I’m looking forward to visiting Tucson, Arizona for their inaugural LGBT Film Festival – Out in the Desert. My music videos Love and Amazing Grace will be screened on Sunday, February 19 at 12:40 pm at the Screening Room. I will be attending the screening:)
Its also an honor to have “Amazing Grace” be nominated for Crystal Cactus Award for Best Music Video.
It is an honor to celebrate the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin on Thursday, February 9 at 6:30 pm, with Tim’m West and Marshall Titus. Hope to see you there at the Center on Halsted. Read the press release Brothers OUTLive Press Release 2012.
The Brooklyn Museum is having a special “Out & Proud” First Saturday on January 7 to celebrate the HIDE/SEEK exhibit. Its the first major museum exhibit of its kind to focus on gender and sexuality.
I’m excited about kicking off the evening with a 50 minute set of your favorites and some surprises. So if you are in NYC, come on over and enjoy some live music. I go on at 5 pm – seating is limited, so get there early. I’ve rounded up a super band:
Marcelo Cardozo – Guitar
John F. Adams – Keys (played with Keith Sweat)
Clark Dark – Bass
Swiss Chris – Drums (played with John Legend)
Ishmael Jeffers, Cameron Bernard Jones, David Williams – Background Vocals
Come the Brooklyn Museum on January 7 at 4:30 pm and bring your friends… Its FREE and I intend to be fabulous:)
If you are in Chicago on 12/15, give a little something… Free Event… Great entertainment… Just bring a canned good for a good cause (helping Vital Bridges Center provide pantry services for those affected by HIV).
Robust Coffee
63rd and Woodlawn, Chicago, IL
Featuring Tim’m T. West, Marshall Titus, Shantez Marie Tolbert, and with yourn truly
Open mic from 6pm – 6:45pm. Feature set 6:45 – 7:30pm
Spread the word!
Tim’m West presents
The Front Porch
Love, Life, & Hope: A Celebration of Giving
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Free Admission
Guest Strongly encouraged to bring Canned Food
(proceeds will go to Vital Bridges Center which helps people throughout metropolitan Chicago impacted by HIV/AIDS)
Open mic sign up: 5:30 p.m.
Open mic 6pm, Feature set: 6:45pm
Marshall Titus, Nhojj, Shae’Marie
Hosted by Tim’m T. West
The Front Porch is a monthly multi-genre artistic set that began in December 2004 at Mocha Lounge, DC as an attempt to create an open mic & feature space in the nation’s capitol where all kinds of poetry, spoken word, Hip Hop, acoustic, and soul music could be welcomed by people of diverse racial and sexual orientations.
Taking off from his experience growing up with music, stories, and poetry on Front Porches in Arkansas, Tim’m wanted to create a space where people from diverse walks of life could speak about their experience without trepidation of not being a SLAM poet, trying a new song, experimental performance art, erotica, or reading material (from a page) that is personal and/or about spirituality or healing.
There is call and response at the Front Porch — a feeling of a front porch, campfire, or church testimonial resonates with audiences. No judgment, just love. With the help of Vincenzo Cornetto as Creative Consultant, Collette Preston as Asst. Curator, and a host of other artist friends, Tim’m's Monthly Front Porch quickly became the place in DC to see provocative, cutting-edge, independent art without the pretense or cliquishness associated with other area venues.
Initially a 1st Thursdays event at Mocha Lounge, The Front Porch moved to Cafe’ Mawonaj in July 2005 when Mocha Lounge closed. In December 2005, Front Porch celebrated its one year Anniversary at DC’s Busboys and Poets before being welcomed to its new home, Mocha Hut, where the Front Porch was being held on 1st Fridays until its more recent hiatus.
Tim’m has hosted Front Porch events in Oakland (AK Press, The Vibe Lounge), Chicago’s Spoken Word Cafe, Brooklyn’s Common Ground’s Cafe, Furman University, House of IntegriTEA in Atlanta, at Dallas Southern Pride, Oberlin College, Humboldt State University, and various other settings. Tim’m often tours with selected artists from a vast, diverse and talented pool.To book a Front Porch event at your college or venue, contact Truitt O’Neal at truatreddirt@gmail.com.
BEAR ALL: Four Sensuous Men Singing Steamy Sweaty Songs!
featuring
Dylan Rice, Tim’m West, Nhojj, and host Scott Free
@
Touché 6412 N Clark St. Chicago IL 60660
Saturday, Oct 22nd
10pm
Four singer/songwriters from the Bear community join forces for a fascinating evening of acoustic entertainment. From Dylan Rice’s passionate, folk-rock to Tim’m West’s profound rap stylings to Scott Free’s touching songs of gay life to Nhojj’s soulful anthems, there will be a wealth of musical talents on stage at Touché October 22nd.
Come here four of our best queer musicians Bear All!
This performance is in loving memory of Blair, who performed at the previous Bear All concert, and died in the summer of 2011. He will be greatly missed.
DYLAN RICE
There are few singers in today’s multitudes of rock acts with a voice as distinctive, layered, and emotionally exposed as Dylan Rice. In late-90′s Chicago, Dylan quickly emerged as a passionate live performer with a knack for writing memorable hooks combined with smart, character-driven storytelling. But it was the release of his debut “Wandering Eyes”—a playful homage to the world of scorned lovers—that really put him on the indie rock map. The CD captured critical praise in local and national media, making The Advocate’s “Top 10 Indie CD’s” list and winning an Outmusic Award for “Best Debut Recording.” Dylan eventually caught the attention of Columbia Records, which chose his song “The Lie” for the “Music With A Twist: Revolutions” (2007) compilation.
Riding on the creative momentum of “Wandering Eyes,” Dylan has teamed up again with producer Blaise Barton (Bob Dylan, Liz Phair) for the follow-up CD, “Electric Grids & Concrete Towers,” which traverses a range of literal and emotional landscapes. Some are real, some fantastic, but all are rife with sexual and religious tension. “Electric Grids” will secure Dylan’s reputation in the rock world as one of its most promising and illuminating singer-songwriters, and will turn plenty of heads. Let the buzz begin.
http://www.dylanrice.com
TIM’M WEST
Black, gay-identified, feminist, POZ, and working class, Tim’m T. West has embraced all of who he is and, with laser-beam precision, harnessed the power of his truth to illuminate, celebrate, inspire, provoke, and bear witness. Indeed, that Tim’m has been interviewed by such dizzying array of media outlets from Newsweek to the New York Times is a testament to his importance to the spirit and history of the times as a foundational maverick among black, multi-disciplinary artists.
Creatively, it was in 1999 while still juggling arts and graduate studies at Stanford that Tim’m co-founded the now disbanded, critically acclaimed rap group DDC. Widely published and anthologized in both academia and the mainstream press, Tim’m occupies a unique position among the provocative voices and critics of the contemporary Hip-Hop landscape. He is featured prominently as one of the critical voices in the acclaimed 2005 Hip Hop documentary, “Pick Up the Mic”. Tim’m has a vast history in HIV/AIDS Advocacy and Community Mobilization, with his work over multiple years with NAPWA’s Positive Youth Institute, and his graduation as a distinguished Fellow of Black AIDS Institute’s African-American HIV University’s Community Mobilization College.
As a solo Hip Hop artist, Tim’m released “Songs from Red Dirt” on Cellular Records in 2004. The critically acclaimed solo debut provided a musical complement to his first book, 2002′s “Red Dirt Revival: a poetic memoir in 6 Breaths.” In January 2009, Tim’m released his third solo rap project “In Security: The Golden Error”, and after a two-year hiatus, the critically acclaimed “Fly Brotha”, an Independence Day 2011 release which is being praised as his most polished project to date. Nationally, Tim’m has continued to host the ‘Front Porch’ series, a Spoken Word/Hip-Hop/Soul showcase that has mobilized performance artists, musicians, and poets in DC, Chicago, Oakland, Brooklyn, Atlanta, Dallas, Houstonand at various colleges and universities. Tim’m is selectively touring with his one-man show “Ready, Set, Grow: a coming of age story”.
http://www.reddirt.biz
Nhojj
Nhojj, the neo-Soul “genius of joy” whose essence is as breezy, yet magically mysterious as the sound of his singular moniker. Always blazing trails, Nhojj was the first gay Indie artist to reach #1 on the MTV Music chart with his same gender loving video, “Love.” Subsequently, The Advocate wrote, “Congratulations on making history.” The music video was featured in the 2010 Sundance Film Festival Queer Lounge and premiered on LOGO‘s NewNowNext Poplab. Nhojj’s self-penned “Love” appears on his “Love Songs” compilation CD and the 2x Velocity Award-nominated “Soul Comfort,” his most popular and critically-acclaimed CD to date. In late 2009, Nhojj opened doors when he became the 1st Black male to win an OUTMusic Award. The Alliance of LGBT Recording Artists & Performers voted “Love” OUTStanding R&B/Soul Song of the Year.
Nhojj has released 6 CDs, 9 singles and an “Unplugged Live” DVD filmed by Emmy-nominated director Bill Cote. His 2003 release “Someday Peace, Love and Freedom” won Best Musical Performance at the Fresh Fruit Festival. Over the years Nhojj has donated his gift of song to humanitarian causes including MTV’s Pos or Not Campaign, Lifebeat, the Gay by God Campaign, and has performed at various September 11th memorial concerts. Most recently he donated the proceeds from his OUTMusic Award winning, #1 Reggae CDBaby, single, “The Gay Warrior Song,” to The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD), an LGBT Rights Organization in Guyana. Putting love for his fans in every harmonic note of every genre he embraces, it’s no wonder Nhojj, the “genius of joy” is destined for greater heights in his soul-stirring musical and personal evolution.
SCOTT FREE
Scott Free, the queer-rock singer/songwriter extraordinaire, is one of America’s leading openly-gay male artists. His sometimes humorous, sometimes angry, always touching songs of queer life have gained him acclaim in both gay and straight media across the globe. In 2010, he was inducted into the City of Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame. He has twice been named Outmusician of the Year by the OUTMusic Awards – in 2005 and 2009. He also won Out Song of The Year in 2005 at the OMAs for his song ‘Another Day of The Cruelty’. His music video ‘Happy Again’ was in the Top10 Videos of 2009 on LOGOs ‘The Click List’. He has appeared on Black Entertainment Television, NPR’s ‘All Things Considered’, and Canada’s MuchMusic station. His CDs have received glowing reviews in The Advocate, OUT magazine, and numerous gay publications around the country. He was a featured artist in Unzipped magazine in 2005, and Bear Magazine in 2010. He received two Stonewall Society Pride in the Arts Awards in 2005 – Song of the Year and Producer of the Year – and was inducted into the Stonewall Society’s GLBT Hall Of Fame in 2005. He won Outmusicin of the Year at the OMAs in 2009, and his latest album ‘Pink Album (A Pop Opera)’ was the #1 CD of 2009 at Outvoice.net. He started this ALT Q festival eleven years ago, and is the host and curator of the bimonthly ‘Homolatte’ , the longest running queer performance series in the country.
http://www.scottfree.net
