“Where u from, who u wit?!” Black Pride Festivals as Itinerant Hospitality

Abstract

This article examines the phenomenon of Black Pride festivals. Initially intended as a form of community building during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1990s in select cities, Black Pride is both a celebration of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender + (LGBT+) life and a space for political organizing. The model of Black Pride would be adopted throughout the United States and, internationally, in the United Kingdom and South Africa. While there are no “official” Black Pride festivals in Canada, there is a long-standing history of diasporic travel by Black LGBT+ Torontonians that have sought out these festivals as a site of affirmation of their identities and experiences. Blockorama, a one-day cultural festival that celebrates Black LGBT+ individuals during the Pride Toronto festivities, shares a similar history. Now in its twenty-first year, the story of Blockorama illustrates the challenges of visibility and recognition faced by Black LGBT+ communities within broader LGBT+ communities. As a snapshot from my current ethnographic and archival research on Black Pride, this analysis takes the form of a transnational comparison of the structural and political challenges faced by organizers of these events. Of particular concern is the confluence of anti-Black racism and the homonormative political priorities LGBT+ leaders that have shaped “mainstream” Pride festivals, rendering them increasingly corporate driven. Thus, this article specifically attends to the relationship between the spatial regulation and surveillance of Black LGBT+ bodies when moments of celebration are enacted in spaces that are seen as being “out of place.” Conceptually, these moments of disruption are understood as an “itinerant hospitality” that engenders spaces of conviviality between Black LGBT+ communities and the individuals who cultivate their identities often in transit.

Racially Focused LGBQ Pride Events: The Promotion of Psychological Wellbeing Among Cisgender LGBQ People of Color

“…These results are notable because the existence of racially focused LGBQ Pride events are frequently critiqued for being unnecessary due to the prevalence of general LGBQ Pride events. 49,51 Study results indicate that racially focused LGBQ Pride events provide LGBQ POC with unique socioculturally relevant assets that support their psychological wellbeing.…”

“…LGBQ POC 12 integrity while expanding their capacity to meet the needs of their intended audience. 51,54…”

“…Despite their sociocultural relevance, racially focused LGBQ Pride events are often less funded or supported by non-corporate sponsors, thus limiting their ability to maintain their integrity while expanding their capacity to meet the needs of their intended audience. 51,54 Further research is needed to develop a more robust understanding of how attending racially focused LGBQ Pride events may be uniquely beneficial to LGBQ POC’s mental health. Such research would have significant implications for the creation of innovative structural prevention and intervention efforts aimed at addressing the mental health disparities experienced by LGBQ POC.…”

Gay Pride in the Urban New South: Politics, Neighborhood, and Community in Atlanta and Charlotte

“…Some organizers of the 1991 event also abhorred the neoliberal focus of mainstream pride, which excluded Black people by kowtowing to white capitalist elites and shifting Pride's political roots. 97 Atlanta's first Black Gay Pride was held in 1996, while Charlotte's Black Gay Pride began almost a decade later. In the same year that Black Gay Pride first arrived in Charlotte, 40,000 people attended Atlanta's Black Gay Pride, "Living in our Pride."…”