Zolra's Corner: Acknowledges and Support 11 Very Fascinating People For 2010

Hello everyone. Happy New Year! I am so happy that the new year has arrived. It's time for a change. As we continue throughout our own individual adventures, there are times when we look at other people's work, and it catches out eyes. That's how I felt throughout the year. There are a few individuals that I be inspired by every single day. And because of that, I would like to acknowledge these brilliant people for their large body of work. Let's start the countdown.

11. Alonzo Lerone

The way I stumbled upon you was very accidental. I was just done watching the 2009 BET Awards. So I suspected that videos of the awards show was going to be posted on Youtube. I was really astounded by Beyonce's performance, I wanted to see it again. Then I am browsing around the internet, and there was a picture taken from her performance. I clicked on the video, and it turned out to be one of your music reviews.

There was no judgement at all when I first noticed you. You are entertaining, funny, creative, and extremely good looking. I will continue watching your music reviews. You just keep on making informative comedy. We love you for that.

Below is one of my favorite videos from him.

10. B. Scott

B. Scott! Once again, you are becoming a major star in our eyes. Your individualism, creativity, stylish looks, entrepreneurship, and cleverness makes us want more from you. The first time I noticed you was on Youtube. Noah's Arc was becoming a major thing in the press. Then I was browsing around the site, looking for interviews from the cast. Then I saw the interview you did with Jensen Atwood.

The moment I saw that interview, I didn't get enough of you. I check your website every single day. It's been added to my daily journalism list. Every day, I go your website to see the news. Then I watch new episodes of your show. Continue with great success B. Scott. We love you very much.

9. Finding Me: Cast and Crew

Now I have to acknowledge the entire cast and crew of the hit movie "Finding Me." I loved the movie. The acting was on point. Each story was addictive. I was never bored the least. For people who have not bought the movie, where have ya'll been. Faybien's story is something that everyone can relate to. Despite our sexuality, we have difficulties finding ourselves.

The thing I like about this film is that the relationships is nationwide. I have shown this to one of my friends who is straight, and he thought he was Faybien for a quick second. The minute I heard that, it came to me. This is not just for gay people. Any person can see themselves as any of these characters. Because of that, I give the cast and crew of "Finding Me" my deepest respect and support. You know I am going to see the sequel "Finding Me: Truth."

8. Rapper Bryn't

When it comes to music, I was listening to your music nonstop. I believe your music was the first music I've ever listened to that surrounded the gay community. The moment I heard your music, your mixtapes were in my IPod five minutes later. I listened to both mixtapes 5 times each in one day.

I kept my headphones on, and listened to every lyric on each track. I didn't want to miss a single message you were sending through your music. It's raw, creative, and original. Bryn't, your music is something that we need to listen. Just know that I am a fan, and I'll be supporting and listening to you till the day I die. 100% respect. Keep on doing what you do.

7. Xem Van Adams

Xem Van Adams is one of the inspiring people I have ever seen on a computer screen. From one writer to another, I love your work. I mostly read what you say than watch your videos. But either way, I love you. The thing I love about you is that you branch out to different things surrounding the community that we all keep on talking about. Not only that, but you show us your vulnerability to things in the world.

You give us these amazing stories because you've gone through the things you talk about. That is what I love about you. Your own individual success has become a journey that I watch nonstop. I know you wouldn't be here without a large group of people that help you out everyday. Tell all of them "Congratulations."

I've got nothing but love, respect, and support for you too. And I am looking forward to watching "The Blogger" when it comes on tv. Just like you said. You're Conquering the World One Word at a Time.

This is one of my favorite videos that I probably watch three times a week.

6. ADTV

Hands down, ADTV is one of my favorite shows right now. There is not a day that goes by when I never stop talking about the show. Derrick L. Briggs, Matthew Barrett, Ryan Drake, and J'Nara Corbin, you guys are doing a great job. I remember watching this show when it was just Derrick L. Briggs and Adam Benjamin Irby. Ever since then, I have seen it grown during each passing season.

It's become very informative surrounding the community. I love watching four different points of view. For me, I love it when I see four different perspectives of life come together to talk about the situation at hand. I grew up watching Oprah, The View, and Tyra. I loved watching sitcoms like Friends and Girlfriends. I guess that's why 4 is my favorite number. I love the realness of the show. You guys just always seem to come up with the best topics. One thing I saw while reading the comments is that people were going through a certain situation, and before you know it, an episode of your show comes on and it is talking about the situation at hand.

That's the reason why I love the show. You have my 100% support, love, and respect. And I am going getting this feeling that this is just the beginning for ADTV. Below is my favorite episode from you guys.

5. Adam Benjamin Irby

As I browse around the internet. There is not a day that goes by that I don't go check out the weblog of Adam Benjamin Irby. He has been called the "Carrie Bradshaw" in the gay community. I don't put him under that label. I call him "One of the greatest gay writers in the world." Adamsweblog.com is my day-to-day site. I literally go on his website everyday. If he doesn't have any new posts, I go check out the old ones.

What I love about you is your realness. You are not afraid to tell us these amazing stories. Each story makes me feel how I feel when I read a book. I am a fan of nonfiction books. When you talk about your life, you are not afraid to say what is going on around you. You are honest, raw, and creative with it. You are an amazing writer. As you continue to update your blog, I see how you grow as the days go by. Everyone's life is like a roller coaster. We all make mistakes and learn from it. Keep on writing dude. You have my 100% love, support, and respect.

4. The Cast of Drama Queenz

This series is becoming a major hit online. As it starts airing season 2, Drama Queenz continues to entertain me nonstop with it's stories. It's funny, entertaining, and purely original. For me, I kind of hate the comparisons it get from the tv show Noah's Arc. This show is something I have never seen before. Even Noah's Arc can't touch this. Three gay friends showing the life in New York City. I have never seen a show that did that before. This show stands out on it's own. Continue great success. Dane Joseph, Kristen-Alexzander Griffith, and Troy Valjean Rucker.

3. Dwight Allen O'Neal

I cannot do this list without acknowledging my good friend Dwight Allen O' Neal. I didn't put you on this just because you are my friend. I put you on this list personally and professionally. You are one of the greatest people I have ever known. Your ideas for these different shows are so amazing. Dating Dwight, Christopher Street, and Dishing It With Dwight. I am so happy to see you grow, and you're individualism makes you shine that an forever-lighting star. My heart races every time I think about you. Friend to friend, I give you all the love I have. I am looking forward to watching more episodes of Christopher Street and the second season of Dating Dwight. I keep on watching the current episodes nonstop.

2. Nathan "Seven" Scott

Nathan, Nathan, Nathan! Sometimes I still wonder how the heck we walked into each others lives? Then I remember it like it was yesterday. We got connected when I was doing my talk show on Youtube Zolra's Corner at the time. You were doing The & Show the same time as well. I forgot who sent a message to whom first. But I so happy we met. Because of that, I have found someone I consider a mentor.

Like you said, you was born to lead. You like to lead projects. What I love about you is that you listen to everyone until every word leaves the mouth. When you are listening to ideas from three different people, you have a way of combining all three of them together and create something that we all can relate to. Now that you are doing "We Are The Media" now, I continue to watch you succeed. You have become a perfect partner and perfect friend. You listen when I'm happy. You listen to me when I cry. You even listen to be when I feel alone. I am so happy you are in my life. Now you're about to make me cry in a quick second!

1. My Future Forward Family

From the moment I started doing this, I already knew who I was going to pick as #1. Throughout the whole year, The Future Forward has become family to me. Ever since Nathan offered me to write for the site, it automatically started to feel like family. I may write for different websites and blogs now, but none of them can make me feel the way I feel about this site.

Nathan Seven Scott, Dwight Allen O' Neal, Cornelius Jones Jr., Lil Mogul Richard E. Pelzer II, and Waddie J. You have no idea how much I feel about you guys. It makes me cry everytime I'm working for the site. I love each and every one of ya'll at the bottom of my heart. What each of ya'll contribute makes me proud of having good friends that loves to do what they aspire to become. Being 18 years old, I feel lucky that I have met you guys. I can't wait till I move there to New York. So that I squeeze each and every one of ya'll, and show you how much I love you guys.

2010 has arrived, and I look forward to what we are bring The Future too.

Zolra's Corner: Dominating Our Resources Will Lead To Other Opportunities

This is strictly my opinion. I don't know if anyone agrees with me or not. What I've noticed throughout my years is alot of things surrounding the LGBT community. I love the fact that we are doing everything we can to put ourselves on the screen, and getting rid of this images that the media has of us. If you've seen films like The Salon and Nora's Hair Salon, you know what gay characters I'm talking about.

Growing up, I've seen some changes. On networks like Logo and definitely Showtime, we've seen a lot of shows that brought some interesting characters. The shows that made a great impact on television is Queer As Folk, The L Word, and Noah's Arc.



These were amazing shows, and I am proud of their success on television. Through the years, I have seen films and tv series progress rapidly. The day I saw Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom became a box office success, the doors have opened because we wouldn't stop knocking. Better yet, we didn't have to knock. We ripped that door down and tackled the media down in the street. We are still doing our best to bring great films, television shows, and even talk shows.

But here is my theory on the whole thing. I believe that we have a few resources that we can use in order to do it. It's something that I thought about when I saw my role model Tyler Perry do it.

When he started making movies, Hollywood wasn't calling him. In the beginning, they were against Tyler's messages. They said either he makes the types of movies they recommended, or he can walk away and be unsuccessful in cinema. Tyler walked away and built us own empire using the resources he had. He formed a long lasting deal with Lionsgate, and his films have been grossing close to $400 million dollars. Because of this success, Hollywood now calls him.

This makes me believe that we need to do our best with the resources that we have. If we can accomplish that, then they will be calling us. Because they now realize that this is an opportunity that they can't walk away from. One of the best resources we have is the internet. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Skype, and many more have made it very useful for us

If we want a television show, let's create it and put it on Youtube. Of course, making money online is a necessity. But if we can promote the heck out of it, we will be very proud. Take my friend Nathan "Seven" Scott. The first time we met each other was when we were doing our own talk shows. I was doing "Zolra's Corner" and he was doing "The & Show". Since then, I have watched him move on and become a better person. He went from"The & Show" to other tv shows he created, to the current show "We Are The Media". I check the show everyday. It is getting so many high views.

One more thing I want to view on television series and movies. I see we are doing our best. We are premiering these new movies to film festivals every year. We have tv shows that have gay characters as the main parts of the show. But there are still some of us that have amazing ideas that would be great to have up there too. My thing is to use what we have, which is the internet. The one show I was happy to watch on a daily basis online was Drama Queenz.

For shows like this, we need to promote the heck out of it to make sure it continues. Once we have this successful show online, we can premiere it in festivals and larger theatres.  When sponsors see how successful we are online (if the first episode gets like 1,000,000 views), then we can show that we have a success on our hands. Before you know it, someone like Patrick Ian Polk or Maurice Jamal would like to be a part of it.

As for movies, do the same thing. Keep on promoting the heck out of it. You will see great results in the end. That's what happened to Noah's Arc. After watching it at a festival, Logo knew they had a hit on their hands. Then it became a tv show. For movies, I think we should try the DVD business. It's a theory I thought of after watching Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen grow their business when they were kids.

When they were kids, business executives predicted the business after watching how one of their first films was more successful when it was released on DVD. So they started working on straight to DVD films, and it grossed over $100 million worldwide. It's all about predicting the business. Finding Me did that.

I consider this one of the best promotions I've ever seen. The team used Youtube to release trailers and sneak peaks of the movie. The cast and crew went to events to promote the film. This led to blogs talking about it so much, more people wanted to find out more about it.

Once the film came out, it was an instant success. And the reason why it became a success is because they predicted the business and used the resources they had.

We keep on wondering how we are going to do things like this. My only answer for that is "The resources you need are right in front of you."
And it's because of these resources that make us a force that can't be stopped. Comment if you agree with me on this.

But For a Little Support, What Might Have Been?

Here's the man who would have been the Mayor of New York City if things had been just a little bit different on Election Day. In a contest widely believed to be a battle already won by Mayor Bloomberg long before Tuesday, outgoing Controller Bill Thompson searched far and wide for some real backing from his own Democratic Party after winning the primary race on September 15. Thompson received help from some local officials, including Public advocate-elect Bill De Blasio (D-Park Slope) and Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-Sheepshead Bay), who said after Thompson's defeat, "a lot of Democratic donors who sat on their wallets are kicking themselves tonight." But, believing Thompson already defeated, many prominent Democrats proffered only tepid support (or none at all) for Thompson's campaign. even the pollsters were predicting a blowout victory for Bloomberg, but something funny happened to Mike Bloomberg on the way to his landslide: Thompson almost upset him out of office.



Defying the talking heads and naysayers, even those within his own party, Thompson built on voters' anger over Bloomberg's brazen power play in repealing term limits, and the mayor's heavy-handed campaign style and lavish spending, to gain nearly half the city's votes. When President Obama managed only a "half-hearted" endorsement of the Controller, it was seen as a "bad sign". Many Democrats were leery of backing Thompson, because they feared alienating the "politically powerful" Bloomberg. But Thompson had the support of the voters, who went for him in numbers far exceeding even the expectations of his campaign. The relevant lesson for gays and lesbians of color is, imagine where we'd be today if we just supported each other a little more.




To cite just one example of what I mean by this, consider Finding Me: Truth. This sequel to the successful Finding Me movie is stalled in production for the want of adequate funding. Here is a movie (disclosure: I participated in the making of this film) which should be "in the can" by now, a story for and about gay men of color, and yet it languishes on the shelf. Part of the reason for this is lack of community support. Gays of color are quick to cite the wildly popular Noah's Arc television series as evidence of how the community supports our artists. However I look at it another way: Noah's Arc is a good example of what can happen when we do support our creative people. By extension, how readily do we support those we know in their pursuits? It seems to me that the "crabs in a barrel" syndrome is a recurring theme in our world.




This was certainly reflected in Thompson's near-miss, when it was evident that some who should have been in his corner, tried to tear him down instead. Just think how different New York City history would have unfolded if Thompson had the support he needed. The salient point here is that Thompson was left out in the cold by his own party, and this is something we do to our artists and leaders in the LGBT community all the time. Just imagine how much more visible we'd be, how much more seriously we'd be taken, if we gave our support to those who work so hard to put a human face on all of us before the world. Our community is teeming with talented people looking to enrich our lives through their activities and their art. We need to recognize and encourage them all, so we won't be like H.G. Wells' lost time traveler, "haunted by those two most terrible words: 'what if'?"

Dating Dwight: Special Guest Bry'Nt