Click here for a video recording of this CLGS Lavender Lunch via Zoom!

In this CLGS Lavender Lunch Unoma Azuah explores a variety of themes related to her experiences as an African, lesbian immigrant to the United States.  She also shares excerpts from her recently-published memoir, Embracing My Shadow: Growing up Lesbian in Nigeria, and discuss some of the challenges that she encountered as a lesbian coming of age in Nigeria.  In all of her work, Azuah reveals a deep personal awareness of love as her sanctuary, and she bears witness in all of her work to an understanding of love that has contributed to her own journey to self-acceptance.

Unoma Azuah – Photo by Jose Osorio of The Chicago Tribune

Unoma Azuah is a college professor, a writer, and an LGBTQ+ activist.  Her book project on the lives of gay Nigerians entitled Blessed Body: Secret Lives of LGBT Nigerians was published in 2016, and she is currently working on another book project: Wedged Between Man and God: Queer West African Women’s Stories.  Her just-released memoir, Embracing My Shadow: Growing up Lesbian in Nigeria, has been described as “powerful” by the prestigious Ms. Magazine.

This CLGS Lavender Lunch was recorded on 6 May 2022