LGBTQ+ community leader Lee Soulja explains NYC Black Pride celebration
Pride Month is commemorated in June, but a separate festival geared toward Black and Brown queer communities is marking its 25th anniversary this month.
NYC Black Pride, aimed at education and advocacy for the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people of color, offers multicultural events during a weeklong celebration to honor contributions of those who are sometimes overlooked in mainstream gay culture.
People hold a rainbow flag. (Shutterstock/)
“The one thing everyone always seems to ask all the time is, ‘Why are there Black Prides?’ and ‘Why do Black Prides exist?’ And I think that every year, new people come to the table asking the same question,” NYC Black Pride organizer Lee Soulja told the Daily News. “I hope to always present more understanding that Black Pride is not necessarily about a white versus Black thing — it’s a cultural celebration. It’s about uplifting the community.”
Events running from Aug. 17 through 21 include a trans bodybuilding competition and a Coney Island beach party.
Soulja, whose given name is Lee Simmons, has spearheaded NYC Black Pride since 2009 after taking over from the now-defunct People of Color in Crisis nonprofit. In 1997, party promoters and lifestyle curators James Saunders and Fred Piece launched the first celebration as a dance party at the International Toy Center.
The party eventually morphed into a weekend event and then into a weeklong celebration. It eventually moved from June to August and underwent several name changes, like ”Pride in the City” and “Jubilation.”
“It was obviously created out of a growing response of Black Pride in Washington, D.C., Black Pride in Detroit and Black Pride in L.A. Those were three of the cities that initially had Black Prides going before New York stepped in,” Soulja said.
Lee Soulja calls the week "a cultural celebration."
The 56-year-old Bronx-born performing artist, actor and LGBTQ activist said his motivation is to educate people about the history of Black people in the gay rights movement.
“It’s important to understand that people of color, that Black people specifically, have been creating safe spaces at least 100 years before Stonewall,” he said. “So where the world kind of identifies Stonewall as the beginning place or a landmark around the movement, we know that the movement has been happening long before that in our community.
“Every year is a way to kind of educate the community on more things, to talk about the past, to talk about the struggles that we have, and where we are going forward and to also celebrate amazing new people that are accomplishing and doing amazing new things that again we don’t always see or hear about in the newspapers and not really put into that context.”
Soulja, who appeared in an episode of the groundbreaking FX drama “Pose,” said he has moved with the times and has embraced the evolving LGBTQ landscape.
“I wanted it to be more than just a bunch of club parties and club events,” he said. “I really wanted to talk about what, when and where. The history, the culture, the way we celebrate things, the music, we just have to come from the experience of the LGBTQ having the different diverse segments of our community come to a table and and say, What would they like to see a celebration look like?”
