Safe Spaces and Dance Floors: Inside Michael Slaughter's Atlanta

[00:00:00] [DJ Sir Daniel]: The views, thoughts and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent

[00:00:03] [DJ Sir Daniel]: the views, thoughts and opinions of Queue Points.

[00:00:08] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Welcome to I Come Alive Stories of Black Gay Atlanta Nightlife.

[00:00:14] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I'm your host DJ Sir Daniel.

[00:00:18] [DJ Sir Daniel]: This series strives to tell the stories of Atlanta's gay nightlife from the perspective

[00:00:23] [DJ Sir Daniel]: of the people who lived it.

[00:00:25] [DJ Sir Daniel]: This episode comes on the eve of the 2024 Atlanta Black Gay Pride celebration and as

[00:00:32] [DJ Sir Daniel]: the city gears up to welcome thousands of visitors for a weekend of Black excellence, parties

[00:00:38] [DJ Sir Daniel]: and live music events.

[00:00:40] [DJ Sir Daniel]: My first guest is Mike Slaughter, a transplant from Los Angeles, California, who at the

[00:00:48] [DJ Sir Daniel]: turn of the century made a decision that would change not only his life but the lives

[00:00:54] [DJ Sir Daniel]: of many Black gay men in metropolitan Atlanta.

[00:00:58] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Enjoy the show.

[00:01:00] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I couldn't think of someone that I wanted to speak with more than the gentleman that

[00:01:05] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I'm about to introduce to you.

[00:01:08] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Michael, I want to show you some love first because you and I think I mentioned

[00:01:14] [DJ Sir Daniel]: this to you at the beginning of my DJ journey, you were one of the first people

[00:01:22] [DJ Sir Daniel]: to allow me space to just try out.

[00:01:27] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And when I tell you all, I was green.

[00:01:29] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I was very green at the DJ game.

[00:01:33] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I had just gotten my first controller with these huge platters and I had a laptop

[00:01:41] [DJ Sir Daniel]: full of music and I just knew I was going to turn the party out.

[00:01:47] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Those of you that are listening that are from Atlanta, you have heard about the legend

[00:01:54] [DJ Sir Daniel]: of the house in Cascade and about the parties in Cascade, the house parties in Cascade.

[00:02:02] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And Michael Slaughter is the procurer, is that the word I want to use?

[00:02:07] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Or the curator of those good times in that home.

[00:02:13] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And when I tell you, Mike used to open up his home to so many people and allowed us

[00:02:21] [DJ Sir Daniel]: to come in there and to just congregate, to have a good time, to let our hair down

[00:02:27] [DJ Sir Daniel]: in a very safe environment, safe and loving environment.

[00:02:32] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And I got the opportunity to spend there.

[00:02:35] [DJ Sir Daniel]: So I wanted to say thank you again for starting me off on that journey.

[00:02:40] [DJ Sir Daniel]: You're welcome. Those were the good old days too, weren't they?

[00:02:43] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Those were some fantastic days.

[00:02:46] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Like just to start off, just in this little conversation, like what made you want to

[00:02:52] [DJ Sir Daniel]: start opening your home to having people come over and to have those great parties?

[00:03:01] [Michael Slaughter]: The biggest motivator of that was at the time there didn't seem to be a space

[00:03:11] [Michael Slaughter]: where, like you said, people could come to feel safe.

[00:03:14] [Michael Slaughter]: They would feel welcome and it be in not necessarily a club environment because there

[00:03:22] [Michael Slaughter]: were plenty of club options at the time, plenty of nightlife options at the time.

[00:03:26] [Michael Slaughter]: But there wasn't anything that I felt was giving above.

[00:03:32] [Michael Slaughter]: Barely average experience and having a house that could host a large number of

[00:03:40] [Michael Slaughter]: people with a nice large backyard and a basement area.

[00:03:43] [Michael Slaughter]: It just seemed like a natural opportunity to provide something.

[00:03:49] [Michael Slaughter]: It started out was just a group of friends of us getting together occasionally,

[00:03:54] [Michael Slaughter]: and then that started to grow and grow.

[00:03:56] [Michael Slaughter]: And then we decided, hey, let's just open this up to more and more people.

[00:04:00] [Michael Slaughter]: And I think the culmination of that experience was that New Year's Eve

[00:04:07] [Michael Slaughter]: party smashed ATL.

[00:04:10] [Michael Slaughter]: Where I swear it seemed like the entire city of Atlanta.

[00:04:15] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Oh, my God.

[00:04:17] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Oh, my God.

[00:04:18] [DJ Sir Daniel]: We're going to talk about that a little later because, my God, if you weren't

[00:04:22] [DJ Sir Daniel]: there, there's just no amount of storytelling to help you get an

[00:04:27] [DJ Sir Daniel]: understanding of what took place in Cascade.

[00:04:33] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But again, thank you for allowing me to DJ some of those parties.

[00:04:39] [DJ Sir Daniel]: What made you give me a shot?

[00:04:41] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I've always wanted to know that.

[00:04:42] [Michael Slaughter]: Part of what we were doing also was engaging people in the community,

[00:04:48] [Michael Slaughter]: engaging, you know, we had somewhat inexperienced bartenders, right?

[00:04:54] [Michael Slaughter]: We had somewhat inexperienced just people helping, but it was an

[00:04:59] [Michael Slaughter]: opportunity to give them that exposure, give them that experience.

[00:05:03] [Michael Slaughter]: And then when I learned you were getting into DJing, I was like,

[00:05:08] [Michael Slaughter]: oh, shoot, bring them in.

[00:05:11] [Michael Slaughter]: Let's give them a chance.

[00:05:12] [Michael Slaughter]: Give them an opportunity to space because, you know, learning your

[00:05:17] [Michael Slaughter]: craft and experiencing and exercising your craft requires someone to take

[00:05:21] [Michael Slaughter]: a chance and somebody to give you that opportunity.

[00:05:23] [Michael Slaughter]: And what better place to do it in a safe space that we were providing?

[00:05:29] [DJ Sir Daniel]: For all those upcoming DJs, you know, you need places where you can

[00:05:33] [DJ Sir Daniel]: practice because doing it at home and playing on your computer and playing

[00:05:39] [DJ Sir Daniel]: on a controller is one thing, but learning your chops and earning

[00:05:43] [DJ Sir Daniel]: your stripes in front of people is a completely different animal.

[00:05:48] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yes.

[00:05:48] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And your group of friends started out, you and your friends started

[00:05:54] [DJ Sir Daniel]: out in these doing these parties and opening spaces to Black Queer

[00:06:00] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Atlanta, but where are you originally from?

[00:06:03] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And when did you arrive in Atlanta?

[00:06:06] [Michael Slaughter]: I am originally was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Baldwin Hills.

[00:06:13] [Michael Slaughter]: And then left L.A.

[00:06:15] [Michael Slaughter]: to go to school in Northern California, UC Berkeley.

[00:06:19] [Michael Slaughter]: OK, after graduating there, I stayed and lived in Oakland for a little while

[00:06:24] [Michael Slaughter]: and then met someone who introduced me to Atlanta.

[00:06:31] [Michael Slaughter]: And shortly after that, the decision was made that Atlanta is where

[00:06:35] [Michael Slaughter]: I needed to be and made the move in 1998.

[00:06:41] [Michael Slaughter]: At the end of 1990, well, now the summer of 1998.

[00:06:46] [Michael Slaughter]: Literally moved to Atlanta Memorial Day weekend, drove from Oakland

[00:06:51] [Michael Slaughter]: to Atlanta, got here Memorial Day weekend.

[00:06:55] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Wait, he drove?

[00:06:57] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yes. How many days did that take?

[00:07:00] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Three days. Wow.

[00:07:02] [Michael Slaughter]: Three days in my in my.

[00:07:06] [Michael Slaughter]: GMC, Sierra pick up truck and a U-Haul behind it.

[00:07:11] [Michael Slaughter]: But it was a fun trip, made a few stops, made a stop at the Grand Canyon,

[00:07:16] [Michael Slaughter]: a few other little interesting odds and ends up to make the trip

[00:07:20] [Michael Slaughter]: not, you know, monotonous and boring. Right.

[00:07:24] [DJ Sir Daniel]: So that was 1998. Yes.

[00:07:27] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Do you recall the the first club or bar you attended

[00:07:34] [Michael Slaughter]: when you got here to Atlanta?

[00:07:37] [Michael Slaughter]: So let's see, it was a whirlwind weekend,

[00:07:40] [Michael Slaughter]: so it was several on the same weekend.

[00:07:42] [Michael Slaughter]: All right, let's hear about it.

[00:07:43] [Michael Slaughter]: But I want to say the first was the palace.

[00:07:48] [Michael Slaughter]: Mm hmm. OK. On Sunday night, right?

[00:07:53] [Michael Slaughter]: Yes. They tea party.

[00:07:57] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yes. And I'm trying to.

[00:08:00] [DJ Sir Daniel]: So my recollection of when you enter into the establishment,

[00:08:04] [DJ Sir Daniel]: you enter it's like a little foyer, right? Yes.

[00:08:07] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And then I think you can go upstairs, upstairs

[00:08:11] [DJ Sir Daniel]: or slightly downstairs or slightly downstairs.

[00:08:14] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I don't think I ventured downstairs.

[00:08:16] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I was a little too scared to go downstairs for whatever reason.

[00:08:20] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But I remember the music thumping so hard

[00:08:23] [DJ Sir Daniel]: and that floor seemed to move quite a bit.

[00:08:26] [DJ Sir Daniel]: OK, so I'm not imagining.

[00:08:28] [Michael Slaughter]: Oh, no, that was that was everyone knew that that floor was sketchy,

[00:08:32] [Michael Slaughter]: but it didn't stop us from going right because that was the place to be,

[00:08:35] [Michael Slaughter]: place to be seen. You had to be there.

[00:08:39] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Hmm. So before you came to Atlanta,

[00:08:42] [DJ Sir Daniel]: did you party in in your hometown?

[00:08:45] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Did you party at all? And what was that scene like?

[00:08:47] [Michael Slaughter]: A little bit. In Oakland, the scene was real kind of at that time.

[00:08:52] [Michael Slaughter]: It was real underground. Mm hmm.

[00:08:54] [Michael Slaughter]: We had two gay clubs.

[00:08:59] [Michael Slaughter]: In Oakland and then, you know, one or two in San Francisco.

[00:09:05] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, there were a lot of white gay clubs in San Francisco,

[00:09:08] [Michael Slaughter]: but for blacks, there was probably maybe one and it was monthly.

[00:09:14] [Michael Slaughter]: And I went to that once and it was kind of, you know, it was

[00:09:18] [Michael Slaughter]: the experience there was that everyone was in a very protected space.

[00:09:22] [Michael Slaughter]: OK, I don't mean in the space that we were in, but within themselves.

[00:09:27] [Michael Slaughter]: OK, that, you know, being black and gay

[00:09:31] [Michael Slaughter]: and out in Oakland was not the thing at the time.

[00:09:36] [Michael Slaughter]: And so even just being seen going in or out of one of these clubs

[00:09:40] [Michael Slaughter]: that were known to be a gay club, you know, people were kind of,

[00:09:45] [Michael Slaughter]: you know, dodging and looking around and just trying to be real,

[00:09:48] [Michael Slaughter]: just kind of secretive about their life and their and their experiences.

[00:09:53] [Michael Slaughter]: And so I didn't really ever feel comfortable in those spaces.

[00:09:58] [Michael Slaughter]: Because to me, it seemed like it was a challenge

[00:10:03] [Michael Slaughter]: to even have a discussion with someone if you weren't part

[00:10:05] [Michael Slaughter]: of that group that they were with.

[00:10:09] [Michael Slaughter]: And then, you know, outside of that, engaging with people,

[00:10:13] [Michael Slaughter]: there really wasn't a lot of spaces at the time as well.

[00:10:15] [Michael Slaughter]: So Oakland to me was kind of an odd transition.

[00:10:20] [Michael Slaughter]: And, you know, the difference between what I experienced in Oakland

[00:10:24] [Michael Slaughter]: and what I experienced in Atlanta when I first visited,

[00:10:27] [Michael Slaughter]: I was just like, whoa, is my first experience in Atlanta

[00:10:31] [Michael Slaughter]: was I came for Labor Day weekend.

[00:10:34] [Michael Slaughter]: So coming from conservative

[00:10:38] [Michael Slaughter]: undercover deal, kind of like just secretive Oakland

[00:10:43] [Michael Slaughter]: and then now showing up in Atlanta during Labor Day weekend,

[00:10:48] [Michael Slaughter]: Pride weekend for Black Gay Pride and seeing everyone out,

[00:10:55] [Michael Slaughter]: everyone enjoying themselves, not worrying about who's looking at them,

[00:10:59] [Michael Slaughter]: who sees them.

[00:11:00] [Michael Slaughter]: Clubs are packed and people are having a good time.

[00:11:03] [Michael Slaughter]: And I was just like, this is very enlightening, very open.

[00:11:11] [Michael Slaughter]: And it was exciting. It was like electric.

[00:11:15] [Michael Slaughter]: I remember when tracks

[00:11:19] [Michael Slaughter]: used to have their legendary outdoor party block off the whole street.

[00:11:23] [Michael Slaughter]: And that was just just standing out on the street was part of the party.

[00:11:28] [Michael Slaughter]: You didn't even have to be in the club.

[00:11:30] [Michael Slaughter]: You could just be outside on the street.

[00:11:32] [DJ Sir Daniel]: It makes sense to pay money to go inside because you can really

[00:11:35] [DJ Sir Daniel]: just literally stay outside on Lucky Street. Exactly.

[00:11:39] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Hear the music and and congregate.

[00:11:43] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And congregate. Watch the sights.

[00:11:46] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Boy, watching all of that.

[00:11:49] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yeah. And how little people had on and or what they were wearing.

[00:11:54] [DJ Sir Daniel]: So I feel like we there's a consensus that everybody kind of

[00:11:59] [DJ Sir Daniel]: we congregated at tracks mostly because it was

[00:12:03] [DJ Sir Daniel]: that was probably the largest of the clubs

[00:12:07] [DJ Sir Daniel]: that you can go to and have space to move around.

[00:12:10] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And it really was the place that people will point out.

[00:12:14] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But you. It was definitely a place, let's say, 98.

[00:12:21] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I would say safely say hip hop kind of took over from

[00:12:26] [DJ Sir Daniel]: what was predominantly a house music driven space at tracks.

[00:12:32] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Do you recall was there like a song?

[00:12:35] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Oh, yes. That takes you back, takes you there.

[00:12:38] [DJ Sir Daniel]: You hear it and it takes you right back to that experience.

[00:12:42] [DJ Sir Daniel]: The boy is mine.

[00:12:45] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Ah, OK. Yes, that was the time that it dropped.

[00:12:48] [Michael Slaughter]: Yeah. And when I tell you, it was the anthem of that year for Black Gay Men

[00:12:54] [Michael Slaughter]: and everyone you'd hear cars driving by blasting that song over and over again.

[00:13:00] [Michael Slaughter]: And it was just everywhere you went.

[00:13:02] [Michael Slaughter]: Every club was playing it over and over again.

[00:13:04] [Michael Slaughter]: It was just that was the song to play

[00:13:07] [Michael Slaughter]: for that year of Black Gay Pride.

[00:13:10] [Michael Slaughter]: And it's ever etched into my head.

[00:13:13] [Michael Slaughter]: And every time I hear that song, it just brings back

[00:13:15] [Michael Slaughter]: all of that experience and all that feeling and all that excitement

[00:13:19] [Michael Slaughter]: of being out and, you know, the hot outside is humid.

[00:13:22] [Michael Slaughter]: But you don't care because everybody's out there.

[00:13:25] [Michael Slaughter]: You see people you haven't seen in a while or meeting people

[00:13:27] [Michael Slaughter]: you've been wanting to meet.

[00:13:29] [Michael Slaughter]: And it was that that song connects me to all of that.

[00:13:33] [DJ Sir Daniel]: You know what I remember fondly the most about that song

[00:13:37] [DJ Sir Daniel]: is how if you were there with your friends,

[00:13:41] [DJ Sir Daniel]: everybody automatically took a part.

[00:13:43] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Oh, yeah. You have to pick a side.

[00:13:44] [DJ Sir Daniel]: It's like either you were Monica or you were Brandy with it.

[00:13:48] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And if you would, you would see the dance floor

[00:13:51] [DJ Sir Daniel]: of everybody just like singing to each other and rolling their necks in

[00:13:55] [DJ Sir Daniel]: and just really pantomime along with the song.

[00:13:58] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And while I forgot how much fun

[00:14:01] [DJ Sir Daniel]: that song was when it first dropped and being

[00:14:05] [DJ Sir Daniel]: and being able to be in those spaces at that time.

[00:14:09] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Now, you mentioned coming here for Labor Day weekend now.

[00:14:17] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Was it officially Atlanta Black Gay Pride when you first started?

[00:14:21] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Or was it just Labor Day weekend?

[00:14:24] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And do you because that was a very specific time

[00:14:27] [DJ Sir Daniel]: when I think Atlanta transitioned into the black game Mecca?

[00:14:33] [Michael Slaughter]: That was the transition period.

[00:14:36] [Michael Slaughter]: I think that was really one of that was what it really coalesced

[00:14:42] [Michael Slaughter]: into it being there's a group of people in the life.

[00:14:46] [Michael Slaughter]: Atlanta had had already formed and had begun putting the roots down

[00:14:52] [Michael Slaughter]: for bringing some organization and purpose to Labor Day weekend,

[00:15:00] [Michael Slaughter]: which to back up a little bit on how Labor Day weekend even got going

[00:15:05] [Michael Slaughter]: in terms of in the life Atlanta was it was again, a group of friends

[00:15:10] [Michael Slaughter]: would get together every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta and have a barbecue.

[00:15:16] [Michael Slaughter]: And that started to grow and grow and grow.

[00:15:19] [Michael Slaughter]: And it's those kind of little accidental meetings

[00:15:22] [Michael Slaughter]: and accidental gatherings of people that begin to,

[00:15:26] [Michael Slaughter]: you know, take a life of their own that bring these things to life.

[00:15:31] [Michael Slaughter]: And so as the number of people coming to Atlanta

[00:15:35] [Michael Slaughter]: for Labor Day, black gay pride sort of wasn't necessarily

[00:15:38] [Michael Slaughter]: black pride then, but coming to celebrate as black gay LGBT people.

[00:15:46] [Michael Slaughter]: This group of people decided to get together

[00:15:48] [Michael Slaughter]: and formalize a organization that would bring again some purpose

[00:15:53] [Michael Slaughter]: and some activities and some education to the weekend as well.

[00:16:00] [Michael Slaughter]: So it wasn't just coming together to party.

[00:16:02] [Michael Slaughter]: Let's do some things that help empower

[00:16:05] [Michael Slaughter]: the people since we have a captive audience, we can bring them in.

[00:16:10] [Michael Slaughter]: So when I showed up visiting in 1998, I was introduced to this group

[00:16:15] [Michael Slaughter]: and the people who were putting on the group and immediately put to work.

[00:16:19] [Michael Slaughter]: Of course.

[00:16:22] [Michael Slaughter]: And that got me even more excited because that was an alignment

[00:16:27] [Michael Slaughter]: of kind of the things that I like to do, organizing,

[00:16:31] [Michael Slaughter]: putting things together and seeing the outcome.

[00:16:34] [Michael Slaughter]: So as I'm making my decision shortly after that,

[00:16:39] [Michael Slaughter]: am I going to move to Atlanta?

[00:16:40] [Michael Slaughter]: That also played a part of it.

[00:16:42] [Michael Slaughter]: So there was a lot of things that really influenced me

[00:16:47] [Michael Slaughter]: wanting to make that move and actually doing it.

[00:16:51] [Michael Slaughter]: And one of the things was that there was this sense of community

[00:16:55] [Michael Slaughter]: that was developing in Atlanta that was not just a group of people

[00:16:58] [Michael Slaughter]: going to a club, but looking to do more as well.

[00:17:03] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I must say, I remember the first time that I

[00:17:07] [DJ Sir Daniel]: went to an In The Life event, I think it was at the Host Hotel

[00:17:12] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I want to say it was the Renaissance.

[00:17:15] [Michael Slaughter]: Renaissance was probably the Renaissance.

[00:17:17] [DJ Sir Daniel]: It was the Renaissance.

[00:17:19] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And I had never been because I was still I was maybe what?

[00:17:22] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Twenty three, twenty four.

[00:17:24] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I had never been.

[00:17:25] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I'm still kind of just figuring things out

[00:17:29] [DJ Sir Daniel]: and not wanting to associate myself with events or be seen.

[00:17:35] [DJ Sir Daniel]: You know how you know we go through that right process.

[00:17:38] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yeah, that process.

[00:17:39] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But I do recall walking through the lobby and just being in awe.

[00:17:45] [DJ Sir Daniel]: In awe at all the you all had signage.

[00:17:49] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I mean, there was no question that the hotel had been taken over.

[00:17:55] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Oh yeah, not at all.

[00:17:57] [DJ Sir Daniel]: There was signage.

[00:17:58] [DJ Sir Daniel]: There were just so many booths, people, you know,

[00:18:02] [DJ Sir Daniel]: selling their items and there was literature.

[00:18:06] [DJ Sir Daniel]: There were people fashion shows, all of those different things.

[00:18:11] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And now, now that I think about it,

[00:18:14] [DJ Sir Daniel]: if a young black queer person comes to Atlanta now,

[00:18:20] [DJ Sir Daniel]: they don't necessarily they don't experience any of that anymore.

[00:18:24] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Not anymore. No.

[00:18:26] [DJ Sir Daniel]: In your opinion and, you know, the things that happen.

[00:18:31] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Why did that?

[00:18:33] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Not the organization itself, but why did the desire for

[00:18:37] [DJ Sir Daniel]: organization or organized events?

[00:18:40] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Why did that kind of disappear?

[00:18:42] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Or why?

[00:18:43] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Why do you think we can't tend to stray away from it

[00:18:45] [DJ Sir Daniel]: and just want to do our own thing?

[00:18:47] [Michael Slaughter]: Well. My my experience

[00:18:52] [Michael Slaughter]: and my opinion on what took place, and this is from being back

[00:18:56] [Michael Slaughter]: being in the organization at the time

[00:19:00] [Michael Slaughter]: when things started to happen.

[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_00]: You love black music?

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[00:20:00] [Michael Slaughter]: U.E. points dot com in the early days of In the Life Atlanta

[00:20:05] [Michael Slaughter]: and the community developing in Atlanta, there was a lot of

[00:20:09] [Michael Slaughter]: everybody came together to work together with club promoters,

[00:20:13] [Michael Slaughter]: the In the Life Atlanta folks, other community organizations.

[00:20:15] [Michael Slaughter]: Everybody came together to work intensely to ensure

[00:20:20] [Michael Slaughter]: that there was a broad spectrum of events that were available for folks.

[00:20:25] [Michael Slaughter]: And, you know, everybody wanted their piece of the pie, obviously,

[00:20:28] [Michael Slaughter]: but they figured if we work together, we reach a common goal.

[00:20:34] [Michael Slaughter]: And I'm just going to be blunt.

[00:20:37] [Michael Slaughter]: Please do.

[00:20:38] [Michael Slaughter]: At some point, as things progressed and the numbers

[00:20:42] [Michael Slaughter]: started getting larger and larger and larger,

[00:20:46] [Michael Slaughter]: greed took over a lot as it usually does.

[00:20:51] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, a lot of these promoters, that was their cash cow for the year.

[00:20:55] [Michael Slaughter]: Yeah, they may sustain their operations throughout the year,

[00:20:59] [Michael Slaughter]: but Labor Day weekend was the weekend they were going to make.

[00:21:02] [Michael Slaughter]: They were going to pay those bills.

[00:21:04] [Michael Slaughter]: They were going to pay, you know, those mortgages, those car payments,

[00:21:08] [Michael Slaughter]: all that was going to happen from the proceeds from Labor Day weekend.

[00:21:13] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Mike, about how many people do you think the city saw?

[00:21:18] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Say that that summer of 19, let's say summer 99.

[00:21:24] [Michael Slaughter]: Ninety nine, I would say.

[00:21:28] [Michael Slaughter]: That was at the the the the beginning of the rise of the numbers.

[00:21:34] [Michael Slaughter]: OK, so 99, I would say, you know, we were probably somewhere

[00:21:39] [Michael Slaughter]: in the 30 to 40 thousand.

[00:21:42] [Michael Slaughter]: And that, you know, that's a lot.

[00:21:44] [DJ Sir Daniel]: That's nothing to shake a stick at for sure.

[00:21:46] [Michael Slaughter]: Yeah, not near where when we got to the peak

[00:21:49] [Michael Slaughter]: and that's what you know, the numbers

[00:21:53] [Michael Slaughter]: are hard to quantify to some degree, but we got help.

[00:21:56] [Michael Slaughter]: At some point from the Atlanta Visitors Bureau on how to start

[00:22:02] [Michael Slaughter]: correlating our numbers because, you know,

[00:22:06] [Michael Slaughter]: we didn't have anyone out there counting everybody, right? Right.

[00:22:10] [Michael Slaughter]: Not everybody is staying in a hotel,

[00:22:11] [Michael Slaughter]: so you don't have a way to count those people that are crashing on somebody's sofa,

[00:22:17] [Michael Slaughter]: sleeping in their car, you know, whatever the case may be.

[00:22:20] [Michael Slaughter]: So they gave us a formula that said, OK,

[00:22:24] [Michael Slaughter]: you can count the ones you can count.

[00:22:27] [Michael Slaughter]: We'll give you the numbers from the hotel bookings and we'll assume

[00:22:31] [Michael Slaughter]: that the hotel bookings are a certain percentage outside of our host hotel,

[00:22:36] [Michael Slaughter]: which we knew for sure.

[00:22:39] [Michael Slaughter]: And they had this from the just data they had from previous

[00:22:43] [Michael Slaughter]: years of doing events.

[00:22:45] [Michael Slaughter]: And so getting that numbers from them,

[00:22:48] [Michael Slaughter]: we don't think we were really counting accurate numbers

[00:22:52] [Michael Slaughter]: until somewhere in the early 2000s.

[00:22:57] [Michael Slaughter]: OK, and that's when we were able to start looking at the actual economic impact

[00:23:05] [Michael Slaughter]: that this event, a gathering of people,

[00:23:08] [Michael Slaughter]: however you want to call it, was having on the city as a as a whole.

[00:23:13] [Michael Slaughter]: And yeah, and that's when the city started taking

[00:23:17] [Michael Slaughter]: a better and closer look at us and being more

[00:23:20] [Michael Slaughter]: open to the things we were doing and asking of the city.

[00:23:24] [Michael Slaughter]: And we started getting participation from the mayor's office and proclamations.

[00:23:29] [Michael Slaughter]: At some point, we were even getting recognition from

[00:23:34] [Michael Slaughter]: the governor's office.

[00:23:37] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, Georgia's traditionally a Republican governed state.

[00:23:42] [Michael Slaughter]: I think at a short period of time,

[00:23:44] [Michael Slaughter]: we did have a Democratic governor that was very helpful in moving things for us.

[00:23:50] [Michael Slaughter]: But in general, you know,

[00:23:52] [Michael Slaughter]: if the numbers talk and the money talk,

[00:23:56] [Michael Slaughter]: and I think, you know, as those numbers rose

[00:23:59] [Michael Slaughter]: and we started seeing more and more people, more and more money was being made

[00:24:05] [Michael Slaughter]: at these promoter and club events,

[00:24:08] [Michael Slaughter]: they started seeing more and more of an opportunity

[00:24:10] [Michael Slaughter]: and pushing their services, their events, their parties.

[00:24:14] [Michael Slaughter]: And pretty much overpowering the messaging that we could put out.

[00:24:20] [Michael Slaughter]: As just a

[00:24:23] [Michael Slaughter]: nonprofit community organization, right?

[00:24:25] [Michael Slaughter]: We didn't have profit money behind us.

[00:24:28] [Michael Slaughter]: We didn't have large sponsorships behind us.

[00:24:31] [Michael Slaughter]: So our ability to get our messages out

[00:24:34] [Michael Slaughter]: over above the noise of constant text messages and emails

[00:24:39] [Michael Slaughter]: that were coming from the club promoters just kind of pushed

[00:24:44] [Michael Slaughter]: in the life in Atlanta to the side.

[00:24:47] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Hmm. OK.

[00:24:50] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And, you know, and that makes sense.

[00:24:52] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I kind of as somebody looking from the outside, looking in,

[00:24:56] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I kind of see where that happened.

[00:25:00] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yes, I was getting the text messages, the, you know, of course,

[00:25:04] [DJ Sir Daniel]: though, if you go to one event, but and you're driving

[00:25:08] [DJ Sir Daniel]: by the time you leave, your car is littered.

[00:25:13] [DJ Sir Daniel]: With flyers.

[00:25:14] [DJ Sir Daniel]: So you're going to find out about other events in the city

[00:25:18] [DJ Sir Daniel]: at that time, at one event or another.

[00:25:22] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And so now, so we were talking about.

[00:25:25] [DJ Sir Daniel]: The city taking notice.

[00:25:28] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yes. And when you look, when I think back on that,

[00:25:34] [DJ Sir Daniel]: how the public kind of was gasping and gagging, like,

[00:25:38] [DJ Sir Daniel]: where did all these black gay men come from all of a sudden?

[00:25:41] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Right. It's like we we just landed

[00:25:44] [DJ Sir Daniel]: from, you know, from outer space.

[00:25:47] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But in your opinion, like just thinking back on it.

[00:25:52] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Like, how do you think the city changed

[00:25:56] [DJ Sir Daniel]: when it realized or they could not ignore the fact

[00:26:01] [DJ Sir Daniel]: that it had such a large black gay population?

[00:26:05] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Because as you said, you came on a Labor Day weekend

[00:26:09] [DJ Sir Daniel]: and ended up moving fast for two to three years.

[00:26:12] [DJ Sir Daniel]: The population, I'm sure, more than doubled.

[00:26:15] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Oh, yeah. After those pride weekends became more organized.

[00:26:20] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And like, what do you think?

[00:26:24] [DJ Sir Daniel]: The city of Atlanta owes us, don't you think?

[00:26:28] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, of course they do.

[00:26:30] [Michael Slaughter]: Right. I'd be a fool to say they didn't.

[00:26:34] [Michael Slaughter]: I will say that for a period of time, the city of Atlanta.

[00:26:39] [Michael Slaughter]: Open the doors.

[00:26:42] [Michael Slaughter]: They open the doors.

[00:26:43] [Michael Slaughter]: What do you need us to do?

[00:26:45] [Michael Slaughter]: What can we do to help?

[00:26:46] [Michael Slaughter]: What can we provide?

[00:26:48] [Michael Slaughter]: And out of that became conversations.

[00:26:51] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, I when I was a board member within the Life Atlanta,

[00:26:55] [Michael Slaughter]: it was regular occurrence that I would have a meeting

[00:26:58] [Michael Slaughter]: with the mayor at the mayor's office.

[00:27:00] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And this was Shirley Franklin at the time.

[00:27:03] [Michael Slaughter]: Shirley Franklin.

[00:27:04] [Michael Slaughter]: And then who followed her?

[00:27:06] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I'm going to look that up, but continue.

[00:27:09] [DJ Sir Daniel]: You would get meetings and the doors were wide open.

[00:27:12] [DJ Sir Daniel]: The communication was wide open.

[00:27:13] [Michael Slaughter]: Communication was wide open.

[00:27:16] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, we would bounce off our ideas to the city on what we wanted to do

[00:27:20] [Michael Slaughter]: and give them our whole itinerary of what we were doing.

[00:27:24] [Michael Slaughter]: They were publishing it on their website.

[00:27:26] [Michael Slaughter]: It was being published on the Atlanta visitors and convention bureaus website,

[00:27:32] [Michael Slaughter]: which I thought that opened a lot of, you know,

[00:27:36] [Michael Slaughter]: when we started getting that type of recognition and ability

[00:27:40] [Michael Slaughter]: to have our events listed in these very public spaces

[00:27:43] [Michael Slaughter]: where the Atlanta Pride, which is the traditionally white pride organization.

[00:27:50] [Michael Slaughter]: Right. Right.

[00:27:51] [Michael Slaughter]: Had those privileges for years.

[00:27:55] [Michael Slaughter]: Right. And when we started getting that

[00:27:57] [Michael Slaughter]: that recognition and ability to be at the table.

[00:28:01] [Michael Slaughter]: We could be present.

[00:28:03] [Michael Slaughter]: We could have conversations.

[00:28:06] [Michael Slaughter]: I think more and more things within the city started to coalesce

[00:28:12] [Michael Slaughter]: around recognizing the large number of LGBTQ people in the city.

[00:28:17] [Michael Slaughter]: And it was shortly after that we got the first

[00:28:21] [Michael Slaughter]: liaison on the police department, you know, an LGBTQ liaison.

[00:28:28] [Michael Slaughter]: And so things like that started changing and that benefited everybody.

[00:28:33] [Michael Slaughter]: And, you know, a lot of these little things that people don't really notice

[00:28:37] [Michael Slaughter]: or don't pay attention to.

[00:28:39] [Michael Slaughter]: But there was a lot of underground work that made that happen.

[00:28:43] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Definitely. So in 2010, Atlanta elected

[00:28:46] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Kaseem Reed as the mayor.

[00:28:49] [Michael Slaughter]: That's right. It was Kaseem Reed.

[00:28:51] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yes. It was Kaseem back in 2010.

[00:28:53] [DJ Sir Daniel]: It was a K. Right.

[00:28:55] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And I'm like, I can see his face, but it was definitely Kaseem Reed.

[00:28:59] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And you mentioned the city of Atlanta having a police liaison.

[00:29:05] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And I don't think what today you can you can find

[00:29:09] [DJ Sir Daniel]: police support in some certain major cities

[00:29:12] [DJ Sir Daniel]: when it comes to pride events across the country.

[00:29:17] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But I think that was very forward.

[00:29:20] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I had never seen it before.

[00:29:21] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I was even surprised to see the the black

[00:29:25] [DJ Sir Daniel]: gay officers like out.

[00:29:29] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And being a part of the actual events and being there.

[00:29:34] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And they had they had their markings showing that they were not only

[00:29:39] [DJ Sir Daniel]: police, but they were also part of the community.

[00:29:41] [DJ Sir Daniel]: So I think that what I never you know, I would have never connected the two.

[00:29:46] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But because of being a part of those organizations,

[00:29:50] [DJ Sir Daniel]: help that and help bring that, you know, little sense of safety.

[00:29:56] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Right. Right here, because there's not other

[00:29:58] [DJ Sir Daniel]: there's not too many other cities where black and gay people feel safe.

[00:30:04] [Michael Slaughter]: Exactly.

[00:30:05] [Michael Slaughter]: It was an interesting connection with the police.

[00:30:08] [Michael Slaughter]: I just remember we used to go to a club out in

[00:30:13] [Michael Slaughter]: Stone Mountain.

[00:30:14] [Michael Slaughter]: Phase one phase one.

[00:30:17] [Michael Slaughter]: And there were a number of

[00:30:21] [Michael Slaughter]: Atlanta PD officers that would party there with us on those nights.

[00:30:26] [Michael Slaughter]: And it was always fun to see they let their hair down

[00:30:30] [Michael Slaughter]: and you them during the day in uniform.

[00:30:33] [Michael Slaughter]: And they're just as professional as anybody else.

[00:30:35] [Michael Slaughter]: But they were there and they were part of the community.

[00:30:38] [Michael Slaughter]: They knew what was going on.

[00:30:39] [Michael Slaughter]: And I think in a lot of senses, they shielded us from some of the scrutiny

[00:30:43] [Michael Slaughter]: or potential bad treatment that may have been,

[00:30:48] [Michael Slaughter]: you know, potentially perpetrated against our community during certain events.

[00:30:53] [Michael Slaughter]: And, you know, having them there, like you said, having that safety,

[00:30:57] [Michael Slaughter]: having the liaison, it put everybody at ease.

[00:31:00] [Michael Slaughter]: Yeah. Because you weren't fearing that you're going to be arrested

[00:31:03] [Michael Slaughter]: just for being a gay person. Exactly.

[00:31:05] [Michael Slaughter]: Walking out of Bulldogs at three in the morning.

[00:31:08] [Michael Slaughter]: There's that.

[00:31:10] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And you were you might get into a fight.

[00:31:12] [DJ Sir Daniel]: That's a different story.

[00:31:13] [DJ Sir Daniel]: You would get into a fight with another patron,

[00:31:15] [DJ Sir Daniel]: but the officer wasn't going to try and beat you up.

[00:31:17] [DJ Sir Daniel]: That's for sure. Right.

[00:31:19] [DJ Sir Daniel]: So we talked about the promoters

[00:31:22] [DJ Sir Daniel]: kind of throwing their dick on the table, as it were,

[00:31:25] [DJ Sir Daniel]: when it came to staking claim and trying to get their piece

[00:31:29] [DJ Sir Daniel]: and get larger pieces of the pie. Yes.

[00:31:32] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Then why? In your opinion, where are all of those people?

[00:31:37] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Where are those spaces, you know, that we used to have?

[00:31:42] [DJ Sir Daniel]: There would be at least 10 options for you to go somewhere

[00:31:47] [DJ Sir Daniel]: during the week or the weekend, you know.

[00:31:50] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But now we're down to a very select few.

[00:31:53] [DJ Sir Daniel]: We're down to maybe a handful of places to go.

[00:31:57] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And it's not just clubs, it's lounges, it's restaurants.

[00:32:01] [DJ Sir Daniel]: You know, we used to be able to go to Joe's on Juniper.

[00:32:05] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Right. And Einstein's.

[00:32:07] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But now all of those are gone.

[00:32:09] [DJ Sir Daniel]: So in your opinion, what happened to the scene?

[00:32:13] [DJ Sir Daniel]: What happened to all of these black and queer spaces?

[00:32:17] [Michael Slaughter]: I think economics.

[00:32:18] [Michael Slaughter]: Mm hmm. When you really look at it, it comes down to economics.

[00:32:22] [Michael Slaughter]: And

[00:32:24] [Michael Slaughter]: as a community, we're not insulated from

[00:32:28] [Michael Slaughter]: the changes of

[00:32:31] [Michael Slaughter]: a metropolitan area.

[00:32:33] [Michael Slaughter]: There was a period of time when Atlanta went through a culling,

[00:32:36] [Michael Slaughter]: so to speak, of bars and clubs and decimated Buckhead

[00:32:44] [Michael Slaughter]: because of potential for violence.

[00:32:47] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, there were one or two incidents, but that was enough to.

[00:32:52] [Michael Slaughter]: And still fear in the residents of Buckhead to push for the closure of

[00:32:58] [Michael Slaughter]: Buckhead as a nightlife center, and that affected the whole city,

[00:33:02] [Michael Slaughter]: in my opinion, because now the perception of Atlanta

[00:33:05] [Michael Slaughter]: as a as a Mecca for nightlife has been tarnished.

[00:33:11] [Michael Slaughter]: But then when you move into the spaces

[00:33:13] [Michael Slaughter]: that we typically occupied,

[00:33:19] [Michael Slaughter]: these were not high end clubs.

[00:33:21] [Michael Slaughter]: They were lower end venues.

[00:33:24] [Michael Slaughter]: Most of them didn't have a lot of amenities.

[00:33:28] [Michael Slaughter]: I would wager to say a number of them probably were not code compliant.

[00:33:34] [Michael Slaughter]: Could have been a little dangerous

[00:33:36] [Michael Slaughter]: or getting out or exactly.

[00:33:40] [Michael Slaughter]: And

[00:33:41] [Michael Slaughter]: we as a community didn't own any of these spaces.

[00:33:46] [Michael Slaughter]: We leased

[00:33:49] [Michael Slaughter]: or promoted an event in the space on a night,

[00:33:56] [Michael Slaughter]: but there was no outright ownership

[00:34:00] [Michael Slaughter]: of a lot of these venues.

[00:34:02] [Michael Slaughter]: And that

[00:34:05] [Michael Slaughter]: is a barrier in some degree, because

[00:34:10] [Michael Slaughter]: if the business decides to change what they're doing with their space,

[00:34:14] [Michael Slaughter]: that's going to affect you as a promoter or tenant in that in that venue.

[00:34:19] [Michael Slaughter]: And as the city changes and develops

[00:34:22] [Michael Slaughter]: different areas that drives changes in what those venues can charge

[00:34:28] [Michael Slaughter]: or what they perceive they can charge and who they perceive would be their

[00:34:32] [Michael Slaughter]: best clientele, so if they decide, OK, I'm no longer

[00:34:36] [Michael Slaughter]: quote unquote desperate enough to have a gay night.

[00:34:40] [Michael Slaughter]: I can just squeeze that tenant out,

[00:34:43] [Michael Slaughter]: focus on my higher end clients and get my money.

[00:34:49] [Michael Slaughter]: And so now the spaces that we

[00:34:51] [Michael Slaughter]: traditionally had a night or two to have for ourselves are gone.

[00:34:59] [Michael Slaughter]: And

[00:35:01] [Michael Slaughter]: I think that's been a shift that you see

[00:35:04] [Michael Slaughter]: throughout other cities as well, not just Atlanta, but Atlanta.

[00:35:08] [Michael Slaughter]: I think that hit the hardest because we

[00:35:10] [Michael Slaughter]: did have such a diverse number of venues,

[00:35:15] [Michael Slaughter]: a diverse number of promoters.

[00:35:18] [Michael Slaughter]: And then

[00:35:20] [Michael Slaughter]: I'm going to throw it out there.

[00:35:22] [Michael Slaughter]: There was also the rivalry between the promoters.

[00:35:27] [Michael Slaughter]: And I

[00:35:28] [Michael Slaughter]: from what I've seen there, the the

[00:35:33] [Michael Slaughter]: battles between promoters did a fair amount of damage.

[00:35:37] [Michael Slaughter]: We lost a number of promoters through those battles, you know,

[00:35:42] [Michael Slaughter]: blackballing entertainers, you know, if you go work at this

[00:35:46] [Michael Slaughter]: for that other promoter, you can't work for me, you know,

[00:35:49] [Michael Slaughter]: or I'm going to write an exclusive contract that you can only work for us.

[00:35:55] [Michael Slaughter]: So you can't go work somewhere else,

[00:35:57] [Michael Slaughter]: but you only have an event two nights a week that's not competing with somebody

[00:36:02] [Michael Slaughter]: else's event that's on another night, but you've excluded these people from

[00:36:06] [Michael Slaughter]: working at another location because that puts you as an

[00:36:12] [Michael Slaughter]: advantage and your competition at a disadvantage.

[00:36:16] [Michael Slaughter]: And so, you know, a lot of that took place in the mid 2000s.

[00:36:23] [Michael Slaughter]: And that's when you started seeing a drop

[00:36:25] [Michael Slaughter]: of the number of different club promoters and the number of different types of

[00:36:31] [Michael Slaughter]: events that were being put on, and we've kind of settled down to

[00:36:35] [Michael Slaughter]: a handful that if you pull the veil back, it's really all one or two people.

[00:36:43] [Michael Slaughter]: And so.

[00:36:45] [Michael Slaughter]: You know that that to me, that was a damper on.

[00:36:50] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, the traditional night life

[00:36:53] [Michael Slaughter]: that people were used to and excited about in Atlanta.

[00:36:57] [Michael Slaughter]: You know, we've got new things going on now.

[00:36:59] [Michael Slaughter]: We've got new events coming through now

[00:37:01] [Michael Slaughter]: that are bringing back a new excitement for the younger generation

[00:37:06] [Michael Slaughter]: that they're energized about.

[00:37:09] [Michael Slaughter]: But when you look at someone my age or in our age group, yes,

[00:37:15] [Michael Slaughter]: you know, we're looking at it from a different perspective and saying,

[00:37:18] [Michael Slaughter]: you know, that's cute.

[00:37:21] [Michael Slaughter]: That's that, you know, I don't know if I want to be,

[00:37:23] [Michael Slaughter]: you know, have my cheeks out of deviant

[00:37:27] [DJ Sir Daniel]: at four o'clock in the morning.

[00:37:29] [DJ Sir Daniel]: This age, I need my rest.

[00:37:30] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And it's so funny just hearing and I'm so thankful.

[00:37:34] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I knew talking to you would be enlightening, but I'm so just hearing

[00:37:40] [DJ Sir Daniel]: about how the city at one point rolled out the red carpet

[00:37:47] [DJ Sir Daniel]: for us, specifically black gay people, rolled out the red carpet.

[00:37:53] [DJ Sir Daniel]: But then all of a sudden.

[00:37:55] [DJ Sir Daniel]: We just didn't we weren't as important anymore.

[00:38:00] [DJ Sir Daniel]: And we just, I guess, lost our sheen and our shiny newness.

[00:38:04] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Is that what it was or we lost the sheen and the sheen got lost in.

[00:38:10] [Michael Slaughter]: Deception and

[00:38:15] [Michael Slaughter]: misrepresentation.

[00:38:16] [Michael Slaughter]: There was a year where we had as in the life of Atlanta, we had regular

[00:38:22] [Michael Slaughter]: corporate sponsors, not like we had a couple of corporate sponsors.

[00:38:27] [Michael Slaughter]: Then we had some local sponsors, but we had one big corporate sponsor.

[00:38:31] [Michael Slaughter]: I'm not going to name their names.

[00:38:32] [Michael Slaughter]: I don't want to get them involved.

[00:38:34] [Michael Slaughter]: But, you know, large employer in in Atlanta

[00:38:39] [Michael Slaughter]: and

[00:38:40] [Michael Slaughter]: and they were very supportive of us every year.

[00:38:43] [Michael Slaughter]: We got

[00:38:46] [Michael Slaughter]: cash and product from them.

[00:38:48] [Michael Slaughter]: And each year we would do our reach out to all of our sponsors to renew

[00:38:55] [Michael Slaughter]: their sponsorship for that year, for the next year as we're coming up

[00:38:58] [Michael Slaughter]: on the next year and one year we reached out to the sponsor and says,

[00:39:02] [Michael Slaughter]: hey, we're just reaching out because we want to renew our sponsorship.

[00:39:06] [Michael Slaughter]: Always ask for more.

[00:39:08] [Michael Slaughter]: See if we can get more, you know, but let them tell us what they're going to

[00:39:11] [Michael Slaughter]: settle on and the response we got back was we've already sent your sponsorship

[00:39:16] [Michael Slaughter]: to you.

[00:39:19] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yikes. Yeah.

[00:39:22] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Hmm.

[00:39:24] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I smell a stunt.

[00:39:26] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Yes,

[00:39:27] [DJ Sir Daniel]: a big one, apparently.

[00:39:29] [Michael Slaughter]: Yes.

[00:39:30] [Michael Slaughter]: And that was a large and that was our largest cash sponsor.

[00:39:35] [Michael Slaughter]: And in figuring out what went on

[00:39:41] [Michael Slaughter]: once they realized that they had been deceived

[00:39:46] [Michael Slaughter]: instead of just saying, hey, we understand it wasn't your fault.

[00:39:51] [Michael Slaughter]: We'll continue to work with you.

[00:39:53] [Michael Slaughter]: They just shut down on us.

[00:39:55] [Michael Slaughter]: And that was the last year that we were able to get them as a sponsor.

[00:40:01] [Michael Slaughter]: And that trickles down sometimes because a lot of those large corporate sponsors,

[00:40:07] [Michael Slaughter]: the people who handle those sponsorships talk to the other people who do

[00:40:11] [Michael Slaughter]: sponsorships in other companies, of course.

[00:40:14] [Michael Slaughter]: And if one company says, hey, don't don't deal with these folks

[00:40:17] [Michael Slaughter]: because there's some shady shit going on.

[00:40:21] [Michael Slaughter]: That trickles down.

[00:40:22] [Michael Slaughter]: And so we lost that one large sponsor and

[00:40:29] [Michael Slaughter]: one other moderately large sponsor.

[00:40:32] [Michael Slaughter]: And then we lost a local community sponsor and all of that.

[00:40:37] [Michael Slaughter]: And that's really when things started to struggle

[00:40:41] [Michael Slaughter]: for ITLA.

[00:40:43] [Michael Slaughter]: I think that year

[00:40:45] [Michael Slaughter]: the board got together and we decided we were not going to put on an in the

[00:40:51] [Michael Slaughter]: life Atlanta Black Gay Pride event that year.

[00:40:55] [Michael Slaughter]: Simple, because so many things had been

[00:40:57] [Michael Slaughter]: damaged in terms of our finances, in terms of the reputation of the

[00:41:01] [Michael Slaughter]: organization.

[00:41:04] [Michael Slaughter]: But something happened.

[00:41:06] [Michael Slaughter]: Is that when we put out that notice?

[00:41:10] [Michael Slaughter]: Because we were feeling really defeated,

[00:41:12] [Michael Slaughter]: felt like we didn't have our back, our sponsors didn't have our back.

[00:41:16] [Michael Slaughter]: We we just felt completely abandoned

[00:41:19] [Michael Slaughter]: and we put out that notice that we weren't going to do pride that year.

[00:41:24] [Michael Slaughter]: And the community responded, the community demanded the community says, no,

[00:41:31] [Michael Slaughter]: you don't get this easy out.

[00:41:34] [Michael Slaughter]: You have got to do something.

[00:41:37] [Michael Slaughter]: And that energized us to take what resources we had

[00:41:43] [Michael Slaughter]: and step up and put on what we could put on for that year.

[00:41:47] [Michael Slaughter]: And it turned out to be one of our most exciting years.

[00:41:51] [Michael Slaughter]: Wasn't the biggest, but because

[00:41:53] [Michael Slaughter]: we got that boost from the community, because if you do community work,

[00:42:00] [Michael Slaughter]: one of the things that's a challenge is getting

[00:42:05] [Michael Slaughter]: a lot of times you don't do the work to get recognition.

[00:42:09] [Michael Slaughter]: Right.

[00:42:10] [Michael Slaughter]: But that recognition does help fuel you.

[00:42:13] [Michael Slaughter]: And when you do the work and it seems

[00:42:16] [Michael Slaughter]: like people are not appreciative or people don't care or there's just no

[00:42:21] [Michael Slaughter]: response back sometimes can be defeating and tiring.

[00:42:25] [Michael Slaughter]: And you're like, question, why are you doing this?

[00:42:28] [Michael Slaughter]: But when we got that feedback that said, we need you, you can't just step out.

[00:42:34] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Thank you so much for sharing these memories, Michael.

[00:42:37] [DJ Sir Daniel]: I appreciate you so much.

[00:42:38] [Michael Slaughter]: I enjoy it this time.

[00:42:40] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Thank you for listening to I Come Alive, Stories of Black Gay Atlanta Nightlife

[00:42:46] [DJ Sir Daniel]: brought to you by Q Points Productions.

[00:42:49] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Special thanks to the Counter Narrative

[00:42:51] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Project 2024 Media Roundtable for their support as well.

[00:42:56] [DJ Sir Daniel]: Make sure you become a Q Point

[00:42:57] [DJ Sir Daniel]: subscriber so that you don't miss the next episode of I Come Alive.