Marcelo Gomez & Rod Silvia
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FREE Black & Latino Gay Travel & Entertainment Guide Mar/Apr 2007 Vol. 3 Issue 2 INTRODUCING MARCELO GOMEZ & ROD SILVIA Music Reviews City Guides & Maps Cities and Maps Alabama Birmingham/Mobile/Montgomery ........................ 13 Arizona Phoenix ................................................................... 13 California Los Angeles ............................................................ 13 San Diego ............................................................... 16 San Francisco ......................................................... 17 Oakland ................................................................... 19 Colorado Denver ..................................................................... 19 District of Columbia Washington, D.C. ................................................... 19 Florida Fort Lauderdale ...................................................... 21 Hollywood .............................................................. 24 Jacksonville ............................................................ 24 Key West ................................................................. 24 Miami ...................................................................... 24 Orlando ................................................................... 33 Tallahassee ............................................................. 33 Tampa ..................................................................... 33 Georgia Atlanta ..................................................................... 34 Illinois Chicago ................................................................... 36 Indiana Indianapolis ............................................................ 38 Louisiana MARCELO GOMEZ New Orleans ........................................................... 38 Maryland Baltimore ................................................................ 38 & ROD SILVIA Michigan Features Detroit ..................................................................... 39 Minnesota Caveman Style: The Need to Freak Minneapolis ............................................................ 39 by Taylor Siluwé ......................................................... 2 Mississippi Ballroom Spotlight Jackson ................................................................... 39 by Frank Leon Roberts ............................................... 4 Missouri St Louis ................................................................... 40 Music Reviews by TPROmix ................................................................ 10 Nevada Las Vegas ................................................................ 40 Black Prides & Events ................................................ 12 New York Blogs That Matter New York City .......................................................... 41 by Victor Hoff .............................................................. 53 North Carolina Charlotte/Winston-Salem/ Greensboro/Asheville ............................................ 43 CREW Ohio Publisher - Flava Works, Inc Cincinnati/Cleveland/Columbus ............................ 44 Editors - Dan Nelson and Lenox Magee Pennsylvania Creative Director - Dan Nelson Philadelphia ............................................................ 44 Pittsburgh ............................................................... 45 Contributors - Victor Hoff, Frank Leon Roberts, Taylor Rhode Island Siluwé, TPROmix Providence .............................................................. 45 South Carolina CONTACT US Greenville ............................................................... 45 Flava Works, Inc., 2610 North Miami Avenue Tennessee Miami, FL 33127-4438 Memphis/Nashville ................................................ 45 Phone: 877-FLAVALIFE (877-352-8254) Fax: 866-935-7275 Texas Austin ...................................................................... 45 Subscriptions - To order subscriptions, change your Dallas, Fort Worth ................................................... 46 address or ask about an existing subscription, call Houston .................................................................. 46 toll free Phone: 877-FLAVALIFE (877-352-8254) Virginia Web Site - www.FlavaLife.com Richmond ................................................................ 47 Advertising - For rates and deadlines call Washington Phone: 877-FLAVALIFE (877-352-8254), e-mail sales@ Seattle ..................................................................... 47 flavalife.com or visit www.FlavaLife.com Wisconsin Superior/Milwaukee ............................................... 47 Puerto Rico FlavaLife (ISSN1557-2668) is published bimonthly by San Juan ................................................................. 48 Flava Works, Inc. The entire contents of FlavaLife magazine are copyright © 2007 by Flava Works, Inc. and may not be reproduced Mexico in any manner, either whole or in part, without written permission Puerto Vallarta ........................................................ 48 from the publisher. All rights reserved. St Croix ........................................................................ 48 FLAVALIFE Yeah—that statement disturbed me too, and my pancakes have never been the same again. But long story short, Raw Dukes was canceled when prominent black gay figures like Keith Caveman Style: Boykin rallied supporters and staged a bold protest right on their doorstep. The Need to Freak “They’re peddling death,” proclaimed Phil Wilson, executive director of the Black AIDS Insti- tute in L.A. in an Advocate interview. But activist and educator Herukhuti countered in his By: Taylor Siluwé equally blunt essay, “Whose Booty Is This: Barebacking, Advocacy and the Right to Fuck.” “Our sex lives as men of color who experience same-sex desires have become issues of Sex parties are everywhere. national security, thereby placing us, the Rahiems, Jamals, Hectors, Tyrones, and Anthonys, Even in my neighborhood in downtown Jersey City— on the national sexual terrorist watch list.” NYC’s down-low borough across the Hudson—there is I’d never cross swords with Phil Wilson on the dangers of raw sex. Nor would I argue with a private affair where attractive men discretely gather, strip down to what they were born Herukhuti’s somewhat paranoiac spin: not because he has many degrees after his name, with, and proceed to indulge in the most hedonistic of festivities. All around the country not because he founded Black Funk (a Brooklyn based “sexual-cultural” center, which, I beautiful brothers are fucking, sucking, and doing all those nasty group things most only admit, I don’t fully grasp), but because as a Black gay American male I don’t need to be seen in a Dorm Life porn video. convinced that I’m being watched. I’ve become prudish about group sex in recent years. But there was a time when I would Like I said, despite last year’s uproar, the sex parties are still bustin’ all over, now have been the first to jump on the coffee table—and without spilling my drink—dance, they provide condoms and are once again leaving questionable sexual behavior to indi- shed my clothes, and then drop it like it’s hot with every cutie in the room. So yeah, I re- vidual responsibility. But in a country where civil liberties are in general erosion, sexual member the rush derived from goin’ wild under the watchful eyes of like-minded souls. outlaws— those of us occupying the lowest rung on the civil-rights totem pole—better be This gleeful pursuit of sexual gratification—better known as Hedonism—is hardly new. wary. Long before religion and government shackled our lustful natures, sex was a pleasure end- The Black Funk founder seemed disgruntled that leaders would actively step in to police lessly and sometimes ruthlessly sought caveman style. this ageless pursuit of sexual gratification; while, as he suggests, never addressing the Yeah, cavemen got their freak on too. They didn’t call it that then, of course, and it was equally oppressive prevailing attitudes, which forbid some brothers from joining the party at all: “So what does it mean when OUR organizations perform raids on OUR sexual spaces probably more about scratching a recurring itch than anything else, but the end result was using the same language and imagery of the State and under the banner of ‘keeping us the same—something (or someone) got fucked royally. Thousands of years before words safe?’ Why wasn’t another part of the raw sex party’s policy, “must be in-shape/toned/mus- like fornication, adultery, and faggot dictated who we could and could not screw, they cular … No fats or big guts,” considered equally if not more problematic to the well-being, surely had sexual outlets besides clubbing women and making cave-babies. Perhaps, health, and vitality of our communities? Maybe, the policing of bodies in the policy can’t be some of the more creative types even gathered in groups in remote fire-lit locations for a considered homophobic but it definitely is homo-hatred, self-hatred collectivized; and that grunting, spirited game of “hide the ox bone.” too equals death.” Okay, maybe only the most popular cavemen called his an ox bone; I can’t be certain. And Yeah, we’ve all seen those ‘no fats, no fems’ restrictions. And if you’re not ‘official’—mascu- there are no pictures of cavemen cavorting on a Saber Tooth skin—actually, there is one, line, gym toned, and preferably young—then don’t even think about showing up. It’s brutal, but it was Halloween ’92 and I was extremely drunk—but common sense tells me that without