Victor Yates

beats,

rhymes

& life

Death Sentence is a spoken word performance commenting on Blackness, police violence, queerness, and survival. The Black queer political art performance artists hope to help audience members work through and heal from the trauma of police brutality against Black bodies.

Victor Yates, spoken word artist, will use performative techniques, body paint, and symbols of violence to heighten tension in the performance as he speaks an original poem containing the last words of Black people murdered by the police.

The performance will be recorded and presented on the City of West Hollywood’s website with a Q&A session with the artist to provide context for the performance and shape the conversation surrounding police violence.

Victor Yates is a writer and storyteller. He works as a freelance writer for a local L.A.-based LGBT quarterly publication. He also directed his first documentary film two years ago and is in the final stages of editing the film. He is currently working on his second novel. His first novel, A Love Like Blood, won the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Debut Fiction.

Death Sentence, a spoken word performance by Victor Yates, premieres 23rd October at 7pm (EST), followed by a live Q&A with the artist.

Polari polari

THINK you know your gay slang? Here's 10 for you to try out on friends, family and colleagues!

sappho daddy-o n. [1950s] (US gay) a heterosexual man who socialises extensively with lesbians.

tonk n. [1940s+] (Australia) a male homosexual, or an effeminate heterosexual man.

tossed salad n. [1990s] (gay) anilingus and anal intercourse.

Uncle Samantha n. [1950s-60s] (camp gay) the United States government.

vagina little-finger n. [1950s-60s] (camp gay) a snob. [vagina puns on Virginia, seen as a typical upper-class name. Little-finger refers to the affected crooking of the little finger when drinking]

wall queen n. [1960s+] (US gay) 1 a man he leans against a wall while he has sex. 2 a gay man who enjoys reading inscriptions on public lavatory walls.

Xerox queen n. [1960s+] (US gay) a man who prefers all his sexual partners to resemble each other.

yankee n. [1950s] (gay) masturbation [YANK OFF]

yashee n. [1950s-60s] (camp gay) an idiot, a fool. [Rus. yasha, a peasant]

zelda gooch n. [1950s] (camp gay) anyone considered unfashionable. [anecdotal]

Earlier editions of Word!

Shamelessly lifted from Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, by Jonathon Green.

WORD

Think you know your gay slang? Here's 10 for you to try out on friends, family and colleagues!

kaka queen n. [1950s-1960s] (gay) one whose sexual preferences involve excrement, a coprophage. 

lay it out v. [1960s+] of a homosexual of either sex, to admit and poss. flaunt one's sexual preference. 

macaroni queen n. [1980s+] (US gay) a non-Italian gay man who prefers Italian partners. 

naff adj. [1960s+] (gay) not available for fucking/fun. 

oncer n. [1960s+] (gay) a homosexual who never repeats a sexual encounter with any one partner but continues to seek new people. 

Paris brothers n. [1950s-60s] (gay) homosexuals, esp. twins [play on stereotyped views of French sexuality]. 

quack n. [20C] (US Black) a homosexual [? he 'ducks down' for sex] 

raggedy android n. [1950s-1960s] (camp gay) an unsuccessful and thus impoverished male prostitute. [play on Raggedy Ann, a children's doll + android] 

sad-ass n. [1960s+] (US gay) a sadist. [deliberate mispron. arse] 

tondalayo n. [1950s-1960s] (camp gay) an ostentatious, flagrant homosexual. [proper name of any 'African queen']

  Shamelessly lifted from Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, by Jonathon Green

Pictured: Paris brothers? Bel Ami twins Milo and Elijah Peters (top), and Kristen Bjorn's Mendez twins (bottom).

WORD

Think you know your gay slang? Here's 10 for you to try out on friends, family and colleagues!

  abareskin adj. [1960s] (US camp gay) embarassing [joc. mispron. and ref. to bare skin]

baby crockett n. [1970s] (camp gay) a fake cowboy [proper name of Davy Crockett (1786-1836), the 19C Western hero, whose adventures were fictionalized in the 1950s US TV series]

cafeteria n. [1980s+] (US gay) anywhere that plays host to repeated oral sex, e.g. a public lavatory or bath-house. [one goes there to eat]

daisy chain n. 1 [1940s+] a spintry, i.e. a circle of three or more people, hetero- or homosexual, all linked physically in mutual sex acts; thus daisy-chainer, one who participates in such activities. 2 [1990s] (US campus) the connection between people who have had sex with the same person at different times.

easter queen n. [1960s+] (US gay) one who ejaculates prematurely [i.e. he comes quick as a rabbit']

fan one's ass, to phr. [1960s+] (US Black) to move one's buttocks in an exaggerated manner with the deliberate intention of attracting one's audience sexually, usu. of homosexuals.

gayola n. 1. [1960s+] (US Und.) pay-offs and bribes made to police to permit running of gay clubs. 2 [1980s+] (US) a homosexual man.

half a man n. [1970s+] (US Black) a passive homosexual.

icing expert n. [1960s+] (gay) a fellator.

Jewish by hospitalization phr. [1950s+] (gay) circumcised but not Jewish.

Shamelessly lifted from Cassell's Dictionary of Slang, by Jonathon Green