The Winner Is?

FLAVAMEN MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES BLATINO AWARDS HOST & GUEST HOSTS

Recognizes best in black and Latin gay adult entertainment media for 2009.

ATLANTA, GA (September 3, 2009)
FlavaMen Magazine proudly announces its host and co-hosts for the inaugural 2009 Blatino Awards. The Blatino Awards will take place during Atlanta Black Pride on Saturday September 5, 2009 at 9pm to midnight at Club 708 located at 708 Spring Street in Atlanta, GA.

In July, FlavaMen Magazine announced its inaugural slate of Blatino Awards nominees; recognizing ethnic clubs and promoters, adult stars and studios, films and websites by and for men of color.

Hosting the event will be America’s Next Top Model contestant and celebrity BET host, Toccara. Guest hosts include iconic Otis Mack, and drag performer Ms. Ruff n' Stuff with a special musical appearance by gay hip hop artist Anye Elite. Award presenters include Dwight Allen O’Neal of Christopher Street TV & The Future, and Ray Cunningham of BET’s College Hill & Ray's Bleu Juice.

About Toccara
Born in Dayton, Ohio, the vivacious and voluptuous Toccara is an American fashion model and television personality whose down-to-earth glamour has earned her many fans. While a contestant on the third season of the smash-hit UPN series America’s Next Top Model, Toccara was named "Cover Girl of the Week" five times. Currently, Toccara can be seen each night hosting BET’s Take the Cake, a new live interactive game show, and as a correspondent for BET’s popular entertainment news show, The Black Carpet. For more information about Toccara visit http://www.thefabuloustoccara.com

About the Blatino Awards
The Blatino Awards is the first annual awards ceremony produced by FlavaMen Magazine. The awards was created to recognize ethnic clubs, porn stars and websites; for and by men of color. During the summer months, members of the general public nominated those they deemed worthy recipients of the award.

Fire! New Play Festival

Fire! New Play Festival
Freedom Train Productions lights up the stage with black gay characters.
By Beth Greenfield

Playwright Patricia Ione Lloyd and Freedom Train Productions founder Andre Lancaster
Plays written from a black gay perspective are not exactly easy to come by. But in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, the mighty efforts of one little-known theater initiative are trying to change that. Freedom Train Productions, founded in 2006 by Andre Lancaster (and the funds he secured through an NYU Wagner School Social Justice Fellowship), is dedicated to nurturing up-and-coming playwrights and staging new works of political theater that = 20 feature queer black protagonists.

“I really wanted to create a stable institution that was about developing personal stories with an urgent message,” says Lancaster, 30. “It’s a labor of love.”

Since its founding, Freedom Train—which receives funding from organizations including Stonewall Community Foundation and the Brooklyn Arts Council—has been happily chugging along, thanks to the efforts of more than 40 artists, board members, producers and volunteers. They work with three artists-in-residence a year to organize community forums that highlight the playwrights’ themes, and to produce Fire!, the festival that presents staged readings of the three writers’ new works-in-progress.

“Our stamp is that we want to not only highlight the social justice issues, but be informed by the communities in which we live,” Lancaster explains.

This year’s Fire! runs through August 20—with each new play preceded by a StoryCorps interview with the playwright and followed by an audience talk back led by a lineup of fellow artists and writers. TONY chatted with each scribe before the festival.

Fire! New Play Festival 2009 runs now through Aug 20 at South Oxford Space.
See http://www.freedomtrainproductions.org/. To read entire story: Timeout NY