PROVIDENCE, R.I. – On April 4th-6th, 2014, the Providence Eagle hosted the annual Northeast Leather Weekend. This is a weekend to celebrate the reigning year of the current Northeast Leather Sir, boy, and Bootblack Family titleholders, and the competition to select the new members, who will represent the family for the next year, and at Internationals.
The weekend started on Friday, with “Meet the Meat.” It was a beautiful crowd of a clearly tight knit family. Everyone had an enjoyable time.
The next morning was interviews, and was then followed by the family dinner, held at Fire and Ice. The food was delicious, and so were the views on all sides of the table. The smell of leather AND food?! What more could one ask for?! Anyway, following that, was the competition, and even though there was only one “Sir” contestant, and one “boy” contestant, T/they still had to make 75% of the score to qualify for the title. Judging the competition was the two current title holders, Sir Seth Dreyton, and boy Benjamin Hodder, International Leather Sir, Sir George Saltzman, International Community Bootblack, Paul Williams, and the current Mr. New England Leather, Steve Dupont.
The competition was emceed by William Shields and began with Daddy Marco singing the national anthem, which brought me to tears. Then the contestants began to show us what they had to bring to the table. The contestants were Sir Jim Maciel and boy Nelson Fernandes. Both of them were genuine, and amazing contestants. T/they may not have had physical competition, but T/their biggest competition could bring T/them to T/their knees in defeat, and that is T/themselves. But they both came out victorious with more than enough of their scores needed to take home the titles.
During the “Fantasy Scene” category, Sir Jim didn’t do what Most do with their fantasy. Instead of making it about sex, He made it about Tradition, and an homage to O/our fallen brother, Tim Starky. It was the most beautiful and raw emotion I’ve ever seen in a competition.
The following day was the Victory Tea Dance, and it was a pretty amazing time. The entire weekend is something I definitely recommend that you attend next year. And after meeting the producers, I definitely recommend that Y/you run for the title! For more information see www.northeastleather.com!
