Richard & Charles: Men of Lambda

MUSA Where are you from?

RICHARD I’m from the Boogie down Bronx. A New York native born and raised. The South Bronx.

CHARLES I’m originally from Richmond, Virginia. Born and raised.

MUSA What was life like for you growing up?

RICHARD It was rough for me growing up in the hood but that was my way of life. That was the only thing I understood so it was normal for me. It was normalized to be in that type of environment. You’re dealing with shootings on the streets, you’re dealing with robbings, killings. You’re used to dealing with stuff like that. The area I grew up in the South Bronx, was Webster Avenue. They used to call it Vietnam. It was pretty rough we moved around a lot in the Bronx. And then we went ahead and settled in Throgsneck. It was kind of an upscale projects. It wasn’t as bad as Webster and the South Bronx it was a little better. But still you know you didn’t really aspire to much. I went to school, kept good grades. I was pretty good in school, into technology. My mother did what she needed to do to take care of me and my brother. We really were really just trying to survive.

CHARLES My upbringing was completely the opposite from his. It was a structured environment. Raised in the suburbs of Richmond by mother. My father wasn’t really active in my life growing up as a child. Very much into the arts as a kid. I did a lot of acting in High School, a lot of dancing. I played instruments.

RICHARD He knows how to play the viola. (laughs)

CHARLES I played it for fifteen years growing up.

RICHARD I don’t nothing about playing instruments from where I grew up. (laughs)

CHARLES Musa, you put that in my hands and I can’t do nothing with it. That was pretty much my upbringing in Virginia. After High School I went to directly to college. Graduated and moved to New York City.

MUSA When did you come out?

RICHARD I was definitely in my teens, probably about 17 or something like that. Of course I had the kind of mother she already knew. She was just waiting for me to come out with it. I had a supportive family. I didn’t really have any issues with anyone treating me any differently. I had a godfather who was openly gay. An older man, so when I came out my mother thought the best thing to do to expose me to the lifestyle was to kind of hand me off to him. I don’t want make it sound like she was giving me away but that he could show me the lifestyle, the do’s and the don’ts. That went pretty well. I had opportunities to get exposed to things most kids my age didn’t get. It matured me very quickly. I had a very easy transition. I have one of those mothers she goes to pride with me. I’m pretty sure Charles is going to tell you a different story. ( laughs)

CHARLES So mine was completely the opposite. I didn’t tell my mother until I was about 21 years old. She didn’t handle it well. We had a really great relationship, she was like my best friend. And when I told her it was very much of I don’t condone or want to know to much about it. I never asked her but I do believe it was because we had a relative that died of AIDS. I think that might of scared her. After I came out my life was very private. I separated it from her and the rest of my family. It wasn’t until I moved to New York City, I became more accepting of myself. So I started sharing relationships with her and Ricky was the first and last person she will ever meet. And then she and the rest of my family were very open and accepting of myself and Ricky.

MUSA So how did you guys meet? Who picked who up first?

MUSA So how did you guys meet? Who picked who up first?

CHARLES I moved to Bronx and lived with a friend I grew up with who was also gay. And that friend and Ricky were very close friends. And as soon as I met Ricky I knew that he was going to be the man I was going to be with. It took a little while, maybe after a years time he finally came around and we started dating.

RICHARD He chased me down. We would meet up at mutual friends, at house parties. He would be hanging out with the guy, and I would be hanging out with the guy. So that how we got connected we were constantly around each other. But I was never really feeling him. He was a country boy, I’m a New Yorker. They tend to dress differently. New Yorkers are a lot more trendy. These southerners still wear there white tee shirts down to their knee caps. ( laughs) For me it was who is this country bumpkin trying to holla at me when I got choices. I was like, “Boy get outta here.” So we were hanging at a house party one day. My plan was to chill and crash there for the night. So Chuck goes to the back. He had finally got comfortable and came back in basketball shorts and a tank top. So I finally got to see what he actually looked like. I was like, “Oh, my God. I got to have that.” It was a moment I said to myself, he’s hot. New Yorkers tend to be superficial it’s all about the visual. So we hooked up. You know how we gays are. We hook up. He came to my house in New Jersey.

CHARLES Musa, I brought a bottle of liquor and we was gonna chill. And you know we in our early twenties. Purchasing a bottle of liquor means something.

RICHARD He pulled out all the stops. But I was young. In my mind I conquered it. I got it and I’m over it I don’t want it anymore. So I never hit em back. He kept trying and I never him back. I don’t remember how we met back up.

CHARLES That’s when the shorts thing happened.

RICHARD Oh, so we hooked up before the shorts. Then the shorts and tank top thing happened. It was like, “Oh okay.” ( laughs) I was like we need to see where this goes. Then he pursued me and pulled out all his tricks. That southern charm and I got hooked.

MUSA So how long were you dating prior to being married?

MUSA What were you doing for employment before you started Lambda Vodka?

RICHARD Before we got married we both were working for the same company, Affinity Health Plan. So we were constantly up under each other. Originally he was working for my company’s competitor. And then he decided to transition over for a management position. I’m in IT department, he’s in the finance department. We were transitioning and starting the vodka business. So while we’re working at the office on the computer trying to put things together for the creation of the Vodka. I’m pretty sure they were wondering why our productivity was dropping. We were constantly doing both things at the same time. We would leave the job and we would have to do something with the vodka. The day we got married we went down to City Hall. It was me, my mom, Chuck and his mom. After the ceremony we went out to dinner with friends. The minute we got home their was a case on our doorstep and it turned out to be our first case of vodka.

MUSA Why did you name it Lambda Vodka. Explain Lambda to us.

RICHARD During the Stonewall rebellion. There was this organization that used the Greek symbol to signify gay liberation during that time. It was technically the first symbol used before the gay rainbow flag. That’s where the term Lambda came from used in the gay community.

MUSA How was it working on Lambda Vodka from its inception to now?

RICHARD It’s exhausting.

CHARLES It really challenged our relationship. And really not having any experience as business owners of spirit creators. We’re freshly married, we’re starting this business and we don’t have any mentors to speak to on this. Gay marriage was just starting, we don’t know a lot of young Black guys who are in long term relationships and we don’t know Black people who own liquor brands. So It’s kind of like we are trying to navigate all these avenues with no roadmap. Those first years were very challenging for us. But you know we communicate really well.

RICHARD There was literally a certain point where Charles sat me down and he said we have to get an understanding of the roles we are going to play with this. And basically what he meant was, I’m going to run this and you are going to do as I say. ( laughs ) And I don’t want any issues with it. Because you can’t have two Alpha males trying to run a business and make decisions on a business. It’s not going to work. You need to have the dominant and you need to have the submissive that’s the only way it’s going to work. He took the reigns on the vodka he made all the marketing and branding decisions. He consulted me. It wasn’t just he did everything and told me to shut the hell up. We collaborated but he was the final say. That worked out actually. Before that decision was made we were at each other’s throats. In my mind I was like you want to use our money to do this. This is fifty fifty. You’re not going to be the deciding vote. But I had to fall back.

MUSA You’re married, have a liquor brand what made you decide to open a lounge?

CHARLES Musa, when Ricky and I initially got together he always wanted to open a lounge. He wanted something like his stomping ground ChiChi’s in the village. We were at a point with the liquor where we couldn’t quit our jobs to push this but it’s not making enough money to push on its own. So how can we generate additional income for the liquor. And one of the guys said let’s open a bar. So I spoke to Ricky and he was all for it. The one guy wasn’t able to follow through so once again my husband myself we decided to go ahead and open a lounge.

MUSA What has been the response in Harlem since you’ve opened Lambda Lounge?

RICHARD We’re not surprised at the response of the lounge. The following that we’ve gotten from the vodka let us know that we weren’t going to have an issue getting people in there. What I can is we didn’t anticipate how much support we were going to receive. Honestly if we had anticipated it we probably would gotten a bigger place. It’s been an amazing experience we’ve gotten an overwhelming number of people from here. All over the place. We had a guy here from Africa and he said he heard about us. He read an article while in Africa and when he came to the US he had to come to this place. We are reaching people across the world. It’s a surreal feeling.

MUSA What is your advice to small businesses doing business during this time in a pandemic? What are some of the challenges?

CHARLES I majored in marketing. I remember one of my teachers saying satisfy the needs of your consumer. So as a small business owner during Covid I would say you need to find a product or service that’s going to satisfy consumers during this time. If it’s going to be a liquor you can put a twist on it with say Covid sales. Or if you don’t know what you want to do create a hand sanitizer. You always have to satisfy the needs of your consumer in any industry.

RICHARD I can honestly say hold your breath. ( laughs) The one thing I can say that has been the most trying thing for us is the uncertainty. Not knowing what is next. If we had a set plan it’s better to navigate that. The constant changing of rules in order to be compliant. The opening, the closing it’s extremely difficult. Especially for a restaurant. People don’t realize that restaurants are bearing the burden in a situation like this. We literally have a government that is singling us out as basically the reason for the climb in numbers of Covid cases. So when they are looking to shut things down in order to alleviate the numbers it seems as if restaurants, bars, the eating and drinking establishments are the first place that they look. If you have a business be compliant. If staying open is something that you can do try to adapt to the situation. Cut back where needed. You’re gonna have to save some money because we don’t know what the future holds. Stock pile as much as you can it’s going to require a lot of discipline. And you know just pray. ( laughs)

MUSA What advice would you give to the young Black LGBTQ struggling to find their place in society?

RICHARD Open your eyes and look. Sometimes we allow our situation and circumstances to blind us to what’s going on around us. Their is a wave going on right now and I feel that people who are in situations like that unfortunately don’t have courage to open their eyes to see what’s going on around them. There are a lot of influential people out there that can paint a better picture for them. They just need to look. It’s hard and I don’t want to give the impression to anyone that what we are going through has not been a struggle. We fought througn what these young people are fighting through. We’ve been through it. It’s hard to tell them what to do because one thing that I’ve learned is that experience is everything. You’re going to experience good and bad. We are all going through it. Take it in stride and push through it. It’s not going to be easy but at the end of it, it will all pay off.<br /> CHARLES: There is a tribe out there for all.