Drama Dupree Reflects on Atlanta Nightlife, Community, and Change

Episode Transcript

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[00:00:00] Disclaimer

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DJ Sir Daniel: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of Queue Points.

[00:00:05] Welcome To The Episode

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DJ Sir Daniel: Welcome to I Come Alive: Stories of Black Gay Atlanta Nightlife. I am your host, DJ Sir Daniel. This series strives to tell the stories of Atlanta's gay nightlife from the perspective of the people who lived it. Thank you for supporting episode one. The response was overwhelming. Listener, you're in for a real treat because this episode is a reunion show of sorts.

Drama Dupree is a social media pioneer that defined what it meant to go viral in the early 2000s. Prepare to be enthralled by his tales of leaving Alabama to become the toast of Atlanta. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:53] Introducing Drama Dupree

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DJ Sir Daniel: Many of you may know about 15 years ago Yeah, it's been 15. I started Started A online radio show And back then they might have been calling it. Were they calling it podcast? They were calling it It was it

Drama Dupree: was possibly but it was a podcast that we used online radio.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes So we you know, I came from a radio background. So I wanted to be considered a radio person I wanted to be you know professional and whatnot so So I linked up with a very good friend of mine Who Was popular in his own right always had the gift of gab And I'm going to let him introduce himself because you may or may not remember this whole introduction because it was a thing.

It was definitely a thing and it put it put him on the map for sure because he's had quite a few viral moments with his own personal blogs and video blogs over the years. But please guest if you would introduce yourselves to our listeners.

Drama Dupree: You know, I knew you was gonna make me do this Greetings and salutations Ladies and gentlemen, you know who I am and honey, you know who I be.

I'm none other than the fabulous

Drama do pray

DJ Sir Daniel: the one and only Friend, how are you doing?

Drama Dupree: I'm doing good. I'm doing, I'm doing really well. I cannot complain. I'm doing so well that sometimes it shocks me how well I'm doing in certain aspects. And then in other aspects, it's like, child, what are you doing?

DJ Sir Daniel: Hmm.

[00:02:56] Leaving Atlanta: A Turning Point

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DJ Sir Daniel: Do you think part of you doing so well is the fact that you actually left Atlanta years ago?

Drama Dupree: Yes, yes, but and the but is I never planned on leaving Atlanta because I always tell people and I learned this later on in life. I tell people specifically that once I left Atlanta and look back on my time in Atlanta, the one thing I realized is that I never felt successful in Atlanta. Because I was constantly comparing myself to the people that were around me, and the resources that those people had access to, I did not have access to.

And the, be it whatever those resources were, I didn't have access to that. So, I never felt successful in Atlanta. But, and I also say that, um, that Atlanta was like the relationship with the

man that I was in, but the man was not in love with me, but I was in love with the man.

DJ Sir Daniel: And

Drama Dupree: so I didn't realize I was in an abusive relationship until I actually got out of the relationship.

DJ Sir Daniel: where are you from originally?

[00:04:02] Moving to Atlanta: A New Beginning

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DJ Sir Daniel: And what brought you to Atlanta?

Drama Dupree: I am originally from a very small town in West Alabama, no, East Alabama, Central East Alabama called Ophelika, O P E L I K A, born and raised, graduated high school.

Um, and then a year after I graduated high school, uh, left, um, I was actually, I actually was supposed to go to college at Talladega in Alabama, but I, when we went to go visit, I was like. Oh no girl, you ain't going to survive

DJ Sir Daniel: in Talladega.

Drama Dupree: You're not going to survive in Talladega because, because the one thing about me is that I've never been in the closet to come out of the closet.

DJ Sir Daniel: And I've

Drama Dupree: always kind of always been who I am.

DJ Sir Daniel: And

Drama Dupree: even though that took on many different forms, it was, I did not see you surviving this.

DJ Sir Daniel: So,

Drama Dupree: and because I also had an injury at the time, it was like, well, we'll delay your in, we'll delay you coming for a year. I was like, oh, okay. And. How I ended up in Atlanta was my best friend at the time, um, Craig Shaw, who's the owner of, um, Black Universe, the patent system.

Um, he had went to college at Alabama A& M in Huntsville.

DJ Sir Daniel: And

Drama Dupree: he didn't really like it. So he came home one weekend and we had went to Atlanta, we had went to Atlanta. And by this time, we'll get friends with Jasmine Bonet at the height of jazz, at her becoming Jasmine Bonet. She was Jasmine Bonet, but she wasn't like Jasmine Bonet, the, uh, female impersonator, like, the gorgeous, talented, body beautiful Jasmine Bonet that she ended up becoming.

She was like, at the verge of that, but people didn't acknowledge who she was.

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay.

Drama Dupree: And so, she had friends. So we, she heard me and Craig talking about, do we want to move up here? We was like, well, yeah, but we had to get a job and all that kind of stuff. So she said, no, y'all can just come live with me. And we was like, girl, we don't know how.

We were like, oh, thank you so much. On the ride home, I was like, girl, we don't know how. Girl, we've been on the phone for like two, three months. Like, and it was on the weekend.

DJ Sir Daniel: And

Drama Dupree: so she was like, no, seriously, y'all can move with me. So when Craig brought me home, This is when you, this is before we had cell phones, I think.

No, we had cell phones, but we weren't using them, so we had like landlines. So we had a call, and it was like, hey girl, are you serious about us living with you? She was like, child, you don't even know if y'all want to come. And, uh, that kind of, he was like, oh, okay. Um, so Craig said, well, do you want to move?

And I was like, I ain't doing this. He was like, okay, I'm finna go home and pack some clothes. I'll be back in two, three hours to get you, and then we're moving to Atlanta. And then he left, I packed some clothes, and a, um, suitcase. Okay. And an old flowery suitcase that my grandmother had and I threw some clothes and a laundry basket And my mother had just like came in the house.

She said what are you doing? I said i'm moving to atlanta She said what do you mean? I said i'm moving to atlanta She said okay. Um When did you leave I said whenever craig come back and pick me up and she said I need the phone number to where you're going to be and the address and the person and the contact person for Atlanta.

And I said, okay. And I gave it to her. And she was like, all right, I'll see you later. And I said, all right, bro. And that, and that's how I ended up in Atlanta moving to Atlanta. Yeah.

[00:07:11] First Impressions of Atlanta Nightlife

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Drama Dupree: Not finding out about Atlanta was like me walking into the land of Oz because that was very different.

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay.

Drama Dupree: Because, because I had started going clubbing when I was 14 years old.

Um, to this hole in the wall club in Columbus, Georgia, and I and So you've known me the majority, like a majority of my life,

DJ Sir Daniel: right?

Drama Dupree: I've always looked very young for my age.

DJ Sir Daniel: So imagine me

Drama Dupree: in the face. So not in the body. I

DJ Sir Daniel: said baby face. I didn't say nothing about

Drama Dupree: the body. So imagine me being 14,

DJ Sir Daniel: trying to

Drama Dupree: get into somebody's door with a fake ID that said I was 14 years

DJ Sir Daniel: old.

You look like an embryo.

Drama Dupree: Get out of here and I was like, oh, okay. So then, so then one of the drag girls stopped me. She said, you want to get in? And I was like, yes. She said, come to the back. She said, walk around the back. And I'm going to let you in through the back, through the kitchen. And I said, okay. She said, to stay back here.

Like you, like you're going to have to stay in the back of the club. Cause security can't see that you've been there. Okay. So I ended up getting into the club and I can't remember like what song was playing, but I know like if I jumped up high enough, I could touch the ceiling and then I screw on holding the wall.

It was school on light bulbs in the ceiling. You can like literally jump up there. And if you jumped up there enough times, you can unscrew the light bulbs. It was the kitchen to the right. The DJ was to the left and on the person who had took me then, uh, rest in peace was named Tim Foster, my first day mother.

And. From there, we, like, I introduced Craig to it, to Columbus, Georgia, and then we started going to Columbus, Georgia, a whole lot. And then eventually, like, the guys, we, no, go ahead, what's your question? No, I was

DJ Sir Daniel: gonna say, so, that ride from Opel, so you were going from Opelika to Columbus, and for people that are outside, okay, so people outside of, um, the South.

It is only 30 minutes, like in back roads or whatever, between Opelika and that part of Georgia. 'cause Columbus part of Georgia is south. No,

Drama Dupree: Columbus, Georgia is south of Atlanta. And it's like a like I think like a, like 160 miles from Atlanta. From Atlanta, I think if even that far.

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay.

Drama Dupree: So straight down I 85,

DJ Sir Daniel: straight down I 85.

So back and forth on the weekends, 30 minutes to Columbus, Georgia, so to Columbus, Georgia at 14 years old. From 14 to 18. From 14 to 18. So when did you get the gumption or when did somebody say, Okay, we've outgrown this.

[00:09:36] The Vibrant Club Scene

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DJ Sir Daniel: Let's hop in the car and head up 85 north to the city of Atlanta.

Drama Dupree: So it's so funny because, um, so this is another connection.

So there was a group of guys in Columbus, Georgia that we all hung out with. And one of the most popular guys from that group is now a stylist in New York City by the name of Morel Hollis. And, and I can't remember if Morrell does, we used to do makeup for makeup and hair for Diddy and then he did it for Wendy.

I think his last time was Wendy Williams, now he does Wendy Williams. So, so remember, I'm always one person away from somebody.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes, indeed. Charmed. So I don't remember

Drama Dupree: if Morrell was on that trip with us or not, but I remember the overall, overall artsy. Father, mother figure of that trip was a guy named Marcus Hunt, and we all kind of looked up to Marcus because in our eyes, he was like the most oldest and mature one in the group.

And Marcus had made the decision, okay, we're going to Atlanta this weekend. We're not partying with the kids in Columbus. So, um, y'all need to get here early. Y'all need to pack an overnight bag. And he still knew we were in high school. He said, I don't know what y'all got to tell y'all folks. But we're going to Atlanta, Georgia.

He was like, Oh my God. So of course we were like, this is the lie I used to tell him and I tell this story all the time. I would tell my mother I'm going to, um, stay at my grandmother's house. And I would tell my grandmother I'm staying with my big mother.

DJ Sir Daniel: And I

Drama Dupree: would tell my big mama, I'm just going to stay home for the weekend, big mama.

And I would be everywhere, of everywhere, but where I was supposed to be. So, we ended up going to Columbus. I think I was actually 17. Uh, cause we were still in the house. Cause I was 17. And we followed them through the, like we, I had never been to Atlanta. So coming into Atlanta, it was like in a movie scene, it was like cars passing by bright light.

You can see the city off in a distance. Um, it was nighttime when

DJ Sir Daniel: you, it was nighttime when y'all were driving. Okay. So you saw the skyline

Drama Dupree: and it was lit up. It was absolutely, but I still remember it. We were in, uh, My best friend's blue mustang. I think he had like a 86 blue mustang and We were going to track at 306 lucky street And this is where tracks used to have like straight nights on friday and gay nights on saturday And this is when the when the projects were still in the Where we're now the coke building is the tech wood.

I think those are tech Uh

DJ Sir Daniel: huh.

Drama Dupree: Uh huh What was what's over there? Not the aquarium the

DJ Sir Daniel: aquarium? Um all kinds of rich stuff. Yes Georgia tech basically

Drama Dupree: used to be here and so we're riding up to the pot through the practice Bitch, what the fuck? A gay club? This doesn't fit me in the context. Titus don't feel safe.

But it's so funny that they knew, like, the projects knew, like, Saturday was gay night at the club.

DJ Sir Daniel: And

Drama Dupree: no one had any issues with us being there. At all. Just for context, what year was this?

DJ Sir Daniel: What year was this? This

Drama Dupree: was 1989 90.

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay, okay. Whatever.

Drama Dupree: It's 89. 90. I can't remember what hip hop person was playing because I wasn't in hip hop at the time.

But I knew it was something going on with hip hop. Um, and so, it was a Saturday night. We pull up. And the first time though, we could not get in. Cause we looked very young and you had to go like this is when you entered. Um, I forgot the name of the street, but you had to go at like two flights of stairs.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes. You remember that? You

Drama Dupree: had to go two flights of stairs.

DJ Sir Daniel: That was on the other side. It was on the

Drama Dupree: other side. Right. I know the bad side. Okay. That

DJ Sir Daniel: was, um, Mary street.

Drama Dupree: So,

DJ Sir Daniel: Lucky Street was on the back. Yes, Marietta, because it would turn into West Marietta. So, Marietta was on the front. That was the front entrance.

Yes, so on the back side on Lucky Street, you had to come up. Yes, and, and I remember, ooh, I remember your friend Big Cheryl. Used to be work the door and I remember he he used to for whatever reason he used to like give me a hard time But

Drama Dupree: what we loved about it was that you can still party outside because even though there would be like Two or 300 people in the club.

There was just as many people outside the club. The let out was everything. The music from the Let And this is before the let out. Even let out. Yes. Even let out the club. And so, and you can still hear the music outside. So we just like walked around and we were so amazed at the diversity of black gay men that we saw because this is when we saw, um.

We saw black guys with the gold chains, with the white tees, the baggy pants and the Timbs. And we were like, and then we started the fifth queen girls. We were like, cause the first few were like, why are these women here? Like what is up with all these women? Not realizing that those were the girls, quote unquote,

DJ Sir Daniel: the dolls were

Drama Dupree: called trans women now, but then we just called them the girl.

Um, and we were like, Oh, okay. Because the girls in Atlanta look very different than the girls at Columbus George. I'll say that, and I'm going to leave that there. So, uh, and then it was the club kid aspect of it all. And, uh, it was, it was a time. I mean, you had all the kids from Morehouse.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes. All the kids from Morehouse.

The AUC kids.

Drama Dupree: All of them were there.

DJ Sir Daniel: The Job Corps kids. Don't forget the Job Corps

Drama Dupree: kids. Listen, the Job Corps. Yeah, okay. It was, it was, it was a good time to be black and gay then. Um, and so I think we left, I remember we, like, we left and we were in a day on the ride back to Alabama the next morning. And we ended up coming back again with Marcus and all of them again.

And this time we ended up getting into the club because we ended up going to the, we didn't realize you could go around to the back. So we went around to the back and this guy was like, y'all can't get in. He was like, no, he was like, well, help me. Cause he was drunk off his ass. He said, help me in and I'll get you in.

And it was like, okay. So he threw his arms around me and Craig and we walked him in and whoever was at the back door knew him. He was like, nah, man, they with me, you know, I'm fucked up. And I was like, all right, go on in man. And when we get in, we were like, what in the hell is this? It was amazing. They had at the time, they only had two levels.

DJ Sir Daniel: They had a

Drama Dupree: basket. Remember they had a basketball goal and a picnic area outside to the left. They had the upstairs. That was like, you can walk all the way around the upstairs. You can lean over the

DJ Sir Daniel: railing,

Drama Dupree: see everything that was going on downstairs. You had the DJ that was downstairs in the back to the left.

You have the stage. You, it was amazing. I had never seen anything like it. It was like what you think nightclubs would have been in LA. And I found out later that they weren't, but,

DJ Sir Daniel: um,

Drama Dupree: but it was, and you saw every type of gay person that ever was to see, and we all partied together, and the one thing I always loved about Atlanta back then is that there were no fights, there were no issues, there were, I'm sure like there were readings within the group, within whatever group you were in, but there were no like, there were no like, there Oh, when I get to the club, I'm going to beat that bitch up.

But that wasn't on there because that was my social media. And so people didn't have as many issues with people as they do now.

DJ Sir Daniel: And

Drama Dupree: the one thing that we always had was that we all wanted to get together and just party and dance. And that was, it was so amazing. So eventually that did lead to like me and create like, listen, My 12th grade year in high school, I, I am so surprised I graduated because when I say, I skipped school a majority of the Friday and would not be back in, in Opa locka until like Monday when it was time for me to go back to school, when I was in Atlanta.

Eventually, we did end up moving to Atlanta with Jazz.

DJ Sir Daniel: Now, do you recall, speaking of the dance floor and seeing the dance floor was packed? The dance floor were always packed. Do you recall the song that took your breath away?

Drama Dupree: Yes, it was, uh, it was two songs. It was the Strings of Life, which is a house song that came out of like 1987.

Uh, and you can Google it on YouTube. It's called Streets of Light because they're no longer playing it on Apple Music. And then it was Barbara Tucker's I Get Lifted. And those were the two songs because there was house songs. I always wanted a heartbeat because in my mind, if you had that good beat, you could do one way walk.

And so once I moved to Atlanta and was like, Oh no, bitch, I feel like the girls is walking because remember there was a part of the club downstairs. Well, when the, when the beat dropped, the runway kids was just take over that whole area.

DJ Sir Daniel: Absolutely. Just

Drama Dupree: walk from one end of the club to the next. So those were the two songs that always, that I remember like this, a hard House beat song, which I still listen to, to this stuff,

DJ Sir Daniel: the Barbara Tucker, the duck beats, right?

Drama Dupree: Yes. Yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

DJ Sir Daniel: Man. Yeah. You just, you just brought back some memories. The memories have truly flooded my mind.

[00:18:56] The Evolution of Atlanta's Gay Nightlife

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DJ Sir Daniel: And as we, so as we discuss the main issue here about those disappearing scenes, like you talked about tracks tracks was when they say the legendary tracks of Atlanta, it was truly legendary.

Like I remember. That being one of the first places I would see your mainstream straight acts come like the, the women, like, I remember seeing Trina fall through there. The brat fell through, fell through tracks to, to, you know, to enjoy shows and whatnot, to promote their music and whatnot. And just to, to get in touch with their fans, because at that time they realized how lucrative a gay fan base was.

But if you had to guess drama. Like, why have a lot of those places like your mark? Well, my credit is still there.

Drama Dupree: The market is still there. The market is holding on. And I'm still, yeah,

DJ Sir Daniel: holding on,

Drama Dupree: still holding on. It's like, it's like, I don't know what to y'all got on the land owner, but baby, they're still able to,

DJ Sir Daniel: and probably one of the only few black owned spots still, but if you had to guess why I have a lot of Atlanta's black and queer spaces all, but disappear.

Drama Dupree: Because of money. But this is one thing you also have to realize is that Even though we had black spaces We did not own a lot of those spaces because a lot of those spaces were rented out like on Loretta's I do believe was not actually owned by the people who own the brothers nightclub or the time was a brother's and then they end up Being coming 702.

Did he change the name again? Okay, so I don't think they actually owned that property I think that probably was just rented out in into infinity and then apparently infinity had a cutoff time Um, and that was sold to georgia Whoever tech

DJ Sir Daniel: georgia tech sort of georgia. Yeah, because georgia tech owns everything over there everything except the bathhouse for whatever reason

Drama Dupree: Somebody got tea on somebody um Like like even when I first was coming out in the like early 90s and uh late 80s.

It was uh, The palace downtown that got done away with. The Pearl Garden was, um, was somewhere off of Peachtree in the downtown area that got bought and sold out. So it's like, it was a case of we didn't own, but we had night clubs that we did not own. So when those people were presented with an astronomical amount of money, The people that own the property sold, so we didn't have anywhere to go.

Well, like for a minute, the gays in Atlanta had nowhere to go. So then remember, we had to branch out further outside of downtown Atlanta. And no one really knew how that was going to work because it was like, why am I driving 30 miles from, from downtown to go to some other club in a neighborhood?

Because remember when Trax, yes, when Trax left, Downtown tracks had to go to Decatur

DJ Sir Daniel: to Columbia Drive. Yep, and that old skating rink. I'll never forget that huge

Drama Dupree: huge But they do have a lot of like stars come through no campaign to several times Then I think Faith Evans came through a couple of times, uh, Nicki Minaj came through when she first started coming out Um, and so they did still have the like the popular like the musicians and things come out But we we had to leave downtown

DJ Sir Daniel: Hmm,

Drama Dupree: and that was the thing is that we had to nearly leave downtown

DJ Sir Daniel: What do you think the how do you think the what do you think the 96 Olympics played in that?

Drama Dupree: I Think they had a lot to do with it You I think they had a lot to do with it as far as property was concerned because they needed to, they wanted the space and they wanted the area. Because before then, remember, Atlanta was, the one thing about Atlanta that I always hated is that Atlanta was always going through a construction transition.

So whoever the new mayor was, it was like, oh my God, we got a new one. So whatever their agenda was, we knew there was going to be something that was going to be taken away. Whatever it was, it would always affect the gay community first. Because I forgot who got elected as mayor, but as soon as they got elected backstreets went away.

DJ Sir Daniel: It was probably Was that bill campbell? It might have i'm sure it was either between bill campbell or shirley franklin.

Drama Dupree: I want to say it was shirley franklin

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay

Drama Dupree: um I think it was shirley franklin because we thought that was really weird. Um considering it was shirley franklin because Because a lot of like other smaller quote unquote white gay clubs end up also disappearing during that time frame Um, and so it was just, it was the thing where as the property that we had in downtown Atlanta, other people wanted it, who had the means, and they basically got what they wanted.

And then we end up being thrown to the wayside. So that's when the shopper rail comes into comes into play. Um, phase one phase one phase one came into payment, got bigger play. Um, but now a lot of club. I don't even think atlanta has clubs like that Because the shop really enough closing now because I think they were supposed to do something to that area on the highway Yeah, they never did

DJ Sir Daniel: That never reopened.

Um, there was the jungle

Drama Dupree: the jungle Um apartment complexes and parking

DJ Sir Daniel: nothing but apartment complexes over there

Drama Dupree: but apartment complexes what? The Heretic is still there, but we didn't get to the Heretic until the um, until the Legendary Stars of the Century moved their show to the Heretic. Which is a big difference from it being at tracks in the jungle to there

DJ Sir Daniel: From your perspective, as you've gotten older, like what has become important to you when it comes to sharing spaces with your peers?

Drama Dupree: I don't share spaces with my peers.

DJ Sir Daniel: Please say more about that. Unpack that.

Drama Dupree: So, so the older I got, because remember I said I started clubbing when I was 14 and that was like, and it was damn near every weekend. And, um, and even when I did live in Atlanta, I was still going, even when I had to move back to open, like I was still going to Columbus or still going to Atlanta on the weekends.

And so when I moved back to Atlanta in 2005, 2006, I started working for the shopper rail. And phase one under, um, under Mario, I forgot Mario's last name. I'm horrible with names under Mario of my ATL production.

DJ Sir Daniel: My ATL production. I remember Mario. Under my ATL

Drama Dupree: production. So I started working, working with him and he was a great person to actually work for, to work for and work with.

Um, And so, so with that, I was always the behind the scenes person. Like, I was like, it was like, how, like, what things are we going to come up with for this weekend? Who are we going to book and stuff like that. And then the flies, I was the one that was creating flies and all that kind of stuff. And then we came out like under, under Mario.

It was, um, we came up with like merch, like t shirts, rags, sweatshirts, that nature. And then, um, and then. For some odd reason, he had the bright idea to put me on the door. And I had never been on the door, so in my mind, it was, okay, he said, these are the rules, follow the rules. So, oh, okay. So, with the, with the, with working the door, it was a lot of, F that I didn't know came with working the club because it was a lot of, Oh, I'm such and such

DJ Sir Daniel: and such.

And it

Drama Dupree: was, so I'm on the guest list. And it would be like, well, no, sweetie, there is no guest list. Oh, but yeah, but you, cause they know me. Well, well that's good. But I don't know what to say cause I'm not paying it. And mind you, at the get into the club, that deal was on like 20, 15, 20 bucks. If even that, if even that, if it didn't get it like 35, we had like a weekend, like a big week or a holiday weekend or something like that.

Like if you're supposed to be all that, all that. So at the shopper rail, it was not the shopper at phase one. I used to love the security guys because all I had to say was security. And of course they were straight men. Do with that what you will.

DJ Sir Daniel: Charmed one.

Drama Dupree: So, I would say security and they don't care who it was.

They were snatching them up and moving them out of the way. And then when I got to the Chaparral, I found it was a little bit different because that's what somebody said. They were like, um, depending on like, so, so you all know me as Drummer Dupree, but depending on when I came out, I was also going by Brianna, which is my name I was transitioning to, or some people just shortened it to Bri.

So somebody came and tapped me on my shoulder and was like, Bri. You have to be a little bit nicer on this door. And I said, well, no, they said there's a list. You said there isn't a list. So I'm confused on what list they think they got access to. And so it was, oh child, just come to the bank.

DJ Sir Daniel: So it was

Drama Dupree: a lot of come to the back.

And then eventually it was, can I just not work at the club? Can I like come before the club opens and do everything I needed to do and all that kind of stuff. So then we just end up taking meetings outside of that. But even in that, like working with Twan from What's the Team. When he had events in Atlanta and eventually events in Vegas, it was, oh, I no longer like this.

Because the, the fun, for some odd reason, the fun of clubbing, to me, had left. Because then it became all about, um, The people showing up, not, not having a good time, not partying, drinking still because the bar gonna make their money regardless.

DJ Sir Daniel: Right.

Drama Dupree: Um, it was, it was not partying, it became about VIP tables and booze, it became about, um, giving the VIP tables the booze, it became about sections.

It became about hooker. It became about designer stuff. People had stopped dancing and there was just gathering and my thing was like, well, you can't really gather at the club and have conversations at the club because the music is too loud. So the dance floor would be available. No one was dancing and I'm saying this because I'm leaving the front door and I'm going to see like, Oh, what's going on in the club?

Because I know we just like 100 people just came through. So let me go see what the atmosphere is in the club. And so when you're in it, you're like the DJ is turning. Yeah. And no one is dancing. And I don't mean like no one is dancing. I mean like, out of 100 people, probably 10 people are dancing. But everybody else is just standing around with the Child, you see this?

This outfit?

DJ Sir Daniel: See this

Drama Dupree: Gucci I just got? But you ain't said you got it from the flea market. Come on, sis. So it became a lot of that To the point where it was just like Like now, I will not do the door for anybody. I will not go to the club for anybody. Um, and I always tell friends, especially those now that visit, and even when I visit Atlanta, you can meet me anywhere in a social setting where we can actually have communication and talk.

But if you tell me to meet you at a club, I will not be there.

DJ Sir Daniel: What will, what does that look like for, for us? You know, we're the older gays now. We are, we've got a

Drama Dupree: function.

DJ Sir Daniel: Tell, speak more on that. What, what does that like us?

Drama Dupree: So we go, so we go to functions, but, but, but from what I see, we go to functions when the sun is out.

Um, we're normally in the house no later than we're not out, out of the house past 10 mm-Hmm, , we go to functions. Some of us may or may not go to brunch depending on how bad we want to turn up . Um, I personally do not like a turn up brunch. the dance on the table. I actually prefer and you know this. I prefer we go somewhere we can actually talk and eat and have a good time.

I don't need to pay for that. Um, and so we'll go to functions, we'll go to brunch and, and Like, and I text you the other day saying, I want it like, like, even though I lived in Atlanta forever, I haven't been to a house in the park because to me, that's not clubbing and people actually go to house in the park to date.

DJ Sir Daniel: That's right.

Drama Dupree: So that's the aspect of clubbing that I miss. So we'll do functions and I will even do a function if I'm inspired to do a function. Um, but we go to, we go to functions within a certain time frame. Um, and we'll go to house, the majority will go to a good house party, you know, when. Depending on when the house party is and as the older we get, depending on where it is in proximity to my house and yes, because I went to a house party out here with, um, that my sister Savannah Westbrook through and when I walked in, she said, first of all, you're early.

And I said, I'm giving you an hour. And she said, For real, sis, that's how you gonna give me as an hour? I said, you're getting one hour. And I hit my stopwatch. And she said, bitch, are you serious? I said, Savannah, I don't do this. I'm only doing this because you're my sister. I actually end up staying three hours because I had a really good time.

But at the third hour mark, I politely Escorted myself out of the way and I left and then the next day she texted me She said you need to tell me about I said there was no reason for me to tell you about I stayed past my time Anyway, and I didn't need to interrupt the party So I'm the person that would leave an event and not make an announcement.

DJ Sir Daniel: What do they call that? Is it called? Irish

Drama Dupree: It's just called leaving.

DJ Sir Daniel: No that yes, it's that but this it also has a name like an irish goodbye or something like that where you just You don't say nothing You don't say nothing. You just Do that homer simpson meme where you just disappear into the bushes And you're out And that's it and I think and you're absolutely right.

Um I don't know if that's because of how differently, well one, yes, we're older, we require, we require, some of us require more rest, um, standing up for long periods of time just isn't T anymore, isn't the thing to do. And there's a

Drama Dupree: patient, there's a patient thing there,

DJ Sir Daniel: there

Drama Dupree: is a I don't want to be bothered thing there.

But that's not to say that people our age still don't go to the clubs because remember a lot like a lot of guys my age because I'm older. People think I'm older than you and I don't know why, um, a lot of guys who, who are my age are people that assume that they're my age. They still go out, they still go out, they still get them on the weekends in the club.

Um, I'm just not one of those people.

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay. And that's Yeah, and I get it. I get it.

[00:33:25] Reflections on Community and Spaces

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DJ Sir Daniel: And I'm wondering if, like, do you think that the generations that have come after us. They don't, because they don't have to move in silence like we did, like we, uh, you know, we had to come up with elaborate stories of where we were going.

We had to take a spend a night bag and say, Oh, I'm spending the night at such and such house. So we could go change there before we head out and they don't have to move in silence like we did. Right. So do you think that's why there isn't much of an emphasis on preserving black owned spaces?

Drama Dupree: No. And the reason I say no is because. The black community as a whole has never been more entrepreneurial now than we've ever been. It's just that the concept for that space has changed. So, so we're not an access to those spaces have changed. So it's not that we're, so it's not that we don't, we're not opening up spaces.

The spaces are just different. So they're like people in Atlanta are opening up restaurants. Um, they are, which are, which are seen as nightclub. But they're not catering specific to a gay audience is just catering to an audience that is gay friendly.

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay. Yeah.

Drama Dupree: So there are a lot of gay friendly spaces that I've seen specifically in Atlanta, but it's not a gay is not a gay space specifically.

So there's a lot of mingling with the straight. Um, and now do

DJ Sir Daniel: you think that, about that, let me, that point right there. There's a lot of commingling, there's a lot of, you know, back then it was the, the occasional, um, fag hag that would come along with her, occasional Judy, the occasional fag hag. Then it started turning into the, the, the, the bridal parties coming to enjoy the drag shows and, yep.

You know, showing their behinds when they came into the drag club and now into the gay clubs. And now it's just the, the spots now where, because we have, we live in a post Beyonce world, a post Renaissance world where everybody feels. Welcomed and almost entitled to this kind of space. Do you think that has taken away any of like the specialness that we, that we felt coming up?

Drama Dupree: The one thing that I complained about, and the people are not going to agree with this. The one thing that I complained about is that I hate we opened up our community and I, and I, because I was driving down and I was visiting Atlanta one time and I had saw a billboard in off of Piedmont And it was a white queen on the billboard But the vernacular Was something that we used to say as the black gay It's

DJ Sir Daniel: one of our

Drama Dupree: slangs And I was like what the fuck?

And I said I said oh we they've gotten too comfortable with us because we opened the door black people have always opened the door and welcomed everybody So the black gays have also did that as well But I really do because I loved the fact that that remember back in the day black and gay had a schedule

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes,

Drama Dupree: and it was very linked to the nightclub scene.

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm

Drama Dupree: hmm. And even though I had even though I couldn't I couldn't be like Like I was out at work, but I wasn't Brianna at work. I wasn't drama Dupree at work, but I was still gay at work Um, so like remember monday nights was loretta's tuesday night Yeah, wednesday night was well wednesday night was gonna be the church service The palace is up in that somewhere in the afternoon work, um, Friday was whatever, Saturday was whatever, Saturday day was Piedmont Park.

Then you can drive through Piedmont

DJ Sir Daniel: Park. We had a

Drama Dupree: section of Piedmont Park on Fridays and Saturdays, on Saturdays and Sundays. Um, and, and, and it was, it was the, it was the black gay community. And then we opened it up. And then we open it up to, to the, to our black sisters, our black straight sisters or cisgender sisters.

And from there we open it up to the white gay community. And then all of a sudden it became a, um, there became this backlash of black gay men, especially effeminate black gay men. Um, that black gay men, the effeminate black gay men were trying to act like black women. And I never saw that because the majority of my life growing up, my black, my friends were black women.

And they didn't act anything like me. They didn't speak my language because at one point they had to tell me, we can't translate what you're saying.

DJ Sir Daniel: What is all that? Yeah.

Drama Dupree: I said, like, so stop talking like that. Talk to us like, like regular. I was like, okay. So I remember I had to like, I had to like quote unquote close, close to it from the gay language I was using with my gay friend when I would come back home from the club and all that kind of stuff.

And then, and so, so I, I hate. And I don't want to say, Hey, I dislike that. We open it up so much because now I'm singing in ballroom, whereas the ballroom community opened it up. And I saw a video the other day, a ballroom video the other day, and there was not one person of color. On that stage or in that audience,

DJ Sir Daniel: baby, that video probably was filmed in Russia because it was all in Russia.

Yes,

Drama Dupree: it was. It was most definitely filmed overseas. And I said, normally they would invite at least like one of the, um, I don't know what the people are called. They do the, the, one of the chance commentators, the comments, one of the commentators, the commentator was even not a person of color and that's fine.

But I was like, Oh wow. But they gentrified ballroom so quick. Once legendary came out, On HBO, it was like, Oh, that was real quick. That was like quick, fast and error that they just gentrified that quicker than they did the black gays. So, so I do not, I do not like the, I do not like it, but I get it like I get all the mixing and the mingling, but at the same time, there is still not a like safe space for, uh, to where it's just, uh, Because someone else is always in there and some of them do.

And I know that and I know this because I've even heard females say this specifically that, um, they want a space with them without black gay men there and I get it. It's like, okay, I completely get that. Don't invite us.

DJ Sir Daniel: Black cis, cis women. Yeah. Would like a space all to themselves.

Drama Dupree: Without us. Without men, period.

DJ Sir Daniel: Men, period. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Drama Dupree: Without men, period. But, you do know you had that one girl to be like, What y'all this? This Brian, honey. He gay. And that'll be the excuse to get me through the door and they'll be like, girl, you know what's supposed to be done. But y'all, that's fine. That's fine. That's fine. Or not

DJ Sir Daniel: only that, it could be that one girl that be like, Well, girl, my, you know, my man wanted to come out with me and that's my man and you know.

And so, there's always that one girl in the group that'll do that one. Yeah. That'll do that as well. So, yeah.

Drama Dupree: So, I always, I always, it's always a thing of, of, uh, You know, we didn't, we didn't have to, I get why we did because of progression of time and things of that nature, but we didn't have to, no one was suffering when we did not.

DJ Sir Daniel: Right. If no one was suffering, it was more of I, I would hear the straight women saying, Oh girl, I'm going to a gay club. It was a, it was a scientific experience. Like you would have thought they were, they were coming there. I'm dressed up like Jane Goodall with a, with a safari hat on and binoculars, like coming to look at the gays in their natural habitat, you know, they were on safari and.

Yeah, it was a total, it was, it was a fishbowl experiment for them, experience for quite a few people to come there and to just, and to be in awe at all of the things that were going on, because to your point, when we first came along and we started hanging out, the dance floors were still packed. The songs, I'll never forget the summer that I first, the summer I graduated from high school, 93.

That was the summer of Robin S you got to show me love. I heard this song ad nauseum that whole summer and every single night I went to to Loretta's on welfare night on Thursday nights.

Drama Dupree: Yes. Thursday

DJ Sir Daniel: nights were welfare night. So, um, um, You know, the part of, so the discussion at, at, at large is about these disappearing spaces and maybe they've disappeared out of necessity or lack of necessity to have these spaces because we're not in hiding anymore, but then what have we given up?

You know, what have we given up to be incorporated? They're probably going to hate, be mad at me for saying this, but I feel it's like when people always talk about, um, back in the segregation days, Jim Crow days, black people's communities were so insulated that we were, that we were also in within our installation where.

Progressive. We had so much money. We were prosperous. The money was circulating 100 times more than it is now, blah, blah, blah. And but when desegregation came, we had to give up some of that. So it's almost like, do we have to give up? Have we had to give up something to gain? To gain our foot on the stage, on the world stage to be put there.

So I get, that's what I'm exploring here. That's what I'm trying to figure out and talk to people. That's

Drama Dupree: exactly what it is. It just happens to be with the, with the gay nightlife scene that we've seen because, because the gentrification of cities didn't just happen like in Atlanta. Um, like DC's black gay scene changed.

Um, Houston's black gay scene changed.

DJ Sir Daniel: Drama Dupree. Thank you. for taking time out of your busy schedule

Drama Dupree: to go down memory lane.

DJ Sir Daniel: You are special to me and to a lot of, and to a lot of people that I'm sure are listening and remember you, of course, remember what was it?

Food stamp wars. I know they, Oh, Oh, Oh, They, you know, those things, that's, that's iconic. That's part of that is, that has become part of our, of our culture. It's a cult. It was a cultural moment. It was a cultural moment.

Drama Dupree: My child had went to the club. He did not know I posted that video. Maybe the way he had left the shop around and came home and beat my door down.

It was ready to fight me.

DJ Sir Daniel: Is this, um,

Drama Dupree: Tiki. Tiki. Yes, Tiki. Tiki was like, what the fuck, baby? And I was living with Tiki. We were living out on, um,

DJ Sir Daniel: off of Columbia Drive.

Drama Dupree: No, we was off Glendale.

DJ Sir Daniel: Glenwood Glenwood drive. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Drama Dupree: Yes. Mm

DJ Sir Daniel: hmm.

Drama Dupree: Yes.

DJ Sir Daniel: That's another thing. If you ever spent time in Atlanta, you're going to live in some everywhere in it, within the city of Atlanta, whether it's in one of the outlaying Counties like DeKalb County, Cobb County.

You were going to live everywhere in Atlanta, especially back then in the nineties and early two thousands. Well, again, I thank you very much for this conversation.

[00:45:25] The Future of Gay Nightlife

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DJ Sir Daniel: And, um, I don't know exactly where I'm going with this, but I, I, I'm trying to get to an understanding of where we're going to be in a few years.

I'm, you know, will there even be a need?

Drama Dupree: Will there be a need for, for, for what? For those

DJ Sir Daniel: spaces? Will there be a need for those spaces? Like, I, like I was saying, these young people these days, they, they don't wait for anything. They turn, they turn up every and anywhere. Yeah.

Drama Dupree: I was just gonna say, there won't be a need.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah. Mm.

Drama Dupree: There, there won't be a need because, because like you just said, the young, like the, the younger generation shows up.

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm-Hmm. ,

Drama Dupree: whether invited or not. I'm showing up my friend dj, and. I'm here. And then when I, when I come, I am bringing 200 people with me because of the power of social media.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes. So we

Drama Dupree: know y'all had a straight hip hop night, but now the gays have taken over or whatever, or whatever.

Even it was, you know, we tend to take over. Um, but no, I don't think there'll be a need. And I don't, and I don't think we, I don't think we were ever in, in Atlanta with the crowds that would turn out at the club. There was no hiding. Like, you really, you couldn't hide because the masters were there. You would run into either You could run into a person from school, a high school, college, church,

DJ Sir Daniel: a co worker,

Drama Dupree: co worker, and it couldn't be a thing of what you gonna run back and tell somebody because bitch, you was here too.

DJ Sir Daniel: You were there too.

Drama Dupree: So you can't say nothing.

DJ Sir Daniel: Listen, for those of you listening, for those of you who are old enough to have lived through the 90s, there was a time where, I think it was almost a rite of passage to be young and gay and work at a call center. It was. And we We all worked at a call center at one point, and that for sure was when you, if you went out, you were bound to see somebody that you work with.

Drama Dupree: I saw so many co workers, I was like, I had no idea. Cause, cause remember when I was telling you about the tracks and the guy with the white t shirt and the boots and the, that kind of stuff. The first call center I worked at in Atlanta, he showed up in a suit and tie. And I said, this is sick. And he was the same quote unquote straight acting

DJ Sir Daniel: guy he

Drama Dupree: was at the club that he was at the call center And I said, oh wow, I never knew He was also one of the guys that when I cuz when I first went to work as Brianna And I go through HR and all that kind of stuff He was like, he said, I didn't know who you are.

I thought you was a new girl that we had just hired. I was like, no, no, I remember you. We used to go to track to feel sick. I'm like, it's people with your wife, you know, your chains and all your kind of, we know it's after you,

DJ Sir Daniel: but we see each other,

Drama Dupree: we see each other yet. But no, I don't think that I don't think now I'm going forward.

There will be a, there's not a, there's not a need. For those spaces. But with that being said, I still think there is a need just for us to come together as community without the outside world. And that, that, that doesn't necessarily have to be a club, but back then, that's where, that's where, that's where we were and that's what we had access to.

So that's what we did.

[00:48:38] Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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DJ Sir Daniel: Ladies and gentlemen, that was drama Dupree. Thank you for tuning in to this latest episode and we will see you on the next go around. Thank you for listening to I Come Alive: Stories of Black Gay Atlanta Nightlife brought to you by Queue Points Productions. Special thanks to the Counter Narrative Project 2024 Media Roundtable for their support as well. Make sure you become a Queue Points subscriber so that you don't miss the next episode of I Come Alive.

[00:49:11] Closing Theme

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