, his father's been murdered, his mother's been taken away, and his dreams of becoming a lawyer have gotten him laughed out of school. There's no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm's efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory. Deep down, he knows that the freedom he's found is only an illusion--and that he can't run forever. X follows Malcolm from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

This beautifully produced book contains the landmark work of Morgan Gwenwald, Della Grace, Diana Blok, Tee A. Corrine, Jill Posener, Honey Lee Cottrell and others. Each portfolio is accompanied by an in-depth biography of the artist in which they discuss some of the themes that have fueled their own work from sex, SM, gender and race to fashion, the body and nature. Beyond the impact of the individual photographers, Bright writes about the themes that have fueled lesbian photography: the reproach and confrontations to conventional feminism; the feminist approach to the body; lesbian relationship to popular culture; lesbian relationship to nature; generational differences; the division in dynamics of power and gender bending in lesbian imagery, from androgyny to butch-femme romandcism to gender anarchy. Bright also places the influence of lesbian photography, and women artists, within the context of the art world as a whole. She argues that the work these women have produced is not only exquisite, but revolutionary in content and presentation. All the more remarkable that it has developed despite the overt prejudice and punitive reaction in society against female sexualindependence. The lesbian image -- sexy, maverick, rebellious, butch yet glamorous, strong and simultaneously vulnerable, that has been pioneered and developed by an extra-ordinary group of lesbian photographers -- is fully documented here in over 150 black and white and color photographs.