Memorial Day weekend is packed with excellent LGBT events including a performance by All the Pretty Horses, an Andrew Christian Underwear show, Queer Voices at Intermedia, and Black Weirdo: The Party.

[sws_yellow_box box_size=”100″] Andrew Christian Glow Video Premiere and Fashion Show [/sws_yellow_box]

Come see our risque runway show as hot male models strut their stuff in jocks, thongs, and shorts! We will be featuring underwear from top designer Andrew Christian. After the fashion show there will be a premiere of the steamy new video showing off the new Glow line from Andrew Christian. Mingle with the models and browse our selection of sexual health products for all lifestyles. Come for the free drinks, stay for the eye candy! Space is limited- first come first served.
RSVP for VIP seating and a gift bag of free goodies!
send rsvp to [email protected]
FREE cover at The Saloon with hand stamp from this event! (Night of event only.)

[sws_blue_box box_size=”100″] Details
Date: Friday, May 23, 2014 at 8pm
Location: Fantasy Gifts – Minneapolis Location, 814 B Hennepin Ave
Admission: Free
For more information, visit Fantasy Gifts [/sws_blue_box]

[sws_yellow_box box_size=”100″]BLACK WEIRDO: THE PARTY (MPLS EDITION) A CELEBRATION TO UPLIFT BLACK QUEERS AND PEOPLE OF COLOR ALLIES [/sws_yellow_box]

THEESatisfaction, brilyahnt peace & Purple Hocus Pocus present Black Weirdo: The Party, a national touring celebration of Black Queers and People of Color allies at Gamut Gallery. The shared goal is to create an energizing, unifying and healing home space for Black queers and People of Color from all backgrounds, identities and experiences while being exposed to new ideas, faces and lifestyles. Guests will groove to energetic, intimate performances & DJ sets by Sarah White, Sweetz P, Mamadu (don’t call him Toki Wright), DJ Just Nine, Sassyblack, and Stas Thee Boss. The evening will be hosted by THEESatisfaction, who will also DJ and perform.
brilyahnt peace and Purple Hocus Pocus are defining what Black Weirdo means to the Twin Cities. Of this event they say: “We’re dedicated to building a party space where we can just be who we’ve always wanted to be. This night, with Black Weirdo, we’re going to resist by dancing and celebrating our lives. This night, we demand to be seen, heard and loved.” Black Weirdo: The Party is both a party and a community. This inclusive evening will offer an atmosphere where Blackness can be wild, unrestricted and unafraid—be healed, be happy, be laid-back, be conscious, be hood—all at once.
The Minneapolis edition of Black Weirdo: The Party is sponsored by Voices Merging and Women’s Student Activist Collective (WSAC).
Black Weirdo is a national touring party hosted and curated by THEESatisfaction. The party is primarily for Black queers and People of Color allies. Black Weirdo aims to celebrate all forms of Blackness and create a Black-positive, queer-positive space. facebook.com/BlackWeirdo
THEESatisfaction are Stasia Irons and Catherine-Harris White. Stas was born and raised in Tocoma, WA; Cat in Seattle, WA and Hawaii. They write, produce and perform their own material,funk psychedelic feminist sic-fi epics with the warmth and depth of Black Jazz and Sunday morning soul, frosted with icy raps that evoke equal parts Elaine Brown, Ursula Rucker and Q-Tip. theesatisfaction.com
brilyahnt peace wants you to think differently. s/he throws events to uplift and expand understanding and spirit. brilyahnt peace is here for Black Women. brilyahntpeace.tumblr.com
Purple Hocus Pocus is a soulful community organizing a new nightlife space where the young, Brown and sexy people in Twin Cities will be able to connect and vibe to the music. The series will launch in late Fall of 2014.
SPONSORS: Voices Merging (VM) is a multicultural student-based art coalition at the University of Minnesota, dedicated to all mediums of art and art lovers alike. Best known for their biweekly open mics, VM is moving into the realm of party producer.
Women’s Student Activist Collective (WSAC) is a student organization at the University of Minnesota. WSAC aims to empower women, transgender, and gender non-conforming people to make positive changes in society by eliminating interrelated inequalities that produce oppression, with a focus on gender and sexuality.
FEATURED PERFORMERS: THEESatisfaction, Sarah White, Sweetz P, Mamadu (don’t call him Toki Wright), DJ Just Nine, Sassyblack, and Stas Thee Boss

[sws_blue_box box_size=”100″]Details
Date: Friday, May 23, 2014, doors at 7:30 p.m., party 8 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Location: Gamut Gallery, 1006 Marquette Ave Minneapolis, MN 55403
Admission: Donations accepted. Tickets $12 advance, $15 at door, student discount by contacting [email protected]. 18+
For more information, visit Gamut Gallery [/sws_blue_box]

[sws_yellow_box box_size=”100″]Magneto Effect + All The Pretty Horses @ ICEHOUSE MPLS [/sws_yellow_box]

All The Pretty Horses and Magneto Effect will be taking the stage at The Icehouse in Minneapolis. ME’s on at 11, with ATPH at midnight.

[sws_blue_box box_size=”100″]Details
Date: Saturday, May 24 at 10:30pm
Location: Icehouse MPLS, 2528 Nicollet Ave South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404
Admission: 21+, $6
For more information, visit Facebook [/sws_blue_box]

[sws_yellow_box box_size=”100″]Intermedia Arts presents: Queer Voices: A GLBT Reading Series [/sws_yellow_box]

For more than 10 years, Intermedia Arts’ Queer Voices reading series has been creating a safe space for LGBT writers and audiences to explore the day-to-day material of life without internal or external censorship. Curated by John Medeiros and Andrea Jenkins, Queer Voices is the longest running series of its kind in the nation.

MAY 27 READERS INCLUDE:
Tommy J. Beckwith is a home grown Florida boy. He moved to Minnesota in May 2012 after completing his Master of Arts in Higher Education from The University of Arizona. Tommy works as an academic professional for Century College. After taking a hiatus from writing after completing his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech, he has rediscovered his passion for writing poetry about the human condition and his personal experiences. Tommy’s most recent work was published in Verse/Chorus.

James Cihlar is the author of the poetry books Rancho Nostalgia, A Conversation with My Imaginary Daughter, Undoing, and Metaphysical Bailout. His writing has been published in The American Poetry Review, The Awl, Court Green, Smartish Pace, The Rumpus, Lambda Literary Review, and Forklift, Ohio. He has received two Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowships for Poetry and a Glenna Luschei Award from Prairie Schooner. His website is jimcihlar.com.

Edmond Manning published two novels and one book of short essays. His most recent novel, King Mai, is a finalist in the 2013 Lambda Literary awards. On Friday of this week, he leaves for the New York award ceremony. He read first on this stage before anything he wrote was published and is honored to be invited back. Manning has always been fascinated by fiction: how ordinary words could be sculpted into heartfelt emotions, how heartfelt emotions could leave an imprint inside you stronger than the real world. Mr. Manning never felt worthy to seek publication until recently, when he accidentally stumbled into his own writer’s voice that fit perfectly, like his favorite skull-print, fuzzy jammies. He finally realized that he didn’t have to write like Charles Dickens or Armistead Maupin, two author heroes, and that perhaps his own fiction was juuuuuuust right, because it was his true voice, so he looked around the scrappy word kingdom that he created for himself and shouted, “I’M HOME!” He is now a writer.

Josina Manu Maltzman is a carpenter by trade, a writer by passion, and a rabble-rouser by everything else. Jo has been writing short stories and essays for as long as memory provides, with the honor of being published in That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation in 2004. Currently Josina is working on a mytho-biography spanning multiple generations of a Jewish family, which relates historical trauma to cycles of violence, both intimate and global. Josina is a fiscal year 2014 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. The writing being shared tonight is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

[sws_blue_box box_size=”100″]Details
Date: Tuesday, May 27 from 7 to 9pm
Location: Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55408
Admission: $5 Suggested Donation
For more information, visit Intermedia Arts [/sws_blue_box]