Tribes

People learn how to act, talk, walk, and dress from other people. These people may be friends, neighbors, or tribes. A tribe is a family, especially a large one (Webster’s Dictionary). In The Mee Street Chronicles: Straight Up Stories of a Black Woman’s Life by Frankie Lennon, in the selection “Tribes,” the narrator finds her tribe within the main black gay bar in Los Angeles. The narrator grows a relationship with this place, and the people within it and clearly sets the mood of the environment for her readers to grasp.

The main black gay bar I have previously mentioned is Jewel’s Room Bar. The narrator’s relationship with Jewel’s is a fresh start, because it is the place where she felt most comfortable in the big town of Los Angeles after living there for almost six years. In this place she is nervous at first meeting her tribe, grows in anger and jealousy because of feeling cheated, but in the end is excited with curiosity being a part of this tribe.

Taking her readers with her inside the bar we feel the sense of freedom and awareness she feels when she is there. She illustrates the place being filled with homosexual couples, carefree of what others may think about them and their homosexuality; a gay and lesbian couple dancing on the dance floor, a quartet of gay men laughing louder than the music, a bartender shaking his hips as he walked, and the three gay musketeers that gossiped with the other bartender. She is in awe and speechless towards these people’s actions, because it was something that she had never seen before. Witnessing this, the narrator felt cheated because before moving to Los Angeles all she knew was to camouflage her homosexuality. She felt cheated knowing that maybe her past relationships would have lasted longer if her and her significant others were surrounded by an environment like Jewel’s.

Though not letting go of feeling short ended, she took Jewel’s and the people enjoying their stay there to her advantage. Jewel’s is important to the narrator, because it has something to offer to her that no other place could. Not only was she relaxed at Jewel’s due to it being a bar, but it encouraged her to let loose and just be herself, black and lesbian. She took this time and opportunity to learn. I think that the narrator put the definition of a tribe in the beginning of the story is so that her readers can keep in mind that this is her new found tribe. As someone would learn from their family, friends, or acquaintances, the narrator learns from the people at Jewel’s. She learned from her tribe. She becomes excited, because she finally has someone to look up to, follow, imitate, and ask and take advice from. This is where she can learn to be who she is without shame.

With this, reader’s can follow the reoccurring themes or ideas in this selection, also known as a motif. Within the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender motifs a few can be found in “Tribes.” The narrator affirming her sexual identity is one, because at Jewel’s she felt satisfied with who she is, and where she is whole heartedly comfortable. Another motif is the awakening of the narrator’s lesbian sexual desire by remembering her encountering a beautiful lady dressed in white that left her shy and speechless.

As for the significance of the story, I think that this story is about the narrator finally finding her haven place in big Los Angeles. Being new to this city is hard and she has been blessed to find a place like Jewel’s for herself. She acknowledges Jewel’s because it is where they accepted her therefore, her accepting herself. Frankie Lennon was unmasked in 1987 at Jewel’s Room Bar.