Georgia Voice 01/26/24, Vol. 14 Issue 21

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georgia VOLUME 14• ISSUE 21 About the cover:

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EDITORIAL

Who to Turn to This Black History Month

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4 EDITORIAL JANUARY 26, 2024

Katie Burkholder Among the tasks of an editor is bouncing back when unexpected problems arise. I had the intention of publishing a guest editorial for our Black History Month issue, but unfortunately – as is often, understandably, the case – those plans fell through. I did not want my own voice highlighted as the first you will read in this issue, but when you have a deadline, what is ideal is often not feasible.

So, instead of sharing writing with you about what a white woman thinks about Black History Month, I will instead highlight some of my favorite Black writers in the earnest hope that you will read their work, in February and beyond.

To start with work I have already referenced as loving, Audre Lorde’s essay “Uses of the Erotic” (which I evoked in my editorial “The Power of the Erotic”) and bell hooks’ “All About Love” (which I raved over in my tribute to hooks two years ago) are among what I deem necessary reading for everyone, especially women.

Both highlight the crucial, political nature of softness, sensuality, and genuine love from a Black queer female lens, and both completely changed me for the better after reading.

If you read “Uses of the Erotic” and find yourself loving it, then pick up Adrienne Marie Brown’s anthology “Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good,” in which Lorde’s essay is featured and expanded upon through Brown’s own essays, interviews, and writing from other women of color. The collection explores the role radical pleasure plays in political activism, collective action, and freedom, from topics of sex work and relationships to climate change and drug

Author Toni Morrison PHOTO BY JOHN MATHEW SMITH & WWW.CELEBRITY-PHOTOS.COM IS LICENSED UNDER CC BY-SA 2.0. legalization. The first section is titled “Who Taught You to Feel Good?” and my answer would be Brown, with this book.

To continue down the path of political strategy from Black women, “We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice” is another crucial piece of literature from Mariame Kaba. Again, it is a collection of essays and interviews, this time philosophically and practically exploring prison abolition. I came across this collection after reading “Rethinking Accountability in the Age of Abolition,” an interview between Kaba and Josie Duffy Rice in the now-defunct Bitch magazine, in which Kaba and Rice discussed the nuanced and difficult topic of how sexual violence could be prevented without prisons. It was a revolutionary conversation, and that power permeates the book. It was timely with its release in 2021, and its timeliness remains now, amid the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta.

If you’re looking for phenomenal Black fiction, Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”

is a classic for a reason, a horrifying and surreal interpretation of the dehumanization of anti-Blackness. Find more contemporary Black horror with Jordan Peele’s brandnew anthology “Out There Screaming,” a collection of nineteen Black authors’ personal “oubliettes… place[s] where you were stripped of all agency and left alone with your struggle. Where you could see life going on around you, but you were essentially a bystander – forgotten,” in Peele’s words. If horror isn’t your thing, Zadie Smith’s “On Beauty” is one of my favorite novels, period.

It is a perfectly constructed story of clashing political ideals and the intersections of age, race, and beauty.

If listening to words is more of your thing, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my friend and Georgia Voice contributor Divine Ikpe, who produces and writes music and performs around Atlanta under the stage name Divi.jpg. Her songs are both haunting and dance-inducing, covering topics from dating and relationships to the often-harsh realities of living in Atlanta.

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NEWS BRIEFS Staff reports Read these stories and more online at thegavoice.com

Dr. Jesse Peel’s Funeral Service Details Announced A funeral service for HIV/AIDS activist Dr. Jesse Peel will be held in Atlanta on Saturday, January 27, at 2pm at St. Mark United Methodist Church, located at 781 Peachtree Street, NE, Atlanta, GA, 30308. Visitation will take place from 1:15 to 2pm in the chapel before the service. A celebration of his life will take place at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, on Saturday, February 24, at 3pm.

2024 Already Outpacing 2023 in Anti-LGBTQ Legislation On January 17, the Missouri General Assembly was slated to discuss eight anti-trans bills, from regulations barring “discrimination” against health providers who refuse to perform gender affirming care to an exclusionary “bathroom bill.”

Legislative researcher Erin Reed said she expects these items will leave no room for other business: “This happened last year on a number of occasions” with hearings that began at 9am and stretched past midnight.

Missouri “had one day last year where they heard several sports bans and several health care bans and then several drag bans in the same day,” she said. “The idea, I think, is to truly wear people down.”

The Show-Me State’s legislative calendar this week is almost rote: 17 days into the new year, lawmakers in Congress and statehouses across the country are considering more than 275 anti-trans bills, according to the Trans Legislative Tracker and ACLU. With 150+ pieces of legislation that were carried over from last year and 100+ new bills, 2024 could break records that have been set for each of the past three consecutive years. “Our count right now is 230 have been introduced this year,” Reed said, referring to new bills.

“The number has been going up really quickly.”

“Across the country, state and local politicians have declared war on freedoms, including the

6 NEWS JANUARY 26, 2024

2024 Already Outpacing 2023 in Anti-LGBTQ Legislation. PHOTO BY 017.07.26 PROTEST TRANS MILITARY BAN, WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON DC USA 7625" BY TEDEYTAN IS LICENSED UNDER CC BY-SA 2.0.

freedom to get necessary medical care, a good education, and to simply exist without fear of violence or state-sanctioned discrimination,” Human Rights Campaign National Press Secretary Brandon Wolf said. “The result has been a crisis for millions of LGBTQ+ people, many of whom have been forced to flee their states to access basic civil liberties. The 2024 attacks on freedom are already accelerating.

MAGA politicians are already doubling down on the agenda to strip transgender people of lifesaving care, ban more books, censor more curriculum, and wield state statutes as a weapon against people’s freedom to exist as their authentic selves.”

Anti-trans legislation can be difficult to categorize. Bills restricting trans young people’s ability to play on sports teams that align with their gender identity, for example, often including sweeping binary and exclusionary definitions of gender and sex.

Bans and restrictions on healthcare remain popular. Measures targeting access to medically necessary healthcare interventions that are supported by every mainstream scientific and medical organization with relevant clinical expertise have surged, totaling 179 bills in 2023 and 68 so far in 2024, according to the Trans Legislative Tracker.

Overall, compared to last year, Reed said, “the frequency of the bills is higher right now. And there are still state legislatures that are not fully in session.”

And looking ahead, the pace is unlikely to taper off as Republican presidential candidates including the party’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, have made anti-trans policy proposals and rhetoric cornerstones of their campaigns, Reed noted.

Toward the tail end of Missouri’s legislative sessions last year, when the general assembly was debating drag bans, the LGBTQ community and allies continued to show up, Reed said — many dressed in drag, even “at the end of the night, like one in the morning.”

She highlighted the results of the 2022 and 2023 midterm elections, where “these attacks did not work” and “most people that ran on anti-trans campaigns lost their elections — and I can name dozens of examples of this.”

Reed said she could not name a single candidate who “running specifically on this issue as their main talking point at the end of the election” won their race.

Likewise, Wolf said, attacks against LGBTQ people are accelerating, “but the truth is, LGBTQ+ people have been here before, with fewer allies and fewer resources. We won then and we will win again now.”

He urged folks to “show up to hearings, call and email lawmakers, organize our communities, and send a clear message: the war on freedom and equality will not win.

Resistance is in our DNA. And the time for it is now.”

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NEWS

A Look at the Upcoming Legislative Session Threats to librarians, trans students, and public education mark the start of Georgia’s legislative session Hunter Buchheit Read the full article online at thegavoice.com.

The Rise of Book Bans and the Threat to Librarians: SB 154

Over the past few years, book bans have taken the South’s libraries — both school libraries and public — by storm. In districts like Cobb County, titles like “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” and “Flamer” have been torn from school shelves after a few parents (and a few outside conservative groups, like Libs of TikTok) have decried the novels as inappropriate for consumption by students, even when white cisgender male-authored “classics” just as explicit — like D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” — remain.

The recently proposed Senate Bill 154 would further threaten the jobs and judgment of media specialists. The bill, first brought to the Georgia legislature last session, moves to remove the discretionary protection of librarians; under the bill, they’d be open to criminal charges for the distribution of books that parents or public officials deem “harmful.”

SB 154’s intentional (and alarming) vagueness — with no elaboration as to what titles could fall under “harmful materials” — would make the jobs of librarians suffering through this era of rampant literary censorship even more difficult.

An Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill: HB 936

Every day, young transgender Georgians must already contend with a culture of discrimination and dehumanization. In many Georgia schools, transphobia runs amok among both administrators and students.

Outside of school and in their communities, transgender youth are forced to face the lifealtering repercussions of legislation like Senate Bill 140, which raised national attention last

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Georgia State Capitol PHOTO VIA WIKIPEDIA/DXR year when a judge halted the legislation amid legal filings by organizations like American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center. This year, the Georgia legislature has already made clear to transgender youth that they are unwelcome. The newly proposed House Bill 936 closely mirrors the “bathroom bills” that have passed in Republican-run states like Idaho, where a bathroom bill was put into effect despite legal pushback. Under the guise of “protecting students,” Georgia’s HB 936 delineates requirements for schools to have separate school facilities, like bathrooms and changing rooms, where students are separated strictly based on assigned sex at birth. In the bill, it is clear that trans students wishing to use facilities that match their gender identity do not fall under accepted exceptions, with the bill’s text stating, “a reasonable accommodation under this paragraph shall not include allowing such individual to access a restroom or changing area that is designated for use by members of the opposite sex while members of the opposite sex of the individual are present or may be present in the restroom or changing area.”

Education Funding Inequities and the Battle Over Cobb’s Districts

Over the past few years, efforts by student-

run advocacy groups like the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition have fought against the inequalities present in Georgia’s public education system, specifically the shortcomings of Georgia’s decades-old public education funding system, the Quality Basic Education model, which is in dire need of revisions to better assist lowincome students. However, rather than address inherent education inequalities, Governor Brian Kemp in his 2024 State of the State address focused on efforts to create a $104 million permanent school safety fund. The fund would provide for the hiring of additional school resource officers; a concerning development in an already contentious atmosphere of statewide efforts to stop the construction of Atlanta's “Cop City” police training center.

Furthermore, in a hit to already-struggling public school districts, Senate Bill 233 is back on the agenda after failing in a vote last year. The bill, one of many “voucher bills” that have swept Southern Republican legislatures in recent years, would create a fund (estimated to reach $150 million) from which $6,500 stipends would be doled out to school students in the lowest

performing school districts, encouraging those districts’ students to move to private schools. In his speech, Kemp lauded the bill as a fulfillment of his free market theory of education, pitting private and public schools against each other to boost competitiveness, and thus lead to a better education for students within both school systems. However, not only would the money for the school choice fund be siphoned away from public schools, but the stipends for many low-income students would likely be ineffective in covering the high ticket price of Georgia’s best-performing private schools.

Nonetheless, some bright points in education funding have shone through. An additional $205 million has been proposed for improvements to school transportation systems, allowing for the replacement and revamping of deteriorating buses.

Furthermore, the newly proposed House Bill 81 aims to change the requirements for additional grant funding for Georgia’s most at-risk districts. If the bill passes, schools that have been in the lowest-performing public schools anytime in the past three years, rather than just the past year, would be eligible for additional state grants.

JANUARY 26, 2024 NEWS 7

NEWS

Out On Film Welcomes New Executive Director Justice Obiaya path to growth Out On Film has been on, and Obiaya hopes to continue to push Out On Film further in that direction.

Katie Burkholder For the first time in its 37-year history, Out On Film, Atlanta’s annual LGBTQ film festival, is welcoming a new executive director.

“I'm just here to keep things moving,” he said. “They've done amazing work over the last eight years. Since I've been here, I've seen incredible growth. We became an Oscarqualifying film festival. It’s a preliminary requirement for filmmakers who want to apply for an Academy Award to screen at an Oscar-qualifying film festival and win a jury award. Also in 2023, we were ranked by USA TODAY’s 10Best as the #1 film festival in the nation. Jim Farmer does incredible work with programming and media relations. I’m here more for the fundraising component and the operations of the organization so that we can continue to grow and continue to set the bar.”

Justice Obiaya interned at the Atlanta Film Festival while completing his master’s degree at SCAD in 2016, working with the executive director and business director on fundraising efforts. While going through festival passes to give away to community partners, he stumbled upon Out On Film.

As a gay man passionate about filmmaking, his interest was piqued.

“I was like, ‘How do I not know about this?’” he told Georgia Voice. “I ran home that night, and I did a quick internet search. I found that they were a very long-running festival, so I filled out an application to volunteer.”

Festival Director Jim Farmer invited Obiaya to attend a committee meeting and he was hooked. For the past eight years, Obiaya has been involved with Out On Film in various capacities: volunteer, festival coordinator, and marketing committee chair. Now, he continues his journey as Out On Film’s first executive director.

When speaking to Obiaya, his love and admiration for Out On Film are obvious.

“As a gay man. I grew up without a lot of representation,” he said. “That's really what I love about Out On Film: they are all about representation and inclusivity, they create a platform to tell stories about the queer community who we are, and I love how what they do and what they offer normalizes who we are. It creates a safe space for festival attendees. We have attendees not just coming from the Atlanta metro area, but from the state of Georgia and outside the state, that may not have a place where they as a queer community can come together and celebrate the arts, and that's what they do here as we

8 NEWS JANUARY 26, 2024

Justice Obiaya PHOTO BY RUSSELL BOWEN-YOUNGBLOOD do at Out On Film … I love what we do, the impact we make on the community.”

With his enthusiasm, it is no surprise that when the Out On Film board was looking for someone to grow the organization, they knew who they wanted.

“As Out On Film has grown over the years, it has become abundantly clear that we need someone full-time leading us, and Justice is the perfect person to do that,” Out On Film’s Board Chair Craig Hardesty said. “Justice is committed to serving the LGBTQIA+ community and the queer arts in Atlanta and has been a vital member of our team for years. We look forward to seeing where we can go with Justice at the helm.”

Obiaya brings a wealth of film festival experience to the role, with a background that includes responsibilities such as marketing and business manager for ASIFA-South and various positions at the Atlanta Film Society.

He says he’s not looking to “reinvent the wheel”; this historic position represents the

Obiaya started the new position on January 22, just before Black History Month. As a Black gay man, he is honored.

“As a person of color, to be the first executive director in our 37-year-history is an amazing feeling,” Obiaya said. “Out On Film has always been an organization that I’ve found to be naturally diverse and inclusive. In this role, I want to continue that.”

At the end of the day, Obiaya intends to foster Out On Film’s growth and expand its reach with big goals for the organization.

“I would love to expand the team,” he said.

“We have a great team of volunteers that are here that are dedicating their time, but a yearround, dedicated team of paid individuals would be great. I’m not saying that that’s going to be a tomorrow thing or even a year, but that’s my goal. Hopefully, we can fundraise to make sure that we have dedicated people here to keep our mission going, because we’re crucial for the community.”

Learn more about Out On Film at outonfilm.org.

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EXCITING NEW PLAYS THAT SPOTLIGHT LGBTQIA+ EXPERIENCES

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A poignant new play on the dynamics that lead us to our home.

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By JAMES IJAMES Directed by STEVIE WALKER-WEBB

Tickets and memberships at alliancetheatre.org 1280 PEACHTREE ST NE // ATLANTA, GA 30309

COMMUNITY

Celebrating the Elder Black Lesbian Community with ZAMI NOBLA Adalei Stevens

“Black lesbians have been at the vanguard of these movements, all of them.

Every civil rights movement, every queer movement, every feminist movement, in terms of leadership, activism, and rounding out the intersectionality framework”

“I remember how being young and Black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.”

– Audre Lorde, “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name” “Zami” – the Caribbean English word that refers to a lesbian or homosexual woman – was first documented in Western libraries in Donald Hill’s 1977 study on the small island of Carriacou, located in the Caribbean Sea. Later, Audre Lorde’s 1982 bio-mythography “Zami: A New Spelling of My Name,” which chronicles an involute journey of Black women-loving-women through the 1950s to ’70s, defined “Zami” as “a Carriacou name for women who work together as friends and lovers.”

ZAMI NOBLA (The National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging) is an Atlantabased organization, and the only one of its kind in the country, that centers service, advocacy, and community action research by and for Black lesbians over 40 years old. Since 2011, ZAMI NOBLA has provided programs to build community and advance feminist and LGBTQ rights across the country, with state chapters in Georgia and North Carolina.

One such program, The Chris Ducusin Advocacy Collective, was created in honor of Atlanta-based Black lesbian activist and elder Christine Ducusin. The collective works to build power, fight ageism, and organizes to create equitable systems and policy outcomes for LGBTQ elders.

“Black lesbians have been at the vanguard of these movements, all of them. Every civil rights movement, every queer movement, every feminist movement, in terms of leadership, activism, and rounding out the intersectionality

10 COMMUNITY JANUARY 26, 2024

—Mary Anne Adams, founder and executive director of ZAMI NOBLA Members of ZAMI NOBLA COURTESY PHOTO framework,” Mary Anne Adams, founder and executive director of ZAMI NOBLA, told Georgia Voice. “There are two things that are indisputable: one is that we’re older today than we were yesterday, and two, we’re all going to die. So, what are we going to do in between the beginning and the end?”

Adams began what would become lifelong activism at just twelve years old. She joined the “Black House” in her hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, where she learned from civil rights workers, social workers, legal aid lawyers, and organizers. She also learned Black history, literature, and how to write Black plays.

The Black House began publishing The Soul Force, a newspaper that Adams helped distribute around her hometown, using a mimeograph machine to make copies and delivering them on her bicycle.

“The NAACP would be [at the Black House],” she said. “We were allowed to stay in the room. We couldn't speak but we could listen and absorb all the information. So,

it was a very heady time for me actually. I absolutely would mark that as the beginning of my civil rights activism,.”

When she was 16, Adams was encouraged by her community at the Black House to attend the University of Mississippi, which had been desegregated just eight years prior.

Though she’d wanted to study journalism at an HBCU, Adams and her community knew it was important to support future Black students at Ole Miss.

“That’s my cross to bear,” she said. “The more Black students there were, the better off it would be for those coming after us.

You do what your community tells you to do, because that’s what you’re taught to do, because it’s bigger than you.”] As part of its commitment to community and grassroots activism, ZAMI NOBLA used the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to study the quality of life disparities older Black lesbians face in society and how providers are failing to engage in intersectional care, and proved that ZAMI NOBLA was the only

known organization in the U.S. dedicated to reforming such inequities.

“Throughout the pandemic, the organization leveraged technological innovation and community solidarity to combat ageist ideology and elevate the spaces in which Black lesbians and their networks were able to learn, heal, thrive, and live,” wrote Adams and Dr. Porsha Hall in their findings.

In addition to organizing community spaces for Black lesbian elders, ZAMI NOBLA also offers a multi-racial, multi-generational space for weekly ukulele lessons for anyone over 18 “with a desire to strum and hum.”

The proceeds from the lessons go toward humanitarian benefits and aging facilities.

On Sunday, February 18, ZAMI NOBLA and The Counter Narrative Project will celebrate Audre Lorde’s 90th birthday with a hybrid read-A(udre)-thon event from 1-5pm. at Charis Books & More at 184 S. Candler St, Decatur, GA. Stay up-to-date on the organization’s upcoming events at zaminobla.org/events or follow them on Instagram @zaminobla.

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COMMUNITY

Black History Month Calendar Katie Burkholder

“Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts” Crystal Wilkonson in conversation with Tayari Jones February 1, 7:30pm Charis Books and More

Charis welcomes Crystal Wilkinson for a discussion of her book “Prasiesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks.”

This event is free and will be offered virtually as well via Crowdcast. Register for the virtual talk at crowdcast.io/c/praisesong.

“Be a Revolution”: Ijeoma Oluo in conversation with Oriaku Njoku February 2, 7pm First Baptist Church of Decatur

Charis Books and More hosts this talk with Ijeoma Oluo, author of “Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppressing and Changing the World – and How You Can Too.” After the discussion, Oluo will be signing and personalizing books.

Tickets are available via Eventbrite.

Green with a free screening of “The Color of Friendship”!

Historically Black Phrases Live!

February 15, 7:30pm The Gathering Spot

This is a live game show experience, based on the recently released book, “Historically Black Phrases: From ‘I Ain’t One Of Your Lil’ Friends’ to ‘Who All Gon’ Be There?’”. Hosted by co-authors Jarrett Hill and Tre’vell Anderson, HBP Live! is the game show you didn't know you needed. Each show features three notable contestants competing in three rounds of gameplay rooted in trivia about Black culture. Learn more and buy tickets at historicallyblackphrases.com/live.

A Taste of Black Gwinnett February 16, 6-9pm Norcross Cultural Arts Center

Gwinnett County is celebrating Black History Month by showcasing Black-owned businesses!

Free admission and open to the public – learn more at blackchambergwinnett.com.

“Black Women Taught Us”: Dr. Jenn M. Jackson in conversation with Forrest Evans Atlanta Black Business Expo February 3, 7:30pm Virtual

February 17, 6:30pm The Gathering Spot

Dr. Jenn M. Jackson, author of the book “Black Women Taught Us: An Intimate History of Black Feminism,” will discuss the essential role Black women have played in liberation movements with Forrest Evans.

Network and peruse Black businesses on display! Register at jotform.com/ build/240117000708138.

Black History Month Movie Series: The Color of Friendship February 8, 7pm Atlantic Station

Celebrate Black History Month on Atlantic

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Black History Month Celebration February 22, 11am DeKalb History Center

Join the DeKalb History Center for their 16th Annual Black History Month Celebration. Dr. Herman “Skip” Mason, Jr., will provide an exciting retrospective look at

Author Ijeoma Oluo will be speaking February 7 at Charis Books and More. PUBLICITY PHOTO DeKalb’s history through the lens of his book “African American Life in DeKalb County, 1823 – 1970”, published in 1998. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to gain insights, understanding, and an authentic connection to DeKalb County’s rich African American heritage. Lunch provided by Phenomenal Foods by Chef Holly is included with your ticket – get yours at dekalb-history-center. square.site/shop/2024-black-history-monthcelebration/17.

BlaQueer Open Mic February 22, 6pm Create ATL

Black queer and trans poets, musicians, and comedians will share their work at this open mic and kiki. This event is free and open ONLY to Black queer and trans people.

RSVP at sfqp.info/blaqueer222.

Black History Month Movie Series: Remember the Titans February 22, 7pm Atlantic Station

Celebrate Black History Month on Atlantic Green with a free screening of “Remember the Titans”!

BAM!

Feburary 23, 7pm SCADshow Following two years of sold-out shows, BAM! is back and bigger and better than ever. SCAD's acclaimed celebration of Black History Month and Black musical artists will feature Grammy, Emmy, and Tony-nominated performers directly from Broadway, TV, and film. SCAD stars of the past and present, from stunning alumni to the university’s premier vocal ensemble The Bee Sharps and other SCAD students, come together for this exhilarating night of performances. Tickets start at $20; buy them at tickets.scadboxoffice.com/5982.

“The Black Joy Project”: Kleaver Cruz in conversation with Susana Morris February 29, 7:30pm Charis Books and More

Author Kleaver Cruz will discuss their book “The Black Joy Project,” a collection of 117 full-color photographs and eight breathtaking essays on the joy that fuels Black life all around the globe. This event is free and will be offered virtually as well; register for virtual attendance at crowdcast. io/c/black-joy-project.

JANUARY 26, 2024 COMMUNITY 11

YOUR VOICE

Reflecting on

‘Rustin’ Craig Washington

Read the full article online at thegavoice.com.

George C. Wolfe’s film, “Rustin,” garnered 10s across the board as an illuminating portrayal of the pivotal activist and the civil rights movement to which he gave utter allegiance. It bestows overdue recognition upon Bayard Rustin, the Black gay genius who organized the movement’s defining act, the 1963 March on Washington.

Wolfe’s account of Rustin’s work and personal life is the kind of story that rarely reaches a wide audience. It is not the stock civil rights saga in which all the Blacks are hetero and noble and the whites either rabid racists or complicit cowards save for the exceptional white savior. In this tale, Black people, Black men especially, are shown dually as oppressed and oppressor. As one who was both Black and homosexual, Rustin contended with intersections of racism and homophobia, respectively, perpetrated by white and Black people.

Rustin possessed vision, wisdom, skills that suited his efforts, innate flair, and a compelling presence, all signature gifts of a born leader. By the time of the film’s setting, he had spent two decades fighting for racial justice and nonviolent social change, including his mentoring of a young Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery bus boycott.

Rustin was committed to his people’s liberation as well as his own as a Black gay man who dared to live his life without closets or beards. Wolfe’s coverage of Rustin’s

12 YOUR VOICE JANUARY 26, 2024

romantic life shows us how Rustin and other queer men of the era negotiated intimacy across a cultural minefield of stigma and criminalization. Rustin has an uncommitted involvement with Tom, a white college student and movement ally who serves as his personal assistant. When Rustin mocks Tom’s stress-relieving marijuana as illegal, Tom quips, “So are we.” Rustin takes up with a closeted organizer, Elias (a fictional character), who asks to be taught “how to not be afraid.” While Elias finds sensual salvation in their intimacy, he dreads the moment that his nature will be exposed.

By contrast, Rustin no longer fears the heterosexual gaze and invites Elias to live as his true nature calls. Gently, he tells him, “How can you speak of love when your heart is disconnected from your flesh?”

Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and white supremacist senator Strom Thurmond wedged Rustin’s sexuality to undermine his work (Powell) and the success of the movement (Thurmond). Jeffrey Wright gives a surly rendering of Powell as a jealous narcissist who resents King’s ascent to unrivaled acclaim. He threatens to circulate allegations of a sexual liaison between Rustin and King to prevent King from leading a protest at the 1960 Democratic National Convention. Powell’s ploy works, King capitulates. Three years later, Thurmond draws from the same playbook in his effort to derail the upcoming March on Washington by labeling Rustin a pervert and a Communist.

The visibility of Ella Baker (Audra McDonald) and Dr. Anna Hedgeman (CCH Pounder) attested to the reality of women’s

“Rustin” PHOTO BY DAVID LEE/NETFLIX leadership and the sexism that blunted their power. Baker (who actually co-founded the SCLC with Rustin) is shown advising King to endorse a protest and encouraging Rustin to reconnect with King. The real Baker went on record noting how King and the other men would dismiss her ideas because of her gender. Hedgeman chides the men for excluding women from the speakers’ roster at the march, to no avail. Mahalia Jackson was the only woman who took the stage.

Wolfe’s history indicts a tradition of Black activism self-sabotaged by sexism and homophobia within a repressive climate that transcends racial differences. Powell and Thurmond are polar political opposites who manipulate anti-gay biases mutually held

by Black and white constituencies. NAACP president Roy Wilkins co-signs on Powell’s ploy referring to Rustin’s sexuality as “the unmentionable.” Even King himself accedes to Powell’s gay-baiting threat and betrays his mentor. In pushing Rustin and their women comrades to the margin, these men weakened the movement. In emulating the

ways of cisgender, heterosexual white men in power, they preserved the status quo and forestalled radical change.

“Rustin” resonates for Black queer folk differently from any other audience because his story is, in the ways that matter most, our story. Black queer people know something about allegiance and the keeping of secrets.

We still risk rejection, condemnation, and death if we dare act as ourselves and say yes to spirit and flesh. We give our talents and dollars over to institutions that accept our contributions yet refuse to honor our full presence. Our families depend on our loyalties whether we speak our full names or not. Yet in the pit of their stomach, in the marrow of their soul, our people remain unsettled about us as long as they refuse to reconcile what they want to be with what they see in the mirror. A friend once remembered this of Rustin: “Wherever he was, he stood at a rakish angle to it. Rustin, the man and the film, presents instruction and begs introspection about the power of a rakish angle.

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REELING IN THE YEARS MARÍA HELENA DOLAN

The ‘When’ of the

Harlem Renaissance María Helena Dolan People — queer and not — laud the Harlem Renaissance, but there is disagreement on so many aspects. For instance, when was the actual Harlem Renaissance? The actual, temporal brackets? Authorities disagree.

Yes, the early 1900s saw the stirrings of the great Black migration from the South to the North. Jobs! No Jim Crow! You can breathe!

But Harlem? Harlem was special. Waves of different immigrants had lived and left here at Manhattan’s tip for the preceding 300 years. By the late 1800s, a large Jewish population eventually settled, even despite signs like Keine Juden und Keine Hunde: No Jews and no dogs.

Italians came too. Jewish and Italian gangs ran the streets before the turn of the century, but they all gradually moved farther downtown. By the early 1900s, Harlem’s townhouses and boulevards had opened up to Black renters. With the usual supply of labor bottled up in Europe because of the war and white men drafted, war jobs provided steady pay for years.

Some say the Harlem Renaissance began with “Shuffle Along” in 1921, the first verifiable Broadway smash hit featuring an all-Black cast, with book and lyrics written by Black vaudevillians and music by the Black composer Eubie Blake (“Shuffle Along” also helped along the careers of Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson).

Yet January 16, 1919, had already roared in,

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“By the early 1900s, Harlem’s townhouses and boulevards had opened up to Black renters. With the usual supply of labor bottled up in Europe because of the war and white men drafted, war jobs provided steady pay for years.” with Prohibition’s reeking, giant maw trying to grind and swallow up anything that wasn’t “dry.” All the rural white Protestant fundies said this protected “our” children from the murderous evils of alcohol.

Men would no longer spend their wages in bars. No, they would go home to their families. Crime and violence would go down. R-i-g-h-t.

If there’s no legit white joint available to drink in and carry on? Well Harlem is open for business, baby!

February 18, 1919, saw the mustering-out of the U.S. Army’s 369th Infantry Unit from Harlem, dubbed “Hell Fighters” by the Germans. They triumphantly paraded up Fifth Avenue to riotous appreciation.

Following their large and thrilling regimental band, they marched in tight formation until they got to Harlem’s outskirts. The band

Lyricist Noble Sissle and cast members from the musical "Shuffle Along" in 1921.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

had introduced France to jazz, but now they banged out a raunchy version of “Daddy’s Home.” The crowds and vets raucously burst into each other, and these guys were in no hurry to leave.

passing of the woman Langston Hughes called the “joy goddess of Harlem’s 1920s,” A’Lelia Walker.

Any basement or alley could become a gin joint. Black women set up beauty shops in their homes and on the streets. Other entrepreneurs set up numbers shops where people could gamble, often out of beauty parlors. Madame Stephanie St. Clair ran the largest numbers racket. She also put her money into legit business and dedicated herself to “lift up the race.”

For all the joy she surely provided and the good deeds she did indeed do, she ultimately suffered fiscal and business setbacks like so many. On August 17, 1931, following a latenight snack of lobster, chocolate cake, and champagne, A’Lelia died from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 46. It was “[t] he end of the gay times of the New Negro era in Harlem,” Hughes lamented. A’Lelia’s mansions were sold at fire sale prices, and one was simply razed.

Harlem glowed hot and would get hotter still. By 1928, 175,000 people lived in an area of less than three square miles — the largest concentration of Black people anywhere. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that Black cultural ferment bubbled up elsewhere in the U.S., such as Philadelphia, D.C., and Chicago, but queer excavations have been less rigorous there.

But the Repeal of Prohibition on December 5, 1933, ensured the collapse of Harlem’s already woefully constrained economic life.

Sickeningly, the Harlem “Race” Riot of March 19, 1935 — fanned by (false) reports that a shoplifting 16-year-old boy had been killed by police — demonstrated the toll exacted by the area’s ever-encroaching neglect and blight.

But Harlem? Even the advent of the Depression didn’t destroy everything. Sadly, many luminaries went abroad, escaped into academia, or just left. Sad too was the

But what we call the Harlem Renaissance shaped American, Black, and queer culture in ways we’re still teasing out, almost a century later.

JANUARY 26, 2024 COLUMNIST 13

CULTURE

The Faces of Queer Jazz and Blues, Then and Now Divine Ikpe When people think of the Harlem Renaissance, queerness may not be at the forefront of their minds — but it should be.

Queer influence was just as prevalent then as it is now when it comes to innovations and explorations of genre. There is a rich queer history in New York City that predates Stonewall, with clubs like Savoy Ballroom and the Cotton Club, gay speakeasies like “Harry Hansberry’s Clam House,” and the beginning of drag balls (also called “the Harlem balls” and “fairy balls”). These balls, and generally more relaxed social settings, were in response to Prohibition restrictions and attracted people from all over the country to be a part of the show.

Aside from speakeasies and drag balls, people also used to throw private “rent parties.”

As the name suggests, these parties were a form of mutual aid, thrown to raise money to help pay for the host’s living expenses.

One prominent figure in the queer Harlem Renaissance jazz scene got her start at one of these parties: singer, pianist, and drag performer Gladys Bentley. She would perform in men’s clothing with drag queens as her backup singers and flirt with women in the audience as she unashamedly sang about her lesbian relationships. Her popularity helped inspire queer artists then and now.

Bessie Smith, who was known as “the Empress of the Blues,” was an openly bisexual jazz and blues singer originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee. She became so well renowned that she ended up being the highest-paid Black entertainer of her time. Jimmie Daniels, a performer, actor, and nightclub owner from Texas who got his start in Harlem’s Hot-Cha nightclub, later became a renowned jazz and show tunes singer. Ma Rainey, known as “The Mother of Blues,” was sexually fluid. She

14 CULTURE JANUARY 26, 2024

Bessie Smith PHOTO VIA WIKIPEDIA was rumored to have dated Bessie Smith and released the song, “Prove It On Me,” which Angela Davis called “a precursor to the lesbian cultural movement of the 1970s.” Alberta Hunter was a jazz and blues singer whose music had a strong cabaret influence. She married a man, but they divorced shortly after, and she spent the rest of her life dating women, including Lottie Tyler, with whom she had a long on-and-off-again relationship. Unlike other queer performers, she was private about her love life and never open about her sexuality, but historians presume she was a lesbian.

Unfortunately, jazz and blues have decreased in popularity in the years since the Harlem Renaissance, with R&B (rhythm and blues) taking over as the prominent genre. Still, there are some artists that incorporate jazz and blues influences into their music — like Lizzie No, a queer R&B and folk songwriter, harpist, and guitarist from Tennessee. Destin Conrad is also an up-and-coming queer R&B musician. His album “COLORWAY” features popular queer R&B artists such as CHIKA, Kehlani, and Ambré. Queer indie pop and folk artist Arlo Parks is also

Gladys Bentley PHOTO BY COLLECTION OF THE SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE making sweet modern music that garners inspiration from past jazz artists who inspire her songwriting.

The Harlem Renaissance was a great cultural and artistic era for both Black people in

America in general and Black queer people specifically. Their legacy lives on in spirit through modern Black queer artists, but the death of jazz and blues as popular genres is a huge loss. I think it may be time for a queer jazz and blues revival, don’t you?

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MEN HAVING BABIES SURROGACY CONFERENCE FOR GAY MEN

ATLANTA FEBRUARY 23-25, 2024

Learn about medical, legal, social and emotional aspects of surrogecy Socialize and with other gay dads Consult with surrogacy professionals Understand the financial assistance and resources available for gay men

menhavingbabies.org/atlanta

Men Having Babies is a nonprofit organization serving the gay community and is not affiliated with any surrogacy agency, fertility clinic, law firm or other surrogacy professional.

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JANUARY 26, 2024 ADS 15

CULTURE

Leading Man: Latino Queer Actor Pierre Jean Gonzalez Returns to ATL in ‘Hamilton’ “[Pierre] is the personification that you don’t have to extinguish your fire, but the world is best served when you know its strength and use it as your superpower,” Annan wrote.

Darian Aaron Read the full article online at thegavoice.com.

For eight shows a week on the North American national tour of the Broadway smash hit “HAMILTON,” Pierre Jean Gonzalez transforms into Alexander Hamilton, one of America's founding fathers and the first U.S. secretary of the treasury.

Atlanta audiences will experience the magic of the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical and Gonzalez's electric performance in the title role when “HAMILTON” opens at the Fox Theatre on January 30 for a nearly month-long run before closing on February 25. The epic saga follows the rise of Alexander Hamilton as he fights for honor, love, and a legacy that would influence the course of a nation.

A Bronx, New York, native and an openly gay actor of Puerto Rican and Dominican ethnicity, Gonzalez began performing multiple roles as a standby in “HAMILTON” in 2019 after being invited to join the national tour. He was promoted to fill the title role full-time in early March 2020, weeks before the coronavirus shutdown.

Gonzalez told Georgia Voice that the upcoming Atlanta performances represent an opportunity for him to experience the thrill of playing his dream role on the Fox stage again after accepting the responsibility for bringing Alexander Hamilton to life onstage nightly, only to be temporarily sidelined.

Gonzalez’s career as an actor and his journey with “HAMILTON” isn't a future he'd predicted for himself as a child navigating cultural expectations and Latino machismo in his Bronx neighborhood.

“In my head, I always wanted to be a barber,” he said. “I was gonna get my little barber's license, and I was gonna be one of those cute barbers, doing the thing.”

16 CULTURE JANUARY 26, 2024

In addition to fulfilling his “HAMILTON” duties, Gonzalez and his fiancé Cedric Leiba Jr. are also co-producers of the national tour and upcoming Broadway revival of “The Wiz,” and co-founders of DominiRican Productions, which they co-founded at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We developed a program called ‘New Works,’ where we take new works from LGBTQIA people of color and produce their films,” Gonzalez said.

It's all part of a meticulous plan by Gonzalez to raise visibility and expand opportunities for queer artists of color and queer couples, specifically Black and Latino gay men, onstage and off, in front of and behind the camera.

Latino Queer Actor Pierre Jean Gonzalez COURTESY PHOTO But as fate would have it, after he made several failed attempts to meet the athleticism of students his age, a middle school casting for a scene in William Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night” and encouragement from a teacher set him on a new path — one that led him to audition for The Magnet Academy at Purchase University under the direction of then-acting teacher Nicco Annan, widely known for his breakout role as the gender nonconforming Uncle Clifford on the FX series “P-Valley.”

“I will never forget meeting him and making that connection,” Gonzalez said. “He invested in me in a way that not a lot of teachers and people will do.”

“It was my duty as an artist and an educator that he stepped with an unshakable foundation, knowledge, & awareness of the complete person that he was before any

institution (academic or artistic) tested his resilience,” said Annan, reflecting on the then 14-year-old Gonzalez in an email to Georgia Voice. “He had talent; all he needed was space to shape his fire.”

The intonation of Gonzalez's voice immediately shifted to compliment the obvious respect and admiration he still feels for Annan's early development of him as an artist. Gonzalez is also intentional about acknowledging the power of being seen by Annan as a young gay man of color coming into the fullness of his identity.

“I didn't feel accepted in many spaces,” Gonzalez said. “Theater saved my life. In the last four or five years, I've really connected to my queerness and my femininity. Now, I'm so proud to say that I am queer. Back in the day, it was such a taboo thing even to state.”

“Often, people get to a point in their career — obviously, I'm playing Hamilton, what an epic thing — but what do you do with that?

What do you really do with that visibility?

With that representation? I knew being openly gay was very important for me to scream from the rooftops,” Gonzalez said. “I never thought I could be openly gay and be a leading man at the same time, but things are shifting now.”

“HAMILTON” features book, music, and lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, direction

by Thomas Kail, choreography by Andy Blankenbuehler, and musical supervision and orchestrations by Alex Lacamoire.

Tickets can be purchased online at foxtheatre.org/hamilton, in person at the Fox Theatre box office (660 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta), or by calling 855-285-8499.

Tickets range from $39 to $179 with premiums from $199. There will be a lottery for 40 $10 seats for all performances via the “HAMILTON” app.

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CULTURE

Sounds of the Movement Black Luv N Rage creates revolutionary space for Black queer artists

“[BLNR] meant to be a showcase for Black music that a lot of leftist circles aren’t tapped into and giving a voice to the demographic most affected by Stop Cop City,” Austin said. King frequents the City Council meetings on the issue and told a story of something that motivated them. “I was at a city council meeting, and [a public commenter] said, ‘Black people don’t care about this. This is a white issue,’” they said.

“There are a lot of times when people want to speak on behalf of Black people. It’s nice that they’re speaking up, but we can also speak for ourselves.”

Mars Stone Read the full article online at thegavoice.com.

In “My Bondage and My Freedom,” Frederick Douglass wrote, “To an ignorant observer, spirituals appeared to be simple hymns, retelling biblical stories and themes. But the songs held deeper meaning for the people who sang them, acting as coded messages that passed along information about how one might escape and serving as much-needed reminders that freedom was possible.”

BLNR has been more about the movement, the people, and the emotions (hence the “Luv” and “Rage”) than the music itself.

This has allowed for a unique blending of genres that has cultivated a beautiful space for gathering. Acts range from hiphop and techno to noise and hardcore, to performances words can’t do justice.

As long as Black people have been in America, music has been important to us. Music has always been more than a way to pass time, or a way to entertain. It has been a tool to gather our people, to conjure strength, to make a statement, and to express both the passion we have for our people and the grief when our people are put in jeopardy.

Local Black queer artists have banded together to cultivate a space for their sounds of the movement, Black Luv N Rage. BLNR started as a one-shot Week of Action event in support of the Stop Cop City movement last year but is now becoming much more. Desh King and Travis Austin, the respective lead vocalist and guitarist for local band BIMBOS and two parts of the BLNR organizing team, sat down with Georgia Voice to discuss the role of music in Black liberation and what BLNR is doing for the movement.

While discussing the realities of their conditions, they find it important not to dwell too much on suffering in their music and still share moments of joy.

“The people that have a stake in our demise, our suffering, and our oppression are never going to stop,” King said. “We have to find a way to keep ourselves going through whatever that may be.

Music and art are a good avenue for that.”

18 CULTURE JANUARY 26, 2024

Black Luv N Rage show. PHOTO BY @CHLOEBWARREN Much like Douglass’ reminder that freedom was possible, strengthening the will to persevere has been a constant in Black American music.

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson, originally a written poem in 1900, is one of the most recognizable songs across Black American culture. The song tells us to “lift every voice and sing, ‘til earth and heaven ring, ring with harmonies of liberty” and later continues, “Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us… let us march on ‘til victory is won.”

Almost a century later, Kendrick Lamar would make waves and help bring in a modern period of social justice. His 2016 Grammy performance of “Alright” was arguably the most controversial and iconic live performance of the new millennia.

Lamar and his backup dancers took the stage in chains and prison uniforms to the tune of early 1900s harmonica and saxophone. He raps about falling for his vices while trying to escape the pains caused by life, but constantly reminds us, “If God got us, then we gone be alright.” This reminder became an anthem of the Black Lives Matter movement well into the 2020s.

Other influential examples of Black political music are Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” in response to the lynching of African Americans and “Fuck Tha Police” by N.W.A., released in the midst of Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs.

What is it about music that makes it such a strong part of liberation movements? To BLNR, it’s accessibility.

The variety of acts has shown to be a great tool for bringing people together. The first BLNR show in June 2023 hosted approximately 60 to 80 people. The growth between the summer and fall show was immense; over 200 people were in attendance for the fall BLNR, which was once again held during a Week of Action and attracted many people from across the country.

BLNR is becoming a collective looking to serve the community in other ways, such as potential community outreach and doing more for artists such as booking and networking. Defending the community and giving Black queer artists a voice will always be at the center. The Stop Cop City movement has raged strong for years now.

The people of Atlanta still have plenty of fight left in them, and there is plenty of Black Luv N Rage to go around.

Follow @blackluvnrage on Instagram and be on the lookout for the announcement of their next show announcement on February 23.

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JANUARY 26, 2024 ADS 19

ACTING OUT JIM FARMER

‘Dead Drag Queen’ Deals with AIDS in a Different Manner Jim Farmer Although it begins with a funeral for one of its characters, the play, “At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen” is billed as more of a celebration than a somber piece. The show — written by Terry Guest — stars Trajan Clayton as Courtney Berringers/Anthony Knighton and Ben Cole as Vickie Versailles/ Hunter Grimes, drag performers in their early 20s who are also living with AIDS. Georgia Voice caught up recently with Atlantabased actor-director Damian Lockhart, seen in the TV series “Atlanta” and the play “Bootycandy” at Actor’s Express, to discuss the work, making its Georgia debut Feb. 1 at Out Front Theatre Company, and its impact.

Damian, what made you want to direct this?

It’s not your typical AIDS play. When we think of AIDS plays, we think of “The Normal Heart” or “Angels in America,” where it’s set in this big city. This takes place in a small city: Albany, Georgia. It’s a twohander about two Southern drag queens living with AIDS. One is Black and one is white, and drag happens to be the caveat for how Courtney is telling the story. She uses drag as a mask and a shield and a tool to retell the story of her life and explain how much drag means to her and why it is important.

You learn a little about playwright Terry Guest’s uncle, who the play is inspired by.

He was a drag queen who passed away from AIDS complications.

Is this a modern-day story?

The year is not specified, but we are playing with around 2012 or 2015.

Can you talk about working with playwright Guest?

I know Terry from college. We went to

20 COLUMNIST JANUARY 26, 2024

Actor Trajan Clayton Kennesaw State University and I’m from Buena Vista, Georgia, which is near Albany. He’s also queer and Black. We did a reading of this a few years back and I have directed this at Urbanite Theater in Sarasota. We have acted together in college before. We work together often.

At a time when drag performers are under attack, along with members of the LGBTQ community, why is this play so vital?

Right around the time all this was reaching its peak I was actually doing a show at The Warehouse Theatre where I was playing a drag queen. We had a lot of conversations and a [fellow] performer — a working drag queen — talked a lot about how that show was hopefully showing people that drag queens are human beings too and humanizing who they are. I took that conversation, and it influenced this production. I really wanted to show the humanity of these drag queens.

I talked to the actors every day in rehearsal and told them to bring pieces of themself to their character as opposed to “playing” a drag queen. It’s really important for me to show people who may be on the right or the left

Clayton with Ben Cole PUBLICITY PHOTOS that drag queens are normal and have dreams and aspirations just like you and me. There is a reason this art form has existed for so long and is so intriguing to people. [Audiences] can find a sense of safety in these clubs and on the stage where these drag queens can be something other than themselves. I think a lot of Southern queer people, we dream big, and drag is an easy avenue to get into that — feeling like we are in Hollywood, like we are Diana Ross or Joan Crawford, and getting that sense of pride.

Are there drag numbers in this show?

Yes, there are moments when the audience will see a drag queen come to life.

What do you want audiences to take away from this?

This is a story with so much heart in it. It’s not something you see on a regular basis.

It’s not a story that I have ever seen. It’s also a story that is very important to the

conversation we need to be having about AIDS and HIV affecting Black Southern people. For years, the CDC and many medical institutions have been ringing the alarm that Black Southern men who have sex with men are making up the majority of the new cases every year. It’s a way to have the conversation without the heaviness of [other plays]. It has weight but is different.

My goal is to have the audience go on an emotional roller coaster. You’ll be laughing, thinking, questioning things. It’s a show about love and friendship, heartache and pain and all those juicy human things we all crave when we watch entertainment. I am hoping this is a show that lives beyond the stage.

MORE INFO “At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen” runs February 1 — 17 at Out Front Theatre Company.

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LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE FORECAST JANUARY 26-FEBRUARY 9 Katie Burkholder

Featuring DJ Mister Richard. $5 cover.

Disco Dollz

XION

Starring Phoenix, Cici Nicole, Raquel Rae Heart, and Coco Iman Starr, hosted by Destiny Brooks. Make your reservation at future-atlanta.com.

Featuring Shane Marcus. Tickets at futureatlanta.com.

January 26, 8:30pm Future Atlanta

VAVO

January 26, 10pm District Atlanta With DJ Babey Drew. Tickets at collectivpresents.com.

XION

January 27, 3am Future Atlanta Featuring Karlitos! Tickets at future-atlanta.com.

Dawn

January 27, 9pm My Sister’s Room Dawn from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 16 performs with APHAzIA, Cici Nicole, Drew Friday, Eden, Hera Kane, Katrina Prowess, and Sadé Vidalle. Music by AASHA! Tickets at wussymag.com.

The Gaga Ball January 27, 10pm The Basement

Calling all Little Monsters: the winter Gaga Ball is here! It’s a whole night of music and fashion inspired by Mother Monster. Tickets at basementatl.com.

Super Collider January 27, 11pm Atlanta Eagle

22 LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE FORECAST JANUARY 26, 2024

January 28, 3am Believe Music Hall

Karaoke Night

January 28, 7:30pm The T

Shameless Sundays January 28, 11:55pm Future Atlanta

Hosted by Kyra Mora and Tristan Panucci.

Tickets at future-atlanta.com.

Atlanta All Stars Week 4 January 30, 8:30pm Future Atlanta

Atlanta’s top drag talent competes for the $10,000 prize! Tickets at future-atlanta.com.

Trivia Night

January 30, 8:30pm Atlanta Eagle

EVENT SPOTLIGHT Dawn

Hosted by DJ DeWayne!

January 27, 9pm

Late Nite Latin Tuesdays

My Sister’s Room

January 31, 3am Future Atlanta

With DJ Karlitos. $5 cover.

Karaoke Night

Dawn from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 16 performs with APHAzIA, Cici Nicole, Drew Friday, Eden, Hera Kane, Katrina Prowess, and Sadé Vidalle. Music by AASHA! Tickets at wussymag.com.

Publicity Photo

February 1, 9pm The T

Hosted by Raqi.

Rock Haus Karaoke

February 2, 10pm District Atlanta

February 1, 9pm Atlanta Eagle

James Kennedy Tickets at bit.ly/JAMESATL2024.

XION

February 3, 3am Future Atlanta With DJ Karlitos. Tickets at future-atlanta.com.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 23

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LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE FORECAST JANUARY 26-FEBRUARY 9 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

atlanta.com.

Hotlanta Rubber & Gear Night

Karaoke Night

February 3, 9pm Atlanta Eagle

It might be cold outside, but it’ll be hot at the Eagle! Show up in whatever makes you feel sexy – rubber, latex, leather, sports gear – and enjoy $2 Jell-O shots! $5 cover.

InvAsian

February 3, 10pm District Atlanta Celebrate the Lunar New Year at InvAsian.

As we welcome the Year of the Dragon, prepare for a night filled with enchanting experiences, cultural wonders, and the electrifying beats of Cyqflo, Alex Ahn, Yoshii, Jetpvck, and Thrill Bill.

Tickets via Eventbrite.

February 4, 7:30pm The T

Atlanta All Stars Week 5 February 6, 8:30pm Future Atlanta

Atlanta’s top drag talent competes for the $10,000 prize! Tickets at futureatlanta.com.

Trivia Night

February 6, 8:30pm Atlanta Eagle Hosted by DJ DeWayne!

EVENT SPOTLIGHT Hotlanta Rubber & Gear Night February 3, 9pm Atlanta Eagle

Karaoke Night

It might be cold outside, but it’ll be hot at the Eagle! Show up in whatever makes you feel sexy – rubber, latex, leather, sports gear – and enjoy $2 Jell-O shots! $5 cover. Photo by Shutterstock.com

XION

Rock Haus Karaoke

BLESS YR HEART: A Queer Valentine Dance Party

Featuring Pagano. Tickets at future-

Hosted by Raqi.

Celebrate Valentine’s Day a bit early with

February 4, 3am Believe Music Hall

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February 8, 9pm The T February 8, 9pm Atlanta Eagle

February 9, 10pm 529

Southern Fried Queer Pride! Featuring DJ sets

by Ectopus and Geexella, a pop-up Valentine photobooth, an anonymous queer flirt wall, and take-home HIV and STI tests, all hosted by Taylor ALXNDR! Tickets at sfqp.info/byh2024.

JANUARY 26, 2024 LGBTQ NIGHTLIFE FORECAST 23