Hackney Pride 365 Festival launches
The rainbow flag will fly for the first time ever over Hackney Town Hall next month as the Council launches the Hackney Pride 365 festival to celebrate the borough’s historic, diverse and boundary-breaking LGBTQI+ community.
The festival will run all year round, with community-led events that include everything from gardening clubs to club nights at some of Hackney’s most well-loved venues and outdoor spaces.
Expect a summer gala, family picnic, fashion show, film screenings, history walks, business network, with many more grassroots events expected to be announced over the coming year as part of the festival.
Hackney is a creative, radical, and most of all diverse place with a history of tolerance that has fostered community cohesion where people from all walks of life, of different genders, sexualities and backgrounds can come together.
The Hackney Pride 365 festival aims to celebrate that tolerance and diversity every single day of the year, remembering past, often hard-won victories as well as celebrating the range of communities who live in our borough today.
As well as celebrations in the borough, Hackney will also be taking part in the Pride in London parade on Saturday, 8 July, with 150 people – the borough’s biggest contingent ever – marching in solidarity to support equality and rights for LGBTQI+ people in Hackney and across the globe.
Council staff, local LGBTQI+ businesses, charities, community and youth groups will walk alongside Hackney’s float for this year – a Council bin lorry – complete with rainbow flag touting waste operatives, whose message will be: don’t trash love.
As well as events, a key objective of this year’s festival will be to ask the community to help address a gap in Hackney Museum’s collection of records, artefacts and first person narratives that capture the borough’s fascinating and not-to-be forgotten LGBTQI+ history. This has project has already begun with 10 residents trained to collect oral histories, and first person narratives already collected.
The festival also aims to be a call to action, bringing together the local community to inspire new collaborations in future years. The events programmed so far, were developed from over 100 suggestions submitted by residents and activists who attended a launch event for LGBT History Month in February this year.
People with ideas about events, or who would like to host something, or start a project as part of Hackney Pride 365, can e-mail: tara.hudson@hackney.gov.uk; or call: 020 8356 3261.
To help Hackney Museum build its LBGTQI+ history collection, people can donate personal records and artefacts, or share memories via the museum’s Historypin page. For more info, visit: www.hackney.gov.uk/museum-projects
Keep up-to-date, sign up to events, and find out more about Hackney Pride 365 by following: www.facebook.com/hackneypride365; or visit: www.hackney.gov.uk/lgbt.
Events listings:
Hackney Pride 365 Business Lunch
Date: Friday, 16 June
Time: 12.30-2.30pm
Venue: Rays Bar, 95 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB
Type: Business networking
Description: The launch event of a network for Hackney’s LGBTQI+ businesses and social spaces will be hosted by Dan Beaumont of Dalston Superstore, and the Mayor of Hackney, Philip Glanville.
It is hoped that these quarterly lunches and brunches will help generate initiatives to support equality and cohesion in the borough. Businesses will also be asked to help create an LGBTQI+ friendly business accreditation scheme for Hackney.
The launch event is invitation only, as numbers are limited, but those interested in being part of the Hackney Pride 365 business network should e-mail: business@hackney.gov.uk
More info: www.facebook.com/HackneyPride365
Hackney Pride 365 presents ‘Queer Tours of London: Hackney Walks’
Date: Saturday, 24 June & Saturday, 1 July
Time: 2-4pm
Venue: Meet outside Stoke Newington Town Hall, N16 9ES
Type: History walking tour
Description: Transgender nuns on the 55 bus, the grave of a drag king, and gay cabaret during The Blitz… Uncover Hackney’s fascinating LGBTQI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex) history.
Starting outside Stoke Newington Town Hall, Queer Tours of London will take people on a journey, telling the stories of Hackney’s queer history, shedding light on the events, spaces, identities, repression and resistance that form a backdrop to LGBTQI+ lives today.
More info/book: info@queertoursoflondon.com; www.queertoursoflondon.com
Jayne Mansfield film screening and club night
Date: Thursday, 29 June & Friday, 30 June
Time: 8pm (Thurs) & 10pm-1am (Fri)
Venue: Fontaine’s, 176 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7UY
Type: Film screening and club night
Description: Fontaine’s bar in Stoke Newington presents hosts Lobotomy Room’s screening of ‘The Wild Wild World of Jayne Mansfield’ on the 50th anniversary of the Hollywood movie star’s death.
Jayne, an ethereal beauty and queer icon, will be lovingly remembered, with fans encouraged to dress up as the famous 50s blonde bombshell. The event will be followed by a Mansfield-inspired club night the next evening.
More info: www.fontaines.bar
The Glory Summer Gala featuring 'Liza with a Z'
Date: Friday, 7 July
Time: 8pm-2am
Venue: Stoke Newington Town Hall, N16 9ES
Type: Gala with alt cabaret show and DJs
Description: The Glory, one of London’s leading LGBTQI venues, is excited to announce its first ever summer gala, held in the beautifully restored Art Deco ballroom of Stoke Newington Town Hall.
It will feature a re-enactment of Liza Minnelli’s 1972 Emmy award-winning TV show 'Liza with a Z' with a cast of 50 including the stars of drag queen and king contests 'Lipsync1000', 'Man Up' plus other favourite Glory performers.
Developed by the Glory’s Jonny Woo and John Sizzle, this amazing event promises to be stylish, exuberant and charismatic, an incredible homage to Liza, with a contemporary Glory twist.
The event will also be a chance to celebrate over two years of The Glory’s residency in Hackney, one of London’s most progressive boroughs in its support of its LGBTQI community.
More info/book: www.theglory.co; www.facebook.com/TheGloryLondon/
Pride in London festival
Date: Saturday, 8 July
Time: All day
Venue: Central London
Type: Parade
Description: Love happens here. That is the message of this year’s Pride in London parade. The Council aims to represent the borough with its biggest ever contingent of 150 marchers including staff, youth and community groups, charities and local LGBTQI+ businesses. Hackney’s parade entry promises to be bigger and better than ever, and will be led, for the first time in Pride in London history, by a bin lorry – so don’t trash love.
More info: http://prideinlondon.org/
CREATE8: Fashion in a Hackney manner
Date: Saturday, 29 July
Time: 8am-2am
Venue: Hackney Town Hall, Mare Street, E8 1EA
Type: Indoor market, workshops, talks, fashion show, club night
Description: Cutting edge nightclub VFDalston will be curating a fashion-themed takeover of the newly restored Hackney Town Hall.
CREATE8 will be a day and night of events celebrating Hackney’s world-class fashion community and raising money for local LGBTQI+ charities. There will be an indoor market with stalls from local businesses and designers, fashion-focused talks and creative master classes, followed by a gender-carefree fashion show styled by a team of leading creative, and a big old party.
More info/book: www.create8.uk
Moonlight an LGBTQI+ Extravaganza by I'm Empire
Date: Saturday 5 August
Time: 2-4.5pm
Venue: Rio Cinema, Kingsland High Street
Type: Talk and film screening
Description:
Talking about his black, gay experience growing up in Hackney, I’m Empire, a performance artist, is presenting a talk followed by a screening of the Oscar Award Winning Moonlight (15) at the RIO Cinema. The screening will be opened by Mayor of Hackney, Phil Glanville, and will be followed by a performance art piece inspired by vogueing.
More info/book: see the Rio website
Pride in the Park Picnic
Date: Saturday, 26 August
Time: 12noon-6pm
Venue: Haggerston Park, Whiston Road, E2
Type: Family-friendly picnic
Description:
Aimed at LGBTQI+ families, their friends and allies, the day will promote equality, as well as being a great excuse to get together and have fun.
Bring a picnic and chill in the sunshine. There will be food stalls and an ice cream van, plus the chance to meet other families and make friends. Activities for children and young people will include games, sports, crafts, face painting and more. The Council’s fostering and adoption service will also be on hand to give out information on becoming a LGBTQI+ foster carer or adoptive family in Hackney. Free.
More info: www.facebook.com/HackneyPride365
Rainbow Grow gardening club
Date: Every Tuesday
Time: Changes seasonally, contact for details
Venue: Cordwainers Grow, Mare Street, E8
Type: Gardening club
Description: Are you a member of the LGBTQI+ community and interested in growing edible plants, while making new friends and working outdoors? Come along to Rainbow Grow, the community gardening group where diversity thrives.
More info: rainbowgrowk2g@gmail.com; www.facebook.com/K2GCIC
