The U is hosting its semi-annual Pride Week, with a slew of events on campus from Oct. 2 to 11.
The week-long celebration focuses on the LGBTQ+ community at the U. Activities include a concert featuring Angel Haze, film showings and various lectures.
Alithia Zamantakis, outreach coordinator for the LGBT Resource Center and a senior in sociology and gender studies, helped plan the week as “a celebration of our practices of resilience [and] a reverence of the beauty of our identities, bodies, communities and movements.”
The three-person Pride Week Planning Committee, which Zamantakis co-chaired, is comprised of a student, a faculty member and a staff partner who organize the events each semester. Jason Taylor, an educational leadership and policy professor, served as another co-chair this year. Taylor said Pride Week events are meant to “promote engagement and dialogue surrounding the LGBTQ+ identities.” This includes a clothing swap on Thursday, a leadership summit on Saturday hosted by the Queer Student Association and a Homecoming tailgate.
All activities are free for U students. Community members, too, can go to any event but must pay $10 for a ticket to the Angel Haze concert. Tickets can be purchased in the Union, where students can also pick them up with a UCard, and where the concert will be held.
Angel Haze, an agender hip-hop artist, has been nominated for various MTV Music Awards. They are known for raising a voice in the LGBTQ+ community through mainstream music. Doors open at 8 p.m. Wednesday, and the show will begin at 9:30 p.m.
Another Pride Week event, “Pizza and Politics” with CeCe McDonald, will take place Friday at the Hinckley Institute of Politics in OSH. McDonald is a LGBTQ+ activist who, after suffering an assault due to her sexuality and gender, was incarcerated for defending herself.
Zamantakis will moderate the discussion said they are “feeling the pressure” of introducing McDonald.
“But I’m beyond excited to have a conversation with someone who inspires me to continue pushing myself, checking myself and centering myself,” Zamantakis said.
For a complete list of Pride Week events, go to lgbt.utah.edu/events/pride.php or contact the LGBT Resource Center.
@BeauHart13