NeNe' Izima

Open Mic Queen, Fierce defender of Poets, Charitable Sunshine

My first time ever attending The Avenue Cafe's open mic happened to be the first time Ne tried out stand-up comedy. I sipped a cheap, warming PBR from a mason jar from the bar and fixed my eyes on her (even though I was on a date and probably should have been striking up clever conversation, but as Ne would say, you should pay the fuck attention to the performers) I have to say that it made my entire night.

The Avenue Cafe's ambient lighting lit the stage up like a halo surrounding her presence as she joked about her dating life.

"I am Nigerian," she said. "I had a guy say to me once, 'Man I bet you seen some crazy shit!' " And she scoffed, "Yeah, man, I really miss my pet zebra."

A roll of the eyes as the crowd teared up. "I don't know what's up with people during sex sometimes.... there's a difference between kinky and serial killer."

"This isn't comedy guys, this is my therapy session."

The second time I had attended the open mic I had enough trashy beer to have the confidence to try and talk to her outside of the venue. Erupting into a compliment war, I asked to take her portrait and she was so much more excited than I had expected. I later learned that Ne actually co-hosts the open mic with her friend Mimi Fisher.  Which is held once a month.

Now Ne has been doing stand up for about a year. "My style is to simply tell the truth of the fucked up reality of my life sometimes. Shit, I talk to the audience like I would the homies."




Recently I had the privilege to interview with The Impact: The Under Current with Ne herself in which we got to talk about Spectre. Ne mentioned how she felt more empowered during her witchy/androgynous shoot with me, describing it as threatening and feeling more body positive. But Ne deserves all of the spotlight, in my opinion. 

She actually  models on and off as well as being a full-time mother, social worker at a great girls home, college graduate and part-time comedian. Quintuple threat, much?

"As far as body imagery goes, I used to be very down on myself. Being black in my community being thick is a thing. I'm petite so I used to try and gain weight. Since I have a son, I also have stretch marks. So I use to hide that," she explained to me on my porch after our interview with The Impact. "But after getting tired of trying to change for people that kept criticizing me, I learned to work with my imperfections." She used finger quotations around the word. "Laugh at them. Up them in comedy. More importantly, don't give a fuck."

During my second shoot with Ne, she expressed she had a specific look in mind for her outfit. Blazer, tie, harness bra underneath. Sporting the best of masculine and feminine fashion. "I rock it to the fullest. Being femme and androgynous, I mean. You can be a girl and sit with your legs open and have armpit hair and be desirable. You can also slap make up on and fucking slay. Beauty is beauty in whatever form."  

I love to ask people what their guilty pleasures are. She answered with, "I watch a lot of reality TV and crush on friends. They think we are friends but in my head, we really married." I'm keeping my fingers crossed here, guys.

 

If you ever go through Ne's social media, you'll see her absolutely dashing son, David, who dresses better than any grown man you've ever seen. "Ha, my kid is 5 going on 30," she joked, "He makes my parenting job easy. He's a soccer boy and he loves being on camera just as much as I do." And its true. There's a video of him dancing and singing a long to Hot Line Bling. Should've went viral.

Ne has an upcoming charity event at The Avenue Cafe this Friday, June 3rd. It's a 90's-themed Throwback Friday Benefit. All proceeds will be going to Eve's House and Haven House to help women and family's whom are victim to domestic/sexual abuse. She has gathered up some Lansing poets (including myself) and musicians to perform, including other shares from survivors. Ne will also be talking on a very personal level, coming out about being a survivor from the domestic violence in her past that had landed in the news. It'll be $5 at the door, but it's going to a wonderful cause.  

Jeremy Dearest

pin-up prince of androgyny

I received a phone number that my room mate had gotten for me one day and they specifically told me " You have to take photos of this person.  He's beautiful. " They explained to me that they spotted him outside smoking on his lunch break from work. They complimented his outfit and mentioned me. Eventually we facebook creeped each other and he quickly became one of the best models I've ever worked with.

The first time you take photos of someone, things are usually kind of awkward for at least the first half hour. Getting someone to loosen up and feel comfortable with themselves enough to pose is usually a process.

During my very first shoot with him, I had brought him around a few public areas and he just busted out the poses left and right. Boom boom boom. I could've had a solid set of golden photos within ten minutes. Fire photos from start to finish.

Jeremy's name on a social media is either Jeremy Dearest (due to his love for Joan Crawford) or Jeremy from Tha Block. He actually had just moved down the block from me, so I biked down with a bag full of clothes and equipment in the basket. The life of an artist with no transportation. 

 Jeremy and I shared warm cups of creamy coffee on his sunny porch. I bummed  several Parliament cigarettes. The recessed paper filters freaked me out.

Jeremy clearly had a love for vintage. Anything from the 30's-50's. Which are, of course, his favorite time periods. " Those eras are included in part of what's considered the olden age. What attracts me to it is quite simple. "

Insert drag of a cigarette here, " Glamour. " 

Insert exhale here. " We don't get to see glamour like that anymore and I think its a shame. "

Jeremy draws a lot of inspiration from past decades, old Hollywood. Some specific and slightly more current inspirations include: Dita Von Tease, Joan Collins in Dynasty, and Raja from RuPaul's drag race.

" While there are aspects of many different eras that I admire, I wouldn't want to be a part of any of them except for the one we are currently in, simply because I couldn't be myself as I am now. "

I asked about his fashion tastes when he was younger and if they were as extravagant. I wish I had an inkling of the attire Jeremy possessed, especially in high school. I probably wouldn't have had such a prolonged awkward goth/emo phase. But once you're goth trash, you never really escape it.

He laughed, " My entire high school existence was an embarrassing fashion phase. While it got slightly better towards the end, chances are you would have seen me wearing a sarcastic saying on a graphic t-shirt that didn't fit, boot cut jeans from Old Navy and sketchers. "  I couldn't even imagine him in anything other than high waisted ruffle shorts or sheer black tights.


 

(seen on the left is Jeremy showing me through his stunning attic space in which he just refers to as his closet. A closet with sequined mannequins, a reading nook, a full blown vanity set and probably a lot of clothes I would permanently borrow in a heart beat. Seen below, details of his beautiful assemble.)

Since he works in quite a few different visual merchandiser jobs, I had to ask him what trends he couldn't stand. " One trend I wish would die is the high-low silhouette. " Shit.  I thought. I just bought a hi-low skirt....I should probably throw it out. " I also have a fiery burning hatred toward denim skirts of all lengths. I recently read an article in Vogue that said they were coming back and I cringed. " At least I'm safe here. I'm still fashionable. I sighed in relief.

Some projects that Jeremy is currently working on? He just finished up doing some volunteer work for the Lansing art gallery in downtown. " I got to help organize the artist exhibition as well as execute the current window display there. In just a few weeks I'll be taking a painting class at LCC so I'm excited to see what comes from that! "

 

 

 

With his shoot in particular in Spectre, I tried to pull inspirations from American Horror Story and Twin Peaks combined into one. Although these shots are all incredibly elegant, don't be fooled. We had a lot of laughs. I had him crouch down at one point for a pose and he exclaimed, " I feel like Lil Kim! "

Even his little kitty Petunia joined. Which of course, I will include.

A few favorite quotes of Jeremy's.

"Aerodynamically speaking, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it... so it goes on flying anyway."

"Be kind to me or treat me mean. I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine." - Fiona Apple

I never go outside unless I look like a movie star. If you want to see the girl next door, go next door. - Joan Crawford

 

Taylor De La Ossa  

24 year old Michigan based dark comedian with the appeal of a beautiful necromancer.

I met this little witchy girl whilst walking to the convenience store, half drunk and on a mission for a slushie and a pack of camel turkish silvers. The neighborhood I live in, especially in the summer, you can't really walk anywhere without running into someone you know or meeting a new person.

We tried to plan a clothing swap party, where you grab all of  your clothes you don't want anymore and trade with other's unwanted items in an attempt to change our styles. We ended up being the only ones showing up and basically just traded with each other. Then this quickly transitioned out onto my porch, drinking shitty beer with my two roommates in a cloud of cigarette smoke.

 

Taylor has been performing comedy since November of 2013, I had learned. She is a regular Mac's Bar comedian, performing whenever her schedule allows and produces / runs a show called Comedy is Fun! Which is a monthly standup showcase at The Fledge.

" It's billed as a shit show of standup and more," she explained, " but mostly stand up. "

Recently Taylor had her first comedy writing submission published on the website Reductress!, a personal favorite satire website of mine.

Taylor has an ever- growing resume of theatre performances as well. Just recently she was in a short film  that won the Fortnight Film Contest as part of the Capital City Film Festival: A Shred of Evidence.

" Other than that, I go to school and work a shit job like everyone else. " Her modesty in this statement! I can hardly find the time to do my laundry outside of working my shitty job. " I love reality tv. I eat that shit up. Like Rock of Love, Flavor of Love, all of the Of Love shows. " I giggled cause I knew I also had a terrible guilty pleasure for trash tv, " Bad Girls Club, RuPaul's Drag Race, anything Gordon Ramsey does. My favorite is watching shitty tv while eating chinese food," she went on, and I agreed wholly in these indulges.

She mentioned that she was heavily inspired by Seinfeld (the tv show, not necessarily Jerry Seinfeld's stand up. Which trust me, the two compared are complete opposites. Jerry being so clean, Taylor being incredibly dark and " not for everyone. ") She also mentioned inspirations from Monty Python, Louis CK, Maria Bamford, Mitch Hedberg, Andy Kaufman, etc.

I asked her what she felt was difficult about being in the comedy scene. " It's hard. I think the most difficult thing is finding where you fit. I got really lucky and found a great group of comics in Lansing that showed me the ropes. The hardest part of the scene is what is currently regarded as the 'right way' to do things. You do open mics for years, then you work your way emceeing, you do that for years, then you can feature a club, you do that for years, then you can headline. "

 

"My comedy is dark and weird, so I don't do well hosting clubs," she went on. " Luckily it seems like that route is becoming outdated. My favorite rooms to play are DIY spaces, they're always the most fun." Which I could only imagine they would be. Taylor and I both agree on supporting local shows, or local everything really.

"Comics are very gossipy," she sighed, "Scamps in a sewing circle. I wish people were more kind."

I decided to have Taylor model in a witchcraft sort of theme. I walked over to her house from mine with a heavy bag filled with small animal skulls, teeth, candles, corsets and amongst other delicates, a tall boy of Coors and camera equipment. Listening to Rhianna the whole way to get me pumped up to take sexy, other worldly photos.  We ended up using her very blair witch style basement to take a majority of the photos. Creating a sacrificial-looking scene with lit candles and scattered teeth.

At one point, while she modeled in a velvet corset and thigh highs on her staircase, her cat, Candy Cane, trotted down the steps and posed next to her, wearing a garter loosely around her head. She hadthe same stare as Taylor, two pairs of beautiful big doe eyes.

Naomi Renée

carefully worded 19 year old bug / oddity enthusiast with skin made from silk worms themselves.

Usually how I meet people is through social media. Almost every time. So naturally I would immediately follow someone like Naomi on instagram. Her make up skills alone always had me entranced. Eventually we got to meet in person and then I would start seeing this lady on my porch more and more frequently. Always bouncing creative ideas off each other's noggins.

Naomi has always been fascinated with moths in particular. A large moth tattoo in the center of her chest and an instagram name even dedicated to the little creatures, where you can see videos and other photos of her handling all sorts of exotic pets and insects. The dusty colors of moth wings always reminded me of the color schemes I'd see in her attire. Which of course, her wardrobe is something to be envied.

 

Naomi and I both collect oddities such as bones, teeth and such. When I got to see her collections and decorations in her bedroom, I almost fainted. Such morbid beauties.

I asked her when was the first time she started to become interested in vulture culture. 

" I think I was a sophomore in high school, so maybe 15 or 16 years old. " and then went on about how she found a squirrel skull smack in the middle of the side walk on day. " I've been picking up dead shit ever since. "

We also bonded instantly over our love for CocoRosie. Bianca and Sierra Casidy being huge inspirations to her. Along with antiques, nature and a good dose of nihilism. 

" I'd like to think that everything I create physically is infused with original artistic thought. I consciously try to do that, I mean. " she replied when I asked her about the mediums of art she likes to dabble in. " Make up artistry, clothing construction / alteration, block printing, preserved entomology displays / insect pinning, and vulture culture as a whole. "

Naomi has recently been diving into a lot of collaborative work with other artists and photographers. " Independently I enjoy working various insect displays, sewing projects and patch making. " Just the other day I had ran into her outside of The Avenue Cafe at a little wooden table, carving away at blocks for an opossum patch that she is creating now.

When I approached Naomi about my ideas for this monochrome series, she immediately mentioned her Michelle Moe harness bralette and collection of vintage lingerie pieces. I asked her to wear a white ghost sheet like you'd see in the cartoons, and she rode over on her bicycle, threw on her delicates and praced around in the backyard with me snapping behind her. At the end of it, riding through my neighborhood on her bike with the bed sheet still over her body. Whipping behind her, occasionally showing off a little black garter belt to pair with a delighted smile.