BLACK JOY DISCO wants to celebrate Black LGBTQ+ culture in Washington, DC with performances, art, and custom mocktails, but financial challenges have prompted organizer and DC creative Lee Levingston Perine to start a GoFundMe to help fund the affirming space.

“I seek to raise $5,000 by Friday, May 17, 2024, to cover essential expenses for this significant community event,” Perine wrote.

About BLACK JOY DISCO

BLACK JOY DISCO is an Afrofuturist, zero-proof micro-festival celebrating Black LGBTQ+ joy and culture through music, movement, and media.

The event is set to take place Saturday, May 18, 2024 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

The lineup includes performances by local luminaries like Riley Knoxx, Pussy Noir, King Molasses, and The Experience Band & Show, a pop-up shop, custom mocktails, and a dance party with Baronhawk Poitier and live drumming by Asha “BOOMCLAK” Santee.

They are also creating a “Liberation Lounge, ” a sanctuary that imagines a collective future where Black LGBTQ+ folx can thrive. The multimedia installation affirms and uplifts Black cultural practices of joy, activism, and wellness through projection, soundscapes, and art making, including the Chocolate City Wishing Tree.

GoFundMe

Donations are expected to help ensure this celebration of Black LGBTQ+ joy can move forward as planned.

To read more and donate to their cause, visit the GoFundMe.

Visit BLACK JOY DISCO’s website.

Billy Porter is set to play writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin in an upcoming biopic produced by Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group Motion Pictures.

Billy Porter will play in James Baldwin biopic

Porter and Dan McCabe will write the script for the biopic based on David Leeming’s 1994 book James Baldwin: A Biography.

The deep look into Baldwin’s life and struggles represents the culmination of a long-held creative ambition for the Emmy-, Tony- and Grammy Award-winning performer.

“As a Black queer man on this planet with relative consciousness, I find myself, like James Baldwin said, ‘in a rage all the time.’ I am because James was. I stand on James Baldwin’s shoulders, and I intend to expand his legacy for generations to come,” Porter said in a statement.

About James Baldwin

Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin was a gay African American writer and civil rights activist who spent much of his life outside the U.S., writing largely about Black identity, activism, sexuality and race relations.

James Baldwin (Photo by: Allan Warren)

Baldwin is best-known for the iconic books, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Another Country and The Fire Next Time, which have all been turned into or inspired by movies, including If Beale Street Could Talk and I Am Not Your Negro documentary.

Production

Porter’s Incognegro Productions will co-produce the James Baldwin biopic along with Allen Media Group.

“Billy Porter and Dan McCabe’s talent and commitment to amplifying James Baldwin’s legacy and contributions are invaluable and unmatched for this unique and epic story,” said Allen, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, in a statement reports The Hollywood Reporter.

Byron Perkins, a defensive back who plays Division I football at Hampton University in Virginia, came out as gay on Instagram this week. With his announcement, Perkins is the first openly gay football player at a Historically Black College or University.

Byron Perkins on being the first openly gay HBCU football player

“I have come to understand that life is precious and I could be gone at any moment, therefore, I will no longer be living a lie,” Perkins posted to Instagram. “No one should have to live a life crippled by what society thinks.”

Byron Perkins (Photo Source: Hampton University)

Perkins is a 6’3” redshirt junior from Chicago, Ill. The transfer from Purdue University has appeared in a total of 11 games over two seasons at Hampton. The Hampton Pirates have a record of 4-2 this season in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

In an exclusive interview with OutSports, Perkins said he came out in part to set an example for other Black gay male athletes who are suffering in the closet.

“Especially at an HBCU, young Black gay men need an outlet,” Perkins told Zeigler of OutSports. “They need a support system. There hasn’t been an out gay football athlete at an HBCU. I want to end the stigma of what people think. I want people to know they can be themselves.”

Perkins opened up with the outlet, sharing the challenges of being in the closet and how keeping his sexual identity private had hindered his growth as a person.

“I’ve been self-reflective and trying to prioritize what makes me happy and makes me feel alive,” Perkins told OutSports. “I thought it could be just football and school, but there was a component missing. And recently I’ve been able to figure out that I haven’t been fully happy because everyone didn’t know who I was. Authenticity is everything to me.”

He is proving gay men can play football as well.

About Hampton University

Hampton University was founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School for freed Black men following the U.S. Civil War. The research university in Hampton, VA is renowned for its museum, which is not only the oldest museum in Virginia but it’s also the oldest African American museum in the U.S.