In the heart of the nation’s capital, Memorial Day weekend extends far beyond cookouts and family kickbacks due in no small part to DC Black Pride (DCBP), an annual convening rooted in extravaganza, queer excellence and cultural celebration for LGBTQ+ members across the Black diaspora.
With the kickoff set for May 23 at the Capitol Hilton Hotel in Northwest, the fun-filled weekend promises a free, all access pass to the culture and catalyst of the Black Pride Movement, featuring star-studded events, informative programs and workshops, and an unwavering proclamation in the wake of an anti-LGBTQ+ Trump administration.
“The country shifted. We saw the policies and the attacks that our community was facing, so very quickly, we said we need to make a statement that we are here, we are free…We’re not going to go into the closet,” said Kenya Hutton, president and CEO of the Center for Black Equity.
As the organizer and producer of DC Black Pride, the Center for Black Equity lauded that statement in this year’s theme, “Black Pride is Freedom.”
“This is our right to live free, live openly, live unapologetically,” Hutton told The Informer. “The way things are going, they’re trying to take away our freedom…our rights, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
The 34th Annual DC Black Pride event is just as pertinent as its fruition in 1991, when native Washingtonians Welmore Cook, Theodore Kirkland and Ernest Hopkins gathered a crowd of approximately 800 to Banneker Field to restore a Memorial Day tradition where Black queer stories could be championed and celebrated.
Coupled with the goal to raise awareness for the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, the celebration that was once coined the Black Gay and Lesbian Pride Event has since flourished into a globally recognized sanctuary for queer culture–even serving as a blueprint for many of the more than 50 Black pride celebrations that currently exist throughout the world.
Now, three decades later, and under the guise of rescinded protections for gender identity, sexual orientation, and LGBTQ+ education, more than 500,000 individuals gather annually in continuance of the Black Pride Movement.
“[DC Black Pride] is a way to celebrate who I am with no fear, no discrimination. It feels like a safe space,” said Olivier Pierre, a six-time attendee who lives in South Florida. “The fun is there…but if people take the time to actually look into what’s going on during the whole weekend, it’s not just a party, it’s more than that.”
DC Black Pride Champions the Realities of the ‘Black Queer Experience’
DC Black Pride 2025, held from May 23-26, features a plethora of opportunities to celebrate the chronicles of queer representation, while championing its realities for communities of color.
In addition to mixing and mingling, a slew of workshops tackle prevalent topics emulating a vision for growth and prosperity within Black and Brown queer communities. Among the weekend’s hot topics include mental health awareness, identity affirmation, guidance on parenting a queer child, as well as healthcare services that extend beyond HIV/AIDS prevention.
“It’s important [to reinforce] that to…our generation to come, letting them know and letting them have that self-worth, that self-emphasis, to continue fighting,” Hutton explained.
Some events are driven in a mission of empowerment, including this year’s “What is Your Queer Black Hair Story?”, a reimagined take on a Black Hair showcase curated in October 2023 by D.C. visual artist Marvin Bowser of Marvin Bowser Photography.
After seeing a positive impact from the original concept, Bowser, a queer photographer based in Southeast, recognized an opportunity to offer a “warm hug” to a community that’s particularly leveraged culture and self-identity as a means of liberation.
While the program will continue to center testimonies about having Afrocentric hair in an Eurocentric society, it will also be prefaced with a screening of behind-the-scenes footage from its 2023 muse, as well as clips from previous panels on hair styling and the effects of Black hair on physical and mental health.
“The hair, the clothing…it’s our culture, right? And it’s an expression. Taking the time…to say, ‘I’m beautiful, I’m enough,’” Bowser told The Informer. “This is my love letter to Black people and Black culture. People will not [leave] in the same state they were in when they walked in the room.”
An additional DCBP contribution of Bowser’s includes a panel discussion on his 2018 documentary about the creation of DC Black Pride.
The program, entitled “Do We Need Black Pride?,” strives to empower individuals with the stories of Black queer leadership that defied the status quo in D.C., a nod to the ideals that birthed the Black Pride Movement he considers himself a beneficiary of.
“Particularly in Washington…one of the gayest cities in the country…you get lulled into complacency because you think that everything everybody worked for all these years is permanent. And that was true until it wasn’t,” Bowser pointed out. “So, it’s important that people know the history of what happened, how hard it was. We certainly don’t want to go back there.”
A Push for Black Pride Beyond the Nation’s Capital
For Pierre, who’s originally from Haiti, the diversity touted throughout the weekend is as gratifying as it is instrumental to the experience, making D.C. the prime destination to champion Black pride.
“When you go, you meet people from all over the world. [D.C] finds a way to bring the Black, gay community together, [and] it’s not just Memorial Weekend,” he said.
Hutton told The Informer programs such as the post-weekend Black Pride Leadership Center will gather global pride leaders to celebrate and circulate a shared spirit of unity and resilience. Similarly, the new additions continuing the Black Pride momentum are the Black Queer Film Festival on May 27-29, and the Community Conversation Summit reserved for June 4-6, both to be hosted free of charge at Howard University.
Meanwhile, highly anticipated pre-events such as the Unity Ball and Black Pride Pageant, each slated for May 22, set the tone for DCBP’s broad outreach, which includes hosting diverse musical performances and celebrity appearances – actress Eva Marcille, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” fan-favorite Kerri Colby, and renowned media moguls and LGBTQ+ advocates Monroe Alise and TS Madison – at the opening reception.
“Sometimes it takes someone from the community connecting with a CEO or celebrity in a room…to really be able to see how those people that have louder horns, louder microphones can really echo the messages of those of us that are in the community underground–to really start making a difference,” Hutton explained.
Hutton and Pierre share the hope that attendees will leave with something greater than souvenirs and Instagram-worthy selfies; but a reminder of all that can be accomplished when one’s loud, proud and driven to effect change.
“If you’re looking at history, the impact that not just the Black community, the Black queer community, has had on this country and the world, it’s important that we navigate and make sure we have these spaces,” Hutton told The Informer.
As Black queer culture dons excellence this weekend, despite continued threats of oppression, the beloved DC Black Pride event reflects a simple, but profound truth: with the right coalition and plan of action, nothing is impossible.
“We need to stop having silos, stop letting costs separate people, stop having people on podiums and top stages and have them in rooms where we can really sit down together and talk to each other,” he continued. “We’re really trying to set that stage for that to happen.”
