By Crimson Jordan
This weekend, Blackness and queerness will be at the center of Houston’s music scene. On Saturday, April 30, Black and queer people from all over the nation will gather in Space City for the Black Queer AF Music Festival, an unforgettable night of celebration, empowerment, and community.
While the event is billed predominantly as a music festival, there’s more to this event than the amazing line-up of artists, attractions, various vendors, and community organizations present. It’s what Ian L.Haddock, founder of The Normal Anomaly Initiative—the organization behind Black Queer AF—calls “partying with a purpose.” The goal of the festival is to further the mobility of and fill a need within the Black queer community—values that stem directly from The Normal Anomaly’s mission.
“The Normal Anomaly Initiative Incorporated is an organization that centers Black queer persons,” Haddock says. “To overcome barriers in stigmas and problematic narratives, to actualize a new normal.” And that’s exactly what the organization does—not just with big events like Black Queer AF, but in their everyday operations as well. The Normal Anomaly has three distinct service areas: direct services, which includes employment and transportation services, capacity building and research, which involves a sex-positive curriculum along with a field study site for HIV prevention trials network, and advocacy through community development, which focuses on the most marginalized and disenfranchised people. All funds from ticket sales and other donations to the festival will directly benefit The Normal Anomaly’s programs, such as the BQ+ Transportation program, the Transgender Ally Collective program, the Positive Organizing Wellness and Resilience program (P.O.W.R.), and the Community Burial Fund.
Haddock says one of the major questions they receive is: Why Black Queer? “[There are] two answers that I give. The first one is if we can figure out a system to equip, enhance, and empower the most marginalized, then we get the infrastructure to create that for other people. The second thing is highlighting the brilliance of Black Queer people does not diminish the effort, the support, the care, the community outside of that, so although this is a Black Queer Music Festival that is exclusively promoting Black Queerness, it’s not exclusive to Black Queerness. A brave space for the most marginalized is a brave space for everybody.”
Creating a brave space. That’s exactly what Black Queer AF is doing. In a world where existing in spaces (queer-centered spaces included) feels conditional and exclusionary, Black Queer AF exists to be everything but. The organizers were very intentional in doing so. The Normal Anamoly team (Haddock, Joelle Bayaa-Uzuri, and Jordan Edwards) went to Pride celebrations across the country and all experienced, in some capacity, feeling unsafe or unseen. Bayaa-Uzuri explains, “As Pride festivals are growing and blooming, they’re becoming more commercialized and more saturated. We’re losing that space to feel safe and to be seen and to just be.” From the jump, the aim has been for Black, queer joy to be present in the atmosphere of this event. This festival is a space for everyone—no boxes, no obligation, no assimilation required.
Another amazing side to this festival is that it also marks the launch of 14 Black- and queer-owned businesses through The Normal Anomaly’s Project Liberate, a program that uplifts Black, queer persons. The program is sponsored by and put on through their grant with Viiv Healthcare. This program, like all of The Normal Anomaly’s services, was birthed out of necessity. With issues such as HIV care and prevention, most people think that testing alone is enough to bring an end to the epidemic. Joelle Bayaa-Uzuri, director of programming for The Normal Anomaly, explains that’s not the case. Project Liberate exists to be part of the solution, she says. “What we have to do at The Normal Anomaly is address social determinants. . . . With Project Liberate, the social determinant that we’re addressing is employment and how often times, the most marginalized persons, for instance, are Black and Brown, queer persons, Black Trans Women. What we’re doing is uplifting and providing the community with tools to be able to establish the infrastructure and the operational skills to be able to launch their own businesses. So we’re not having to rely on systems of white patriarchal employment.”
In addition to the advocacy, the artistry and entertainment are on deck. The event will be hosted by Krystal Smith, KhaosTalks, and Brandon Sanders. The line-up? Absolute fire. The bill boasts the musical talents of Dawn Richard, Sevndeep, Tre’ Ward, Sissy Nobody, Vockah Redu, Durand Bernarr, Porsche Paris, and ShaunWes. The resident DJ is none other than Houston’s own DJ Rocabye. And it’s all taking place at Stampede Houston, a large venue with a great dancefloor. There will be games, vendors, a mechanical bull, and much more. You really have to see it for yourself.
Haddock reflects on a saying from Tammy Wallace, president and CEO of the Greater Houston LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce: “When we go and fight for resources and there are not enough resources, our answer is always to say ‘I’m going to harbor the resources,’ but the answer should be, ‘I need to advocate and get more.’ So, I am clear about the fact that there is enough for everybody, and if there is not enough for everybody, our work is to get it for everybody.”
While this event is the first of its kind here in Houston—making history in the best way—the organizers say that fact was not at the forefront of their minds when planning the festival. “We were not attempting to do something new, we were attempting to do something necessary,” Haddock says.
General Tickets are still on sale, so buy yours today! The celebration doesn’t stop with the festival, either. If you buy the Fest+Brunch tickets, you get access to the brunch on Sunday. Entry to the brunch includes food, two drinks, and the rooftop experience.
