Juba Kalamka (born July 12, 1970) is an

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

artist and activist recognized for his work and founding member of homohop group

Deep Dickollective Deep Dickollective (D/DC) was an LGBT hip hop group based in Oakland, California that were active in the homo hop scene of openly queer/LGBT artists during the 2000s. They were regular performers at the PeaceOUT World Homo Hop Festival curated ...

(D/DC) and his development of the micro-label sugartruck recordings. Kalamka has coordinated the release and promotion of five critically successful D/DC albums, the Outmusic Award winning solo debut of former

Sister Spit Sister Spit was a lesbian-feminist spoken-word and performance art collective based in San Francisco, signed to Mr. Lady Records. They formed in 1994 and disbanded in 2006. Founding members included Michelle Tea and Sini Anderson, Other members i ...

member Rocco "Katastrophe" Kayiatos, and the distribution of the work of numerous other artists in the homohop community. Kalamka's personal work centers on dialogues on the convergences and conflicts of race, identity, gender, sexuality and class in pop culture. He has written and illustrated several articles for pop culture magazines and journals, Kitchen Sink,

ColorLines ''Colorlines'' is a digital media platform that seeks to build a political home for everyday people and activists. The platform creates accessible multimedia to power its vision of a just multiracial democracy where all thrive. History ''Colorlin ...

, and the now-defunct bisexual issues magazine ''

Anything That Moves ''Anything That Moves'' was a literary, journalistic, and topical magazine published in the United States from 1990 to 2001. The magazine's mission was to confront and redefine concepts of sexuality and gender, to defy stereotypes and broad defin ...

''. He has been a speaker, panelist, and curator for numerous organizations and conferences, among them the San Francisco Black Gay/Lesbian Film Festival,

GLAAD GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals ...

, Hip Hop as a Movement at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

, and Burning Closets/Working Our Way Home at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

. In November 2005, Kalamka was chosen to be one of six plenary speakers at the

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports act ...

's 2005

Creating Change Conference The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports ac ...

and received a Creating Change Award for his activist work in queer music community. Kalamka served as Festival Director for the now defunct East Bay (

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

) Pride in 2003 and the curator/director of

PeaceOUT World Homo Hop Festival The PeaceOUT (World) Homo Hop Festival was an annual festival of hip hop music and culture created by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people from 2001 to 2007. The main festival took place in Oakland, California, although sibling f ...

which ran annually from 2001 through 2007. The success of PeaceOUT inspired the creation of three now-defunct sister festivals; Peace Out East in New York City, Peace Out South in Atlanta, Georgia, and Peace Out UK in London, England. Kalamka appears extensively in Alex Hinton's 2005 documentary

Pick Up the Mic ''Pick Up the Mic'' is a documentary film, released in 2006, which profiles the underground homo hop scene, which is a subgenre of hip hop that includes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender artists. The film was directed by Alex Hinton. The do ...

, an active survey of the scene through documentation of homohop artists on tour and in performance at the various PeaceOUT festivals. In 2003, Kalamka continued his personal and artistic dialogues on sexuality and race with appearances in three sex films;

Good Vibrations "Good Vibrations" is a song by the American rock band the Beach Boys that was composed by Brian Wilson with lyrics by Mike Love. It was released as a single on October 10, 1966 and was an immediate critical and commercial hit, topping record c ...

/Sexpositive Productions ''G Marks the Spot'',

Joani Blank Joani Blank (July 4, 1937 – August 6, 2016) was an American sex educator, entrepreneur, author, videographer, cohousing enthusiast, philanthropist, and inventor in the field of sexuality. She used publishing, her sex store, and other endeavo ...

's ''Orgasm: Faces of Ecstasy'', and the unreleased ''Radio Dildo Libre'' (David Findlay/Blissful Itch Productions). In 2005, Kalamka was contacted by artist and sex worker advocate Annie Oakley (whom he'd met at the

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. European ...

queer arts fest HomoAGoGo) and accepted an invitation to tour with ''The Sex Workers'Art Show'', a month-long cross-country cabaret-style theater event featuring current and former sex worker artist/activists. Deep Dickollective's fifth and final disc, ''On Some Other'' was released on Sugartruck in June 2007. In December 2006, Kalamka completed the MFA program in Poetics (minoring in Queer and Activist Performance through the schools Experimental Performance Institute) at

New College of California New College of California was a college founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President John Leary. It ceased operations in early 2008. New College's main campus was housed in several buildings in the Mission ...

in San Francisco. An essay/interview with Kalamka and former bandmate

Tim'm West Timothy Terrell West (born July 6, 1972), better known as Tim'm T. West, is an American educator and multi-discipline performance artist, author, hip hop recording artist, poet, activist, and youth advocate.Wilson, D. Mark. "Post-pomo hip-hop homo ...

appears in hip hop writer Jeff Chang's collection ''Total Chaos: the Art and Aesthetics of Hip Hop'' (

Basic Civitas Books Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history. H ...

). He was elected to the Board of Directors of the

Queer Cultural Center Queer Cultural Center is a San Francisco "community building" organization to promote development of San Francisco's LGBT community. It was established in 1993. It is also known as the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Center for Art and Culture. Di ...

(producers of the

National Queer Arts Festival National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF) is an annual queer festival in San Francisco organized by the Queer Cultural Center and established in 1998 to coincide with Pride Month. Other organisations which have assisted over the years include the Harve ...

) and the Strategic Committee of sex worker advocacy organization Desiree Alliance in 2011. He joined the board of national bisexual advocacy organization

BiNet USA BiNet USA (officially Bi/Net USA, The Bisexual Network of the USA Inc.) was an American national nonprofit bisexual community whose mission was to "facilitate the development of a cohesive network of bisexual communities, promote bisexual visibi ...

in 2018 and was elected Vice President in 2019. Kalamka resigned as Vice President in August 2020 and left the organization in October 2020. On January 18, 2022

Kill Rock Stars Kill Rock Stars is an independent record label founded in 1991 by Slim Moon and Tinuviel Sampson, and based in both Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The label has released a variety of work in different genres, but was originally known ...

announced the release of the first single and accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

(directed by media artist John Sanborn) by

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

rap rock Rap rock is a fusion genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock's most popular subgenres include rap metal and rapcore, which include heavy metal and hardcore punk-oriented influences, resp ...

/ nü metal collective COMMANDO, featuring performances by Kalamka, The Living Earth Show, former

Tribe 8 Tribe 8 was a LGBTQ punk rock band from San Francisco, considered one of the first queercore groups. The band took their name from the practice of tribadism, with "tribe eight" being a play on the word ''tribade'', a sexual practice sometimes a ...

lead singer Lynnee Breedlove and

RuPaul’s Drag Race ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the fi ...

performer

Honey Mahogany Honey Mahogany (born December 30, 1983) is an American activist, politician, drag performer, and singer. She first came to national attention on the fifth season of ''RuPaul's Drag Race'', followed by releasing her debut EP ''Honey Love''. She w ...

, with a full-length album to be released on March 4, 2022. Kalamka's first poetry collection Son of Byford was released by Nomadic Press in July, 2022.

Discography

with Deep Dickollective

* 2001 BourgieBohoPostPomoAfroHomo sugartruck recordings * 2001 Independent Sounds:Amoeba Music Compilation Vol. III Hip Hop Slam * 2002 Phat Family Compilation Volume One:Tha Dozens Phat Family Records * 2003 Them Niggas Done Went And Said... sugartruck recordings * 2004 Azadi!: A Benefit CD For RAWA (compilation) Fire Museum/ElectroMotive Records * 2003 Movin' b/w Straightrippin'(C-Phlavormix) (7" single) Agitprop!/sugartruck * 2004 The Famous Outlaw League of Proto-Negroes sugartruck recordings * 2004 Phat Family Compilation Volume Two:Down 4 Tha Swerve Phat Family Records * 2005 Live at Wildseed and Mo sugartruck recordings * 2007 On Some Other sugartruck recordings * 2012 With The Key(Sissies):The Very Best of Deep Dickollective sugartruck recordings

as Juba Kalamka

* 2012 Ooogaboooga Under Fascism sugartruck recordings * 2012 This and That (Instrumental/s) sugartruck recordings * 2014 Codeswitchings (Black Things Tomorrow?) sugartruck recordings

as The Joe Louis Milk Company

* 2020 You Don't Have To Be (instrumentals) Motisa Methods/sugartruck recordings

with Rainbow Flava

* 2001 Family Business Phat Family Records

with Leroy F. Moore Jr. (as JKLM)

* 2018 Invalidations, Volume Too sugartruck recordings/KripHopNation

with Marvin K. White (as Black Ellipsis...)

* 2020 Tth Spc Btwn...A Seminary Avenue Motisa Methods/sugartruck recordings

with He Who Walks Three Ways

* 1994 Me, IBM and The Baby Jesus (self-released demo) Biglip/WGBL? * 2020 Technology Delivered 91/94 Motisa Methods

with COMMANDO

* 2022 Hotel Essex (single)

* 2022 COMMANDO (album) Kill Rock Stars * 2023 EMET(Izdis Hymn?) (single) Kill Rock Stars * 2023 Diet Soda (single) Kill Rock Stars * 2023 Four (single)Kill Rock Stars * 2023 Big Big Black (single)Kill Rock Stars * 2023 Luggage n’Umbrage:The Skeebo Sides EP (EP)Kill Rock Stars

Filmography

* 2003 G Marks The Spot:The Good Vibrations Guide to the G-Spot Sexpositive Productions * 2004 Orgasm!The Faces of Ecstasy

, dir. Blank Tapes * 2005 Pick Up The Mic (as himself) Alex Hinton, dir. Planet Janice Films * 2006 Making It (background music) Sobaz Benjamin, dir. National Film Board of Canada * 2007 Godspeed (Weed Man/Dime Bag Dealer) AltCinema Productions * 2008 La bisexualité: tout un art? (as himself) Laure Michel and Eric Wastiaux. dir. * 2010 That's So GAY! (as himself) KB Boyce, dir. QPOC Artists and Mass Media * 2011 The Craving (prod., additional music) Val Killmore Castro, dir. Hellfire Cinema * 2012 Heavenly Spire: Juba (as himself) Shine Louise Houston, dir. Pink Label * 2013 Sins Invalid (producer, additional music) Patty Berne, dir. * 2014 Fuckstyles 2 (as himself) Trouble Films Courtney Trouble,dir. * 2014 Fucking Mystic (as himself) Trouble Films Courtney Trouble, dir. * 2019 Is Friendship Legal Ms. Zoe Kat and Salty Brine, dir. * 2019 Whores On Film (aka The Celluloid Bordello) (as himself) Juliana Piccilo, dir. * 2020 The Shock of Gary Fisher(w/COMMANDO) music video John Sanborn, dir. * 2021 The Friend (as St. Fractious) John Sanborn, dir. * 2022 Hotel Essex(w/COMMANDO) music video John Sanborn, dir. * 2022 Prince(w/COMMANDO) music video Daniel Foerste, dir.

References

External links

Juba Kalamka official website

Deep Dickollective official website

Son of Byford at Nomadic Press

COMMANDO official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalamka, Juba 1970 births Living people LGBT rappers Bisexual men Bisexual musicians African-American rappers American LGBT musicians Rappers from Chicago LGBT African Americans 21st-century American rappers LGBT people from Illinois 20th-century American LGBT people 21st-century American LGBT people 21st-century African-American musicians 20th-century African-American people African-American poets American LGBT poets