Arts & Entertainment
Fetishes and festivities
This weekend’s Mid-Atlantic Leather convention has new location
Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend 2011
Hyatt Regency Hotel Capitol Hill
400 New Jersey Ave. NW
Friday
* Registration — Ballroom level foyer — 4-10:30 p.m.
* Leather Exhibit Hall — exhibit area, Ballroom Level 5-11 p.m.
* Opening Reception (cash bar) — Yorktown Ballroom — 9-11 p.m.
* MAL Bar Crawl Bus — 10 p.m.-2 a.m.
Saturday Jan. 15
* Registration continues — 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
* Leather Exhibit Hall continues — noon-8 p.m.
* Leather Cocktails — Regency Ballroom — 6:30-9 p.m.
* CODE Party — The Crucible — 9 p.m.-2 a.m.
* MAL partner event — discounted admission
for MAL 2001 Full Weekend package holders
* MAL Bar Crawl Bus -—10 p.m.-2 a.m.
Sunday
* MAL Brunch — main lobby — 10 a.m.-noon
* Leather exhibit hall continues
* Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather Contest — Regency Ballroom — 1 p.m.-5 p.m. (separate tickets are available for this event)
* Reaction — 9:30 Club — 10 p.m.-5 a.m. (separate tickets are available for this event)
The Bootblack Brigade hosts a bar night Saturday starting 10 p.m. at Green Lantern, 13335 Green Court, N.W. — no admission fee
And at D.C. Eagle, 639 New York Ave. N.W., the MAL Weekend welcome begins 7 p.m. Friday and continues through Monday starting at 8 p.m.
More details are here.
Richard Legg, left, and Matt Bamford, last year's Mr. MAL. (Blade file photo by Michael Key)
It’s back for another year — Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend.
Once again, Washington becomes this weekend a fantasy scene of leather chaps and cigars, slave collars and chains — with hankie-flagging people seeking the endorphin rush of erotic heat as they cruise hotel lobbies and prowl upstairs corridors for private play parties or hunt exotic thrills at live demos of kink at the Code party. But it’s also the chance to meet old friends and make new ones within the special brotherhood (and sisterhood) of the men and women who embrace leather.
And this year’s gathering happening this weekend, this time at a new hotel, promises once again, according to the sponsoring organization, the Centaur Motorcycle Club of D.C., on its website, to be “one of the hottest leather/fetish events in North America and the world’s largest leather club run.”
“Thousands of leathermen, gearheads, kinksters, rubber freaks and even curious novices from all over the world,” says the promo material, will “come to the nation’s capitol for a weekend of hot, horny fun.”
“We’re literally looking for thousands of people to come for the weekend,” says a confident Larry Barat, the Centaur M.C. promotions chair for the weekend. About 600 or 700 people are expected to register for the full, three-day package, he says, “but we anticipate 2,000 or 3,000 or possibly more to participate in side events organized around the weekend and at the bars,” especially, he said, at the D.C. Eagle and Green Lantern.
The three-day package is $180 in advance or $200 at the door, a package including access to all events and exhibits, said Barat, who also pointed out that “an important new change for MAL 2011” is that entry into the weekend area at the hotel, including for the Leather Exhibit Hall but not the special events, will now require a “Weekend Admission Pass.” The cost for such a three-day pass is $25 if purchased on Friday, $20 on Saturday, or $10 on Sunday or alternatively $10 for any one of those days only.
The D.C.-based Centaur club, now in its 41st year, according to Barat currently consists of about 30 active members. It has sponsored MAL, now in its 31st year, from the beginning. After more than a decade of being housed at the Washington Plaza Hotel at Thomas Circle, it moves this year to the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, because “we simply outgrew that hotel,” Barat says. The Washington Plaza has only 360 rooms, while the Hyatt has about 800.
“Obviously with a new home for MAL, we’re excited about that, but also a little nervous,” he adds, but he has been meeting with Hyatt staff, along with other Centaur event planners, and believes everybody feels that the weekend will be a success.
Another MAL Weekend coordinator, its chairman and fellow Centaur member Patrick Grady met Monday for another meeting “with about 30 hotel managers in the room,” and Grady says “everybody at the Hyatt is very enthusiastic indeed.”
This year, they have booked only about three-quarters of the Hyatt’s rooms because, says Barat, “we were trying to be a bit conservative this year and not over-extend ourselves.” Even so, weekend registration has spilled over into rooms reserved at the Liaison Hotel across the street.
All MAL attendees will be on the same floors. Organizers hope next year to fill the entire hotel.
Grady says his first MAL Weekend began when he joined the Washington Plaza Hotel as its director of catering in 1997 and a month later hundreds of MAL Weekend participants thronged the hotel, the second year at that venue, and he got his first real look close-up at the leather community.
“I was a newbie in ’97,” he says, “and I didn’t know their community even existed.”
He was taken in by the friendly vibes and soon, he says, he began to frequent the Eagle and then to hang out with the Centaurs. By 1999 he had sunk his own roots deep into the leather world.
Grady says that after that first weekend, “I couldn’t wait to see everybody back in ’98,” and he was drawn to the sense of community that he found, especially in the Centaur MC. Yes, he knows that some LGBT people are uncomfortable with the more taboo aspects of the leather world — the BDSM sexuality — but he says the reality is that the leather world — and the Centaur club — is “very diverse.”
“We have members who have motorcycles and those who don’t, who are large and skinny, tall and short, and the only real common denominator is that we like one another,” he says. “Some are hard-core leather folk and others are just out for a good time.” But he admits that “when we gather together sometimes we are a little much for some people — we tend to be very gregarious.”
His objective this year is simple: “to make new friends and renew old acquaintances,” a goal echoed by Barat, who says “our aim is to have fun and make sure everybody who comes has fun, so they can meet new people and explore new things.”
The signature events, says Barat, are the Leather Cocktails reception Saturday evening, the buses for the MAL bar-crawl, the CODE party at the Crucible S&M club Saturday night into the wee hours of Sunday morning, the Mr. Mid-Atlantic Leather Contest Sunday afternoon, and the finale event, the Reaction dance at the 9:30 Club from 10 p.m. Sunday until 5 a.m. Monday. Throughout the entire weekend also, another big draw is the Leather Exhibit Hall located on the hotel’s Ballroom level, with dozens of vendors of gear, books and other paraphernalia.
The MAL Weekend in 1998 was “the first big leather event” he ever attended, though he had lived a leather lifestyle “on and off” since he was 19. Now 50 and a U Street resident for the past seven years, by day Barat works on international public health issues for the U.S. Government.
For him, owning a bike is important to the leather lifestyle, and though he recently sold his own Harley Davidson “Fat Boy,” now he says he can’t wait until the weather gets warm again to get his next new bike. Though he says another D.C.-based club, the Spartans, “are more into motorcycles,” the Cenatur M.C. still sponsors runs two or three times a year, usually to Skyline Drive and into West Virginia and back.
Like Grady, Barat was won over by the welcoming vibes of community he felt at his first MAL Weekend: “I was really kind of shocked at how friendly everyone was,” and how eager people were to teach him about the things he didn’t know, and he also began to understand the wide variety of lifestyles subsumed under the leather label.
The gay male leather subculture has existed, according to most accounts, since the late 1940s, when it grew out of gay men who had typically worn uniforms during World War II and mustered out and were looking for a way to sustain the homosocial world and its rituals and rules of masculine identity they had experienced during wartime. Soon these men found their way into the culture of biker clubs, and for them the lure of leather signified a code of dress rooted for most — though not all — in sexual activities, often defined by the sexual practices loosely grouped under the label of BDSM.
“Leather is a term that includes dressing up and getting into sexual scenes when dressed up, acting out certain sexual fantasies like getting flogged, at one end of the spectrum, but you don’t need to dress for BD events,” Barat says.
At the other end of the spectrum, he says, people just like the feel of leather and the thrill of the road and the ride.
“And it’s everything in between,” he says,”plus, it’s not just leather alone anymore – there’s rubber, there’s sports-gear, there’s uniforms. And now there’s also a lot of young guys into dressing up as super heroes and comic book heroes.”
“It’s a whole range of of people and the nice thing about the community is that it’s very accepting,” Barat says. “You see a guy in full leather gear talking to a guy dressed up like Batman talking to a guy dressed up in full rubber.”
For many, participation is a chance to distinguish themselves from mainstream sexual activities. For some it can mean immersion in sexual kink. For others, just wearing the trappings of black leather is the main point, an erotic fashion statement expressing heightened masculinity.
The pioneering gay motorcycle clubs — the Satyrs of Los Angeles, established in 1954, and others like the Warlocks of San Francisco — reflected that same sense of disaffection with the postwar mainstream. It also provided an archetype for gay men who resisted effeminate stereotypes. For years, Larry Townsend’s “Leatherman’s Handbook” was the guide by which rank in the leather community — slave, boy, sir and master — was determined.
But by the 1980s, and perhaps even earlier, a rebellion arose against old guard role rigidity, and instead there was a new emphasis upon choices and personal self-identity, in which a person might consent to begin and end as either slave or master or switch back and forth. In this new world of greater flexibility, leather practitioners defined themselves as “new guard,” and an increasing number of pan-sexual clubs evolved as well.
“There’s a generational aspect to it,” Barat says. “The old guard has to do with fixed attitudes concerning dominance and submissiveness, and in the old guard ‘D’ and ‘s’ is not just something that one does in sexual play, but something one lives 24/7.”
He says it’s now more flexible and all a matter of self-identification, not following rules.
Barat says he is a good example of this transition.
“I began as old guard and in the past I identified as a boy and more recently as a sir, but now as I get older I’ve stopped labeling myself, and now I see myself as a new guard kind of guy.”
As for the Centaurs, he says that some are into BDSM and others are not, but it’s not a primary focus of the club.
“Some of us wear leather and are into gear and not so kinky, and there others who are kinky and don’t necessarily wear a lot of leather.
Meanwhile, pop culture itself has absorbed the look of leather and the feel of erotic alternatives. Witness the numerous popular images of Elvis from the 1960s fully clothed in black leather and then 1970s heavy-metal bands such as Kiss, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest who were cloaked in leather. The latter’s lead singer Rob Halford, himself openly gay, wore a leather costume on stage as early as 1978. Soon codpieces and even harnesses proliferated on metal-rock costumes, as such gear became appropriated by internationally successful bands like the L.A. metal band Motley Crue.
Now numerous lesbians also identify as leatherwomen and a leather pride sticker adorns the guitar of singer Joan Jett. San Francisco leather and lesbian activist Pat Califa co-founded one of the first lesbian S&M groups, Samois, and became a prolific contributor to lesbian BDSM literary erotica and sex handbooks. Leather and Lace, an “old guard” woman’s BDSM social group, was founded in Los Angeles in 1980, and in New York City there was LSM – the Lesbian Sex Mafia.
Another demographic shift in leather, says Barat, has come as younger leathermen and leatherwomen enter the worlds of leather kink, fetish and gear. It used to be mostly men over 40 graduating into the leather lifestyle, he says, “but now guys get into this lifestyle at a very young age and we’re seeing guys at our events in their early twenties.”
Barat admits, however, that leather “was once so taboo and is still not fully accepted within the larger gay community.” He hopes these attitudes are changing, but that “large parts of the gay community are still very intolerant of leather folk.” He says “there are very conservative gay people, who think we should all be monogamous, live in the suburbs, have children and go to church.”
Several entertainment guests will perform. Comedy duo Dick and Duane (Richie Cohen and Duane Tragis) are slated along with the traditional Mr. MAL 2011 contest Sunday afternoon and the Reaction party at which DJ Susan Morabito will spin.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
It’s been a year filled with drama and music, re-imaginings and new works. There was a lot on offer in 2025, and much to enjoy. Here are 10 now-closed productions that come to mind.
On Valentine’s Day at Folger Theatre on Capitol Hill, out actor Holly Twyford served as narrator for “The Love Birds” a Folger Consort work that melds medieval music with a world-premiere composition by acclaimed composer Juri Seo and readings from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “A Parlement of Foules”
Standing behind a podium, Twyford beautifully read Chaucer’s words (translated from Middle English and backed by projected slides in the original language), alternating with music played on old and new instruments.
While Mosaic Theater’s “A Case for the Existence of God,” closed in mid-December, it’s proving a production not soon forgotten. Precisely staged by Danilo Gambini, and impressively acted by Lee Orsorio and Jaysen Wright, the soul-searching two hander by out playwright Samuel D. Hunter, tells the story of two men who form an unlikely friendship based on single-fatherhood, a specific sadness, and hope.
The action unfolds in a small office in southern Idaho, where the pair discuss the perplexing terms of a mortgage loan while delving deep into their lives and backgrounds. Nothing is left off the table.
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s spring production of “Uncle Vanya” gave audiences something both fresh yet enduring. Staged by STC’s artistic director Simon Godwin, the production put an impeccably pleasing twist on Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s classic. It ranks among the very best area productions of the year.
Featuring a topnotch cast led by Hugh Bonneville (TV’s “Downton Abbey”) in the title role, the play was set on an unfinished stage cluttered with costume racks and assorted props, all assembled by crew uniformed in black and actors in street clothes. Throughout the drama tinged with comedy, the actors continued to assist with ever increasingly period set changes accompanied by an underscore of melancholic cello strings. It was innovative and wonderful.
GALA Hispanic Theatre’s production of Manuel Puig’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was an intimate and affecting piece of theater. Staged by José Luis Arellano, it starred out actors Rodrigo Pedreira and Martín Ruiz as two very different men whose paths cross as convicts in an Argentine prison.
Arena Stage scored with a re-imagined and updated take on the widely liked musical “Damn Yankees.” Directed by Sergio Trujillo, the Broadway bound production has been “gently re-tooled for its first major revival in the 21st century,” moving the action from the struggling Washington Senators baseball team to the turn-of-the-century Yankees lineup. Ana Villafañe’s charmingly seductive Lola and a chorus of fit ball players made for a good time.
Also at Arena, out playwright Reggie D. White’s new work “Fremont Ave.” was very well received. A semi-autobiographical glimpse into home and the many definitions of that idea specifically relating to three generations of Black men, the work boasts a third act with a deeply queer storyline to boot.
Before his smash hit “Hamilton” transformed Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote “In the Heights,” a seminal musical set against the vicissitudes of an upper Manhattan bodega. Infused with hip-hop, rap, and pop ballads, the romance/dramedy takes place over a lively few days in the vibrant, close-knit Latin neighborhood, Washington Heights.
Signature Theatre’s exciting take on “In the Heights” featured a talented cast including out actor Ángel Lozado as the bodega owner who figures prominently in the barrio and the action.
Studio Theatre’s recent production of lesbian playwright Paula Vogel’s newest work “The Mother Play,” a drama with humor, is about a well put together alcoholic mother and her two gay children living under difficult circumstances in the less glitzy parts of suburban Maryland. With nuanced performances and smart direction, the production was terrific.
Keegan Theatre surpassed expectations with its production of “Lizzie” a punk rock opera about Miss Borden, the fabled axe wielding title character. Performed by a super all-female cast, they belted a score that hits hard on subjects like money, queerness, and strained (to say the least) family relationships.
Round House Theatre impressed autumn audiences with “The Inheritance,” a two-part drama sensitively staged by out director Tom Story and acted by a mostly queer cast that included young actor Jordi Bertrán Ramírez in a breakout performance.
Penned by out playwright Matthew López, the epic work inspired by E.M. Forster’s novel “Howards End,” explores themes of love, legacy, and the AIDS crisis through the lives of three generations of gay men in New York City.
Prior to opening, Story commented that with the production’s predominately queer cast you get actors who “really understand the situation, the humor, and the struggle. It works well.” And he was right.
This past year, you’ve often had to make do.
Saving money here, resources there, being inventive and innovative. It’s a talent you’ve honed, but isn’t it time to have the best? Yep, so grab these Ten Best of 2025 books for your new year pleasures.
Nonfiction
Health care is on everyone’s mind now, and “A Living: Working-Class Americans Talk to Their Doctor” by Michael D. Stein, M.D. (Melville House, $26.99) lets you peek into health care from the point of view of a doctor who treats “front-line workers” and those who experience poverty and homelessness. It’s shocking, an eye-opening book, a skinny, quick-to-read one that needs to be read now.
If you’ve been doing eldercare or caring for any loved one, then “How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir” by Molly Jong-Fast (Viking, $28) needs to be in your plans for the coming year. It’s a memoir, but also a biography of Jong-Fast’s mother, Erica Jong, and the story of love, illness, and living through the chaos of serious disease with humor and grace. You’ll like this book especially if you were a fan of the author’s late mother.
Another memoir you can’t miss this year is “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Veteran’s Memoir” by Khadijah Queen (Legacy Lit, $30.00). It’s the story of one woman’s determination to get out of poverty and get an education, and to keep her head above water while she goes below water by joining the U.S. Navy. This is a story that will keep you glued to your seat, all the way through.
Self-improvement is something you might think about tackling in the new year, and “Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy” by Mary Roach (W.W. Norton & Company, $28.99) is a lighthearted – yet real and informative – look at the things inside and outside your body that can be replaced or changed. New nose job? Transplant, new dental work? Learn how you can become the Bionic Person in real life, and laugh while you’re doing it.
The science lover inside you will want to read “The Grave Robber: The Biggest Stolen Artifacts Case in FBI History and the Bureau’s Quest to Set Things Right” by Tim Carpenter (Harper Horizon, $29.99). A history lover will also want it, as will anyone with a craving for true crime, memoir, FBI procedural books, and travel books. It’s the story of a man who spent his life stealing objects from graves around the world, and an FBI agent’s obsession with securing the objects and returning them. It’s a fascinating read, with just a little bit of gruesome thrown in for fun.
Fiction
Speaking of a little bit of scariness, “Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie” by James Lee Burke (Atlantic Monthly Press, $28) is the story of a girl named Bessie and her involvement with a cloven-hooved being who dogs her all her life. Set in still-wild south Texas, it’s a little bit western, part paranormal, and completely full of enjoyment.
“Evensong” by Stewart O’Nan (Atlantic Monthly Press, $28) is a layered novel of women’s friendships as they age together and support one another. The characters are warm and funny, there are a few times when your heart will sit in your throat, and you won’t be sorry you read it. It’s just plain irresistible.
If you need a dark tale for what’s left of a dark winter season, then “One of Us” by Dan Chaon (Henry Holt, $28), it it. It’s the story of twins who become orphaned when their Mama dies, ending up with a man who owns a traveling freak show, and who promises to care for them. But they can’t ever forget that a nefarious con man is looking for them; those kids can talk to one another without saying a word, and he’s going to make lots of money off them. This is a sharp, clever novel that fans of the “circus” genre shouldn’t miss.
“When the Harvest Comes” by Denne Michele Norris (Random House, $28) is a wonderful romance, a boy-meets-boy with a little spice and a lot of strife. Davis loves Everett but as their wedding day draws near, doubts begin to creep in. There’s homophobia on both sides of their families, and no small amount of racism. Beware that there’s some light explicitness in this book, but if you love a good love story, you’ll love this.
Another layered tale you’ll enjoy is “The Elements” by John Boyne (Henry Holt, $29.99), a twisty bunch of short stories that connect in a series of arcs that begin on an island near Dublin. It’s about love, death, revenge, and horror, a little like The Twilight Zone, but without the paranormal. You won’t want to put down, so be warned.
If you need more ideas, head to your local library or bookstore and ask the staff there for their favorite reads of 2025. They’ll fill your book bag and your new year with goodness.
Season’s readings!
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