Jamestown Pride

A Slow Roll Bike Ride by Pearl City Cycle will start downtown at 5:30 p.m. Friday. That will be followed by a free ages 21-and up event at 9:00 p.m. at Sneaker’s Bar on Harrison and Institute Streets that features burlesque troupe, Laced Up Ladies.

Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said Saturday is the main Festival day starting at 8:30 a.m. with yoga at Comedy Center Park, followed by a Pride Flag Raising ceremony on Tracy Plaza at 9:30 a.m., “So that’s a really integral part of what we do, because there is a lot of celebration but this is showing the importance of the Queer community in Jamestown and Chautauqua County in general.”

Smith said the Pride market in conjunction with the opening of the Jamestown Public Market then takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on West Third Street and part of North Main Street, “So the Pride market has all sorts of different things. The Rise Journey are actually some of our sponsors who are handling a question and answer tent. So you’ll be able to ask questions about the Queer community. If you’re in the Queer community and want to know more. If you’re outside of the Queer community, because it’s with the Public Market so we’ve set this up so many people will be there who don’t necessarily think they have a reason to celebrate Pride, so now they have a place to go to ask questions.”

Smith said other activities during the market include games, performances, story telling, other resource tables, as well as Pride merchandise vendors and food trucks.

Evening activities taking place at the Wintergarden Plaza include DJ Little Italy and performers Thee Suburbia, Islaya, and Daphne Always.

Pride festivities take place nationally in the month of June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 and in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

All Jamestown Pride events on Saturday are free and family friendly.

For more information about Jamestown Pride Fest, visit facebook.com/JamestownPride.

WRFA’s Julia Ciesla-Hanley spoke with Jamestown Pride‘s Sheridan Smith and Steven Cobb about the upcoming Pride Festival.

Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith announces Pride Festival details

The Jamestown Pride Festival will feature live music entertainment, food vendors, and resource tables at its event in downtown Jamestown this June.

The Jamestown Pride Steering Committee announced details of the upcoming event for the LGBGTQ+ community scheduled for Saturday, June 11th at a meeting Friday night.

Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said part of the meeting was to announce information about the event and to also recruit volunteers, “We’re celebrating the whole community but we need all the community’s voices. You know, we had one of the attendees talk about the fact that we need diversity, we need representation, and we do. We do. And when you have a few people on the committee, we’re going to represent everybody. So we need the community in that way and also, I mean really, we need volunteers.”

The Pride Festival is again partnering with the Jamestown Public Market to have information, education, and merchandise booths. The event also will use the Wintergarden Plaza for resource tables in addition to being a dance space with DJs. The evening performance on the Wintergarden Plaza will feature guitarist and comedian Mrs. Smith.

While Saturday’s events are being billed as family friendly, there will be an age 21 and up event the evening of Friday, June 10 at Sneakers Bar that features local burlesque troupe, Laced Up Ladies. All events are free.

For more information about Jamestown Pride including how to get involved with the event, email JamestownPride@mhachautauqua.org or visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/JamestownPride

The event for the LGBTQ+ community, sponsored by Evergreen Health, will feature entertainment, food, and education.

The Pride Steering committee is holding a social gathering that’s open to the public at 5:15 p.m., Friday, March 25, followed by a community meeting at 6:00 p.m. to discuss the event. Both will be held at the Mental Health Association of Chautauqua County located at 31 Water Street.

The meeting also will be available by Zoom at https://temple.zoom.us/j/97825175549

For more information, contact Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith at 716-397-9326 or by email at JamestownPride@mhachautauqua.org

Jamestown Pride

The event will highlight stories of coming out and being in the LGBTQIA+ community in Chautauqua County. Anyone who wishes to speak can sign up and receive a prompt to speak at the open mic.

Jamestown Pride Programming Co-Chair Emily Van Wey said events like this are important because it allows the local LGBTQ+ community to connect, “Especially in a rural county, Chautauqua County here. You know, a lot of times what happens is we feel isolated because we’re so spread out. And having these events where we can come together to make these connections is so important that we can feel that there are other people having similar feelings just like us.”

Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said the event is open to all, including those who want to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community, “This is a place where you can listen to people who are wanting to talk or wanting to share that story without having to necessarily just kind of pick somebody who is near you and say, ‘Please tell me how to be a good ally.'”

The event also will feature musical entertainment, a dance demonstration, coffee and snacks from the Labyrinth Press Company; and door prizes.

For more information, email JamestownPride@MHAchautauqua.org or visit Jamestown Pride on Facebook.

WRFA’s Julia Ciesla-Hanley speaks with Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith and Pride Programming Co-Chair Emily Van Wey about a Coffeehouse event being held as part of National LBGTQ+ History Month.

Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said one of the questions he’s received most over the last few weeks is “Why do we need Pride?” He said while the Queer community has made amazing strides, there is still work to do, especially with other oppressed identities in the fight for equality and equity, “The other thing is when we’re fighting, we need to celebrate. We need something to bring joy. We need something to bring happiness. We need to have that celebration in our action, in our activism. We need the community around us. We need a place where we can be who we are unapologetically in a celebratory way. And the other reason is just because it’s fun.”

Local LGBTQ activist and transgender woman Helen Walther said Pride is the defense against the shame people try to lay on the community. She said people should stand up and feel belonging in seeing the Pride flag next to the American flag, “So I always advocate that for every Pride celebration there needs to be as many American flags as there are rainbow flags. Because we need to claim our citizenship as well as our pride in who we are. So, be proud, have fun, be safe.”

Mayor Sundquist took a moment of silence to honor the memory of the 49 people killed and 53 wounded in the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida five years ago. The shooting was the single deadliest mass shooting event against the LGBTQ community in United States history.

Sundquist said the Jamestown Pride festival was one of the only major in-person Pride events in Western New York. He said while Pride is being able to celebrate one’s self openly and authentically, there is so much more to do to be a truly equal society, “Across this country, we see a wave of anti-trans legislation targeting our brothers, our sisters, our fathers, our mothers, our children. We must speak out against these falsehoods pushed in legislation that is rooted in hatred, fear, and misunderstanding. My friends, hatred is a virus.”

The Pride Festival featured a free evening performance by Drag Queen star and Jamestown Native Pandora Boxx that was attended by almost 1,000 people as well as resource and information tables at the Jamestown Public Market and Wintergarden Plaza during the day.

JAMESTOWN – WRFA’s Jason Sample stalks with members of the Jamestown Pride Steering Committee about Jamestown Pride Fest 2021 – happening Saturday, June 12 in downtown Jamestown.

As Sheridan Smith and Rudi Andalora explain, the LGBTQIA+ community has historically celebrated Pride in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots that took place in June 1969.

The day will start at 9:30 a.m. with a Pride flag raising and Pulse Anniversary Remembrance Ceremony on Tracy Plaza with Mayor Eddie Sundquist.

Jamestown Pride will also be part of the Jamestown Public Market from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pride-themed tents will feature activities such as a “Gender Bread Person” booth, Drag Time Story Hour, and a Pronoun Button tent.

Activities also will be taking place from noon until 9:00 p.m. on the Wintergarden Plaza on North Main Street. These will include resource tables from local organizations, a yoga class, and Zumba class.

Pride Fest will be capped off with a free performance at 8:00 p.m. at the Wintergarden Plaza by RuPaul’s Drag Race Star and Jamestown native Pandora Boxx.
Attendees to all activities will be required to wear masks and social distance per CDC and Health Department guidelines.

Jamestown Pride events are presented by Evergreen Health, and are also sponsored by Media One Group, The Chautauqua Center, the Mental Health Association of Chautauqua County, the Jamestown Public Market, Chautauqua Institution, and Silver Tree Seniors.

WRFA’s Jason Sample (center) talks with Sheridan Smith (left) and Rudi Andalora about Jamestown Pride Fest 2021 – happening Saturday, June 12 in downtown Jamestown.

Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said with last year’s Pride canceled due to the Pandemic they weren’t sure what was even going to be possible for this year until a few months ago, “So, one month out this has been just a very big undertaking to get done as quickly as we have. And now that we finally have the permits, I can tell you that Pride is happening at the Jamestown Public Market and another location just off the Public Market.”

Smith said the day will start at 9:30 a.m. with a Pride Flag Raising ceremony on Tracy Plaza with Mayor Eddie Sundquist.

Pride Programming and Event Chair Rudi Andalora said the Wintergarden Plaza will feature a safe space which is based off what the Pride Fest in Columbus, Ohio had done, “Where I witnessed lots of community organizations come together in a very unified, diverse manner. And a way to have the organization speak with the public directly in terms of support and likeness and things that one needs to know about their community.”

Activities at the Wintergarden Plaza will also include a free yoga and Zumba class. There also will be live music by local group, Ion Sky.

The Pride Fest will be capped off with a free performance by RuPaul’s Drag Race Star and Jamestown native Pandora Boxx at the Wintergarden Plaza.

Organizers said masks and social distancing will be required at the event.

Details about Jamestown Pride can be found on their Facebook page at facebook.com/JamestownPride

Members of Jamestown Pride’s National Coming Out Day Organizing Committee – Pride Outreach Coordinator Julia Ciesla-Hanley, Fenton History Center Executive Director Noah Goodling, Robert H. Jackson Center President Kristan McMahon, & Mental Health Association of Chautauqua County Executive Director Steven Cobb

JAMESTOWN – Jamestown Pride and the Fenton History Center have announced an online event to celebrate “National Coming Out Day” on Sunday, Oct. 11.

The event will feature local members of the LGBTQIA+ community sharing their stories about themselves with a moderator that will be livestreamed in a Zoom webinar, courtesy of the Robert H. Jackson Center. The stories shared will be added to an exhibit the Fenton History Center is compiling on the history about Chautauqua County’s LGBTQIA+ community.

Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said, “National Coming Out Day is an annual LGBTQIA+ awareness day to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other people to ‘coming out of the closet.’ The foundational belief is that homophobia thrives in an atmosphere of silence and ignorance, and that once people know that they have loved ones who are LGBTQIA+, they are far less likely to maintain homophobic or oppressive views.”

“With not being able to have the large Pride event we planned in June, we wanted to do something for the community that opened the door to talking more openly about our experiences. We thank the Robert H. Jackson Center for donating the technology, facility, and assistance in making this a reality,’ Smith added.

Those interested in attending the Jamestown Pride’s National Coming Out Day online webinar may register online.

Smith said, “We’re also looking for those who are interested in sharing their story at the live event. We are live streaming the story presenters from Robert H. Jackson’s theatre space on Oct. 11. Proper health and safety guidelines will be in place for this including mask wearing and disinfecting procedures.” Smith added there are a limited number of spaces for presenters and those interested should email JamestownPride @ mhachautauqua.org their interest by October 4.

The stories shared on Oct. 11 will be added to the Fenton History Center’s archives on the local LGBTQIA+ community being developed thanks to grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Greater Hudson Heritage Network.

Fenton History Center Executive Director Noah Goodling said, “We found there is a large gap in our historical knowledge about the LGBTQIA+ community in Jamestown and the larger area, so we decided it was time to rectify that issue. We are currently collecting anything that may represent the experience of growing up or living in Chautauqua County as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. This could be a story, poem, picture, video, or other items.” Goodling said people may submit experiences through the Center’s website at FentonHistorycenter.org, email director @ fentonhistorycenter.org, or drop off physical items during business hours at the Center located at 67 Washington Street, Jamestown, New York. The exhibit is planned to be opened to the public in early 2021.

The National Coming Out Day event is being made possible by Jamestown Pride operating under the Mental Health Association of Chautauqua County, Fenton History Center, Robert H. Jackson Center, and Prevention Works/Hope Chautauqua.

“We are always happy to host community events, especially those that provide opportunities for meaningful conversation and paths to understanding,” said Kristan McMahon, president of the Robert H. Jackson Center.

For more information about the National Coming Out Day Event, contact Pride Outreach Coordinator Julia Ciesla-Hanley at (716) 450-8765. For information about the LGBTQIA+ exhibit at the Fenton History Center, contact Executive Director Noah Goodling at (716) 664-6256.