Takoma Park will celebrate Pride and kick off National Pollinator Week this weekend, according to an email from Main Street Takoma.
“We are celebrating our LGBTQ+ community during Takoma Pride Weekend, Saturday and Sunday, June 19-20, 2021,” said Laura Barclay of the Old Takoma Business Association via email. “Join us by dressing up and showing your Pride too! Local businesses are offering specials and making donations to area organizations.”
Several events will be happening throughout the city this weekend, including:
- Saturday, June 19
- Drag Queen Storytime at the Takoma Park Gazebo, 7035 Carroll Avenue from 3:00. The event is free and designed to inspire a love of reading, while teaching lessons of self-acceptance, diversity and respect. For children of all ages.
- Performance by Be Steadwell at the Takoma Streetery on Laurel Ave from 6:30-8:00pm. Enjoy dinner at a local restaurant or just bring a lawn chair and set up on the closed street. Be Steadwell is a musician, filmmaker, storyteller from Washington DC. In her live performances, she utilizes looping, vocal layering and beat boxing to compose her songs on stage. Be’s original music features earnest lyricism, and affirming LGBTQ content. Be’s goal as a musician is to make other black girls, queers, introverts and generally marginalized weirdos feel seen and loved. In 2020, Be released her newest album, Succulent. During the pandemic, you can find Be on her Patreon channel HERE
- Sunday, June 20
- Show Your Pride Day with Councilmember Evan Glass at the rainbow crosswalk at The Streetery on Laurel Ave. Take a selfie, post it and show your #TakomaPride #MoCoPride. Main Street Takoma will pop at The Streetery on Laurel Avenue with free mugs, tattoos and pins, while supplies last.
- Georgie’s Barber will hostFree Glitter Tattoos for kids of all ages by artist Jolie Faces on the Takoma Streetery on Laurel Avenue on Sunday, June 20th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- PFLAG will pop up and join the festivities – time TBD.
Several Main Street Takoma businesses will offer specials:
- Amano: Celebrate Pride all month at Amano! When you bring in a contribution of $25 or more, in the form of a check made out to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), you will receive a free HRC lapel pin. While supplies last. All proceeds go to HRC.
- Busboys and Poets: Busboys and Poets has special 2021 Peace-Love-Pride T-shirts available for $20.
- Cielo Rojo: Rainbow Margarita flight available all month for PRIDE! Your choice of 4 Margarita flavors (dine-in only). Proceeds will be donated to The Trevor Project. Find Pride T-Shirts and stickers available.
- CYCLED: LIVE RIDE WITH PRIDE class in the CYCLED! App Saturday, June 19 at 12 p.m. Also, check out the special JUNETEENTH RIDE commemorating the ending of slavery in the US on June 19th.
- Fair Days Play: Find rainbow windmill spinners, rainbow furry squishy balls, rainbow popper fidget toys, rainbow fairy wings, rainbow sticker books, and just general colorful items to celebrate throughout the month as we celebrate PRIDE.
- Fullfillery: 10% off all weekend to celebrate PRIDE.
- Georgie’s Barber: Free Glitter Tattoos for kids of all ages by artist, Jolie Faces.
- Main Street Pearl: Join us as we celebrate and support LGBTQ+ youth all weekend long! We’ll have $4 True Colours Cava pours, $5 Pride Edition bubble tea featuring rainbow boba, and Pearl Pride stickers and pins with proceeds going to SMYAL. Outdoors games, tastings, and… of course, lots of bubbles.
- Main Street Takoma: You show us your PRIDE and will give you free PRIDE mugs, tattoos, and pins! Location: Takoma Streetery on Sunday, June 20th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. while supplies last.
- Old Takoma Ace: In honor of PRIDE, they’re giving back during a week-long round-up fundraiser. Shop in-store and opt to round up your change to benefit Whitman-Walker Health, a health clinic specializing in LGBTQ+ and HIV health care.
- Park Florist: Brighten your day with a special PRIDE bouquet for June! Free pride boutonnieres to those who stop by the shop on Saturday, June 19th, while supplies last.
- Rhizome: Queering Sound 2021 – The 21st annual staging of performance / sound + digital arts / spoken word / visual art focusing on LGBTQI+ / post-gender-identified / supportive allies + queer artisans. (NOTE: runs through June 13th, with performance events on the 6th and the 13th.)
- Seoul Food will offer vegan-friendly Rainbow Soba to celebrate PRIDE weekend.
- The Still Point: Dedicating a portion of proceeds during the entire month of June to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MJPII). MPJI protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people—by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting their collective power.
- Takoma Beverage Co: Special edition Pride ANXO ciders plus be sure to grab one of Bev Co’s new PRIDE T-shirts and stickers.
- Takoma Park Farmers Market: We’ve got rainbows of vegetables at the market and we’ll be passing out free shopping bags to the first 25 people that come to the market dressed to show their PRIDE. The market is Sunday, June 20th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- Willow Street Yoga: Two PRIDE Workshops
- Celebrating our Truest Selves: a Pride Yoga Workshop with Joe Miller and Lori Wilen on Sunday, 6/20, 1:30-2:45 pm (in-person). Life is a journey where truth is revealed through time, experience, and inquiry (the fundamental yogic invitation). Enculturation and expectations, our “shoulds” and stories, tend to obscure these truths in painful, if growth-filled ways. Come celebrate the courage to embrace the full spectrum of self… to recognize the joy and beauty in our full selves. When we can create this space for ourselves, we create it for each other. Join Lori Wilen and Joe Miller in a playful, all-inclusive, FREE practice that celebrates our own unique creative expression. Say YES to the full spectrum of life and to the possibility of radical inclusivity. Registration link
- Willow Street Yoga Workshop: Exploring our Identities with Lori and M (June 27) booking link This one is a benefit for the Trans Yoga Project
Additionally, Takoma Park Mobilization’s TALLE (Takoma Alliance for Local Living Economy) will kick off National Pollinator Week with an event at the Gazebo on Sunday, June 20 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. “There will be music, youth dance class, puppet show, reading by TP’s poet laureate, organizational tabling, gardening demo, seed give away, and a few words by delegate Lorig Charkoudian. The event will start at 10 a.m. and finish at 1 p.m.”
A full event schedule can be found on Main Street Takoma’s website.
Graphic courtesy Main Street Takoma