Snap Magazine

Snap Recap: The Year 2004

What an amazing year!  The year 2004 was the year of Murphy’s Law:  If anything can go wrong, it will.  Here are some of the highlights – and low blows – of the year we would all like to forget.

Jan 12 – Martha Stewart goes on trial on five counts related to her 2001 sale of ImClone Systems stock.

Jan 16 – Michael Jackson pleads innocent to child molestation charges.  Again.

Jan 19 - On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the National Black Justice Coalition launched its new website, www.nbjcoalition.org.   The National Black Justice Coalition is fighting for marriage equality and to end laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.  The site is filled with useful information, including an extensive list of questions and answers about everything you ever wanted to know about blacks and marriage equality.

Jan 27 – John Kerry wins New Hampshire primary

Feb 1 – Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at Super Bowl halftime show.  CBS later fined a record $550,000.  Is this the beginning of the Revenge of the Red States?

Feb 2 - The National Black Justice Coalition announced the support of civil rights leader Julian Bond. Bond joins with Coretta Scott King, Carol Moseley Braun, Al Sharpton, John Lewis, Henry Louis Gates and other African American leaders who publicly support marriage equality.

Feb 11 -  A new report from North Carolina shows a "sudden, surprising increase" in HIV infection among black men in college.

Feb 12 – San Francisco officials begin officiating at marriages of gay and lesbian couples.

Mar 2 – John Kerry cements Democratic presidential nomination, driving rival John Edwards from race with string of Super Tuesday triumphs.

Mar 3 – First same-sex marriage licenses issued in Oregon.

Mar 5 – Martha Stewart convicted on all charges in ImClone insider-trading scandal.

Mar 9 – Convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad sentenced to death in Virginia.

Mar 10 – Teenage sniper Lee Boyd Malvo sentenced to life in prison.

Mar 11 – 190 people killed in Madrid train blasts, more than 1,200 injured.

Mar 11 – California Supreme Court orders immediate halt to same-sex weddings in San Francisco

Mar 14 - African American leaders in New York stepped into the battle on same-sex marriage with a dramatic press conference and rally on the steps of New York City Hall.

Mar 20 – Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rally against U.S. presence in Ira1 on first anniversary of the war.

Apr 16 – Oprah Winfrey devotes an entire show to the hysteria of the down low.  “On the Down Low” author J.L. King becomes an instant star.  The down low phenomena will emerge as the year’s most efficient high-tech lynching of black men.

Apr 26 - Black gay television takes a huge step forward with the release of the new television series, The Closet, which opened at the New York Film Festival. Billed as "the world's first black gay drama series," the show takes us into the lives of an interconnecting circle of black gay and bisexual men in Baltimore.

Apr 25 - POZ celebrated its tenth anniversary with a retrospective issue that looks back on the magazine and the epidemic. It is the first time a popular “mainstream” American magazine depict full-frontal male and female nudity on its cover. The 80 HIV-positive people posed nude one cold February Saturday at a meatmarket restaurant for photographer Spencer Tunick.

Apr 28 – First photos of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal shown on CBS.

Apr 30 – Michael Jackson indicted on charges of lewd acts with a minor.

May 17 – Massachusetts becomes first state to allow legal same-sex marriages.

Jun 5 – Ronald Reagan, 40th president of United States, dies at 93

Jun 6 – Phylicia Rashad becomes first black actress to win Tony award for a leading dramatic role.  Audra McDonald and Sanaa Lathan, the other two women in “A Raisin In the Sun,” were nominated for supporting actress.

Jun 11 – Ray Charles dies at 73. 

Jul 7 – John Kerry chooses John Edwards as running mate on Democratic presidential ticket.

Jul 16 – Martha Stewart is sentence to five months in prison for lying about stock sale.

Jul 28 – John Kerry nominated as Democrats’ presidential candidate.  But it is Barack Obama who emerged the rising star of the convention.  He electrified the country with his keynote speech where he declared, “We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.”

Aug 1 – The first episode of Showtime’s new political reality show, “American Candidate,” airs.  Millions will follow the campaign trail of New Yorker Keith Boykin, the show’s sole black openly gay candidate, and the world will behold a real black gay male couple with the behind-the-scenes interaction of Boykin and Nathan Williams, his manager and life partner.

Aug 6 – Funk singer Rick James dies at 56.

Aug 12 – New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey announces resignation, discloses that he is gay.

Aug 13 – Summer Olympics open in Athens.

Aug 13 – Hurricane Charley slams into Florida, the first of a slew of major storms to include Tropical Storm Gaston, Hurricanes Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.

Sep 6 – Former President Clinton has quadruple-bypass heart surgery.

Sep 9 - Independently produced, Noah's Arc becomes America's first Black gay series. Written by Patrik-Ian Polk (“Punks”) in the style of Sex and the City, Queer As Folk and Soulfood, Noah’s Arc gives today's black gay community a voice in a sea of gay and lesbian programming targeted at the mainstream.

Sep 17 – The musical version of “The Color Purple” opens in Atlanta and is an instant hit, destined for Broadway in 2005.

Oct 5 – State judge throws out Louisiana’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Oct 19 – Gay flick “Ski Trip” world premiere takes place at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington.  LOGO, the LGBT network from Viacom, has a historic deal to bring the first black gay film to television. The film, a feature-length dramatic comedy, was written and directed by filmmaker Maurice Jamal (“Chappelle’s Show”).

Oct 21 – Boston Red Sox defeat New York Yankees to advance to World Series.

Oct 27 – Boston Red Sox win their first World Series since 1918, sweeping St. Louis Cardinals.

Nov 2 – President Bush elected to second term; Republicans strengthen grip on Congress.

Nov 5 – Rodney Evan’s brilliant film festival winner “Brother to Brother” opens in New York City.

Nov 11 – Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat dies at 75

Nov 29 – Supreme Court rejects challenge to gay-marriage law in Massachusetts.

Dec 26 – The world’s most powerful earthquake in 40 years rocks northern Indonesia and launches tsunamis that kill more than 150,000 people in Asia and Africa.

My Soul Looks Back in Wonder

World AIDS Day - December 1, 2004

Reprinted from "Brothers Out On The Town"

I remember the days when we were considered golden. We. Black gay men. We seemed to be at that perfect place in time, a Camelot, where the world was ready to embrace us and we were poised to prove our own collective worth. It was a brand new day. It was the late ‘70’s and the world was changing. Civil rights seemed a given: Blacks were moving into the mainstream, segregation was dead. People were becoming tolerant on matters of sexuality. Once we were invisible. Now we found the keys to locked doors and set ourselves free and told the world, “free your mind and the rest will follow.”

In retrospect, this outlook was probably more youthful optimism than fact. But, we insisted, this was our reality. It doesn’t matter whether it was the truth or not; this was how we felt in those heady days when anything seemed possible. The fact that our perfect peace occurred just before the appearance of a deadly disease only makes it more real in our minds. They were the greatest times, the days before AIDS.

It is World AIDS Day and I can’t help but to reflect on the times of my life. Those days before AIDS to the hysteria and death of the ‘80’s to the scientific breakthoughs and ultimate apathy of the ‘90’s to this place, the new millennium where AIDS issues fight for media space (and funding) because issues like terrorism, war, child abduction and celebrity froth seem more urgent. Where are we today? Where were we then?

My grandfather would speak of Jim Crow as if it was his own personal cross to bear. My uncle absorbed the pain and sacrifice of World War II into every crevice of his being. My mother’s life was changed for better or worse by the Civil Rights era. Everyone of a certain generation was changed in a multitude of ways by the Depression, or by the Vietnam War, or by Watergate or, now, by September 11. My life was changed in many ways by many things but I was most changed by AIDS. AIDS was my defining moment. The golden boy of the late ‘70’s disappeared. I would become someone else.

I remember July 5, 1981 like it was yesterday. It was the Fourth of July weekend and I looked forward to the Sunday editions of the New York Times and Washington Post. The headline of that first article is etched in my mind: “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals.” My initial feeling was one of mere interest, not grave dread. That would come later. The disease became GRID, gay-related immune disease, and, when it was found to affect more than homosexuals (drug addicts who used needles and Haitians), the disease finally became known as AIDS. In my insular black gay world in Washington, D.C., it wasn’t a priority. For too many years we thought it was a “white thang.” Through the local gay press we saw that white gay men were organizing. They began having workshops, public forums and safe-sex demonstrations at bars and bath houses, while we gave our polite, “No thank you,” on the occasions when the mainstream gay community leaders reached out to the black gay community. We were caught up in you-not-us mindset. We were in denial.

The year 1984 marked the first time that AIDS became personal to me, when I could no longer deny its presence, its mercilessness. My friend (I’ll call him Aaron) was a popular Baptist minister who, like many of us at the time, lead a dual life. He was handsome, charismatic and charming. On numerous occasions he had invited me to accompany him to orgies. Though I can be a slut, I always found excuses for not attending. He became sick in the spring and donned a cloak of shame and secrecy, forbidding any of us to visit him his final months at Howard University Hospital. Because Aaron was so popular and well loved, his death was doubly devastating to us. How could someone like him die from something like this? The official cause of death was “cancer”; his casket was sealed airtight and we walked out of the church to the strains of a gospel hit of the day, “I Feel Like Going On.” But we really didn’t feel like it very much at all.

In the years that followed I would come to attend many funerals, write obituaries and design funeral and memorial programs. I joined an interdenominational choir to take my mind off all the misery and was shocked to find more misery inside the sanctuaries of self-righteous Christianity. This was when I realized that the world was no longer with us. We were no longer golden boys. The pendulum swings back: We were pariahs. We were them. Ministers would interrupt services to rant and rave against homosexuality. We were blamed for the plight of the black community, we were traitors adopting white man’s sins. We were a discredit to the black community. At the funeral of one choir member the minister’s eulogy turned into a fire-and-brimstone tirade against the sins of homosexuals. By 1987, the number of friends and acquaintances who had succumbed to the disease numbered in the dozens. And I had to finally face my own mortal fears when my ex-lover called me to say that he was HIV positive and that he thought that I should get a test for HIV. By now, we were convinced, we were all walking time bombs without a future.

It amazes me that it has been 23 years since I first read that New York Times article. I am unsettled in my status as survivor. Somehow it doesn’t seem quite right. AIDS is no longer the center of discussion, no longer the life-and-death black-and-white absolutism of the early days. People with HIV take “cocktails” and live long and rewarding lives, right? We can now turn our collective attention to other pressing matters. Silence no longer equal deaths; it equals political correctness. But is this reality? When blacks in America and blacks in Africa are disproportionately infected with and affected by AIDS? When the black community is still in denial, still, with few exceptions, preaching homophobia and apathy? When funding for AIDS services are constantly cut? When so many infected with the AIDS virus and full-blown AIDS can’t afford medical treatment? When so many people still don’t practice safe sex?

I look back fondly to those days before AIDS because the future seemed so promising. It seemed as though our day had come, we had arrived, we would find our place in the sun and we would get over. I still dream of the day when there is no AIDS, when we make it like it was. But it is so ironic that in 2004, I would feel such bittersweet nostalgia, my soul looking back in wonder at how we almost got over.

Kraig Malcolm Jones
Editor

Snap Magazine Online - What's It All About?

Change has always been the essential ingredient to New York’s success, a city that is the ultimate urban chameleon constantly redefining itself, changing its colors even as it changes the world. It is the world’s most watched city, the arbiter of what’s hot and what’s not, IMAX cinema verite in real time, the future in present tense. What other city can boast a geographical mindset—the capital of the universe? What thoroughfare is a laudable as Times Square loftily sitting at the crossroads of the world? What other place immediately comes to mind when we think of success, style, spirit?

Snap Magazine Online is poised to embody that spirit.

snap (vt) — to utter sharp, biting words; to break suddenly with a sharp sound, to undergo a sudden and rapid change; sparkle, flash; to utter curtly or abruptly

snap (n) — a quick, short movement; the condition of being vigorous in body, mind or spirit; to be alert

snap (colloq.) — a signifier marked by defiant posture, tone and attitude; a confrontational statement often punctuated with the snap of one’s fingers; a battle of words or wits delivered dramatically and/or competitively

Snap was conceived as a vehicle to reflect the style and spirit of New York City, as seen in particular through the eyes of gay/same genderloving men of color. New York City has often been romantically called a “melting pot” where the entire hodge-podge of humanity simmers in an idealized American dream. But it is a metaphor that does not bear the light of reality. Snap hopes to shine light on the invisible, give voice to the unheard and present a point of view that is fresh, unique and uplifting. This is so vital and very much needed because the people of color community — especially black gay men! — usually sees itself only sporadically in print and often times negatively. Snap believes that in its pursuit of relevant issues, interests and alternative points of view, it embodies that much sought after New York state of mind — the juxtaposition of success, survival, style and spirit.

Visitors to Snap Magazine Online are introduced to Significant Brothers, men who are movers and shakers boldly implementing positive change. Collected articles from the media in the Snap Judgment section applaud the latest film, television and other projects spearheaded by black gay men and contributors give their spin on what’s hot, upfront and in your face. In Snap Rap writers weigh in on Broadway, literature and New York’s watering holes and eateries as well as get serious tackling issues like racism, unsafe sex, same-sex marriage and gays in the military.

Snap celebrates the resilience that is the spirit of New York. In a city that has a long history of rising to the occasion, facing insurmountable odds and meeting every challenge, it seems fitting that a publication should come along that echoes that resilience and focus. We sing with conviction the refrain, “If I can make it here, I’ll make it anywhere,” but also we join the chorus of New Yorkers singing, “We fall down and we get up.” Snap is proud to be a new voice dedicated to that New York spirit and looks forward to rising to the journalistic occasion. We hope that you find yourself in Snap Magazine Online and actively participate in its chronicling of a decidedly different New York state of mind.

Kraig Malcolm Jones
Editor