This year marks the 35th anniversary for the Conductor’s Leather Levi Club, making it one of Nashville’s longest-surviving gay social and service organizations. Originally started in 1982 by a group of friends who shared a common interest of leather and a passion for serving the community, the group originally supported various local charities such as the Second Harvest Food Bank, the Angel Tree programs, and organized food drives at their first home bar, The Crazy Cowboy. With the beginning of the AIDS crisis in Nashville, and the formation of Nashville CARES, the Conductors switched their main focus to focus fundraising efforts on offering financial assistance to clients of CARES.
According to its website the Conductors “devised a form of emergency support that is still being used today. Owing to the limited resources available solely from donations from the community, a direct-assistance emergency need program was established with Nashville CARES to serve their most severely impacted clients.” With this fund the group has assisted clients with prescriptions, co-pays, eyeglasses, utility bills, home repair, rent, and has also made donations to support Thanksgiving meals sponsored by Nashville CARES for its clients.
But the Conductors aren’t all work and no play! Every year they celebrate their anniversary with their club’s ‘Run’. As they put it “This is a chance for us to invite our leather brothers and sisters to Nashville for a weekend of fun and fellowship. The first anniversary weekend was in 1983 and was dubbed “Track I.” Now this year the club is happy to announce Track XXXV, the weekend of March 17-19, 2017 with the theme “Mardi Gras Nashville Style”—truly a weekend unlike any other!
Leather men and women from across the country will descend on Nashville for a weekend of entertainment and camaraderie. Some of the events of the weekend include: the Mid-America Conference of Clubs meeting, cocktail parties, the Conductors Run Show (featuring Conductors club brothers, associates and other local groups), The Freak and Fetish Fashion Show hosted by Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at Trax, and bar crawls to Stirrup, Trax, Tribe, Play, and Canvas.
All food and drinks are included in the price of the run (except during bar crawls) and transportation will be provided for any events outside the host hotel.
Photo credit: Terry Christian