TRANS AND FRIENDS RALLY + THE NEW QCOMMUNITY STAGE
We're pleased to announce the return of the SV Pride Trans and Friends Rally, so much so that we've expanded our event to include the new Qcommunity Stage as part of our Saturday Night Festival! Come and celebrate our queer, transgender, and gender diverse community members. Not only will we be showcasing local and national talent from all communities, but we'll also be creating a space to relax, mingle, dance, and unite. Performances begin at 4pm and last throughout the entire evening. Admission to the Trans and Friends Rally is free from 4:00pm to 5:30pm, then $5 after 5:30pm. We encourage friends, family members, co-workers, and allies to come and support queer, trans, and gender diverse friends and loved ones. Our community is vibrant, and we are excited for all of us to come together in the South Bay.
Performers
Brody Ray (he/him)
America’s Got Talent Season 13 | Nashville Artist
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Brody Ray was born and raised in small town Kearney, NE where he grew up with 2 sisters. In 2017, Brody made the move the move to Nashville TN where he is working hard everyday to make his dreams become a reality.
At the beginning of 2018, Brody auditioned for America's Got Talent, earning a chance to sing in front of the Celebrity judges Howie Mandel, Mel B, Heidi Klum and Simon Cowell. After shocking the judges and crowd with his story of transitioning, he then went on to sing his stunning and moving rendition of "Stand In the Light" by Jordan Smith. Simon commented by saying he was "A force to be reckoned with." His first performance aired on June 26th, 2018, earning him 4 yeses from all of the judges. Brody moved on the the 'Judge Cuts' where he got to perform an original song requested by Simon called "Wake Your Dreams". The episode is on Season 13 and can be found streaming on Netflix and YouTube.
Brody has been traveling and performing all over the US and Canada singing at some of the nation's largest Pride Festivals. Some past festivals include: Palm Springs CA Pride, Ottawa, Ontario Canada Pride, Kalamazoo MI Pride, Spokane WA Rainbow Pride, Roanoke, VA PrideFest, Mid-South Pride in Memphis, TN, Heartland Pride in Omaha, NE, Kearney, NE Pride, Milwaukee, WI PrideFest, Washington DC Capital Pride, Lexington KY PrideFest, Central PA Pride Festival and Atlanta GA Pride.
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Ensamble Folclórico Colibrí (he/she/they)
Colibrí is an LGBT folklorico group that seeks to promote the pride of our culture through dance.
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Ensamble Folclórico Colibrí (EFC) Is a Mexican folklore dance group. Under the artistic directorship of Maestro Arturo Magaña, EFC has the mission to promote the pride of identifying as an LGBTQ Latinx through the art of Mexican folklórico dance. Our mission also seeks to preserve our costumes and traditions through cultural and educational projects as well as staged performances.
EFC was created on November 2015 as an artistic program of *Colectivo ALA. It was the vision of Maeestro Arturo Magana to create a unique folklorico group where the LGBTQ Community would have the creative platform to express and validate our sexual and cultural identity. Our unique group is comprised of member from various socioeconomic and educational backgrounds as well as sexual identities.
Parivar (he/she/they)
Queer Trans South Asian Performance Art
PARIVAR was formed as a TGNC centered Queer South Asian Social collective to create spaces for folx who identify with the South Asian Diaspora. Our Goal is to reclaim spaces beyond cisness to uplift the Trans and GNC folx and extending to include all of us from Carribean, West Indies, African, Middle Eastern and any other places within the South Asian Diaspora.
Parivar which means “family” was brought together as a social collective by individuals and community leaders to build the greatest and biggest family together beyond identities, sexualities, fluidities, national origins for the South Asian Diaspora. Parivar was not created as a reaction but as a strategically claimed social platform. Our mission stands clear as a safe space to showcase our South Asian and beyond heritage beautifully woven into our identities as unique and special beings transcending our journeys and celebrating our culture, and being the home for everyone in the queer and trans community.
Nori Reed (she/her)
Comedian | Host of SV Pride Qcommunity Stage​
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Nori Reed isn’t just a comedian and writer based in Oakland, California. Nori is a lifestyle. In this year alone, Nori featured at SF Sketchfest, opened for Amy Poehler at Comedy Central’s Clusterfest, and performed at Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival. Recently, Nori was named ‘Oakland’s Next Great Comedian’ by SF Weekly. For her writing prowess, Nori was awarded the 2019 Sketch Comedy Writing Fellowship at KML. Currently she produces Man Haters, a popular monthly showcase of women and queer comedy. Nori is not Japanese (she is trans though).
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Ian Santillano and the Housewarmers (he/she/they)
My Debut EP “1856” is OUT NOW!
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From Hayward, California, multi-instrumentalist Ian Santillano started teaching himself how to play a real guitar after years of playing Guitar Hero. Now at 23, Ian explores his own artistry by writing, arranging, producing, and recording original music with his guitars, his voice, and Ableton Live. From lush pads to funky drums, dreamy vocals to aggressive guitar solos, Ian has a sound all his own: bedroom neo-soul pop with a touch of jazz vocabulary. On stage, Ian Santillano is joined by his best friends—an all-star cast of professional musicians consisting of LASI on bass, Pablo Lopez on drums, Jenny Hughes on keys, and Terry Lewis II on sax. Better known as the Housewarmers, they have been shocking crowds around the Bay Area with their mature sound sculpted upon foundations of neo-soul, hip-hop, jazz, pop, and funk.
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Kiva Uruhu (they/them)
Musician | Visual Artist
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Kiva is a musician and visual artist from San José whose solo sound is a mix of blues, rock, and soul. Their music is often improvised: either with the help of audience participation through a few seed words for a song written on the spot, or an improvised soundscape created with the aid of a loop machine. Kiva likes to expire the interplay of ephemerality and vulnerability in their music, and enjoys audience interaction because they feel it creates a collaborative space where artist and audience help each other decorate a shared moment in time.
You can find them at @kivauhuru and @savantgarde69 on Instagram.
Shawna Virago (she/her)
Singer | Songwriter
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SHAWNA VIRAGO is a songwriter celebrated for her lyric-based songs. She is one of the nation’s first openly transgender women to perform and tour nationally, and has performed as an out transwoman since the early 1990’s. She has been profiled online, in print and on radio including Bitch, the Advocate, Louder Than War, No Depression, Paste magazine, on NPR and PBS. POP DOSE Magazine wrote “In these turbulent times, you may often wonder, ‘Where’s our Bob Dylan? Where’s the bard of the 2010s translating the dicey political and social climate into musical
stanzas?’… Enter Shawna Virago.”
Virago is also a published writer and her work appears in several anthologies.
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Asha Poet (she/her)
Artist | Educator | Revolutionary.
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IN HINDI MEANING HOPE
Originally from LA, ASHA is currently an 8th grade teacher in San Jose. She is an international poet, striving to use art to create radical change.
ASHA has been featured on the cover of Content Magazine, is a feature at many of the prominent poetry events in the Bay Area, as well as active speaker, emcee, and performer at numerous rallies and marches for civil and human rights. ASHA was the focus of a recent short documentary by KQED ARTS.
She was given the Hank Hutchins award by the Santa Clara County Alliance of Black Educators for supporting and advocating for black youth. She is actively training educators across California on equitable practices and building student agency. She is certified as a facilitator through Teaching Tolerance. Her dream is to establish her own K-12 school rooted in restorative justice and social justice based standards.
ASHA consistently uses her platform to voice out against injustice and to speak up for those who have been marginalized and silenced for centuries.
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Cosplay With Pride (he/she/they)
Community Cosplay Group
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After feeling the PRIDE & seeing the smiles your cosplay brings to cons, why not do this in support of non-profits, fundraisers, parade, & more!
"Cosplay with Pride" was initially created by Lani & Sean Bassett (aka Dynamic Cosplay) to bring cosplayers from all walks of fandoms, genres, abilities, ages, etc to bring joy to our local Silicon Valley Pride parade. It has been successful for the past 3 years and has now grown to encompass shedding light on local non-profits, fundraising, supporting local events, local conventions, the CosPositive movement, and more!
DJ AyumiPLEASE (he/she/they)
Dance/House/Pop/Rock DJ | SV Pride Qcommunity Stage DJ​
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LGBTQ+ nightlife entertainment is something I feel very strongly about. It's more than just letting loose, being wild and having fun; in a world where some would prefer LGBTQ+ people simply not exist at all, existing in public spaces is an act of protest in and of itself. My goal in doing this work is to provide and maintain safe spaces for this community, and my dedication to that goal has kept me involved in this work for over 10 years. As a DJ, I try to curate a pan-genre dance experience full of bops and bangers that includes a little something for everyone. Although generally my wheelhouse is in 122-128 beat per minute dance music, I am definitely a fan of music in general, and there are few things I won't play as long as the vibe is right for the moment. Inclusivity is key!
The Trans and Friends Rally committee mission is to provide an empowering, safe, and welcoming space for the queer, trans and gender diverse communities during this event. We hold strong values of diversity and inclusivity, working to elevate the voices of the most marginalized of our community. We will not tolerate verbal or physical harassment, derogatory commentary, disregard or disrespect targeting a person’s sexuality, gender identity, expression, race, ethnicity, immigration status, age, nationality, ability, size, appearance, religion, or any other factor. Our intention is to focus on support and visibility of our queer, transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, genderfluid, agender, bigender, and pangender people during this event. We expect attendees will do their best to respect pronouns and names of other attendees.