Gathering Outside Of Sex
Signs of intelligent lifeby j. brotherlove
Despite my less-than-stellar results from the Atlanta Black Gay Blogger Meetup (listen to Karsh’s explosive rant for his take), Prime celebrates one year of watching movies with a group of gay brothers in Atlanta. In his words:
The best thing is that brothers are getting together, networking, talking, and sharing in an environment where no on is judged by their physical “stats” or anything else.
Sweet.
Also, I attended the closing Phyre event, Arts On PHYRE, on Saturday night. The event was even more inspirational and historical than I expected. I applaud Maurice Cook of EM Designs Group for hosting the week’s event at his loft space in downtown Atlanta and serving as a home for the memorial space of Tony Daniels, a founder of In The Life Atlanta and Adodi Muse, A Gay Negro Ensemble.
The members of Adodi Muse (Malik Williams, Duncan Teague and Anthony Antoine) performed powerful pieces written by Daniels. A spirited open mic from the audience was followed by singer Anye Elite Ellis, poet Antron-Reshaud, dancer Ira Cambric, activist Craig Washington, musician Daniel Harris and other talented black men.
Women and transgendered folk were noticeably absent for the most part. Did they feel excluded, unwelcome or just not interested? It’s not necessary (or even healthy) for all of us to attend everything together; sometimes we need our own space. But these are questions we need to consider when planning inclusive events for ourselves.
As for men who have sex with men, we certainly have a plethora of options to satisfy our libido, especially in Atlanta. It’s the rest of our lives that need tweaking. Good to see things moving in the right direction. Now, can we step it up a bit?
Ah yes, the neverending search for meaningful interaction outside the bar/club/sex party scene. It’s a nationwide dilemma.
I’m really need to find out what’s going on in Atlanta in the Black LGBT community. I feel so left out.
And I am glad that Bernie mentioned that the interaction issue is nationwide dilemma. People think that it’s just Atlanta.
I share the same opinion as J. I think that the black gay male population is extremely hypersexed. We struggle (at least most of us do) to find equality among our heterosexual counterparts, and we want them to see past who we wake up with, but how can we do that if we only portray a picture of a sexually ego-centric people?
I definitely had a wonderful time with the audience and the other performers. It was a very memorable experience and hope to be back next year.