Jason Okundaye

Okundaye was born at St George's Hospital, Tooting, London to Nigerian parents and grew up on the Patmore Estate in Battersea.^[4][5] He attended Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Primary School and won a scholarship to Whitgift School in Croydon.^[6] He went on to study Human, Social and Political Sciences at Pembroke College, Cambridge.^[7][8][9] During his time at the university, he led the Cambridge Students' Union Black and Minority Ethnic society.^[10]

Okundaye first caught the media's attention in 2017, after a series of post on social media about racism in the United Kingdom in which he claimed that racism manifested in all social groups.^[11]

Following the coverage, Okundaye experienced racist abuse, death threats and rape threats.^[12][13]

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Okundaye worked in policy, seeing his writing as a side hobby. He then quit his job to freelance as a writer full time.^[14]

He has been a regular contributor to The Guardian, the London Review of Books, Vice, Dazed, i-D, GQ, the Evening Standard, and Bustle.^[15][16][8] He has also written for NME, the New Statesman, British Vogue, The Independent, The New York Times, the Financial Times, Time Out, and The Sunday Times.^[17][18][19] In 2020 and 2021, he had a column in Tribune Magazine.^[20]

Okundaye is vocal about a number of social and political issues in the UK, writing about them from a left-wing perspective. He has written about topics such as race in British society, politics, the housing crisis, the monarchy, and Black British LGBT+ culture with a specialty in the experiences and history of Black British gay men.^[21][22][23] In addition, he covers popular culture and media in the film, television, theatre, music, and literary worlds and has interviewed public figures.^{[4][24][25][26]}

In 2021, Okundaye co-founded the digital archive and podcast "Black & Gay, Back in the Day" with Marc Thompson.^[27][28]

Revolutionary Acts

His debut book titled Revolutionary Acts (2024), documents Black British gay history and culture from the 1970s to the present.^[29][30][31] The book is structured around profiling the following figures: Ted Brown, Dirg Aaab-Richards, Alex Owolade, Calvin "Biggy" Dawkins, Dennis Carney, Ajamu X, and Thompson.^[32]

The Guardian called Revolutionary Acts a "groundbreaking debut", while Bricks magazine called it "a dynamic and crucial narration of Black queer history for the 21st century".^[33][34] Revolutionary Acts won a Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing. It was also longlisted for the Polari Prize for LGBTQ+ writers in the First Book category. Okundaye was one of several authors to withdraw his book from the Prize in protest of the inclusion of John Boyne over his anti-transgender views. Okundaye explained his decision in The Guardian, writing he "felt misled about the principles underpinning the organisation and I no longer cared to be awarded by it."^[35]

Okundaye lost his father to cardiomyopathy in 2016. In 2021, he wrote a piece for The Guardian on his regrets regarding not coming out as gay before his father's death.^[36][37]

Books

• Revolutionary Acts: Stories of Love, Brotherhood, and Resilience from Black Gay Britain (1st hardcover ed.). Faber. 2024. ISBN 9780571372218.

Essays

• "Pilgrimage on the P5 Bus" in The Alternative Guide to the London Boroughs for Open House London, edited by Owen Hatherley (2020)
• "Entering the Scene: Finding a community of love" in Black Joy, edited by Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff and Timi Sotire (2021)