Pride LGBTQ month New Bedford Fall River events with network

NEW BEDFORD — It’s officially Pride month! June is about honoring and celebrating LGBTQ activism, culture and sharing your support toward the queer community.

The SouthCoast LGBTQ+ Network has planned a month-full of activities designed to entertain, educate and inspire the community. This year, amid COVID-19, the network is offering an expansive range of events and activities online and/or in-person.

“We’ve come a long way and it’s because of other people who really stuck their neck out and sometimes their lives,” added The Network’s President Andy Pollock. “And if we’re not doing that, who’s gonna do it?”

SouthCoast LGBTQ+ Network marketing director and board member, Kerry Zeida says Pride month isn’t only about recognizing the LGBTQ+ community but by using the month of June to continuing educating the world. “The goal is to have conversations and sort of widen that a little bit,” Zeida said.

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“The future is now and the future is you,” he said adding that this has become a recent tagline the Network likes to use.

Zeida hopes that by having more and more conversation with the community it will not only strengthen the LGBTQ+ community but also help their families, friends and allies. “That’s when change takes place, when everybody embraces it,” he said.

There are several opportunities to support Pride month within the SouthCoast community in June.

More:Andy Pollock is new president of SouthCoast LGBTQ Network

“There’s yoga, there’s book groups, there’s reflections on faith where we interviewed three different LGBT affirming congregations in the city,” Pollock said. The Pride month kick-off event was at the Zeiterion Theatre on June 1 – which also served as the Z’s first in-person event post-COVID-19.

Pollack said he would never have dreamed that “The Z” would show queer films as a premiere event sighting that New Bedford has come a long way. “We’ve been so fortunate to have the support of all these communities that are already LGBTQ friendly, too,” Zeida added

“People are so eager to share their world with us,” Zeida said. “And frustrated that they don’t really have an outlet to do that. We are that outlet, and we want to make that possible for everybody to have.”

Here’s a list of some of the LGBTQ+ event happening in the SouthCoast community sponsored by the SouthCoast LGBTQ+ Network:

Fall River & New Bedford City Hall

Raising the Pride Flag

Fall River Pride raised the Pride flag at government center on June 3. While New Bedford had its flag raising at city hall on June 1. New Bedford Mayor John Mitchell and David Velasco Bermudez, a Stonewall veteran, were in attendance.

Buttonwood Park Zoo Entrance

Pride Wellness Walk

On June 5 at 9:00 a.m., SouthCoast cardiologist Dr. Michael Rocha, founder of the New Bedford Wellness Initiative, and Brian Costa, a nurse practitioner specializing in LGBTQ+ care from the New Bedford Community Health Center, will lead a healthy and energizing stroll around Buttonwood Park in honor of Pride month.

Gallery X

Kaleidoscope: Art Through Your Eyes

In partnership with New Bedford’s Gallery X, LGBTQ+ artists from the SouthCoast are showcasing their work within the community. The gallery is open Wednesday through Sundays, noon to 3:00 p.m. AHA! Pride Tour Night will be at the gallery from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on June 10.

Story Hour with Savannah Devereaux

Join Savanah Devereaux as she reads children’s classics like “only she can” on Saturday, June 12 at 1:00 p.m. Devereaux is a talented drag star out of Fairhaven, who has been crowned twice as the “Empress” of Rhode Island, a figurehead that helps raise funds for the international court system.

Pride Yoga (virtual)

The SouthCoast LGBTQ+ Network Facebook

LGBTQ+ ally Vineeta Singh, takes participants through a live, hour-long session of yoga and breathing exercises as part of The Network’s meFIRST Wellness Series. Available on Facebook LIVE at 6 p.m. on June 9, June 16, June 23 and June 30.

The Network’s ‘Future’ Center (60 Eighth Street)

SOCO-AGLY Pride Meetings

Check out the future community center location on Eighth Street for a Pride meeting. The Lesbian Youth (SOCO-AGLY) welcomes SouthCoast LGBTQ+ youth, ages 14-24, and their allies to come to meet and share their support. Meetings are June 10, June 17 and June 24 at 5 p.m.

Sangha Studio

Pride Yoga (in-person)

For young LGBTQ+ adults ages 14-24, Jeff Costa will offer an hour of mindfulness, meditation and togetherness in the form of yoga at the Sangha Studio in New Bedford. Join Costa at 4 p.m. on June 4, June 11, June 18 and June 25.

Class on Zoom

The Healing Otherness Handbook

Dr. Stacee L. Reicherzer’s will be offering a four-part series based on her new book, “The Healing Otherness Handbook.” The guide is about overcoming identity-based obstacles on the way to living a fuller life. The lecture is at 7 p.m. on June 9, June 16, and June 23, with a live Q&A with Reicherzer on June 30.