© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Exploring Black Gayness In Black-Cast Sitcoms

Courtesy of Indiana University Press
Alfred Martin, Jr. of the University of Iowa is the author of the new book "The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom"

In the entertainment world some people called the 1990s the Gay 90’s because of the explosion of LGBTQ representation in pop culture. But that representation was largely missing from sitcoms with predominantly Black casts.

Alfred Martin, Jr. has studied this absence. He’s a pop culture expert, an assistant professor of Communications at the University of Iowa and the author of “The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black Cast Sitcom.”

Guest:

  • Alfred Martin. Jr., author, "The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom," assistant professor of Communication Studies, University of Iowa
Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa
Rick Brewer was a producer for IPR's Talk of Iowa and River to River