New Jersey-based photographer, Mike Ruiz, featured on Next Top Model and RuPaul’s Drag Race, started an ongoing series to highlight the beauty & diversity of the leather community - showing that it’s not about just wearing leather or kinky sex. According to Ruiz, “It’s about a community of men who form a strong brotherhood with a rich history rooted in community service and inclusion dating back to the 60s. The more I learned, the more I wanted to know. I figured the only way to get an accurate account was to go to the sources.”

The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated an existing problem; the diminishing of queer communities and their spaces, which were already becoming sanitized and assimilated into the mainstream culture. With this, Ruiz focused on the community he explored his entire life without shame or apprehension. He embarked on this project to experience liberation that he hadn’t known before.

During his travels, meeting, and bonding with these men, Ruiz saw how free and empowered they are. Which granted him the power to let go of his hang-ups about sex and relationships. Much of the project happens while the camera is down. Talking to the men while they prepare their formals, polish their boots and light their cigars, Ruiz listens to them as they discuss the mental changes that happen while they get dressed and how impactful this part of the process is up to the final photo.

Ruiz plans to continue the series by taking more portraits of Leather Men and collecting their stories. As the series grows and evolves, so will the discussion and understanding of what it means to wear leather as a form of self-identification instead of just a sexual practice. The project will culminate in a book and multiple gallery showings. Ruiz hopes the project will become a time capsule that will keep the leather community’s rich history and traditions alive for a long time to come.

Queer artist Michael Phillis realized that “his worst day as an artist was still better than his best day as a tech manager.” So, he quit his day job, not just to create art, but to connect with other artists, many of whom work in jobs similar just to cover the cost of living in America's expensive queer mecca.

Thus, Baloney, the performance troupe, was born -- a classic variety show combined with burlesque, using theater, dance, and strip tease to explore and celebrate queer sexuality and life experience. Michael, together with his life partner Rory Davis, have been delighting and surprising audiences for years, and this documentary offers up an under-the-covers look at the real life people who create and perform the show, and a behind the scenes view into all of the hard work that goes into putting on this powerful and beautifully produced professional theatrical production.

Mothé is not your average run-of-the-mill musician - they are an artist. Pulling from life experiences, Mothé creates a perfect fusion of rock and pop covered in a tasty layer of synths. Their latest project, I Don’t Want You to Worry Anymore, is an album of healing and an intimate look into the type of power social discomfort and the need to find a place one has on one’s soul. With songs like Dancing on an Empty Floor, Everyone is Everything, and Breathe The Air on the Moon - the album has a real sense of what they were releasing into the universe - making a connection with fans, letting us know that living on this planet is not an easy feat. But, others like you feel what you feel, and you will make it through. Mothé shared a little about the process behind the album and what they discovered about themselves in the experience.

You shared that I Don't Want You To Worry Anymore is an album about healing, documenting moments of hurt. Some artists would find the process of creating this type of album challenging. What was your creative process for this project?
I didn't know what kind of album I was making in the moment, so I didn't find it particularly challenging to go back to those feelings. I would have felt a lot worse if I had sat down and decided to make it, but I was just in a period of time where I needed a lot of healing and compassion from myself, so the process ended up feeling more comforting than challenging. The process was really long. I was basically bouncing back and forth between my apartment and Robert's apartment for months during covid. I would start an idea at mine and finish it at his. I wish it were a little more glamorous to be honest. It was just the two of us approaching it in a healthy way during office hours.

What did you discover about yourself during the creation of this album?
Having an entire album gave me a lot of room to experiment with new kinds of music. There's a pretty big difference between a song that plays well on its own and a song that plays well in support of a larger body of work. This was the first time I've ever made an album so it was a chance for me to experiment with less "in your face" songs. I got to discover and begin a new voice in my songwriting and production that I'm incredibly excited to continue. On a personal level I gained a lot of confidence and security. The creative direction of the album gave me a supportive window to be more expressive in my queer identity, and I am a lot less afraid to be myself. It's changed a lot for me for the better.

Tell me about the camaraderie of your collaboration with producer Robert Adam Stevenson.
Robert is a wonderful person. I love working with him. We met in a studio when I first moved to LA, and we were writing for other artists, but we clocked each other immediately and started working together outside of the studio. He's my closest collaborator, it's really amazing to have someone who's as interested in the vision of the project as me. He just cares, even when he's working on projects he doesn't like all that much, he puts in so much energy and effort. I lean on him a lot. He's really the only person I work with, so it's amazing to have this sort of intimate "closed door" creative situation. We grew together and have started producing other people's records as a duo, so it's a relationship I look forward to continuing. He's had a lot of real success since we met and has always left room to make music with me.

The sound is powerful. Was there an inspired musical influence that went through your mind when working on the music?
I've always been into really harsh and loud albums, I read a study recently about people with anxiety connecting with Shoegaze music because it's a wide-range blanket of frequency. I wanted to make something like that but with a sincere pop structure. Even though the album is powerful, you'll find that it isn't all that loud compared to the digital-leaning rock bands of the modern times. I was trying to create a more comfortable kind of loud, using a lot of valve distortion and minimal compression. I've always been trying to find the middle ground between classic indie bands and today's modern party pop. It's an attempt at crossing Radiohead and Charli XCX, really.

What do you want listeners to walk away feeling when they listen to your album?
​My favorite thing about making music is that I don't get to dictate this. It's my album and my experiences, but as soon as I put it out into the world, it's everyone else's. I love this, it's a community buffet, so I want people to take what they need from it, or even just what they want from it.

For more information on Mothé, their music, and tour, visit https://linktr.ee/motheworld.

Albuquerque author Ronin Romero has written a gripping, epic sci-fi series named Glyph, starting with book one, Revelations. Set in a futuristic world where demigods have battled and left humanoids in a desperate bid to save their world before the chaos demigods destroy it.
Heading up the fight is Lady Mercelle, on the hunt for a famed and possibly mythological demigod that can turn the tide of the war against Chaos. In addition to Mercelle, there are different characters, including a leading trans character, with their motivations, goals, and secret deals.

I asked Mr. Romero what inspired the idea of this book series. Ronin says, "It is a storyline I had envisioned since I was a teenager. It was a culmination of plots that intermingle perfectly and within the same universe! Through learning who my characters were, I learned a lot about myself. The whole telling of the series is pretty much a different version of me finding myself. I believe that all deep stories come from the author's subconscious, which can be very difficult to navigate."

Difficult? Yes. Impressively epic? Definitely. A reviewer from Reedsy Discover gave the book four stars and said, “An interesting read with action-packed scenes and enjoyable characters.”

Books two & three are in the works. If you love post-apocalyptic sci-fi, you can find Revelations on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Revelations-Ronin-Romero/dp/1735582670.

Sonja Dewing is a multi-award winning author, creative writer, book writing coach, and self-publishing guru. She's also an award winning publisher and founder of the Women's Thriller Writers Association. She loves adventure, and living in Albuquerque with her giant puppy, Bo.

Happy Pride! June is a great time to celebrate. In June 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled that same-sex couples had the right to marry, just in time for Pride celebrations across the country. SCOTUS generally releases the most important and impactful cases in June of each year. This year is no different. Except for this year, with the right-wing supermajority, they are taking our country BACKWARDS. They plan to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that made abortion legal. This constitutional right, the right to privacy, is found in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. So was the same-sex marriage case, and cases that overturned sodomy laws gave interracial couples the right to marry and access to contraception. This right to privacy has moved the country forward. Now a right-wing SCOTUS is taking us backward to pre-1973 when none of these rights existed. A woman’s right to have an abortion is about to be lost. Based on the flawed and incorrect “reasoning” that there is “no right to privacy” found in the Constitution, all these other cases and many other rights we currently take for granted could be lost if the leaked SCOTUS opinion becomes law.

Elections matter. When you vote, you exercise one of your fundamental rights as an American. But even this right is under attack by the right-wing. How do we prevent all of this? WE VOTE! No matter your age, your vote matters. It matters because Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the President. It matters because federal and state legislatures make the laws that most directly govern our lives. It matters because most of us want our country to move forward. But a small minority wants to tell the rest of us how to live based on their own very flawed interpretations of the Bible. Do we want to live in a world where a woman doesn’t control her own body? Or gay men or women are imprisoned for being gay? Different races or same-sex couples couldn’t get married? On this last point - it would directly affect my marriage as I’m Latino and my husband is white, and we’re gay. Or no one can get contraception, so those condoms you see at events will disappear, women can’t get the pill for birth control, and we’ll have a lot more unwanted kids because women can’t get an abortion either. If the worst happens and Roe v. Wade is overturned, we can change it. How? By VOTING!  Vote for your values and your freedoms! We celebrate Pride every year. Why? Because we were oppressed and called all kinds of names and even jailed for being ourselves. All that changed because people voted because many of us sacrificed to get these rights. We worked hard to make gains for our community, and Pride is a celebration of that. But it’s also a reminder of how fragile those rights are and how determined homophobes can take those rights away in an instant. We CAN NOT let this happen! So I urge you to vote in November, especially for younger folks. Go to Pride, stand up for what you believe. Wear your Pride everywhere. When you’re out celebrating the Pride parade, festival, and parties, remember the reason for Pride. It came from our struggle for our rights. This Pride season, let’s preserve those rights we have fought hard for! Stay safe and HAPPY PRIDE!

Mauro A. Walden-Montoya, Esq., is a recovering attorney who's worked with the People with AIDS legal program at the Whitman-Walker Clinic (Washington, D.C.) and The HIV Legal Clinic at the D.C. School of Law.  He’s past President and board member of the New Mexico OUT Business Alliance, on the boards of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Wheels Museum and the ABQ Leather Daddies and a Minister in the Universal Life Church. Mauro lives in Albuquerque, with his adoring husband, Andy.

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