A play within a play within a ritual...

BMX-NY Present a reading of a new play, "A Communion with Kings" by BMXNY member, Dyron Holmes.

About BMX-NY

What Is Same Gender Loving (SGL)?

Fundraiser: BMX-NY T-Shirts

For: Friday, October 23rd, 2009 @ 8 P.M.

The Black Men's Xchange, New York  Present a reading of a new play, "A Communion with Kings" by BMXNY member, Dyron Holmes.   A COMMUNION WITH KINGS is a play within a play within a ritual.  The central figure in this piece is HECATOMB, a word that holds the meaning of "a great sacrifice."  HECATOMB is a living soul who is pure and has never been touched intimately by either a man or a woman.  He is an employee at a box office where a performance of a dance concert entitled, "Kings" is being performed.  The Kings in the play are, BLOOD, GOLD and EARTH.  The play asks the question:   In the complex village of  same gender loving brothers, can divine love be found in the dark and light rituals of sex, identity and "dis-ease?"   HECATOMB How do I protect the part of myself that remains innocent while seeking an intimate partnership that will affirm that part of me?   EARTH Am I still worthy of respect, honor and beauty even after I have been tainted by less than holy sexual experiences?   GOLD Why do I need to give a f*ck about the brothers that I have sex with if none of them seem to give a f*ck about me?   BLOOD Can my sexual manipulation of other men be a good thing?   DYRON HOLMES (Playwright) is a writer, actor and spiritualist. His first play, Brothers of Time, was a winner of the National Young Playwrights Festival.  His plays have been presented at Playwrights Horizons, HERE Theater, Lark Theater, Genesius Guild , New York University, Baltimore Theater Project w/ Brave Soul Collective, The New School, Duke Ellington and Off-Stage Bookstore Theater in London . Acting Stage credits include performances at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kennedy Center , Syracuse Stage, Joe's Pub/Public Theater, Crossroads Theater, St. George's Theater in London and the Al-Bustan International Arts Festival in Beirut , Lebanon .  Television/Film credits include: Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Job, NY Undercover, The Hurricane and the upcoming film, Order of Redemption.  He is a graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and New York University 's Tisch School of the Arts.  He is the founder of The Peoples Monastery and is presently enrolled in One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and will be an ordained minister in June 2010.

JMG Notes: Monogamy vs. Polyamory, or Polyandry: Creating New SGL Paradigms?

Hello Folks. The following post is from John Martin Green. He asked me to post if for him. In the future look for posts from JMG.


At least week’s Black Men’s Xchange-New York we took up the topic,

Monogamy vs. Polyamory, or Polyandry: Creating New SGL Paradigms? 

After defining the terms, polyamory and polyandry, both of which involve relationship practices extending beyond individuals having a single mate, with the consent of all involved, participants shared their perspectives on those relationship models and others they’ve attempted or considered.


Among the most interesting outlooks espoused included the idea that:  

With all of the relationship structures cited (including polygamy), with the exception of polyandry, the central figure is male, such that, operating in a patriarchal society as we are, there is a power dynamic in those configurations that favors the man.  As same gender loving (SGL) men, these might well prove ‘win-win’ situations for us.

Other participants shared that their reasons for attempting or considering relationships extending beyond monogamy include:
Because men, both by nature and nurture, have been socialized to be sexual ‘conquerors,’ in monogamous relationships there is frequently clandestine sexual activity afoot which threatens the monogamy.
Examples along these lines included mentions of real and proverbial church ‘Pastors’ whose spouses, even as they marry, know they are entering tacit polyamorous relationships.


Some of the reasons proposed by participants that alternatives to monogamy might loom as hopeful for SGL folk included:
The anonymity observed in internet sexual hookups, and in more traditional covert sexploits can be spiritually, if not literally, deadly.
With marriage counselors, churches and all the other institutions in society buttressing the maintenance of their monogamous unions, the divorce rate among heterosexuals still hovers upwards of 60%.  SGL people, with little or no institutional support, and more often, negative sanctioning for our mating from those same institutions; and having, like all other men, been socialized to be sexual conquerors, might spare ourselves of “The Myth of Monogamy”* through the creation of our own mating structures.




* “The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People” (Hardcover)
by David P. Barash Ph.D. (Author), Judith Eve Lipton (Author) "Anthropologist Margaret Mead once suggested that monogamy is the hardest of all human marital arrangements..."