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SOUTHERN VOICE
OCTOBER 21/1993
TRE JOHNSON
Age: 23
How long in Atlanta: native
Relationship Status: long dis
tance
Last Book Read: “The Ugly Waif’
by Tina McElroy Ansa
Pet Peeve: inconsistency
Despite all of the attention paid to the arts in
metro Atlanta lately, performance artist Trc John
son has not been sitting still just watching the
news stories. Johnson recently performed in
“Life’s Legends: Past and Present” at 14th Street
Playhouse over Labor Day weekend.
The timing turned out to be very good for
that show, he says, “because, for some reason,
thousands of African-American gays and lesbi
ans come to Adanta on Labor Day weekend.”
The show ran again in conjunction with the
Atlanta Gay and Lesbian Arts Festival, where he
read poetry and short stories at the Otherside.
Gay and lesbian Atlantans may have also seen
him at this summer’s Pride festival, where he
staged a reading of one of his short stories called
“Kissing Cousins.”
A self-proclaimed singer/actor/poet, John
son was exposed to the stage at an early age. His
father is a blues musician who still does studio
work here. Johnson started singing around age
10, primarily because it was the one thing he had
in common with his father. There were the hopes
that through singing, his relationship with his
father would grow stronger because that was
something that his father could acknowledge
and appreciate. Johnson started performing dur
ing his middle school years and went on to
graduate from the nationally-acclaimed Northsidc
School of the Arts. “Thai’s where I really came
into my own, 1 guess.”
“My mother is a Jehovah’s Witness. She
and my father were from two different worlds.
So early on, I had craziness in my world.” But
has mom, as a Jehovah’s Witness who also lives
in Adanta, had problems dealing with her son’s
sexuality?
“No. My mother is very very supportive of
me. People don’t believe she’s actually my
mother because she is just so wonderful and so
receptive to her openly gay black son. I’ve al
ways been very different from my family. I’ve
just kind of segregated myself so they just think
I’m kind of crazed. They just accept me fdr who
I am.”
Although Jehovah’s Witnesses, as with most
every other organized religion, deem homosexu
ality as wrong, Johnson seems to have a very
healthy relationship with his family. With his
niece Maya (named after the poet) bouncing on
his knee while talking and answering quesuons
about his life, his wonderful sense of humor
about himself and his work comes to surface.
When asked what to do if someone from
Jehovah’s Witness comes to the door to convert
you, he says, “Just do what I do and say, ‘Oh,
I'm in here with my lover right now.’” As the
Southerner creeps into his speech on occasion,
he talks about his life after Northside.
“I left the city for while and went to London,
and then I came back because my best girlfriend
was murdered. When I came back home, I was
totally different because I had left the States and
I had gained my independence.”
Johnson is currendy in a reladonship with a
playwright who lives in Texas. “He’s my long
distance lover. I just love him. I’m trying to get
him to move here to Atlanta. If he wants me to
be his complete spouse, he would have to.” There
are plans to visit his Texas beau for about a
month this fall.
Before his rendezvous in the Lone Star State,
however, he will be working with “one of my
best girlfriends,” lesbian activist S. Faybcll Ma-
Hcc, on “Souls On Fire” at SAME on Oct. 28.
After reluming from his trip, he will once again
be busy as ever, premiering an till African-Ameri
can gay male theater group called Sissy Shock
ers. They will be performing “A Love Beyond
Levels,” three individual pieces about interra
cial love. Trc’s piece is titled “Mulatto Love
Thang,” so it probably won’t make it to Cobb
County.
He is also working on a jazz/R&B album
and on a collection of poetry called “Listen to
My Soul Singing,” some of which will be sub
mitted to a couple of anthologies to be published
during summer 1994. He will be the first to tell
you, “I wear many wigs.”
JOE BIRDSONG
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