NEWS QUEER
HIP-HOP NATION: AIMA THE DREAMER, HOTTUB, HAWA ARSALA, YETUNDE OLAGBAJU, TONIA BEGLARI, DJ JAQI SPARROW, SKY MADDEN, RAW G, MARCO DE LA VEGA, KELLY LOVEMONSTER, DJ BOYFRIEND, DAVO, MATRIXXMAN. HIP-HOP PHOTOS BY ANGELA DAWN, DEBBIE SMITH, HAWA ARSALA/BROWNTOURAGE, AUBRIE PICK, POLAROID SF, BRIAN MORAN, SHOT IN THE CITY, HANNAH CAIRNS, ROBBIE SWEENEY, MOLLY DECOUDREAUX. ACT-UP SF PHOTOS BY WAIYDE PALMER AND LIZ HIGHLEYMAN, COURTESY ACT-UP SF.
The Hot Pink List 2013 Our annual tribute to queers who grabbed our attention and held it
ACT-UPPERS AIDS-era nostalgia gripped popular culture recently with several acclaimed documentaries (including Oscarnominated How to Survive a Plague Plague) and the Tony-winning revival of Larry Kramer’s play “A Normal Heart” (soon to be an HBO movie with Julia Roberts). But a new generation was also rediscovering the disruptive tactics of ACT-UP. That highly effective, emotionally inspiring AIDS activist organization turned 25 last year, and ACT-UP SF (www.facebook.com/ ACTUPSF) relaunched with a new agenda: combating queer homelessness and evictions, the criminalization of HIV and sex work, transphobia and discrimination, and astronomical HIV drug prices. Through direct actions and colorful street protests, ACT-UP SF renewed the intergenerational spirit of queer community.
HIP-HOP NATION If anything will tip the scale when it comes to mainstream hip-hop’s acceptance of pansexual twerking in its midst (hi, Frank Ocean and Mykki Blanco), it will be the simple fact that this new class of queers just brings the game better: pops ass more profoundly, wears the shit out of some Hood By Air, and can channel Aaliyah, Slick Rick, and Le1f on the same track. In the Bay (site of many early LGBT hip-hop pioneers), queer rap shines: Monthly El Rio twerkfest Swagger Like Us and new party-on-theblock R U That Somebody spin vogue circles with 2 Chainz, and strong female rappers like RawG, Aima the Dreamer, and Micah Tron bang out sharp lyrics and catchy hooks. Those looking for more theoretical grounding found power this year at La Peña Cultural Cultural Center’s Hip Hop Beyond Gender event series, where intersectionalities of class, race, and gender joined in unstoppable flow. 14 SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN
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