Celebration of Life

“John Henry Rew, III of Chelsea, passed away on August 23rd to the shock of all who knew and loved him. An accident within his eighth avenue apartment took this beloved spirit away from the world. John Henry was an infectious light who is best remembered by his engaging smile, captivating laugh and open loving heart. He traveled far and reached many with his available friendship and generosity. His endeavors included the Gay Games, the Mavericks softball team, judging beauty contests, MC'ing events, dancing in musicals and on television with Club MTV, promoting parties, including RAH!, Fluid, A la MODE, The DYNASTY, Pop Rocks, Thursday Night at Duvet and his memorable fetes at home. John Henry Rew made NYC an even better place to be and we all owe a generous recognition of thank you to this benevolent red-haired friend. John Henry, wherever you are, please put me on the VIP-list and save me a drink ticket.” – Thanks to singer John Tedeschi and Patric Zabatta for providing this for all of us with email blasts to send it out.
It's been sad and difficult for myself and others to hear of this terrible news. John has always been such a warm, fun and valued person that myself and countless others were honored to have in our lives. On August 30, his New York City friends had a huge Celebration of his life where we wore Orange, his favorite color and the color of his hair and his infamous orange sarong. His friend and Drag hostess and performer at most of his event, Nomi DeMilo performed "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" at the end of the service as a tribute to him. Others who attended the memorial tribute included Michael Musto of Village Voice, Will Clark, John Tedeschi, Mark Schulte, Joe Fiore, Melissa Sklarz, Scott Talbolt and many friends, family and members of the Maverick Baseball team of the Big Apple Baseball League.

Sexahol Revue again

On Thursday, August 23, I was once again a featured performer in Sexahol Review, a performance art showcase with unique and various Downtown talent including both Straight and Queer, Men and Women entertainers. With the sexy burlesque Diva Nasty Canasta who drove the crowd wild with her unique, comedic and still erotic movements. Fantastic Genius did some hilarious skit comedy. David Slone performed some old classic songs re-mixed to modern hip hop musical tones, like Peggy Lee's "Why Don't You do Right?." I told some jokes and sang a Rosemary Clooney classic "Come On 'a My House" where I explained that I wasn't Italian, but sometime say that I am so I don't have to shave my legs! The evening was hosted and curated by performer/writer Evan Laurence who sang some of his original music and also treated the audience to some improv comedy. The evening took place at Mo Pitkins' House of Satisfaction on the Lower East Side.

NEXT Magazine - Gay Take-Away celeb

I'm featured in the current issue of Next Magazine (Aug. 10, 2007 #15.06 page 46) one of the top weekly guides to NYC Queer nightlife, entertainment and culture. I'm in the Eats dinning section revealing her favorite take-out selection. Pick up a copy! It's a fabulous magazine!

Here is the published text:

Next – GAY TAKE-AWAY – Lady Clover Honey

Next Magazine’s celebs of New York nightlife reveal their favorite take-out joints.

Lady Clover Honey, television's drag-queen journalist, reports on the world's most fab queer events on Under the Pink Carpet, hosts the annual Fresh Fruit Festival, and performs in the monthly Sexahol Review at Mo Pitkin's. She's also made history on news report doc Bright Lights/Out City and as the first Drag Maestro Conductor at Carnegie Hall. So where does the Lady go to sweeten the pot?

"One of my favorite gay take-away places is Rocking Horse Café (182 Eighth Ave, 212-463-9511). After an exhausting video shoot, I kick off my pumps and enjoy some subconsciously Freudian phallic burritos that truly satisfy my hunger. The Grilled Vegetable Burrito ($15.95) comes with avocado, watercress and roasted tomato salsa. When I crave something meatier, I get the marinated natural Hanger Steak Burrito ($16.95) or the Chile Relleno ($16.95) with sautéed wild mushrooms for my queen-sized appetite. To get me in an exotic mood, I order the Coconut Flan with Coconut Tuile ($4.95). One taste and I'm in Acapulco!" N

Under the Pink Carpet screens every other Thursday on Time Warner MCC 34 at 10:30pm. Visit underthepinkcarpet.tv for more info. For details of her her live appearances on Aug 23 and Sept 3 visit ladycloverhoney.com.

Sexahol Review

On Thursday, July 26, I was a performer in a new Cabaret and live performance series called Sexahol Review. The show featured an eclectic mix of performance artists and offered Comedy, Music and Burlesque! Playwright, songwriter and performer Evan Laurence produces and hosts the show with help from David F. Slone. The two of them performed a hilarious Improve Comedy number with audience participation. David also sang his own unique version of a Cole Porter classic set to modern hip hop music with members of the crowd volunteering to act out the characters from the song on stage. The beautiful Alexis Karl belted out some opera arias - hitting the high notes with style! Downtown Burlesque Diva Nasty Canasta treated the crowd to a unique and sexy ensemble where she started out looking like a Disney character and ended up looking - HOT! Singer/songwriter Michael Lynch also did drag and everyone went wild over his one song about the Stonewall rebellion of 1969. I wore a spangled dress that lit up the room like a disco ball and sang some Connie Frances classics and told my jokes about transitioning into Straight Female sexuality. The show took place at the fantastic Performance Art Space, Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction on the Lower East Side. We performed in the beautiful cabaret theater with burgundy curtains and high ceilings on the first floor. The audience was very responsive and wonderful. We had a great time and we're grateful that the series got off on a terrific start!

Photos courtesy Jed Ryan

Rainbow Place - Comedy with Puppets

On July 22nd, I was cast along with Tony Sawicki and Stephanie Butler of Under the Pink Carpet in a special staged reading of a play called Rainbow Place, a comedy with puppets and live actors (think Avenue Q) that offers a “slice of life” glimpse at several characters who frequent a neighborhood LGBT bar in Chelsea. The reading was one of the many theatrical presentations at the 2007 Fresh Fruit Festival held at the Cherry Lane Theater.

With a twist that would certainly avoid typecasting, I played a fag hag character/Straight woman named Ann who hangs out in the bar with her Gay friends while her boyfriend is home watching sports. Stephanie Butler played Rita, a Transsexual woman who is delighted with her recent SRS (Sexual Reassignment Surgery). Tony Sawicki played the part of a wisecracking leather man named Scott, who although very macho, is a professional florist.

Other actors in the play included Faith Ballenger, Cookie Pemberton, Hans Von Rittern, Michael Lester, Steve Hauck and Christine Tracy-Garrison as patron bar flies.
Rainbow Place was written by playwright Nick Curto, who is also the President of All Out Arts and CIN (Creative Industries Network). The production additionally featured the creations of professional puppeteers Hal Rainbow, who also co-wrote the script, and William Abbott of the famed Swedish Cottage Puppet Theater located in NYC's Central Park.

Photos: Stephanie Butler, Clover Honey, William Abbot, Hariette puppet, Tony Sawicki; and Clover Honey; Stephanie, Faith Ballenger, Neil, Clover and Tony; Cast on Stage at Cherry Lane Theater.

SWISHy Bingo Games

On Wednesday, July 25, I was the special guest at Will Clark's Porno Bingo, the sexiest and most exciting Bingo games around! The game raise funds for local charities and community organizations. The prizes are the hottest Adult Male erotica packages with theater tickets and various other fun stuff thrown in. The Beneficiary this week was SWISH (Straight Women In Support of Homos). The wonderful and supportive ladies of that organization sometimes jokingly refer to themselves as Fag Hags and Fruit Flies and they're a big and vital part of the Queer Community. I'm very proud that the TV series I work on has a Fag Hag reporter and being someone who transitions into a lady, I can't help but admire those who were born ladies and make a big contribution to our community. Many of my girlfriends from CDI game to the Bingo night to show support. I joked that SWISH would be forming a sub group called SWIST - Straight Women In Support of Trannies. Village Voice columnist Michael Musto made a surprise appearance during a game wearing a T shirt with the printed slogan: I Love Trannies!

The Art of Drag - at Fresh Fruit Fest

On Wednesday, July 11, I curated a special Performance Art showcase exhibiting the special entertainment, portrayal and expression of Drag Queens. The night was called The Art of Drag and was a gala evening of The Fresh Fruit Festival, held at the prestigious and historic Cherry Lane Theater in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. I evening was complete success with every seat in the house sold! When someone is born Male, the privileged, strong and fearless Gender, and he has a female spirit inside that needs to be expressed, he creates a Drag Queen persona. The results can vary from Comedy to Tragedy, but either way, it is most often great Theater and lots of fun. I created a showing of different kinds of Drag Queen performers with different types of Drag expression with different ways and reasons for doing Drag.

The hosts of the show were Jacqueline Jonee, the elegant, concert pianist and Cabaret Diva along with Millie Shayntwrite, host of Lavender Vaudeville. The two of them as hostesses complemented each other beautifully with Jacqueline being very classy and Millie being very sassy! The first performance was The Church Ladies for Choice, and they were thrilled to be making their off-Broadway debut. They usually perform in the streets at protests and rallies, using Drag to make Political statements for LGBT rights and Women’s Pro Choice rights. After that Maria Casta Diva demonstrated her vocal skills as she sang live Opera arias. Then performance artist/dancer/choreographer Agnes DeGarron, Radical Faerie Legend and original founder of the nun order Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, did a fabulous act combining dance, art and some comedy. The outrageous Zondra Fox performed a shocking piece using sequins and hairspray. Petit Versailles, a downtown art group that uses Drag to invoke nature and Earth Mother spirits in community gardens on the Lower East Side closed the show with a marvelous avante guard dance movement ensemble. They charmed the audience with poetry and synchronized movements like little faeries.

Those who attended the event included Joe Jeffreys (NYU Historical Archives, Drag Video Verte af Lincoln Center), Veronica Vera (Head Mistress of Miss Vera’s Finishing School and author of Cross Dress for Success), Mariette Pathy-Allen (Photographer of Transgender, photo book Transformations), Fernando Espinosa (Photographer, photo book Aphrodisiac), Larry Vrba (Drag Queen / Costume jewelry designer), Madelyn Madalaine (Vice President, Cross Dressers International), Randy Wicker (Randy Wicker Reporting), David Finkelstein (Lake Ivan Performance Group), and others.

Photos Courtesy Fernando Espinosa Chauvin Photography

Pride Parade

The day for the annual NYC LGBT Pride Parade is always a thrilling, fun and emotional day. Being a girl who is involved in so many activities, it's always touching to see everyone literally parade their Pride down the street. You never know who you're going to meet and run into during the parade, in the parade line-up or viewing the parade. Being both a Political and Transgender person, I find it rather convenient that the parade organizers combine the two groups and put them in one section. In that section this year was the overflowing theme of Marriage Equality with the NY State Assembly recently passing legislation in favor of Same-gender marriage! There were loads of Drag Brides,tuxedo print T shirts and Marriage Equality logos throughout our section. In the Political section, right in front of Stonewall Democrats, was the contingent of NY State Assembly members and supporters. This included a front line up of Out elected official NY Assembly members, Danny O'Donnell, Deborah Glick, Matt Titone, Micah Kellner and supportive Assembly members Brian Kavanagh and Dick Gottfried. They received especially loud cheers of gratitude for passing such important legislation in the Assembly. When we arrived at the Judging station. The Assembly members announced, "You many now kiss the Bride" while Drag Queen Brides kissed each other and threw their bouquets. The crowd went wild with applause!! Besides the politicians, I had the chance to run into my Trans girlfriends, Rita, Madelyn, Rose and other and I also was even nicer bumping into my ex Eduardo from Brazil with his Briziallian Buddies in their colorful feathers.

Drag March

Every year me and my "Sisters" pay homage to our Sisters who came before us and paved the way for us to be able to express our femme spirit openly and fabulously! In particular we honor the brave, fierce and fabulous Drag Queens who sparked the flame that ignited the rebellion at The Stonewall Inn, which started the Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender Rights movement. We do this by having an annual "Drag March." We meet on the Friday before Pride Sunday every year in Thompkins Square Park at Dusk. Then we have a neo-Pagan Spiritual Circle where we invoke the spirit of our Stonewall Sisters and the energies of Drag. Then we have a March to The Stonewall Inn, the place where the civil rights movement started on the last Sunday of June in 1969. Lots of Drag Queens, Drag Kings, Club kids, Gender Benders, Transsexuals, Cross-Dressers, friends, admirers, and supporters all get dolled up and participate. The NYPD helps escort us and stops traffic for us. The wonderful groups that get involved include the NYC Circle of Radical Faeries - a Queer alternative, spirituality and expression movement, La Petit Versallies - a drag performance group representing the gardens of the Lower East Side, and Church Ladies for Choice -an off-shoot from ACT UP who use drag to make fierce political statements at Civil rights and Pro Choice rallies and events.

















Photos: The Drag March; Clover Honey and Petit Versalles member; Clover Honey and a Church Lady for Choice; Cover Honey and Detective Thomas Verni NYPD.

Cyndi Lauper - True Colors tour

On Monday June 18, I attended Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour at Radio City Music Hall. The special tour provided funds for the LGBT Community's Hunam Rights Campaign and was sponsored by Logo Cable Television network. I adored Ms. Lauper's performance was ulta-fabulous and inspiring. I also loved Margaret Cho's vulgar, hysterical skits not to mention Erasure , The Dresend Dolls, Debbie Harry, The MisShapes, The Gossips and others. Rosie O'Donnell herself even joined in the fun when she took over as a drummer. La Lauper jokingly explained how the real reason Rosie left The View was to join her band. Bravo to all the the performers for raising much needed funds and sending out the important anti-discrimination message! After the concert we headed to the official After-party at LQ. The East Side duplex nightspot was luxurious and roomy. But unfortunately, Cyndi was a no-show. Actually, almost all the stage performers didn't show except for Beth Ditto from The Gossips. But of course I still had a marvelous time dancing, drinking and mingling with all the celebs that did show up. They including Randy Jones (Village People), Robyn Byrd, Marilyn Soko, David Noh (Gay City News), Joe Kovacs and Madame, Ryan Wolowski (Out & About TV), Sharyn Jackson (Go! NYC), Lovari, Nickolas, Dixie (Tupperweare Show), TJ the DJ, Howie V, Murray Hill and Drag Divas Epiphany, Mimi Imfirst, Trai La Trash and Lavern Cox.
























































Photos: Robyn Byrd, Randy Jones and Clover Honey; Clover Honey performing; Marilyn Soko, David Noh and Clover Honey; Clover Honey and Lovari; With Murray Hill; With TV host Ryan Woloski; With Joe Kovacs and Madame; with Gabriel Garcia.

Leather/Fetish - Folsome Street East

On Sunday, June18, It was time to dust off the leather, chains and whips and get ready for Folsom Street East, a New York City one and only S&M, Leather and Fetish Queer outdoor Block Party! It modeled after the infamous Folsom Street in San Francisco. This was the 11th Folsom Street East and this year it took place on West 28th Street near the infamous Leather Man's bar, The Eagle. GMSMA held the first Folsom Street East in 1997. Named after the famous Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, the block party was an instant success, bringing our S/M-Leather-Fetish brothers and sisters together for a great celebration, while raising money to support worthy causes. Over the past 11 years, the success of FSE has enabled GMSMA to donate over $250,000 to support organizations like The LGBT Community Center, the NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, God’s Love We Deliver, and Rivington House.

I ran into Eddie, who has a fetish for being treated like a horse and gave me such a fun house and buggy ride around the block after my stage performance. I also loved seeing my friends from MAN (Males Au Natural) Nudist group, Metro Gay Wrestling, NYC Gay Men's Chorus, Radical Faeries, Foot Friends and others. It was a fantastic way to have fun and celebrate our unique, delicious, tantalizing and varied sexuality while raising funds for worthy causes! I loved seeing and having fun with HX publisher Matt Banks, Michael Musto (Village Voice), TV hosts Ryan Wolowski and Randy Wicker, Frances Legge, Paul Nordico, Empress B and Emperor Craig Hollywood, J. Michale Reeds, Evan Laurence, Chorus Butch Bryan, Jed Ryan (PM magazine editor) and others!






















































































Photos: Clover Honey getting a Horse and Buggy ride with Eddie; Clover Honey with model Jake Gifford; Clover Honey with Michael Musto; NYCGMC Butch Bryan; Eddie; Empress B; Nudits Paul; Francis, Clover and Tommy; Brandon, Clover and Mike; Clover and Angelo.

A Four Letter Word - Movie Premiere

On June 9th, it was time to attend the NYC Premiere screening an enticing film that I had a small role in, the Casper Andreas production of A Four Letter Word. It premiered at Loews 34th Street Cinema and the after-party was at Pieces Lounge. I had a small role in a Bridal shower scene where the Bride-to-be was a Fag Hag and had Drag Queen attendees instead of girlfriends. It was a fun scene that was filmed last August. It was so much fun to be reunited with cast members. Casper Andreas directed the film that was co-written by him and Jesse Archer. Jesse also plays one of the lead characters, Luke. It was also great to see Charlie David (Dante's Cove) again. He played Stephen, the other lead role in the film. You know that any film with two such gorgeous leads and a Drag Bridal Shower scene with me has got to be an amazing smash hit! Tony Sawicki and Stephanie Butler also come to the gala premiere and we video taped a segment for Under the Pink Carpet. Virginia Bryan (Marilyn), RJ Rolley (Derek), Allison Lane (Trishia), Margret R.R. Echeverria (Audrey) and others from the film were at the event to celebrate the NYC premiere, great reviews and a fabulous completion of a great Gay love story and comedy, A Four Letter Word.

















Photos: Clover Honey and Jesse Archer; AFLW Poster; Charlie David and Clover Honey; Margret Echeverria, Clover Honey and Allison Lane.