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

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.

[00:00:08] Welcome to I Come Alive

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DJ Sir Daniel: Welcome to I Come Alive Stories of Black Gay Atlanta Nightlife. I'm 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. This episode comes on the eve of the 2024 Atlanta Black Gay Pride Celebration. And as the city gears up to welcome thousands of visitors for a weekend of black.

Excellence, parties and live music events. My first guest is Mike Slaughter, a transplant from Los Angeles, California, who at the turn of the century made a decision that would change not only his life, but the lives of many black gay men in metropolitan Atlanta. Enjoy the show.

[00:01:00] Introducing Mike Slaughter: The Man Behind Cascade's Legendary House Parties

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DJ Sir Daniel: I couldn't think of someone that I wanted to speak with more. Then the gentlemen that I'm about to introduce to you, Michael, I want to show you some love first, because you, and I think I mentioned this to you at the beginning of my DJ journey.

You were one of the first people to allow me space to just try it out. And when I tell you all, I was green. I was very green at the, um, at the DJ game. I had just gotten my first, um, controller with these huge platters and I had a laptop full of music and I just knew I was going to turn the party out.

those of you that are listening, that are from Atlanta, you have heard about the legend of the house and cascade and about the parties in cascade, the house parties in cascade. And Michael Slaughter is the procurer, procurer, is that the word I want to use? Or the, or the, um, curator

of those good times in that home.

And when I tell you, Mike used to open up his home to so many people and allowed us to come in there and to just congregate, to have a good time. To let our hair down in a very safe environment, safe and loving environment. And I got the opportunity to spend there. So I wanted to say, thank you again for starting me off on that journey.

Michael Slaughter: You're welcome. Those were the good old days too, weren't they?

DJ Sir Daniel: Those were some fantastic days.

[00:02:45] The Birth of a Safe Space: Mike's Motivation and Journey

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DJ Sir Daniel: Like just, just to start off and just in this little conversation, like what made you want to start opening your home to, to. Having people come over and to have those great parties.

Michael Slaughter: The biggest motivator of that was at the time, there didn't seem to be a space where, like you said, people could come to feel safe. They would feel welcome and it be in not necessarily a club environment, Because there were plenty of club options at the time, plenty of nightlife options at the time, but there wasn't anything that I felt was giving above barely average experience

DJ Sir Daniel: Oh,

Michael Slaughter: that could host a large number of people with a nice, large backyard and a basement area, it just, it just seemed like a natural opportunity to provide something. It started out with just a group of friends of us getting together occasionally, and then that started to grow and grow. And then we decided, Hey, let's just open this up to more and more people. And I think the culmination of that experience Was that, uh, New Year's Eve party smashed ATL, um, where I swear it seemed like the entire city of Atlanta just showed up.

DJ Sir Daniel: oh my God. Oh my God. We're going to talk about that a little later. Cause my God, if you weren't there, you, there's just no amount of storytelling to

help you get an understanding of what took place in on in cascade. But, um, but again, thank you for allowing me to DJ some of those parties. What, what made you give me a shot?

I've always wanted to know that.

Michael Slaughter: Well, part of what we were doing also was engaging people in the community.

You know, engaging, you know, we had somewhat inexperienced bartenders, right? We had, um, it somewhat inexperienced, just people helping, but it was an opportunity to give them that exposure, give them that experience. And then when I learned you were getting into DJing, I was like, well, shoot, bring a man, let's give them a chance, give them an opportunity to space.

Cause you know, learning your craft and experiencing and exercising your craft. Require someone to take a chance and somebody give me that opportunity and what better place to do it in a safe space that we were providing.

DJ Sir Daniel: for all those upcoming djs, you know, you need places where you can practice because Um doing it at home and playing on your computer and playing on the controller is one thing but Learning your chops and earning your stripes in front of people is a completely different

Michael Slaughter: Yes.

DJ Sir Daniel:

[00:05:48] From LA to ATL: Mike's Relocation and First Impressions

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DJ Sir Daniel: Mike, your, your group of friends, um, started out, you and your friends started out in these, um, doing these parties and opening, you know, spaces to, uh, black queer Atlanta, but where are you originally from and when did you arrive in Atlanta?

Michael Slaughter: I am originally was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Baldwin Hills. Um, and then left LA to go to school in Northern California, UC Berkeley.

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay.

Michael Slaughter: Uh, after graduating there, I stayed and lived in Oakland for a little while and then, um, met someone who introduced me to Atlanta. Um, and shortly after that, the decision was made that Atlanta is where I needed to be and made the move in 1998. At the end of 1990. Well, no, the summer of 1998, um, literally moved to Atlanta Memorial day weekend drove from Oakland to Atlanta. Got here Memorial day weekend.

DJ Sir Daniel: Wait, you drove?

Michael Slaughter: Yes.

DJ Sir Daniel: How many days did that take?

Michael Slaughter: Three days,

DJ Sir Daniel: Wow.

Michael Slaughter: three days in my, in my, GMC Sierra pickup truck and a U Haul behind it. But it was a fun trip. Made a few, uh, stops. We made a stop at the Grand Canyon due to a few other little, uh, interesting odds and ends up to make the trip not, you know, monotonous and boring.

DJ Sir Daniel: Right. So that was 1998.

Um, do you recall the, the first club or bar you attended

when you got here to Atlanta?

Michael Slaughter: So let's see.

[00:07:38] Atlanta's Nightlife in the Late 90s: Clubs, Music, and Memories

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Michael Slaughter: It was a whirlwind weekend. So it was several on the same weekend.

DJ Sir Daniel: All right, let's hear about it.

Michael Slaughter: But I want to say the first was the palace

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm. Okay.

Michael Slaughter: on Sunday night, right?

The Sunday tea party.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yes, and I'm trying to, so my recollection of when you enter into the establishment, you enter, it's like a little foyer, right?

And then I think you can go upstairs

Michael Slaughter: Upstairs or slightly downstairs?

DJ Sir Daniel: slightly downstairs. I don't think I ventured downstairs. I was a little too scared to go downstairs for whatever reason. But I remember the music thumping so hard and that floor seemed to move

Michael Slaughter: a lot.

DJ Sir Daniel: bit.

Okay, so I'm not

Michael Slaughter: No, no, that was, that was, everyone knew that that floor was sketchy, but it didn't stop us from going, right?

Because that was the place to be, place to be seen. You had to be there

DJ Sir Daniel: Hmm. So before you came to Atlanta, did you party in, in your hometown? Did you party at all? And what was that scene like?

Michael Slaughter: a little bit. Um, in Oakland, the scene was real kind of, at that time it was real underground. We had two gay clubs in Oakland. And then, uh, you know, one or two in San Francisco, know, there were a lot of white gay clubs in San Francisco, but for blacks, there was probably maybe one and it was monthly. Um, and I went to that once and it was kind of a, you know, it was, the experience there was that everyone was in a very protected space. And I don't mean in the space that we were in, but within themselves.

DJ Sir Daniel: Ah, okay.

Michael Slaughter: that, you know, being black and gay and out in Oakland was not the thing at the time. And so even just being seen going in or out of one of these clubs that were known to be a gay club, you know, people were kind of, you know, dodging and looking around and just trying to being real, just kind of secretive about their life and their and their experiences.

And so I didn't really ever feel comfortable in those spaces. Because to me, it seemed like it was a challenge to even have a discussion with someone, if you weren't part of that group that they were with. Um, and then, you know, outside of that, engaging with people, there really wasn't a lot of spaces at the time as well.

So Oakland to me was kind of an odd transition.

DJ Sir Daniel: Hmm.

Michael Slaughter: and you know, the difference between what I experienced in Oakland and what I experienced in Atlanta, when I first visited, I was just like, Whoa, that's Cause my first experience in Atlanta was I came for Labor Day weekend.

So coming from conservative undercover DL, kind of like just secretive Oakland, and then now showing up in Atlanta during Labor Day weekend, Pride weekend for black gay pride. And. seeing everyone out, everyone enjoying themselves, not worrying about who's looking at them, who sees them, clubs are packed and people are having a good time.

And I was just like, this is Very enlightening, very open. And it was exciting. It was like electric. Um, I remember, um, when tracks used to have their legendary outdoor party block off the whole street. And that was just,

just standing out on the street was part of the party. You didn't even have to be in the club. You could just be outside on the

DJ Sir Daniel: it did make sense to pay money to go inside because you can really just literally stay outside on Lucky Street, hear the music and, and congregate

Michael Slaughter: Congregate. Watched the sights.

DJ Sir Daniel: boy watching, see,

Michael Slaughter: all of that. Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: and how little people had on and, or what they were wearing. so I feel like we, there's a consensus that everybody kind of, we congregated at tracks mostly because it was.

Probably the largest

of the clubs that you can go to and have space to move around. And it really was the place that people will point out. Um, but you, it was definitely a place, let's say 98, I will say safely say hip hop kind of took over from what was predominantly a house music driven, Space attracts.

Do you recall was there like a song

Michael Slaughter: Oh God, yes.

DJ Sir Daniel: that takes you back takes you there just to you hear it and it takes you right back to that experience.

Michael Slaughter: The boy is mine.

DJ Sir Daniel: Ah, okay. Yes that that was the time that it dropped.

Michael Slaughter: And when I tell you it was the anthem of that year for black gay men and everyone, you'd hear cars driving by blasting that song over and over again, and it was just everywhere you went, every club was playing it over and over again. It was just, that was the song to play. for that year of Black Gay Pride.

And it's forever etched into my head. And every time I hear that song, it just brings back all of that experience and all that feeling and that little excitement of being out. And you know, the hot, hot outside. It's humid, but you don't care

because everybody's out there. You seeing people you haven't seen in a while or meeting people you've been wanting to meet.

And it was that that song connects me to all of that.

DJ Sir Daniel: You know what I remember fondly the most about that song is how if you were there with your friends, everybody automatically took apart.

Michael Slaughter: yeah. Yeah, you have to pick a

side. Right.

DJ Sir Daniel: you were Brandy with it. And

if you would, you would see the dance floor of everybody's just like singing to each other and rolling their necks in and just really pantomiming along with the song.

And while I forgot how much fun. That song was when it first dropped

and being and being able to be in those spaces at that time. Now you mentioned coming here for Labor Day weekend. Now, was it officially Atlanta Black Gay Pride when you first started? Or was it just Labor Day weekend? And do you because that was a very specific time when I think Atlanta transitioned into the Black gay Mecca.

Michael Slaughter: That was the transition period. Um, I think that was really one of the, that was what it really coalesced into it being.

[00:14:44] The Rise of Atlanta Black Gay Pride: Community and Organization

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Michael Slaughter: There's a group of people In The Life Atlanta had, had already formed and had begun putting the roots down for bringing some organization and purpose to Labor Day weekend, um, which, to back up a little bit on how Labor Day weekend even got going. Um, in terms of In The Life Atlanta was, it was again, a group of friends would get together every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta and have a barbecue. And that started to grow and grow and grow. And it's those kind of little accidental meetings and accidental gatherings of people that begin to, you know, take a life of their own that bring these things to life.

And so as the number of people coming to Atlanta for Labor Day Black Gay Pride, so it wasn't necessarily Black Gay Pride then, but coming to celebrate as Black gay LGBT people. Um, this group of people decided to get together and formulize a organization that would bring again some purpose and some activities and some, um, education to the weekend as well.

So it wasn't just coming together to party. Let's do some things that help empower the people. Since we have a captive audience, we can bring them in. Um, so when I showed up, um, Visiting in 1998, I was introduced to this group and the people who were putting on the group and immediately put to work.

DJ Sir Daniel: Of course,

Michael Slaughter: Um, and that got me even more excited because that was an alignment of kind of the things that I like to do, organizing, putting things together and seeing the outcome.

So, um, as I'm making my decision shortly after that, am I going to move to Atlanta? That also played a part of it. So there was a lot of things that really influenced me wanting to make that move and actually doing it. And one of the things was that there was this sense of community that was developing in Atlanta that was not just a group of people going to a club, but looking to do more as well.

DJ Sir Daniel: I must say, I remember the first time that I. Went to an in the life event. I think it was at the host hotel. Um, I want to say it was the Renaissance.

Michael Slaughter: was, yeah, probably the

DJ Sir Daniel: It was the Renaissance and I had never been because I was still in, I was maybe what? 23, 24. I had never been. I'm stupid. still kind of just figuring things out and not wanting to associate myself with events or be seen.

You know how, you

Michael Slaughter: Yep. Yep.

DJ Sir Daniel: through that, right?

Michael Slaughter: Process.

Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: process. But I do recall walking through the lobby and just being in awe,

Michael Slaughter: Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: awe at all the, you all had signage. I mean, there was no. Question that the hotel have been taken

Michael Slaughter: Oh yeah. Not at all.

DJ Sir Daniel: there was signage there were just so many booths people you know selling their items and um There was literature There were people fashion shows All of those different things.

And now, now that I think about it, if a young black queer person comes to Atlanta now, they don't necessarily, they don't experience any of that anymore.

Michael Slaughter: Not anymore. No. Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: in your opinion, and you know, the things that happened, why did that, not the organization itself, but why did the desire for Organization or organized events.

Why did that kind of disappear? Or why, why do you think we kind of tend to stray away from it and just want to do our own thing?

Michael Slaughter: Well, my, my experience and my opinion on what took place. And this is from being back being in the organization at the time when things started to happen.

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[00:20:02] Challenges and Changes: The Evolution of Atlanta's Black Gay Scene

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Michael Slaughter: In the early days of, In The Life Atlanta and the community developing in Atlanta, there was a lot of Everybody came together to work together.

The club promoters, the In the Life of Atlanta folks, other community organizations, everybody came together to work intensely to ensure that there was a broad spectrum of events that were available for folks. And, you know, everybody wanted their piece of the pie, obviously, but they figured if we work together, we reach a common goal. Um, and I'm just going to be blunt

DJ Sir Daniel: Please do

Michael Slaughter: at some point as things progressed and the numbers started getting larger and larger and larger. Greed took over a

lot of

DJ Sir Daniel: it usually does.

Michael Slaughter: you know, a lot of these promoters, that was their cash cow for the year. Yeah. They may sustain their operations throughout the year, but Labor Day weekend was the weekend they were going to make.

They were going to pay those bills. They were going to pay, you know, you know, those mortgages, those car payments. All that was going to happen from the proceeds from Labor Day weekend.

DJ Sir Daniel: Mike, about how many people do you think the city saw say that that summer of 19? Let's say summer 99.

Michael Slaughter: 99, I would say, was at the beginning of the rise of the numbers.

DJ Sir Daniel: Okay.

Michael Slaughter: 99, I would say, you know, we were probably somewhere in the 30 to 40, 000. And that, you know, that's a lot.

DJ Sir Daniel: That's nothing to shake a stick at for sure.

Michael Slaughter: Not near where when we got to the peak and that's what, you know, the numbers are hard to quantify to some degree, but we got help at some point from the Atlanta Visitors Bureau

on how to start. Correlating our numbers because, you know, we didn't have anyone out there counting everybody. Right?

DJ Sir Daniel: Right.

Michael Slaughter: Not everybody is staying in a hotel. So you don't have a way to count those people that are crashing on somebody's sofa, sleeping in their car, you know, whatever the case may be. So they gave us a formula that said, okay, you can count everybody. Count the numbers. Once you can count, we'll give you the numbers from the hotel bookings and we'll assume that the hotel bookings are a certain percentage outside of our host hotel, which we knew for sure. Um, and they had this from the just data they had from previous years of doing events. And so getting that numbers from them, we don't think we were really counting accurate numbers until somewhere in the early 2000s.

Um, and that's when we were able to start looking at the actual economic impact that this event of gathering of people, however you want to call it, was having on the city as a as a whole.

And

yeah, and that's when the city started taking a better and closer look at us and being more open to the things we were doing and asking of the city.

And we started getting participation from the mayor's office and proclamations. At some point, we were even getting recognition from the governor's office. You know, Georgia's traditionally a Republican governed state. Um, I think at a short bit of time we did have a Democratic governor that was very helpful in moving things for us.

Um, but in general, you know, It's the numbers talk and the money talk. And I think, you know, as those numbers rose and we started seeing more and more people, more and more money was being made, um, at these, uh, promoter and club events, they started seeing more and more of an opportunity and pushing their services, their events, their parties, and pretty much overpowering the messaging that we could put out. As just a, uh, a nonprofit community organization, right? We didn't have profit money behind us. We didn't have large sponsorships behind us. So our ability to get our messages out over above the noise of constant text messages and emails that were coming from the club promoters, just kind of pushed In The Life Atlanta to the side.

DJ Sir Daniel: Hmm. Okay You know and that makes sense I kind of as somebody looking from the outside looking in I kind of see where that happened Yes, I was getting the text messages the you know, of course the if you go to one event But, and you're driving by the time you leave, your car is littered

with flyers. So you're going to find out about other events in the city at that time, um, at one event or another.

And so now, so we were talking about the city taking notice.

And when you look, when I think back on that, how the public kind of was gasping and gasping, like, Where did all these black gay men come from all of a sudden?

Michael Slaughter: Right.

DJ Sir Daniel: It's like we we just landed from, you know, from outer space but In your opinion like just thinking back on it How do you think the city changed when it realized, or they could not ignore the fact that it had such a large black gay population?

Because as you said, you came on a Labor Day weekend and ended up moving.

Fast forward two to three years, the population I'm sure more than doubled

after those pride weekends became more organized. And like, what do you think? The city of Atlanta owes us don't you think?

Michael Slaughter: You know, of course they do.

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm,

Michael Slaughter: Right. I'd be a fool to say they didn't. Um, I will say that for a period of time, the city of Atlanta opened the doors. They opened the doors. What do you need us to do? What can we do to help? What can we provide? And out of that became conversations. Um, you know, I when I was a board member withIn The Life Atlanta, it was Regular occurrence that I would have a meeting with the mayor at the mayor's office,

DJ Sir Daniel: and this was Shirley Franklin at

Michael Slaughter: uh, Shirley Franklin.

And then, uh, who followed her? Um,

DJ Sir Daniel: I'm going to look that up, but continue. you would get meetings and the doors were wide open. The communication was wide

Michael Slaughter: Communication was wide open. Um, you know, we would bounce off our ideas to the city on what we wanted to do and give them our whole itinerary of what we were doing. They were publishing it on their website. It was being published on the Atlanta Visitors and Convention Bureau's website. Um, which I thought that opened a lot of, you know, when we started getting that type of recognition and ability to have our events listed in these very public spaces where the Atlanta Pride, which is the traditionally white pride organization

with like pride had those privileges. for years, right? And when we started getting that, that recognition and ability to be at the table, we could be present, we could have conversations. I think more and more things within the city started to coalesce around recognizing the large number of LGBTQ people in the city. And it was shortly after that we got the first, uh, liaison on the police department. You know, an LGBTQ liaison. Um, and so things like that started changing and that benefited everybody. And, you know, it's a lot of these little things that people don't really notice or don't pay attention to. But there was a lot of underground work that made that happen.

DJ Sir Daniel: Definitely. So in 2010, Atlanta elected Kaseem Reed as the mayor.

Michael Slaughter: That's

that's right. it was Kaseem.

Reid. Yes,

DJ Sir Daniel: was Kaseem back in

Michael Slaughter: I knew it was a K. Yes.

DJ Sir Daniel: it was definitely Kaseem Reed. And you mentioned the city of Atlanta having a police late liaison.

And I don't think, well, today you can, you can find, um, police support in some certain major cities

when it comes to pride events across the country. But I think that was very forward. I had never seen it before. I was even surprised to see the, the black gay officers like out,

um, and being a part of the actual events and being there.

And they had, they had their markings showing that they were not only, um, police, but they were also part of the community. So I think that while I never, you know what, I would have never connected the two, but because of being a part of those organizations. Help that

and help, um, bring that, you know, a little sense of safety

Michael Slaughter: Right.

DJ Sir Daniel: here because there's not other, there's not too many other cities where black and gay people feel safe.

Michael Slaughter: Exactly. It was an interesting connection with the police. I just remember we used to, um, go to a club out in, um, Stone Mountain,

uh, Phase one.

And there were a number of, uh, Atlanta PD officers that would party there with us on those nights. Um, and it was always quite funny to see they let their hair down. But then you see them during the day in uniform and they're just as professional as anybody else, but they were there and they were part of the community. They knew what was going on. And I think in a lot of senses, they shielded us from some of the scrutiny or potential bad treatment that may have been, um, you know, potentially of perpetrated against our community during certain events.

And, you know, having them there, like you said, having that safety, having the liaison, it put everybody at ease. As you weren't fearing that you're going to be arrested just for being a gay person walking out of Bulldogs at three in the morning.

DJ Sir Daniel: There's that. And you were, you might get into a fight.

Michael Slaughter: That's a different

story.

DJ Sir Daniel: were getting into a fight with another patron, but the officer wasn't going to try and beat you up. That's for sure. Um, so we talked about the, the promoters kind of throwing their dick on the table as it were, when it came to staking claim and trying to get their piece and get larger pieces of the pie.

Then why, in your opinion, where are all of those people? Where are those spaces, you know, that. We used to have, there will be at least 10 options for you to go somewhere during the week or the weekend, you know, but now we're down to a very select few. We're down to maybe a handful. Of places to go and it's not just clubs, it's lounges, it's restaurants, you know, we used to be able to go to, um, Joe's on Juniper and Einstein's, but now all of those are gone.

So, in your opinion, what happened to the scene? What happened to all of these black and queer spaces?

[00:32:16] Economic Shifts and the Decline of Black Queer Spaces

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Michael Slaughter: I think economics,

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

Michael Slaughter: when you really look at it, it comes down to economics. And as a community, we're not insulated from the changes of a metropolitan area. Yeah. Um, there was a period of time when Atlanta went through a culling, so to speak, of bars and clubs and decimated Buckhead,

um, because of potential for violence.

You know, there were one or two incidents, but that was enough to instill fear in the residents of Buckhead to push for the closure of Buckhead as a nightlife center. And that affected the whole city, in my opinion. Um, because now the perception of Atlanta as a, as a Mecca for nightlife has been tarnished. Um, but then when you move into the spaces that we typically occupied, um, these were not high end clubs. They were lower end venues. Um, most of them didn't have a lot of amenities. Uh, I would wager to say a number of them probably were not code compliant.

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm. Could have been a little dangerous getting up in there or getting out.

Michael Slaughter: Exactly. And, um, we, as a community, didn't own any of these spaces. We leased or promoted an event in the space on a night, but there was no outright ownership of a lot of these venues. And that is a barrier in some degree, because, you If the business decides to change what they're doing with their space, that's going to affect you as a promoter or tenant in that, in that venue. And as the city changes and develops different areas that drives. changes in what those venues can charge or what they perceive they can charge and who they perceive would be their best clientele.

So if they decide, okay, I'm no longer quote unquote, desperate enough to have a gay night. I can just squeeze that tenant out, focus on my higher end clients and you know, get my money. And so now the spaces that we traditionally had a night or two, uh, to have for ourselves are, are gone. And, um, I think that's been a shift that you see throughout other cities as well, not just Atlanta. But Atlanta, I think got hit the hardest because we did have such a diverse number of venues, um, a diverse number of promoters. Um, and then I'm going to throw it out there. There was also the rivalry between the promoters. And I think. From what I've seen there, the, the battles between promoters did a fair amount of damage. We lost a number of promoters through those battles, you know, blackballing entertainers, you know, if you go work at this for that other promoter, you can't work for me, you know, uh, or I'm going to write an exclusive contract that you can only work for us. So you can't go work somewhere else, but you only have an event two nights a week that's not competing with somebody else's event that's on another night. But you've excluded these people from working at another location because that puts you as an advantage and your competition at a disadvantage. And so, you know, a lot of that took place in the mid 2000s. And that's when you started seeing a drop of the number of different club promoters and the number of different types of events that were being put on. And we've kind of settled down to, you know, a handful. That if you pull the veil back, it's really all one or two people.

DJ Sir Daniel: Right.

Michael Slaughter: Uh, and so, you know, that, that, to me, that was a damper on, you know, the traditional nightlife that people were used to and excited about in Atlanta. You know, we've got new things going on now. We've got new events coming through now that are bringing back a new excitement for the younger generation that they're energized about. Um, but when you look at someone my age or in our age

group, you know, we're looking at it from a different perspective and saying, you know, that's cute.

DJ Sir Daniel: That's

Michael Slaughter: know that, you know, I don't know if I want to be, you know, have my cheeks out a deviant. Right.

DJ Sir Daniel: this age, I need my rest. And it's so funny just hearing, and I'm so thankful. I knew talking to you would be enlightening, but I'm so just hearing about how the city at one point rolled out the red carpet for us. Specifically black, um, gay people, rolled out the red carpet, but then all of a sudden, we just didn't, we weren't as important anymore, and we just, I guess, lost our sheen and our shiny newness?

Is that what it was, or?

Michael Slaughter: we lost the sheen and the sheen got lost in deception and, um, misrepresentation.

[00:38:15] Corporate Sponsorship Challenges

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Michael Slaughter: Um, there was a year where, you know, we had as in the life of Atlanta, we had regular, um, corporate sponsors,

not lot. We had, you know, a couple of corporate sponsors. Then we had some local sponsors, but we had one big corporate sponsor.

I'm not going to name their names. I don't want to get them involved,

but you know, lard. employer in, in Atlanta. Um, and they were very supportive of us every year. We got, uh, cash and product from them. And each year we would do our reach out to all of our, um, sponsors to renew their sponsorship for that year for the next year as we're coming up on the next year. And one year we reached out to the sponsor and says, Hey, we're just, Reaching out because we want to renew our sponsorship. Always ask for more, see if we can get more, you know, but let them tell us what they're going to settle on. And the response we got back was we've already sent your sponsorship to you.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yikes. Hmm. I smell a stunt. A big one. Apparently,

Michael Slaughter: yes. And that was a large, I mean, that was our largest cash sponsor. And in figuring out what went on, yeah. Once they realized that they had been deceived instead of just saying, Hey, we understand it wasn't your fault. Um, we'll continue to work with you. They just shut down on us. And that was the last year that we were able to get them as a sponsor. And that trickles down sometimes because a lot of those large corporate sponsors, the people who handle those sponsorships, talk to the other people who do sponsorships. In other companies.

And if, if one company says, Hey, don't, don't deal with these folks. Cause there's some shady shit going on that trickles down. And so we lost that one large sponsor and, um, one other. Moderately large sponsor. And then we lost a local community sponsor and all of that. And that's really when things started to struggle, um, for ITLA. Uh, I think that year. The board got together there and we decided we were not going to put on an In The Life Atlanta black gay pride event that year, simply because so many things had been damaged in terms of our finances in terms of the reputation of the organization.

[00:41:03] Community Support and Resilience

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Michael Slaughter: Um, but something happened is that when we put out that notice. Because we were feeling really defeated.

We felt like the community didn't have our back. Our sponsors didn't have our back. We just felt completely abandoned. And we put out that notice that we weren't going to do Pride that year. And the community responded.

The community demanded. The community says, no, you don't get this easy out. You have got to do something. And that energized us to take what resources we had and step up and put on what we could put on for that year. And it turned out to be one of our most exciting years. Wasn't the biggest, but because we got that boost from the community, because you know, if you do community work, one of the things that's a challenge is you know, Getting, you know, a lot of times you don't do the work to get recognition,

DJ Sir Daniel: Right.

Michael Slaughter: but that recognition does help fuel you. And when you do the work and it seems like people are not appreciative or people don't care, you know, there's just no response that sometimes can be defeating and tiring. And you're like questioning, why are you doing this? But when we got that feedback that said, we need you, you can't just step out.

[00:42:33] Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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DJ Sir Daniel: Thank you so much for sharing these memories, Michael. I

appreciate you so much.

Michael Slaughter: I enjoyed this time.

[00:42:40] Closing Theme

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DJ Sir Daniel: 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.