Poetry in motion
Poet Steven Reigns made quite the name for himself in the Tampa Bay area before heading to the west coast to expand his craft and activism. A product of the University of South Florida, Reigns was not only a well-known poet and artist, he was also a leading activist. He was the Literary Director for the GLBT Center of Tampa for two years, headed up an outreach program in Pinellas County offering up HIV testing and education for minorities in the inner city and was even named as “Someone to Watch” by the Advocate. Reigns didn’t slow down once he took up residence in Los Angeles as he is one of the nominees for West Hollywood’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board’s awards in recognizing those who have made a significant contribution to our community. Well done!
Raising the bar
If you didn’t make it to the 2016 Tampa Gala at the TPepin’s Hospitality Center, then you missed out on an amazing evening with 600 of your closest friends. I mean, they had artwork as a part of the silent auction that featured a painting of Ted Cruz almost as terrifying as the real thing and an array of penis portraits of varying shapes and sizes that would have sparked hours of conversation at any Republican debate. Aside from the art, guests heard from two of Tampa Bay’s most inspiring and motivating leaders: Voice for Equality award winner Ed Lally and EQFL’s Executive Director Nadine Smith. The best news, though, is that of the numbers EQFL’s Mark Puskarich announced that the Tampa Gala brought in $355,000, a gala record. Now that would buy a lot of penis portraits!
Step Up ’16: Rally for a President
The days leading up to the March 15 Florida primary are going to be filled with lots of robo-calls and lots of Facebook posts, but the most talked about will be the events, and Tampa Bay has been singled out as the place to be March 10. First, Hillary Clinton will be at The Ritz Ybor asking Tampa to GET OUT THE VOTE! Then Bernie Sanders will be at the Florida State Fairgrounds letting young voters know that he wants A FUTURE TO BELIEVE IN! Is it a coincidence that both of the Democratic presidential nominees will be in Tampa at the same time… on the same day as the Tampa Bay WAVE Awards party?!?! Maybe we can get them to stop by Southern Nights and finish this primary season up with a good old fashion dance-off! BRING IT ON!
