End of the year with the AKAs. Now see, this is why I wait until the last minute. I called myself having my little 2025 recap in the books early so that I could rest up to beat these streets for New Year’s Eve. But then y’all’s cousins and aunties made me have to tear my best of list to pieces to make room for two events that took place at the eleventh hour of 2025 and snatched my soul to the point where I have to add them to the very top of my list. First off, if you’ve never been to an HBCU homecoming – shame on you if you haven’t because Harris-Stowe is right up the street from everywhere – The AKAs annual end of the year jam is the perfect example of what the vibe is on the night before the game. You get together and represent hard for your crew, fellowship with everyone, eat and stroll like you are trying to reach your Fitbit step goals before midnight. That was exactly the moment that The Machinist Hall was serving up on the last Friday of 2025, and I was here for every bit of it! The thing that I love about this set is that it is multi-generational – and one of the few places outside of a Kappa party where you can catch the cane twirlers and the shoulder shimmy squad in the same stroll. The neophytes and the grown heads vibing together under a Black Greek groove. Every year it feels like a “School Daze: Where Are They Now?” This year was no different and I love every moment.
Closing gala season with a blackout. And 2025 wouldn’t have been 2025 if the last weekend of the year didn’t feature a gala of some sort. And The Legal Solution Group’s Black Out sent the gala season out with a big black bang. Wait, that sounds way too NSFP (not safe for Partyline) for the elegant affair that had the Ritz-Carlton looking like Black excellence personified. The folks understood the assignment and came dressed in all black like the omen and helped Jermaine Wooten celebrate his birthday in the place with style and grace. Even though I’m clearly in a Lil Kim/Biggie lyrical mood, the best way to describe the vibe would be to borrow a line from OutKast, because the folks were so fresh and so clean. As fun and jam-packed as this year’s gala season was, I’m breathing a sigh of relief that it is over, because my formal/cocktail attire reserve was utterly depleted. I was able to cobble together a cute little ensemble for The Blackout, but had there been one more gala I probably would have been denied entry for inappropriate attire because of what I had left in my stash. I promise I would have had to step up in the place looking like a plus-size member of Vanity 6 with a tuxedo jacket and some hi-cut Cacique panties. What? I’d dress it up with a pair of control top lace pantyhose and a mean little kitten heel.
2025 Gala rewind. Okay, now that last weekend is out of the way, I can go ahead and give the highs and lows – but mostly highs – of 2025, which will go down in nightlife history as The Year of the Gala! And since I’m already talking about them, let me give my favorite moments from the gala season that never seemed to end. I’m gonna start with the UBall, because U. City will accuse me of hating if they don’t get top billing. But for real, I know I gave y’all shade but a time was had – and it’s one of the few times where I didn’t regret risking it all on the roads during inclement weather. My favorite after party moment of the galas has to go to the Delux Power 100. Now I know what y’all are thinking, “She’s only saying that because Jami and ‘nem busted out the Pharaoh Donuts!” And you would be 100 percent correct. What? That hunk of cinnamon roll that caught in my cleavage gave me my second wind on the dance floor. I’m convinced I wouldn’t have had a second wind enough to power through to the end of the Tamia slide without it. I think my favorite look from the nights of 1,000 galas is this the 2025 Salute to Excellence in Education Stellar Performer honoree Mary Elizabeth Grimes. Only the people who didn’t see the slay she served will accuse me of picking her because it’s our event. My second favorite look is Nikole Shurn’s tribute to the best of totally 80s formal wear with that green gown with the gold belt at Power 100. My only wish was that it had some sky high shoulder pads. Jami Ballentine’s Power 100 beat was the mug of the millennium! And I would be a mess if I forgot to mention the great Jackie Joyner-Kersee top-to-bottom slayage for her sneaker ball at The Four Seasons. As much as I want to give it to Will Henton for the risk he took with that light blue velvet, I think I’m going to declare Bennie Gilliam-Williams my best dressed man of the 2025 galas.
Photo by Educate Self Cultivate Others
Other 2025 moments of note. I’ve gone so hard on the galas that there is barely room for anything else, but I’m gonna do what I can with these last few little words to sum up 2025. So it won’t seem like I’m only giving a good weather report, I want to let y’all know that when Glorilla came to town for her show at The Factory, she was expecting her greatest hits – not y’all’s. I’m so glad that she had a chance to spin the block back to St. Louis thanks to Sexyy Red’s sold-out show at Enterprise Center. I feel like that was a first for any female rapper, let alone one from right here in the STL. Oh, and let me give it up to Jeezy for how he had us looking all elegant as we rapped along to trap music backed by violins and violas! House of Soul’s Juneteenth Block Party and Frizzfest had me as Black and proud as James Brown. And I know y’all are going to accuse me of playing favorites by giving them two mentions, but the step show at the AKAs Central Region was a vibe that needs to be recreated in the next Black cinema classic. And while I felt a type of way about that simulated hunch during “Take You Down,” I got my life from the R&B Energizer Bunny better known as Chris Brown when he wore his Gen Z audience out with his stamina at The Dome. If I’ve forgotten any of my faves from 2025, please know that I will be spinning the block and mentioning them next week!