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A Visit to the Gay Erotic Expo

no@spam.com (Steve Brown) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:26:37 CDT

By Steven Brown

New York City is rich with events and opportunities that truly make it the culture capital of the world. Discovering that the 2008 Gay Erotic Expo was in town speaks volumes as to the huge range of things to encounter here. From the most elite high brow happenings to the lowest beat its all here and there's plenty of it. I made my way to the Gay Erotic Expo with the a lofty quest of locating the men of color. In many ways I was not surprised to find a lack of abundance but what I did find was worth telling.

I fully expected to find lots of venders that produced and sold porn featuring black men and I was not disappointed in finding Big City Video and B.C. Productions both with substantial product featuring exclusively Black and/or Latin brothers and the various urban tales they have to share.

But that's it- only two venders of men of color content DVDs were on hand. Where was Flava Men or Ebony D or even Latino Fan Club? I suspect the internet is having some kind of effect on the porn industry but that's just a guess.

Forbiddenfunk reps were on hand speaking to brothers about the Leathersex scene and were also on a search for other black folk. We compared notes and concluded that there just did not seem to be enough chocolate around.

These guys were handing out very well made little books called FUNK! A Brutha's Guide to Safer Saner Leathersex. Produced by Safersaner, the tiny book is quite educational with lots of nice pictures.

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Interview with choreographer Troy Powell

no@spam.com (Steve Brown) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:44:26 CDT

By Steven Brown

Working at a well known art organization has been both a joyous blessing and sometimes a blessed burden for much of my adult life. One of the treats is to be surrounded by vibrant artists and craftspeople of all kinds. In this series of discussions I'd like to share some of what's happening and what a few folks are working on for the 2008 performance season in NYC.

Troy shares the word
on some of
the good things.

Troy Powell is Associate Artistic Director for Ailey II the junior company of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Ailey II is comprised of the most talented students who've completed training at The Ailey School

Interview

Steven: Please tell the GBMNews readers what new and exciting is coming up with the new season for Ailey II.

Troy: We have George Faison who's doing a work he workshoped about 25 years ago called "Movin' On" with Betty Carter music and it's fascinating. It's very exciting. It's a different sort of style and of course era and genre of dance for these dancers and it's been challenging. But it's been a lot of fun and there are different characters. You have musicians, and the women, the men in the club scene, a street scene, it's very theatrical and I think it's really good for Ailey II because I think at that age they need more theater. They need more ballets that will pull out the characterization in them, pull out their personalities.

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AAADT Celebrates 50 In A Golden Way

no@spam.com (Steve Brown) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:40:30 CDT

By Steven Brown

Fifty years of anything is a rarity in the fast paced world we live in. When something well loved reaches that milestone its commemoration is well deserved. Since March 28th of this year The Alvin Ailey organization has been honoring the memory and dream of its founder by throwing a party all over the city of New York.

There have been free classes, free performances, and a street fair. The city has renamed the street that is home to the Ailey Organization' s new building Alvin Ailey Place, and even though the fall weather has come the celebration continues.

The Company recently embarked on the first leg of its unique yearly tour that has earned it the title of Cultural Ambassador to the World with a stop in Tel Aviv where one of its dancers was forced to display his dancing skills to convince airport security he was no Islamic terrorist. AAADT dancer and NY native Abdur-Rahim Jackson did not file a complaint and conveyed the true spirit of Ailey by saying, "we're only here to bright positive light to our lives and the people here."

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Bobby Blake at GLBT Center NY

no@spam.com (Steve Brown) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:17:47 CDT

On Friday June 20, 2008 New York City’s Gay and Lesbian Center hosted an evening of discussion with former super porn star Bobby Blake. Moderated by TV/Radio/Blog journalist Herndon Davis the topics included Mr. Blake’s childhood in Tenn., his adolescent bisexual yearnings, and the melding of his church background and porn career.

In support of his new autobiography, “My Life In Porn- The Bobby Blake Story” on Perseus Publishing, Bobby shared with the audience his current passion in life which is being a truthful positive example to the youth of his community through his still deep involvement with his local church.

A large striking hulk of a man Bobby’s manner was gentle, confident, and easy. With the skill of a grand southern minister he was eloquent and used his hands to punctuate his words. After several biting questions posed by Mr. Davis, Bobby then responded to audience questions and signed copies of his book.

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