The first wave of results from the 2009 ChiStepper.com People's Choice Awards are in.  In all, there were 2,164 total voters over the 22 categories.  In 2007, the voting period lasted 5 weeks and garnered 668 total voters, and in 2008 the voting period lasted over 3 weeks and garnered 1,513 total voters.  This years voting period lasted for 10 days and registered 600 more voters than the previous year (2,164).  Part 2 and 3 of the this year's Awards will be published tomorrow and Friday.  Stay tuned and congratulations to all of the winners.  As always, t

The first wave of results from the 2009 ChiStepper.com People's Choice Awards are in.  In all, there were 2,164 total voters over the 22 categories.  In 2007, the voting period lasted 5 weeks and garnered 668 total voters, and in 2008 the voting period lasted over 3 weeks and garnered 1,513 total voters.  This years voting period lasted for 10 days and registered 600 more voters than the previous year (2,164).  Part 2 and 3 of the this year's Awards will be published tomorrow and Friday.  Stay tuned and congratulations to all of the winners.  As always, t

The first wave of results from the 2009 ChiStepper.com People's Choice Awards are in.  In all, there were 2,164 total voters over the 22 categories.  In 2007, the voting period lasted 5 weeks and garnered 668 total voters, and in 2008 the voting period lasted over 3 weeks and garnered 1,513 total voters.  This years voting period lasted for 10 days and registered 600 more voters than the previous year (2,164).  Part 2 and 3 of the this year's Awards will be published tomorrow and Friday.  Stay tuned and congratulations to all of the winners.  As always, t

ChiStepper is tallying the 2009 People's Choice Awards and some of the results will be in a little later today.  To make the results more representative and fairer, we added a tweak to the analysis.  An individual and/or group was only able to place in two categories.  That is to say, the highest two scores that any group or individual obtained was left in the analysis, while all other scores from that candidate were deleted.  If an individual was also nominated with a group that they soley control, only the highest scores were recorded and kept.  To explain this de

I remember having a conversation with T. Pratt about which one of us would cover the Heritage Ball last week. For me, it’s a writer’s dream to cover widely anticipated events like this because of the masses of people you get to meet and dance with from all over the country. I did not go last year and vowed that this year would be my chance to see if all of the talk about “southern hospitality” was really true or not.

If GDI couldn’t tell from the packed house they had at Club Ellery’s on Thursday night, they certainly knew by the Friday Walkers workshop with over 100 participants that this weekend was going to be a smash. On Friday night, the group scrambled to rearrange the second half of the huge Georgia International Convention Center Ballroom, as they’d only prepared half of the room. Good thing they did, because there is no way that an estimated 1,000 Steppers for the pre main event meet and greet party would have fit.

Starting today, thousands of Steppers from across the nation are headed to the Peach State to party with GDI for their Black Heritage ball.  I've bumped into people at Walgreens, on the street, and in the clubs and the first thing they ask me as, "Are you going to Atlanta this weekend?"  Tonight the Steppers are going to be at Ellery's, and from what I hear, you better get there early because they might have to shut the joint down.  GDI has a host of events prepared for the weekend and if you're still in town on Sunday, come check out the Steppers forum, where

This past Saturday I went to the “Step Into The Light” stage play featuring Carl Muhammad and “Lady” Margaret Fisher. The play opened up with some hilarious standup comedy, headlined by Da Wildcat. The opening scene took place in a bar with Westside Mike and Westside Keisha, dancing alongside Ken Hilliard and Yvette O’Donnell, Andre Blackwell, and another stepper appeared to be Dwain Saulsberry. Without going in to too much detail, I was really impressed with the quality of acting. From my understanding, this was Lady Margaret’s f

Saturday night after leaving the "Step In To The Light" stage play, I headed over to The Dorchester for After 7's Saturday night Steppers affair.  It was my first time making it out to an After 7 set in years, but I had an awesome time.  The fellas were dressed in red, as we all brought Valentine's Day in together.  My man DJ Cross kept heat coming from the booth along with Jammin' John.

Today ChiStepper TV features another throwback V103 World's Largest Steppers Ball video from 2002. Dre and Lady Margaret took third place in this contest.  I remember waiting for our numbers to be called and realizing that I'd have to share the stage with Dre and Margaret, Steppin B and Shareda, and Darren and Tori with less than 2 years in the game.  Talk about being nervous!  

After 17 years, Déjà vu Steppers Association still lives up to their name, and presented another event, as successful as those of the past years, with a packed party at Burbank Manor.

Today kicks off Allstar Weekend in Dallas, Texas and that means that a number of Steppers will be making the trek to the Lonestar state for Geno Spears' "Love and Basketball" event.  Geno has been planning this event for some time and I hope it goes well for him.

Vern Estes is always at the sets, but if you don't recognize his face, it's probably because it's usually hid behind a camera or camcorder.  Vern is a media guy and sometimes you'll catch him at the parties hanging out and chewing the fat with Cynthia Bean (Steppers 411).  I bumped into Vern recently at Sade's listening party hosted at Room 43, and after squeezing myself and Brian Hooks (Friends With Benefits Stage Play) together for a photo op, we chatted for a minute.

A number of you have already chimed in on the new Jill Scott "Whenever You're Around" remix.  This remix is from DJ Mike Flex, better known as "The Weatherman."  I see "The Phenom" Drew Alexander is ready to rock to it, while the DJ from the Lou is ready to throw a rock at it.  What do you think ChiSteppers?

After a LONG weekend of tallying nominations, the finalists for the 2009 ChiStepper.com People's Choice Awards are in.  One major change was made for the finals, which is that I allowed everybody to stay in whatever categories they were nominated for.  I had orginally stated that I was only going to let people stay in 2 categories but it didn't work out in the end.  I originally applied that rule because there were a few people rallying for votes in categories that they weren't qualified to win.  I can tell from some of the nominations, and you will as well, that in some

The stage play "Step In To The Light" has been making its rounds, and yesterday morning Mr. and Mrs. DeSean McIntosh, radio legend Herb Kent, Dre and Lady Margaret, and TykMyn and Yvette O'Donnell put on an exhibition promoting the play on WGN.  Check out the video on ChiStepper TV.  Make sure you get your tickets to the play which will take place next Saturday at the House of Hope.

Nominations for the 2009 ChiStepper.com People's Choice Awards will commence today at 12pm central standard time.  That gives everyone another 2 hours to log in their nominations.  The finalists will be presented Monday morning in the form of another survey.  A lot of nominations have come in and this year is going to be very interesting.  At first I was doubting the whole process of opening nominations up solely to the public, but it turned out to be a good idea.  It will be a busy weekend of crunching numbers for me.  Happy nominating!