The Politics of Performance with The Illustrious Blacks
Manchildblack & Monstah Black
Self-dubbed Afro-Electro-Disco-Space-Punks, The Illustrious Blacks are bringing their futuristic funk and high vibrational house to Blue Midtown for the first edition of UltraMaroon in 2025.
What can you expect? Some delicious sounds, referential lewks, and psychedelic spectacles to boot.
Manchildblack and Monstah Black are students and music, art, fashion and performance with a penchant for 70s and 80s dance music culture. Since concepting The Illustrious Blacks on their first date, these globetrotters have taken their soul-stirring endeavor worldwide and garnered international acclaim, having performed at preeminent cultural and nightlife institutions including the Apollo Theater, Ministry of Sound and Lincoln Center — to name just a few of the stages they’ve graced throughout the galaxy.
The Illustrious Blacks spoke with Sainte Francis in lead up to their UltraMaroon appearance about how the sociopolitical landscape is shaping their shows, and the role of artists in spreading empathy.
Photo by: Felipe Duquee
Sainte Francis:
How would you describe The Illustrious Blacks experience?
Manchildblack:
We both have performance arts backgrounds; Monstah in choreography, movement and singing, and myself in theater. And we share a great love for fashion. We fuse all of these elements into our DJ sets and live performances to make them very uniquely ours.
Monstah Black:
Exactly, we love to throw a little bit of everything into the mix.
Sainte Francis:
I'm curious to hear how your respective tastes in fashion, art and music came together when concepting The Illustrious Blacks.
Manchildblack:
You may or may not know, we are a married couple.
On our first date, we vibed! We connected through music, fashion, film and art, and particularly connected on 70s and 80s dance culture and music culture. So, it makes full sense that we are able to combine everything we talked about on our first date into what we are doing now. It's like kismet.
Monstah Black:
We also discovered that we both loved John Waters films. It was like, “Okay, maybe this is a thing.”
Manchildblack:
Yeah, John Waters, Warhol. We were also big into Parliament-Funkadelic.
Monstah Black:
Grace Jones.
Manchildblack:
Grace, of course. And our love for soulful music from back in the day — hearing our parents and siblings play music in the home.
Sainte Francis:
That’s amazing. So, the concept behind The Illustrious Blacks was something you literally discussed on your first date?
Manchildblack:
It was a 24-hour date!
Monstah Black:
We had no idea what would come of it.
Photo by: Felipe Duquee
Manchildblack:
When we decided to form The Illustrious Blacks, we wanted to really honor every aspect of who we are, what we love, and what's important to us. Within our sets, we like to make our influences and those who have inspired us known. A lot of times we'll name check them or drop little nuggets that nod to people like Sylvester, Grace Jones, Prince, Stevie Wonder, and so on.
Monstah Black:
There's also our punk and new wave influences as well. Sex Pistols, New Romantic, Depeche Mode. Even goth, for me, is a major influence.
Manchildblack:
In our downtime, we watch a lot of documentaries, whether it’s on music or the culture of the late-70s or early-80s. Those trigger us to incorporate new aspects into our work that we never previously thought about. We are kind of like sponges. We love to go to museums and get inspired, especially when we're traveling.
Sainte Francis:
Why do you think it’s so important that we have institutions, parties and spaces like UltraMaroon at this moment in time – spaces to share your art?
Manchildblack:
We need these spaces. Whether you're a DJ, choreographer, dancer, visual artist — artists everywhere are going to need to step up our game because there's going to be a huge need for radical joy coming up.
With the recent election, we can see what’s about to happen before us. We need to have fellowship and build community more than ever, especially those of us in the LGBTQ+ family. We don't have time to be divided by race or socioeconomic status. We need to include women, lesbians, and to make sure we have the backs of our trans brothers, trans sisters, and non-binary people. We don't have time for the BS anymore.
Monstah Black:
We’re going to need that radical joy — to create those spaces where we can come together in fellowship, have conversations, and make sure that we're standing together, not divided. Resistance is born out of that.
Sainte Francis:
In your Billboard interview from 2018, you were talking about your new video, “Black Like Jesus,” and mentioned that your main purpose was to share Black queer joy. What are some of the ways that artists and partygoers can share joy in this moment?
Manchildblack:
I would encourage artists to really think about what you have to offer. Not everyone can go marching in the streets. Not everyone is going to post online and be so vocal. But maybe somehow in your creativity you are able to spread information and, hopefully, spread some empathy.
As a DJ, this means taking the crowd on that journey. Let them know that there's hope and joy out there for them to feel. We’ve got to raise those vibrations. There are so many wonderful Black DJs doing just that. Honey Dijon, Kevin Aviance, Rimarkable, Tedd Patterson. I want to name check them. I want to name check them because I don't want them to go unnoticed. We are getting ready to be in a situation where people are trying to erase history. Particularly when it comes to Black people, brown people and queer people.
Sainte Francis:
That’s a nice segue into a concept you discuss frequently in your work — Afrofuturism. Could you talk about that concept for someone who might not be familiar?
Manchildblack:
When we formed The Illustrious Blacks, the thing that tied everything together — from the film to the music to the arts — was the idea of liberation. So, when we speak about Afrofuturism, we are really speaking of embodying that liberation. It's not something in the distance, but it's right here, right now. That is what Afrofuturism means to us. It’s the embodiment of the liberation of Black people.
Monstah Black:
That's how we live. That's how we present when we’re performing. So that when people leave our show, they actually feel that themselves. They feel that liberation and that empowerment.
Manchildblack:
We hope — not that you need any permission — but we hope it gives you liberty to leave space for radical human joy.
Sainte Francis:
You mentioned earlier that you’re married. I’m curious: Does that dynamic come to play at all in your work, either in a positive or constructive way?
Manchildblack:
Well, we make it known in sometime subtle ways. And sometimes, not so subtle.
Kissing is a very personal thing to us. In our live shows, not our DJ shows, we have a moment where we do a prolonged kiss. It's like a marathon kiss. A durational kiss.
That's one of our favorite moments, for obvious reasons. But also, because it allows the audience to project whatever is in their psyche onto the kiss. For some audience members, they are uncomfortable but then they move through it. As a couple it’s easy for us to share affection. But of course, it’s an interesting balance that we have to strike between our personal relationship and our public persona. It's a tightrope.
Monstah Black:
The kiss is interesting. Although we're having our own experience, the experiences in the room are all over the place. People don't know what to do with it. They go through this range of emotions within that three-to-five minutes.
We've even done it for 45 minutes before. We might be in the Guinness Book of World Records! Even those who feel like it's too much at the beginning, after they go through their whole process, by the end, they get it.
Sainte Francis:
Can we expect a kiss at UltraMaroon? What other exciting things can we expect — have you thought about that yet?
Manchildblack:
Yeah, I think ahead a lot.
Monstah Black:
He thinks that I don't, and I keep it to myself. I can't give away all of the magic that I'm doing.
Manchildblack:
We have some music about to drop in 2025, which we will preview at UltraMaroon. We have an EP that will come out, probably, in early spring. This is series of four or five songs, and we are developing a whole story and a whole visual concept around.
At IndepenDANCE in Fire Island with UltraMaroon this past summer, it was such a good vibration. It was actually one of the best experiences we've had on the island. I feel like we gave the crowd a little taste of who we are but this time we really want to go deeper and expand on our range, musically. Every time we spin, my thought is to tell a story. I am still working on what that story is this time, but it definitely will tie into what has been happening socio-politically.
Monstah Black:
That will definitely show up throughout the set, I'm sure. You can expect lot of performance elements, too. It’s about the energy the crowd gives us. From the UltraMaroon crowd, we always get that permission to go harder.
