Hola elle issuu 2

HOLÄ HOUSE OF LÄDY // DECEMBER 2016 // ISSUE No. 2 / No1.12182016

HOUSE OF LÄDY // FREEDOM TO CREATE // DECEMBER 2016 // ISSUE No. 2 / No.112182016

HOLÄ

LÄDY MILLARD //

KEVIN MCCARTHY//

DIRECTOR OF ART

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

ALTHEA HUSSEIN // DIRECTOR OF COPY

HOUSE OF LÄDY // DECEMBER 2016 // ISSUE No. 2 / No1.12182016

A

FATHER

BROUGHT

TO SEE ONE OF THE SHOWS AT UNDR1ROOF SHOWS. SHE’S AN ARTIST

HIS

DAUGHTER

THE ONLY WAY TO DEAL WITH SUCH A LOSS WAS TO BE EXACTLY WHAT GOD NEEDED ME TO BE.

I STILL CRY. I GIVE THANKS FOR MY TEARS SO MUCH TO DO. EXACTLY ENOUGH TIME.

IF MY TALENTS MAKE YOU NERVOUS BREATHE // I DID NOT GET HERE OVERNIGHT - I’VE BEEN WORKING SINCE I WAS 7 YEARS OLD.

MY FATHER WAS A CRAFTSMAN AN ARTIST AND A MASON - HE MADE THINGS. HE WAS PROBABLY INSPIRED BY HIS NAME WHICH WAS MILLARD. HE NEVER TAUGHT ME HOW TO DRAW A STRAIGHT LINE. THAT IS WHERE I WAS LUCKY.

I ASKED GOD FOR THIS MONEY MONEY GIVES YOU FREEDOM TO CREATE WITH NO LIMIT BUT SO DOES THE CREATOR.

HOLÄ

YOU ARE A CREATIVE BUT NOT THE CREATOR. CHECK.

IN OTHER

WORDS. Who has the right to tell you how to create?

How to express ”your” life and your wisdom?. I can be EXTREMELY MANIPULATIVE // but I use my abilities for the best in all.

I

love

the

way

that

I

see

life

-

The

beauty,

the

opportunities, the love. I see people use my work or style and I think what a waste of ability why don’t they have

a

better

relationship

with

God

the

inspiration. I am in constant prayer. Thank you.

- Lädy

ultimate

OPINION / EDUCATION

3 THINGS THAT INFLUENCE SUBCONSCIOUS

YOUR MIND

Your subconscious mind is a very

This can be attributed to the fact

obscure place, where all that

that our subconscious mind is more

happens to you is stored

easily influenced when we’re young.

permanently. Good, bad, pleasant, unpleasant… A variety of different

Another powerful influence on our

ingredients making a complex soup

subconscious mind can come from

that constitutes your unique

ethnic or cultural groups as well as

personality. Your unique way to

religious organizations. When we

interact with life. So here are the

identify and accept the belief

3 things that influence your

systems of groups we associate with,

subconscious mind:

we often make those beliefs our own.

Parental and Group Influence

Emotionally Impactful Events

When we identify strongly with our

Emotionally charged events can have

parents’ belief systems, they can

a powerful influence on our

have a powerful effect on our

subconscious beliefs. Some children

subconscious mind. Most of us mimic

who are physically, mentally, or

the same belief systems as our

sexually abused growing up may

parents and follow in their

develop beliefs that abusive

footsteps. But some of us reject

behavior toward children are normal.

our parents’ beliefs and identify

And it’s not unusual that when these

with beliefs that are the polar

same children grow up, they may end

opposite of theirs. Either way,

up abusing their own children or the

there’s no disputing the powerful

children of others.

influence our parents have on our future belief systems.

Emotionally charged events can have

We do this because we respect them

positive effects too. If a child

as authority figures and believe

wins an art contest and receives

that what they tell us is true.

lots of positive comments from

Authority figures influence all of

parents or teachers. The child is

us in one way or another at the

likely to develop a powerful belief

subconscious level.

in his/her artistic abilities.

Now you have it. The 3 things that Authority Figures

influence your subconscious mind.

Authority figures (doctors, parents,

Now you can begin to be more

politicians, athletes, professors,

attentive to what goes on in your

etc.) are people to whom we give the

environment.

power to influence us, and in some cases we give them the power of

Please let us know what you think

unquestioned authority. It’s not

Write to the staff at Lädy Millard

unusual for many of us to give

ladymillard@gmail.com

doctors that kind of power over us.

or HOLÄ houseofladypr@gmail.com

We respect their expertise and accept their diagnosis and prognosis without question. If a doctor tells us we have a terminal illness, we often accept what we are told and eventually die from the diagnosed condition. But there have also been

Program Your Mind.

Achieve.

Inspire.

Do not emulate everything you see.

This isn’t fulfilling or rewarding in the long term.

many documented cases of people refusing to accept a doctor’s terminal prognosis and end up surviving and living a long, healthy life.

Many people emulate athletes or actors or popular singers. They act like them, dress like them, and imitate their behavior. Others of us accept as unquestioned gospel what politicians or professors or

THE WAY WE THINK CHANGES EVERYTHING THE THINGS THAT WE CAN DO/ DEPENDS ON OUR BELIEFS.

religious leaders tell us.

OPINION / EDUCATION

ROBERT YANG

ROBERT YANG VIDEO G

+++

KEVIN McCARTHY // - Do you

KEVIN McCARTHY //

feel like living in New York has a big effect on the

Why do you think gaming is

themes of your games?

so popular in queer cultures? (for example the

ROBERT YANG //

increasing ubiquitousness of gaymers)

Most of my gay sex games are inspired by certain emotions

ROBERT YANG// Video games

or feelings that I've gotten

are an art form that has

from New York, yeah, but it's

existed, for maybe 25-30

rarely a direct connection.

years. That's really young

Right now, though, I'm

in art! It's so new, it's

experimenting with

barely recognized as art,

referencing specific places

and doesn't command

-- for instance, my upcoming

prestige or privilege.

gay bar game strongly

Queer people have always

resembles the Brooklyn gay

been interested in the

bar Metropolitan. I'm mostly

margins -- of society, of

drawn to older places that I

art, of technology --

want to document, maybe to

partly because we see

try to "preserve" it a

ourselves in it.

little, before these places disappear.

Are you trying to How do you react to the familiarize players with censorship of your games? more positive aspects of Is it something you fight queer culture? against? Something you've come to expect?

It's important to note that my work is "controversial" The censorship is funny or "taboo" only because in the short term -- it's video games are the most fun to be one of the most conservative art culture in banned designers working the world. If I was writing in video games right now or painting about the same -- but it's terrible in subject matter, it would be the long term, because considered totally boring each banning normalizes and passe to make similar the next banning, until statements about sex. But in banning my work isn't the end, shocking but rather it's expected. I don't like it, and I'm constantly trying to challenge it and push back against

I decided that these games had to be made, to make video games slightly less embarrassing.

institutional censors, but it's hard to motivate

- It's interesting to watch

people to care each time.

straight people play your games on Youtube. As much as

- Some of your games

they're shocked by the

(Cobra Club, Hurt Me

content, they quickly get

Plenty) deal with pretty

invested in the games and

taboo subjects in a

want to progress. Do you

playful way.

notice a difference between straight and queer players?

Some of them like them, some of them don't. I I actually don't watch many YouTubers play, because many of the straight men's reactions are just hyper-exaggerated barely-veiled homophobia -- cursing, making disgusted faces, as if sexualizing a masculine body is just completely

usually teach more technically-oriented classes, and I definitely don't want to have to walk them through queer theory 101 if they don't already get it. What matters is that my games are well-made, because that's what I'm teaching them -craft.

repellent -- and then I start blaming myself for allowing them to normalize homophobia like this, for their weak

- Do you create games with a particular audience in mind?

attempts at "look at this outrageous game!" humor, which basically consist of re-telling my jokes and earning ad revenue from it. Players behave very differently depending on whether they're playing by themselves or performing for an audience.

I make games partly for moms -- people who usually don't care whether I bow to video game genre conventions, but are very fluent in reading into culture. I'm told that moms really like my dick pic game Cobra Club.

The bodies of the characters in your games have similar forms, which are not the forms usually seen in video games or the Western art canon. Where do these bodies come from? Are they drawn from life or queer media?

The bodies come from gay culture, and I'm usually critiquing these types, e.g. "the toned pornosexual Brad Pitt from Fight Club" body type that floats around Chelsea. Video game bodies are usually overly caricatured for straight male sensibilities, so I like trying to be more subtle -- because it's not for them. xx

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you're not staying where you are +++ ANONYMOUS

REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM

KO Name: Lädy Millard Instagram: @lady.millard Website: http://www.houseoflady.com/ Main Hustle: Engineer Side Hustle: Architect Favorite Vodka Cocktail: Vodka Sprite Lime

Lädy is precise: every word coming out of her mouth is accurate. She believes in magic, and that we create with our mouth, just like God. She is magnificent… and very direct. We are meeting at Spur Tree: Jamaican – Asian restaurant on 74 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side.

Contemporary African beats are pulsing, steadily increasing as our dinner unfolds on a steamy and quiet summer evening. While Lädy takes the lead with ordering a crabmeat bruschetta, the BBQ pork ribs and spicy potato fries for us to share, I proudly tell her the Made Real story, “It’s not just a vodka brand, it’s a movement.”

The konversation could not start without Lädy telling the story of her mother, a Chinese-Jamaican woman who came to America, and raised Lädy, together with Lädy’s brother and sister, all by herself (after her husband, and the children’s father died).

Unstoppable, in a French kitchen in Quebec,

Canada she learned how to bake.

She came back to New York, worked her way up and ran a chain of restaurants for almost 10 years. She was the one who instilled in Lädy that she can do whatever she wants, so when Lädy announced that she wanted to be an artist, her mother said, “You’re gonna do it and you’re gonna do it best.” Lädy ended up going to the best art schools in New York City and got a scholarship to go to college. She adds, “YOU ARE YOU, so BE YOU.” A street artist and graffiti writer. Designer and stylist.

Lädy has always been working on many different projects. Her first job was doing art and graphics at Fubu Ladies, only to move onto designing men’s clothes for Rocawear, where she learned value of life, value of God, value of design, and changed the way hip-hop world wore clothes. “The only thing we have in our culture is SWAG,” says Lädy. The next job she had was a head designer for a clothing line, being in charge of eight designers.

However, as a woman, particularly as an Afro-Caribbean woman, she wanted her voice to be heard.

Through all of her “weird” experiences, Lädy decided to empower herself.

“Instead of touching everything and turning it into gold, I allow people to understand what gold is and touch it at the right point.”

“We need to move forward outside of the problem to solve the problem. The answer is always in the problem,” she says.

Our food arrives and Lädy is explaining to me the traditional Jamaican delicacies that we got. In-between heavenly, mouth-watering bites, I ask about her creative process. “I have a certain language within my art. Hand-style? That’s learned. But the subject matter, the way I deliver, the process of choosing certain things, the imagery, all that is inspired by God.” MagiCK inspires Lädy, and in her own words, it is a way of being and a way of understanding that all change is magical. “If you want to get from point A to point B, you swipe your magic MetroCard and it gets you to that place. All of it is magic and it’s all about the intention.

God created through his mouth; so do we. There’s a difference between, ‘I am good enough. I can do it’ and ‘I’m not good enough. I can’t do it.'” “MAGIC IS A HUSTLE, GIRL.” To Lädy, hustling means getting what you want as fast as you can, as simply as possible.

Another special gift Lädy has is being able to assist, encourage and guide other people. “Instead of touching everything and turning it into gold, I allow people to understand what gold is and touch it at the right point.

is and touch it at the right point. Someone needs to guide the people into the understanding that the universe is bigger than them. That’s real art to me. That’s my art: the art of alchemy.”

Tasting the insanely delicious food, we discuss the commodification of art and current politics. I suggest that art is a luxury. “No!,”she exclaims. “Art is a necessity.” As is “MINDing your own business,” which, as explained by Lädy, means putting your mind on your business, focusing and paying attention to yourself, not wasting your energy on others.

Similarly, advice she would give to other women pursuing their passions is to listen to your GUT(S) (=GODS), “Animal instinct first; it’s there for a reason. Love, second; inside your heart is your will, and then use your brain to figure it out; your rationalization.”

The importance of self-discovery is very much emphasized in AIR HOLÄ AIR (ARTIST IN RESIDENCY): a new artist residency and foundation that is part of The UNDR1ROOF Project. HOLÄ (HOUSE OF LÄDY) is the brainchild of Lädy who wanted to create more than just visual works of art.

“We need to move forward outside of the problem to solve the problem. The answer is always in the problem,” she says.

Our food arrives and Lädy is explaining to me the traditional Jamaican delicacies that we got. In-between heavenly, mouth-watering bites, I ask about her creative process. “I have a certain language within my art.

Hand-style? That’s learned. But the subject matter, the way I deliver, the process of choosing certain things, the imagery, all that is inspired by God.” MagiCK inspires Lädy, and in her own words, it is a way of being and a way of understanding that all change is magical.

“If you want to get from point A to point B, you swipe your magic MetroCard and it gets you to that place. All of it is magic and it’s all about the intention. God created through his mouth; so do we. There’s a difference between, ‘I am good enough. I can do it’ and ‘I’m not good enough. I can’t do it.'” “MAGIC IS A HUSTLE, GIRL.” To Lädy, hustling means getting what you want as fast as you can, as simply as possible.

Another special gift Lädy has is being able to assist, encourage and guide other people. “Instead of touching everything and turning it into gold, I allow people to understand what gold

Africa is a great place to start our Style conference :CULTURE // CULTIVATE // AFRICA // COLOR Ahh… where do we begin, ? The KIDS

THE IMAGES ARE X CC // PLEASE DO NOT USE THEM WITHOUT PERMISSION

Can you tell if somebody is gay just by looking at what they wear? Sometimes you can, even if they aren't in the standard issue gay uniform. Sometimes their shirts are just a little too pressed, patterns a little too well matched for each other,

We'll

cuts a little too form fitting.

all

But year after year, the gay style waters down a bit and becomes the fashion of the edgy, conservative straight male. The neon colored tank tops and reduced inseam shorts went

from

parties

the

to

dance

the

fraternities

beer

floors

of

stained

circuit

halls

of

fly-over

states

in

less

frequently in the fashion world, far from

exclusive to the gay male, but interesting

between

the

the

strange

designer

relationship

and

the

ultimate

consumer. The white frat boy doesn't want to be seen as gay, but loves the boldness of dancing on the edge of taboo. He could wear something made by or marked for Black people

without

Black.

He

women

ever

could

without

being

wear

ever

perceived

something

being

made

perceived

as for

as

a

woman. But there's a real possibility that he could be a gay man which adds that much more power to appropriating a gay look.

The borrowing isn't necessarily conscious.

We're all wearing uniforms, after all, and hardly think about them. There's variety in the uniform, some people get away with more than

one,

orthodox.

know

which

bar

a

person

based

on

their

uniform.

Many

queer

people are at the end of a fashion cycle, picking

up

the

pieces

people

don't

of

an

adopted

culture.

Straight

think

they're

wearing a uniform, but they always are.

The lack of variety in any Lower East Side

HOLĂ„ in

than a decade. It's a trickle down we see

considering

always

loves, hates, used to love but now hates,

but

they're

fundamentally

bar on a weekend night is uncanny. He's in a brightly colored polo with slacks and clean shoes, she's in a little black dress inappropriate for the weather. Many wear the uniform quite well and reaffirm its power.

So who are those individuals who pull the fashion down the totem pole? Who's putting on

the

gay

man's

clothes

of

yesterday

hoping to look good? It's hard to notice a change until it's ubiquitous, but someone is actively disseminating from the start.

The fashion industry is itself incredibly suspicious.

It's

a

corporation

that

profits from making individuals feel out of date by singling out a few as cutting edge. It even profits off the consumers who want to feel out of date, selling them endless amounts of items deemed uncool by haute couture houses, letting them believe they've left the fashion world behind. You can't

escape

the

uniform,

but

you

can

alter it. Your uniform might associate you with a culture, another individual, or a

HOUSEOFLADY.COM place.

It

might

be

borrowed

or

even

stolen. It has almost certainly been sold to

you.

But

you're wearing @LADY.MILLARD your uniform.

since

you

bought

it,

and

it, wear it well. Respect