08/28/2026
This is my last time acknowledging these people. The community doesn’t need anymore discourse and anyone who maintains a stance that uphold white supremacy, disregards their role and their friends roles in it doesn’t deserve to have anymore of my time and attention. The tone deafness and hypocrisy is a symptom of a bigger problem. They refuse to listen to a black woman because anything other than praise is seen as an insult.
Brandi
You’re absolutely right I don’t know you. What I do know is that you came to the Albany area, made rounds, talked to very few people, and began producing with Cherish. What I also know is although I haven’t been performing for as long as you, I have been working with Cherish for longer than you have-from the start in fact.
I don’t see any coincidence in the timing of your MANY posts about the struggles of existing in this community. And as we all know, there are very few producers in the area that strictly produce burlesque. But after reading the entirety of this email, I have come to the conclusion that I was right you were talking about me as you saw my many attempts to make sure that the Black performers in our community are paid equitably and aren’t tokenized in your productions as “sabotage or interference.”
I’ll be honest you weren’t on my radar past booking you for that one workshop until February. If you remember at the time, there was a black performer boycott which asked White producers to 1. Pay black performers double the standard rate or 2. have a Black person coproduce. Cherish decided to do neither and reached out to Black performers anyway, offering a standard rate. When confronted, she claimed that petitions like this caused divisiveness and that she had experienced it in the belly dance community. How paying a historically marginalized group more than the standard for one month out of the entire year or sharing with a black person causes divisiveness is beyond my knowledge or comprehension. And then to add insult in injury, copy and paste that same response to multiple black performers. Let’s not even get into her behavior towards Persephone at Burly Pics which—we were all there to witness. I don’t remember, you handling our deep discomfort with your sponsor New Scotland spirits appropriately as it took multiple performers to threaten going on stage if your sponsor were to be in the building. That along with the fact the clear biased for a person who wasn’t even from our region, but coincidentally enough, your area won a category was very suspicious and off-putting for much of the cast.
If there’s one thing I do agree with 24% is not enough. Not because I have a group of more than 20 black performers in the area that could’ve filled the many levels of experience. 3 out of 13 is sad in 2026.
I always find it interesting when certain white people want to do something for another community they never seem to consult that community. Have you ever heard of White saviorism? (please look that up if you are unfamiliar)
You asked me when will I stop? I will stop when more than half of your cast is black. That’s what I’ll stop. I will stop when your “Certified mediator” and fellow, ‘hot flash’ and their roommate doesn’t go on the burlesque fb groups anonymously, calling people N***s. That was the person I was supposed to sit down with cherish and have a non-biased conversation?
This conversation revolving cherish didn’t leave the city until someone in the community decided to contact Aurora Boobrealis and Harlem Nyte.
I see you trying to play that reverse Uno card on me with ageism but your age never stopped me from doing anything but beat your ass truthfully.
I wanna remind you I have three siblings your age and I’ve never had to over explain how not being equitable to the Black community is harmful. I’ve never had to explain what tokenizing is, whether intentional or unintentional. You don’t do enough to cast appropriately that’s the bottom line.
Well, I’m glad this is where my money went to. Blackie? Really?
Thanks, Mimi.
