The Hyde Park Art Center on Sunday welcomed the start of Pride Month with its fourth annual Art of Pride event showcasing local LGBTQ+ artists and celebrating the queer community.
“This is a chance for us to express our love and our joy and be proud of it and not hide,” said Gabriel Chalfin-Piney-Gonzalez, the art center’s exhibition and residency manager.
For Chalfin-Piney-Gonzalez, the event is also an opportunity for the community to show solidarity in the face of the Trump administration’s targeting of transgender rights and diversity, equity and inclusion.
“Visibility is something that, especially right now, is not wanted by the current administration,” Chalfin-Piney-Gonzalez said.
Chalfin-Piney-Gonzalez was also among the artists who set up a table for the event’s vendor market for queer creators. The vendors offered a range of items, including handmade prints, flutes, ceramic mirrors, clothing, jewelry and posters.
The event also featured a ballroom vogue dance workshop, interactive printmaking, collage making, live performances and sets by Chicago deejays Duane Powell and CTrl Zora. Wellness services and health screenings were also offered.
Chalfin-Piney-Gonzalez’s table was covered in beeswax candles and ceramic sculptures that they created. They also make instruments and jewelry. Chalfin-Piney-Gonzalez said the event is also a good way to showcase the queer community’s strength in Hyde Park.
“Its a great chance for us to showcase that the queer community is pretty embedded here, and it’s a big part of who I am, and I want to support other queer artists,” Chalfin-Piney-Gonzalez said.
Tiffany Wong, an interdisciplinary artist, was also among the vendors in the market. In 2021 she started More Liberation, an online shop specializing in products promoting social justice and Asian identity.
She said events like Sunday’s artists’ event help show others the power of coming together as a community and makes it easier for people to directly support queer-owned businesses.
“I think its really important to be visible, and it also lets people know they can support queer businesses and to be active in it,” she said.
Wong shared her table with Al Kelly, who makes playful hand-drawn cards and sells them from her online store Kinky Curly Cards. She said the event is also a good way to connect with like-minded people who care about protecting the community.
“Events like this are important for creating community and gathering people together to fight for and dream of a better way in the future,” she said.
Pride celebrations this year come as the federal government rolls back protections on trans rights — including legislative actions targeting access to health care, and access to bathrooms and locker rooms; efforts to remove the ability to get passports aligning with gender identity; and limiting opportunities to play sports or be housed in proper prison facilities, among others.
There are also more than 570 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in various stages and growing concern that the U.S. Supreme Court could revisit marriage equality, which faces legal challenges in six states.
Macy Alexander, who lives in Gage Park, was a first-time attendee. Alexander wanted to be among members of their community to kick off Pride Month, and said it was important to see work from queer and trans creators given the current political climate.
“Especially now, in this era where I feel like the current administration is attacking our vulnerable populations, we have to remind ourselves that we are powerful individuals. The headlines can come off as scary, but we’re a strong community that has endured so much before,” Alexander said.
Contributing: Violet Miller