One time…. I saw a really hot shirtless circuit boy on the dance floor of the now infamous but defunct 24-hour Gay club Backstreet Atlanta. He was flagging. I was mesmorized. What is flagging? It’s form of spellbinding dance using pure silk. There are no rods or poles, just tiny weights. The motion of the cloth is that of the infinity symbol: a figure eight winding and unwinding itself…forever! It‘s a very spiritual and uplifting activity for me and I have made it one of my passions. The day my soul mate left to the Middle East, I cried. And then I picked up a set of flags and I spent the afternoon flagging. It helped me work through the emotions of my loss. I think about him every day.
I have flagged everywhere. I have flagged in clubs, parks, private parties, and company parties. I have flagged on the Savannah’s of Africa, the beaches of Hawaii, and Victoria Falls.
Not only does it lift my soul, but it lifts everyone who watches. It is such a beautiful experience that I love sharing it. Until recently it was only seen in gay clubs or at circuit parties. I want to change that. Something so positive and uplifting should be shared with the mainstream. Myself, Mykel, Lefty, and Tigger, all artists, all friends, decided to take over the leadership of New York City Flaggers: The Community of Artists. Together, we want to spread a positive message. 
How did this all start for me? Let me explain….
When I was in second grade, my neighbor Evelyn came home with a set of poi balls. She said it was for the May Day festival. May Day is celebrated on May 1st (my Birthday!) and in elementary school each class would learn and perform a Hula dance for our parents in a school wide show. Poi Balls are used for a hula dance from New Zealand.
It consists of 2 balls on strings that are twirled around and used to do tricks. According to the Maori People of New Zealand (the warrior people of Polynesia), it teaches hand eye coordination. Evelyn said they learned to make them in her 4th grade class and were learning the hula and tricks for May Day. Over the course of the next few days, she taught me and Charmaine (our other neighbor) how to make our own set and she taught us the tricks. We became quite good at it.
Fast Forward. I am a club kid on the Dance floor of Backstreet watching this flagger. I can’t help but notice that he is controlling the flags much like a set of poi balls. I approached him. 
I asked him about the flags. He hands them to me and says “go for it”. I realized that they are weighted and if I twirled them like I twirled the poi balls, that I could do what he was doing… well not quite, but pretty close. “Have you flagged before?” he asked.
“No” I replied, “but I have spun poi”.
“Oh yeah? You spin fire? It’s almost the same as flagging” he said.
I had no idea what he was talking about-- spinning fire. I asked him where he got those flags and he said that he made them. “Its part of the initiation into the tribe, you have to make your own flags at some point” he said. He gave me a website. I ran home and checked it out. The tribe was community of artists, performers, flag spinners, poi spinners, and fire twirlers (poi balls set on fire!). They had directions on how to make flags. I had a sewing machine so I immediately went to the fabric store and bought all I needed. About 4 hours later, I had two sets of flags—A bright orange sparkly la-me set for me, and a bright sparkly purple la-me set for my friend Sam. I was never great at flagging, just good.
A brief history lesson. Flagging or Fanning may have started in the gay disco scene in the late 70’s and early 80’s when clubbers danced with large fans which eventually gave way to a form of fans that had no spines, but rather a flexible weight. In the late 90’s, with the introduction of the rave and circuit scene flaggers once again found their place in the nightclub dance culture—Where I found it. 
If you ask me how it started, I would say that it came out of drill teams and color guards and evolved. That in the past gay boys wanted to twirl the flags for the marching band but only the girls were allowed to. I think they are allowed to today. I really don’t know.
2004. I am now living in NYC and find a class called FLOW. It is a flagging class. On my first day, George the teacher introduces me to a bunch of great friends “the tribe” and tells me to reverse the direction that I’m spinning the flags. All of a sudden I can easily do all the tricks!
Life in NYC consumes me. I’m struggling to survive. Little did I know that maybe flagging was the grounding that I needed to balance me. At the same time, the tribe slowly dwindles.
2009. Mykel a talented singer/dancer/artists/flagger calls me. He asks me and Lefty to meet him in a restaurant. “I want to bring back this wonderful community that we had. I think that under our leadership along with Tigger, we can do it.” We talk. I realized that this is what’s been missing: the friends- the tribe, dancing, expressing myself, creating, and the sharing—lifting myself up as well as the others around me. We re-created together NEW YORK CITY FLAGGERS! 
We hold a bi-weekly very fun, social, non-threatening work-out of a dance class in Chelsea. If you have ever had the desire to learn to dance but thought you just weren’t really a dancer then NYC Flaggers is for you. If you ever had the desire to perform in a show or parade but never thought you would be given the opportunity, then NYC Flaggers is for you. 
If you’ve ever had the desire to be an artists and paint, or choreograph, then NYC Flaggers is for you. If you feel out of shape but want to have fun working out then NYC Flaggers is for you. If you want to meet a cool group of people who have no judgments about anyone then NYC Flaggers is definitely for you! Check out our website for more pictures, videos, and our schedule of classes at:
http://www.myspace.com/nycflaggers or check us out on FaceBook under New York City Flaggers!
Mykel who is our artistic director is also a talented singer/songwriter who is also about to release a new dance single. NYC Flaggers will be there to back him when the single hits the charts! We will be there performing for his live performances. Believe me, the new song is HOT! We have been waiting for a hit song with such a great message for a long time. Congrats Mykel!
http://www.mykel.info/
We have also booked several of the parades in NYC-- the Dance Parade, Gay Pride Parades,
and even the Puerto Rican Day parade. We are in talks now with some community groups to help use flags as a positive way to spin their positive messages to the community.
If you have nothing to do on a Thursday or Saturday, come out and flow with NYC Flaggers! You’ll help change the world!
And guess what? Life in NYC doesn't consume me anymore. I consume it. My feet are now firmly planted and only my hands are in the air... Holding a set of flags!
For Real! Seriously!
