1990s

Denise Hinds

 Denise Hinds is the Chief Program Officer for Youth and Family Wellbeing at Good Shepherd Services, where she oversees the agency’s foster care programs, child welfare, and juvenile justice residential programs, supportive housing and other programs for young adults.

In 38 years at Good Shepherd Services, Denise has developed many innovative youth development-driven programs. Most notably, in 2002, she played a significant role in the development and implementation of the Chelsea Foyer, the agency’s first supportive housing program for young adults experiencing homelessness and...

BP Jacquelyn D. Holland

Theologian, activist, teacher, mother and lesbian are all words that describe Bishop Jacquelyn Holland. Born the second eldest of seven children, Bishop Holland learned early on that the strict rules of her Pentecostal faith did not mix well with her yearning for a more freeing experience with God, which would allow for an authentic connection of both sexuality and spirituality.
 
In an effort to satisfy her spiritual needs as well as her love for music, she joined Lavender Light:  The Black and People of all Colors Lesbian and Gay Gospel Choir. Through this affiliation,...

Gwendolyn (Gwen) Davis

 Gwendolyn (Gwen) Davis was born in Washington, Pennsylvania in 1939 and was raised by her grandmother in a suburb of Washington called Lincoln Hill until her grandmother’s death. Davis spent the rest of her childhood and adulthood with her parents in Newark, where she eventually became a nurse. In the 1980s and 1990s, Davis worked directly with HIV/AIDS patients doing intake interviews in emergency rooms and working on awareness campaigns in schools and hospitals. 

 

Lioniemar Reyes

 Lioniemar Reyes, Lily,  is a  peace love and positivity, protector of individuality, energetic soul.  She is a 90's baby who grew up in Newark, New Jersey.  She and her brother were raised by two proud and hardworking Puerto Rican parents.  She attended Middle School and High School at North Start Academy Charter School of Newark and went on to study Psychology and Theater at Rutgers University-Newark Campus.  She is constantly learning every day who she wants to be in this world, that of which is constantly changing.  She has been a Library Assistant, Peer Educator, Mentor, Teacher's...

Aleix Martinez

Aleix Martinez is a longtime Newark resident, music industry communications specialist, and artist across multiple platforms. His work as a publicist in the music industry has focussed on representing and championing LGBT artists including Morrissey, Sia, Anohni, Scissor Sisters, Chavela Vargas, The Gossip, Nomi Ruiz, and Mika as well as singular artists like Santigold, Grace Jones, Tori Amos, Nancy SInatra, and The Cramps.

His art explores the intersections of ambition, luxury, hypercapitalism, and gentrification. His video work Insatiable, largely filmed in Newark,  debuted at...

Aaron Frazier

38 years living with the virus, a poet and writer, self-published two chap books, write for La Raine Magazine and several other local and nationally. I have a BS From Saint Peters College in Jersey City Urban Studies Public Policies, an Associate in Liberal Arts Social Science from Essex County College, The Mother of the House of Divine of Greater Newark, a volunteer for the LBGTQ Center, previous Coordinator of Project Fire II of El Club Del Barrio, currently an active member of Hyacinth Cab and Thrive Role Model Story, a long term non progressor study participant with the National...

Janyce Jackson Jones

 Reverend Janyce Jackson Jones, a prominent and respected leader in the community retired after 21 years of dedicated service to her church and to social justice in the city of Newark.
 
Janyce L. Jackson Jones served as Co-Pastor of Unity Fellowship Church located in Newark, NJ.  UFC Newark, is a member of the non-denominational Unity Fellowship Church Movement, a Social Justice Ministry that seeks to minister to all people, regardless of race, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.
 
Prior to Co-Pastoring at UFC Newark, Reverend Jackson served...

Patreese Johnson

 Patreese Johnson is a femme-identified poet. She is the youngest of four brothers and one sister, and she grew up as the youngest on the block in her tight-knit community in Newark, New Jersey. She is fiercely empathetic with a big heart. While incarcerated after fighting off a street harasser in New York City (a story told in the documentary Out in the Night), she received her GED and ran a support group for women who were survivors of domestic violence. Since her release, she has enrolled at Essex County Community College, studying for Associates degree in Liberal Arts. She has been touring...

Alicia Heath-Toby

 C. Alicia Heath-Toby resides in Newark, NJ with her wife, Saundra ‘Honei’. She is the current board president of the Newark LGBTQ Community Center Board of Directors. In 1984 she received her Bachelor of Arts from the College of the Holy Cross. After leaving college, she was given the opportunity to work with a team of black doctors and community activists on addressing the HIV and AIDS crisis for Black Americans; this organization became known as the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. In 1997, she joined Liberation In Truth Unity Fellowship Church (LITUFC) in Newark, NJ; a local church of...

Louie Crew Clay

 Louie Crew Clay is a pioneering activist who founded the gay Episcopal group Integrity USA in 1974 and co-founded the LGBT caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English in 1975, among numerous other achievements. In this interview, we focus on his life in Newark, where he moved in 1989 to teach English at Rutgers University-Newark. You can read more about his life and work in his most recent book, Letters from Samaria (2015), and his Wikipedia page, from which we take the following biography. See also Louie’s richly-documented website, as well as his online photo album, with an...

Pages