THE STYLISTS BEHIND THE STARS 'CHOIR BOY'
TARELL McCRANEY
FALL INTO YOUR OWN
STYLE
THE TOAST OF AMERICAN THEATRE
+ GAY
FASHION
ALL OVER THE Volume 3 Issue 5
Sept/Oct 2013
Photo: Felix Mercedes
NATION
I
t's Fall time -- so pull out the boots and scarfs. This Sept/Oct issue is our celebration of Fall fashion, as well as, an appreciation of the many gays who are dominating the industry.
We wanted to showcase fashion in a different way this season, so we issued a national call for submission -- the rules were simple ... present the best of your city showcasing men's Fall fashion styled the way your city does best. What we received were beautifully creative spreads by some of the fashion industries brightest from all over the U.S. Pg 18.
I sent my dear friend Keith Boykin to Chicago for an exclusive story about his dear friend -- the toast of American theatre, playwright Tarell McCraney. Experience the heartfelt piece on the black gay 'Choir Boy' on pg 12.
On page 14 we profile four fashion stylists behind some of the most fashionable celebrities in pop culture today -- take a look at 'The Stylists Behind the Stars.'
Lastly but certainly not least, as I do every issue I share 'What I've Come To Know' -- this season is a great time to create your best self. Happy Fall!
Here We Go! TEAM DBQ The Contributors
NATHAN JAMES is an author, screenwriter, radio personality, and journalist. He is the Executive Editor of the LGBT multimedia resource GBM News, and writes extensively on LGBT issues and affairs.
David A. Bridgeforth Jr. Editor-In-Chief / Publisher
Keith Boykin is a New York Times best-selling author of four books and a TV commentator for BET, MSNBC and CNBC. His latest book is For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Still Not Enough.
DaShawn Usher is a native New Yorker. He focuses most of his time and talents in Public Relations, health and the nonprofit sector. His passion is creative writing. He is managing editor at DBQ. Stanley Bennett Clay is an award winning filmmaker, novelist, director and playwright. His documentary "You Are Not Alone" is currently screening throughout the country. He recently directed the stage adaptation of "B-Boy Blues." His latest novel "Aching For It" (Book 1 of his 5-book "Dominican Heat" series) is currently on the market.
Executive Administrator
Entertainment Editor
Jacqui Tanner
Matthew Barrett
Contributing Editor
Creative Editor
Stanley Bennett Clay
Pony Zion
Consulting Cover Editor
Makeup
Reggie Wells
Baldwin Rivers
Managing Editor
Photography/Retouch
Dashawn Usher
Felix Mercedes
Copy Editor
Clothing Stylist
Riko Boone
Pierre Ingram
DBQ Magazine is a nationally distributed bimonthly lifestyle publication. Published and printed in Indianapolis, Indiana. For more information on advertisement, circulation, or articles please contact us at dbqmagazine@gmail.com Or 908.656.6218.
DBQ David Bridgeforth Quarterly
Sept / Oct 2013 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @DBQMAG / DBQMAG.COM
EVERYWHERE ABOVE THE RAINBOW
P.5
P. 18
P.18
CHOIR BOY:
TARELL McCRANEY P.12
5. Behind The Scenes
10. Books/Perfect Peace
14. The Stylists Behind The Stars
6. NYC Black Pride 8. News 9. Politics
11. Community/ You Matter 12. Keith Boykin's Choir Boy Tarell McCraney
18. Gay Fashion All Over The Nation 29. What I've Come To Know / Fashion and Style Your Best Self
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 4
Behind the Scene @BRIDGEFORTH
Follow DBQ & Mr. Bridgeforth everywhere 'Behind the Scene'
@DBQMAG @DBRIDGEFORTH
ADRIAN ALICEA
BEHIND THE COVER
2
3
Page 5
As a model Adrian walked the runways for major designers such as THIERRY MUGLER, GIORGIO ARMANI, JEAN-PAUL GAULTIER, GIANFRANCO FERRE and PATRICIA FIELDS. In the late 90s Adrian began designing with Nico Urquiza which created (NICO & ADRIAN NY). For ten years, Adrian worked with Nico to create a collection that featured unique and outrageous designs. Together they presented runway shows that were so scandalous in their overt sexiness that many of the worlds top models and fashion photographers came calling for collaborations. Their designs would come to be photographed by Steven Meisel and David LaChappelle. Linda Evangelista graced the cover of ITALIAN VOGUE in their spiked wrestler helmet. Today, its just Adrian Alicea and Mr. Bridgeforth is wearing pieces from Adrian's Fall 2013 Collection. For more information on Adrian Alicea go to adrianalicea.com
1. Mr. Bridgeforth enjoying Fire Island Black Out after hosting the FIBO/ DBQ Magazine Happy Hour. 2. Sheldon D. and David on the NYC Black Pride red carpet for the expo pride weekend. 3. Keith Boykin and Mr. Bridgeforth at the Black Pride Heritage Awards –Boykin was given and award as editor of 'For Colored Boys'. Photo Credit: Ardranae Byer for IKONS Magazine™
1
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
Behind the Scene
Whom do you consider to be legendary? Your first thoughts may be musical superstars like Michael Jackson or Diana Ross, poetic geniuses like Maya Angelou or Langston Hughes, or maybe even political activists like Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. Indeed, all of the aforementioned are legendary in their own respective rights, but have you ever considered who might be legendary in a more esoteric sense, as it relates to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community? In that context, we pay homage to a pioneer for gay rights and a true living legend, Stormé DeLarverie.
NYC BLACK PRIDE Stormé DeLarverie: A Living Legend By Jerome G. Waddell
Stormé DeLarverie was born on December 24, 1920 in New Orleans, Louisiana to an African American mother and a white father. Stormé was raised in New Orleans, but quickly migrated north to New York City. DeLarverie began her performing career in the 1940s as a big band singer with her deep, sultry baritone voice. Her career eventually led her to become a part of the Jewel Box Revue, which was composed of 2 dozen males dressed beautifully and seductively as females with one biological female dressed very gentlemanly and convincingly as a man: Stormé. Not long after she began her 14-year tenure with the Jewel Box Revue, Stormé began to embrace her male character offstage as well. She challenged gender codes, which often prompted much confusion, as onlookers would oftentimes refer to her as “sir” or “ma’am.” Stormé embraced her appearance and her sexuality, as she was very proud to be a lesbian. She did not care about the gender in which people referred to her by simply stating, “It makes no difference to me.”
Often described as courageous, rebellious, talented, shrewd, flamboyant, groundbreaking, and boundary defying, Stormé began her journey as civil rights activist for the LGBT community on Friday, June 27th, 1969 during an act of civil rebellion against New York police officers in what later became known as the Stonewall Riots. After witnessing three police officers violently assault a gay man being escorted from the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, Stormé stepped up to defend the patron. She recounts that one of the cops said to her, “Move faggot,” after mistakenly thinking that she was a gay man. DeLarverie responded, “I Will Not! And don’t you dare touch me.” The police officer then proceeded to shove her and Stormé instinctively punched the officer right in the face, as he later bled and fell to the ground. Stormé’s courageous efforts and preemptive thinking led to a series of rebellions, which together are widely considered to constitute the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights in the United States. Stormé DeLarverie became a catalyst for a climactic social change that would forever impact the face of history…that is how one becomes truly legendary in any facet of society.
Storme as a drag king during the Jewel Box Revue in the 1950s, she performed for 15 years. (Below) Storme with her caregivers and Lee Soulja (President of NYC Black Pride) as Storme received the Pioneer Award from NYC Black Pride on Aug 14, 2013.
Today, Stormé DeLarverie resides in a nursing home in Brooklyn where she recently celebrated the 44th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Although she suffers from dementia, King Stormé, as she is affectionately called, is still an integral part of the LGBT community and is very much widely respected. She is an active ambassador of the Stonewall Veterans’ Association and her legacy continues to influence those surrounded by her. Stormé DeLarverie, you are truly a living legend. We salute and honor you!
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 6
Behind the Scene
NYC BLACK PRIDE
NYC Black Pride Heritage Awards Filmmaker Amir Dixon who was given an award by Black Pride for his new documentary 'Friend of Essex', called Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn out about her support of 'Stop and Risk', during his acceptance speech. The direct comments to Quinn –who was seated on the front row in the audience caused an uproar of applause and shocked faces. Following Dixon's remarks, Quinn spoke and thanked Amir for reminding her of the importance of the laws being changed and then urged the audience to write letters so that there won't be a 'stop and risk' in NYC.
THE LATEX BALL
Reality star and singer Tamar Braxton made an appearance at the ball. Also Ballroom 'IT' boy –Twiggy Garcon from the 'HBO OUT LIST'– attended the ball as well as T-girl Tracee who was one of the judges for Latex this year.
One of the highlights of the Latex Ball this year was when transgender woman Mariah Lopez interrupted the ball cause a huge seen because she wanted to walk a female category and felt it was not right that the board of judges didn't recognize transgendered woman as real women. Lopez proceeded to grab the mic from commentators and asked why couldn't her own ballroom community recognize her for the woman she is when the United States could and issue her a female drivers license. This issue held the ball up for over 20 mins because Lopez refused to leave the stage in spite if security being called several times. The dispute ended when Jack Mizarahi granted her the right to walk the category
Page 7
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
[
the books. The White House cited Russia’s LGBT rights record as among the reasons that prompted Obama to cancel a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that had been scheduled to take place in Moscow before next month’s G-20 summit in St. Petersburg.
]
NEWS
“One of the things I’m really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we’re seeing there,” Obama said during a White House press conference. “If Russia doesn’t have gay or lesbian athletes, then that would probably make their team weaker.”
Words/ Baldwin Rivers
JUDGE FINDS NEW YORK CITY STOP-AND-FRISK UNCONSTITUTIONAL
OPRAH CALLS TRAYVON MARTIN THE EMMITT TILL OF OUR ERA
NEW YORK NY—U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that New York City's stop-and-frisk program violates the Constitution by indirectly racial profiling blacks and Hispanics disproportionate to their populations. She has ordered the installation of the department's firstever independent monitor to oversee changes to its practices. City officials have argued that stop-and-frisk is a key component in their largely successful efforts to fight crime, but opponents have criticized it as a blatant violation of civil rights.
MANHATTAN, NY— During a recent appearance on the Morning Joe talk show, Oprah Winfrey referred to Trayvon Martin as the Emmitt Till of our Era. Emmitt Till was a 14-year-old teen murdered in Mississippi after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam arrived at Till's great-uncle's house where they took Till, transported him to a barn, beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. His body was discovered and retrieved from the river three days later.
While New York's stop-and-frisk practice is more widely used than in most other cities, police experts said the ruling is likely to lead police in other cities to tread more carefully in their own tactics.
"It's definitely a wake-up call to any police chief in the country to be mindful of constitutional rights," said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor of law and police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Winfrey made the reference while promoting Director Lee Daniels new film “The Butler” in which Winfrey stars.
While officials in some cities said they wouldn't be directly affected by the ruling, experts said the order for monitoring and other remedies in New York, including a pilot program in which officers will be equipped with "body-worn cameras," is likely to be watched by city and police officials elsewhere.
As racism and discrimination against young black men, black parents continue to have the conversation about race in America.
“To be Frank, I’d rather have the birds and the bees conversation,” stated Daniels, the openly gay producer/director of such films as “Monsters Ball” and “Precious,” and himself a black father. “That’s an easier conversation to explain [instead of] why it is that you can’t get a taxi and yet your [white] neighbors that are right in front of you in the same soccer outfit in the rain can.”
Under the pilot camera program, officers in the precinct in each of the city's five boroughs with the highest number of stops in 2012 will be required to wear the body cameras for a year. The federal monitor will then weigh whether the cameras reduced what the judge calls unconstitutional stops.
New York City officials immediately criticized the decision. "No federal judge has ever imposed a monitor over a city's police department following a civil trial," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He credited stop-and-frisk with helping drive crime in New York City to record lows. In the last two decades murder rates have dropped from 3,000 a year to 300 a year. The mayor predicted that should the judge's decision stand, it could reverse those crime reductions "and make our city, and in fact the whole country, a more dangerous place."
NEW YORK JUDGE SENTENCES GANG MEMBER FOR ANTIGAY ATTACK BRONX NY—A New York City judge on Aug. 9 sentenced a gang member to seven years in prison in connection with a 2010 anti-gay attack.
The New York Daily News reported Bronx Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett sentenced Nelson Falu after he accepted a plea bargain for his role in the beating and torture of two teenage boys and a 30-year-old man.
Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The Washington Post, has a simple solution. “Just stop-and-frisk more white people.”
HOLLYWOOD CA —In light of the Russian government’s decision to enforce the country’s gay propaganda ban during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, President Barack Obama spoke out.
Prosecutors contend Falu and seven other members of the “Latin King Goonies” sodomized two of their victims with a plunger while they used homophobic slurs against them inside a home in the borough’s Morris Heights neighborhood in October 2010. The gang members also allegedly used a cigarette lighter to burn their victims.
In a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show,” President Obama said he has “no patience” for countries in which anti-LGBT laws remain on
The Daily News reported two of Falu’s other alleged co-conspirators have also accepted plea bargains.
OBAMA SPEAKS OUT AGAINST RUSSIA’S ANTI-GAY STANCE
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 8
[Politics] Diplomacy And Controversy Over The Rainbow President Obama's nominee for Dominican Republic Ambassador denied post by Senate after public protests By Nathan James The tranquil shores of the Dominican Republic were roiled by President Obama’s ambassadorial nominee to that tropical island nation. In keeping with his administration’s practice of ensuring that high-level official appointees “reflect the character and appearance of the country”, Obama chose openly gay advocate James Brewster as the top US diplomat for the area. This nomination sparked outrage in the heavily Roman Catholic republic, with local religious leaders calling Brewster’s candidacy “an insult to good Dominican customs,” according to Rev. Critobal Cardozo of the Dominican Evangelical Fraternity. Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez, the archbishop of Santo Domingo, went further, publicly referring to Brewster as a “maricon” in a televised press conference. A July 15 “Lunes Negro”, or Black Monday, demonstration protesting Obama’s decision, included scores of people wearing black bandanas and other funereal clothing, to symbolize the “death of diplomatic relations” with the United States if Brewster was installed. Brewster, 53, served as the LGBT co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), was nominated in June for the post, but was denied confirmation by the Senate on August 1, largely because of public uproar. Educated at Texas A & M University, where he graduated with a business administration degree, Brewster embarked upon a marketing and management career that led to the creation of his own consulting firm, SB&K Global, where he currently serves as CEO. The executive also sits on the Human Rights Campaign’s board of directors. Of his nomination, Brewster stressed that his purpose was “to come [to the Dominican Republic] as an ambassador, not as a gay activist.” If he had been confirmed for the posting, Brewster would have succeeded Raul Yzaguirre, who resigned last May because of failing health. Yzaguirre’s tenure in the Caribbean post was “uneventful”, according to the State Department. The Dominican Republic is a place of seeming contradictions: the population of nine million—88% of whom are Roman Catholic—is said to be deeply homophobic, yet gay tourism plays a major role in the local economy. The annual DR Inferno festival, held each Labor Day weekend, is a major LGBT attraction that fills the streets of Punta Cana with thousands of gays and lesbians, whose travel dollars the city’s leaders are happy to accept. Yet, the firestorm over Brewster’s attempted appointment has caused some in the LGBT community to wonder if gays and lesbians should travel to the Republic, where religious hostility is reaching a fever pitch. The country’s general
Page 9
DBQ Magazine
education law “bases the school curriculum on ‘Christian principles’,” said Barry Gelding, an LGBT political-affairs expert. “This gives rise to the idea that the US is promoting its own ideas about sexuality and gender identity [by trying to appoint a gay ambassador] in other countries.” LGBT activists in both countries expressed dismay at the displays of homophobia from the religious right. “We stand with the LGBT advocates in the Dominican Republic,” said Monica Transandes, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s (GLAAD) Spanish Language Media director. “We hope that James Brewster will help educate those still adversely affected by homophobia.” Seeking to alleviate diplomatic tensions, the Dominican government, through its Washington embassy, had tried to show support for Brewster’s nomination. “It is the position of the Government of the Dominican Republic,” the embassy said, “that a person’s sexual orientation is a personal matter, and we look forward to working constructively with Mr. Brewster in his official capacity once he is approved by the US Senate.” The Dominican government, long an ally of the Obama administration, is seen as an important partner in foreign affairs, as it is the largest economy in the region and its participation in the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, which provides law-enforcement and strategic assistance to the region. The United States imports gold, jewelry, medical equipment, tobacco, and knitwear. “This nomination, given the close relationship between Mr. Brewster and President Obama, points to the importance of the Dominican Republic to the United States,” the State Department noted on its website. Foreign-policy observers noted that the Republic’s status as the economic leader in the Caribbean, made Brewster a “uniquely qualified” choice for Ambassador, while critics of the nomination pointed out that the move by Obama was likely a political patronage reward to Brewster for his work during the President’s re-election campaign. Brewster was one of five openly gay nominees for ambassadorial positions around the globe. The other four, John Berry (Australia), James Costos (Spain), Rufus Gifford (Denmark), and Daniel Baer (Orgainzation for American States), were all confirmed unanimously by the Senate. The Obama administration has not yet selected another candidate for Ambassador to the Dominican Republic.
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
[ Books ]
PERFECT PEACE A novel by Daniel Black Reviewed by Stanley Bennett Clay
I
t was not simply that Emma Jean Peace desperately wanted a daughter after giving her husband six sons. She wanted to shower on a daughter all the love, pampering, consideration and care she did not receive as the dark-skinned child of a woman who heaped unimaginable pain and suffering upon a child whose only sin was to be born black, literally.
Adolescent Emma Jean suffered indignities not dissimilar from those suffered by Celie in “The Color Purple,” only her Mister was her mother, a title cruelly unearned. So when grown Emma Jean cuts off all ties with her mother, marries a not so bad poor country laborer named Gus, who cries when the heavens do, and gives him six sons, she is sure that seven is the charm.
But alas, with the help of midwife Henrietta, Emma Jean gives birth to another son. Undaunted, she decides right then and there, to pass her new son off as her daughter, and uses blackmail to bind the midwife’s complicity.
And in every other sense and sensibility, Perfect lives up to her name. She is quite simply a beautiful child, and Emma Jean sacrifices much of the family resources to make sure she is dressed in the finest the family’s little money can buy, parading the child before church and community with a pride that borders on haughtiness.
Emma Jean names her faux daughter Perfect. Set in the rural, cruel, but hauntingly evocative American south of the early 1940’s, this remarkable and totally credible tale of gender identity, dogged determination, family, sexuality, and unconditional love envelopes one into the complicated world of the Peace family The six young Peace boys—James Earl, Woody, Bartmaeus, Sol, Mister and Authorly—are awed by their beautiful new sister, and are both respectful and protective of her. “I’ll be glad when she’s old enough to play with us,” Sol muses with wonder. “She ain’t gon’ play with us, fool!” the bright and knowledge-seeking Authorly says. “She’s a girl, and girls is real delicate. They not tough like boys, so they have to play with other girls.”
For eight years the lie lives flawlessly. The modesty of the times never allowed Gus and his six sons to ever see Perfect naked. Diapers were changed, and the child was bathed and dressed by mother Emma Jean only. Even Perfect, with no knowledge of anatomy, grows up completely unaware that the little appendage dangling between her/ his legs is male genitalia.
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
It is when the truth is discovered that all hell breaks loose. And though Emma Jean is rightly blamed for the deceit, it is heartbreaking to witness the community condemnation heaped upon the innocent child, renamed Paul, who must now suddenly be a boy in the fish bowel of an unforgiving society. Even Paul’s father Gus, normally a decent guy, resorts to horrendous cruelties when trying to make his former daughter, now growing young son be something he has no clue of being. The great saving grace of this very moving story is the combined humanity of Paul’s six brothers. Each brother is so distinctively defined with delicate brushstrokes of caring, emotion, heart and compassion that much of Paul’s survival and emotional growth is dependent upon them, who, in some ways, still protect their little brother with the same fierceness applied when he was their little sister. The full story of Perfect Peace is so rich and complicated, that there is little space here to chronicle its remarkable trajectory. Suffice it to say that this is one helluva read, and one of epic proportion. Mr. Black’s story-telling skills and prose are nearly as good as Toni Morrison’s. I am one of his newest fans. And this great and powerful book shall haunt me for many years to come.
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 10
[Community] You Matter:
A Social Campaign of Value
F
By DaShawn Usher
or many young Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) youth, especially of color, their sense of value for their lives are predetermined by influences of outside factors that are farther than their control. Family, friends, and the media play a critical role of affirming or negating their sexuality and instilling in them value or deficiency. Too often, LGBTQ youth lack that appreciation of value and feel as if they do not matter. However, there’s one youth lead social marketing campaign initiative to let fellow LGBTQ youth know that “You Matter.” GMHC’s Club1319, an affirming, positive space for young men who are gay, bisexual, or transgender between the ages of 13 – 19, launched their new campaign “You Matter” this summer.
The “You Matter” video campaigns were created with the help of awardwinning filmmaker Amy Hart from CenterPeace Films (www.centerpeacefilms.com). The three featured 30 seconds videos are “Beauty,” “Closet,” and “In the Moment.” Each video showcases different themes that an LGBTQ youth could easily relate to. “Beauty” showcases a young transgender woman, receiving praise for her beauty at a social event to being a natural beauty alone. “Closet” displays two young gay men sharing a nonsexual intimate exchange in one of their bedrooms, but is quickly interrupted. “In the Moment” is a scene with two young men hooking up. Ultimately, all the videos end with an declaration that no matter how good or bad it is, “you matter.”
“Youth from the Club1319 program came together with GMHC staff and video director Amy Hart to explore messages that could be meaningful to LGBTQ teenagers, especially young men of color who are gay, bisexual, or transgendered,” said John Guidry, Director of Community Health and Research at GMHC. “The teenagers talked about physical appearance, depression, difficulty finding jobs, education, drug addiction, and suicide when Justin, a tall boy with curly copper-colored hair said, “you matter.” This phrase began to guide the conversation,
Page 11
DBQ Magazine
which turned into a discussion how to affirm self-worth in the face of hard challenges,” Guidry continued.
While marriage equality is being recognized on a national level, there are many other rights that still do not exist on a state or local across the country. Martin Luther King, Jr. once stated, “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” There is still a need for awareness to be raised on many of these issues that affect the LGBT youth community. According to PFLAG, gay teens are almost 9 times more likely to report having attempted suicide and about 6 times more likely to report high levels of depression compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) reports that 92% of LGBT youth hear negative messages about being LGBT and that 26% say their biggest problems are not being accepted by their family, trouble at school/bullying, and a fear to be out/open. This also does not account for some of the unreported or underreported issues that face this particular community.
In August, GMHC hosted “Our Self-Portraits,” a community conversation on image and perception of Black gay men in the media. The “You Matter” videos premiered during this event, which also included a panel discussion moderated by Nathan H. Williams and featured David Bridgeforth, Dominique Crisden, and Jack Mizrahi as panelists. During the forum, several of the youth featured in the campaign were present and spoke about why they felt the campaign was needed. Many of the youth discussed the importance of having their voice heard, with an emphasis on it coming from their own perspectives for their peers.
“You Matter” videos are now available via Facebook and YouTube. “On Facebook, the campaign will invite all viewers to do likewise and submit their videos to accompany the “You Matter” pieces on the social media networking site,” said Guidry. To learn more about GMHC’s “You Matter” campaign visit www.gmhc.org/learn/you-matter.
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
[ ] FRONT ROW
Tarell Alvin McCraney Is No Choir Boy...Or Is He? By Keith Boykin
ask him any of the mind-numbingly standard questions he's been asked hundreds of times during the numerous other interviews he's done throughout his prolific young career.
T
arell Alvin McCraney has just returned from the Whole Foods grocery store with a grilled chicken sandwich on a bun and a bacon cheeseburger so big that it barely fits on the plate with the accompanying french fries. It's not exactly what you might expect this tall, lean, and muscular young man would eat for dinner, but it looks tasty.
He offers me a choice between the two sandwiches. I pick the cheeseburger while he pours a blender-made smoothie into a glass and pushes it toward me with a warning that it contains alcohol. I smile, and he immediately pours more liquor into the glass.
This, his friends say, is vintage Tarell. Ever the caretaker, he doesn't drink alcohol himself but he keeps liquor in his Chicago apartment apparently to serve to guests like me. Or maybe he's pouring me liquor so I won't
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
It's a few days after McCraney's play Choir Boy has closed its summer run at the Manhattan Theater Club and he's already feeling a bit nostalgic as he sits at his dinner table in Chicago. It's not the fame and attention he misses. He never mentions that. It's the cast. He misses their time together and those special moments spent with the young men in the production as they were developing the show for New York audiences.
Long after we've finished dinner, we've talked about everything from Trayvon Martin to B. Scott. Although Tarell describes himself as shy, he's always seemed just as comfortable talking about politics as pornography. He's fluent in both. After all, Tarell McCraney is no choir boy. Or maybe he is. Maybe the point of his work is that choir boys, like the rest of us, are complex human figures, resistant to simplistic categorization.
After a few hours of conversation, we've hardly talked about Tarell the interview subject. We've chatted a bit about Tarell the person, my friend, but not so much about Tarell Alvin McCraney, the famous playwright. That's something he doesn't seem to talk about as much.
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 12
Tarell Alvin McCraney Is No Choir Boy...Or Is He?
I remember the exact moment when I discovered Tarell was famous. I was watching the moon at a late night summer party from the rooftop of a Fire Island home. The cocktail conversation veered off into race and politics and my friend Sean Bennett mentioned Tarell McCraney. "Tarell McCraney from Miami?" I asked. Yes, of course, Sean said. "I know him," I responded.
Literally 15 minutes later in a different conversation at the same party someone else mentioned one of McCraney's plays. "How does everybody know Tarell?" I wondered. Then I looked him up on my phone.
Google "Tarell Alvin McCraney" and you'll find tens of thousands of entries about the unassuming 32-year-old. Born and raised in the rough streets of Miami's Liberty City neighborhood, the story of his rise from inner city high school student to the toast of the American and British theater world would surely make Horatio Alger blush with admiration.
Along the way, he moved from the New World School of the Arts in Miami to the Yale School of Drama to the Royal Shakespeare Company in Britain to the pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Guardian. And he's picked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in award money throughout the process.
But mention any of this success to McCraney and he'll casually brush it off. In fact, in the first few months of knowing him, he never once mentioned any of these achievements, even though he was living in my apartment in South Beach. I discovered he was famous at a party 1,300 miles away in the Pines.
"Tarell is my best friend," says Luis Cuevas of Miami, who has known him since high school. "I would describe him as really humble and unassuming." So humble that when McCraney was admitted to Yale, Cuevas complains that Tarell was very "matter of fact" about it. "Of course I went hysterical and told everyone we know," Cuevas adds. The same thing happened when McCraney was featured on the cover of OUT magazine. "I missed it because he didn't tell me," Cuevas says. "I just happened to pass by and see it."
Cuevas half-jokingly describes himself as Tarell's personal chauffeur in Miami. When Tarell comes to town, Cuevas picks up his friend and roommate from the airport and drives him around the city because McCraney "refuses to get a license," he says. For some reason, Tarell never learned how to drive. That's almost unthinkable for most American suburbanites, but not impossible for someone like McCraney who spends his life traveling between the big cities of Chicago, Miami, New York and London.
McCraney's jet-setting life doesn't seem to go to his head though. Just like Cuevas, writer Darnell Moore describes McCraney as "one of the most humble folks that I've ever met," especially remarkable since "he has every reason not to be." When Moore describes McCraney as one of the greatest contemporary playwrights of our time, he's not exaggerating. McCraney is so accomplished that he received the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award when he was just 28 years old.
On the day McCraney turned 30 in October 2010, he celebrated not by ordering bottle service at a nightclub or throwing a big party, Cuevas says, but by hosting a fundraiser for his high school to launch a scholarship for young kids just like he once was. Tarell knows his own worth as a celebrated playwright, says Moore, but he "doesn't allow that to shape the way he interacts with people and communities."
Page 13
DBQ Magazine
When you talk to some of Tarell's friends, what comes across is an image of a hard-working, upstanding man. Although they describe him as down-to-earth and funny, he's also clearly a socially conscious man of faith who never grew up in a world of privilege and seems reluctant to embrace it even as a successful adult. And although he's an openly gay African American man, most of his friends are not gay men, he tells me. He's not easy to put into a box and categorize.
"He calls me pastor," says his friend Moore, who actually graduated from a seminary himself. "I call him evangelist." With his calm, outwardly serious demeanor and upright posture, it's easy to see the connection. "He reminds me of that person who should have been a pastor in someone's church," Moore says. Indeed, to experience McCraney's plays is to witness the influence that religion and spirituality have played in his life.
In Head of Passes, he explores the concept of faith as told in the Bible's story of Job through the tale of a black woman in Louisiana who loses her family and her home. In Choir Boy, he demonstrates the selfdestructive effects of religious-based internalized homophobia through the lens of a black gospel choir in a private boys school. These are serious topics that often meet at the intersection of race, faith, and love.
But to step into the theater of a Tarell McCraney play can create a certain sense of juxtaposition. He tells beautifully woven stories about black people, but most of the people in the audiences at the plays I've seen were white. Perhaps it's the burden of the classically-trained black playwright, much like August Wilson's works were widely praised by African Americans but widely watched by non-black audiences.
In fact, when I saw the opening of McCraney's Head of Passes at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, I could literally count the number of black faces in the audience on my two hands, perhaps because it was a special opening for supporters of the theater. Yet that same show about a black family in the south attracted two famous white Chicagoans, former Mayor Richard Daley and current Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
"Theater is expensive," says Cuevas. "It can be very aristocratic and even elitist," he adds. And although it would be easy for a playwright of McCraney's distinction to ignore the racial disparities in theater audiences, instead "he consciously tries to get the people who he's writing about to see the work," says Cuevas. Even when McCraney put on Shakespeare's classic Hamlet in Miami, Cuevas says it was "really important for him to bring the work to the Joseph Caleb Center and the South Dade Cultural Center," two locations that would reach workingclass people of color.
McCraney "positions himself in a very skillful way," adds Topher Campbell, a U.K. theater and filmmaker. "Although he himself might be considered a marginal voice, he refuses to be marginalized."
"He's tall. He's beautiful. He's intelligent. And he's talented. He's a quadruple whammy," says Campbell, who not coincidentally is also tall, beautiful, intelligent and talented.
Despite his many achievements, the relatively young McCraney still has room to grow. Campbell describes him as a "very promising writer," suggesting McCraney has only scratched the surface of his potential for genius. That's great news for theatergoers and wonderful news for newcomers hoping to watch McCraney as he develops. As Campbell sees it, "I think his best work is yet to come."
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
THE STYLISTS BEHIND THE STARS They are the people who drive our culture by running the fashion industry. The trends we live and swear by were their whims of inspiration. This issue we feature 4 of the style architects who are behind our culture's most fashionable celebrities. By James Holman PHOTO: NELSON CASTILLO STYLIST/ CREATIVE DIRECTOR: TALIA COLES
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
The jacket on page 4 is a part of stylist Talia Coles'Page collection. 14
Nicola Formichetti arguably has the hardest job in the world as he styles the one and only Lady Gaga –who has been known to change twelve times in a day, creating a lot of work for her poor stylist. However, Formichetti is more than up to the challenge even at age 36, this Italian/Japanese stylist has successfully formed his path in the industry being named one of the “most influential creative forces working in fashion” in 2010. He acts as Fashion Director for Vogue Hommes Japan, the clothing company Uniqlo and he is the Artistic Director for DIESEL. He has previously taken the role of Artistic Director for the fashion house MUGLER. Formichetti was spotted whilst working for the fashionable boutique, ‘The Pineal Eye’ by Katy England, a Fashion Editor. She offered him a page in ‘Dazed and Confused’; this led to Formichetti working with a number of other magazines such as V, Another Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar. His style is typically avantgarde as you can see from some of the pieces that Gaga adorns on the runway and in interviews. He even worked on parts of the controversial meat dress that she wore to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards. Through Lady Gaga, Formichetti has been able to influence today’s culture in a way that makes it more acceptable to wear outrageous items of clothing.
Nicola Formichetti
Mel Ottenberg Rihanna is widely considered as a style icon with her own range at River Island. Recently, she has been seen adorning completely white combinations; a season must at the moment. Rihanna always looks the part and this is mainly due to just one man. Mel Ottenberg, the newly appointed Fashion Director of 032c Magazine finds time in his busy schedule flying between New York and Los Angeles to create Rihanna’s ensemble for all of her appearances, videos and record covers and he was her costume designer during her recent world tour. As well as this, Ottenberg has a large portfolio of editorial work to his name including work for Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times Style Magazine and GQ Style. This man can seemingly be in multiple places at the same time, surely one man cannot take on all of this as well as provide fashion advice for one of the world’s biggest stars? Mel Ottenberg stylistic approach has been consistently referred to as provocative yet sophisticated, look at the Stella McCartney dress that Rihanna wore to the X Factor in November last year to see this. Ottenberg chose to use this twist on the original LBD to add a provocative flare to RiRi. The combination of the dress, the Anouska diamond earrings and the Kentshire diamond necklace only adds to the sophistication of the outfit. The way in which Ottenberg has created a trend is by using celebrities to promote concepts, take Rihanna’s signature bracelet and hot pants for example, this was met with massive success last summer and indeed this summer with high-street retailers such as Topshop, River Island and New Look providing large variations on this sexy, quirky outfit.
Page 15
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
Talia Coles
She is the woman behind the swag of Mr. Love Faces –Trey Songz. Talia Coles was born in Harlem, New York and has many talents –fashion designer, songwriter and R&B artist. Coles is a successful recording artist with hits such as ‘Never See You Again’ and ‘This Little Thing’. Music is her passion and she is currently storming the music and fashion industry. Her music and fashion has always had a large following by the LGBT community –she is known for being a straight advocate. Coles graduated from New York’s prestigious LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts and studied ballet and Jazz at the Broadway Dance Theatre. Her father sang background and played the trumpet for James Brown. She is the premiere artist, founder and president of Couture Music, which focus on all things music and fashion. She designs jackets which Trey Songz wears during his live performances; and can undoubtedly take credit for the come-back that edgy chic rock-n-roll jackets have seen over the past few years. By using Trey Songz as a sort of advert for her pieces, Coles has influenced a generation to buy jackets and to layer their outfits. Her signature style is known to be a mixture of couture pieces with a sartorial flare; she has worked with a whole host of celebrities including Kelly Rowland, Young Jeezy and Iggy Azalea allowing the world to embrace their styles too.
DiAndre Tristan
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Robin Roberts, the television show host of Good Morning American is the country's most fashionable morning show host and DiAndre Tristan is the man behind it all. Growing up in Washington, DC where he discovered his passion for the world of fashion, he attended the Art Institute of Philadelphia to pursue his dreams of working in the industry. Tristan creates very sexy, sophisticated looks which can be seen on Roberts who regularly appears in figure-hugging dresses, he uses an array of colors which gives his subjects a more interesting look. As well as Roberts, Tristan is single handedly responsible for making Tamar Braxton one of the most fashionable new artist in the industry. Along with being the brains behind the wardrobes of Roberts and Braxton, he has dressed celebrities such as Justin Timberlake, Kittie Troy and Kelly Price. He has been recognized by publications such as Teen Vogue and The Washington Post for his talents. The journey to becoming the stylist for the daytime television host wasn’t as easy as just handing in a CV; Tristan met Elena George, Robert’s make-up artist who quickly became his mentor. George recommended Tristan when Roberts wanted to be styled for an event, this recommendation was accepted and there started the long relationship between the stylist and the styled. Tristan has opened a new door for an older generation to embrace fashion, it not always the case that people in their fifties and sixties want to dress up as they feel that it isn’t appropriate or that they will look out of place. By dressing 52 year old Roberts in sophisticated outfits, he has restored the belief that no matter what age you are, you can always look classy and indeed sexy. Tristan is dedicated to his profession and always works hard to make a look work, using pieces from the Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Burberry collections, he has one aim, “My goal is to make sure that my client always looks gorgeous and feels confident…” Tristan has Sep/Octalso 2013 Page 16 fashion styled for professionals such as performing artists, designers and magazine editors.
HOME DELIVERY 6 Autographed Issues A Year For $20 MAILED TO YOUR DOOR!
Plus Our Newest Issue
FREE!
Page 17
SUBSCRIBE TODAY AT
DBQMAG.COM DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
GAY FASHION ALL OVER THE
NATION The rules were simple –present the best of your city showcasing men fall fashion styled the way that your city does it best. With those instructions and creative control, New York City, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Indianapolis, and Los Angeles put their best foot forward and created a spread that spoke to the art that gays in fashion have the power to bring to life. Here are their stories... -David Bridgeforth DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 18
DRAMATICS New York, NY Model:Ronald Fur, clothing, and photography by Adrian Alicea AdrianAlicea.com
Page 19
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 20
PRETTY BOY ATL Atlanta, Ga Model: Shamoy Persad Stylist: Rocquez Fluellen Photographer: Rocquez Fluellen
Page 21
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 22
Married To Fashion
Washington, DC Stylist: Antoine Anderson AntoineAnderson.CEO@gmail.com Instagram: AntoineAnderson Photographer: Bryan Jones Photography www.facebook.com/blackbeltjones Model 1: Antoine Anderson Model 2: Omar Ortiz Model 3: Anmar (Dog)
Page 23
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 24
The Dope Midwest Indianapolis, Indiana Creative Director-Ryan L. Bennett Photographer-Krystal Highbaugh Stylist-Bryant Hendrix Stylist Assistant-Keisha Wade Barber-Kevin Bennett Model-Cortez Allen Model-Johnnie Taylor Designers: Berny Martin-Catou Www.catouwear.com
Page 25
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
We Wear What We Want Los Angeles, Ca
MODEL: Darius Monte Wells. PHOTOGRAPHER: Joshua Walker DESIGNER: Stonee Goodman & Ashanti Mozelle PRODUCT: Ashyteeshirt by FaireztOfThemAll Faireztofthemall.com
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 28
What I've Come To
Know
F
all is more than a season where I get to pull out my boots and leather jacket and wrap a warm scarf around my neck and walk the streets of New York. I age every Oct 15th, but beyond my Fall birthday, this season represents more for me –it's the time when I get serious about my life. Something happens to me every year in August. I get this weird feeling in my stomach and my intentions change; my focus becomes the evolution of my spirit and soul. I begin to map out the major changes in my life, whether they be people, or habits, or beliefs.
When I was 16 years old, Les Brown, my mentor and godfather would say to me, "You must give up who you've been for who you can become... God made you, but you create yourself." Since then, at the end of every Summer I hear his voice loudly in my head; it changes me and gives me the chills. The thought that my personal responsibilities doesn't end with a roof over my head, my well being, and a successful career, but that it includes the evolution of my heart, spirit, and soul – frightens me towards emancipation.
spend our money on clothes that we feel give us power or value or meaning, the greatest truth that I've come to know in this season is that the meaning and value that many of us seek in labels is the meaning and value we were born with. We search in things for what we already unknowingly have. It is only when we focus our divine energy into fashioning a self of power that the meaning and value we seek will be awakened within ourselves.
The literary love of my life and my favorite author, Marianne Williamson, wrote a speech for Nelson Mandela years ago which he made famous this quote, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us..." What this says to me is that we are so full of power that the truth of it scares us to play small in the world. It is easier for us to style our outfits and to fashion clothing, instead of finding the courage to style, fashion, and create our greatest selves and our best lives.
What I've come to know this issue, as we talk about Fall and the progressive fashions our world beholds, is that we are the great true wonders of this world. And though many of us lose ourselves and
Page 29
DBQ Magazine
Instagram & Tweet Me @BRIDGEFORTH
Sep/Oct 2013
@DBRIDGEFORTH
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
Page 30
Page 31
DBQ Magazine
Sep/Oct 2013
DBQMAG.COM | @DBQMAG