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Banton performs, LGBTs protest

Jason A. Michael

Caption: Stephanie Newman, production manager for the event and front-woman for Not About Me, a 'lesbian folk Indigo Girl wanna be band,' and Jocelyn B, emcee for the evening and self-proclaimed Bitch of the Blues, at the Buju Banton replacement concert at the Magic Stick. BTL photo: Jason A. Michael

DETROIT – For Michelle Fox-Phillips, allowing Jamaican dancehall artist Buju Banton to perform in the city of Detroit went against everything she had worked for and believed in for so long.
Banton, notorious in the LGBT community for having released the song "Boom Bye Bye," wherein he says that if a gay man comes near him he should be shot in the head with an Uzi, burnt up like an "old tire wheel" and covered in acid, was scheduled to perform at the Majestic Theater Sept. 30 as part of his U.S. tour.
"I work on the Day of Remembrance for transgender individuals and it just pushed my buttons," said Fox-Philips, the co-founder and executive director of TransGender Detroit. "Here's this guy coming out advocating killing gay men."
So she set out to stop Banton's show by any means necessary. Her first step? A meeting with Magestic owner Dave Zainea.
"I went down at the end of August with some information I printed off from the Internet and he was totally shocked," Fox-Phillips recalled.
But if Zainea was sympathetic, he was also on the line for a substantial sum of money. Banton's hateful homophobia was not a legitimate legal basis for canceling the contract without penalty.
With the show still slated to go on, Fox-Phillips reached out to Affirmations and the Triangle Foundation to formulate a step two.
"She was really the persistent one saying, 'Are we gonna do something about this? Are we gonna do something about this?'" said Kathleen LaTosh, chief administrative officer for Affirmations.
In short order, they did. Sending out an action alert via email on Thursday, Sept. 24, the response was immediate.
"He called me on Friday and said, 'Stop 'em. They're calling me at three, four in the morning,'" Fox-Phillips said.
The calls stopped when Zainea canceled the show.
"If we had known that there was any controversy surrounding this artist, we would have never even considered booking him," Zainea said in a press release he issued to announce the show's cancellation. "We do not condone any form of hate speech. We have struggled to get out of our contract for over a month to no avail. The Majestic is in essence a family-run small business. It is next to impossible to simply cancel a show without major financial consequences. Yet, that is what we have done."

A 'win-win' situation

Thankful for such a bold show of support, Fox-Phillips and LaTosh felt a need to repay Zainea and find a way to help him recover some of the estimated $10,000 the cancellation cost.

"A few of us got together and said, 'Why don't we pull together a replacement concert for them to offset the loss,'" LaTosh said. "At the last minute we put the word out seeking performers. From rock to punk to hip hop to blues – we have a great show put together."
About 150 people showed up for the show, which took place at the Majestic's Magic Stick venue on Sept. 30, the same night the Banton show was originally scheduled for. While many of Banton's U.S. shows were canceled following protests by the LGBT community, including all of those booked by powerhouse concert promoters AEG Live and Live Nation, Inc., the Detroit replacement show may very well be the first of its kind.
"I think we're the only ones who put together a replacement concert," said LaTosh. "So it's kind of neat. I really think this could be a win-win situation."
Jeffrey Montgomery, who helped stop a previous Banton concert some years ago while he was executive director of Triangle, said the idea was a great one.
"So often we'll get something stopped and do nothing," Montgomery said. "This (concert) is so beautiful because we're saying, 'OK, you did this, so we'll do that.'"

The (homophobic) show must go on

For Banton's part, his people were able to find a venue willing to host his hate and his show was relocated to the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor. Despite the flood of phone calls and dozens of protestors outside the venue, the show there did go on the same night.
"In those works he's done, there's no denying that (he advocated for violence against gays)," Blind Pig booking agent Jason Berry told Between The Lines in defense of the venue's decision to book the show. "The only thing is, he did those works a long time ago … but at the same time, it's art."
While "Boom Bye Bye" was recorded in 1988 and re-released in 1992, clips on YouTube show Banton, who was charged in 2004 with the beating of six gay men in Jamaica, performing it live as recently as 2006 while the crowd sings along. In another recent clip, Banton paused in the middle of the song to speak to his audience.
"There is no end to the war between me and faggots," he said.
But the war was brought on him the night of his Sept. 30 show as over 60 protesters made themselves heard outside of the Blind Pig, shouting "Shame!" and other chants at those who chose to attend Banton's concert.
"It was a very cooperative, non-violent group – but they yelled loud," said Phil Volk, who helped organize efforts to protest. "They could hear our group inside the venue.
Volk added that the protesters spoke with several individuals planning to attend the show who walked away after learning of Banton's past extreme homophobia. "I'd say we had abut 20 couples who turned away," he said. "It was bringing public awareness to what's going on and they didn't want to get involved."

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