Mr. Ebony Leather '98 Mr. Ebony Leather Contest '99 by Cain Berlinger Last Memorial day Weekend (not so long ago!) the city of Chicago was filled with over 4.000 Leather people, arriving from all over the world to celebrate the2 5th anniversary of International Mister Leather. In the meantime there was also another milestone occurring in the community and that was the third selection of Mr. Ebony Leather '98, the Leather Communitie's only POC title event, making its Chicago debut for the first time out of San Francisco. The event was held at the Leather neck's bar on Lake Street. The judges were the most influential in the leather Community including noted persons of color likeJill Carter (former International Ms leather, Davian Nelson (former Mr. Ebony leather), rodtney ross (editor of the on-line LeatherWeb) and Vern Stewart as MC (producer and multi community service award winner) with co'hostess Queen Cougar (former Ms San Francisco Leather). The buffet was catered by Chicago's own Darrian Dijon and precessions were by Ton Ton and Saesh who drummed throughout the entire event giving it that certain ethnicity required. There were over $3000 in prizes given to the winners and a few funds were raised for the Minority Outreach Intervention Program and The Church of the Open Door. While there were voices raised that the event would be community divisive the producer of the event explained that "Mr. Ebony in Leather is to have fun, raise money for some worthy causes, and highlight the potential best of the Black Community in leather. There is nothing divisive in that!.." Andre Marcials was elected the new Mr.Ebony Leather for '98 after a moving farewell from outgoing title holder Davian Nelson, and a plea from Jill Carter for contributions to Chicago's Leather Museum and Archives, which also received funds from the afternoon's events. Things are definitely changing in the leather and gay communities and they are coming together in ways we had never imagined. Just being ourselves has never had more meaning than it has today.