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Otherhood Brings Queers to the Party

Otherhood Brings Queers to the Party

otherhood

Fort Greene Bar will be transformed into a safe space filled with music and dance on Friday, February 28 as the creators of Free Music for Free People (FM4FP) are crafting a gathering for the queer community. Otherhood Queer Party is launching to take the Globeville watering hole into an intentional, LGBTQ direction, and we couldn’t be more ready.

“We have been throwing events since 2013, all focused around community, focused around inspiring people, offering opportunities to collaborate, and to participate,” said Mona Magno, founder and executive director of FM4FP. “[We have] a huge emphasis on innovating creativity as we approach producing events.”

FM4FP is a media organization whose goal is to provide exposure and opportunity to emerging musicians, activists, organizers, and communities. Focusing on being an encouraging and authentic connection point for local creatives to thrive, FM4FP is led by artists who host supportive and creative space for communal growth.

Naturally, Otherhood appeared to be the next move for FM4FP, as they are gearing up for the first-ever, queer-focused event. However, it took the addition of an intern, Marcus Mills, to bring the idea up to the team.

“He came on board, and we had been talking about how he wanted to influence the organization, and he advocated for the queer events,” said Magno. “I was totally on board and excited to hear that someone wanted to actually do something like that. Being a queer person [myself], it’s really interesting that I’ve never really thrown specifically queer events.”

Related article: EDM and LGBTQ: A Queer History of Techno

The idea of Otherhood isn’t simply to have a queer night takeover at Fort Greene with DJs and live music; however, that will be taking place. Magno says that the idea is really to create a space that celebrates the queer community while simultaneously creating a sense of community.

“We always try to develop different entry points of interaction, so there will actually be a few different participation opportunities to to engage with the showcase as well as people. A huge thing that we believe in is the potential of people recognizing that they’re not alone, and so we try to facilitate people breaking through the barriers of unfamiliarity to get to know one another,” Magno said.

Magno, who also performs under the name Monalicious, helped Mills curate a showcase of talented artists and performers with f-ether and DJ Padideh in the front room and Lost Boi, Mx. Meek, and Faux Mantra performing in the main room.

 

It is a 21-plus event, however Otherhood will be free to help facilitate the community connection piece.

“Being a community organization, a huge emphasis about that is accessibility, and we want it to be accessible. There are some times where we do ask people to pay, but if you were to ever hit us up and be like, ‘Hey, I’m really struggling,’ we would always let you in the door,” Magno emphasized.

Otherhood chose Fort Greene Bar not specifically because it is well known for its queer inclusivity, but because they see the space as a way of inviting more and more spaces to be safe and welcoming for queer folks.

“I think it’s more of an offering than it is an enhancing. This is an awesome place; this is obviously a hub for some people in the area, and we want to continue to carve out, especially with this event space, where queer people know that they can be,” Magno said. “Instead of coming in and being a part of something, we’re trying to come in and actually offer some more queerness to Fort Greene.”

Photo from Fort Greene Bar Facebook, by @wlshk

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