“We have bars and lounges on every corner here – why don’t we have a black gay bar in Milwaukee?” says Anderson. While living in Milwaukee, Anderson would like to make his mark through his artistic offerings, but also by reviving the black gay bar scene. He also sells his bracelets and necklaces at numerous street festivals and will be vending this summer every weekend at the outdoor urban market in the Third Ward.
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He creates a variety of items, from harnesses for the fetish community to high-end purses and jewelry.
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“My family is my priority I’m here as long as they need me,” says Anderson.Īnderson is a leather artist who owns a business called MM Leather Studio.
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Anderson graduated from John Marshall High school in 1981 and went on to receive a BFA from American Intercontinental University and a masters in public administration / non-profit management from Troy University in Alabama.Īnderson visited Milwaukee regularly over the years because his family lived here, but moved back permanently or semi-permanently last year after his father suffered a stroke. His parents migrated to Milwaukee around 1964 and his dad landed a job at A.O. “We need a place where we can ‘take our shoes off’ and express ourselves,” says Anderson.Īnderson was born in Ripley, Tennessee. Even cities with a high number of LGBTQ women like San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago and New York have closed the doors to most – if not all – of their women’s bars due to lack of funds and low turnout. There has been a gradual disappearance of lesbian bars as well – and it’s not only happening in Milwaukee. “The bar scene is traditionally the cornerstone where gays tend to meet. “A black gay bar gives voice to black gay men and women,” says Anderson. “La Cage gave way to a generation of gays that readily embraced one another regardless of gender, color, sexual orientation or various degrees of what we now call ‘queer.'”īut it’s not the same as having a North Side club specifically for the African American gay scene. “La Cage catered to a younger and more mainstream music crowd and became a hit venue for the female impersonators of all races and nationalities,” says Anderson. To my knowledge, there is no place for the old black gay folks to play cards all day or go shoot pool, unless they go to Kruz or The Harbor Room.”Īnderson says the now-defunct Club 219, which was located on Second Street in Walker’s Point, was very welcoming to African American LGBTQ community as was La Cage. “A lack of Sunday barbecues and Saturday night crowds. “There has since been a vacancy in the black gay community,” says Anderson. The Ring and Richards location closed in 2001 due to lack of adequate parking, management issues and the patrons were concerned about crime. The final home for Art & Tony’s on the corner of Richards and Ring Streets. Tina opened a new bar on 7th Street and North Avenue which became home to primarily African-American lesbians and Art and Tony’s moved to 2nd Street and Keefe Avenue and then Richards and Ring Streets. Sisters later became Art and Tony’s, a black gay bar that drew people from Racine and Chicago as well as locally. Sisters was located in this space on 17th and Fond du Lac.