Fourth week in Minneapolis - time really has flown by. Let me give you a quick update of the last week though :)
On Thursday, we went and watched Bound (1996) at The Parkway Theater. Bound, for those uninitiated like I was, is a lesbian crime-thriller directed by the Wachowski sisters (their directorial debut, three years before The Matrix). The place was packed with lesbians, and before showing the movie they did a burlesque show — it was really special. I feel like Minneapolis just casually puts on events that would be really unique in Salt Lake, so predictably, I cried (a little) during a burlesque performance. Sometimes the weights we carry around aren’t felt until we are relieved of them, and it’s then that we can truly let go.
On Saturday we went to two prides in Minneapolis, so we’d have some good personal comparisons. Pride is Salt Lake was always kind of… fine?
The first one we went to was the People’s Pride, a non-corporate and no police event organized by the people. It took place at Powderhorn Park (so basically outside our front door) — it was really beautiful. It was busy — much busier than I thought a non-corporate-sponsored organized event might be.
They had booths set up, they had wrestling, there were people sitting all along the park chatting, there were trans-dykes on motorcycles, there was a pro-Palestine event. It was really cute!
Afterwards we decided to check out corporate pride, happening at Loring Park, across from the Walker Art Center. Corporate pride, though being bigger in square-footage and having more booths and food options, felt less friendly and fun. The vibes were very different. And though predictably there were also so many gays, it felt less queer. I think if I were to do it over again I’d just go to People’s Pride instead.
That’s mostly it for this week. We’re headed outta here on Thursday and headed up to Canada for a week.
Minneapolis has been so good to us, it’s such a special place. I’m sad to be leaving so soon, but I have a feeling we’ll be back, potentially more permanently, in the near future.
I think I’ll leave y’all with a picture of my friend’s cat, George, who is such a sweetie and kept interrupting our board game.
Regards,
H
George! It's been so fun having you here, I'm glad you found fun and adventure while you were here!