New York City Pride announced the performers for the upcoming Pride Island festival, and fans of Grammy-nominated singer Janelle Monáe are rejoicing, as she was named the festival's headliner, reports Billboard.
The annual three-day music event, put on in conjunction with New York City's annual Pride Parade, will also bring artists Betty Who, Luisa Sonza and Pussy Riot to the stage on Saturday of the festival according to the announcement.
Monáe is among the hottest names in entertainment with the thriller film Antebellum out in April and season two of Amazon's Homecoming premiering the following month. Additionally, her Dirty Computer project was named NPR’s 2018 Album of the Year.
Monáe said she has always dreamed of the opportunity and that she’s thankful to the community Pride creates.
“Pride means so much to so many of us, and to have the opportunity to share my live performance during Pride has always been a dream," Monáe said in a statement. “Celebrating Pride in NYC is a rite of passage for a queer person. I am grateful for the community it creates and I can’t wait to party with everyone.”
In an April 2018 Rolling Stone cover story, the “Make Me Feel” artist came out as pansexual, and the lyrics of her latest album were described as "punctuated with sexual liberation."
“Someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-a*s motherf**ker,” she said. “But then later I read about pansexuality and was like, ‘Oh, these are things that I identify with too.’ I’m open to learning more about who I am.”
The very first Pride march took place in 1970 to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal time for LGBTQ movements according to Britannica. The riots were a series of violent demonstrations by members of the LGBTQ community protesting a police raid of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. Groups like the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance rose up in the aftermath of the riots.
Simultaneous Pride marches also took place in Chicago and Los Angeles. Since then, marches have been coordinated throughout the world, and the event continues to grow.
In June 1999, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated that the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Park and the surrounding area in Greenwich Village be honored on the National Register of Historic Places, the first of significance specific to the LGTBQ community.
Although we know about some acts, the Friday and Sunday night performers have not been announced yet, but tickets for Pride Island go on sale on March 13. Last year, Grace Jones, Teyana Taylor, Pabllo Vittar and Madonna all played the festival according to Out.
