Arts & Entertainment
Queery: Angel McNatt
The She Scenes Entertainment co-founder answers 20 gay questions
Angel McNatt (Blade photo by Michael Key)
She Scenes Entertainment is having its three-year anniversary party Saturday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. and co-founder Angel McNatt is excited about the event/clothing line company branching into new areas.
Saturday’s party, to be held at Argana (2147 P Street, N.W.), will feature performances by Lower Case Letters, DSCA and D-Ron and DDM. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door (visit sweetsceneent.com for details). McNatt expects a diverse crowd as Ashley Head, a local entrepreneur with Natural International talent Agency, is co-hosting. Another arm of McNatt’s company — Loverboi Apparel — is having the launch of a new T-shirt line called Cocky Edition that will be unveiled Saturday. And it’s just the start of what McNatt and co-owners Sharee Brown and Tia Gaymon hope will be a big year of expansion for the company. Though they’re all black lesbians, they hope the company is mor than that.
“We’re trying to diversify all the time,” McNatt says. “D.C. is so segregated. It’s like a subculture within a subculture and we’re trying to break that out so it’s not all black people. Saturday’s concert should be a good mixed crowd. With Ashley along, there’ll be lots of gay boys as well.”
McNatt works in property management by day — which she has been doing for years and still enjoys — but started She Scenes three years ago with Brown, her ex, and Gaymon, who has event planning background. Their first event — a fashion show at the Washington Convention Center — drew about 800 people according to McNatt and they felt they’d hit a nerve. Eventually they’d like to quit their day jobs and do She Scenes full time.
McNatt, 29, grew up in Washington but now lives in Hyattsville, Md., and works in Bethesda. She graduated from American University and still has family here. She’s single and enjoys working out, reading and attending happy hour and nightlife events in her free time. She and her team are working on more fashion shows and are hoping to launch an LGBT swimwear line this year. (Blade photo by Michael Key)
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
I’ve been out for 13 years now and the hardest person to tell was my grandmother at that time. However, now she is totally accepting over it.
Who’s your LGBT hero?
Ellen Degeneres
What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?
U Street, Dupont and Adam’s Morgan corridor.
Describe your dream wedding.
My dream wedding would be a destination wedding on the sand, on a beach. The attire would be extremely relaxed; white or tan linen, no shoes. Small ceremony of close friends, family and associates. Large reception, with open invitation plus one; live band, open bar and a sushi option is a must.
What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?
World hunger and homelessness — it really doesn’t have to be this way.
What historical outcome would you change?
George Bush becoming president.
What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?
The life and legacy of Michael Jackson. The impact that he had globally was and still is phenomenal.
On what do you insist?
I insist that the U.S. government has something to do with the 9-11 events. I’m not a radical, but come on people.
What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?
“Picking out an outfit for my 3rd year anniversary on January 21, 2012 at Argana (formerly Pasha) at 2147 P street NW Washington, DC…Purchase online tickets at http://concertedition.
If your life were a book, what would the title be?
“Life in the fast lane — What will slow me down?”
If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?
I would leave the country and find a small island in the middle of nowhere to live on. A person’s sexual orientation is something they naturally have a connection with. Contrary what some may be believe, it’s not a choice; you are who you are and attempting to tamper with that changes who we are as people and what we “allegedly” stand for as a country.
What do you believe in beyond the physical world?
I believe that an acquired sense and acknowledgement of spirituality is the ultimate key to success and self preservation.
What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?
The fight is never over as long as you continue to believe in what you’re supporting, your sincerity and efforts will always prevail ultimately paving the way for those who don’t have the courage to stand up for themselves.
What would you walk across hot coals for?
I would walk across hot coals for overall equality across the nation. I believe that the abolition of different classes (economic and social) would serve as a platform to end world hunger, crime, financial deficits and constraints.
What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?
That women or men are gay because the opposite sex didn’t do their job.
What’s your favorite LGBT movie?
Spike Lee’s independent film “She Hate Me”
What’s the most overrated social custom?
I think that having to say excuse me when you burp or pass gas in so overrated, more so in American culture. Flatulence is natural and most people do it in their sleep.
What trophy or prize do you most covet?
All of my competitive trophies, which include basketball, football (yes I said football), soccer, basketball, track and even Bible Study. Among them all my Punt, Pass and Kick trophy is what I covet the most. It was the last year that they had both men and women completing against each other on a regional and national level. The competition is sponsored by the NFL and I was interviewed by the retired Charles Mann.
What do you wish you’d known at 18?
That life is too short and that what most people hold high or place value on really isn’t as important as family and friends. Although truly nice to have and lots of it, money can truly be the root of all evil.
Why Washington?
Why not? I was born and raised here. It’s the capitol of the United States; politically, economically and socially driven. The District has an incredible amount of accessibility to entertainment, museums, restaurants and economical stability (hey I can only speak for myself). Its thriving subculture seems to be ever changing.
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
Theater
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’
Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.
A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.
White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”
Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.
“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?
REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.
BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?
WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.
I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.
These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.
Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.
BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?
WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.
I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].
BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?
WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.
BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?
WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.
Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.
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