Pride hits all corners of the South Side this weekend

You don’t have to go to the North Side to show your Pride.

On Friday, Pride South Side — a new coalition working to “build sustainable spaces for queer youth of color on the South Side” — kicks off Pride weekend in Chicago with a film screening at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Woodlawn featuring “performances highlighting black femme, trans, non-binary leads.”

Pride South Side will host another seven events throughout the weekend at six different venues across five neighborhoods, including an all-day music festival at The DuSable Museum of African American History on Saturday followed by an after-party at The Promontory in Hyde Park.

Also on Saturday, the 23rd annual Chicago Dyke March takes place in Little Village. The march starts at 2:30 p.m. at Little Village Academy and ends with a rally at Piotrowski Park.

According to the event’s Facebook page, the march will “center” the voices of people of color and “support our collective struggles against oppressive systems . . . led by white-centered Western nations.”

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The march made headlines in 2017 after organizers kicked out three participants who tried to drown out chants in support of Palestinian rights while flying rainbow flags featuring the Star of David. The move was widely criticized as being anti-Semitic; others, including Jewish Voice for Peace, defended the organizers and confirmed their support for the march.

Wrapping up the weekend on Sunday is a “queer family BBQ” and dance party at Ping Tom Park in Chinatown hosted by TRQPiTECA, a Chicago-based artist duo and production company.

The cookout starts at 11 a.m. and the music goes until 10 p.m. across two stages featuring a dozen DJs and performers.

Organizers said the party aims to explore “alternatives to mainstream notions of ‘Pride’ via artists representing Chicago’s queer undergrounds and rooted in house and techno music.”

Natalie Murillo, a DJ from Little Village and one-half of TRQPiTECA, said hosting Pride events on the South Side is vital for the LQBTQ community.

“I was raised on the South Side and whenever I go up to Boystown I feel like I don’t belong, and I know a lot of people feel that way, too,” she said.

Carlos Ballesteros is a corps member in Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of Chicago’s South and West sides.