Founded in 2017 to provide advocacy, education and inspiration for and by the Black LGBTQ+ community, Black, Out, and Proud is preparing for its much-anticipated intersectional arts extravaganza.
Black, Out, and Proud’s 5th annual Heroes Among Us art and fashion Pride showcase opens June 29 at Franklin Park Wells Barn in Columbus.
Columbus, already celebrated for its annual Pride festival, also happens to be a U.S. fashion capitol. It has the third-highest concentration of fashion designers in the country, after New York and Los Angeles.
The city also hosts an incredibly creative and multi-faceted art scene, said Jyll Person-Boyd, a Heroes Among Us organizer. She commends the freedom that Columbus offers its artists.
“Creatives are the backbone of our community,” said Person-Boyd. “Without art, we have nothing.”
Still, Columbus’s Black, LGBTQ+ artists and designers often don’t receive the attention and opportunities they deserve for their work. By exclusively featuring local artists and designers who meet the intersection between being Black and LGBTQ+, the showcase highlights “their contributions to the community and their role as heroes within the […] movement.”
Along with visual art and fashion, the show also features poetry and music. The aim is to uplift all Black, LGBTQ+ artistic endeavors and give voice to the silenced.
“Because of where we are as a political climate, as a community of people, it’s so important for [us] to be heard,” said Person-Boyd.
Black, Out, and Proud especially takes an interest in artists who are new to showcasing their work, providing a welcoming, safe space and encouraging them to talk about their work in a series of artist talks in June before the showcase.
Art can be very personal, coming from a place of vulnerability, yet sharing it with the world is very public.
Black, Out, and Proud wants their featured artists to present their work however they feel safest, to a community that is inclusive.
“We are here, we are queer, and this is what we have to contribute,” said Person-Boyd.
The show has always hit its goal on ticket sales. In the future, Black, Out, and Proud hopes to broaden its audience and find ways to collaborate with Columbus Fashion Week.
But right now, it’s showtime.
For Person-Boyd, the most rewarding part of her work is the day of the show–when artists come out of their shells and see the evolution of their work as well as the impact it makes on the public. Without art communicating the oppression undergone by marginalized communities, there will be no liberation. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- The 5th Annual Heroes Among Us Art & Fashion Pride Showcase will be held on June 29th from 5pm – 8pm at the Wells Barn in Franklin Park in Columbus.
- Learn more about Black, Out, and Proud by visiting their website.
- To view The Buckeye Flame’s 2024 Ohio LGBTQ+ Pride Guide, click here.
