A decade of Black Gay Pride

DETROIT – Organizers over at the Black Pride Society, formerly known as Detroit Black Gay Pride, knew this year's celebration had to be special. They've spent a year planning it and by all accounts it looks like Hotter Than July is prepared to turn 10 in style. Slated for July 28-31, the schedule has been tweaked, tightened and stuffed full of new and fun events.
"This year we've got more core events that the organization, itself, is putting on," said Hank Millbourne, BPS's board president. "I'm looking forward, as usual, to the picnic, but we're also collaborating with Karibu House on the Komedy Klub, which is new, and we've taken on the film festival and the jazz brunch."
The Karibu House Komedy Club is scheduled for Friday, July 29 at 1515 Broadway, across from the Detroit Opera House. The event will star Dana Alston from Cleveland who wowed the crowds earlier this year at the Triangle Foundation's ComedyFest. The film festival is another totally new event but the Jazz Jam and Brunch, which will take place Sunday at the Rhino in Harmonie Park, is a retooled version of the Men of Color Jazz Bash, a staple that was sorely missed at last year's HTJ.
The Jazz Jam and Brunch is one of several events that BPS has reworked. Also noticeably changed is the annual parade, which has been renamed the Ruth Ellis Pride March in memory of the community's late matriarch. The march/parade, which in its early years kicked off the weekend on Thursday, will now take place in the middle of the weekend's biggest event, Saturday's Pride picnic. The march moved to Saturday for the first time last year, but the early hour kept attendance down. This year, the march will begin at 3 p.m., by which time Palmer Park is sure to be packed.
"I think the march might more well attended because it's in the middle of the day and it's coming right into the most popular event of the year, so it's an opportunity for us to really be high profile and visible with it and maybe to be a little bit more flamboyant than in years past," said Johnny Jenkins, the only founding member of HTJ to remain on the BPS board. "That's my goal for the march, to make it really flamboyant, really gay. Yeah, there's this whole village thing going on behind the scenes, but when you see the parade you think Marti Gras. You don't know there's a whole lot of clubs sponsoring that. They raise money and they're doing all this work in New Orleans throughout the year and it's going right back into their community. That's how I see Hotter Than July."
Another event that looks noticeably different this year is the Genesis Institute, the annual conference that has long been a pet project of Jenkins. This year, instead of a weekday conference, the summit will split up over several evenings.
"Anything that keeps the educational component is important," Jenkins said. "The social, the parties, that will always be the highlight which draws people to us. The key is making sure that when you get to that point of enlightenment there's some awareness that's there that you can tap into as well. It might not happen your first experience at Pride, but as long as it's there to happen during one of your experiences at Pride we should be able to catch you on the educational tip."
Millbourne said the switch in format was a no-brainer.
"The idea was that we looked at the models that other cities have used particularly in terms of the educational component so we're going to try it this year and see how it works," he said. "Also, because of our limited conference space at the hotel, it makes sense to do that."
Yes, that's right, HTJ also has a new host hotel. The Hilton Garden Inn in Harmonie Park will do the honors this year. But even in the midst of all this newness there are, of course, events that are leaving. BPS board member Kimberly Jones has announced that this will be the last year of the Pink Icebreaker, a ladies event that she has produced for the past six years.
"I'm transitioning," she said. "I want to move out of state."
She'll take with her many fond memories are her HTJ parties, though.
"The best thing for me was being the ballerina for the night and just being able to come in and greet the people and be there," she said. "To be in an environment with 300-500 women and just enjoy yourself and being able to be the belle of the ball."
For Jenkins, the old saying is true: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Looking back on the past nine HTJs, Jenkins said things are unfolding just as he planned.
"How it is is how I much pretty much wanted it to be," he said. "On the board I wanted the people doing the work who were actually committed to it. " I've seen great people support this effort so I consider it a privilege just to be here all 10 years to see the people from a June Washington and a Robert Tate and a Curtis Lipscomb support this like they did in the early days and now with the Kim Joneses and people even not on the board, like Lamont Ayers with Men Empowered, now especially with Men of Color not being around. Keeping that type of high caliber people coming through Pride on the administrative level, which nobody ever really sees except for us when we're in that room together. I'm really proud to see that level of activity and then to see it spill over to the point where people have opinions about Pride.
"I consider it our job to entice people to want to kick it up to that next level. Bring them into the process, that's how you build a community and that's how you build Pride. So I'm very proud of the process."