Culture & Community | LGBTQ | Pride Month | Arts & Culture | APNH | Arts & Anti-racism | Pride
Top: Tim Mack, organizer of Black Pride, celebrating a successful day! Bottom: Gand Prize winners in Hand Performance, Yemz 007 and Runway Walk, Corey Boston Mother of Mulan. Linda-Cristal Young Photos.
The fans started flying early in the night, and never completely stopped. Kings and queens strutted, vogued, and dropped dramatically to the floor like it was their official business. And at least once, a giant puppet with a cropped red fro joined the festivities, towering over performers like the queen she was.
High energy, eye-catching fits and a celebration of Black and queer identity stretched from Hamden to New Haven last weekend, as A Place to Nourish Your Health (APNH, formerly AIDS Project New Haven) hosted its fifth annual New Haven Black Pride and second Greater New Haven Visibility Ball. Held across multiple locations, the events became an explosion of LGBTQ+ and Black joy, with performers, vendors, and artists who dazzled all weekend.
“We need to be the change that we want to see,” said Tim Mack, director of prevention services and organizer of Black Pride at APNH. “So it’s very important that we are visible, we are here, we love the community. We are love, personified.”
Top: Getting 10s across the board from the judges and cheers from the audience for their moves.. Bottom: Rhea and Kemar Lanvin battle in OTA Lip Sync. Linda-Cristal Young Photos.
Friday night, that energy began at the Whitneyville Cultural Commons, with a still-nascent visibility ball that has grown out of APNH’s weekly vogue nights at 1302 Chapel St. As people took the floor, a crowd gathered around them, cheering for each performer.
For organizer Jovanni Cabanas, who also performs as Xiomarie LaBeija, the ball is about creating a safe, fun and welcoming affinity space. As a drag mother, they’ve spent years learning the history of the House of LaBeija, and working to emulate the anti-racism and social justice focus of its founding matriarch.
As the doors opened, Cabanas was as excited to see new faces as they were to spot familiar ones. Four years ago, they saw Connecticut ballroom take a serious hit during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is part of the effort to bring it back—and teach future generations about the rich history of their foremothers. They shouted out attendees including Dwayne “Father” Exodus, Barbie, Naomi Hill, Mucha Placer and others.
Top: Battling in front of the judges for Category Open To All Performance - Characters from Super Smash Bros Ultimate video game. Bottom: Prince, judge, walking the runway. Linda-Cristal Young Photos.
“It was very important to make sure that I had that representation here in Connecticut, not just for me, but for my community overall,” they said. “It’s for our babies. It’s for our youth. Making sure that we can do what we need to do to make sure that we’re educating [youth] and putting forward the facts. Not just opinions.”
“It’s very important to see our Black and Brown faces come together and just be in a place that’s filled with love,” they added.
Around them, DJ Edgewood kept the tunes spinning—and piping hot. What brought him out, he said, is a deep love and respect for both ballroom culture and the LGBTQ+ community. Almost a decade ago, it was the queer community that set Edgewood on the path to becoming a DJ. By now it feels natural.
Top: Calista walking the runway. Bottom: Harmony Valkyrie, Grand Prize winner of Sex Siren. Linda-Cristal Young Photos.
He encouraged fellow queer people to seek out community, citing the sudden closure of Hartford’s Tisane as what can happen when a institution focused on LGBTQ+ needs does not have sufficient support.
“When do you get to see something like this in Connecticut?” Edgewood asked. “I know what it’s like being young, entering the club scene, and not feeling represented. And that was one of the major reasons why I started DJing. I wanted to give that representation … we’re in every space in Connecticut.”
In the crowd, Stratford resident Rhea (they gave only their first name) was still debating whether to join in one of the categories. A longtime fan of ballroom, they began voguing a few months ago through APNH. For them, it’s a way to find community beyond the state’s dwindling number of gay bars and the communal drag house to which they belong.
“I feel like I still have to develop and practice my craft before I dive into it,” they said. “Definitely study your craft. Really take your time to analyze it and pay homage, because honestly a lot of people paid with blood and sweat just to express themselves.”
Top: Part of the team at APNH that produced and volunteered to setup the Visibility Ball - Jovanni Cabanas, Tim Mack, James, Atiba, Tiny, Quan. Bottom: Stout, as a headliner for Black Pride, with members of the community as her backup dancers. Linda-Cristal Young Photos.
That continued Saturday, as vendors and attendees alike came out from as far as New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey as well as greater New Haven for Black Pride. As drag performers shared the Chapel Street stage, several vendors celebrated the festival, which started before the Covid-19 pandemic and returned in 2021 in Goffe Street Park.
One of them was Casey Jones, CEO and founder of Kittys Missey. There with an array of printed t-shirts, patches, tote bags and glasses, Jones said the scene dovetailed with her love for inclusivity. After starting her business as a way to teach people about her son’s autism, she has made it her goal to reach as many people from as many walks of life as possible. After selling at Black Pride last year, she was excited to come back.
“Being here for Black Pride is very important because I like to include everybody from all backgrounds,” she said. “I do what I do from my heart.”
Top: Giri Spades performs a medley of Michael Jackson songs with energy and attitude. Bottom: Trell Walters, educator and winner Mr. Connecticut Leather 2023, walked Black Pride with Jordan Lewis, Mr. Connecticut Leather 2024. . Linda-Cristal Young Photos.
The good vibes were also palpable for Wallingford’s Trell Walters, who last year was named Mr. Connecticut Leather and said he was excited to be out at the event with queer family. When he’s not working as an operations manager—that’s his day job—he’s teaching people about kink and leather across Connecticut and into the Northeast. As the founder of the House Of Kintsugi, he said he’d come out Saturday to represent and spend time with his leather family.
That was also true for Terrence Embry, a psychiatry resident at the Yale School of Medicine. An APNH vogue faithful—he comes every Tuesday night he can—there was no way they were going to miss the event. As they chatted, they vowed to return “every year” that they can, even if they move away after their residency.
“I just want to support anything Black, anything queer, anything that’s community-oriented,” they said. “And there’s nothing more Black, more queer and more community-oriented than New Haven Black Pride.”
Top: Sparkle A Diamond rounds out the celebration with a line dance with attendees. Bottom: Artist Jazz encourages attendees to draw on a canvas to be shown at Mental Health CT. Linda-Cristal Young Photos.
For Mack, Black Pride has a mission that is as personal as it is professional. Growing up, he often didn’t see Pride Month events that centered—or even considered—Black people and non-Black people of color. Often, he said, he felt like the needs were and are different for Black queer people, including a number of health disparities that persist today.
Then in the early 2000s, he attended his first Black Pride. He was moved by the event, which took the specific needs of queer Black people into consideration.
While the event is meant to be fun, he said, it’s also part of APNH’s mission to spread awareness around HIV and AIDS, including HIV prevention and the importance of knowing one’s status. In the past six months, APNH has expanded services on a mobile testing bus that visits different sites in New Haven, effectively bringing the clinic to the community instead of the other way around.
“There’s a lot of disparities that are different from our counterparts, so it definitely is important to us to see and be visible,” Mack said. “Black Pride is all about education. It's about breaking those barriers. It’s about providing all that information so that we can stop the stigma behind HIV.”
Lucy Gellman contributed reporting.