Chances for Education on Queer Pride
By Megan Chapman, July 10, 2007
Among the many floats taking part in Chicago’s 38th Annual Pride Parade on Sunday, June 24, 2007, was one that deliberately attempted to stake out new territory with a historical perspective, an educational agenda, and an anti-gloss theme.
The float, organized by the loose collective known as Chances, featured limp conical structures atop a rented U-haul truck, along with a bevy of dancers outfitted in green and purple, with additions of capes, masks, rags, and other costume items. One of the main float organizers, Dylan Mira, dressed in full costume as a phoenix, a central image which also appeared on signs, rising out of a pink pyramid, which read “Summon a New Queer Reality”.
The summons, along with the design of the float, was intended as a challenge to what the Pride Parade has become. Float organizer Latham Zearfoss explained, “Our vision of limp cones was inspired by witch hats (think paganism, feminism, magic, collective resistance, self-empowerment in spite of cultural adversity, etc.), and [the idea of] countering the macho maleness of Halsted Street with some limping phallic shapes.”
On the historical and educational front, the Chances collective created and distributed over 2,800 masks representing 27 inspiring queers and queer allies. The diverse selection included Pedro Almodovar, James Baldwin, Angela and Vaginal Davis, Annie Sprinkle and Michel Foucault. Brief biographies and downloadable versions of the masks are available on the Chances Dances website.
“One of the more exciting things during the Pride,” said Latham, “was when we handed out the masks and people, some of them children, would hold them up in front of their faces.”
On the back of each queer revolutionary’s mask is his/her/hir brief biography, based on research done by Chances members and volunteers, and an invitation to “to celebrate the magic of [insert name here] and all queer revolutionaries, deviants, and witches!” The message on the back of each mask concludes: “We offer this mask as a symbol of power through knowledge and community through history! Please pass it on!”
Chicago DJ and float dancer Suzannah Cowell explained her delight in distributing the masks: “Many of the people who were handed the masks had surprised looks on their faces. They weren't expecting ‘information’ when coming to the parade. It added another level of understanding to the pride experience that sometimes gets lost in the heightened party vibe that's running rampant all weekend. It really asked the parade-goers the question, ‘what are you going to do to demonstrate pride in your everyday life?’”
Some of the pagan inspiration for the “Summoning a New Queer Reality” came from another historical fount: the radical feminist collective W.I.T.C.H. (Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell) of the late 1960s. Chicago was the location of one W.I.T.C.H. collective (or coven) and, said Latham, the Chances collective wanted to invoke the spirit of their demonstrations, in which they “would cast hexes on corporate headquarters and stock-markets.”
“We wanted to do something to counter the glossy corporate takeover of Pride,” Latham elaborated. In this spirit, the float organizers, including collective members Dylan, Latham, Aay Preston-Myint, and Chris Pappas, along with others, designed and built the float in true D.I.Y. fashion, spending only about $200 on supplies and refreshments, plus the $175 entry fee and the $200 U-haul rental price.
At a series of small crafting parties, volunteers and collective members would bring recycled materials: “fabric from our houses and thrift stores, stuffing out of shredded documents and plastic bags we had lying around,” said Latham. Once designed, the masks were printed in small batches by collective members and others “on the sly” at work.
The money that was spent came almost entirely from funds raised by the collective’s bi-monthly pansexual dance parties, which take place in Wicker Park. The next Chances Dances party, “spinning 70's, 80's, new wave, no wave, (italo/french/mutant) disco, hip-hop, grime and more” (per their website), will be hosted at the Subterranean on July 16, 2007.
View more photos from the 38th Annual Pride Parade and from the Chances float.
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