11.16.18 V9-23
Book: Trans Figured: My Journey From Boy to Girl to Woman to Man
Story:
No Doubting the Power of Viola Davis
the
ethel merman disco christmas spectacular! WORLD PREMIERE Book by PAUL CONROY & Musical Arrangements by NICK SILVESTRI Imagining what Ethel Merman’s unaired 1979 Christmas television special would be like.
December 6-22, 2018
Tickets: $15 and up Out Front Theatre Company 999 Brady Avenue, Atlanta
www.OutFrontTheatre.com
party with
Help us celebrate 2018 accomplishments and look toward the future of HIV care in Atlanta.
BENEFITS
Sunday, Dec. 9, 2018 Music, open bar, body painting, silent auction, and 3 course meal by Endive. Summerour Studio 409 Bishop St. NW; Atlanta, GA 30318 Host Committee/Sponsor Reception: 5:30–6:30 p.m. Main Event: 7:00 p.m.
SPONSORS
Tickets: PositiveImpactHealthCenters.org
Contents
FENUXE
8 AGENDA
10
BOOK REVIEW
18
NO DOUBTING THE POWER OF VIOLA DAVIS
22
THANKSGIVING AND AUTUMN FASHION
26
OUT AND ABOUT
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Published by Fenuxe Magazine Management, LLC © 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 925B Piedmont Ave NE Suite 168, Atlanta GA, 30309 Phone: 404.835.2016 | Fax: 404.835.2356 Opinions and claims made by advertisers are those of the advertisers only. Fenuxe accepts no liability for any claims made by advertisers. The views and opinions expressed in this issue are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency of Fenuxe Magazine Management, LLC.
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Fenuxe Calendar
November Thanksgiving Eve Karaoke at MSR It’s our 22nd Annual Thanksgiving Eve Karaoke bash! Hosted by Thad Steven Matt behind the bar. It’s a tradition so join us Wednesday Nov 21st No cover Doors open 7pm Karaoke starts at 9pm.
MORE INFORMATION:
Wednesday, Nov 21, 2018 at 7 PM – 2 AM MSR 66 12th St NE, Atlanta
21
Santa & Grinch In Residence at Ponce City Market Bring Your Own Camera! Following his initial grand entrance on Black Friday, The Grinch will make his way back to Ponce City Market with great fanfare, taking up residency on the 2nd Floor of The Food Hall between Elk Head & Cobbler Union each and every Saturday and Sunday through December 16th. Starting at 11am, The Grinch parades into his lair & will be there until 6pm. Santa will hold court for iPhone photos and wish lists, and a stage will host a rotating roster of choirs, musicians, and other festive weekend entertainers. Hot cocoa, holiday popsicle flavors, and more will be available from King of Pops to enjoy around cozy fire pits at The Tree Elves Holiday Forest each and every Saturday and Sunday through December 24th.
23 24
Nov Dec
until
MORE INFORMATION:
Ponce City Market 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Atlanta30306
28 Wild Out Wednesday WILD OUT WEDNESDAY GONE XXX WILDER YOUR LEGENDARY HOSTS ARE HERE TO WOW YOU LIKE NEVER BEFORE ALL NIGHT LONG EVERY WEEK STARRING Mo’Dest Volgare, Nicole Paige Brooks, Qween Farrazz, SPECIAL GUESTS & YOUR WINNER from last weeks PRE-SHOW talent XXXtravaganza the #XXXFACTOR CUM join the XXXFACTOR hostess Qween Farrazz at 10PM to help judge this weeks MOST TALENTED CONTESTANT with SPECIAL GUESTS sure to SLAY along the way!!! AND that’s just the START cause it aint officially WILD OUT WEDNESDAY til we have a WINNER!
MORE INFORMATION:
Wednesday, November 28, 2018 at 9:30 PM – 3 AM Felix’s 1510-G Piedmont Ave NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30324
Office: 678.298.1600 cell: 706.761.2578
ATLANTA, IT’S TIME TO
RAISE THE BAR
Depression is Real. Atlanta is a first class city in nearly every category—except in protecting everyone from the dangers of exposure to secondhand smoke. The bartender at your favorite speakeasy and the barista at your go-to airport coffee shop are among the thousands of people in Atlanta who have to choose between their health and a paycheck every day. Everyone in Atlanta has the right to breathe smoke-free air, and it’s time for Atlanta to raise the bar by ensuring everyone can breathe smoke-free air at work. Learn how you can help at
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BOOK REVIEW It’s not a good fit. You saw it and loved it, but now you know the truth: it’s too small or too large. Too brassy or too muted. It’s the wrong color or the wrong neighborhood or just not you. It doesn’t fit because maybe, as in the new memoir “Trans Figured” by Brian Belovitch, it’s the wrong gender. In his family of almost all boys, Brian Belovitch stood out because he lacked something his brothers had in abundance: hypermasculinity. Belovitch was soft and “chubby” with curls and long eyelashes and was often mistaken for a little girl as a preschooler, which was just fine with him. He enjoyed his femininity, even though he knew that it would get him a beating – if not from his brothers, then from his father. Even as a young child, Belovitch says, he was overly-curious about sex, and especially about the male body. He recognized early that girls held “no interest” but boys were another matter. He was in fourth grade when he had his first sexual encounter, with a slightly older male classmate.
> CREDIT | Author:Brian Belovitch >Trans Figured: My Journey From Boy to Girl to Woman to Man
By his early teens, Belovitch had discovered alcohol and shoplifting. He’d run away a few times, and visiting gay clubs near his Rhode Island home was, for him, a natural next step. After a traumatic comingout to his family, he moved in with a man he considered his first real friend; it was through Paulie that Belovitch met a community of trans women. And that was when “Natalia” was born with “great joy…” She was beautiful, sexy, “my own special creation,” says Belovitch of himself as a trans woman. As
By: Always Overbooked... Terri Schlichenmeyer The Bookworm Sez, LLC bookwormsez@gmail.com
10: November 16, 2018
Natalia, she was the toast of New York, a model and actress thanks to hormones, silicones, pilfered clothing, and a desperate need for love. Belovitch got married as Natalia, and divorced; she led him to prostitution, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, HIV, and an attempted suicide. He was Natalia when he reached out to friends and sought therapy. As Natalia, he took “a… look at the direction in which my life was heading.” Belovitch was Natalia when he realized that he was “feminineinclined,” but Natalia had to go… Toward the end of this totally frank memoir, author Brian Belovitch says that if it wasn’t for the AIDS epidemic, his “story would be as common as salt.” Readers may find that arguable, since “Trans Figured” goes well beyond unique. Beware, though, that it’s going to put you through the wringer. Belovitch is completely open about the abuse he experienced, and his recounting can be graphic. Beware where you read this book, because it contains nudity inside. Also know that nostalgia for the 1970s may hit you but that’s going to include a breathlessly steep plunge into memories of cocaine, promiscuity, and epidemic. Still – without giving too much away – there’s a happy ending to this memoir, one that manages to educate readers as it oddly entertains them with stories of times past. It’s a happy ending well-deserved and well-told and, considering the overall uncommonness of “Trans Figured,” it fits.
Thank You, Atlanta! Our mission is to bridge communities to brighten the lives of Georgia's children in need.
24,372 Backpacks Donated Since We Started
See you next year!
New look and feel, same great cause!
December 16th 2018 at Opera
• Phott with Santa • Silent & Live Auctions • Raffles & Games
• Catered hors d'oeeres • DJs & Live Shows • Adult Beverages
VIP ckets $250 (+Toy) General Admission ckets $25 (+Toy) Purchase tickets in advance at forthekid.org and bring an unwrapped toy valued at $20+
forthekidatl
OUT & ABOUT
PHOTOS
LIPS 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY PHOTOS BY: SHER PRUITT
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No Doubting the Power of
Viola Davis
‘Widows’ star on her LGBTQ evolution, why her favorite role was as a man and being inspired by sexual fluidity
By Chris Azzopardi
V
iola Davis taps my hand when she really means what she says. Each time the actress reaches over to make contact, the big bar in the big skyscraper in big Chicago where we are sitting diminishes. She has a way of making any space feel intimate. The first black actor to win an Oscar, Emmy and a Tony for acting, Davis is seated diagonally from me at a larger-than-weneed table more suited for a family’s Thanksgiving gathering than a conversation between two people. She is striking in a baby-blue pantsuit and a gorgeous, billowing afro, owning the space she occupies much like the way she owns the screen, having granted vulnerability and humanity to some of TV, theater and film’s most unforgettable women for three decades. Her knack for investigating the deepest human depths of her characters is best illustrated in a single scene, as a loving, anguished mother in 2008’s Doubt, her indelible breakthrough. Later, she starred as Aibileen Clark in The Help (she previously played another maid in gay director Todd Haynes’ 2002 film Far From Heaven), and in Suicide Squad and Fences, which won her an Oscar. And as criminal defense attorney Annalise Keating on ABC’s hit drama How to Get Away with Murder, she is a mighty force. Davis’s signature resilience once again pervades tenacious crimeboss Veronica Rawlins in 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen’s socially charged action-thriller Widows, notably featuring a lead cast mostly comprised of actresses of color. After spending the early years of her career not recognizing her power even though we did, Davis, 53, does now, she tells me. The obvious question: “Do gay men feel compelled to bow down to you?” I ask, moments into the candid conversation that awaits us, which has Davis reflecting on how she learned to love the LGBTQ community and why she feels her best role was as a man. Smiling, she lights up and leans back. “You know what, yeah, they do.” These badass women doing badass things in a world where sometimes these women are told that they can’t do them... Absolutely. How do you explain the connection between these strong women you play and the LGBTQ community? Because I think the LGBTQ community feels like they’re on the periphery. They feel like they’re not seen, they feel like they’re not worthy, they feel like they’re not valued. And there’s no answer to that, other than the fact that you’re not heterosexual. Really, that’s it. That’s what I think, and I certainly feel the same way, as someone who has been marginalized my entire life. Listen, when I think about myself, I am everything within me. I’ve had boyfriends, people think I’m cute (laughs). I’m funny! I’m telling you, I’m all of those things. And I cannot stand labels. I cannot stand them. Did you have something to do with Annalise’s sexual fluidity, then? I had everything to do with that. And so did (creator) Pete Nowak; I can’t leave him out. I really have to give him credit for that too. But yeah, absolutely. And also, I Am Jazz: I was watching that one night. I love that show. But I was watching that one night and (trans TV star and model Jazz Jennings) was playing in the closet with one of her friends who was a trans teenager, and it was just great. They were talking about who they see themselves with in the future, and they were like, “Whoever, you know. I’m open. I’m open to a boy, I’m open to a girl.” And they started talking about just the attributes of the people they wanted to be with. That transformed me more than anything. I thought, “That is the greatest thing in the world,” and I thought that that was a great idea
18:November 16, 2018
for Annalise because Annalise is so damaged, so traumatized that what if she just said, “I’m just open to love”? God, think about what we can explore there. Are you inspired by this generation of young people who identify as sexually fluid? Totally, with everything. My generation – I always say, “The black and Hispanic people liked disco and the white people liked rock ’n’ roll.” That was my generation. And there was no language for homosexuality – only fear. Growing up in Rhode Island, what was your introduction to the LGBTQ community? Hmm... probably through… that’s a difficult question. I’m gonna say this: My friend… shit. This is menopause, ’cause I was just talking about him. Slim! My friend Slim! And I’ll say him, even though it’s more than just him, because I just did have a lot of gay friends. I’m a theater geek! But my introduction into, especially the gay and the trans community, was Slim. And the reason why I say that is because it challenged even my idea of sexuality, because we were just friends and he had a girlfriend, and then he announced to me that he was gay, and then it went from that to him borrowing my clothes, my dresses. I was like, “Oh, OK! You can borrow my dresses!” So he would take my dresses, and then it went from that to him dropping out of school – and of course we still continued our friendship. And then it went from that to him wearing my makeup. I just remember going with it, of course, because I loved him. It was my first introduction into a different level of sexuality that no one talked about. He had a group of young men that lived with him who were all trans and he called them his “sons and daughters.” Some were gay, some were trans, some were transvestite, and it was my first introduction into the fluidity of sexuality. You said this was going to be a difficult question for you to answer, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t difficult, I know. I guess not. Was reconciling your Christian upbringing with your acceptance of homosexuality a challenge for you? I guess it was a little – it was. But I loved him. I have to say I loved him, so I felt it was on me to shift my thinking and it was up to me to understand him. I will say I went with it, but it was my first introduction to understanding it. When I was on Facebook, I did have my Facebook friend Nika (Lomazzo, a trans woman and activist) and she really schooled me. So every day I would go to her site and she would school me and I said, “I’ve been to school; I’m just gonna learn.” She’s a trans woman, so I was schooled (with) just certain language. The first time you kiss a same-sex love interest played by Famke Janssen – did your mother ever see that episode of How to Get Away with Murder even though you didn’t want her to? Yep! You said that you weren’t gonna show it to her. I didn’t show it to her! She saw it on her own! And? She was good with it – because my niece is gay and at 9, 10 years old she told her mom, my sister: “Mom, I like girls,” and my sister said, “OK. Well, are you OK?” She said, “I think I’m fine.” She was like, “OK, well I’m good too.” And that was their conversation. You starred in one of the most notable queer films ever made: Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven. How do you reflect on your role in that film? The maid? I liked that movie. I loved that movie. And the role? I mean, the role was a maid. I’m done with the maids. But that was in the beginning of my career. I wasn’t really awoke then – not as awoken as I am. You recently admitted to having issues with The Help. Yeah, I did. Looking back on The Help and Far From Heaven, what has that taught you about the importance of representation for the black and LGBTQ community? I guess I already knew it then, too, but I never thought that I had any power. I was just happy to have a job. But I think it’s important to be
seen, it’s important to see your own images on the screen – and in a way that is honest. The reason I became an actor, and it’s absolutely the reason why I became an actor: I’m a total nerd and I fell in love with Arthur Miller. He said he wrote to make people feel less alone, and that’s why I do what I do. Seriously, that’s why I do what I do. I seriously do. And so I feel responsible for any image I put out there that makes people feel alone, that makes people feel not seen, that doesn’t show fully who they are – their anger, their pain, their joy, their sexuality. That’s your job as an artist, so yeah, that’s where I’m at right now. Have you considered the importance of you not just portraying a lesbian but a lesbian of color, a demographic so rarely portrayed on screen, and the impact that could have on the LGBTQ community? I’ve been offered, I played: God’s Heart with Julie Kavner. We were lesbians. I played a lesbian in King Lear. It was a workshop production (at the Public Theater in New York) and actually the guy who directed it was one of the people who put together Paris Is Burning and he set King Lear in one of the gay (ball-culture) “houses” of the ’90s. And I didn’t do it, because the director told me at the last minute I probably should’ve done it, but he wanted me to compete in those gay house shows. You have to be a man pretending to be a woman or a woman pretending to be a man and the more real you are, that’s a whole competition. It’s about being as real as you can be. To me, that was the best role I’d ever done, by the way. Bar none. TV, film. It was the best role. Why was your role in King Lear so special to you? Because I had to play a lesbian who was pretending to be a man and I went home – I am telling you, I said, “I am gonna hit this” (bangs fist against palm). So I felt like I really transformed into a man. I thought it was totally believable! And Nicole Ari Parker was my girlfriend! Every time we see each other, I’m like, (excitedly waves her arms) “Hey!” I feel like gay men must come up to you all the time and quote Annalise’s iconic line, “Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone?” Is that line still following you around? I mean, I don’t know what it is about that line – maybe just ’cause it was so unexpected! So I keep quoting or thinking about Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, because I feel like gay men like that movie too. I love that movie. And there’s a lot of reasons why. I think it’s Judy Garland too, you know? Right, a gay icon. Yeah. You understand why. But also, this is my thing: She keeps talking about going home and wanting to go home, and then in the end the Good Witch tells her (she) had the power to go home all along. I know, even as a black woman, that feeling. I have the power within to be the change I wanna see, to have the life I wanna have; it’s already in me. People strip us of our worth and the potency of our worth and the potency of our power so much. I see it because... listen, I’m socialized on steroids (laughs). The number of people I meet every day who interview me, who I have to meet at parties and social gatherings, because I’m an actor – one of the things I’ve noticed, ’cause I love looking at different reporters who come in and imagining who they are, who they love, and I love it. And there have been (people) who come in from the LGBTQ community – and now there’s more trans men, trans women reporters, and it’s a “coming out” and stepping into who you are. You gotta love it.
PHOTOSHOOT
Looking your best for the Holidays!
24: November 16, 2018
OUT & ABOUT
PHOTOS
26: November 16, 2018
GLADD AWARDS 2018 BY CHER PRUITT
27
OUT & ABOUT
PHOTOS
ATLANTA EAGLE PRIDE 2018 BY BAMA
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