How I Learned What Black Pride Was Immani Love

Summer of 2014 I was in London with my wife (now ex-wife) while she did research for her dissertation at Cambridge University. I had just released my first CD of Erotic Poetry on iTunes and it was selling better in the UK and France than it was in the US so I took our trip as an opportunity to do some research of my own. I went to networking events and social nights and met some amazing people Through those connections I gained a few opportunities to actually perform a few times while in London. I was even able to march in the Pride in London Parade! The day after the parade there was a Pride Festival in the Park to close out the Pride weekend and we went to enjoy it.

The park was a huge green space in the middle of London called Vauxhall Gardens. As we walked through the park we saw people laying in the grass listening to music, watching drag shows and other entertainment. It was very laid back, very sparse, and very for lack of a better word... WHITE! There was a long line of vendor booths and then as if walking through a cosmic portal, the scenery changed and I immediately noticed the difference.... there were mainly Black and Brown people on this side of the park! The music changed, the sounds and smells changed and I felt immediately more "at home" on this side of the park. I had no idea that Pride was somehow unofficially segregated!

We had stumbled upon a separate event that was partnered with Pride in London that was appropriately called "UK Black Pride". There were 3x as many people on this side of the park, the smoke in the air was heavy with spices of Caribbean food that filled our nostrils and made our mouths water. The stage and performances were curated with Poetry, Afrobeats and Deep House music, dancing and was fantastic, energetic, and full of color! And not just vibrant costume colors, there were PEOPLE of color and every ethnicity under the rainbow, literally It was amazing and I knew I HAD to be a part of it! I met this powerhouse of a woman by the name of Lady Phyll Opoku, who I later learned was a co-founder of UK Black Pride and introduced myself. She was ridiculously busy but gracious enough to listen to me and tell me how to be involved the next year I had no idea that this woman would soon become someone I call my dear friend.

I walked around that space and fell in Love with the beautiful faces I saw that all had one thing in common they were LGBTQ+ and People of Color who wanted to show their Pride and be seen among one another. They didn’t see themselves in the traditional Pride celebrations and parties. They weren’t typically represented in Pride’s media, they weren’t booked to perform on traditional Pride stages, and although their money was just as hard earned and spent to support Pride, they felt the need to create their own Pride celebration and support the people who looked more like them and I was here for it!

The next year, I returned to tour throughout the UK and Europe and made sure to be a part of UK Black Pride and performed before the largest crowd of POC folx I had ever seen! It was exhilarating! My sign language interpreter was a statuesque Queer Arabic man name Yusef, wearing jeans, a button down shirt and the most fabulous pair of gold heels I’d ever seen in a size 13! I did my performance and spent the afternoon mingling and taking pictures with the crowd. I met Lady Phyll again and thanked her for having such an incredible event and allowing me to be a part. She thanked ME for sharing my gift and told me I was welcome anytime I was in London returned to perform again and again and watched as the event grew from 3,000 people to last years record breaking over 25,000+ people having outgrown 3 very large outdoor venues to become named "The world’s largest celebration for African, Asian, Middle Eastern,Latin American and Caribbean-heritage LGBTQI+ people" by the Federation of Black Pride. I think Lady Phyll said it best, “Every time I see this it shows even more the importance of why we need a Black Pride that our communities need to occupy places they haven’t historically occupied,” she said “They have to take pride of place and understand that Pride is political. It’s a protest, it’s a movement and seeing this, I’m just blown away and overwhelmed ”

UK Black Pride was the first Black Pride I had ever attended and it has forever influenced me to seek them out, support them, and remind myself and other People of Color that our voices matter, our presence matters, and until it’s no longer a necessary statement, REPRESENTATION MATTERS