Pride, performance and community shine at Riverdale’s annual LGBTQ+ celebration

Sequins, glitter and rainbow apparel filled an entire room with color inside Riverdale Neighborhood House the afternoon of June 7. Standing at a suitcase filled with sparkling dresses and flowing wigs, drag performer Kelly KaBoom methodically sorted through potential outfits. Nearby, fellow drag performer Alexa DuMont perfected her winged eye look and spritzed herself with glitter, as the sound of Riverdale Celebrates Pride attendees hummed louder and louder outside on the sun-drenched pavement.

KaBoom, a decorated drag artist known in the Bronx and beyond for her dazzling performances — particularly her Whitney Houston impersonations — has spent half her life on the stage, including years as a regular performer at Riverdale Celebrates Pride. The event, organized by the 4Bronx Project and the Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Van Cortlandt Development Corporation, has been a space for KaBoom and fellow performers to express themselves proudly — something that hasn’t always come easily.

Now 40, KaBoom said when she was younger, she didn’t expect to be where she is today, and didn’t recognize drag as an avenue through which she could entertain and make people feel good. It could be challenging to find spaces that would be accepting and welcoming to drag queens, she said, which left her feeling defeated at times. But today, many venues have become more receptive to drag, she shared, and there are many more celebrations and opportunities to perform.

“It’s like, ‘Oh my god, somebody sees me, it’s time for me to show up and show out,’” KaBoom said of having a place like Riverdale Celebrates Pride to be her authentic self. She noted that understanding of the meaning of pride itself, “to be yourself and just love one another,” has grown over the years.

That sentiment was shared by I.Den.t.T, a social sciences professor by trade who uses their platform as a queer performer to educate, entertain and “spread queer joy,” they said. Even their stage name serves as a teaching moment, they explained.

“I go by I.Den.t.T because it’s spelled ‘identity,’ not ‘you-dentity,’” they said. “So, who gets to tell me who I am? I do. You get to figure out who you are, and I get to figure out who I am.”

Right after their performance at Riverdale Celebrates Pride — which involved several mid-dance outfit reveals, each more shining and colorful than the last — I.Den.t.T had to make a quick getaway to another pride event. While the turnaround time between performances made for an action-packed afternoon, they described having multiple opportunities to perform as “a nice problem to have.”

“When I was a kid in the 90’s, going to Pride meant you had to go to New York City, and so there were some states where you couldn’t even go to Pride because there wasn’t a Pride in your city,” the 52-year-old said. “Now, we don’t even just have the one pride. We have pride in so many different locations, even throughout the year.”

They said one of the most important aspects of having these local Pride celebrations is setting an example for young queer people, letting them know they exist and they are not alone.

“That really speaks to my heart because I didn’t know that when I was a kid,” they said. “I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought that I was going to go to hell.”

But even with an overall trend of growing acceptance, modern Pride celebrations still sometimes face hateful reactions. I.Den.t.T and DuMont recalled a pride event earlier this month that was nearly cancelled because of threats sent to the organizers. But that news didn’t scare the performers away, it galvanized them.

“Who wouldn’t risk their life for the right cause?” DuMont, who has been performing drag for over 20 years, said.

DuMont and I.Den.t.T said that threats like these, as well as recent threats to the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the United States, make spreading joy through their performances feel all the more important.

As a crowd of attendees clapped along to each of the high-energy performances, others milled through rows of vendor tables, tried their hand at the dunk tank or admired the costumes of furry friends preparing to participate in the dog parade. In the mounting heat, some simply sought a shady corner to cool down before getting back to the celebration.

Riva Danzig, who has lived in the area for 47 years, said the event served as an opportunity to get to know the neighborhood, go to Riverdale Neighborhood House for the first time and “represent the lesbian grandmothers.” She was also excitedly awaiting the event’s closing act by women-led samba reggae drumline marching band Fogo Azul. While observing the event’s electric energy, Danzig, 77, was taken aback by just how much Pride has changed over her lifetime.

Danzig recalled her coming out, which wasn’t a smooth process. While she knew who she was inside, she also knew it wasn’t safe to share it with the world. When she finally did, “it was horrible,” she said.

Like DuMont and I.Den.t.T, Danzig said this year’s Pride celebration felt particularly meaningful because of the current political climate surrounding LGBTQ+ issues, in which she noted seeing some regression. Despite that observation, she remained hopeful.

“There won’t be any going back,” she said.

Danzig noted that her generation played a large part in the increased recognition and acceptance the LGBTQ+ community benefits from today, and several younger attendees expressed a passion to keep that progress moving.

Peralee Gandy, 13, said her parents are gay, and she’s “experienced a lot of hate toward the LGBT community,” which is what motivates her to participate in celebratory queer events such as Riverdale Celebrates Pride.

Standing by Gandy’s side, Abel Velazquez, 14, echoed the sentiment that the LGBTQ+ community continues to face hate, despite the fact that “we’ve existed for years, centuries back,” they said.

But no amount of hate could shake Velazquez’s conviction that “we’re different in the best way.”

It’s a sentiment Vaughn Lindquist-Rodriguez, 53, and his partner hope to impart on their two children by bringing them to events such as Riverdale Celebrates Pride. As a “rainbow family,” Lindquist-Rodriguez emphasized the importance of showing their children there’s a “whole community of love and support here.”

When the family moved to Riverdale three years ago and stumbled upon Riverdale Celebrates Pride, Linquist-Rodriguez said they immediately knew they had made a good choice.

For event organizer Laura Levine-Pinedo, that feeling was precisely the goal — ensuring members of the LGBTQ+ community know they’re part of the local community, “they’re loved, they’re cared for and they’re celebrated.”