One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival Concludes Pride Month with Day of Art

The City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division concluded its One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival with a full day of art at the West Hollywood City Council Chambers. It was a WeHo Arts schedule filled with fun and free events that featured a photo exhibit, cabaret, poetry and film on the closing day of the festival on June 30.

The event began at 1:30pm with the Let Love Flourish and Everyone Deserves (A) Love (Poem) Queer Poetry Pop-Up, where poets sat in front of their vintage typewriters to create custom poems to those who wished to walk away from the event with something personal.

There was the launch of “Crush: First Love, New Talent,” an LGBTQ comic anthology about first queer love from Prism Comics, presented as part of WeHo Reads. There was also a reading from the book and a book-signing.

There was a QueerWise writing collective and spoken word performance group led by Michael Kearns, Hollywood’s first openly HIV-positive actor.

The Everyone Deserves (A) Love (Poem) Queer Poetry Pop-Up read highlighted poems that were written during the course of One City One Pride in the month of June through the interactive poetry pop-ups that were available at numerous Pride events.

There was a panel discussion on the “Where Love is Illegal” exhibit currently on display at the West Hollywood library, which focuses on how being LGBTQ is still illegal in 70 countries. Attendees had the opportunity to see powerful images from award-winning photographer Robin Hammond’s project documenting images and stories from people in those countries. The panel included trans leader Rikki Nathanson and the audience learned about OutRight Action International’s work for human rights and LGBTQ freedom, safety, equality and dignity everywhere.

One City One Pride LGBT Arts Festival ended with a screening of the new film “¡Gaytino! Made in America” by Dan Guerrero. From Mariachi to Merman, from Sondheim to Cesar Chavez; decades of Mexican-American/Chicano and LGBTQ history intersect from a personal perspective in story and song. Dan Guerrero presented this first public screening of a new film of his acclaimed solo play after critically acclaimed performances nationwide.

The One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival is organized by the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division with the participation of the City’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory Board, Transgender Advisory Board, Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission, and community partners.