Celebrating two decades of representing the Black LGBTQ+ community, Charlotte Black Pride (CBP) is set to blast into 2025 in style with “The Kick-off” on March 23.
The Kick-Off, which is expected to be one of many larger scale events this year, will be take place at the A1 Lounge, not far from Discovery Place.
The event is open to the public, breaking any barriers down for those who want to come and catch a glimpse of what the organization has coming up. The festivities start in the evening around 6 p.m., early enough to bring the family out but still get the kids back before bedtime.
On their event posts and pages over social media, CBP included an invitational message for all those curious.
“Join us as we kick off 20 years of pride, community, and resilience. Charlotte Black Pride is here to empower the hearts, minds and spirits of all LGBTQIA people, embracing diversity, uplifting our community and driving social change. Together, we rise!”
In a previous interview with QNotes this past February, CBP’s Board of Directors Chair Shann Fulton had expressed their vision for the organization in 2025.
“We hope to [make] this the boldest year … Charlotte Black Pride has been in existence,” Fulton told QNotes. “With the amount of people that we help in the community, we want that number to go up and be the biggest that we’ve ever had. Most importantly this year, we want to see our organization in itself grow. As you know, the community has continued to get bigger, so those are some of our goals, because we want to have a more meaningful impact.”
“My hope for 2025 in the Charlotte community is that all organizations, regardless of the background, could all just come together, and we get through not only this year, but the next three years, continuing to do the things that we’ve been doing, and we don’t allow the current administration to discourage us from our work,” Fulton offered. “Now we have to put boots on the ground even harder, along with looking at legislation and working on it. Even more so though, we all do it together as a unit and not as individuals.
“So I would like to see a lot more partnerships, a lot more camaraderie, and just a lot more of the community working together and coming together for the greater good of the whole.”
Charlotte Black Pride’s “The Kick-Off” will be at the A1 Lounge at 616 North Tryon Street on March 23. Entry, participation, and parking are all free for those attending the event.