My old pal, photographer Phyllis Galembo has traveled widely throughout Africa and Haiti. Her preferred subjects over the last few decades have been many participants in masquerades. In traditional African ceremonies, contemporary costume parties and carnivals those who use costume, body paint, and masks to create mythic characters have sat for her. They are colorful, intriguing and sometimes dark and forboding in nature, but these portraits of hers document the transformative power and mystery of the mask.

Her Aperture book Maske is in back print and Galembo will speak about her work at a book signing this week in New York. Wednesday, March 16 at 6:30PM at the Aperture Gallery and Bookstore, 547 West 27th Street. See you there. I’l be the one in a mask in the back. If you’re not in NYC, you can get her book here.

(Photos, Phyllis Galembo)

The post #PictureThis: Phyllis Galembo’s Fabulous “Maske” Is Back In Print appeared first on The WOW Report.

Adrian Zmed
Billy Crystal
Chris Klein
Elise Neal
Grace Park
Jamie Bell
Kevin Williamson
Megan Follows
Michael Caine
Prince Albert of Monaco
Quincy Jones
Rick Dees
Sasha Grey
Tamara Tunie
Taylor Hanson
Wolfgang Petersen

The post March 14: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Beach with James Joyce

March 14, 1887– Sylvia Beach:

“I am a citizen of the world.”

Ernest Hemingway:

“In those days there was no money to buy books. I borrowed books from the library of Shakespeare & Company, which was the bookstore of Sylvia Beach at 12 Rue de l’Odéon. Sylvia had a lively, sharply sculptured face, brown eyes that were alive as a small animal’s and gay as a young girl’s, and wavy brown hair that was brushed back from her fine forehead. She was kind, cheerful and interested, and loved to make jokes and gossip. No one that I ever knew was nicer to me.”

I recently overheard someone I barely know refer to me, along with old and bald, as “bookish”. I had always held that “bookish” meant a cardigan wearing, dotty eccentric person living in a small space with their books and seven cats named: Twain, Dickens, Proust, Tolstoy, Poe, Fitzgerald, & Rum Tum Tigger.

I suppose I actually am a bit bookish, with my hundreds of books stacked about the house. Reading has been a major force in my life, even before I could read. I have always loved to spend time and money in a bookstore. It is hard to grasp that books might be on the way to becoming a thing of the past.

I am certain many of my friends on social media have reading devices, but I do not own one. I cannot fathom the idea of reading a magazine or book without feeling the pages and the weight in my hands. You might know that Portland, Oregon is the home of what I believe is the very best bookstore on our pretty spinning blue orb: Powell’s City Of Books, a spot visited by both tourists and locals with equal passion.

Born on this very day, to a Presbyterian pastor and his wife in a small town in Princeton, New Jersey, Nancy Woodridge Beach changed her name to Sylvia when she was a teenager. Her father was associate pastor of the American Church in Paris and young Sylvia dreamed that she would someday live in the City Of Lights forever. During WWI, she and her sister volunteered for the Red Cross in Europe. Beach stayed, never returning to the USA, living the rest of her life abroad.

Beach is one more of the best known figures of the Paris American Expatriates in the first part of the 20th century. She owned and operated a Parisian bookstore, Shakespeare & Company. The store was the first English language bookshop on Paris’ Left Bank. Shakespeare & Company was a literary center, lending library, and publishing company that flourished between the two World Wars. Her frequent visitors included: Janet Flanner (yesterday’s #BornThisDay feature), Gertrude Stein, Natalie Barney, Andre Gide, Ezra Pound, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Thornton Wilder, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, and F.Scott Fitzgerald. Beach introduced writers and artists to each other and ensured that writers had pocket money and reading material. Beach was the first publisher of James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses (1922), when no one else would touch it and American publishers considered it obscene and too radical.

When those nasty Nazis invaded Paris, Beach refused to leave her books, as she had been ordered to do. A German officer came to her shop asking, in English, to purchase the copy of Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake in the shop window, Beach refused. The officer, in a rage, told her that the next time he returned it would be with a brown-shirted squad who would confiscate her entire collection. The German officer left, and Beach promptly boxed up her entire collection, hid it away, and painted over the Shakespeare & Company sign. The Germans did return, and while they did not get any of her books, they did get her. She was sent to a concentration camp where she stayed for the next six months, surrounded by French Jewish prisoners who would all end up in Auschwitz. Hemingway, who was with the Allied forces when they liberated Paris, went personally to liberate Shakespeare & Company.

Beach wrote it all down and immortalized her store and the expatriate literary circle and the whole Nazi experience in an exciting, excellent memoir, titled, of course, Shakespeare & Company (1956).

The great love of Beach’s life was Adrienne Monnier, a Frenchwoman who owned her own bookshop called La Maison des Amis des Livres, literally across the street from Shakespeare & Company. The two lesbians were at the center of avant-garde literature. Their two bookstores complemented each other and became a gathering place to discuss and debate new ideas. For Americans fleeing censorship and repression in their own country, beach was refreshingly committed to artistic freedom. Her bookstore and her philosophy were quietly radical. She nurtured her friends and customers with cups of tea on cold days, she held mail and conveyed messages for patrons, lent money, she even had an extra bed for artists who needed a place to stay.

Beach and Monnier lived together from 1920 to 1936, when Monnier’s affair with some other French woman caused them to separate. In true lesbian fashion, they soon reconciled, broke up, got back together again, and then remained together until Monnier’s death in 1955.

Shakespeare & Company never re-opened again after the war, but Beach stayed in Paris until she left this incarnation in 1962. She died in her small upstairs apartment where she had lived most of her life, where she had watched the 20th century unfold, and where she found the three great loves of her: Monnier, Shakespeare & Company, and James Joyce.  She was 75 years old.

Though Beach lived all of her adult life abroad, she is buried, not in Paris, but in a Princeton cemetery with her family. Her papers were donated to the Princeton University Library.

There exists on the incomparable Oregon coast, a Sylvia Beach Hotel, a sort of large B&B with a literary theme, no phones, no TV, no Wi-Fi, and rooms named: The Mark Twain, The Emily Dickinson, The Charles Dickens and The Ernest Hemingway. Please, don’t make me stay there. I am terribly afraid of B&Bs. The idea of taking breakfast with strangers is not my cup o’ tea. I wish the Sylvia Beach Hotel featured rooms such as: The Friedrich Nietzsche, The Franz Kafka, The Sylvia Plath (minus an oven), or The Edward Gorey, now that would certainly make for an especially interesting stay.

The post #BornThisDay: Writer, Sylvia Beach appeared first on The WOW Report.

After the near riots at a Donald Trump rally in Chicago on Friday and Donald being nearly attacked on stage at another rally, political tensions are running high across the country.

Judge Peggy Chiampas called out the two young Northwestern University freshmen, Anthony Morales, 19, and Matthew Kafker, 18, who are accused of spray painting anti-gay slurs, swastikas and the word “Trump” in a chapel. Judge Chiampas said,

“These allegations are disgusting to me. I don’t know if any of you know how lucky you are to be at Northwestern University.”

She said to Morales’ mother, who cried during the hearing, saying:

“I don’t mean to upset you. I mean to upset them.”

The defendants did not speak during the hearing. They are accused after being caught on surveillance cameras entering the nondenominational chapel. Both of the men are out on $50,000 bonds.

Meanwhile, across the country, a Trump campaign sign inside a vacant Jacksonville, Florida storefront was defaced to look like Hitler. The words “Heil” and “Nazi” were painted over the image, replacing

“We Want Trump” & “Republican Candidate for President”

with

“Nazi Candidate for President” & “Heil Donald Trump”

The building’s owner, Patsy Butts, removed the graffiti and said,

“If it’s just the fact that they don’t like Donald Trump and they don’t like Donald Trump becoming president, why didn’t they just say… ‘We don’t want Donald Trump,’ or something of that effect, where it only effects Donald Trump. But what they did is they made Donald Trump look like Hitler. Then they put the Swastika on his forehead. That to me is a direct affront to the Jewish people.”

This just keeps getting weirder and worse as the weeks go on.

(via Pink News)

The post Illinois Students Paint Anti-Gay Slurs, Swastika; Trump Sign Converted to Nazi Imagery appeared first on The WOW Report.

Lady reporter Damiana Garcia had an absolute ball chatting with Bianca Del Rio, Detox, Michelle Visage, Mathu Andersen, Lucian Piane, Todrick Hall, the cast of “Gay Skit Happens” and Melissa Rich Brown on the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 8 premiere red carpet. Be sure to subscribe to the “Michael Lucid Presents” channel to not miss any of Damiana’s lady video reports!

The post Watch Now: Damiana with Bianca Del Rio, Detox, Michelle Visage & More on the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 8 Premiere Red Carpet appeared first on The WOW Report.

Richard Simmons has spoken out, for the first time in two years, following a report in the New York Daily News saying that he might be held against his will in his Hollywood Hills mansion. Here’s the intro to the compelling story called, The Haunted Twilight of Richard Simmons,

Richard Simmons opened his front door, frail and trembling. Mauro Oliveira, a visual artist who was also Simmons’ masseur and former assistant, greeted him on the front porch, concerned about his friend. After receiving an ominous phone call from Simmons, Oliveira had driven his truck to the Hollywood Hills, past the two metal gates that Simmons had left ajar for him, and into the driveway. He reached the porch through the white columns that recalled an antebellum Southern mansion, and past Simmons’ bronze statue of a regal Dalmatian.

Wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants, a gaunt Simmons led Oliveira through the foyer, and into the living room.

“Mauro, we can no longer see each other,” Simmons told him in a quiet, defeated voice.

It was April 2014. Oliveira, a 49-year-old from Brazil with the burly arms and trim physique of a gym rat and close-cropped black hair, had met Simmons 13 months earlier, and the two became fast friends. But he was catching a weird vibe lately, and hadn’t seen him in a while, before the then 65-year-old Simmons summoned him to the mansion, saying only that they needed to talk.

“What’s going on, Richard?” Oliveira asked. “Why are you saying that?”

“I don’t know,” Simmons replied. “I just want to be by myself, and I want to be in the house, and we’re never going to see each other again.”

Scary right? You can read the full story here. But Richard just told Entertainment Tonight by phone.

“I am not kidnapped. No one should be worried about me … The people that surround me are wonderful people who take great care of me.“

He went on to say that he’s “just been taking it easy,” “staying out home, working out” because he needed “some time to be by myself” after 40 years of relentless commitments and a “very difficult” knee-replacement surgery.

In another interview with NBC’s Today, Simmons added that his “health is “good” and that he takes regular walks and drives in addition to using the gym in his home.

“For all the people that were worrying about me, I want to tell them that I love them with my whole heart and soul and that not to worry, Richard’s fine. You haven’t seen the last of me. I’ll come back, and I’ll come back strong.“

That doesn’t really explain it all. Why do I think this isn’t what’s REALLY going on? Maybe I’ve seen too many movies…

(via NBC News)

The post Richard Simmons Says; “I’m Not Kidnapped” appeared first on The WOW Report.

If you don’t shed a tear when watching this video, you are as stone cold as everybody says you are…LOL! RuPaul’s Drag Race star Latrice Royale gives a stellar performance in Here’s To Life, originally sung by jazz legend Shirley Horn and Barbra Streisand, the first single off her anthemic debut album. The consummate showgirl stays true to Horns’ original sentiment of survival, singing about growing up gay in the gang-infested streets of Compton, her stint in prison, survival, and her transformation into the grand dame that she is today.

Latrice Royale:

Ella Fitzgerald is clearly the queen of jazz. I have always loved her and Della Reese and have lip-synched to quite a bit of their music.  Shirley Horn and Shirley Bassey are also favorites and had a lot to do with the shaping this project. My hope is that fans will put this record on in the background with a glass of wine and a nice meal with a candle and a lover. It’s very casual listening that runs the gamut from the whore house to the church house, so everybody should be able to find something they enjoy.

Latrice Royale’s Here’s To Life is available now on Amazon

The post Latrice Royale Gets Jazzy With It on Debut Album “Here’s To Life” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Photograph by H. Darr Beiser

March 15, 1933– Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

“All of the incentives, all of the benefits that marriage affords would still be available. So you’re not taking away anything from heterosexual couples. They would have the very same incentive to marry, all the benefits that come with marriage that they do now.”

Drops gavel, walks off stage.

Marriage Equality is now a Constitutional right everywhere in the USA America, thanks to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in June 2015. It was a majority decision of 5 to 4, but there was one Justice who has stood out above the rest as a steadfast and fierce supporter of Gay Rights, and we like to call her The Notorious RBG.

Ginsburg’s support was crucial, from her personal opinion of the American public’s shifting attitude to the earlier oral arguments and, ultimately, the historical decision that says anyone in any state can marry the person they love. Justices Anthony Kennedy, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan joined Ginsburg in agreeing that gay couples should be free to marry in all 50 states. We all know who declined.

Ginsburg was at the top of her class at Harvard Law in 1959, and after graduating she did not receive a single job offer. (Neither did Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor when she graduated from Stanford Law, seven years earlier.) Ginsburg had to beg for work. Finally, a favorite Harvard professor had to pressure a US Federal Judge in Manhattan to hire Ginsburg, threatening the judge he’d never recommend another Columbia University student to him unless he gave Ginsburg the big break. Her first assignment was to study Civil Law in Sweden. She learned Swedish for the job. She next taught at Rutgers Law School, and received tenure in 1969.

Before that landmark decision, Ginsburg had already been very vocal about same-sex marriage:

“The change in people’s attitudes on this issue has been enormous. In recent years, people have said: ‘This is the way I am.’ And others looked around, and discovered they are our next-door neighbors, we’re very fond of them. Or it’s our child’s best friend, or even our child. I think that as more and more people came out and said that “this is who I am’, the rest of us recognized that they are one of us.”

Ginsburg used her noted wit to shut down the opposing side’s arguments. When “tradition” was brought up as an argument to maintain the marriage status quo, she countered by pointing out the extremely antiquated laws that defined marriage as being between a dominant male and a subordinate female. Clearly, that was a marriage tradition that desperately needed to be challenged, just like the opponents’ idea of marriage as only between a man and a woman.

When John Bursch, the lawyer representing the states who want to keep their same-sex marriage bans, argued that marriage was all about procreating, Ginsburg said:

“Suppose a couple, a 70-year-old couple, comes in and they want to get married? You don’t have to ask them any questions. You know they are not going to have any children.”

She even officiated at a same-sex wedding earlier, already a clear sign of her advocacy, where she also dropped a sly hint about the impending SCOTUS’s decision. When she pronounced Shakespeare Theatre Company artistic director Michael Kahn and NYC architect Charles Mitchem, to be “husband and husband”, Ginsburg emphasized the word constitution as she said: “By the powers vested in me by the Constitution of the United States.”

Ginsberg is only the second female Justice in the USA (now she is one of three, joined by Sotomayor and Kagan) and the sixth Jew. Ginsburg claims that she had been taught from kid to further equality and to cherish independence:

“My mother told me two things constantly. One was to be a lady, and the other was to be independent. The study of law was unusual for women of my generation. For most girls growing up in the 1940s, the most important degree was not your B.A., but your M.R.S.”

Ginsburg has held her seat as Supreme Court Justice for over 20 years. She remains one of the most important and articulate legal thinkers and interpreters of the Constitution. She is also a funny and engaged writer and speaker. She is a passionate fan of the opera, an avocation she shared with her unlikely pal, the now stiff Antonin Scalia. Ironically, the unusual friendship between the liberal, Jewish, well-spoken woman and the brash, Catholic, conservative bulldog is the subject of an actual opera. Scalia/Ginsburg, by composer Derrick Wang  was presented at the Castleton Festival last summer. The opera about the pair of opera lovers, also celebrates the virtues of SCOTUS with an affectionate, comic look at the two unofficial leaders of its conservative and liberal wings. The premiere was highly anticipated and was attended by Ginsburg, who was warmly received by the audience; Scalia was in Rome saying his rosary and didn’t attend.

Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1993. She is the second female justice (after O’Connor) and one of three female justices currently serving on the Supreme Court (along with Sotomayor and Kagan).

Before she was appointed to the Supreme Court, she had been nominated by President Jimmy Carter and served from 1980-1993 on the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  In 1972, while still just a lawyer, Ginsburg helped launch The Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Throughout the 1970s, she litigated a series of cases solidifying a constitutional principle against gender-based discrimination.  From 1972- 1980, she was a professor at Columbia University School of Law.

Forbes Magazine named Ginsburg to its list of 100 Most Powerful Women. Time Magazine listed her as one of the Time 100 Icons. She has also been named to The Stephen Rutledge List Of Fashion Icons for her signature collection of lace jabots from around the world. She wears a black one with gold embroidery and faceted stones when issuing her dissents, and another that is crocheted yellow and cream with crystals that she wears when issuing majority opinions.

Ginsberg is a two-time cancer survivor. She is now the oldest member of The Supremes with no intention of stepping down. She has stated that the Court’s work has helped her cope with the death of her husband Martin Ginsberg on 2010 (they were together 56 years). She has stated that she has found a role model in Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired after nearly 35 years on the bench at 90 years old. She does a daily workout with a personal trainer at the Court’s gym.

“As long as I can do the job full-steam, I would like to stay here. I have to take it year by year at my age, and who knows what could happen next year? Right now, I know I’m OK.”

Ginsberg’s memoir My Own Words is set to be published in January 2017.

The post #BornThisDay: Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg appeared first on The WOW Report.

Untucked: RuPaul’s Drag Race is back for season 8 on WOWPresents! On this episode of Untucked, the queens kiki backstage after the runway and their ‘Bitch Perfect’ performance.

New episodes of Untucked every Tuesday morning on WOWPresents!

The post Untucked: RuPaul’s Drag Race | Bitch Perfect appeared first on The WOW Report.

Macklemore’s new CD, which could have also been the title of Dan Lacey’s Bieber painting

On the ground floor is a recording room with a ton of audio gear, a wall of guitars and racks of outlandish garments spouting sequins, fringe and feathers. “Those are Ben’s [Ben Haggerty is Macklemore’s real name]” Lewis notes. There is a kitschy velvet painting of a bald eagle, an oil painting of Drake dancing and a transfixing rendition of a naked Justin Bieber with maple syrup pouring down his chest onto a pancake balanced on his boner.” Ben spent a lot of time buying weird stuff on Etsy,” Lewis says.

The painting in question, by artist Dan Lacey, is a doozey. It seems Dan was inspired by one of Bieber’s tweets from WAY BACK in 2010 and told Vulture that he was unaware Macklemore purchased the piece. He painted the image — which he calls the

“Bieber crotch pancake”

…well before the paparazzi photos of Bieber’s penis leaked, and that it represents what he’s coined the ‘Prescient Pancake’ phenomenon.

“To me, pancakes happen at a spiritual level, sometimes expressing themselves as eroticism.“

OKAAAY. That’s enough weirdness for one post. Hmmm, suddenly I feel like going to iHop.

(via Vulture)

The post So, Macklemore Owns a Justin Bieber Nude, “Crotch Pancake” Painting..? appeared first on The WOW Report.

In a recent Pop Shop Podcast, Billboard magazine suggested to RuPaul that an education is being provided by Drag Race that enlightens the younger generation about gay history,

“I think of Drag Race that way. When I was coming up, I had mentors who taught me about Tennessee Williams and Tallulah Bankhead and Truman Capote and Fellini –all that stuff. That sort of went away at one point, for young gay people. So I’m so proud of Drag Race for taking up the slack in that department, because so many young kids around the world, in remote places around the world, get to watch Drag Race and learn about Paris Is Burning or Grey Gardens. Even just attitudes toward drag –different styles of drag. At Drag Race and through my music, I sort of carry the torch of the gay movement, the drag movement. Really, the outsider movement.”

She wears it well. Watch and listen.

(via Billboard)

The post #WearItWell: RuPaul on “Carrying the Torch of the Outsider Movement” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Prince & Mayte’s wedding pic, Valentine’s Day 1996

Vanity Fair just featured this interview with Mayte,

In an interview last year, Garcia reflected on her relationship with Prince, which ended in 2000.

“Our entire time together was amazing and surreal, and he showed me some incredible things and introduced me to incredible people,” said the ex, for whom Prince wrote “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.”

The two married on Valentine’s Day 1996 in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis. Fittingly, white doves were released as the duo exchanged vows. Prince, as you might imagine, was not a prototypical husband—never taking Garcia on a date (although their home did have a night club inside), always wearing high heels, and, because of his mid-career name change, making it hard for Garcia to address him.

“We never had any pet names, and I don’t think in the whole time we were together I called him anything, which I guess is a bit weird.”

“I never called him Prince because I wanted him to be a person to me, not the man behind Purple Rain. Plus, technically, I was married to the Symbol. Our house was full of them, but I just couldn’t say the word. When we got married it was much easier. If someone else was there I could say, ‘Could I speak to my husband please?’”

Sadly, the two split after losing their son, Boy Gregory, a week after he was born, and suffering another miscarriage.

“There is no animosity or bad blood, and he was my husband and the father of my child. So although I am not actively in love with him, I will always love him—he’s a great guy.”

So, here are some of the superstar’s fabulously decadent costumes, props, jewelry and even his wedding china. It’s also has the 2.2-carat diamond engagement ring Prince used to propose to Garcia, his then back-up dancer (bids begin at $100,000), to a demo tape made in 1978 (starting bid, $20,000). Have a look. You can see more outfits that no one in the world could ever wear and even bid on them here at Nate D. Sanders Auctions.

Prince Diamond Engagement Ring & Handwritten Marriage Proposal to Mayte Garcia. Starting bid, $100,000

Prince’s Bride’s Wedding Dress Ensemble — Stunning Backless Dress, Full Length Wrap With Faux Fur Trim & 11” x 14.25” Portrait Photo of the Couple. Starting bid, $25,000

50 Piece Set of China From Prince’s Wedding — Featuring Prince’s Love Symbol. Starting bid, $50,000

Pair of Goblets From Prince’s Wedding to Mayte Garcia — Engraved With Their Wedding Date of February 14th, 1996. Starting bid, $20,000

Prince Worn Electric Blue Shirt & Pants With Beige Shoes — Worn on the Cover of His 1999 Album ”Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic”. Starting bid, $30,000

1978 Cassette Tape Containing Six Early Songs by Prince — Includes an Early Version of “Sometimes It Snows in April”. Starting bid, $20,000

Prince Stage-Used Handcuffs — Used During the Performance of ”The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”. Starting bid, $10,000

Moon & Star Ear Wrap Worn by Prince –Worn at 1998 NBA All-Star Game With Spike Lee. Starting bid, $7,000

Scorpio Diamond Necklace Worn by Prince When he Met Prince Charles. Starting bid, $30,000

Prince Worn ”Love / Life” Outfit with Matching Shoes Bearing His Love Symbol. Starting bid, $7,000

$100 check, endorsed by Prince Nelson. Starting bid, $2000

(T/Y Tad; via Vanity Fair)

The post 10 Over-The-Top Items From the Prince Auction. How About Rhinestone Handcuffs..? appeared first on The WOW Report.

Homeschooled posterboy Jayden Smith appeared on the cover of the Spring/Summer British GQ Style, and explained his outrageous sense of androgynous style in an accompanying interview.

“I feel like people are kind of confused about gender norms” he told British GQ Style in an exclusive interview. “I feel like people don’t really get it. I’m not saying that I get it, I’m just saying that I’ve never seen any distinction. I don’t see man clothes and woman clothes, I just see scared people and comfortable people.”

“I’m really working towards just fixing the whole planet Earth,” he explained. “I really just want to create a utopia on this planet. I really want to make it so that people don’t have to die to pay bills and just work to survive. So that they can work to actually live and do the things that they love to do.”

And he sees himself as a catalyst from this change, not so humbly describing the power he has over those he comes in contact with like, oh, the Kardashians.

“I think I’m just a really big influence on anybody that I’m around, and I feel like that’s why it’s good for me to hang out with all types of different people,” he responded when asked about his relationship with the famous family.

Shine on, you crazy diamond. (via HuffPo)

The post Jayden Smith Wants to “Fix the Whole World” with His Genderless Style appeared first on The WOW Report.

Transformation Tuesdays just got a whole lot QTer…New queers featured every week! Tag us, take a pic of us and follow us on Instagram at QWERRRKOUT, and you too could be the next QT! YOU BETTA QWERRRK!

Miss Peppermint

Age: Unknown

Location: New York, NY

About: “I’ve been performing in Drag for more than 10 years. I moved to New York City to go to acting school and ended up working at a nightclub for $50 a week!
I love how the art of drag has changed a lot even since I started. Impersonations, lip sync, live singing and dancing , magicians, and even gender queer artists who are pushing the envelope within the art form.  I feel blessed that I’m not only able to perform on a regular basis but also travel the world and meet new and interesting people.”

The post #TransformationTuesday: QWERRRKOUT feat. Miss Peppermint appeared first on The WOW Report.

March 16, 1949– Victor Garber. I first noticed him, as so many did, when he sang and danced his way through the film version hippy Jesus musical Godspell (1973) where Garber is sporting a large Afro. Less than a year later, I would be on stage in the musical and I would have an Afro that rivaled Garber’s. It was a thing in the early 1970s.

Gosh, I just love Canadians, and Garber was born in London, Ontario. He began acting at when he was 9 years old with a local children’s theater troupe. When he was just 16 years old, he began studying Theatre at the University of Toronto.

His first professional role was as landed the leading role of Jesus in the Toronto production of Godspell in 1972. Amazingly, his fellow cast members included Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Martin Short, and Andrea Martin, with Paul Shaffer as musical director and pianist. Garber’s performance was so impressive that he was cast in the same role for the film adaptation.

He began his career as a folk singer, performing in the 1960s with a band, The Sugar Shoppe.The group had moderate success with four top 40 hits in Canada and the performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

An extremely versatile actor, Garber has had a very successful, impressive career on stage, appearing in classics, dramas, comedies and musicals including Noel Coward’s Present Laughter on Broadway in 2010, plus George and Ira Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing at Encores! (2006), Arcadia (1995), Damn Yankees (1994), Stephen Sondheim’s original production of Assassins (1990), Merrily We Roll Along (1990), Love Letters (1989), Lend Me A Tenor (1989), The Devil’s Disciple (1988), Wenceslas Square (1988), Noises Off (1983), Little Me (1982), They’re Playing Our Song (1979), and The Shadow Box (1977).

I have seen him on stage on Broadway as Anthony in the original production of Sondheim’s masterpiece Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (1979), Deathtrap (1978), and Art (1998). All very different roles all performed with real charisma and skill. Plus, Garber is really pretty to look at.

In addition to his noted stage career, Garber has an impressive list of television credits, with roles as a regular on Justice (2006), ReGenesis (2004-08), Eli Stone (2008-09), Glee (2009-15) and Flashpoint (2008-12). He is probably most famous for for playing Jack Bristow on ABC’s Alias (2001-06) for which brought him three Emmy nominations. His guest starring roles are too numerous to mention, but I especially liked his turn as Frasier’s butler on Frasier in 2000. He is currently on something called The Flash, which is not about my male menopause.

In films, his most memorable role was as Thomas Andrews, the ship’s chief architect in the little seen Titanic (1997). He was also in the popular Sleepless In Seattle (1993) opposite Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, The First Wives Club (1996) starring Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bette Midler, and Legally Blonde (2001) with Reese Witherspoon. He had a juicy part in last year’s Sicario.

My personal favorite Garber film roles include playing Mayor George Mascone in Gus Van Sant’s Milk (2008), Daddy Warbucks in Annie (1999), Sid Luft in Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows (2001), and Ken Taylor, the Canadian diplomat in the Academy Award winning Argo, my favorite film of 2012. We even share a film credit; we both have small but funny roles in Singles (1992).

Garber certainly works a lot, but he was never publicly open about his gayness, until he brought his longtime partner, the unnaturally handsome artist Ranier Andreesen as his date to the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2013. After 16 years together, the couple tied the knot in Canada last autumn. Notoriously quiet about his private life, Garber has been surprisingly open since the wedding, with plenty of photographs and comments on Instgram. The couple are nearly too handsome for my eyes. They live in Greenwich Village.

Here is a little tally of the things Garber and I have in common: we both once had impressive blond Afros, we both performed in Godspell in the early 1970s,  we each studied at famed HB Studios in NYC, we both had roles in the film Singles, we both have handsome artist husbands. I think that is enough for us to be buddies, don’t you?

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“First of all, don’t be frightened. And don’t put your own prejudices or fears about sexuality – your own fears about sexuality – on your children. Sexuality is a glorious part of existence.”

What horrifies me is that there are parents who so disapprove, who are so brainwashed to think that this is something out of the Bible or ungodly or against nature. It’s not against nature if nature has actually done this. Sam was always Sam, this wonderful human that he is, from the time he was born.Some people actually shut their children out of the house when they’re young, they’re teenagers – they’re having a hard enough time to be teenagers and own any part of sexuality. I’m still trying to figure it out!”

— Sally Field, whose gay son Sam recently presented her with the Human Rights Campaign‘s Ally for Equality Award, talking on SiriusXM

The post Sally Field on LGBTQ Kids: “It’s Not Against Nature If Nature Has Actually Done This” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Hump day hottie, Pietro Boselli, you may remember, was discovered on Instagram as the “world’s hottest math teacher.” But he’s been modeling more and more and wearing less and less, THANK YOU! He’s been hitting the beach for Giorgio Armani sporty EA7 line. But it’s all just an excuse to look at THE perfect male form, who are we kidding?

The post The “World’s Hottest Math Teacher”, Pietro Boselli, Gets Naked for Armani appeared first on The WOW Report.

Debbie Harry, 1978. Photograph, Robert Mapplethorpe

If you’re a regular WOW Report reader, you may know by now that World of Wonder founders, Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato have made a new, critically acclaimed documentary about the late photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe. Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures premiered in L.A. last night along with two exhibits of his work at LACMA and the Getty. Of course, myself and everyone at WOW has his work on the brain, but Vogue is noticing that today’s designers are picking up on the vibe too. An excerpt from Vogue‘s take;

From the backroom of Max’s Kansas City—replete with Fran Lebowitz in her trademark men’s suits and Debbie Harry in her braless T-shirts—to the basement of the gay nightclub Mineshaft and its leather accoutrements, he chronicled the hedonistic sartorial evolution of New York City. His album cover for muse (and roommate) Patti Smith’s 1975 Horses is as arresting now as it was then—and an androgynous bellwether for someone like Hedi Slimane, who pulls off a similar genderless rock-waif air so well at Saint Laurent. And when Mapplethorpe befriended the permanently elegant Carolina Herrera on a private plane en route to Mustique, they stayed friends until he passed away, with Mapplethorpe often shooting the designer.

On the kinkier side, modern-era collections ranging from Shayne Oliver’s Hood By Air to Alexander Wang’s chains for Spring or David Koma’s Pre-Fall body-modification nods all owe something to Mapplethorpe’s pioneering and uncompromising spirit.

“Anything goes” seemed to be his guiding credo. “Once I’ve taken a photograph, I’m not shocked anymore,” he once said. “I’d been through the experience.”

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures premieres on HBO April 4.

Mugler Pre-Fall 2016, Alexander Wang Spring 2016, Hood By Air Spring 2016 ready-to-wear

Patti Smith, 1975

Brian Ridley and Lyle Heeter, 1979. Photo, Robert Mapplethorpe

(via Vogue)

The post Vogue Sees Mapplethorpe’s Influence on Today’s Runways appeared first on The WOW Report.

M.Lamar is a brilliant singer/songwriter/composer cutting a radical swath through the mishegoss of race and sexuality, utilizing a mixed media of art forms, including opera, heavy metal, goth performance, sculpture and video installations. The self-described nonbinary Negrogoth recently played the male, pre-transition role of transgender actress Laverne Cox’s character Sophia Burset on hit TV show Orange Is the New Black…which was a perfect casting, being that he is the identical twin brother of Cox. I got a chance to sit down with him recently for a think tank about our experiences and perspectives as black men, one queer-identified, the other on the fence, what it’s like to realize you’re black and how that narrative redefines itself, and how the gay community might be it’s own worst enemy when it comes to procuring equal rights, respect and representation for all. Check out the interview below, and you can see M.Lamar in person this Saturday, March 19th in NYC at Ecstatic Music Festival: M.Lamar, Charlie Looker & Mivos Quartet.

Paisley: When did M. Lamar’s Negrogothic journey begin?

M. Lamar: I moved to New York in 2006. I was a solo person…a solo performer. It started off with me doing solo shows with my boyfriend Sabin. He did the projections, animations and illustrations for me. Then I started bringing in other contracted people. But it wasn’t this sort of collaborative thing. Slowly over the last nine years, it grew into this low budget M.Lamar enterprise. I’ve been able to find scenes that interest me in New York, like the Metal and Post-Metal scene. I’m working now with these two composers who are classically trained, but also in metal bands, to do string arrangements for my new album, along with Charlie Looker– who did the Badass Nigga remix. But, I was born in Mobile, Alabama. I left when I was 17 to go to college…took a Greyhound bus straight to San Francisco!

Same for me! I grew up in Detroit, and at 17 I came straight to New York…I was totally ready! Growing up in Motown, at that time, was the place to be, if you wanted to be somehow connected to the auto industry. My father worked for Chrysler, but my mother had another vision for us. She had a plan that made sure that we would not want be in the the auto industry.

How many siblings do you have?

I have one brother now. My eldest brother was murdered during my sophomore year in high school. That was really hard for me and my mother. It was her first born. He was found dead in an alleyway, and they never found his murderer. My mother didn’t want this to happen to me and my brother Conrad, so she kinda implanted in our heads that Conrad would become a lawyer and I was to become a doctor.

I think my mother had that idea when me and Laverne were like 6 or 7 y/o, but by around 8 y/o, it was clear that we were both artists.

Lol…I was always referred to as the ‘creative’ one. But when you’re a child, you want to please your parents. So, I just went along with what she said I should be. I lust played the role for a while.

So, you went to school to be a doctor initially?

No…not exactly. When me and my brother were in our pre-teens, we went to a co-ed  elementary school. When he was about to go to high school, my mother found a private college preparatory school that started at grade 7, and went all the way through the 12th grade. It was ALL boys, Catholic, and Jesuit. She thought this would be a great way to keep us out of trouble…on the ‘straight’ and narrow.

Was your brother queer?

No. I always thought he was, but he’s had the same girlfriend forever. He just had a baby, and got married. It’s total textbook heteronormative mapping…haha! Me?…not so much. I was actually excited to be around all these boys. I wasn’t sexually active yet; but by eighth grade, I was in it to win it!

I’ve never ‘come out’ as anything. I went to the Alabama School of Fine Arts. I’ve always dated men and women. I was dating this girl, but she also knew I was dating this guy piano player. I just had this radical kind of openness. I’ve never been interested in defining myself.

My mother had his plan to make sure that me and my brother were very independent…and that meant possibly getting away from Detroit as soon as possible. There were five black kids in the school I went to…and I didn’t notice that we were the minority!

You didn’t notice?

I didn’t! This was a school in the heart of Northwest Detroit.

Which is a very black city.

Yep! There were about 650 students at that time…and us five black kids.

IN THE MIDDLE OF DETROIT??? So, these white people were making sure their kids were not around black people!

We were in the center of the city, but at the same time, we were on an island, insular. It was an excellent college preparatory school. I didn’t feel any signs of prejudice or racism. No one ever used the N word (at least not to my face), or made me feel less than.

So, at what point did you realize that you were black?

Haha..that was my next question for you! But actually, nothing derogatory came until I started getting a little more swish in my way, and then I started hearing all the gay slurs. But that kind of rolled off my back. I didn’t feel threatened.

Your friends were all white?

Yep!

Hmmm…with me, I knew early on that I was black. I’m from Alabama. My mother grew up in the 1950s and 60s as a black woman. Being black was very palpable. She would always tell these horror stories of when schools became integrated. Very early on, when I was like six years old, she would talk about how schools were segregated. Teachers could talk to black students ‘any old way’. Once schools were integrated, that had to stop, because they were in the presence of white students. When there were white teachers around, they didn’t have the awareness of racial politics. There was no longer a candidness that one could have previously talking to black students. All my friends were white too, but my mother was very suspicious of that. She was terrified. I remember the night I was moving away to San Francisco. I was in my room with a white girl who was just a friend, and my mother was wondering if I was gonna get this girl pregnant, or even be killed for being with this girl. It was a very different time. So, I was always very aware of my blackness.

Were you ever afraid of being black? Did you feel that someone might harm you?…’cause I never felt that. My mom made sure that we were insulated. But now, I feel like she lied to me because she made me feel like anything was possible…we’re all the same. She kept the harsh reality of the real world at bay.

My mother always said, ‘you have to work harder…you have to be better than everybody else’. In that sense, I’m fortunate. Having grown up in that southern racial context, what she said was a great gift.

I don’t want to imply what my mother did was a negative, but I definitely think it could’ve been a bit more racially balanced…the way she tried to prepare us for the real world. When I came to New York, I immediately gravitated towards what seemed to be a familiar context…the white and gay scene.

Was it a queer scene? Was it about that?

No. Being queer nowadays tends to maintain a more assimilated connotation. Back then, to be queer was more marginalized and radical. It was very underground. The gay community in the late 80s and 90s, up to about the Chelsea area, was primarily white, with a sprinkling a black queens. But, I felt comfortable in that scene…to an extent. I always felt that white gay guys could go up to pretty much anyone they found attractive. It seemed like they had this privilege, this access to choose whomever they wanted to date or have sex with. The playing field was greater for them. I didn’t feel I had that. I felt that people loved having me around as long as I was entertaining, funny, the jokester. After a while, I wasn’t comfortable being in that position, doing ‘soft shoe’. When I finally felt like making a move on a guy, thinking that he was into me, I would always get, “Oh, I don’t like you like that”.

So, you’re making a distinction between the queer scene and the gay scene? Where did you feel you fit?

I always went straight down the middle. I guess it was that independence thing that my mother instilled in me. I had no problem moving to New York on my own, or London, or Berlin. I didn’t have a problem hanging out in the white bars, even though I knew most people there had no interest in me. It was all good until I’d get my wires crossed, thinking someone liked me in more than just the friendship way, and that just wasn’t the case usually.

I kinda realized very early on that there was no place for me in gay land. I was lucky to find the goth and metal music scenes. That world allowed me to look how I wanted and not have that be my identity. I’ve always had a wonderful sex life [laughs]! I have a longtime boyfriend. But in gay land, I was never getting my needs met sexually. I don’t define myself as gay…in a good way. It wasn’t about a boyfriend always. In the scenes I was in, people just hooked up randomly. It could be with a boy or a girl. It was all good. I always had game too [laughs]!

That goes back to what I was saying about ‘entertaining’. Not that you’re a joke, but you are affable.

Sure! I was never interested in entertaining faggots to the exclusion of my sexuality. I wasn’t going to perform in gay or queer context. With regards to my sexuality, I was never interested in the mainstream. I’ve always liked strangely gendered people. When I was in San Francisco there was a genderless, radical queer world that was connected to the Rock scene, and everybody queer that I knew was in a band. That was really great for me. It was always about finding myself in a music scene that was radically open. Now, that scene has moved more to Oakland, Seattle and even Los Angeles, strangely. LA is kinda more interesting than San Francisco now…who would’ve known [laughs]!

Are you that Badass Nigga?

Yes! I created that. There are certain things that are in me. It’s not a ‘ready-to-wear’ ideology. It’s something you create for yourself. You have to hand construct it…from the ground up. If I had to say one thing to the queers of the world, or anyone, I’d have to say that there is no ready made identity for you out there. Make scenes for yourself. Or find scenes and reconfigure them to suit you.

That sounds great! You are a singer and performer. You travel to places where you have been invited and perform in front of people who want you there. So, there is a built-in acceptance that goes with that invitation. But that’s not day-to-day life. How do you navigate being ‘you’ on the streets of NYC everyday?

The way I look on stage is the way I look all the time. It’s very empowering. Of course people look at me all the time. I would love to write a queer performativity book about George Clinton (singer and creator of Parliament and Funkadelic bands) called The Incomprehensible Negro. One of the things I’ve always admired about him is that for thirty plus years, George Clinton was George Clinton, 24 hours a day! I’ve always imagined myself in that model. I think of myself as this creature that’s moving through the world as themselves. People sometimes recognize me from various things I do, and others wonder ‘Who is this strange Negro?’. But I have to walk through this world with a certain confidence or attitude.

We have a lot of similarities! But, one thing that I’m always conscience of is when I walk in a room, I have this feeling that I have to disarm people, assuage their internalized prejudices, return to that soft shoe performance.

I’m not interested in making people feel comfortable. I’m into scaring people! My work is about a certain level of discomfort. It’s about a level of confrontation with regards to white supremacy in this country and my awareness of that. I want people to always be aware of my awareness to the history of white supremacy at every moment. Malcolm X talked about how we have to free our minds in terms of how we think about ourselves and other black people…how we encounter or surveil other black people in a way that white people have historically surveilled us. I try to give all black people a lot of love, even when it’s not always reciprocated. I am not coming to them with that same internalized racism. I proceed in a very free way. I want ALL black people to be free!

So what happens when you’re black and gay and there’s organizations like GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) that tend to speak with a broad stroke on behalf of all gay people. Are we as black men represented and painted equally with that brush?

I have no interest in GLAAD! None at all! I don’t think they service communities of color in any way…gay or trans. But I never defined myself as gay. I always thought of being ‘gay’ as something for bourgeoisie white people. And, all apologies to black people who define themselves that way..that’s fine. Everyone can define themselves however they want. I’ve chosen to reject gay as a term for myself. I’m interested in the behavior of sexuality. I think of gay culture as having always been tied to white culture. GLAAD has no interest in anything beyond celebrity culture. Their media campaign seems to be about using the right words…policing language. I’m also not interested in a revolution that centers around sexuality. Sexuality is one part of an identity that constructs a person, but there’s also race, class, what your values are…more importantly, what you believe in. I’m an underground artist that is not controlled by corporate means. I mean, I kinda long for corporate money, ’cause that’s cute [laughs]! But one of the things I admire about the voguing ballroom culture, for instance, is that you have these black and Latino queer people making spaces for themselves. Did you ever gravitate towards that world?

I did! Not only did I gravitate towards that scene, I also snatched a couple trophies [laughs]! But I don’t wanna veer off onto my illustrious ballroom days…just wanted to get that on record!

Well, I can’t comment too much on that scene. I’ve been to only one ball. From the outside, it seems like a family that is formed out of a response to white supremacy. And I think we as members of black families  are responsible for raising all black people. I keep waiting for an article to appear in The New York Times to address the phenomenon of Donald Trump and the inevitable backlash that would occur after eight years of Barack Obama- the first black president. That there would be a white supremacist backlash and the Republican Party would of course nominate someone like Trump who is completely running on a white supremacist platform. I keep waiting for a comprehensible essay to be written about that history.

For a lot of people who are not white, but are gay, GLAAD seems to mean very little to them. But for cis people, heteronormative people, organizations like GLAAD appear to be the saving grace for ALL gays. There is so much prejudice and segregation in the gay community. There is so much hatred, internalized and externalized…hiding under the aesthetic umbrella of words like preference. You can log on to pretty much any gay social media site/app and you’ll still see hate speech like: ‘No blacks, No Asians, No fems’. Where did this come from? Are we born with these innate prejudices or is this part of nurture…part of one’s experiences or environments? You yourself have dated mostly white men. How do you reconcile this, especially when you are the pro- black, Badass Negro? Isn’t this more or less black gay-triarchy?

I haven’t dated white men exclusively, but yes…it’s complicated. Have I internalized white supremacy into a form of desire? Absolutely! We all have our struggle. I’m attracted to all kinds of people. I’m currently in a longtime committed relationship with a white guy and we’re profoundly in love. It just happened. It’s outside of racialized fetish.

Were you hesitant at first, concerned that he might be looking for a ‘Mandingo’ man? We’re you cautious that he might like you solely for your blackness?

No. This was not going on with him. It’s funny because he had a calendar of nude men on his wall when we met, and the open page featured a black model. So, I asked him, ‘Are you a dingo-phile?’ He was totally confused. It turned out that there actually was only one black guy in the whole calendar. Anyway, he has never dated a black man before me. Him being with me definitely wasn’t a racialized fetish thing, and it wasn’t a transcendent come-up for me to be dating a white guy, which also can happen. I believe in love…like Cornel West’s Love Warriors theory– the ability to love in the face of animosity…the death of restrictions due to race, gender, sexuality, etc. There’s all kinds of fascisms that go on in the gay community…ageism, body-ism, racism, along with racial fetishization. You lived in Berlin. You can talk to me about that.

Haha…yes! I moved to Berlin mainly because I knew that here was a place where my options and odds of hooking up were exponentially greater! For the first time in my life, I wasn’t waiting for someone to say, ‘Okay’. I felt empowered. I wasn’t under some delusion that they were loving anything more than my big black cock. I went there with that knowledge of how black men are desired there. I was gonna pillage the village…unapologetically. And if something deeper came along, with that special guy, I was open to that too!

Of course! But in the world of fetishization, the odds of something deeper happening is pretty much non-existent. Love and mutual respect, or levels of admiration lay outside of all that.

Listen…I think I’ve done it all…pretty much. As someone who has traversed this planet singularly for most of my life, I was held accountable to no one but myself. It was important for me, as I explored my sexuality, my journey, to find a way to make my blackness part of my sexuality…in a way that worked for me…where I was back in control. Jada Pinkett said it best in that rant she did on YouTube, in response to the lack of diversity in the nominations at The Oscars, especially for black actors. She said, “I can’t help but ask the question… Is it time that people of color recognize how much power, influence that we have amassed, that we no longer need to ask to be invited anywhere?”

I do everything myself. I make my albums myself. I’m currently working on a film by myself. I have two book projects where I’m partnering with other people. But, I’m all about making the shit happen myself…being in control of the means of production. What’s ironic about Jada Pinkett Smith is that she and her husband do have a production company. Why aren’t they making movies with black directors, black screenwriters? They have enough money to commission black screenwriters to write content for us.

So, how do we go about switching it up? In today’s world, social media plays a huge role in what is ‘liked’. The public can now make realtime commentary on what they feel is worthy of attention by clicking a button. This sends a direct message to marketers, directors, etc. about what they want to see more of. You can’t ignore that influence.

This is where critiques about marketing and capitalism have to come into play. When we’re talking about how many ‘likes’ someone gets or how many clicks something gets, we’re talking about how someone can get funding for their website or project. But then we have to talk about if we value something beyond markets, beyond how many likes something gets.

If you’re of a certain age, it might be plausible to think outside of that construct. If you’re a millennial, and it’s all you’ve ever known, it might be more complex.

I think, in terms of the masses, it may not be plausible. In terms of what I do, I’m making works for the weird people…those who don’t fit in anywhere. Coming out into a gay world wasn’t the answer for them. What I do speaks to the marginalized of the marginalized. Do I get a hundred likes for everything I put up?…probably not. But it’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. In our current social media society, it’s all about the sprint. My sister Laverne always jokes about putting random things up on Instagram, just to see how many likes she can get in two minutes. I don’t have that same situation. I’m not saying that she values herself on that. It’s just a joke. For me, it’s about the long haul.

But even for you, as much as you try to stay underground, perhaps counterculture, appealing to the disenfranchised, you’re adjacent to your twin Laverne Cox. Because of that connection, you too benefit. You get a little more attention.

Laverne’s a very mainstream person. When she first started going in that direction, I was frightened for her and the scrutiny she would receive. A lot of the work she has done for herself, and as an actor, is about being a better human being. I love her, and I wouldn’t wish that scrutiny on her or anybody. Everything about me is going to turn off her mainstream fanbase…and that’s by design! Sure, people might look over at what I’m doing because I’m her brother, but what I do is not designed to cross over to the mainstream. That’s not my goal. I’m not looking for that sort of fame or recognition.

When Time magazine did the Transgender Tipping Point story with Laverne on the cover, it was an apparent revolutionary moment for the transgendered community. But that also gets a bit tricky…painting all transgendered people with a broad stroke. It once again places individuals in a category that tries to narrowly define who they are, diminishing their individuality, their personal journey.

I completely agree with you on that.

There has been this current trend to feature trans people who, to the outside world, are cut from a similar cloth…perhaps a more accessible look, liberal gender expression or demeanor. Most recently, Jazz Jennings came out as transgendered at 7 y/o…making her the youngest, publicly recognized trans person ever. Do you think that sometimes one can be influenced by what they see in the media as ‘pretty’…that can perhaps skew their decisions? I remember when I first came to New York I was very androgynous. I met this trans woman at a costume store in the West Village, and she she said, “One day you’re going to be a beautiful girl”. To this day, that statement has stuck with me. And in some ways, for a long time, I tried to be that girl. I tried to present as my perceived gender. I was a drag queen for a while, and when I lived in Berlin, I secretly lived as a transsexual for five years…only a few people knew. Most people just thought I did drag, but I ended up working in a transsexual brothel for about four of the five years. I was that close to full transition, and then I kinda decided to leave Berlin and the idea of transitioning as well. I guess my point is that perhaps not enough media attention is given to the incubation period. It all seems to happen so quickly nowadays…and that just seems dangerous.

So you think there’s a sort of whitewashing about the journey of trans people?

Exactly!

I think Laverne has been quite candid about her journey. I think the problem is more with a person like Caitlyn Jenner who didn’t emerge from a scene. I think it’s a generational divide. Everyone can now transition…there’s no grey area.

But are they transgender because they feel organically misgendered, or because it’s the current trend? And if you are transgender, it seems counterintuitive that you should have to change everything about your exterior to be who you really are. Can’t one be transgender and not look like a super model? Can’t one be transgender and remain exactly the same on the outside? Shouldn’t we be abrogating the binary when it comes to expressions of gender aesthetics?

I’m on record as saying that a lot of people who are transitioning are buying into strict normatives about gender, a very binary model. They are going for a passing masculinity or femininity, or high-butch masculinity or high-fem femininity. I’ve never been interested in any of that. I am Negrogoth- a term I created that allows me to exist in a nebulous space.

Shouldn’t that be the ultimate message?

I agree! When you see people transitioning on Instagram in like two days and you comment on it in an impugning way, the assumption is that you’re being transphobic. My position is that this gender revolution that is currently happening should open up space for all kinds of possibilities. Hormonal or surgical procedures are not necessarily the thing for every person. People like Laverne Cox, or Janet Mock, or Caitlyn Jenner conform so well to what’s on magazine covers that there’s not a revolution happening. I’m interested in things that look differently than like Beyoncé, or a style icon, or a beauty icon. My sister worships Beyoncé …that’s no secret. But being enamored of people like Beyoncé or a Kerry Washington in the confines of white supremacy is not a radical thing because they’re light skinned and fit the ideal beauty construct.

How do we go forward?

Hopefully, we’re moving towards a radical openness, where people feel free to do whatever, and not be ostracized. Even drag has been commodified! When something becomes a thing, it automatically has limits.

It’s interesting that you bring up drag. I think a show like RuPaul’s Drag Race has taken drag to a radical level, in the sense that Ru shows all the girls in their boy drag as well. Previously, most drag queens would never present themselves in a swaggering stance, outside of their feminized personae…especially not in the daylight [laughs]!

Yes! Most recently it’s been ‘look at how hot that guy is out of drag’…that’s radical! On one level, you’re right! On another level, it’s reinforcing this binary girl/boy. What if there’s this nebulous place as well? RuPaul understands this deeply. She has that famous quote: “We’re all born naked and the rest is drag”. I think she’s a genius!

She is! In one of the recent podcast episodes of RuPaul: What’s The Tee, she talks about how everything she’s ever done, she made for herself. It wasn’t presented to her on some silver platter. She created the work for herself! This really clicked in my head. We have to create our own projects, spaces, opportunities, etc. Being passive, resistant, and feeling victimized only reinforces failure.

That’s right! RuPaul is a black man that does drag. Any black man who makes it to 55 y/o in America, and is thriving, is amazing! I admire that. God bless the child who’s got his own (Billie Holiday)! And how one gets his own is by making it. There needs to be a headline…Black Queer Capitalism…us at the helm, making things for ourselves. The marketability of blackness in mainstream culture has to have an authenticity. One of the things that RuPaul does brilliantly is give you flavor in the black vernacular, but then she’s also able to flip to anchor woman style. RuPaul’s talent is about reading culture.

I think people are hungry now for something other…something different than what the masses are consuming. Bounce music artist Big Freedia (recently featured on Beyoncé’s new single Formation) has done that well. She carved out a niche. You’re doing the same. You cannot be a prisoner of hope without engaging in a form of struggle (Cornel West). 

I think once you get caught up in the mainstream, there’s a death. It zaps your creativity. I’ve been out here all by myself. It’s allowed me a lot of freedom. I value my freedom! My power has been in developing my work, being committed to my vision. There’s always gonna be a basement somewhere where I can do something….and hopefully the world eventually comes around. I’m on a committed journey to love myself and my blackness. I’m good!

You can check out M. Lamar yourself on March 19 in NYC at Ecstatic Music Festival: M.Lamar, Charlie Looker & Mivos Quartet, March 26 Toronto, Ontario at Ratio Space, San Francisco April 14 at M. Lamar with Hunter Hunt-Hendrix in Destruction, Los Angeles April 15&16 at M. Lamar: Funeral Doom Spiritual, and Copenhagen, Denmark April 22 at International Performance Art Festival,

The post Interview: Laverne Cox’s Queer Brother M. Lamar Says, “I’m Not Gay, But It’s OK If You Are”! appeared first on The WOW Report.

Oh, you’re just going to love Geisha Moth Designs and Giraffe Soul, two fabulous exhibitors at this year’s DragCon! I can’t wait to see what special goodies they have at their booths this year!!

#1. Geisha Moth Designs

Geisha Moth is a Clothing and Costuming Designer from California.

Everything is Limited Edition or One-of-a-Kind. It keeps things special and unique like YOU! Made with Serious Love, Crazy Creativity & Superb Quality to last a long time! Nothing will ever be massively produced. All is & always will be made at Home in the U.S.A. – Old Fashion ideals intertwined with Fresh Forward thinking!

” I strive to be ahead of what is trendy.. and design & dance to my own beat of the drum. Daring to be Different is what i am drawn to naturally. Reaching beyond what is already ‘hot’ to discover and develop a style that is like no other.

I have a cornucopia of ideas and work them into reality. And never tire of it. It is my life’s passion to design, so my energy for work just empowers me everyday. This is a forever pioneering journey…. that I love endlessly.”

Love, love, love this heart-shaped bag!

#2. Giraffe Soul

Giraffe Soul breathes new life into beloved comic books, graphic novels, and other print related materials. Utilizing heels, purses, clutches and wallets; Giraffe Soul creates one-of-a-kind wearable art pieces for adventurous clients. Whether you like an item from our inventory or choose to work with us on something special; the end goal is for you to come away with a piece that is as unique and creative as you are.

And I neeeeeed some of these comic book platforms

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