Courtesy B. Dolan B. Dolan in full regalia.

This Sunday, the Church of Love and Ruin Tour returns to the East Village, bringing with it a kaleidoscopic array of acts ranging from independent rap sensation Sage Francis to a marching band to the gender-bending practitioners of sissy bounce. The tour’s headliner and mastermind, B. Dolan (Bernard Dolan), hopes to get the New York audience – “which can stereotypically be very stoic and non-responsive,” he said – wiling out with the help of a new host, a drag queen by the name of Yekaterina Petrovna Zamolodchikova. “I predict that she is about to become a hip-hop legend,” he told The Local, adding that “what she’s going to do to these audiences will be remembered by their children’s children.”

You heard it here first. Mr. Dolan recently sat down with us to discuss his East Village origins as well as the significance of bringing the tour back to where he got his start.

What inspired you to make a name for yourself in the East Village?

I grew up in an old mill town outside Providence, R.I., and hip-hop culture was nowhere near me really. I discovered rap via an older cousin, and then scavenged for what I could find. I knew shortly after that I wanted to be a writer-rapper and that my favorite hip-hop came from New York City. So that’s where I headed in 1999, as soon as I finished high school. I discovered the scene in the East Village and started performing there.

Which East Village venues meant the most to your development?

The Nuyorican was the main spot that attracted me. There were some really colorful characters, and people would get booed or heckled on a regular basis. I loved that in a really instinctual way.

Ellison Glenn was the host of the Wednesday night show, and took me under her wing. Everyone was shocked to realize I was only 18, but I kept competing and advancing through the adult slam.

At that point, this guy Big Brother Wayne invited me to perform at the taping of “Def Poetry Jam’s” pilot episode, which led to me going to this Rush Arts Gallery taping and meeting all those guys and Russell Simmons. It was my first real contact with the hip-hop music industry as such, and to be honest I recoiled from it. The aftermath of that was me discovering the whole DIY approach and going down the independent path that my career has followed ever since.

With this being the second of the CoL&R tours, what was important to you about having a New York/East Village date?

I really loved the downstairs venue at Webster Hall last time, and even though we’ve got enough acts on the bill to play upstairs, we’re doing it downstairs again just to pack it out and make it more intimate and grimy. It’s also very satisfying to come “home” to the East Village with a circus in tow. I went out into the world and done good, New York. Welcome me or not. I’ve come to claim my birthright.

Your show is much more diverse than an average rap show. How did you come across such completely different acts?

I came across everyone on the bill as a fan of their work. My motives for booking this show are very selfish; I book the most unique and talented performers I come across, and think about what my ideal show lineup would be.

What’s the biggest undertaking of bringing a tour of this magnitude around the world?

The budget. I’m not the Flaming Lips here, so I’m working with the kind of guarantees that low- to mid-level headliners get. In most cases, those headliners are paying their openers minimal fees and that’s how you make money on tour. In this case, those fees go to pay everyone’s travel and lodging necessities, and whatever is left is divided up for fees.

It always feels like it’s on the brink of financial collapse (hence the Ruin part of the title), but it’s the one time a year I allow myself to do it for the love and re-charge my own battery.

Has having a line-up inclusive of such marginalized and largely unheard voices as the gay and handicapped presented any obstacles for the tour or with audiences?

I think it’s certainly put some of our more traditional knucklehead hip-hop audience off, but I’ve never [cared much] about those people. I don’t want fans that are bigoted. I want the opposite of that. I want fans that can appreciate a performer like Vockah Redu or Nicholle Pride, on the one hand because I consider myself an ally of the LGBTQ community… but selfishly because it gives me room as a performer to know that I can step out on ledges or grow artistically and have a fan base with open minds.

The Church of Love and Ruin Tour, July 29 at The Studio at Webster Hall, 125 East 11th Street.