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They Danced, They Dazzled, They Disappeared: The Lost Era of Queer Joy in America

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 2d

My musical Speakeasy was born from that silence — a love letter to the rebels who sang first.

Read the full story → open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

#LGBTHistoryMonth #QueerHistory #DragHistory #BroadwayMusical #PansyCraze #SpeakeasyTheMusical #StorytellingIsSurvival

This LGBTQ History Month, let’s remember when queerness ruled the stage... and why it was silenced. A forgotten drag revolution in 1930. A warning from history. A love letter to queer joy.

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 2d

And when Prohibition ended, the raids began. Police shut down the very stages that had given America its jazz, its laughter, its freedom.

We lost more than bars. We lost archives of queer art, power, and visibility.

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Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 2d

Drag queens, kings, and gender-bending cabaret artists filled clubs from Harlem to Hollywood.

It was joy as rebellion.

#Drag #DragRAce #RPDR

They Danced, They Dazzled, They Disappeared: The Lost Era of Queer Joy in America

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 2d

They won’t teach you this in school:

In the 1920s & 30s, queer performers ruled nightlife. They called it The Pansy Craze.

Before Stonewall. Before Pride parades. Before RuPaul told us to sashay away.

open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

#LGBTQHistoryMonth #LGBT #Queer #History #Pride

This LGBTQ History Month, let’s remember when queerness ruled the stage... and why it was silenced. A forgotten drag revolution in 1930. A warning from history. A love letter to queer joy.

Messy Reinvention by Waymon Hudson | Substack

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Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 4d

If you’ve ever blown it all up to start again — this is for you.

💛 Subscribe here → waymonhudson.substack.com

Messy Reinvention is a loud love letter to starting over: Chaos, creativity & comeback stories. Memoir, musicals, and mayhem. Essays on rebuilding, rebellion & joy from the Costa Rican jungle. Click t...

Messy Reinvention by Waymon Hudson | Substack

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 4d

It’s where I write about what happens after everything falls apart — and how you build a life that feels like yours again.

It’s equal parts personal essays, creative rebellion, and “holy hell, what am I doing?” energy.

Messy Reinvention is a loud love letter to starting over: Chaos, creativity & comeback stories. Memoir, musicals, and mayhem. Essays on rebuilding, rebellion & joy from the Costa Rican jungle. Click t...

Messy Reinvention by Waymon Hudson | Substack

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 4d

It was about *reinvention.*
The messy kind.
The kind no one puts in a self-help book.

So I rebranded it. Welcome to Messy Reinvention.

waymonhudson.substack.com

Messy Reinvention is a loud love letter to starting over: Chaos, creativity & comeback stories. Memoir, musicals, and mayhem. Essays on rebuilding, rebellion & joy from the Costa Rican jungle. Click t...

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 4d

So… the jungle’s gone. 🐒✨

When I started my Substack, I called it "Notes from the Jungle." It fit — I’d just moved to Costa Rica, burned out, broken, and desperate to start fresh.

But the more I wrote, the more I realized… this wasn’t really about the jungle.

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 6d

If you’ve lost sight of the version of yourself that used to laugh louder — you can find them again.
Start messy. Start scared.
Just start. ✨

#MessyReinvention #QueerWriter #DeafArtist #PuraVidaDiaries #BeforeIGo

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 6d

Plus:
🌴 Pura Vida Diaries — How to Learn Spanish (Without Crying)
🎧 Before I Go & Ruin Me Slowly — the soundtrack for starting over

The Gospel of Messy Reinvention

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 6d

This week’s Substack is about Messy Reinvention — the raw, chaotic, beautiful process of rebuilding your life before it breaks you.

💥 Read “The Gospel of Messy Reinvention” → open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

Sometimes the only way to save your life is to blow it up — imperfectly, dramatically, and with a touch of glitter and attitude.

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 6d

So I did something reckless.
I quit. Sold everything. Moved to Costa Rica.
And started the only project that ever really mattered: me.

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 6d

I was burned out, living to work, and pretending exhaustion was ambition.

Until a trip to Panama made me realize:
This can’t be all there is.

The Gospel of Messy Reinvention

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 6d

I hadn’t seen this version of me in years.
The one who wasn’t exhausted or anxious.
The one who laughed easily and slept deeply.

open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

#Reinvention #Burnout #AntiHustle #MessyReinvention #costarica #Expat

Sometimes the only way to save your life is to blow it up — imperfectly, dramatically, and with a touch of glitter and attitude.

Broadway’s Queer Emcees & the Power of Invitation

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 8d

🎭 New Behind Broadway just dropped:
Broadway’s Queer Emcees & the Power of Invitation.

From Cabaret’s Emcee to Speakeasy’s Merc, these characters don’t just open the show — they open the door.
They turn performance into protest, and joy into survival.

Full post www.waymonhudson.com/post/broadwa...

From the Kit Kat Club to the Velvet Boot, Broadway’s queer emcees welcome us into places where performance becomes protest — and joy becomes survival.

www.waymonhudson.com

The Power of Invitation (and Other Dangerous Acts of Joy)

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 9d

Read it. Share it. Subscribe if you’re tired of dimming your own light.
We’re done shrinking around here. ✨

#MessyReinvention #QueerJoy #StorytellingIsSurvival #Broadway #SpeakeasyMusical

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 9d

My new Substack is about that moment — when you stop asking permission to exist loudly and start turning survival into celebration.

🎭 The Power of Invitation (and Other Dangerous Acts of Joy) → open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

Featuring:
• Broadway’s queer emcees
• My new singles

In a world that tells us to hide, stay quiet, or shrink, every act of self-invitation is rebellion. Especially when it comes with glitter and a subversive wink.

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 9d

But reinvention has a way of kicking the door back open.
And once it does?
You never fit back into the box again.

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 9d

And for a long time, I listened.
I learned to shrink my sparkle.
To make my queerness cute instead of confrontational.
To make my ambition sound humble.

The Power of Invitation (and Other Dangerous Acts of Joy)

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 9d

We’re told to tone it down.
Make it palatable.
Find a smaller version of ourselves that doesn’t make anyone too uncomfortable.

open.substack.com/pub/waymonhu...

#Joy #LGBT #QueerJoy #WritingCommunity #writing #reinvention

In a world that tells us to hide, stay quiet, or shrink, every act of self-invitation is rebellion. Especially when it comes with glitter and a subversive wink.

Finding Your People When the World’s on Fire

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 13d

We don’t owe civility to oppressors who want us erased.
Kindness doesn’t mean compliance.
Community doesn’t mean compromise.

💌 New Substack: Finding Your People When the World’s on Fire.

Because connection isn’t weakness — It’s how #resistance is born.

waymonhudson.substack.com/p/finding-yo...

When cruelty gets louder, real connection becomes rebellion. This week’s dispatch is about building community — not with those who wish us harm or oppress, but with those who keep us human.

Broadway Confrontation Songs: Rage, Grief, and the Ghost of the Soft Boy

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Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 15d

It’s not just about vengeance.

It’s about a man terrified he’s becoming what he hates most.

The moment when empathy breaks.

💥 Read the full #BehindBroadway blog:

👉 www.waymonhudson.com/post/broadwa...

#Broadway #MusicalTheatre #SpeakeasyMusical #QueerMusical #LGBTTheatre

What happens when softness meets fury? From Les Misérables to Speakeasy, this Behind Broadway deep dive explores the art of musical confrontation — and how rage can still sing.

www.waymonhudson.com

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 15d

In Speakeasy: A New Musical, that moment belongs to Rome — the poet who’s lost everything.

His song Last Call is grief and fury in 6/8 time.

A eulogy that becomes an explosion.

🎶 “LAST CALL! For the dreamer downed…”

Waymon Hudson @waymonhudson.bsky.social · 15d

These numbers are emotional warfare set to music.

They’re where characters face the ugliest parts of themselves — and still dare to sing through it.