The End of Labor Day Weekend

Atlanta's Black Gay Pride celebration has wrapped up for another year. With all the fantastic events and beautiful black folks all over the city this weekend, what better to blog about today.

Here's my Baker's Dozen for this week.

1. Kudos to In The Life Atlanta for one of the best-organized events i've ever been a part of. It was really a fantastic weekend at Black Gay Pride in Atlanta, and while i'm tired as hell, i'm sorry it's over.
   
2. The ADODI Muse: A Gay Negro Ensemble performed at the Opening Ceremonies and the crowd gave us MAD ENERGY. I love having the chance to share what we do with our folks.
   
3. Imani Evans was incredible as the host of SpeakFire. (I was the co-host, but honey, i was just along for the ride.) She kept the crowd hot and lit up all night.
   
4. New erotic poetry from sista Angie, the winner of our "Erotic Finals" at SpeakFire. I had fun hanging out with her the next day, doing the photo shoot she won as part of the impromptu competition.
   
5. Got to see some of my favorite writers/performers again over the weekend. Why is it i only get to see brothas like Tim'm, Steven Fullwood, and Michael Christopher once a year or so. I gotta start traveling more.
   
6. Spending quality time with my partner, Troy.
   
7. Seeing all my beautiful peoples together just being themselves for the weekend. Made me think about all the possibilities, and what we need to do to make that kind of environment a reality on an everyday basis.
   
8. The Friends party at TRAXX on Sunday night was old-school fun. The music took me back to my youth and i got a chance to hang out with some folks a little closer to my age than usual. We left in the wee hours, but the party was still going strong.
   
9. No rain. In spite of predictions that Hurricane Frances would affect our weather up here as early as Saturday afternoon, there wasn't a drop to be seen all weekend.
   
10. I spent up all my money in the marketplace again. Every year i say i won't do it, and every year there's somebody there who i want to support and somebody who has some new item i just can't resist and some author whose new book is out ... i end up spending way more money than i plan. Oh well, it's only money. So what if i don't eat next month.
    
11. Did i mention all the beautiful people walking around Sheraton Colony Square all weekend? I could have booked a whole three or four calendars full of new models, just from sitting in the lobby of the hotel.
    
12. Finally, the Atlanta premier of Noah's Arc was so packed, they had to run a second screening the next night (which was also packed). The director and guys from the cast were fantastic. They stuck around to sign autographs (and flirt here and there), and to answer audience questions. And on the second night, a minister from Unity Fellowship Church in Detroit got up and got the collection plate going to support the project. Within just a few minutes, the "ushers" had volunteered, somebody had found a couple of boxes, and they managed to collect over $500 from the crowd. To top it all off, Julian High from HRC pledged to match whatever was collected from the crowd. And there's news that the project may be coming to a cable channel near you sometime in the near future. Keep your eyes on www.noahsarc.net for more updates. And go to www.hrc.org to let them know you appreciate their financial support of the project.