AJ Dance Legacy

DERRICK CARTER

2435

What is Chicago’s obsession with Mary J. Blige?  Chi-town’s Emmaculate, Terry Hunter, and now Derrick Carter have remixed her latest chart-topper.  Carter’s version jumpstarts the party with kick drums, hi-hats and the Queen of Hip Hop cooing “Good Morning Gorgeous.”

And gorgeous, they are.  The femmes and doms are out!  For Atlanta’s 51st Pride Celebration.  The must-attend Queen Butch’s “The Last Ball” closes the weekender.  Queen Butch dressed in all black leather.  His furry chest exposed, unzipped biker jacket, fitted pants, and tipped beret brings the boys to his backyard.  Their painted nails, protruding eyelashes and ass less chaps.

(more…)

Uncensored

0025

Finally!

The four-on-the-floor pulls the body through a black frame door. Behold with eyes open-wide. The ballroom of real estate flanked by white walls. Where a mass of colorful cast is on full display. Your black sock sneakers, her green wrap pants and his “I Came Here To Dance With You” red tee, bounces up black stairs to the mezzanine where onlookers grasping vodka in plastic cups witness the pursuits on the ground floor below. Back downstairs, a sharp glance left, atop 4 feet speaker cabinets, sits a monstrosity stage. Where the action borders frenzy. As bulging eyes with dilated pupils gaze forward. Towards a shadowy figure who is barely visible. Her small frame stands hidden behind a white board. That illuminates with blinding black light reminiscent of lightning flashing across the darkness. Brilliant blues and purple LEDs play cat and mouse across the telos. Where screams and cheers thunder ahead. Welcome back to Celine Orlando.

(more…)

The GREEN VELVET Show

2330

Located in Amour Yards across from a commercial brewery, there stands an insipid warehouse. A long winding ramp leads to the front door where bodies are patted head-to-toe, ID’s are checked, before smartphones are scanned for admittance. Entering the nearly 12,000 square-foot premises and finding an all black male security staff proves Black Employment Matters. A walk into the oval shaped interior of copper columns and wood grain floors with highlights of turquoise, emerald and amber promises this experience might be money well spent. (more…)

THE BLACK MADONNA and the Heretics

A gold-wrapped condom is iconic on an urban billboard.  To the left, two law-enforcement vehicles anxiously wait at a gas station and to the right, across the street at a bank, waits an APD SUV that immediately, vrooms down the derelict street. Meanwhile, a junkie, crowned with dreads, quivers while crossing a car-lined intersection.                                                   (more…)