维吉尔（Virgil）的古拉厨房（Gullah Kitchen）的厨师自行出版了一份回忆录。你应该读

Six years ago, husbands and serial entrepreneurs Gregory “Gee” and Juan Smalls had a business plan for their Gullah-Geechee-meets-soul-food restaurant, Virgil’s Gullah Kitchen & Bar in College Park, Georgia, and an idea for a self-help relationship book.

首先是Gee是行政总厨的餐厅。他们的港口风格餐厅于2019年开业，以纪念Gee的已故爸爸，一位热爱烹饪的海军兽医，并提供家庭食谱和招牌鸡尾酒的名字命名。Lowcountry产品，例如Jam Up Wingz，Slammin的Sammin，两件式的fush（鱼）篮子，伏特加酒的Look Yah和Boozy tew terged庆祝Geechee方言和他父亲的感染性口号。

维尔吉尔（Virgil）的1,900平方英尺的空间设有盖伊（Gee）父亲的墙壁大小的壁画，在酒吧旁涂有米饭的圆柱，并在餐饮区设有40五乘木制的公共板凳。

那个自助书项目最终变成了Black Enough Man EnoughGee最近出版的回忆录记录了他的追求，以接受他作为性交的混血儿的身份。在维吉尔（Virgil）开门的一年后，今年7月正式发布，Black Enough Man Enough是一种咸味，情感上丰富的混合物，可以追溯Gee在詹姆斯岛，南卡罗来纳州和亚特兰大的成年故事。他在章节之间撒了家庭照片，探索了他围绕婚姻，父亲，种族，家庭，双性恋，爱，男性气质，人际关系，身体形象，信仰和自尊心的经历和观点。

43岁的盖（Gee）说：“我内心只有一些东西觉得需要详细分享。”“我重新审视了所有这些古老的时刻和人际关系，它享有自己的生活。”

“It takes a very strong, diligent, and intentional person to write a memoir and to break open their heart and spirit to allow the world in,” Juan, also Virgil’s general manager, added.

Gee又一页地流出了页面。然而，他的配偶并没有动力写作。在Gee知道这一点之前，他已经开始了170页开始，感觉到他的信息也可能对他人进行自我接受的旅程。吉说：“我的背景故事最终变成了这本回忆录。”“所有这些故事刚刚开始从我身边传来，我什至不知道在那儿，但这是一个需要讲述的故事。”

A great deal ofBlack Enough Man Enoughcenters around the author's hot-and-cold relationship with his white mother. Gee, who is the father of a 19-year-old son, Lil’ Gee, from his previous marriage to his high school sweetheart, also confronts the constant taunting and shaming he endured for his once androgynous and overweight appearance.

This summer, Gee created and hosted a panel-style limited digital series,Black Enough Man Enough Live作为自传的伴侣。每期都是与思想领袖及其直系亲属的对话。Gee的母亲是他的客人在飞行员情节“白人母亲/黑人儿子”中。她讨论了她的父母和过去的雇主污名化，因为她与吉的父亲，一个黑人。

“The book has been an opportunity for all of those relationships that I wrote about to experience healing,” Gee said. “It was an effort to have these important conversations we don’t have.”

Gee, a former event planner and IT specialist, brought on a consultant to coach him through editing and publishingBlack Enough Man Enough.He hopes to one day get scooped up by a major publisher or have a studio adapt his story for the screen.

Going the self-publishing route for now, Gee says, is the best option to control his narrative. “I wanted to own my own story, not give it away for someone to have rights over it,” he said. “Self-publishing is extremely tough, but I could be in control and release my story my way.

In the meantime, Gee is focused on carrying his restaurant through COVID-19. While Virgil's can't host dine-in customers, takeout orders have doubled. “In the beginning, things were real slow, and everyone was really nervous,” he said. “We’re a Black-owned business that celebrates Black culture, so that’s helped to carry us through COVID because patrons are extremely supportive of Black business in response to the social climate.”

维吉尔（Virgil）的忠实客户群源于亚特兰大大都会（Metro Atlanta）的Smalls Pair核心Black LGBTQ受众。在开幕时举办了几场周末活动，并在开幕式上进行了出色的投票率之后，大学公园的一些当地官员在印象深处，其非营利组织的创始人绅士基金会的创始人正在管理“另一个黑色同性恋俱乐部”。

Their restaurant opened, the couple says, to create more Black business options targeting the Black LGBTQ community. Even when Juan and Gee, the first Black gay couple to appear on HGTV’sHouse Hunters，正在决定在地点，并筹集资金开始业务，而骄傲仍然构成了进入的障碍。（例如，物业经理不允许Gee和Juan签署租约。）如今，维吉尔是佐治亚州历史悠久的大学公园中最亮的地方之一。

“The neighborhood has embraced us so much since then,” Gee said. “It was an opportunity for them to experience something they were uncomfortable with, but it worked for us instead of against us.”

明年，胡安（Juan）和吉（Gee）计划恢复绅士的舞会，他们的非营利组织的旗舰活动被称为“第二次机会黑色LGBTQ舞会”，以纪念其成立10周年。

Completing the memoir and concurrently overseeing the restaurant, Gee said, have helped him become more comfortable with who he is.

“我能够看到我自己以外的自己,“哎呀said. “I see myself as human, and writing my story allows me to have more compassion for myself and others. The book is a love letter to everybody. People can read my story and hope that they, too, are enough.”