ATLANTA WON’T feel like a ghost town Memorial Day Weekend just because so many of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters hit the road for Pensacola festivities. With so much to do around town, there’s no excuse not to have fun in their absence, and a packed schedule of events means no one’s in-town Memorial Day will go lacking.
MondoHomo, the alternative gay arts festival that premiered last summer, spices up this year’s Memorial Day Weekend like no other event. It brings together Atlanta’s radical queer element for the best in music, art, and political awareness for the second year.
Last year, the festival premiered in conjunction with the US Social Forum. Festival founders and producers Kiki Carr and Nikki Chotas decided to push the schedule up a month for 2008, but not without their original emphasis on political unity.
“Our original vision of MondoHomo was that it would definitely emphasize the political and the community-building and the radical,” Carr says. “This year, we’re doing workshops specifically at MondoHomo at the Sunday day camp in the park.”
The workshops include topics ranging from “the prison industrial complex, to local politics, to anti-racism for white folks,” Carr says.
The roster creates a sense of community that can’t be achieved through simply standing in the crowd at a performance, she says.
“It’s one thing to go and see a show with people, but you don’t really get to interact with them,” Carr says. “The park day is going to be a time that we get to meet each other and interact, and learn about the political interests of radical queers.”
Harvey Katz of Athens Boys Choir cuts loose at this year’s MondoHomo. (Photo courtesy Harvey Katz)
Harvey Katz of Athens Boys Choir took part in MondoHomo’s inaugural festival and is scheduled to perform again this year. He says the festival’s political aspects are integral, especially given the geographic location.
“We need queer festivals in the South,” he says. “And it’s great to have all these very socially progressive folks around me. I find that I don’t get that as often as I want. I feel like people are speaking to me from a space I can understand.”
AS IMPORTANT AS mondoHomo’s politics are to its identity, the festival is equally about the celebration of alternative queer music, art, and culture, which led Carr and Chotas to found it in the first place.
“We kept not being able to make it [to Homo-a-Gogo in Olympia, Wash.,] and finally we were like let’s do it here, let’s bring the performers to us instead of us going to them,” Carr says.
Musically speaking, Carr says she most looks forward to the MondoHomo Hip Hop nights on Friday and Saturday at Lenny’s Bar in Decatur. Slated acts include Katz’s Athens Boys Choir, Bigg Nugg, Nicky Click and DaLyrical, among others.
“Atlanta is such a ground zero for Hip Hop, and Homo Hop is something that’s gathering steam for sure but still doesn’t get a lot of attention,” Carr says. “A lot of these performers are coming from other locations and they’re excited about performing in Atlanta in the Dirty South. That’s the thing that has the potential to be the most groundbreaking or revolutionary.”
Also sure to be revolutionary is Monday’s Speakeasy Brunch, featuring drag performers and burlesque acts like Vagina Jenkins, who looks forward to her opportunity to titillate Atlanta’s radical queer elite.
“In the immortal words of Tracy Morgan, ‘I’m gonna get somebody pregnant,’” she says. “What queer in their right mind would miss such a gathering? Hot bands, sexy MCs, little old moi, and hot, sweaty gays and gayettes rubbing elbows in the Georgia humidity? They don’t call it Queerlanta for nothing.”
MONDOHOMO’S NOT THE only event heating up “Queerlanta’s” scene this Memorial Day weekend. More traditional festivals like the Decatur Arts Festival and the Atlanta Jazz Festival help cultured queers get their fix, while musical performances ranging from Erykah Badu to the Wayne Fishell Experiment also hit area stages.
The sports-minded won’t lack for distraction with the Atlanta Braves playing a series against the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Atlanta Dream playing its first WNBA game against the Detroit Shock. Several gay sporting tournaments also take place over the holiday weekend. (See story, page 16)
The weekend’s packed party schedule ensures that dedicated gay dance music lovers will almost never have to leave a dance floor.
The Heretic brings in the likes of DJ Eddie Baez on Saturday, and DJ Paulo for a Memorial Day morning party on Monday. The Bodyshop heats up with DJs Martin Fry and Brian Beck, and C2 Production’s party with DJ Alexander at Opera’s new Venetian Room on Sunday is sure to fill a packed house.
Not to be left out, the ladies at Sistahs for Sistahs kick it at their Glamour & Glitz events all weekend long at the Glenn hotel.
ALL WEEKEND
SpiritFest 2008
May 23-25 at the Omni Hotel, 190 Marietta St. NW
214-333-9779
MondoHomo
May 23-26 at various locations
www.mondohomo.com
Sistahs for Sistahs’ Glamour & Glitz
May 23-26 at the Glenn Hotel
110 Marietta St. NW
www.sistahsforsistahs.com
Lambda Car Club hosts
LCI’s Modern Motoring
May 23-26 at multiple venues
www.lcc-dogwood.org
Atlanta Braves vs. Arizona Diamondbacks
May 23-26 at Turner Field
755 Hank Aaron Drive SW
www.ticketmaster.com
Decatur Arts Festival
May 24-25 at various locations
www.decaturartsalliance.org
Atlanta Jazz Festival
May 24-26 at various locations
www.atlantafestivals.com
FRIDAY MAY 23
AGLCC Fourth Friday Networking
5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at VIA Buckhead 262 Pharr Road, atlantagaychamber.org
Atlanta Dream opening game
vs. the Detroit Shock
7:30 p.m. at Philips Arena
1 Philips Drive, www.ticketmaster.com
Atlanta Dream and DJ MD
8 p.m. at My Sister’s Room
1271 Glenwood Ave.
www.myspace.com/mysistersroom
Cineprov! does ‘Sex & the City’
8:30 p.m. at Relapse Theatre
380 14th St. NW, 404-914-4579
www.cineprov.com
DJ Rick Walsh
10 p.m. at Heretic
2069 Cheshire Bridge Road
404-325-3061, www.hereticatlanta.com
Erykah Badu at Hypnotic Fridays
11 p.m. at Masquerade
695 North Ave., www.maxineblue.com
SATURDAY MAY 24
Kisa Jackson presents
‘All in the Name of Luv’
7:30 p.m. at 14th St. Playhouse
173 14th St., 404-733-4738
www.14thstplayhouse.org
The Wayne Fishell Experiment
8 p.m. at U*Space Gallery
439 Edgewood Ave., 404-653-7331 www.uspacegallery.com
DJ Eddie Baez
10 p.m. at Heretic
2069 Cheshire Bridge Road
404-325-3061, www.hereticatlanta.com
Aftermath w/DJ Martin Fry
2:30 a.m. at The Bodyshop
2675 Johnson Road NE
www.sweetpillow.com
www.bodyshopatlanta.com
SUNDAY MAY 25
DJ Alexander
6 p.m. – 12 a.m.
The Venetian Room at Opera
1150-B Peachtree St.
www.c2productions.biz
DJ Brian Beck
11 p.m. at The Bodyshop
2675 Johnson Road NE
www.bodyshopatlanta.com
MONDAY
MAY 26
Carioca Morning Party
w/DJ Paulo
6 a.m. at Heretic
2069 Cheshire Bridge Road
404-325-3061, www.hereticatlanta.com
American Veterans for Equal RIghts Annual Taps Ceremony
12 p.m. at flag pole in front of
1071 Piedmont Ave.
www.avergeorgia.org
Memorial Day Show
11 p.m. at Burkhart's
1492-F Piedmont Ave.
404-872-4403, www.burkharts.com
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