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SGL Content
Editor’s Letter 4
Ask Nathan 5 Ride Steven Lee’s Chariot 6 When Your Love Life Sucks 11 Sekiya Looks to the Rainbow 12 Please email the magazine and the editor’s. Let us know what you like about the magazine and what you don’t that is the only way we can make it better. Also that is our payment sglweeklymag@gmail.com
Editors Letter: The Dream
Hey ya’ll, How are you doing? I have been very, very busy which is a blessing. I can not tell you how much fun I am having with this magazine. It has always been a dream of mine to be a magazine editor. I have offered my assistance to every black gay publication that I’ve known of with in the last 5 years and I haven’t received any responses from any of them. So I decided to start my own with the new technology that is available today makes it so easy for me to do this. Nathan Seven Scott and I have taken this journey since the very first issue on March 16, 2009 and I thank him so much. Please let him know how much you appreciate him and his advice at nathansevenscott@gmail.com. Also send in your questions to him at that address. In this issue we have Nathan giving at advice that is very rewarding. We also have LA based Producer/Play writer Steven Lee talking about his new play Chariot. We also have Bestselling author Zane writing about “When your Love life Sucks”, and last but not least we have the owner/creator of www.therainbowcollective.com Sekiya Dorsett talking about her company. Cordially, Cleavester Brooks sglweeklymag@gmail.com www.sglliving.ning.com
Ask Nathan
Recently, I met this man and it seemed like we were into each other and then I get this text telling me that I am to skinny and he would kill me in the bedroom. Why do men think they know what's good for you? Sincerely, You Betta Be Good To Me
Dear Be Good To Me: Ha ha. Sounds like you have encountered a body fascist. I have to admit, I too am body fascist. I have a much better time in my bedroom when I can appreciate the other person's body against mine. Him telling you that he would kill you in the bedroom was his way of telling you that you weren't his type. It's not that he knows what is good for you, it's that he knows that he's not good for you. When someone else chooses not to be with you, don't take it personal. Remember we all have our own individual likes and dislikes. When people reject me, I immediately think about the last person that I rejected and I continue on with my life. There are plenty of choices in the world. Go out and choose! Create a "Sevenly" Day! _____________________________________________ Nathan "Seven" Scott Visit me online: www.nathansevenscott.com Tweet me: www.twitter.com/nathansevenscott
Ride Steven Lee’s Chariot A Cleavester Brooks Interview
What is Chariot About? Folklore, Myths, Misinterpretations, Lies, and Denial. It is about how skewed belief systems can erode and even vilify the individual, making him think he is unworthy of self love, the love of others, and even God's love. In Chariot, our protagonist has the belief, that some chariot--like in the Bible--will come take him away from the ridicule and resistance his family has against him for being gay. But no chariot will come. As a character in the play says to him, "You have to be your own chariot." This is a revelation to our protagonist because, unbeknownst to himself, he has internalized the
homophobia of his family--and holds within himself huge gulfs of shame, guilt, self loathing, and pain. The play is about exorcising these feelings--many of which have been brought on by misinterpretations of religion and longstanding cultural mandates. These cultural mandates, particularly for people of color, can make us feel inadequate if we don't fulfill them. As people of color we can feel bad if we are tall and don't play basketball; bad if we date outside our race; and bad if we are lesbian or gay. For all people--but particularly the disenfranchised--feeling bad inside is a feeling we can't afford to have. This is because, on the outside--
society--often does enough to try and dismantle us. Indeed, these negative feelings and thoughts must be exorcised from our minds and group consciousness. And each of us can on a daily basis help. Instead of breaking each other down, we need to raise each other up. Truly, as I say on the Chariot web site (www.chariottheplay.com), "Individuality is good for the group". Chariot is about honoring the differences in the group, confronting old myths about who we are and who we should be, coming out of denial about our issues, and rising to a new plateau of individual and group acceptance that is the real cohesion we as a people need. In Chariot our protagonist--Jules--has to uncover that. In the play, our audience members are uncovering it too. Chariot is about confronting folklore and myths, releasing the shackles that bind the individual from "whole person acceptance"--and becoming free.
musical. We would, during a break, sing out some of our lines. This was funny but also true to the intent of the piece. There is a musicality to Chariot. In fact, the song, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." helped to inspire the title. But, more importantly perhaps--Chariot is like a musical because every character has their one moment in the spotlight where we hear what I call, "The aria of their soul." In that moment we hear what the character is truly about. Because, in this family--no one says what's really on their mind. They have been raised that way. But, in the course of the plot of the play, they are forced to speak. What comes out of each of them is their song. I once joked with the actor playing the character "Dustin". I said your monologue is your "And I am Telling You" moment. I said you have to sing out the pain like Effie in Dreamgirls did. He laughed. But if you listen, he expertly does just that. Could you tell us about each of these characters? Gladly. They are us. Each character represents, sometimes to an extreme--and sometimes, uncomfortably--exact aspects of what we think, say, and do. Angela Hill. The mother of the Hill family clan. She is the personification of denial. She denies that her eldest son died of AIDS. She denies that her youngest son is also gay. She denies that her husband is schizophrenic. In Angela we see just how far denial can go. Angela is a strong black woman--but she's fighting the wrong battle. Angela is fighting against homosexuality--and as a result--she is fighting against all reality. This is because once one fights against nature--and being gay, of course is a part of nature, one can then begin to deny--at sometimes a devastating cost-- virtually anything.
Is it a Musical? No, it isn't. Funny you should ask that! Because often in rehearsals, rehearsals which--because this play tackles some intense issues--were also intense. To combat and ease up on that tension, sometimes we would release some steam by pretending it was a
Frank Hill. Frank is Angela's agoraphobic and schizophrenic husband who stays in his room. Frank does not, which unfortunately, sometimes happens in our families, "step up to the plate" as a black father. He is almost non existent to his own children. He is schizophrenic because he represents two worlds: The white world and the black world, the civilized world and the uncivilized world, the gay world and the nongay world. He is trapped. He can not choose. As a result he has become schizophrenic--and he never leaves the house. In fact, Frank barely leaves the room--except for violence. Patricia Hill. The daughter. She is angry. Protective. Vigilant. She watches and observes all in the house. She is blunt and rips the blanket of denial off of Angela
and anyone else she can whenever she gets a chance. She abhors all niceties and phoniness. Unfortunately , Patricia too is in denial. She must be. Patricia can not acknowledge the devastating truth she must face at the end of the play. Dustin Hill. The alcoholic son. Dustin tries to nullify his pain through drinking. He is the "every African American man". Dustin is proud, strong, beautiful. But he is not realized in this country and he is enraged because of it. But, instead of becoming an artist, teacher, doctor, or lawyer--he self destructs. His anger and pain is the "every black man" because every black man who views the show has related to his angst. His angst his raw, painful, disturbing. His raw pain unexpressed is toxic. But in the play, it is given its release. As a result, his pain is ultimately beautiful--yes, like a rainbow--because it is so true and real. Jules Hill. Angela's eighteen year old gay son. He is in turmoil, not just because he is gay, but because some of his actions in the past have made him believe that being gay is indeed wrong and even sinful. Jules can not see that his tumultuous family drove him to make decisions that may not have been the most appropriate. Jules, though very smart (He's going to Princeton), can not see that his angst is a direct result of folklore, internalized racism and homophobia, religious misinterpretations, and stridently adhered to cultural mandates. Jules believes his angst is all about being gay. What he uncovers, is that when the murky psychological clouds of what his family and society have taught him to believe dissipates, he is left with the beautiful truth: not only is being gay good, but that God loves gays. In short, Jules, at the end of the play, has new information--to reinvestigate his view of himself--and to start anew. Grandmother (Isadora Crist). The personification of folklore. She comes, almost as if out of the sky, in her surprise--almost magical visit. She comes to make amends for her anti-gay slurs she made in the past. Slurs that drove Jules to attempt suicide three years prior to our play starting. But has she changed? What is Grandmother's true motivation for showing up at the Hill family unannounced? And, can anyone really change? Jules can't. And he shouldn't. He was born and endowed with the high calling of being gay. But Grandmother? Her former Tammy-Faye-Baker and Fundamentalist Christian ways still seem to itch at her below the surface. Her arrival? Will it help Jules--or is her folklore the real source of not only Jules' pain--but
the real reason why the entire Hill family is lost and confused? How can we get tickets? Online at www.plays411.com/chariot or call 323-9607788. We have shows from Thursday to Saturday--all starting at 8:00 PM; and a matinee at 3:00 in the afternoon on Sundays. Group rates are available. What city is the play in? Will you tour with the play eventually? The play is in Hollywood, on the corner of the now famous Hollywood and Highland at the legendary Stella Adler Theatre--right next to the Hollywood Wax Museum there. The exact address is 6773 Hollywood Boulevard--2nd Floor, Hollywood, CA, 90028. And to answer your second question, yes--we would love to tour! We are looking at some offers now. Although we believe the play is universal--the whole planet benefits when one group's rights and dignities are upheld--we have gotten a lot of support from gay organizations-one in particular--to do just that. Will it be available on DVD? Not now. But we'd love to do that at some point. We do now have a documentary called "The Making of Chariot", that the great documentarian Sue Henderson put together. On that you can really see the effort and love put behind this massive undertaking called Chariot. Incidentally, excerpts from that documentary will be up on our web site soon. Who is Steven Lee? Steven Lee is all the characters in Chariot. It's hard to get more succinct than that. I used to think I was separate from some of the characters presented in the play but I have found, though I know these people (I've met them in my life)--they are aspects--good or bad--of me. Steven Lee is also someone who craves the truth-no matter how ugly it may seem. I'm also someone who loves good theatre. I love to learn in theatre. I love to be jolted--surprised by the rawness presented on stage. I don't want to see what we pretend we are-and I definitely don't want to see what we aren't. I really love black theatre. Latino theatre. Asian theatre. Lesbian theatre. Gay Theatre. Disenfranchised theatre. We need all the voices--especially voices that have been quieted or stereotyped up on that stage. It's okay to show the bad. Seeing all of who we are up on that stage, almost in the limelight, if you will--makes us even celebrate our pain. That is, we can even laugh at it, and therefore...discard it. Seeing--finally--that we have no more need of it.
What do you hope to accomplish from this? Freedom. It's a lofty answer, I realize, but that's what I want. I have been made freer by writing it. I have been made freer by having Cassandra Braden get the ball rolling by offering to produce it. I have been made freer by seeing it virtually every night. I have been made freer by having audience members come up to me after the show--many in tears--saying that they too have had thoughts, feelings, and/or experiences represented up there on that stage. Truly, my personal has become public. When that happens, everyone benefits. I want people to feel that they are not alone. I even want people to be a little uncomfortable, provoked, and angered. There's a bit of "How dare you show that up there!" to this play. It's in your face. My answer to that is: tough. With drop out rates among our black and Latino youth at an all time high, with the disenfranchised flooding our prisons, with gay and lesbian teen suicide rates still among the highest--a tough look is needed. These are they that would appreciate a tough look--because anything else--for them--would sound like fantasy land. Will there be more plays in your future? Yes. Definitely. I've written three others. Two comedies and another raw and intense drama. I can't wait to see them. I can't wait to share them. I have so much to say--as everybody I meet does too. Truly, when we all speak our truths--no matter how different they are from each other. We're all healed.
Thank you so much Steven, do you have any final words? No. I know I've said a lot here! I'm just so excited about this project. We have an outstanding cast--Broadway caliber, really. A great director, Cary Thompson. So many people, from our Art Director, Sue Henderson (also the documentarian) to our set designer, Francesco Gallo to countless others--have given so much to this project. I want to thank SGL for getting the word out there. Come see Chariot now--and buckle up--it's quite a ride!
When Your Love Life Sucks By: Zane Dear Love Life Sucks,
Dear Zane, I have a huge problem. I will have been married for fifteen years this December and my love life sucks. I cannot even remember the last time that I had sex. I am thirty-seven years old and my husband is thirtynine. He is in the Marines and we are stationed in Japan. Our sex life has been going downhill for the past five years. I love my husband dearly and will do anything for him and he feels the same way about me. I know that he has high blood pressure and is on a lot of medication, and his penis will not stay hard. He spoke with his doctor about this and they gave him something. It did not work and they went changed it when he went back. It did make the blood pressure change but now he will not go back to the doctor, or even talk about it. He has been to Iraq three times so I do not want to pressure him or make him do something he does not want to. But I am getting tired of the vibrator and pleasing myself. I have tried sexy lingerie, told him that I would suck his dick, or we can watch sex tapes. I have told him that I would try anything he wants. So what am I to do? I told him that I would go to the doctor with him. I have even made an appointment but he cancelled it. We sleep in the same bed together every night and he does not even touch me. Please help. I am so sick and tired. Signed, Love Life Sucks
I wish that I could give you a positive outlook on this situation. The truth of the matter is that I know several women personally going through this very thing. One of their husbands had a stroke and was put on heavy medication for his blood pressure and has not been able to get hard since. Another woman’s husband can manage every once and a blue moon but the sex does not last but a hot minute before he loses his erection. The problem with Viagra and such drugs are that they are “enhancers” and only help to sustain an erection once it is achieved. By no means am I a medical doctor but your husband really needs to see someone. You need to have a candid discussion with him, even if he does not want to discuss it. He has to discuss it because fifteen years ago he took marriage vows and marriage includes being willing to openly communicate. He needs to go to a specialist and not his regular doctor. I am confident—not positive but confident—that something exists to assist him. This problem is way too common and there should be a solution. Meanwhile, he should be open to doing things that please you. There is nothing wrong with his tongue, right? He should realize and address your needs. You have followed him all the way to Japan; that is serious love. He needs to appreciate that and do whatever it takes to find a solution. I am sure that he is frustrated, possibly even depressed, but he has to man up and be your husband. The two of you are not even forty yet. You cannot continue on this path for decades. Blessings, Zane
Sekiya Looks to the Rainbow A Cleavester Brooks Interview
What is The Rainbow Collective? The Rainbow Collective is a web portal for short form programming which focuses on building diversity through gender, race, sexuality and religion. We want to get people to talk. We want your feelings and issues on the table and then we want to share new ideas, artists and information about everything unique that exists in our world. The Rainbow Collective brings you stories about talented people and extraordinary artists. We bring you the stories about things people are not talking about. We want to get you looking forward, glancing sideways and creating new experiences. Stay tuned for new web series and co-sponsored events which will bring our mission to life. So sit back. Don't forget that whether you like it or not, you are apart of an extraordinary global event, The Rainbow Collective. How did you come up with the idea? I always had a desire to produce films and with the web expanding, I got a bug producing series. I got started and then was not pleased with where it was going. I really wanted to expand my audience and produce my own programs and have complete control over my content. I wanted to do something that I felt would clearly put issues of race, gender and sexuality out there. Honestly, those ideas have only been partly realized. What is your ultimate dream for The Rainbow Collective? To become the ultimate destination for engaging web series, blogs and community. I am interested in being a place where people come to learn something new, to
laugh and to debate. I want to talk about things that make people think. What kind of shows do the Rainbow Collective air? Currently, we are undergoing a big change. I think I got lost in trying to be a site for everyone. We want an audience that is thinking more about their world. That may mean only a few people watch but that is ok. We want to remain true to our self. The shows are about real people exploring their world. Some of our older shows, Colors, a show which highlights and celebrates artists from all disciples. Try Something New, a show which asks our viewers to explore new things. A List, a show which takes our viewers behind the scenes of unique events. Of course, Maurice Runea The Show featuring Romeo Redwine, a talk show featuring two amazing queer men of color who are chatting with the hottest artists and people in our community. Then, I want to highlight our new show, Women with a Voice, which is an exploration into the truth behind the masks of women. Our goal is to have women take off the masks they wear each day and talk honestly about the issues that affect them, their passions, their dreams and more importantly how they feel as women. We intend to give women their voice back by highlighting strong women and conversations with real women. Then, we have the revamped Coffee Talk hosted by Jeff Harden which will unearth social issues by talking with the experts and people. This season, we are really meeting our goal to entertain, engage, inform and inspire our viewers.
How do you go about choosing programming for the site? Shows needs to ask a few questions: 1. Are you telling a story from a different perspective 2. Are you covering topics or ideas which challenge societal norms? 3. Are you promoting changing our world? 4. Are you talking about human relationships? If you have 3 or more of the above, I am sold. Some shows can simply be different or unique. It all depends on what the proposal is. Expression is important and I want to promote people expressing themselves in unique ways. Who is Sekiya Dorsett? I am an artist. When did you know you were a lesbian? In high school I got a crush that I couldn't seem to shake. Why do you think there is so much dislike between gay men and lesbians? I don't think there is dislike but misunderstanding. In general, men relate differently than women and gay men definitely relate differently than lesbians. We would be better able to relate if we didn't generalize so many things about the other. Not every lesbian is angry and not every gay guy is a snob. I met some really amazing ones: Maurice and Romeo included. I never had many gay friends and most I have met are beyond any perceptions one may have. Do you believe we will bridge the gap in the future? Yes we will continue to close the gap like every other prejudice. We must realize one thing, we are all gay. We are all in the struggle for acceptance and respect together. So loose the attitude and let's all get along. For those who are ignorant. What do two get out of loving each other? Is it a sexual thing or something more? I really can't explain that. I don't see heterosexuals explaining. It is the same thing. It just is what it is. I'm not a very sexual person so I can say all my connections are always emotional first. I have very different emotional connections with women than I do with men. Please explain the different types of Lesbians The spectrum is wide and varied. There are so many different names or terms. I won’t be the spokesperson on this one. It is much too political but I accept people for whatever image, personality, expression or gender identity they present. I particularly don't like labels because it traps us and sometimes masks our true self because we may be trying to fit in a box when we are in between or neither. I rarely wear makeup but hell if someone tells me that I shouldn't because I am not "lipstick" lesbian. Sometimes I wear heels but I have baggy jeans.
Do you want a family with a woman (i.e. Marry one)? Yes, I can't wait to get married once everything is settled in my life. I have a wonderful and supportive partner that drives me crazy and I hope we will be driving each other crazy down the aisle and right until we get old and gray in our rocking chairs. When are you going to make The Maurice Runea Show available on DVD? I said it last season and will say it again. We are taking this season up two notches. This season and selects shows will be on DVD eventually. The web has made DVD a little unnecessary however because you go to the site and you can see it. Will it go back to only Maurice as the host? We are delighted to have Romeo and we hope to keep him but the show is always changing. The question should be.... Are we getting anyone else? We have a great team with Romeo and Maurice and we hope that they will grow. What is your take on SGL Marriage? Love is love and how dare someone dictate my life and claim they own marriage because of a very old book that has been changed so many times no one knows the true translations. I guess the same people still want “daughters to be sold into slavery” and that “people working on Sunday should be stoned”. Read your Bible people or maybe not. I grew up in church and in my most recent months have lost hope in these beliefs that separate us as a society, create wars and promote prejudice. Are you looking for sponsors/advertisers? What do they have to do? Call or email ASAP rainbowcollective@live.com we have some great shows to sponsor. Are you looking for business partners? If someone comes to us and we share the same goals and the same mission, we would love to collaborate with someone that knows what partnership means.
If someone wants to have there own show on the Rainbow Channel. What do they have to do in order to do that? Send me an email. Maurice just called me and said I have an idea. Now, we are in our third season and getting better. Thank you so much, Sekiya.