Antonio A. Garrett was born in 1969, the year that changed everything for gays
and lesbians in the United States. One of the most poignant events taking place
that year was the brutal attack on and rebellion of gay people in New York City
at the Stonewall Inn. This single event sparked the flame that would inevitably
fuel Antonio’s wicked imagination throughout his life.
Antonio has never been “in the closet.” He was an active member of Gay Lesbian
Youth New York (GLYNY) since 1987, and in the early 1990’s, was one of the first
African-American premier go-go dancers for the gay club scene working
side-by-side with infamous promoter Marc Berkley. He was also a pioneer out
gay dancer/choreographer on MTV’s dance show “The Grind from 1992-1996.” In
the 1990’s, while working at Palladium, Limelight, Club U.S.A, Jackie60 and
many, many more, he was also parlaying on
several television shows, Antonio always dreamed about creating a graphic novel
that would reflect his homoerotic artistic interpretations and Love/Pride of being
a member of the gay community.” Bridges,” the concept that first originated in
1982, would eventually become “The DARK WORLD Chronicle,” a unique,
original, bold and unapologetic graphic novel that Antonio devoted his skills and
intense imagination to producing after graduating college in 2009.
Several other of Antonio's short stories and artistic renderings, published under
the pseudonym “Tonyboy69,” have appeared in Instigator magazine issue #11,
In Uniform issue #13, Honcho, Torso, Inches, Flesh 4 Men/Summer 2005, Viva
Voce-The Literary Art Showcase/1986, Dirt
magazine and VICE magazine.
Antonio currently resides in the East Village, near the park where a homeless
Jean Michel Basquiat once lived and in the neighborhood where a young
Madonna once called home. Having had the opportunity to work with the late, great
graffiti artist Keith Haring, an experience he took without
hesitation, Antonio brings his extraordinary life experiences, flare for the
dramatic, and love of the unpredictable to his art and literature.