Queer-centric Old Town a perfect fit for Lansing Pride

Along with the east side, Old Town is known as an epicenter for Lansing’s LGBTQ+ community. But it hasn’t always been that way. Though Cheryl VanDeKerkhove, a longtime LGBTQ+ rights activist and owner of the now-defunct LGBTQ+ bookstore Real World Emporium, called Esquire Bar “a first gay anchor” in the neighborhood, Old Town underwent a revitalization in the ‘90s, which she credits as the spark that transformed it into what it is today.

“Before the 1990s, Old Town was partly old buildings being used mainly as warehouse storage and partly the seeding of an artists’ enclave with a bohemian vibe,” VanDeKerkhove said. “The artist community that was making a home there seemed to consider the LGBTQ+ community kindred spirits.”

As she worked to open her bookstore, thanks to a lease from the late “Mayor of Old Town,” Robert Busby, who was “on board with our vision and supportive of our mission to create LGBTQ+ community and a safe space in Old Town,” she said some of the owners of buildings that were abandoned or being used as warehouses began dying, opening up the spaces to be renovated and developed into businesses.

“That was the springboard for the arts community and the LGBTQ+ community to really build something special in Old Town,” she said.

She called that period Old Town’s “gay ‘90s,” noting that the neighborhood “was even more LGBTQ+-centric than it is today.”

“When the Real World Emporium was in Old Town, there was a time when I could count 12 to 13 lesbian- or gay-owned businesses within the two main blocks,” she said.

Old Town continues to be a bastion for the community, home to Pride-flag-laden storefronts, a shop dedicated to selling Pride merch and the area’s biggest queer-focused celebration of the year, the Lansing Pride festival.

“Old Town has historically been the arts district, which has been very welcoming and inclusive, especially to the LGBTQ+ community, for many years,” Lansing Pride Board President Ben Dowd said. “So, it made a natural fit. This will be our fourth year as our organization, but other groups that did Pride before held it there. There were and are gay bars there, and there’s a lot of support from the community.”

Several venues around the neighborhood — Esquire, Sir Pizza, UrbanBeat, Copper Moon and Zoobie’s — will serve as gracious hosts of the annual White Party bar crawl, offering drink specials, DJs and drag shows to hordes of white-clad guests from 8 p.m. to midnight. (UrbanBeat will open at 10:30). Wristbands are $10 and will be sold at all venues.

“We’re doing our afterparty at Copper Moon, and they’ll be part of the White Party. It was really them that reached out and wanted to know how they could be more involved as the building was the former Spiral Dance Bar,” Dowd said. “That’s a good example of the community reaching out to us and saying, ‘Hey, what more can we do?’ Which is pretty great.”

New this year, Saturday’s Pride festival, expanded to include three more blocks of space, will feature two stages of live entertainment, including performances by the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Glenn Douglas Packard Institute of Dancers, Lansing women’s chorus Sistrum and All-of-Us Express Children’s Theatre, plus a two-hour block of Latin Pride programming in partnership with the governor’s Hispanic/Latino Commission.

Courtesy Photo

A host of drag artists will take the stages throughout the day, with headline performances by Adore Delano, a trans woman who took the world by storm with her bubbly, airheaded personality and fierce vocal skills on season six of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and season two of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.”

“Not only is she a great name for us, but she also represents our trans community within Pride. That’s super important,” Dowd said. “She’s been well received as a positive influence in the queer community since before her debut on 'RuPaul’s Drag Race,' but since then, especially, she’s been viewed as somebody to kind of ensure that our trans folks are represented within Pride across the country.”

Another new addition is Pure Options’ cannabis consumption lounge at Sir Pizza, which Lansterdam columnist Chris Silva previews on page 15. For those who prefer to catch a buzz the old-fashioned way, there will be a beer tent on Beaver Street. Those who work up an appetite at either area will find a slew of food trucks near the main stage.

For younger attendees, the Free to Bee family zone at Copper Moon will offer drag artist storytimes, robotics demonstrations, athletic activities, face painting, chalk art, bubbles, balloon animals, a bounce house and, weather permitting, a Preuss Pets lizard exhibit. Elementary, middle and high school students are invited to participate in a sticker design competition, beginning at Pride and continuing through July 31, for the opportunity to have their artwork featured in Lansing Pride’s official sticker collection and win prizes.

Though the Pride festival is just one day, Dowd has encouraged all Old Town businesses to support Pride throughout the entire month, a request he said has received strong support.

“If you drive through now, you’ll notice there are flags all over and all sorts of window fronts that are set up to really showcase the support of Pride in Old Town,” he said.

VanDeKerkhove said that because the LGBTQ+ community played such an integral role in creating the Old Town we know today, the neighborhood will “always feel like home to us.”

“There’s an ethos of Old Town being a welcoming, diverse, eclectic, fun, thought-provoking and interesting space. It’s a place to celebrate community and to find joy in our shared respect for — and loving embrace of — what makes each of us unique. These things haven’t changed over the years, and these are things among which the LGBTQ+ community is truly at home,” she said.