Tune in to read the story of our city told by local creatives, bloggers and entrepreneurs. Each week, a different member of CreativeMornings will take over to post what inspires them about South Florida. Do you want to take over the CreativeMornings/Miami blog and share your take on our community? Email miami@creativemornings.com and we’ll get working on it!
Hello my name is Karen, Zine Maker and lover of all things DADA. (@ kani.poika)
For this week I will introduce you to a very inspiring South Florida collective that contributes to the magical coolness of Miami by breaking all the norms.
They are like a rainbow to me, as the first time I saw them I was amid a very stormy point in my life during the “post-election blues”.
I was going about my daily existence singing Karaoke at Gramps and all of the sudden I saw one very interesting person passing by, glazed in hair and fables and then another and then another; all pouring into the room with glittery platforms that beat the wooden floor like hail, suddenly disturbing the insipidness of the polo t-shirts in the background and the dullness of the night.
Who were they? and what in the world were they doing here, in a place where asphalt and flip flops abound? They were, THE COUNTER CORNER collective, they were celebrating Queef Latina’s Birthday and that night, their performance rocked my world.
For this blog post, I got to speak to one of my favorite artiste of this wonderful group of performers, Queef Latina. Here are some photos taken from that night at Gramps (Courtesy of Rune Degett) and her answers to the curiosity that I had to soothe.
A conversation with Queef Latina from the Counter Corner collective.
How do you define the Counter Corner group?
-The Counter Corner crew is a collective of artists, misfits, Club kids, Drag Queens/Kings, and Queers from all over South Florida (Not just Miami) They are a creative group of people who explore and challenge concepts, politics, sexuality, gender, art, aesthetics, and popular culture.How did the Counter Corner group get started?
-Counter Corner is a monthly party that got started by Sleeper Speaks, a bartender at the Corner bar in downtown Miami (and also my roommate!). He created the party to fill a void in the community - the void being a place for Queers to congregate and network and have fun. He hired Hialeah’s finest “Juleisy y Karla” to host the party and they are still the hosts to this day. Although Miami has always had Gay clubs, sometimes these gay institutions have not been as warm and welcoming to people who don’t fit their aesthetic- Therefore, Counter corner was born, and along with it came a huge queer following.
