Brave Space Alliance will celebrate the intersection of Black and LGBTQ+ identities with a new Juneteenth and Pride variety show designed to center Black queer and trans artistry.
The Black- and trans-led organization will host its first annual “Embodied” Juneteenth x Pride Celebration on June 20 at Thalia Hall, 1807 S. Allport St., featuring a mix of drag performers, ballroom artists, dancers, musicians, poets and burlesque performers from across Chicago.
Community Engagement Strategist Aicha Chehmani said the event is designed to honor both the legacy of Black liberation commemorated by Juneteenth and the role Black queer and transgender people have played in the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
“The experiences that you have when you live at the intersection of being Black and LGBTQ-plus are different than some of your counterparts,” Chehmani said. “It’s really meaningful to be able to celebrate both identities.”
Chehmani said the celebration also recognizes the role art has long played in Black and LGBTQ+ communities as a tool for resistance, self-expression and survival.
He noted that many of the people Brave Space Alliance serves are involved in Chicago’s ballroom scene, drag community, dance, music and other creative disciplines. While the organization’s work often focuses on mutual aid and direct services, he said artistic expression remains deeply intertwined with the communities it supports.
“Art has always been a form of resistance, a way to express, a way to be joyful and a way to honor both the generations going after you and the people who laid the way for you to be on that stage in the first place,” Chehmani said.
That connection between identity and artistic expression inspired the event’s name.
Chehmani said organizers asked performers to consider what it means to fully embody every aspect of who they are, including their Blackness, queerness and gender identity.
“If you were doing a performance that was gay as hell, Black as hell—this is how I embody who I am and the different communities that make up who I am—how would you put that on stage?” Chehmani said. “That’s kind of what that is rooted in.”
The lineup includes established and emerging artists representing a range of performance styles. Performers include Sasha Love, Nexus J, Luv Ami-Stoole, Sunny Halestorm, Fallon, DMB The Etymology, may5a and Trans Voices Cabaret, among others.
Several Brave Space Alliance staff members will also take the stage. CEO Nikki Patin and People and Culture Manager Dywaine Betts will perform spoken-word poetry, while Youth Outreach Coordinator Jahiem Jones—known in the ballroom community as Prince Hiem Gorgeous Gucci—will perform a dance number.
Chehmani said the event arrives at a moment when Black, LGBTQ+ and especially transgender communities continue to face heightened political attacks and efforts to restrict their visibility. In that environment, he said, gathering in celebration is itself a form of resistance.
“Joy is also a form of resistance,” Chehmani said. “The moment that we stop enjoying our lives and the moment we decide to stop making art and stop dancing, that’s when those who are trying to take from us start to win.”
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and programming begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available online.
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