Honorees celebrated at NYC Black Pride’s Heritage Awards

The slate of activities for NYC Black Pride included the annual Heritage Awards ceremony at Brooklyn Museum on the evening of Aug. 18.

Hosted by NYC Black Pride founder Lee Soulja-Simmons, the awards ceremony featured speakers, honorees, and music from DJ Audi Mansell and DJ Sedrick.

The honorees for 2023 were Amida Care, Native Son, New Pride Agenda, J. Harrison Ghee, “A Strange Loop,” “The Inspection,” Black Queer Townhall (Bob and Peppermint), Tommy G, Jessica Foxx, Appolonia Cruz, Yamil X, Jennifer Medina Matsuki, Kraig Pannell, Qween Jean, and Kenneth Courtney.

Notably, the awards ceremony also featured a moment of silence for O’Shae Sibley, an out gay dancer who was killed in an alleged anti-gay attack in Brooklyn last month.

Among other events, this year’s festivities for NYC Black Pride also featured a discussion about mental health at the LGBT Community Center, a Pride Party at Club Lambda, a Mr. and Miss Black Pride Intl. event, and Pride at the Beach in Coney Island on Aug. 20.

 

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“The whole idea of Black Pride is for us to completely acknowledge the things or accomplishments of Black and Brown folks, things that we have contributed to society at large,” Soulja-Simmons told Gay City News in an interview this month. “Most of the time, we’re not recognized for the things that we have done or we’ve accomplished. [Black Pride] is a way for us to take honor for ourselves, that Pride itself started on the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement and started from Black and Brown people of trans experience. We never want to forget the memory of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera and Stormé DeLarverie. Those are three important people, three important names. And most of the time during Pride itself, they’re lost in the sauce.”

Below are some photos from the awards ceremony, including honorees: