We Are Family

Few songs in the disco canon carry the kind of cultural weight that Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" does — particularly within queer communities that long ago adopted the song as an anthem of chosen family. On March 21, 2026, at Jaeb Theater of Straz Center in Tampa, Florida, the Gay Men's Chorus of Tampa Bay leaned fully into that meaning with Will Hession's arrangement, featuring Hession himself alongside Kent Nicholas, Caleb Lucas, and interim artistic director Jeremiah Cummings.

Hession's arrangement preserves the original's irresistible Chic-style groove — the rhythm-guitar pocket, the buoyant disco strings, the unmistakable bass line — while reimagining the iconic backgrounds for a full men's chorus. The lower voices laid down the song's signature pulse, the inner voices carried the propulsive countermelodies, and the upper voices delivered the famous chorus with the kind of unison clarity that makes a hook a hook.

The four featured singers traded leads with easy chemistry. Hession's bright, confident lead set the tone; Nicholas added warmth and lift; Lucas carried the song's higher passages with clean precision; and Cummings, stepping out from the conductor's role, brought a generous, communicative presence that gave the performance an almost benedictory quality. Their interplay on the famous "I got all my sisters with me" tag was joyful and unforced.

By the second chorus, the audience was on the song. Hands went up, voices joined in, and the Jaeb's acoustics turned the room into a full-throated chorus of its own. Bodo's drumming and Pozenatto's keys held the disco pulse rock-solid throughout.

Within Out On the Dance Floor, this performance was the heart of the program — a song that has belonged to queer family for decades, sung by a chorus that lives that meaning every week.