Detroit boasts a multitude of visual storytellers by the likes of Loni Love, Kash Doll, Chris Webber and many more. One Detroit native who’s adding himself to that lineup is Aaron Foley. Foley, who rose to prominence as the former chief storyteller for the city of Detroit and current senior editor of PBS NewsHour, is taking his talents to the next level with his latest novel Boys Come First. Taking readers on a journey of love, brotherhood and triumph through the perspectives of three Black gay men in the motor city, Foley gives readers a peek into just how forceful the city is — and the people who are bred from it. The three main characters, Remy, Troy and Dominick, may be fictional, but there is no doubt that their stories are those of the many Black queer men who live them out every day. Foley stopped by Blavity News to discuss Boys Come First, why he centered Detroit as the novel’s backdrop and the importance of sharing the story of brotherhood in friendships between queer men.
Telling Black queer love stories
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A simple Google search for “Black love” will yield a fair amount of beautiful, melanated couples embracing one another — who are all heterosexual. We’ve seen fictional protagonists like Girlfriends‘ Joan Clayton and Insecure’s Molly Carter find love, but when it comes to finding examples of Black love between two Black queer folks? The pickings are slim. Thankfully, we have models such as Noah’s Arc, Batwoman and now Boys Come First. For Foley, it was vital for him to tell these stories within the novel to humanize same-sex relationships of Black people for those who aren’t in the queer community.
“It gives other folks who are not like us a window into how we operate and how we live, and it kind of humanizes us a little bit. It was really important to me that not only were the main characters Black but their love interests, too. In many movies, you see that either Black gay characters are relegated to the sidelines, or they’re the comic relief. They have no full identity, and they’re just there for the laughs. The rare times that we get a Black lead character, he’s often paired with a non-Black partner, which is fine. We see that in real life,” Foley said.
“As we talk amongst ourselves, it’s just like, why don’t we see Black love? Why don’t we see the good, bad and ugly of these types of Black relationships? We see it with straight relationships. We see it with white relationships, and we see it with white gay relationships, but we never just get the human side of two same-sex partners who are Black. That was really important to me.”
The brotherhood of Black queer men
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The concept of brotherhood is a pillar among friendships between Black men, regardless of sexual orientation. As Foley introduces readers to the fictional protagonists — Remy, Troy and Dominick — there’s something that remains a constant throughout the novel, and that’s camaraderie. For Foley, it was essential for him to include this aspect to debunk the stereotype that gay men are frequently romantically attracted to their platonic friends.
“I’m not trying to put anyone down, but when you look at a lot of the gay movies and in queer books, a lot of them have that storyline of ‘I’m in love with my best friend,'” Foley said. “I wanted 100 percent not to write anything like that because that’s such a stereotype.”
For Foley, his same-sex friendships with other gay men are something that he feels blessed and fortunate to have due to the added layer of relatability that comes with both parties being queer.
“These are three Black men who find a brotherhood within people that are not blood to them because sometimes they’re all they have. They’re the only ones that can truly relate to each other and truly be comfortable amongst themselves,” Foley said.
“I’m blessed and fortunate to have that among my Black gay friends where it’s like we can talk, and it gets real very quickly all the time,” Foley told Blavity News. “I feel a certain level of comfort talking with them that I can’t always talk to my female friends about.”
The lack of Black gay friendships displayed in the media
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As Foley created these three characters and their ensuing friendship, he was reminded of just how little we get to see these sorts of connections in the media.
“When you get a group of friends together, they’ll always be like, ‘I’m the Carrie, I’m the Miranda, I’m the Charlotte,’ or they’ll say, ‘I’m the Joan, I’m the Toni, I’m the Lynn.’ So we’re always comparing ourselves to the characters from shows like Sex and the City and Girlfriends,” Foley said.
“Very rarely do you hear people say, ‘I’m the Ricky’ or ‘I’m the Noah’ from Noah’s Arc because we have so few depictions of Black gay friendship. I’m not trying to say that my book will be like the one, but I was also kind of thinking, well, damn like every time I think of a friendship in popular media, it is always of three or four women. And that’s cool. I love all of it, but there are so few other than Noah’s Arc that Black men specifically can lean on.”
A love letter to Detroit
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Boys Come First may be on its way to critical acclaim with audiences worldwide, but the work of art hits home for Detroiters. The inclusion of Detroit-specific easter eggs, such as Coney Island restaurants, Renaissance High School and the city’s beloved cultural artifact of Cartier glasses (affectionately known as “buffs”) only sweetens the already exemplary novel for Foley’s fellow Detroit natives. Foley felt it was important to center Detroit for several reasons because it’s what he’s familiar with.
“Whether in short stories or fiction, Detroit just does not show up. When you think of all the larger queer books or just larger books, period, a lot of it is written from the perspective of somebody that lives in like a Brooklyn or Manhattan,” Foley said. “I think a lot of that is because many writers like myself live there.”
Foley also felt that it was vital for him to write a story about Detroit that wasn’t steeped in misery or woefulness.
“If I’m going to write something that I’m passionate about, something that is relatable to my lived experience, I’m going to write it in the city that I know. I also felt it was important that you had a story about Detroit that wasn’t dwelling on trauma and drilling in struggle. This is not to say that there is none in Detroit. We all know it can be violent, and it has, and it definitely has its moments, but people have fun in Detroit.”
For more information on Boys Come First, click here.
