2017 Issue 5 Sep/Oct - Focus Mid-South Magazine

life
2017 Tristate Black Pride
Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
TERRYL
BUCKNER
By Anita Moyt
With contributions by Joy Doss
photos courtesy of Tristate Black Pride
and Terryl Buckner
Terryl Buckner was honored
by Tristate Black Pride on June
15, 2017 at the National Civil
Rights Museum during the
opening ceremonies of Tristate
Black Pride 2017. Buckner was
presented with the group’s
Lifetime Achievement Award.
Terryl is a nightlife veteran,
having recently retired after
25 years in what can be a
rough and tumble game. He
captured a viable market in a
way that no one else had at
the time, and gave the black
LGBT community in Memphis
what it needed – a safe space
with great music and great
entertainment.
He began his club business
days with Club Escape on
Monroe, then moved to 338
South Front where he changed
the name to Club N-cognito,
which was where I (Joy) first
met him while hanging out
with my DJ friend. If you don’t
know, the gay clubs have the
best music in the city! Also
as a woman, there was no
one leering or being grabby –
bonus!
The more I hung out, the
more I began to see familiar
faces that weren’t “supposed”
to be there. I, of course,
honored the code. You will
never hear a peep out of me.
I say that to say that this is
how I know that I know that
this was a safe space in the
midst of a community that may
not always be so accepting
– southern, black families,
southern black families. One
long-time club goer says, “It
was one of the first gay clubs
I went to in Memphis. My crew
had mixed emotions about
it because most of us had
professional jobs and were
successful. But it was a place
where I got in touch with
myself. I’m still friends with
some of the guys I met there.”
Later another transition
would put “the club” in Frayser
in the Northgate Shopping
Center under the name Club
Allusion. One last move saw
“901” move back to downtown
Memphis.
Probably the most important
piece of this puzzle is that
Terryl was the founder of
Memphis Black Pride over
20 years ago. It was a long
weekend of events throughout
the city with top notch
entertainment, J-Setters
competing, literary festivals
and educational activities.
On Sundays, Terryl would
rent out the entire Te-To-Tam
Ranch in South Memphis for
a leisurely day of cookouts,
hayrides, horseback riding,
volleyball and the water gun
fights. He once said that he
rented the entire ranch out
so that his “kids” could have a
place to go where they could
be themselves without risk of
discrimination or harassment.
Buckner was appreciative
of his award, one that he
didn’t expect. “It really did feel
good,” Buckner commented,
“how they (Tristate Pride)
acknowledged and
appreciated me. Everything I
was doing for the community
was from my heart and I
didn’t think I needed to be
acknowledged. But after the
day, it really did feel good for
someone to say thank you and
we appreciate you. It was just
so well put together.”
“From my heart I’d like to
thank Memphis and all who
supported me for 25 years,”
Buckner concluded. “It is time
for someone else to carry on
for the future generations.”/
However, Buckner may be
out of the club business, but
he continues to work with the
public in his line of work in real
estate. And he still has plans
to put together the occasional
event that only Buckner knows
how to do.
Buckner and guests
at one of the early
Memphis Black Pride
weekends at the
Te-To-Tam Ranch in
South Memphis.
Buckner at the Tristate
Black Pride event, June
2017. Buckner at his club,
N-Cognito, in the 1990s.
Page 12 / focusmidsouth.com / SEP+OCT 2017 / Imagine