Binary Bashers Ep. 2: Alice Dunbar-Nelson - Tired of Being a Saint

In Episode 2 of Binary Bashers, we turn to the quietly radical life and work of Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935), a poet, journalist, educator, and activist whose legacy does not sit neatly within the categories history has assigned her. Best known in her lifetime as a writer of refined verse and regional sketches, Dunbar-Nelson also lived at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and politics in the early twentieth century, navigating them with both discretion, poise, and defiance.

Through essays, short stories, and political organizing, she chronicled Black life under Jim Crow while navigating respectability, race, gender, and power with precision. Her private journals, read closely in this episode, reveal a fuller interior world marked by three marriages, same-sex desire, frustration with patriarchal constraints, and an acute awareness of how identity could be both shelter and strategy.

This episode was made with care. It's based on established scholarship and publicly available information from credible sources. If we've made an error, please let us know at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://embracingallofme.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Embracing All of Me is a storytelling and advocacy platform for the multi, complex, and in-between, uplifting the voices of Bi+ people of color, our kin and friends. ⁠⁠⁠Visit our ⁠FAQs⁠ and ⁠Sources page⁠ to learn more about how this episode was developed.⁠