Literary Nonfiction. African American Studies. LGBT Studies. Film and Music Criticism. Winner of a PEN America 2007 Beyond Margins Award. Finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Writing from a critical center that is melanin-based/feminist/pro- queer/unabashedly-leftist, LA-based writer Ernest Hardy (a Sundance Fellow and member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Vibe, the Los Angeles Times, the LA Weekly and more) pens essays, interviews and reviews whose subject matter ranges from underground hip-hop and American indie film to modernFrench cinema; from revealing interviews with Warren Beatty, Meshell NdegeOcello and Les Nubians to an essay on gay rappers and queer rap audiences that pushes beyond the clich#65533;s of the media-stoked "down-low" phenomenon.