And people of Colors. My brothers fetishize me too, Emulate, Imitate, in rhythm my soul kaleidoscoped. Some say it is a strange bag, a drag, A drag that I represent the other colors of the American Flag One hundred precent cotton icon, with an invisible price tag .
The price of being oneself in America.
Salih Michael Fisher.
On October 29, 2016, I took a visit to Northwestern University’s Block Museum in Evanston, Illinois. It was a brisk fall day. My partner and I walked through the expansive and absolutely beautiful campus towards the museum. The bright purple neon sign lead us to the second floor to the Keep the Shadow, Ere the Substance Fade exhibition by C.C. McKee. In a small room in the corner of larger gallery space was full of images from Queer artists that lived, loved, and died during the HIV/Aids crisis in the 1980’s (find a more detailed timeline click here). Among the artists featured there was Etienne, born Domingo Orejudos. If you are familiar with Etienne’s work, or if you are just stumbling upon it, Etienne has an incredible and important story as an artist, Leatherman, and man of color.
My name is Erica Beatrix Brooks. I am a School of the Art Institute Masters graduate, artist, Queer identified woman of color. During my time at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I wrote my thesis, Part of the Party. Part of the Party investigated the experiences of Walter Houston III and The Onyx Brotherhood. The Onyx Brotherhood is one of the largest Leather groups for Black men in the country. ( Find out more about them here🙂 Through this work I explored the subject of race in Leather culture in Chicago. When I began my research, I encountered the struggle of finding information about men of color in Leather. Leather communities, histories, and stories of Leathermen of color are buried amongst informational how-to guides for Bondage and Leatherwear, explorations of sex and relationships usually from the perspective of White individuals in Leather. This lack archived experiences and stories of men of color in Leather made it difficult to work on my thesis. This same lack of information has made it even more difficult to find any information about Etienne as a man and artist of color.
My inspiration for Part of the Party was Etienne and his art. Artists have multiple aspects to their personality. An artist’s work can represent those aspects openly or more covertly. In my personal life as an artist, for a long time I avoided talking about my identity as a Black Queer woman. I feared that my identity would overpower the technical skill of my work. As I began to grow as an artist, I began creating work about race, gender, and Queer identity. Many other Black artists have investigated race in their work, but there are also artists of color that rarely explore identity. Etienne is an example of this type of artist. Through this digital exhibition I will critically explore a few different subjects:
- How is race discussed in Leather communities in a broader sense?
- How do men of color in Leather Communities talk about their racial identities?
- Why did Etienne rarely or if ever talk about his experience as a man of color in leather?
