Works
Anthologies
Poems
1991
1992
1989
1994
1996 (published posthumously)
Plays
Risin' to the Love We Need
Nuclear Lovers
New Love Song
Black Fag
Music
"Forever Gay" by Xotika on the album Feeding the Flame: Songs by Men to End AIDS (1990)
Videos of Assotto Saint Reading His Poetry
Video of Interview with Assotto Saint
Out! Episode #108: "Steve Williams interviews Assotto Saint about book The Road Before Us, a new collection of 100 Gay Black Poets"
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Just for the Record: Episode #108 Out! In The 90s. October 1992. Box 14, Item 160, Just for the Record Collection, Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. https://vimeo.com/365533246
Personal Correspondence
Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), typed letter, November 22, 1991. "This letter thanks Abbott for his hospitality and discusses his recent trip to visit important civil rights sites in the south as well as alerting Franklin to various publishing opportunities." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/687/rec/12
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), typed letter, October 12, 1991. "This letter details Saint's travel arrangements for a trip to Atlanta for poetry readings and book signings." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/705/rec/13
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), typed letter and press release, July 4, 1991. "This letter consoles Abbott over a break up as well as discusses Saint's upcoming work "The Road Before Us (100 Gay Black Poets). It includes a press release advertising the books publishing."https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/692/rec/8
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), typed letter, July 17, 1990."This letter compliments Abbott for his book "Men and Intimacy." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/707/rec/11
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), typed letter, April 27, 1990. "This letter covers Assotto's artistic plans for 1990 as well as informing Franklin about Jan Holmgren's struggle with AIDS. Holmgren was Saint's partner from 1980 until his death in 1993." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/690/rec/9
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), typed letter, February 21, 1990. "This letter discusses a number of Abbott's poems and interviews as well as Saint's successful stint in psychotherapy." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/679/rec/10
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), letter, May 1, 1989. "This letter updates Franklin on Jan and Yves health as well as compliments Abbott on his poetry and voice." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/676/rec/7
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), card, January 1, 1988. "This card regards general new years wishes as well as Lubin's feelings on the 1988 Haitian coup(s) and its aftermath." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/709/rec/1
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), card, November 10, 1987. "This card details plans to exchange manuscripts for criticism as well as generalities"
https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/685/rec/2
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), letter, August 5, 1987. "This letter updates Franklin on the health of Saint's friend Joe, as well as discussing Abbott's writing and traveling in support of "New Men, New Minds." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/696/rec/5
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James Broughton (Mill Valley, California) to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), letter, July 29, 1987. Personal letter accompanying a clipping titled "James Broughton: The Life and Signs of Saint James of the Flying Phallus." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/83/rec/14
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), hand-written letter and a typed poem, December 14, 1986. "This letter compliments Abbott on "Changing Men," and includes a new version of Saint poem "Remembrance & A Revelation" for publication." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/682/rec/4
Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), hand-written letter and 2 typed poems, November 3, 1986. "This item contains 2 typed poems, and a hand-written note on a typed Assotto Saint bio. The poems are "The Geography of Poetry" and "I Want to Celebrate", there are two versions of "The Geography of Poetry." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/697/rec/3
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Assotto Saint (New York, New York), to Franklin Abbott (Atlanta, Georgia), letter, July 4, 1986. "This letter updated Abbott on Saint's publishing activities and thanks him for including one of Saint's poems in his upcoming anthology." https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/abbott/id/708/rec/6
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Brief Biography
Born Yves François Lubin on October 2, 1957, Assotto Saint was a Haitian poet, playwright, writer, and performer. He is best known for his book of poems and plays, Spells of a Voodoo Doll (1996). Assotto Saint joined ACT UP, a group of activists whop were fighting for change during the AIDS epidemic, in the early 1990s, where he performed many of his poetry and plays to try and make the AIDS crisis visible to the masses, especially the US Government. He and his partner, Jan Holmgren, died of AIDS. Jan Holmgren died on March 29, 1993, while Assotto Saint died a little more than a year later on June 29, 1994. For his work as the editor of The Road Before Us, Saint won a Lambda Literary Award at the 4th Lambda Literary Awards in 1992.
Photo: Ubuntu Biography Project
Religious Imagery in the Poems of Assotto Saint
i was born on all angels day
but throughout my life
i’ve been a bitch out of hell
don’t nobody show up at my funeral
to call me nice or some shit like that
save it for turncoat cocksuckers
who on their deathbeds
open their mouths wide to claim god
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Devils in America
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night
after night
a mother bends over
her son's bones sores scales
writing on his bed
fit for a king
satin sheets sweat secrets
she closes
his blurry eyes
rolls rosary beads
faithful
in the morning
he'll wake up
to see her
smile
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Mater Dolorosa
father my father
laius liar liable
doomed by the oracle of blood
where the soul burns
never a daily bread sacrifice
fuel of lowest temptations
ash of forgiveness smiles revelations
still too hot
father my father
laius liar liable
damned by thy name
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Pater Noster
manacled on a cross of purple
leather pillows puffed with lamentations
buffed by the sweat of strapped angels
straddled through infernal nights of rites
savage souls salvaged
in the flicker of a votive candles-circle
i watched baldhead gabriel genuflect
frail naked freckled like a leopard
the morning after
he had worn his whiteness best in black
armored crusader in rhythm
"i don't remember
your name" his cruel lips curled
"it doesn't matter i have
a lover" i sighed unmasked
in blessed remission
like a priest he kissed
then uncuffed my feet
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Lord Have Mercy
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early on easter sunda​y
you call
to offer the friend some faith
you hope
when the grandmother answers
you dread
ricky's no longer with us
you hear
what in god's name does that mean
you ask
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Early on Easter Sunday
i once asked a trick if he had a religion
puzzled, he answered, "i'm a free man"
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i then asked him if he had a lover
quickly, he answered, "i'm free, man"
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I Once Asked a Trick
Articles About Assotto Saint
Brownsworth, Victoria. “Remembering Assotto Saint: A Fierce and Fatal Vision: Lambda Literary.” Lambda Literary, 19 June 2014, www.lambdaliterary.org/2014/06/remembering-assotto-saint-a-fierce-and-fatal-vision/.
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Ubuntu Biography Project. “Assotto Saint.” Ubuntubiographyproject.com, 2 Oct. 2017, ubuntubiographyproject.com/2017/10/02/assotto-saint/.
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Steward, Douglas. “Saint's Progeny: Assotto Saint, Gay Black Poets, and Poetic Agency in the Field of the Queer Symbolic.” African American Review, vol. 33, no. 3, 1999, pp. 507–518. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2901218. Accessed 25 May 2020.
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Durban-Albrecht, Erin. “The Legacy of Assotto Saint: Tracing Transnational History from the Gay Haitian Diaspora.” Journal of Haitian Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, 2013, pp. 235–256. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24344220. Accessed 25 May 2020.
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Archives and Collected Papers of Assotto Saint
Assotto Saint Papers, Sc MG 556, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. http://archives.nypl.org/scm/22248
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"The Assotto Saint Papers consists of correspondence and writings by Saint, manuscripts and letters from authors featured in his anthologies as well as other gay writers, printed matter and some personal papers."
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Photos of Assotto Saint
L to R: Essex Hemphill, Assotto Saint, Craig G Harris, Ray Melrose, Daniel Garrett, & Colin Robinson Photo by Joseph Beam (October 1985).
Source: https://twitter.com/pleasureisblack/status/1250829417493880832?s=20
Vito Russo, Larry Kramer & Assotto Saint at a 1987 reading.
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Source: https://twitter.com/RuffneckRefugee/status/1265691397899849731?s=20
