The Greene Space crew labored for a far shorter time, but as the project’s Artistic Director, Ruben Santiago-Hudson,NOTES above, they did so with integrity, humanity, and concentrated effort. The late Wilson, his friend and long time Wilson intepreter avows, “would not have stood for anything less.”
The action takes place in the Pittsburgh home of Aunt Ester, a 285-year-old former slave and renowned cleanser of souls. A young man from Alabama visits her for help in absolving the guilt and shame he carries from a crime he’s committed, and she takes him on a journey of self-discovery.
Set in a Pittsburgh boardinghouse, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone tells the story of owners Seth and Bertha Holly and the makeshift family of migrants who pass through during the Great Migration of the 1910s. (Keep your ears peeled for Law & Order’s S. Epatha Merkerson, aka Pee Wee Herman’sfriend, Reba the Mail Lady, in the role of Bertha.)
Legendary blues singer Ma Rainey and her band players convene in a Chicago studio to record a new album. As their conversation unfolds, their bantering, storytelling and arguing raise questions of race, art and the historic exploitation of black recording artists by white producers.
“The best music causes molecular changes in the atmosphere around the players and their audience. Once you hear the music you are never the same. We go out somewhere and we don’t come back the same.” — Charles Lloyd
1.
haiku #117
fish out of water
art shot from the bow of gods
we rise above self
2.
Crowds during the New Orleans Jazz Fest Saturday, May 2, 2015. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Saturday, 2 May 2015—my daughter Asante, the eldest of five siblings, was hanging with me. We were rushing across the crowded infield of the Fair Grounds racetrack to catch an interview with Charles Lloyd being conducted by writer Ashley Khan at what’s called the Alison Minor stage located on the second floor of the Grandstands. This was the second Saturday and Jazzfest was packed like proverbial sardines. Attendance was humongous, particularly because the first weekend had been rainy and now the seventy-something-degree, blue sky weather was near perfect for an outdoor festival.
With my credentials hanging from a lanyard around my neck, we had no trouble negotiating pass security. Back in the mid-eighties I had served as executive director and still receive amenities even though I had not maintained an active presence. The festival was much larger, more corporate, the line-up far more commercially oriented, the crowds much more monochromatic. Major success in America inevitably means less rather than greater local, neighborhood-level control and audiences. From attending Jazzfest you would never know New Orleans is a majority black city.
Asante told me tickets were $70. ($58 in advance, $70 at the gate)
3.
It had been years, indeed over a decade since I had last seen master Lloyd, but when he came off stage from the interview session and I identified myself, the spark of recognition rose quickly to his cat-shaped eyes. He embraced me warmly in a welcoming hug. I told him I had one question I wanted to ask in a brief interview. People were crowding around, some seeking an audience, one or two staff people with forms to fill out, Lloyd’s wife, photographer/filmmaker Dorothy Darr, patiently hovered off to the side in a non-intrusive way watching over him. His performance in the jazz tent would take place in a little over an hour. I could record him backstage after his set. Then Charles motioned to Dorothy for her to photograph us.
4.
The jazz tent was full. The sound was adequate, albeit a bit too much boom and echo on the bottom but this was outdoors in an extremely large tent, four, five hundred people, probably many more. I’m not good at crowd estimates. I was sitting stage right on metal bleachers behind the folding chairs set up for crew and Jazzfest special guests. Decades ago there was room enough to stretch out and lie on the ground while listening to a kora player’s melodic meditations. The festival was now all hustle and bustle, not one quiet square inch of space for kicking back and relaxing. Nevertheless Lloyd’s hour-long set was enjoyable—Gerald Clayton was killing on piano.
What used to be one large trailer at the top end for the then “big names” was now a veritable compound of trailers hooked up like a mid-level hotel suite. The third room had a comfortable sofa and a table loaded with eats. I had not planned to do this interview but I did have my iphone with a recording app. You can hear part of our conversation below:
5.
That night master Lloyd posted on the internet.
Some days we smile, some days we frown. This was a smiling day.
On April 14, 2015, saxophonist, composer & NEA Jazz Master Charles Lloyd releases his first Blue Note album in 30 years with “Wild Man Dance,” a magnificent live recording of a remarkable long-form suite commissioned by the Jazztopad Festival in Wroclaw, Poland.
Charles Lloyd Quartet (June 18, 1968): Charles Lloyd (Flute, Tenor sax); Keith Jarrett (piano, sax Soprano); Ron McClure (Bass); Jack DeJohnette (drums)
Screenplay reading with professional actors at the Portland Film Festival. The reading was also live streamed.
The Portland Film Festival has already established itself as Portland’s leading film non-profit, with hundreds of screenings, events, education programs and community partnerships providing a unique opportunity for our diverse audience to connect with filmmakers working in all different genres and forms. In addition, our festivals hosts dozens of film and television professionals, offering filmmakers a chance to forge new relationships across the industry.
Featuring a rich program of films in the Fiction, Non-Fiction, World Cinema, Transmedia, Short and Student Filmmaking categories, as well as a program dedicated to the work of filmmakers from Oregon, The Portland Festival offers emerging and established artists to present their films in a world-class screening environment, with curated competitions, Audience Awards, and opportunities to reach attending members of the national press.
Past attendees and alumni include Eli Roth, Justin Long, Haley Joel Osment, Abby Elliott, Chris Williams, Chuck Palahniuk, Jason Mamoa, Doug Benson, Wendy Froud, Brian Froud, Randall Jahnson, Toby Froud, Penny Lane, Chelsea Cain, Daniel Wilson, Chelsey Reist, Isaac Feder, James Franco, Lorenza Izzo, Matt Walsh, Susan Sarandon, Michael Tully, Ryan Murdock, Kelly Reichardt, Kris Kaczor, Bryan Storkel, Leah Warshawski, Daryl Hannah, Vivian Norris, Karney Hatch, Jon Matthews, Dana Nachman, Mitchell Jackson, John Jeffcoat, Shawn Telford, Leah Meyerhoff, Mark Raso, David Zellner, Bradley King and more.
Hosted in venues across Portland, its public transportation and accessibility are matched by very few cities. Portland offers a relaxed community and quirky environment with sophisticated audiences deeply engaged in the art of film. Submit your script today and join us for The Annual Portland Film Festival, coming in September, 2015!
Motherhood and creative practice: Maternal structures in creative work
June 1-2, 2015
Centre for Media and Culture Research, School of Arts and Creative Industries, London South Bank University
The call for papers submission deadline has been extended to 4 March 2015.
Confirmed Key Note Speakers:
Professor Bracha L. Ettinger, Marcel Duchamp Chair & Professor of Psychoanalysis and Art at the European Graduate School
Professor Mary Kelly Distinguished Professor and Head of the Interdisciplinary Studio Area in the Department of Art at UCLA
Professor Faith Wilding Professor Emerita of Performance at SAIC; and a Visiting Scholar at the Pembroke Center for Feminist Research at Brown University, Providence, RI
Conference Discussant:
Professor Griselda Pollock , Director of Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory, History, University of Leeds, UK
Motherhood and creative practices: Maternal structures in creative work is an international and interdisciplinary conference that addresses ongoing debates about hospitality, solidarity and encounter as concepts in creative practice, and how they relate to contemporary issues of mothering. Mothering involves commitment to creative balance and combining everyday chores. We are interested how practitioners combine art and mothering, activism and mothering, academia and mothering, science and mothering, mothering and allomothering. The conference will look at practices where the creative exploration, writing and theory about the mOther cannot be separated from one another. Ettinger reveals the intricate connections between critical theory on maternal and creative practice. According to Vigneault, the porous spaces of work that engages with the maternal as concept presents passageways which allow the viewer and reader to move through and between the various levels of text and image, theory and art, in a constant shift between modes of production (2009:69). There is a gradual, yet sustained increase in creative practices which, starting from the challenges posed by the above concepts, explore the maternal in various encounter-event formations. The conference will also look into female experiences and sexual lifestyles that explore the encounters of infertility, medical intervention, adoption and fostering, queer mothering and childlessness by choice or not. We invite scholars and artists to also explore the creative embodiment of intergenerational trauma and the complex territory of mother-daughter relationships, and bring into dialogue social, scientific and artistic perspectives.
The conference will also encompass the exhibition “Alternative Maternals” curated by Laura Gonzalez, a curated performance section led by Faith Wilding’s performative reading of her memoirs, and a post-graduate discussion room. The post-graduate room will be enriched with performative texts, films, visual and audio works (we strongly encourage postgraduate students to send proposals and abstracts).
This conference aims to reflect on theoretical, methodological and artistic work that may throw light on motherhood and creative practice. We welcome submissions from scholars, students, artists, mothers and others who research in this area. Cross-cultural, interdisciplinary and comparative work is encouraged. We are open to a variety of submissions including academic papers from all disciplines and creative submissions including visual art, literature, and performance art/performative lectures. We invite papers in English of 15 minutes length, with possible topics including but are not restricted to the above description. We welcome abstracts and proposals for practice-based, creative presentations (300 – 400 words + up to 3 images for practical presentations+ 100 word bio) on a broad range of approaches to the above and related topics.
Abstract and Proposals are to be submitted no later than Wed 4 March 2015, to Dr Elena Marchevska using the following email: marcheve@lsbu.ac.uk. Proposers will be informed by 6 March 2015 whether their proposal has been accepted.
Conference Registration A full registration fee includes morning and afternoon break refreshments, two lunches, free entry to exhibition and performances and conference reception event.
Full Conference Early Bird (by 1 May) £120.00
Full Conference £180.00
Full Conference Postgraduate/Unwaged £65.00
Day Rate Monday 1st June only £80.00
Registration for conference will open online on 20 February 2015.
This conference is supported by the Center for Media and Culture Research and the School of Arts and Creative Industries at London South Bank University.
Note: The conference organisers are please to confirm that the London South Bank University crèche will be able to offer childcare facilities on campus throughout the conference. In order to ensure that they can cater to the needs of participants and their children, the crèche require all parents/guardians who are interested in using this service to send email request to marcheve@lsbu.ac.uk before 5 March 2015.
* Please note that there will be a small charge for this service.
Africa Writes invites PhD students and early career researchers to present and discuss new research on African literatures.
Africa Writes is an annual festival organised by the Royal African Society, which aims to promote contemporary African writing and writers as well as to explore Africa’s long literary past and its future.
Academic discourse on African literatures is characterised by a continuous process of debate, reassessment of theories and redefinition of terms. The very concept of ‘African literature’ is a problematic one because it conveys a certain homogeneity, ignoring the wide diversity of written and oral literature stemming from the continent and the diaspora. By bringing together a range of exciting new scholarship, this session hosted at the British Library aims to open up the ideas of and approaches to ‘African literature’ represented at the festival.
Chaired by Carli Coetzee (Editor, Journal of African Cultural Studies), the panel will feature 7-8 short presentations (no longer than 10 minutes) that reflect new research across diverse areas of these fields of study. We are particularly keen to showcase work that explores African literature with a long historical view and in African languages, as well as present-day African narratives and contributions that reflect on the changing landscape of the publishing industry.
Tomorrow sees the start of the 22nd edition of the New York African Film Festival. The festival–founded by Sierra Leone born Mahen Bonetti–is always something to look forward to with its lineup of lots of African films that Americans would not likely not otherwise have access to. This year’s Festival is particularly special since it marks the 25th anniversary of the festival’s parent organization, the African Film Festival, Inc (AFF). This makes AFF one of the longest running African film institutions in the United States today. The festival will happen at three venues: at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (May 6-12th), Maysles Cinema Institute in Harlem (May 14-17th) and finally ending at BAM from the 22nd to the 25th.
The theme of this year’s festival is the “International Decade of People of African Descent” (which is also a theme of the UN) and particular focus is given to women of African descent. The festival organizers supplied us with trailers and synopses of some of the most interesting films being showcased below. You can also check out the AFF website to buy tickets, see the complete festival lineup, and get more information.
‘Bus Nut’ directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ghana/USA, 2014, 7min.
Akosua Adoma Owusu’s latest work, Bus Nut, screens as part of the Festival’s Shorts Program. It rearticulates the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, a political and social protest against U.S. racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama, and its relationship to an educational video on school-bus safety. Actress MaameYaa Boafo restages a vintage video while reciting press-conference audio of Rosa Parks on a re-created set in New York City. This screening is particular special as Owusu and Boafo first met and subsequently shot the film during last year’s New York African Film Festival.
* Screening Tuesday, May 12th, 6:00pm (Introduction by MaameYaa Boafo) – Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center
While investigating a smugglers’ turf war in Cape Town, township cop Sizwe stumbles upon police corruption. His boss and mentor, Venske, gives Sizwe the case but assigns a rookie, Legama, to keep an eye on him. After Sizwe discovers that a homicide is linked to Triad (Chinese mafia) through abalone smuggling, a tip from a former comrade leads to a major bust. Despite the seized contraband being stolen within hours, Sizwe is still promoted to detective. It’s a bitter triumph though—he’s being played, and he knows it. In a world where self-interest and corruption have overtaken loyalty and honor, Sizwe is left with no one to trust and integrity demands that he take the law into his own hands.
* Screening Wednesday, May 6th, 7pm (Q&A with Carey McKenzie and Tendeka Matatu) – Walter Reade Theater, Film Society of Lincoln Center; Monday, May 11th, 2pm – Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center
‘Love the One You Love’ (U.S. Premiere) directed by Jenna Bass, South Africa, 2014, 105min.
Across the city of Cape Town, a sex-line operator, a dog handler, and an IT technician begin to suspect that their romantic relationships are the subject of a bizarre conspiracy, involving their friends, family, and possibly even greater forces. Love the One You Love’s parallel stories question the ideals we hold too sacred: love, happiness, and the New South Africa. For more on this great film, read Charl Blignaut’s review.
* Friday, May 8th, 9:00pm – Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Mossane directed by Safi Faye, Senegal, 1996, 105min.
Every year the New York African Film Festival screens one classic film, selected based on that particular year’s theme. This year, in light of the festival’s focus on the International Decade of the People of African Descent and African women, in particular, they will be showing Mossane from the pioneering female director, Safi Faye. Mossane (Magou Seck), a beautiful 14-year-old girl from a rural Senegalese village, is the object of affection to many, including Fara, a poor university student—and even her own brother, Ngor. Although she has long been promised as a bride to the wealthy Diogaye, Mossane falls in love with Fara and on her wedding day, she defies her parents’ wishes and refuses to go through with it.
* Tuesday, May 12th, 9:00pm (Introduction by Mamadou Niang) – Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center.
‘The Narrow Frame’ of Midnight (N.Y. Premiere) directed by Tala Hadid, Morocco/France/UK, 2014, 93min.
Following the interlacing destinies of three witnesses to a world eviscerated by fundamentalism and violence, Moroccan-Iraqi director Tala Hadid’s brooding fiction-feature debut is an urgent, evocative mingling of reverie and nightmare. Zacaria (Khalid Abdalla), a Moroccan-Iraqi writer, sets off on a journey to find his missing brother, hoping to rescue him from the sinister clutches of jihadism and also to redeem himself for having turned a blind eye to his brother’s torture in the jails of the Moroccan secret police. Aïcha (Fadwa Boujouane), a young orphan sold to a petty criminal, escapes from captivity and sets out into the forest. Judith (Marie-Josée Croze), the lover Zacaria left behind, yearns to have a child. The respective quests of these characters intersect, giving them opportunities to rescue one another before continuing on to their unpredictable fates.
* Screening Monday, May 11th, 6:30pm (Q&A with Tala Hadid and Danny Glover), Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center.
‘National Diploma,’ directed Dieudo Hamadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo/France, 2014, 92min.
With a concise narrative, precise camera work and sequential oozing moments of candid (and sometimes inadvertent) humor and heartrending emotions, Congolese director Dieudo Hamadi’s second feature-length film offers a poised and engaging view of his hometown’s high-school students confronting their graduate exams. A remarkable piece of cinema vérité, which goes mightily up close to its subjects, National Diploma is proof of Hamadi as one of Democratic Republic of Congo’s (if not Africa’s) most observant documentary-makers; rarely impeding on the circumstances but readily there to capture defining moments in the proceedings. His latest film is a flowing mix of erudite socio-political reflections and outright fun. Set in the director’s home city of Kisangani, National Diploma takes its name after the fin-du-lycée examinations which would make or break a high-school student’s future; and just as some of their counterparts in other countries, the Congolese students at the center of the film takes to everything and anything to try and pass the examen d’état, ranging from intervention of the divine (bathing in shamanic holy water, having pens blessed by a Christian priest) or the dough (getting “tips” about the question papers from self-proclaimed insiders).
This year’s Centerpiece Film comes from Israel and focuses on members of the country’s Ethiopian diaspora. Meseganio Tadela, 74, immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia 28 years ago with his family. He has chosen to zealously retain his culture, talks very little, and hardly speaks Hebrew. After losing his wife, Meseganio sets out on a journey that leads him through his children’s homes. He comes to realize that he belongs to a rapidly disappearing class that believes in retaining Ethiopian culture. As this harsh reality begins to hit him, he struggles to survive according to his own rules.
* Friday, May 8th, 6:45pm (Q&A with Bazi Gete); Sunday, May 10th, 4:15pm (Q&A with Bazi Gete) – Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center
‘Run’ (N.Y. Premiere) directed by Philippe Lacôte, France/Ivory Coast, 2014, 100min.
Run finds shelter with fellow dissident Assa (Isaach de Bankolé) after assassinating the Prime Minister of the Ivory Coast. While in hiding, Run’s story is revealed in three separate flashbacks—his childhood with Tourou, when his dream was to become a rainmaker; his adventures with Gladys, the competitive eater; and his past as a young member of a militia, amid conflict in the Ivory Coast—which together speak volumes about contemporary life in the troubled country. Philippe Lacôte’s feature-film debut is a mesmerizing coming-of-age tale, alternately dreamlike and ultra-realistic.
* Monday, May 11th, 9:00pm–-Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center. Following the screening, actor Isaach de Bankolé will be in attendance for an audience Q&A.
“Sobukwe: A Great Soul” (U.S. Premiere) directed by Mickey Madoda Dube, South Africa, 2011, 100min.
This film celebrates the life of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, restoring him to his rightful place as a leading figure in South African history. Despite his pivotal role in the struggle for liberation (and as the founder of the Pan Africanist Congress), there isn’t a single piece of archive of the man who was once one of the most watched, recorded, and popular political prisoners in the world. Even the current South African government has failed to recognize his place in history and the relevance of his message today. Mickey Madoda Dube’s film seeks to fill that gap, standing as a monument to a great man, a global visionary, teacher, political leader, philosopher, and humanist who was well ahead of his time, declaring his commitment to a “non-racial” society in a racist world by asserting that “there is only one race, the human race.”
* Wednesday, May 6th, 9:00pm (Introduction and Q&A by Micky Madoda Dube) – Walter Reade Theater, Film Society of Lincoln Center; Friday, May 8th, 4:00pm – Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center
‘Stories of Our Lives directed by Jim Chuchu and the NEST Collective, Kenya, 2014, 62min.
Created by the members of a Nairobi-based arts collective — who have removed their names from the film for fear of reprisal — this anthology film that dramatizes true-life stories from Kenya’s oppressed LGBTQ community is both a labour of love and a bold act of militancy. Stories of Our Lives began as an archive of testimonials from Kenyan persons who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex assembled by a small Nairobi-based multidisciplinary arts collective. So compelling were these stories that the ten-member association of artists, social workers and entrepreneurs was inspired to adapt some of them into short films. Working on a shoestring budget with one small video camera, two LED lights, a portable digital recorder, a shotgun mic, and relentless courage and enthusiasm, the cast and crew shot, edited, and mixed five shorts over eight months to create this remarkable anthology film. The resultant black-and-white vignettes — Duet, Run, Ask Me Nicely (Itisha Poa), Each Night I Dream, and Stop Running Away — unfold with a graceful simplicity and beguiling charm that belie the fraught circumstances of their making.
I’m sure many of you have heard of or read Douglas Turner Ward’s 1965 one act play “Day of Absence.”
As a refresher (and an introduction to those who don’t know the work) “Day of Absence” is set in a southern town where one day the white residents, to their shock and utter horror, wake to find that most of the town’s black people have vanished. The only remaining black people are in comas, and some of the folks they thought were white…well, turns out they’ve vanished too. Panic ensues as the whites realize that there’s no one to shine shoes, raise their kids, and clean their houses (among other things). The town mayor makes a national plea for the return of the black people, and if he can’t have them back, well, maybe some other blacks will do just fine. By the end of the play (which was written for and performed by black actors in “white face”) all of the black residents return in the same inexplicable way in which they disappeared, and the audience is left with a sense that life goes on—perhaps the same way it always had.
After the first few productions of the play, it received mix reviews, even within the black community, for its technical and contextual shortcomings. Nevertheless, the idea was bold, inciting, and intriguing, piling the audience’s plate high with food for thought.
Ward’s vision was clear, no matter how it was executed, and it was a timely classic. The question remains though, was the play a timeless classic?
I’m not sure “Day of Absence” would have the same impact today, on the stage, or adapted to film or television.
As recently as 2004, director Sergio Arau gave us “A Day without a Mexican.” It has almost an identical premise (without attributing any credit to Ward), except this film is about modern day Mexican residents of California, instead of black people in the south.
The social and political shift here is palpable.
Nevertheless, while black people’s role in society has shifted considerably since the 1960s—and to be fair the breadth of our influence, even then, went farther than Ward suggested—it’s the kind of shift I’d like to focus on here.
As an exercise, let’s imagine another form of absence, a more extreme form—let’s just completely erase people from our history. Now, this could easily turn into a complicated exercise if I included all areas of society, so let’s concentrate on film and TV (this is Shadow and Act after all). The impact can be purely artistic, it could be technological, or it could be in the area of organization (including entrepreneurial) and activism. Submit a comment with the name of a black person in TV and film. Erase them completely from history and describe the impact it would have on the industry as a whole (not just for black people).
Let’s try to not repeat names, so if someone already submitted your first choice, try and submit another.
Does Ward’s vision (of the black community as an anchor in American society) still have the same relevance today as it did 45 years ago? Part of that answer might just be found here, so weigh in.
But before you do that, watch “Key & Peele” humorously, as only they can, imagine the reverse of Turner Ward’s “Day of Absence,” in a new, timely short titled “Negrotown.”
In honor of Valentine’s Day, all week ELIXHER will be celebrating our love — our love of self and our love of other women of color who are trans, queer, and cis.
We joined forces with dynamic trans community leaders of color and grassroots groups to profile how beautiful and powerful love looks for 10 trans women of color. This piece would not exist without Ashley Love of Black Trans * Women’s Lives Matter, Bali White, Cherno Biko of We Happy Trans, L’lerrét Jazelle Ailith, Monica Roberts of TransGriot, and Olympia Perez and Sasha Alexander of Black Trans Media.
“Sasha Alexander Perez is the love of my life. I never imagined I would feel this alignment with another human. We have a beautiful #blacktranseverything life. Together we organize Black Trans Media, hosting community events and creating art/media for justice. Many of my Black trans sisters are being killed. I celebrate my abundance of love for all of them who had or never knew #blacktransloveiswealth.”
2. Vanessa Victoria and Michael
“Love isn’t about finding the perfect person. It’s about seeing an imperfect person perfect and believing in something or someone without any reason. Fighting for one person and being unable to explain why you can’t give up! In each other, we have found love, friendship, and a family.”
3. Janet Mock and
Aaron Tredwell
“What I love about our love is that I have a partner who is as committed to and invested in my dreams as he is to his own and ours. We’re a team, a family, and best of all, friends. Also, I always have someone to eat ribs and fried chicken with and never feel guilty.”
“Drew and I lead busy, complex lives. He’s a line cook at Jean-Georges’ ABC Kitchen and I work in communications at the Arcus Foundation. He works 60 plus hours a week in a stressful and sweltering kitchen. Yet he somehow manages to put me first. That’s why I call him my gravity: he keeps me grounded in the present. But now, I’m excited to think about our future. Family and friends can expect to see us wed sometime in 2017. 여보 사랑해!”
5. Tanya Ballenger and
Omar Clarke
“I love Omar for his loyalty, respect, intelligence, partnership, and his love for God. I can’t imagine my life without him. He will forever be my Boobie and I will forever be his Sweet T.”
6. Ms. Kim and Cris
“I love our relationship because it is full of unconditional love and patience.”
7. Ruby Corado-Walker and
David Walker
“Love is love no matter where it is found. Dreams do come true! My whole life, I have been told that I was not supposed to love or be loved. I was not supposed to love myself because I was different (trans, indigenous, dark-haired, immigrant, HIV-positive, fat, short, you name it). I was made to believe that no one could love me back because I was different. [Our wedding] proved everyone wrong. Never stop dreaming; never stop believing because dreams do come true.”
8. Zoë and Megan
“To be honest, to tell the story of me and Megan is a dishonest tale. Not dishonest in the respect that our story or our love is fabricated, but dishonest in that our story is still being written. Every day, our story grows, our love grows, and the impact is infinite. As we grow independently every day, we grow together as a family, as two people who love each other unconditionally, without judgement, and always with open hearts.”
9. Octavia Y. Lewis, MPA and
Shawn E. Lopez
“We’re a married couple with a 18-month-old son named Ethan. Our relationship wasn’t a match made in heaven because we are still marching through hell. The hell is the fact that our marriage isn’t considered equal in all 50 states. We aren’t alloted equal protection throughout the great state of New York, but in spite of it all we have managed to live our authentic truth unapologetically. Who knows what the future holds but as long as we have each other the journey will be well worth it.”
10. Precious Davis and
Myles Brady
“Our love is a divinely ordained thing that manifests itself in care for each other, our community, and anything within our sphere of influence. Our love is based in self-care for one another. Our love is an old school love in which courting is an essential element. He pursued me for a year before I said, ‘Yes.’ I’m so glad I did.”
to the miracle of TV) gathered at The Greene Space in New York City to record playwright August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle.
