Alexandria (not Egypt)

I decided to take a different and more expedited trip back to Austin, which led me to a long (a bit more than seven hour) trip to Alexandria, Louisiana.

Interestingly, the city boasts a memorialized plantation-home which has been made into somewhat of a tourist attraction and museum. It is called the "Kent Plantation House," perhaps the "house" addition is to make it seem a bit more "southern family" oriented as opposed to the horrors that were plantations. The description on their home page certainly does such:

"The plantation house is one of the oldest standing structures in the state of Louisiana. Together with its outbuildings, it preserves the homestead of a successful Creole family typical of a Louisiana colonial era working plantation."


A visitation allows the viewing of the grounds as well as the house that the plantation master and his family would have lived in. I'm really excited to see this and get a taste of the origins of the master-slave narrative, the Deleuze-esque essence that was physically manifested in our very own country, which would later lead to the great emancipation, Jim-Crow, and the struggles for civil rights that would expose the ideology that allowed for such institutions to remain in-tact for so long.


Here's a slave cabin on the plantation:

And the nicely persevered sugar mill:

And the master's bedroom:

Construction of the plantation was competed in 1800, making this plantation the container of some of the oldest building in Louisiana.

After my tour, I plan to hit up the only featured gay bar on the net in Alexandria, called "Olympus," "where you are never a stranger"

It seems to be pretty darn swanky compared to the other bars I plan to visit on this trip so I'm pretty excited to check it it out.

Since I'll be on a plantation, what song better to listen to than "Oh Berta, Berta"

Made it to Birmingham!

Here we are, the final destination (of sorts), and I'll be interested to see what this city has to offer for me.

It seems like Birmingham has the most extensive list of gay bars to visit thus far, including Quest, "Birmingham's place for late night dancing. This diverse club is open to 19+ who want to dance. It also has weekly drag shows." 


It seems to be pretty hoppin, as according to one reviewer:


It was a fun dance place where we would go after doing a ladies only Burlesque Show, the music pumped, the sweat was wet, the drugs were outta this world, the drinks were cold, and the tricks were worth the money......I hope nothing has changed!!!


You can check out all the reviews here.


Although I may hit up each and every bar on this site, but since my real aim here is to get a sense of the community, I plan more so to chat with the people of the first bar I get to, and following them, similarly to how Toland follows the crowd from the hotel to the Alleysax. I'm sure there are different gay hang-outs than bars, and it would be interesting to see where it brings me (although I will be on my guard because I'm a bit afraid of the city to be honest).


So I'll hit up Quest and see where the wind blows. Thankfully these bars seem to be a bit less drab than the ones in smaller cities, and the website even boasts some photographs!

Hopefully I'll be able to make it to Free Comic Book Day on May 5th to pay homage to my inspiration, Howard Cruse.

Some other places that I'd like to visit are the Oak Hill Cemetery to pay homage to the pioneers of the city, the Oklahoma History Center, to supplement my understanding of the events that shaped the city and the state, and of course the Birmingham Civil Rights institution to focus more specifically on one of the major issues that Cruse comments on in his book. 

The Oak Hill Cemetery:

Oklahoma History Center:

Here's a picture of the Civil Rights institute:

I'll be busting out some of Birminghams Jazz, playing Andy Hamilton. Here's a video of him playing his sax in Birmingham. 

Lee County Exploration

I'll first be heading to the city called Shannon in Lee County, Mississippi to explore the potential existence of the bar "Rumors" that was highlighted in the film Small Town Gay Bar, which explores the persecution, struggles, and the creation of different communities in Mississippi, and also highlights a hate crime murder that happened in Alabama.

Rumors seems to be the only bar in the film that may potentially be still running, although the bar Different Seasons was making an apparent comeback and re-opening, so I'll attempt to explore that bar as well.

The bar Rumors created a simulated and very real community of "others" in the tiny tow of Shannon. The regulars are all friends, friendly, and all know each other's names. I'll cite myself from my previous paper:

The people who refuse to go to Rumors retain a mentality similar to those in Stuck Rubber Baby. One
man says, “if the queers don’t fuck with me, I don’t fuck with them. If they fuck with me I’m’a bust their head open” (5:30). The novel makes a connection between gay rights and civil rights, and this person in the film makes a connection as well. He insists that “I don’t like niggers” and that “blacks opened the gay bar,” although that is simply false. For the people of Rumors, the bar is the “only place you can come and be yourself.”

These anecdotes are familiar to Cruse's text, in that he creates, or highlights the similarities and overlapping of the gay rights movement and the civil rights movement. I want to explore the air of the city, the ideology of the people, and what of it allows the potential disenfranchisement of a group of people. I also want to see how things are changing in the South and in this city for the queer community. 

What to listen to in Shannon? I'll go with some Delta Blues, the famous Mississippi style of blues. I'll play some John Lee Hooker, who was a son of a sharecropper, and truly connects the past with the present as he was born in 1917 and died in 2001

If I have time to make it, I'll travel the two hours it takes to get to Meridian. This is where the second gay bar that was highlighted in the film is located, Different Seasons. Although it had a troubled past of being burned and shut down, the end of the film gives light to a potential future with new owners, a lesbian couple.

Hopefully they'll be jamming the song "Boom Boom" by John Lee Hooker. Note how the video shows black people and white people both playing music together and dancing together.

Civil Rights and Jackson

If possible, I'd like to make my way directly to Jackson, Mississippi for my next stop. Similarly to how Howard Cruse's graphic novel depicts the relationship between the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement, I too would like to make some sort of connection in this historic town (and hopefully throughout my journey)

First off, I'd like to check out the Medgar Evers Home Museum, which commemorates the civil rights activist Medgar Evers who was assassinated by a KKK member, sparking protests across the state.

Location: 2332 Margaret W. Alexander Drive

Jackson, Mississippi 39213United States.

I'll also be checking out the The Robertson Museum and Cultural Center of Jackson to get a sense of Jackson's cultural heritage as well as some of the cities more famous landmarks and people. 

After a nice day of museums and education, I'll be heading to discover more about my main interest on my trip and hit up a few of Jackson's gay bars to get an understanding of the cities community. First off will be Jack and Jill's, an upscale bar downtown. I'll also check out Jack's Construction site, another gay bar up the road also known as "JC's" 

I'm goin' to Jackson!

Bar Hopping in Shreveport, LA

After a short drive, I plan on stopping in Shreveport Louisiana to hit up some of the bars that the fairly large town (with a pretty interesting film reputation) has to offer. First off is "Central Station," a run-down looking building that has the best reviews for the city. I plan to soak in as much lively attitude as possible before seeing what else lay before me. 

This first bar is located at: 1025 Marshall St Shreveport, Louisiana 71101.

Second off is to check out the other gay bars around and to find out some more about the community in

 this city. Up the block is "The Korner Lounge", which the "Crowd was once older but has become a 

hot spot for the younger crowd. Plenty of pretty faces! A cozy environment that is constanlty being 

updated to become a more upscale space."

A nice drab looking building, just like I like em. 

If I've still got the energy before passing out in a motel, I'll try to make my way to the lesbian bar "Never Never Land" at 1920 Market St Shreveport, Louisiana 7110, a nice creepy looking shed building. The point isn't to get drunk in a bunch of shacks here people, it's to discover the development (or lack thereof) of the gay communities in the South.

Music for the town: Reuben Bell of good ol' Shreveport

Seraching in Tyler

After leaving Austin, I plan to make my way towards Tyler in East Texas, where a notoriously conservative population heralds the history of the aristocratic states-rights advocate tenth president of the United States, John Tyler. According to some sites, Tyler has a growing gay population yet still lacks a firmly established gay bar. I'll attempt to find this once-a-week "watering hole" event that attracts more gay people than other events highlighted in this article.

According to one site, some other locations including an administrative building on the local college campus attract gay men for meet-ups as well. Off to Tyler!

Listening for the Road: Johnny Horton from Tyler, Texas.

Nat King Cole

Commencing the trip, I shall mark my journey with Nat King Cole, who was attacked in Birmingham Alabama while performing his song, "Little Girl."

Cole would rarely play segregated venues as he constantly fought racism throughout his life. Here we are