Arts & Entertainment
Ring out Pride Month with a virtual bang, from ‘Pose,’ Revry, and more
Let’s face it: Pride Month without the ability to celebrate in our traditional ways doesn’t feel very much like Pride.
For many of us, the festivals, concerts, parades and parties, where we gather with our friends to proudly proclaim our queerness to the world, are an annual rite of passage; being cheated of it by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is an undeniable disappointment.
Even so, Pride is more than just a party (even if it’s a really fabulous one), and while the usual festivities may be cancelled, the spirit behind them is not. The LGBTQ+ community has risen to the challenge of 2020 with inventive ways to re-channel the Pride Experience for the physically-distanced needs of our time, and although a virtual event can never deliver quite the same visceral thrills as an in-person celebration, it’s worth noting that this year’s proliferation of internet and broadcast events has made Pride accessible to millions of people who might otherwise never have had the opportunity to participate, or to hear the messages of hope and acceptance that queer people in oppressive social environments around the world need to be able to hear.
Chances are good you’ve already experienced one or more of these livestreamed or broadcasted extravaganzas, but if you are still looking to get your Pride on before the month slips away next week, there are still some big ones coming your way.
One of the biggest is sure to be “Live, Work, Pose-A-Thon!” As a part of Pride month, Disney Television Studios and FX are presenting a commercial-free one-hour virtual event, showcasing the cast and producers of “Pose” to raise awareness for GLSEN, Hetrick-Martin Institute, and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund, three notable organizations that work to support LGBTQ+ education, social change for sexual and gender minority people of color, and transgender equality through legal services and policy efforts.
The special will be emceed by Emmy, Grammy, and Tony-award winning actor and activist Billy Porter along with co-star Mj Rodriguez, and unites the voices behind the critically-acclaimed drama series “Pose.” Featured will be music and anecdotes from Porter, Rodriguez, Angel Bismark Curiel, Sandra Bernhard, Dyllón Burnside, Steven Canals, Dominique Jackson, Jeremy McClain, Janet Mock, Indya Moore, Our Lady J, Jason Rodriguez, Angelica Ross, Hailie Sahar, Ryan Jamaal Swain, Charlayne Woodard, and Patti LuPone. “Pose” supervising producer Tanase Popa serves as producer of the special.
“I’m so proud of our cast and producers for coming together to present an uplifting hour of song and stories,” said co-creator, executive producer, writer, and director Steven Canals. “In the spirit of ‘Pose,’ our goal is to celebrate joy, love and, of course, pride, from our family to yours.”
Executive producer, writer, and director Janet Mock added, “Since we’ve been unable to shoot the show we love, we jumped at the chance to reunite our ‘Pose’ family and partner with the studio and network to raise spirits and awareness about the plight of LGBTQ+ people of color during such a turbulent time. This Pride month special is a commemoration of our forebears’ efforts, a memorial for trans lives lost, and a celebration of the life-saving work of LGBTQ+ organizations.”
“Pose-a-Thon!” will air Friday, June 26 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on FX and Freeform. Viewers can also tune-in same day starting at 7:00 p.m. PT at www.poseathon.com.
If you’re someone who likes to make Pride an excuse for world travel, it goes without saying that this is not a good year for that – but you can at least grab a taste. Tel Aviv Pride takes place every year in June, with a surge of gay-friendly events taking place across the city and a Pride Parade that has become the largest one among all in the Middle East. In light of the Corona pandemic, that parade has been cancelled (or at least postponed), along with the rest of the four largest pride parades in Israel – Haifa, Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva and Tel Aviv-Yafo – but that doesn’t mean the whole celebration is shut down.
According to Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, “Even if we cannot hold the traditional pride parade this year, we will mark pride month with alternative events. Tel Aviv, which has already been acknowledged as the world’s most gay-friendly city, will continue to be a lighthouse city – spreading the values of freedom, tolerance and democracy to the world.”
Those “alternative events” taking place live in the city will involve over 100 drag queens and queer artists taking over the city’s streets in honor of pride month. Throughout the day on June 25, live shows will surprise passersby in central locations around the city, including open spaces, restaurants, local businesses and rooftops.
While it may not be possible for you to experience these pop-up Pride events in person, you can still experience Tel Aviv Pride vicariously through its Pride Month Virtual Tour, which will visit some of the city’s queerest landmarks and explore its queer history and culture, engaging with some of the local divas and discussing some of the open questions around LGBTQA life in Tel Aviv.
The tour takes place on Thursday June 25th at 8pm, and you can join it through this Zoom Link.
Finally, for an even more expansive experience of Pride around the world, you can join the festivities for Global Pride 2020, produced by Interpride and available through several streaming partners – including Revry, the first LGBTQ+ virtual cable network, which has teamed up with Littlstar (the livestreaming platform for PlayStation 4, PlayStation VR, and Android TV) to launch the first VR streaming channel for the queer community just in time for this season of Pride. You can join this spectacular worldwide event on June 27th and 28th, when Revry will livestream it for 24 hours on the Revry Now channel (available on the Revry apps) as well as on the Littlstar platform – creating a first-of-its-kind VR Pride Festival experience!
“Littlstar is excited to partner with Revry to redefine how LGBTQ+ audiences view content. Viewers can now interact with each other remotely in virtual reality, or if there is no VR headset available they can live stream it directly to their TV via PlayStation 4 which currently reaches over 100M homes,” said Tony Mugavero, CEO & Co-Founder of Littlstar.
“We’re thrilled to have Revry as one of our official streaming partners,” says Julian Sanjivan, Co-President of Interpride. “Partnering with Revry gives Global Pride 2020 an opportunity to access audiences and community members who may not otherwise be able to participate in the programming, especially where our other platforms are not accessible or allowed. Revry’s new live VR Channel on the Littlstar app brings our event live on PlayStations across the globe and universally available to anyone with an internet connection.”
More than 500 Pride organizations around the world have submitted more than 1,000 pieces of content for Global Pride which will include messages from former US Vice-President Joe Biden, Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and artists Laverne Cox, Adam Lambert, Kesha and Todrick Hall amongst many more. You can see the full line-up here.
Viewers with a PlayStation VR will be able to watch the stream in a custom virtual world, and viewers without VR headsets can view the stream on billions of mobile device at live.littlstar.com. If you’d rather opt for a “normal” 2D livestream broadcast, you can do it on the Revry Now channel on the Revry network available online (watch.revry.tv) and in all major app stores.
The fourth annual Equality Prince William Pride was held at the Harris Pavilion in Manassas, Va. on Saturday, May 17.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The Washington Blade held its 18th annual Summer Kickoff Party in Rehoboth Beach, Del., on Friday, May 16. Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer spoke along with State Sen. Russ Huxtable, CAMP Rehoboth Executive Director Kim Leisey, Blade Editor Kevin Naff, and Clear Space Theatre Managing Director Joe Gfaller. The event raises funds for the Steve Elkins Memorial Fellowship in Journalism, which was awarded to AU student Abigail Hatting.
(Washington Blade photos by Daniel Truitt)
In some fowl fiction foreshadowing, a gay-owned chicken joint has come home to roost on U Street, taking a page from the chicken window subplot on the HBO show “Looking.”
Last Friday, Lucky Pollo – much more than just a takeout window – stretched its wings atop the busy nightlife corner of 14th and U Streets NW.
Behind the poultry production place is Zach Renovátes, a D.C.-based nightlife operator and managing partner of LGBTQ venues Bunker and District Eagle, as well as the LGBTQ event production company KINETIC Presents.
Renovátes opened Bunker in February 2023 and District Eagle in January of this year. Lucky Pollo is the third in his growing gay empire, though this time there are noshes.
“Lucky Pollo was meant to be fun and a little provocative,” Renovátes said.
Based around its Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken, Lucky Pollo is a quick-service restaurant boasting a small menu of poultry and sides. Renovátes says that the dishes are deeply rooted in Peruvian culinary tradition, “a playful experience alongside seriously good food.”
Lucky Pollo’s signature chicken is steeped in a dozen-plus-spice marinade for 24 hours. The meat is then slow-roasted, rotisserie-style, over oak-wood charcoal. Chicken options include quarter, half, and whole.
Helming the kitchen at Lucky Pollo is Chef Luis Herrera, who brings Peruvian recipes passed down through three generations, including his grandmother Laura’s original creations.
Beyond the full bird, the menu features Peruvian-inspired sides like yuca fries (“I personally love these,” says Renovátes) and fried plantains, as well as comfort classics such as mac and cheese and mashed potatoes, and bowls, wraps, and salads. Herrera oversees development of the multiple sauces (including staff favorite, the “secret green sauce”), crafted in-house using traditional Peruvian ingredients.
Lucky Pollo, in its streetside perch, is an independent concept from District Eagle, open to the public and staying open late (3 a.m. on weekends) to serve both nightlife guests and the wider U Street crowd hungry for late-night bites. However, just beyond the kitchen, tucked in the back lies a vintage 1950s candy machine—labeled “Out of Order,” which serves as the door leading to subterranean District Eagle.
Renovátes notes that when District Eagle is open, security staff will maintain a strict two-line policy, ensuring that those seeking meat to eat will not get entwined with those looking to gain access to District Eagle.
Lucky Pollo unites the need for sustenance with the idea of a bit of fortune, given its motto, “Get Lucky” and the whimsical brand mascot: a leather-booted chicken perched on a horseshoe. Renovátes and his District Eagle business partner had always been interested in opening a restaurant, and the Lucky Pollo space was indeed lucky: It already came with a functional kitchen. Plus, he says, the nearby fast-casual places around 14th and U streets “don’t offer a lot of quality options,” so opening the chicken spot “was a no-brainer.”
The space, designed by NYC creative Jasin Cadic, blends theatrical street-art-style vibes with Keith Haring-inspired wall prints, neon signs, and ceiling-hung chicken figurines —”some edgy, some sweet,” says Renovátes —creating an immersive, playful atmosphere. Lucky Pollo and District Eagle maintain separate amenities for their respective customers.
Lucky Pollo opened last week with a competition to devour a whole rotisserie chicken in the fastest time, with the winner earning $1,000 and a framed spot on the restaurant’s “Wall of Fame.” The opening also featured other games and prizes, and a full crowd spilling out the door.
“We want it to be a great place to eat, but also serve as a playful front for something completely unexpected.” Renovátes says.
On weekends especially, he jokes, the motto will be, ‘Come for the chicken, stay for the cock.’”
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