Views from a BrewTown Sista (aka The Chronicles of Kayleah H. Madison)

So, Rockford Pride Fest '13 is this coming weekend. Yay! It'll be at a new location, unlike last year. Vasa Park, in the southeastern part of town near I-39, is supposedly a better-looking park with its own kitchen. Hmm. And Rockford Pride will be able to cash in on its concessions, too. So much for shelling out $20,000 to use the empty Davis Park and not getting a taste of the profits.That's what reportedly made the committee change locations for this year's gala. Here's to hoping many more Pride Fests in the future years.  Today, I have (sorta) self-diagnosed myself as having gender identity disorder (GID). So I've been regularly wearing foundation & powder plus maybe some eyeshadow and lip gloss to church. Yesterday while doing some grocery shopping, three people all referred to me as "Miss" or "Ma'am". This was while I still had a less-noticeable beard. I get that fact that it's either the poofness of my hair ( which has s...

Ah, every year around this time I get a bit sentimental. Tomorrow (May 13) will be the 16th anniversary of me graduating from college (Dillard University of New Orleans to be exact. I'm on the far right with the shades & full beard). I wonder what these guys are doing since we all left the Avenue of the Oaks in our rear view mirrors? Just wondering. Had my mother been alive to see this, I'm sure she'd be very proud of me. Since her passing in 1979, it can be hard to think what she'd say watching me receive my Bachelor's degree in Communications/Humanities in person.  I still have the videotape to prove it, too! One of these days I will transfer this sucker onto a disc! VHS has gone the way of the 45 records and cassette singles.  Despite that inevitable task, I have rarely watched it in recent years. The last time I saw it in its entirety was probably 2006. I nearly came to tears watching that event. Why? Well, like a lot of people, I wanted to have some fu...

Last night prior to hitting the sack, I had some minor thoughts swirling in my head about how to approach the upcoming Rockford Pride Fest in June. We are a few weeks away from the thing, however, I just want everything to go right. Yes, I know had the income to back this up I'd be doing a bit better right now. So much has gone into this with little results. I could go on and on about that.  How should I approach the people? How often should I give out these business cards? Should I have gotten those magnets earlier in the year? What should I wear? Even when I may have a few questions like the above, I still do have the knowledge to make this time an improvement from last year. 

Apologies to Rockford Pride Fest for using their logo for this blog, but I wanted to use this to show just how excited I am that this is in its second year of reality. Last year's inaugural Pride Fest took place in downtown Rockford at Davis Park. It was a bit warm that day; it was summer, after all, and it basically was a success. If I only had some wheels I would've stayed for the Miss Gay Pride Fest Pageant in its entirety. For this year's installment, the event will be two days long, including a camping site for those who want to sleep under the stars. That is, until I found out the location won't be in the same place as last year. It's at something called Vasa Park, which is located well on Rockford's southern city limits.   I had never heard of the place in all the years I have called this place home. Vasa Park is just west of I-39 and Blackhawk Road. Sheesh. Good luck finding the place if you don't have a map.  I'm not trying in anyway to i...

Last night at choir/bell rehearsal, I quietly celebrated the one year anniversary of first attending Spring Creek United Church of Christ. Don't really need a charm bracelet to commemorate this. For the past few weeks while I was trying to find a way to remember the 15 years of discovering my feminine side, I glanced at some of the calendars that I have on my wall on the month of April and remembered one year earlier about attending a service at Spring Creek, just for the hell of it. I was told about the church late in the summer of 2011 while at a meeting for the first Rockford Pride Fest. Received a pamphlet describing the church, located at Spring Creek & Spring Brook. I had previously passed the church many times before, taking the shortcut going to Woodman's and cruising west on Spring Creek when I had my wheels. The actual date I have since forgotten, but it was nice that they did arrange a way for me to get there.   To you long-timers of SCUCC, the previous past...