Gay Men’s Chorus L.A. Stage Free Queen Concert at WeHo’s Plummer Park

Members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles staged a live concert at West Hollywood’s Plummer Park this past weekend dedicated to Queen. The free concert event was part of the City’s Weho Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival which will continue to run until June 30th. The event took place during the City’s inaugural Q Con by Prism Comics, a queer comic book convention at WeHo’s Fiesta Hall.

The Gay Men’s Chorus Los Angeles sang a selection of iconic songs from Queen and Freddie Mercury on Saturday, June 18 at 4p.m. The Queen concert included selections like We Are the Champions, Somebody to Love and We Will Rock You, which are among the best pop/rock anthems ever written. GMCLA Music Director & Conductor Ernest H. Harrison will conduct the Chorus.

The concert was well attended. Community members brought sheets and gathered at Plummer Park’s Great Lawn. Most of them lined along the shaded areas during a warm Sunday afternoon.

This project was supported by a grant from the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division. More info at weho.org/pride and WeHo Arts.

@GMCLA gave a free live concert at @wehocity's Plummer Park this past weekend dedicated to Queen. The performance was part of the City's #WehoPride LGBTQ Arts Festival @WeHoArts – Video by @mikepingel – #wehotimes #wehonews #weho #westhollywood #gmcla #wehocity #wehoarts #queen pic.twitter.com/ZZuS5nZ4LJ

— WEHO TIMES (@WEHO_TIMES) June 20, 2022

Some remaining highlights to look for during the 40-day festival include:

• QUEER DIASPORAS: Lavender City of Dreams presented by Rubén Esparza and Queer Biennial – May 27, 2022 through August 19, 2022. Free. Online exhibition with some in-person events at ONE Gallery. Touching on issues of identity, activism, futurity, and beauty where queerness is the thread that weaves through all these personal – yet universal -perspectives. Realized in imagined (no limits) digital galleries, spaces, and textures as the backdrop, along with up-to-the-minute live performances on May 28, June 3, and June 4, 2022. View the exhibition beginning May 27, 2022 and find in-person event info at www.lavendercity.art
• Write Out Proud LGBTQ writing workshops – Wednesdays and Saturdays in June. Free. When we Write Out Proud, we share the love of who we are for the world to see, so the world can become better at loving us back. We write fun and flirty stories of our magical LGBTQ selves influenced by our personal ideas of gender, sexuality, and sexual orientation. All are welcome, both new and seasoned writers. This no-cost four session writing workshop will take place virtually on Zoom. There are two workshop groups, each with the same writing prompts and plans. One group meets on Wednesday evenings in June from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., the other group meets on Saturday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. culminating on Wednesday evening June 29, 2022 with an online reading of writings for those who care to participate. For more info go to writeoutproud.com. To sign up for this free workshop email info@writeoutproud.com.

More detailed information and a full list of the City of West Hollywood’s LGBTQ Arts Festival 2022 programming is available at pride.weho.org.

In addition, archived online programs from 2020 and 2021 are available to view. Among these is a collection of short films which tell the deep LGBTQ history of the City of West Hollywood called the Stuart Timmons West Hollywood LGBTQ History Tour. Acclaimed author/historian Stuart Timmons (author The Trouble With Harry Hay, co-author of GAY L.A., former executive director of the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives) was in the process of writing his West Hollywood LGBTQ History Tour as the final in a trio of walking tours (Downtown Los Angeles and Silverlake are the other two) when he suffered a debilitating stroke in 2008. The tour remained incomplete until the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division funded its completion as part of the City’s 2015 LGBTQ Arts Festival, allowing Timmons and a small team to help finish his research, bringing it to completion as both a self-guided walking tour and a special in-person event featuring performance artists as tour guides. This fun and informative tour returned for two more years, and in 2021, was recorded as a collection of short films that can be viewed on the City’s WeHo Arts YouTube channel.

The City of West Hollywood’s #WeHoPride LGBTQ Arts Festival is organized by the City’s Arts Division. The City of West Hollywood is committed to providing accessible arts programming for residents and visitors. The City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division delivers a broad array of arts programs including: Art on the Outside (temporary public art), Urban Art Program (permanent public art), Summer Sounds, Winter Sounds, the WeHo Reads literary series, Free Theatre in the Parks, Arts Grants for Nonprofit Arts Organizations, Library Exhibits and Programming, the City Poet Laureate Program, Human Rights Speakers Series and the #WeHoPride LGBTQ Arts Festival. For additional information, please visit www.weho.org/arts.

For more information about the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival, please contact the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Coordinator, Mike Che, at (323) 848-6377 or at mche@weho.org or visit www.weho.org/pride.