At this time we have a good time Blackberri who crafted a inventive legacy as an inspiring artist, non secular information, activist, and Black queer trailblazer.
Blackberri, whose given title was Charles Timothy Ashmore, was born on Might 31, 1945, in Buffalo, New York. He found his musical items early in age, with him first discovering a ardour for the harmonica, he detailed in an interview with Outwords in 2017.
By 1969, Blackberri had been drafted into the U.S. Navy, although he was ultimately discharged after being outed by a shipmate. However being discharged from the Navy solely served as a motivator for Blackberri as he embraced the subsequent section of his inventive life.
After a short time on the College of Arizona on a music scholarship, he left the faculty and ultimately relocated to a feminist neighborhood in Tuscon. It was in that neighborhood that he was first given the title Blackberri from a Lesbian girl named Hummingbird.
“We shared issues locally. We shared all the pieces. And at one level, we selected names that didn’t consult with us as a gender. And I used to be really given the title Blackberri,” he instructed Outwords.
He added that Hummingbird gave him the title Blackberri as a result of he “was darkish and candy” and that he dropped the “ie” from the spelling as a result of he “wished it to look slightly extra female.”
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Blackberri relocated to San Francisco in 1974, a transfer that was a serious catalyst for the longer term success of his music profession. His early music milestones included Blackberri making historical past in 1975 with artist Steven Grossman — when their look on KQED’s Two Tune Makers live performance led to them changing into the primary two overtly homosexual musicians to ever carry out on public tv in San Francisco.
Within the a long time that adopted, Blackberri continued to see success by way of his arts and influence by way of his activism.
Blackberri launched his first solo LP, Lastly, in 1981. And his music was featured in initiatives like Isaac Julian’s 1989 film On the lookout for Langston and Marlon Riggs’ movie Tongues Untied.
When it got here to supporting the queer neighborhood by way of activism, Blackberri labored as a HIV counselor and prevention educator. He additionally grew to become a Lucumí priest — by way of which he would carry out “readings, marriages, and non secular work of every kind” and traveled to Cuba over 10 occasions, detailed Outwords.
Up till his death in 2021, Blackberri remained an necessary determine among the many LGBTQ neighborhood within the Bay Space — which included receiving the Audrey Joseph Leisure Award from San Francisco Pleasure in 2017. And his legacy of creativity, activism, and self-determination carries on as we proceed to have a good time his life and contributions to the Black queer neighborhood.
We’re grateful for Blackberri’s imaginative and prescient, creativity, and repair to the Black homosexual neighborhood.
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