(C) Verite News New Orleans This story was originally published by Verite News New Orleans and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . New Orleans Black Pride offers ‘necessary’ safe space for queer community [1] ['Drew Costley', 'More Drew Costley', 'Verite News', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-06-05 In April 2021, after years of going to celebrations that they felt weren’t friendly toward non-white people, Nikki Alexander-Tumblin and her wife Sheena Tumblin wondered whether there would be interest in a Pride Month festival geared toward Black LGBTQIA+ people. “When I go into certain establishments that are ‘gay friendly,’ that doesn’t mean that they’re Black gay friendly,” Alexander-Tumblin said. So she made a post on Facebook asking what people thought of the idea of creating a Black Pride celebration in New Orleans. Friends and strangers alike responded with enthusiasm. Within days, the post went viral. It was shared over 22,500 times and amassed over 2,000 reactions. Alexander-Tumblin, now the founder and executive director of New Orleans Black Pride, said the response was overwhelming. In a separate Facebook post a few weeks later, she wrote back to the eager crowd: “Hey, everyone I’m trying to respond to everyone but it’s so many,” she wrote, “please be patient and follow my IG page … to get updates for Pride Nola.” In July 2021, only a couple months after testing the waters on social media, Alexander-Tumblin and her wife put on six parties that coincided with that year’s Essence Festival, establishing the inaugural New Orleans Black Pride weekend. “Tons of people from all over came down on our first year,” she told Verite News. “It was so overwhelming. I was like, ‘Wow, people really showed up.’” In the three years since the initial weekend of events, Alexander-Tumblin has grown New Orleans Black Pride into an organization that does more than just throw parties. The organization, which became an incorporated nonprofit last fall, now offers a full array of events for Black LGBTQIA+ people, including a community festival and a day of educational workshops and panels. This year, New Orleans Black Pride will kick off on Thursday (June 6), with events continuing through Sunday. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community in New Orleans said this type of alternative to longstanding, mostly-white Pride events is necessary to combat the discrimination and exclusion that still exists within the queer community. “I do think that Black Pride is absolutely necessary for creating that safe space because there is so much racism still within the larger LGBTQIA+ community,” said Kyle DeVries, president of the board of directors of the New Orleans Pride Center, which opened in April. “That is, unfortunately, still a huge problem with all white people, and white people play a large role in the LGBTQIA+ community.” On Friday, New Orleans Black Pride will host a summit featuring workshops and panels about a range of topics such as the trans experience, living as a masculine-of-center lesbian and sexual health. The summit, along with a separate youth event, are new this year. Alexander-Tumblin said the expansion of the festival was made possible by the group’s new nonprofit status, which allowed it to accept grants and tax-deductible donations. The central event of the weekend, though, is the community festival happening at Louis Armstrong Park on Saturday. Several local musicians will perform throughout the day leading up to the headlining performance from rapper Saucy Santana. There will also be local vendors like the NOLA Chuck Wagon, and organizations including Planned Parenthood, Louisiana Fair Housing and Crescent Care will table at the park. Alternative R&B singer and rapper Owen H. Dunne, whose stage name is OHD (pronounced “odd”) is one of the local acts performing at the community festival. “I’m so excited to have a bunch of Black gays to be there jamming out, to be the best audience,” they gushed. “Like, I wrote this stuff for y’all.” To cap off the weekend, New Orleans Black Pride will host four events on Sunday: a gospel brunch, an all-day white party, a pool party and a youth event where attendees have the chance to win tickets to Megan Thee Stallion’s June 10 concert at Smoothie King Arena. Alexander-Tumblin said that it’s especially important for queer people in Louisiana to celebrate their identities and sexualities at a time of unprecedented legislative attacks on the community. Gov. Jeff Landry has already signed a bill into law banning transgender people from using public restrooms and domestic violence shelters or being held in jails and prisons that match their gender identity. And he’s poised to sign two other bills into law that will curtail the rights of trans students and school employees. “It’s super important that we not allow those types of things to stop us from celebrating,” she said. “It’s important to continue to be in community during these times and let them know that we’re still going to push forward.” Related Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. [END] --- [1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2024/06/05/new-orleans-black-pride-saucy-santana-armstrong-park/ Published and (C) by Verite News New Orleans Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 US. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/veritenews/