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Germono Toussaint is Bringing Brown Liquor and Blessed Oil to NYC Pride
Award-winning composer is releasing “We’re Having a Party,” the debut single from the upcoming visual album Brown Liquor & Blessed Oil on June 11th
(New York, NY, May 28, 2021): Dynamic composer, arranger, and producer Germono Toussaint is set to release the lively retro dance track “We’re Having a Party,” on Friday, June 11th. A welcome addition to the revelry of NYC Pride, “We’re Having a Party” features critically acclaimed cabaret performer Michael Michelle Lynch. This up tempo dance anthem is the debut single off of his upcoming visual album, Brown Liquor & Blessed Oil. Tracing his personal journey from a childhood deeply impacted by alcoholism and religion to his adult struggles with identity, sexuality, and spirituality, Brown Liquor & Blessed Oil will be released in July.
A unique arrangement reminiscent of soul legend Sam Cooke’s 1962 hit “Having a Party,” and Prince’s “1999,” Toussaint’s “We’re Having a Party” is a perfect blend of retro soul and funk with modern pop sounds. The single and music video will be released in tandem with Pride Month celebrations in New York City. With a soulful performance by famed drag performer Michael Michelle Lynch, “We’re Having a Party” is both a celebratory dance track and an
identity-affirming anthem that reinforces this year’s Pride theme, “The Fight Continues.”
“‘We’re Having a Party’ is a song celebrating who we are as a community,” says Toussaint. “It’s about living loud, living proud, and celebrating ourselves, even as we continue to fight fiercely for our basic human rights.” The lead single on Brown Liquor & Blessed Oil, “We’re Having a Party” also speaks to Toussaint’s roots in Wisconsin. Born into an alcohol-fueled environment on the northside of Milwaukee, Toussaint’s early childhood was filled with house parties and sparked his obsession with music, with great exposure to soul, R&B, funk, and pop sounds of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Brown
Liquor & Blessed Oil, slated for release on the 4th of July, navigates the many different worlds and experiences that influence Toussaint’s work. From his family’s early days of drinking and partying to their religious conversion, to his own struggles reconciling his religious beliefs with his sexual identity, the album explores the issues that many LGBTQ people of color face balancing social and cultural expectations and “norms” with living in truth and being proud of being queer.
“This album documents my spiritual and sexual evolution,” says Toussaint. “ From being raised in a party atmosphere to spiritual and sexual bondage I experienced in the church, to reclaiming and celebrating all parts of myself. I decided to release the album on July 4th, because it is the day we, as a nation, celebrate our freedom and independence. This album is about my liberation, and the liberation of everyone who has had to live a lie, live in bondage, and live in shame.” “We’re Having a Party” will be released on all music and video platforms on Friday, June 11th.
The full album, Brown Liquor & Blessed Oil, will be available in July.
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About Germono Toussaint
Germono Toussaint is a multi-award-winning composer, arranger, playwright, and producer. He is one of the founding playwrights of the Obie award-winning The Fire This Time Festival, the Founding Artistic Director of A Mile In My Shoes, Inc., and owner of Brown Liquor Music, LLC.
His plays have been featured in the Not for Broadway Theater Festival, Horse Trade Theater Group, The Drafts Fest, All Out Arts Play Festival, New York Madness, The Fire This Time Festival, National Black Theater’s Keep Soul Alive reading series, and 48 Hours…in Harlem.
Toussaint has also written and arranged music for a number of off-Broadway theater productions including “Ritual,” “B-Boy Blues,” “Sistas: The Musical,” “Bring the Beat Back,” “Breath and Imagination,” “(L)imitations,” and “Hoodoo Love.” His recent Afro-futuristic musical “The Last Gatekeeper” won the Artizen Fund’s Black Realities grant, and will be workshopped at The Tank in the fall of 2021.
Toussaint has received awards and honors from The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Obies, The Puffin Foundation, The National Alliance for Musical Theatre, and All Out Arts. Toussaint was featured in American Theater Magazine in 2008.
He’s participated in Tofte Lake Center’s 10th Annual Emerging Artist Program, was a Sheen Center Theater Artist Fellow, a Rhymes Over Beats Artist in Residence, and is a recent recipient of Broadway producer Ken Davenport’s Dr. Kenny Encouragement Fund Scholarship.
