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NEW BEDFORD — The eighth annual AHA! Pride Block Party is expected to fill the Steeple Playhouse to capacity Thursday, June 11, as drag queens Crystal Diamonds and Phlegm Mignon host a drag show from 6 to 8 p.m.
This year’s performance is dedicated to Danny Sallom, who performed as Ultima with the Queens of the South Coast group before passing away unexpectedly in February.
The drag show will feature other members of the Queens of the South Coast, and additional block party activities will take place on Upper William Street from 5 to 8 p.m.
“Pride started as a protest, so pride to me is always rooted in a sense of memorial,” said Mignon, whose out-of-drag name is William Barriteau. “There’s so many people we should be remembering and memorializing every year.”
Mignon said the loss of Ultima is personal because she got her start alongside the late drag queen. They became close friends through performing together on the South Coast over the last five years, and Mignon said it’s her first time performing at AHA! Pride without Ultima.
“It’s going to be definitely a challenge, and a bit different to not have her there,” Mignon said.
Diamonds, whose out-of-drag name is Mike Mahan, said they’ll have a moment of silence for Ultima during the show, and honor her by celebrating their block party as always.
“She would want us to live life to the fullest extent, and have a ball and a party,” Mignon said. “I’m going into it with that mindset of we can take a somber moment to remember and recognize the impact that this person had on us, but at the same time she’d want us to continue to party and have fun in her memory.”
Diamonds said the drag show is about spreading queer love and joy.
“To me, that’s something that is the most invigorating about pride,” Diamonds said. “We look good, we worry about makeup, we worry about money, and we worry about who says what and who’s booked where. But at the end of the day, my dear, after doing this for a decade and a half, what matters most is to see the smile.”
Diamonds founded Queens of the South Coast in 2015. She has been involved with the Pride Block Party since its inception, and she hosted for the first time last year. She said she was initially nervous, but Ultima reminded her of her own advice, to “get your ass out there and do what you know.”
“She was someone I will honor until the end of time,” Diamonds said. “She was just an all-around awesome person, somebody that left us way too soon.”
This year, the Pride Block Party is sponsored by the YMCA Southcoast, where Sallom was a staff member. Lucria Ortiz, president and CEO of YMCA Southcoast, said that the organization is committed to understanding the community it serves. She said there are members of the LGBTQ+ community on its staff as well as in the broader South Coast community, which factored into the decision to sponsor the event.
“Danny was a big part of the drag community and the LGBTQ community. So, it’s something that’s literally at the forefront of our minds, and there will be tribute to him throughout the block party,” Ortiz said. “I know the team is really missing that member of the community, as well as so many other people.”
Mignon said that seeing different representations of queer people is an important aspect of Pride, as she didn’t have much representation growing up – until she was a teenager and saw Diamonds perform.
“We’re all local humans and local people who live a queer life, and there’s no shutting that off when we take the wig off at the end of the day,” Mignon said. “So to be able to be recognized at a big event in a big stage like this, it’s always really important and appreciated.”
Ortiz echoed similar sentiments. “I believe you bridge difference when you create proximity,” Ortiz said. “I stand behind our mantra, ‘We are for all,’ and so no matter what the culture conversation is, the Y has to maintain its values.”
Kim Goddard, executive director of AHA!, said that she is grateful that the YMCA Southcoast is sponsoring AHA! night, as well as participating in the block party itself with a family fun area.
Goddard described the Pride Block Party as one of the “bigger” and “very successful” AHA! Nights. The New Bedford tourism department estimated that 3,800 people were in attendance downtown during last year’s Pride event, according to AHA! staff. Goddard said she’s hoping for similar or even greater numbers this year.
Mandy Fraser, co-founder of the AHA! Pride Block Party, said, “It’s extra important in this climate to especially have pride and have the biggest, loudest pride possible to show, you know, the community, ‘Hey, you’re safe here.’”
Fraser helped create the first Pride Block Party as part of AHA! in 2019, and the annual event has continued ever since, including a virtual AHA! Pride that was hosted on Zoom during the pandemic, in 2020.
Goddard said, in addition to the drag show, circus artists and performers from Wicked Queer Puppet Theatre will be returning to the event. The puppet performance will be held at Gallery X at 7 p.m. There will also be a raising of the Pride Flag at 4 p.m. in front of City Hall, facilitated by the SouthCoast LGBTQ+ Network.
Email Kiva Bank at kbank@newbedfordlight.org
This was a wonderful event and a refreshing reminder that not everyone in New Bedford is an aggrieved, right wing and old-fashioned homophobic bigot as so much of the population has historically been and still comes across as on social media.