UK Black Pride has returned in 2022 to celebrate the theme of "power" and it is officially the world’s largest pride gathering for LGBTQ+ people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern descent.
Celebrating its first year of return since 2019 after online gatherings in 2020 and 2021, UK Black Pride 2022 welcomed anyone for an unforgettable day of live music, diverse food, panel talks, NYX beauty stands and for the first time, a DJ tent with a capacity for 1000 people.
The first UK Black Pride was held 17 years ago in Southend-on-Sea and has continued to fearlessly promote equality and inclusivity for the UK’s diverse LGBTQ+ community.
Held at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London on Sunday 14 August this year, UK Black Pride brought an uplifting atmosphere to all who attended as the LGBTQ+ community embraced the annual opportunity to express their gender identities and cultures and to make new friends within the community.
Attendance at this event has more than doubled this year when compared to the 10,000 people who gathered at the last live event in 2019 at Haggerston park in Hackney.
In a statement, Lady Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, the co-founder and CEO of UK Black Pride, said:
“This annual event creates safe spaces where our identities and our cultures can be expressed safely, in partnership with councils and venues that understand how important our communities are to us.”
London singer/songwriter Dreya Mac, 22, headlined the main stage as well as international Beyonce impersonator Aaron Carty, who performed the anticipated Beyonce Live Experience which featured tracks from her new album, Renaissance along with plenty more of Queen B’s popular hits such as Crazy in Love, Formation and Baby Boy.
The audience at the main stage were elated to see a surprise appearance from Emeli Sande, who sang one of her most played songs on Spotify, ‘Read All About it (Part III)’. Other celebrities in attendance included Gok Wan, Dawn Butler and Yasmin Finney.
Many attendees after the event also mentioned that the Beyonce Experience was the highlight of their day. Singer/songwriter Godfred Zodiack from Leicester said: “It was pretty much the highlight for me. I mean, it felt like we were watching an actual Queen B concert.”
He also said that UK Black Pride is very important to him because it sends out a special message of visibility that other Pride events in the UK don’t portray.
“Our culture still doesn’t see us or get us so events like this give us a unique voice to shout out loud that we’ve always been around and are here to stay,” says Zodiack.
How London universities celebrated showed their support for the LGBTQ+ community
Some London universities turned up on the day to show their support of UK Black Pride and provided workshops for discussions including Kingston University London and London Southbank University. It was the first year that Kingston University and its Students’ Union had sent a team to represent KU at the event.
Tamara Reid, Kingston University’s UK Black Pride lead and Inclusive Curriculum Programme Lead, said:
“I love UK Black pride because it provides a rare opportunity for queer people of colour to come together and celebrate ourselves, our culture and community.”
She added that having inspirations like Lady Phyll and seeing someone who is also a woman, Black and queer, is important for representation.
Reid recalls the first time she met Lady Phyll in 2015 at a talk while she was a student at the University of Bath. She says: “It was a really life-changing moment for me when I met her because I had never met a Black queer woman before or had any queer role models.
“Lady Phyll is Ghanaian, Black and queer, which was nice to see all-in-one because in some of the white LGBTQ+ spaces that I’ve been to, when they try and give you advice, they say, “Why don’t you cut off your culture? It’s so toxic. And if your parents are homophobic, then stop talking to them!”
Reid also highlights that the Kingston University equality, diversity and inclusion groups are driven to increase representation and a sense of belonging, and to make sure that their policy is supportive of the LGBTQ+ community at the university.
“This year we have staff from the BAME group at Kingston University and students designing the leaflets for Black History Month in October,” says Tamara.
As the event commenced, attendees got involved in all that the stalls had to offer. There was fun to be had for adults and kids alike, with the opportunity to have their face painted and glitter artwork drawn on their body.
Sophie, 38, is a face painter from London and attended the event. She says:
“The energy in attendees was really high throughout the whole event. People who came to my stall chose artwork to express how they were feeling during the event. The way that their faces lit up after I had finished working on them made me feel so happy and proud.”
The positive energy within the atmosphere of the event brought joy and happiness to everyone.
“One of my friends who came to UK Black Pride to help me set up my stall, was in a bad mood when she first arrived. She was unhappy as soon as we set up and people started coming over to our stall, all her bad energy went away. And I think it’s the power of the event; it was so uplifting,” says Sophie.
She also added that everyone needs to have a place where they belong and feels safe and that’s why she’s glad that spaces like UK Black Pride exist.
Marshall, a creative originally from Leicester but who now lives in London, also shared his experience of UK Black Pride 2022. He says: “For me, Black Pride was a fun experience. It was great being able to see other Black queer people and not to feel alone in the queer community. However, the vibe did feel really judgemental and rather like a fashion contest than a festival event.”
He said that overall, though, he had a great time and would recommend other queer POC to attend.
The theme of UK Black Pride this year was power, and some of the attendees have spoken about what power means to them. Reid says power is such a good theme because it's so easy to feel powerless.
“Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that we all have power in some capacity to change something," she says. "For example, in my role at Kingston University, I have some power to work with students to redesign the curriculum, and it is quite a powerful position to be in, even though sometimes I forget this.”
Other attendees also shared what power means to them.
“To me, it means owning and believing in yourself,” says Sophie. “And that you have the power to manage every single day. That every day is a chance for you to change whatever it is you don’t like.”
Have you ever attended UK Black Pride? If yes, share your experience with us in the comments!
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