Every Night Should Be Like This! - Part 2
by Fran Sisco
As
published on TGReporter.com, the online transgender magazine
This is Part 2 of “Every
Night Should Be Like This” In Part 1, I described the magical beginning of the
evening of April 6, 2013 when the International Imperial Court held its annual
fabulous "A Night of a Thousand Gowns - NOATG" at the Hilton Hotel,
located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas, New York City. The star-studded evening featured a red
carpet, a dinner with dancing, live entertainment, an awards ceremony and the
runway procession of royalty, decked to the nines. Part 1 covered my going to
the event, arriving at the Hilton and being part of the media covering the
exciting Red Carpet.
In this Part 2,
I’ve listed below the 10 videoclips that memorialize parts of the evening,
including speeches, awards beautiful processions of emperors and empresses in
gorgeous attire and awesome performers. That would have been enough to make a
very complete excellent evening. But what
put it over the top was my luck in meeting a very funny Imperial Court member
who convinced me to stay at the event (and who snuck me inside!), how we met a
tribe of mothers and daughters who that day came up from Atlanta GA after
hearing anecdotes about NOATG on a local radio show, and how I ran into old
friends, some of whom I had not seen for about 20 years. The night had everything so special to me – people, music, dance, entertainment,
artistic flair, creativity and the opening for new beginnings. Not writing this Part 2 about this event
until July would ordinarily make me guilty about being so late in my
reporting. But I have the pleasure to
report that just last night on July 20th I attended the Imperial
Court’s “Christmas in July” at the Hardware Bar, located at 667 10th
Avenue, NY, NY 10036, raising money for Bailey House (which helps homeless LGBT
individuals). I got to see first hand
the Imperial Court’s talents in various performances (and even got to do a
3-minute comedy set of my own), entertaining the large crowed and raising a
significant sum of money, all while having lots of fun. Within a short time, I got to experience the
caring and friendship of many members and witness a very empowering and fun-lovingn
organization in action in the community.
At the end of the evening, I said I’d love to join, and smiled to myself
that “every night should be like this.”
Here is a description of
the videoclips I took of the 4/6/13 evening.
They are unedited on purpose to allow you to experience (and love) the
magical evening as I did, detail by detail.
Please feel free to contact me at FrancisSisco@aol.com
if you want more information or to exchange comments.Videoclip - Karen Mason sings several songs.
Videoclip 1 - Karen Mason sings
several songs.
Videoclip 2 – Speeches, including
by President Gary Cosgrove) and various awards given, including by Emperor XXI
Ritz Kraka and Empress XXVI Witti Repartee.
Videoclip 3 – More
speeches, awards and some performances.
Videoclip 4 – An Imperial
Court member (along with a friend and Fran Sisco) run into (and talk with)
visitors who traveled from Atlanta, GA to see NOATG attendees.
Videoclip 5 – More
performances and processions and announcements.
Videoclip 6 – Taylor Dane
performs.
Videoclip 7 – More
processions and performances, including Chad Michaels as Cher, singing “Strong
Enough.”
Videoclip 8 – Silent
auctions, running into friends Mary and then Jennifer and Jerry and Nicole.
Videoclip 9 – More with
Jerry, Nicole and Fran, saying hello to the video camera to mutual friend
Brianna Austin.
Videoclip 10 – A few
after-clips and driving away.
The End.
Fran Sisco
