Dear Friends,

As we dive into summer, the Boston Pride Committee would like to send a tremendous thank you to everyone who participated in our 40th Anniversary Pride Week. We hope that you got a chance to attend some of our events leading up to, and including, Pride Weekend. Despite the downpour on Saturday, the smiling, cheering, and dancing in the streets was a true tribute to our community spirit!

The amount of time we spend planning the Parade, Festival and Sunday Block Parties is enormous, but we are also very proud of the wide range of other events that appear on our calendar. Some we produce ourselves and others we co-present with fellow community institutions like Queer Women of Color & Friends, the LGBT Aging Project, and Club Café, to name a few. We are grateful for these lasting partnerships and look forward to making new ones.

This year, in particular, we were excited to offer the Club Sizzle dance party for LGBT youth, an event we co-hosted with Delta Phi Upsilon, and that we’ll be adding permanently to our Pride Week roster. We were also inspired by our inaugural theme-based Pride Rally. While potential rain turned the event into something more resembling a panel discussion, the Stuart Street Playhouse was alive with discussion about key issues facing our community. Moving forward, we are committed to providing a forum for ongoing dialogue about the enduring importance of the Pride Movement.

While Pride Week itself is over, we will continue the commemoration of our 40th Anniversary with more events and activities throughout 2010, and we hope to see you around town. Stay tuned for the launch of a new and snazzy Pride website, some exciting special events (including VIP tickets to Margaret Cho!), and the unveiling of a re-organized Pride Committee with fun and easy ways for everyone to get involved. Of course, we’re not going to change everything. This fall also brings the return of our online community vote for your 2011 Pride Theme and Marshals, so get your nominations ready!

While we all know that Pride is not just a week in June, we’re here to make sure everyone remembers that! We cap off four decades of LGBT activism and progress with the hope that another 40 years won’t pass before we achieve true and full equality. Regardless, we will be here to serve and celebrate you.

All the best for a wonderful summer,

Keri A. Aulita

Deputy Director

Boston Pride Committee

Hello, all! Social Media Coordinator Liz here.  Just a quick check-in to let you know of a few updates to our calendar, and inquire as to how much everyone is loving Boston Pride Week 2010! I’ve also got photo and video of some of the events, just in case you’ve missed them!

UPDATES:
1. !!IMPORTANT LOCATION CHANGE!!

Potential rain won’t stop us from RALLYING. But it will make us do it
indoors!

The Riots to Rights Rally on Thursday, June 10 is moving to the Stuart
Sreet Playhouse so that if the skies open, the rain won’t interfere with
our important community dialogue.

Stuart Street Playhouse
200 Stuart Street, Boston

6pm Community Mingle | 7pm Rally | 8pm Film

Visit our website for more information: http://www.bostonpride.org/

2. 2010 Pride “Mini” Film Series

Let’s go to the movies! The LGBT Film Fest brings you the Pride Mini-Film
Festival. Three great films are on deck and promise to entertain and
enlighten.

Wednesday Night Film
“Auntie Mame” 7pm Cocktails | 8pm screening | Stuart Street Playhouse

Thursday Night Film
As part of Boston Pride’s “Riots to Rights Rally” there will be a
screening of “Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride” at the Stuart Street
Playhouse, 200 Stuart Street, Boston.
6pm Community Mingle | 7pm Rally | 8pm Film (Free)

Friday Night Film
“I Am Love”
8pm | MFA, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston

Now that we’re all updated, on to the fun stuff!

Flag Raising at City Hall:

Pride Day @ Faneuil Hall

2nd Annual King & Queen of Boston Pride Pageant (Q&A with one of the contestants!)

And that’s that!

Up tonight (Wednesday, June 9): our ever-popular PRIDE IDOL finals!  Join us at Club Cafe for all the fun!

Don’t forget to visit our website for all the updates, events, and our full calendar so you don’t miss a thing! Also, don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

It’s finally here!  Boston Pride Week kicked off this Friday, June 4th at noon, when the Pride Committee came together to raise the rainbow flag over Boston’s City Hall Plaza!

From there, our 10-day celebration of this year’s theme, Riots to Rights, charges ahead!  We have a lot planned, so we hope you can keep up!

Kristine W

God-Des and She

Boston Pride is excited to announce this year’s City Hall Plaza Main Stage line-up featuring Cece Peniston, Kristine W, and God-Des & She.  While the Parade enters the Plaza, browse vendors, see all the marchers, and take in some entertainment!

12:05pm – Kit Yan
12:40pm – Sariah
1:00pm – Booty Vortex
1:35pm – Mrs DANVERS
2:10pm – God-Des & She
2:45pm – Odaiko New England
3:10pm – All The Kings Men
3:35pm – MEandJOANCOLLINS
4:05pm – Nemes
4:35pm – TraniWreck / TruthSerum.org
5:00pm – Cece Peniston
5:30pm – Kristine W

CeCe Peniston

For more information on these fabulous performers, please visit our website.  We look forward to seeing you alldown at City Hall Plaza Festival and Boston Pride Parade on June 12th to celebrate our 40th Anniversary!

OPTIONZ: 4th Annual Multicultural Pride Party from Queer Women of Color and Friends.

Proudly Sponsored by the Boston Pride Committee

OPTIONZ is an annual diversity-conscious, trans-inclusive, bi-friendly, open-to-all Pride party brought to you by Queer Women of Color and Friends (QWOC+ Boston) in conjunction with the Boston Pride Committee and co-hosted by MadFemmePride each year.

It’s a different kind of pride party for queer women of ALL colors, friends & allies, and a unique social space that we’ve created year after year for ourselves during Boston Pride week. The OPTIONZ celebration is for an ENTIRE spectrum of people from all parts of New England (and beyond). So get AMPED and READY to join us for another bad-ass purple pride celebration!

Thursday June 10th

Underbar/Caprice Lounge
275 Tremont Street
Boston MA 02116
http://qwocpride.eventbrite.com/

9PM-10PM Social-Networking and Speed-Friending with QWOC+ and MFP
10PM-2AM Boston’s International DJ Pup Dawg, spins the best of World, Reggae, R&B, Hip-Hop, Latin, and Top 40

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118612918157430&ref=ts
Ticketing: http://qwocpride.eventbrite.com/

*All proceeds will be used to put on QWOC Week (Aug 1st-8th, 2010)*
*This event is Open to ALL.*

This year, Boston Pride is proud to be organizing a youth-centered event, with help from all kinds of organizations.

Delta Phi Upsilon, a fraternity for gay men of color, has been working diligently to prepare and plan the event (details coming soon!).  They approached us, came in with a plan, and were ready to go from day one!  Boston Pride is happy to partner with Delta Phi and other organizations to bring a youth event to our sometimes-more-mature event line up.  It’s important to us to be aware of our teen and youth contingent, and we know we can’t always do it alone.  Thanks, Delta Phi Upsilon!

Darrel Tabb has become the liaison between the brothers and Boston Pride, spearheading the planning, and is happy to be a part of planning Boston Pride events.  And we’re so happy to have him, and all the brothers at Delta Phi Upsilon! In particular, Darrell’s hard work has earned him the title of April Volunteer of the Month.

Darrell says he loves being a part of Pride, getting to know all of us on the committee, and planning such an important new event.  He loves fishing and is also on the lookout for a new job as a cook – so if you know of a place hiring, let him know!  

For more information about Delta Phi Upsilon and their contributions to the community, visit their website.

Stay tuned for more information on the youth event!  It’s sure to be a great hit!

For more information about volunteering with Boston Pride, visit our website – you could be the next Volunteer of the Month!

Thursday, April 22 is Earth Day!

You may ask yourself, what does Earth Day mean to Boston Pride?

A LOT!

In 2008, Boston Pride was the first Pride to initiate a transversal effort to reduce its carbon footprint and become a greener event. The results were outstanding, with Parade and Festival trash volume cut in half, and Block Parties trash cut by two thirds! Boston Pride also invested in equipment to be reused year after year, and best practices were applied to the Pride Committee’s day to day activities.

In 2009, Boston Pride strengthened its Green Initiative by launching four specific efforts aimed at systematizing Boston Pride’s approach at being greener.  We also managed to reduce our waste by another 50%, and last year’s events saw over 80% of our waste being recycled!

In 2010, Boston Pride aims at developing these four efforts to their full potential, and make the 40th Celebration the greenest Pride ever!

For more information on our Green Initiative, visit our website.  Have questions, or want to help us be even greener?  Email green@bostonpride.org for details!