Macon Pride launches with art, tributes and events across downtown

Macon Pride and the Tubman Museum are honoring 22 LGBTQ2+ leaders while hosting art, drag, music and community events through the weekend.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon Pride and the Tubman Museum kicked off Pride Weekend with a celebration of visibility, unity and legacy, honoring 22 LGBTQ2+ leaders whose work has shaped arts, activism, historic preservation and community development across the region.

This week’s celebration will showcase pioneers and trailblazers through history who have paved the way for the community. Special events chairman DeMarcus Beckham says celebration is a moment to see someone that’s just like you.

“Pride is just not a big party,” Beckham said. “It’s a time to find resources for us, ways to remember our personal history, it’s a way to bring our community together. In these tumultuous times that we’re seeing right now. I think events like this bring the community together. This pride this year is about unity, and we say that joy is our best resistance when it comes pride.”

Beckham says highlighting pride is an important factor for this generation.

“We offer a safe and secure pride for several individuals,” Beckham said. “Most people, it’s their first experience, finding individuals that are like them.”

Local artist Colin Penndorf crafted the unity project.

“The community will become artists by taking some of their yarn, finding their identifiers, drawing their line though it, and melding it with the rest of the community’s line work as well,” Penndorf said.

He believes this project shows unity and love.

“It’s always important to find unity, especially in harder times,” he said. “It’s great to be able to come together with your local community in particular. And I think a project like this does help pull everybody together, and shows that we are all human, and with that we all have different things we relate with.”

Other celebrations consist of a beer release and karaoke Thursday at Piedmont Brewery and 3rd Street Park from 4-8 p.m. On Friday, a drag show will happen at the Capitol Theater at 9 p.m., and on Saturday, a Macon Pride festival is scheduled for 3rd Street Park from 2 to 8 p.m.