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By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Daily
Burlesque is the new black.
The all-black strip-tease show Shades of Burlesque will shimmy its way into Clinton Hill music venue C’mon Everybody on Jan. 27. The risque revue offers hilarity and sensuality of a different flavor than more typical, vanilla burlesque shows, according to the group’s host.
“Whenever all black people sing a song versus all white people, it’s like cooking with bacon versus cooking with vegetables,” said Ashley Brokington. “There’s a certain funky soulfulness and sexiness that you’re not going to see with a room full of white girls. But I may be biased — I’m a black girl and I think black girls are delicious.”
Shades of Burlesque started in 2012, when Bedford-Stuyvesant strip-tease artist Sweet Lorraine noticed a distinct lack of color in the burlesque acts she visited.
“I’ve been performing burlesque off and on since 2009 and, before that, I was going to every single burlesque show I could find and I didn’t see any people or women of color at all on the stage,” said Lorraine.
But when she put Shades of Burlesque together, she was overwhelmed by the support and interest the show got.
“When I decided to do Shades, there was this outpouring of performers, and everybody came out,” said Lorraine.
Lorraine and her girls — and a few guys — found a new crowd excited to witness performers they could relate to.
“The audience showed up, and they hadn’t come before, because they wanted to see themselves on stage,” she said.
Performers with Shades of Burlesque say they are drawn to the art for a number of reasons — first and foremost being the feathers and sequins in the outfits.
“Primarily the costumes, they’re gorgeous,” said strip-tease artist Brown Cocaine Love. “I’m a jazz dancer, Broadway-ish performer, so we were all about the big productions and the beautiful costumes, so that’s what drew me to it.”
The avant-garde burlesque scene also offers freedom of expression and a lovey-dovey kind of inclusiveness, according to Love.
“There’s a freedom to it, and the community is great,” she said. “Everybody wants to be involved in something that they want to believe in.”
Her striking name is also a description of her high-speed, on-stage alter ego, she says
“Brown Cocaine was a name given to me by a roommate, and that’s the name given to my sexuality,” said Brown Cocaine Love. “It’s my alter ego, and when I get on stage, that’s who I am.”
Shades of Burlesque at C’mon Everybody (325 Franklin Ave. between Clinton Place and Greene Avenue in Clinton Hill, www.cmone