Leading Men: Black Gay Lives in Old Hollywood and AIDS-Era New York

Xavier C. Barlow was supposed to be the next Sidney Poitier. Instead he's dead, and the man telling his story is the studio fixer who was paid to keep him in the closet. That's There's Only One Sin in Hollywood. Then we jump to 1985 for My Government Means to Kill Me, where 17-year-old Trey Singleton ditches his family's money in Indianapolis, lands in New York and throws himself into the fight against AIDS.

​

Both are by Rasheed Newson, who was kind enough to answer five of our questions by voice memo. You'll hear from him all the way through.