Kristal Reynaga | Guest Writer | [email protected]
He places his order. The bartender mixes equal parts vodka, gin, tequila, rum and triple sec, with one and one-half parts sour mix, and a splash of cola.
It’s a warm, yet breezy, spring day, perfect to enjoy a Long Island iced tea while lounging at an outdoor patio. He prefers to meet at a bar called the Mercantile, or the Merk. It’s a popular bar among locals who favor and appreciate midtown’s Lavender Heights district for all its colorful personality.
Meet Shane Franklin Delano Salter, 27, a City College communication major who is also pursuing a cosmetology license is an intern at 101.9 The Wolf, an employee at Pizza Rock, a participant of the underground rave scene, a country music fan, poet, and freestyle rapper. His world is indeed full of color.
Salter is a lover of life and has many aspirations, but his biggest aspiration is to become a well-known rapper. The average person may think, “Where’s the real struggle in that?”
Unlike other stereotypical rappers, Salter already has two strikes against him: He’s white and he’s gay.
Mainstream rap is infamous for its darker side of urban, street and thug life.The rap world is far from the rainbow-painted crosswalks that will soon grace the Lavender Heights district.
Salter is gay, but he is also familiar with street life. He grew up in a physically rough environment and says he felt inner conflict from being gay in a place not accepting of his sexuality. He says he dealt with internal conflict and aggression through physical altercations to prove that he wasn’t gay.
As he came to terms with his sexuality, he realized that he didn’t like hurting people, and as he matured, his ideology of managing conflict has changed. Now, he believes matters can be resolved in a more civil way.
“Life is too short,” says Salter. “Most conflicts are so petty and can be resolved.”
Salter revealed his sexual orientation to his family about 10 years ago. At first his family struggled with the idea, but they have learned to accept and respect Salter’s decision to be open and true to himself.
It also does not perform the way it should sildenafil viagra tablets be. First generico cialis on line one erectile dysfunction which means that the male patient develops poor sperm excellence, low sperm count, or worse no sperm at all. Back then, there were only herbs, exercises and home therapies. no prescription cialis The dosage will be visible in the front with the levitra soft brand name Pfizer and VGR on the back. Salter believes that it’s difficult to be an openly gay rapper because there aren’t any mainstream rappers who have given attention to the issue. It’s as if the possibility to be both gay and a rapper do not co-exist. But Salter believes in himself and has enough confidence to know that he can succeed.
“My confidence comes from how much more progressive we’re becoming as a society,” says Salter. “The new generation is more accepting. If someone has talent, they have talent, and people can see past the sexuality.”
Salter says music and poetry are the two elements that keep him sane. He loves both country and rap music, but he isn’t torn between them. Salter fully embraces both genres of music, because they both represent and mean something very different to him.
“I like hip-hop because of the storytelling,” Salter says. “Hip-hop has more things I can relate to, but country music pulls on my heart strings. Country tends to hit me more when it comes to relationships, because that’s more of its focus. Hip-hop feeds more into my life. I can relate to it more, and really good hip-hop, if it’s something I can’t relate to, it opens my eyes to how other people live their lives.”
Salter has been in a relationship with Eric Gayken, 37, for three and a half years.
“His loyalty,” says Gayken, of Salter’s best quality. “I never have to question it.”
Salter shares his love of rap by his involvement with an art collective known as Zero Forbidden Goals, a group of poets, rappers, and musicians who perform open mic and fl ash mob performances. The group creates and provides an accessible platform of street art for Sacramento. Zero Forbidden Goals participants know Salter by his nickname, ForWord, a play on his love for words, and because that’s the direction he moves in: forward.
Kaila Dougherty, 27, a graphic design artist, has been Salter’s friend for the past year and a half.
“Shane is gifted,” says Dougherty. “Shane and I both come from the same background that firmly grounds us in the passion and need for self-expression.”
Salter says that everyone in Zero Forbidden Goals knows he’s gay, and they’re all okay with it.
“We’re all human beings,” says Salter. “We fight for each other’s rights. When it comes to black kids getting killed by police officers, they know that I will stand up for them, and if there’s gay-bashing, I know they’re going to support me. We’re all in it together. It’s not just one person’s struggle, all of our struggles are the same. It’s a human struggle.”
