The Rude Collective Teams Up to Present a Latinx-Focused Event for Pride

By Neil Armstrong

Photo courtesy of The Rude Collective

As the Pride Toronto Festival weekend (June 21-23) approaches, The Rude Collective has decided to do something different this year.

It has teamed up with Maricón, which is based in New York City (NYC), to create ‘Rude xx Maricón,’ a QTBIPOC Pride mega-event on June 21 at the Northern Contemporary Gallery on Queen Street West.

Mark-Ché Devonish is the creative director of The Rude Collective, a group of queer Toronto-based artists who reclaim space, highlight racialized queer artists and artwork and aim to de-center oppressive structures while creating immersive experiences. It juxtaposes art shows, dance parties and performances into hybrid multimedia events. This is their first Latinx-focused event.

 “The event is Latinx-focused and not just Latinx as our headliner and co-organizer, Joselo, founder of Maricon, is Latinx but there are many other identities being represented on the lineup,” says Devonish.

This is the first-time headliner Joey LaBeija will perform his recently released album for a live crowd as well as his first performance in Toronto.

The Rude Collective was founded in September 2016 and has prioritized predominantly Black and Indigenous artists because it felt that there was not a lot of diversity in the representation in the events and art shows being created and curated.

“We also recognize the amount of harm that's been done to Black and Indigenous communities and wanted to start at the margins,” he said.

 ‘Rude xx Maricón’ is  described as “the only community-organized Pride event of this scale featuring a lineup of mostly female, trans and non-binary racialized artists from the Toronto queer underground community, focusing specifically on Latinx music and culture.”

Maricón was created to fill a void within NYC Latinx nightlife.

“We’re trying to create an event that queer Latinx people and other queer people of colour can look forward to, an event they feel represented by, and an event that anyone is welcome at, but where our racial identities and range of cultural backgrounds are celebrated,” says Devonish.

The collective says it wants to put focus on a part of the community that sometimes doesn’t get any recognition.

The Rude Collective notes that Pride weekend features no major queer Latinx events.

Joselo, the founder of Maricón (an event name that reclaims the Spanish anti-queer slur), and the rest of the event’s deejay and performer lineup will focus on music genres significant to Latinx culture and other racialized groups of people, such as reggaeton, dancehall, hip-hop, trap, Bollywood, house, techno and rap.

Photo courtesy of The Rude Collective

Since its inception, The Rude Collective has put on some signature events that have garnered tremendous support.

One of them is ‘Sissy- Tribute to Ballroom and Vogue’ event, -- the most recent was held at Stackt Market as the first queer event in the space. It featured deejays, performers and curated artwork.

Another, ‘Fried Plantains: Queer Soca Fete’ has free fried plantains, and lots of soca, dancehall and reggae. It prioritizes music from the Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora, deejays and work by queer Caribbean artists.

Every year in November to mark the anniversary of its firs time organizing an event, The Rude Collective presents a massive celebration featuring local and international performers.

The collective has also collaborated with organizations such as The Gardiner Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, Pride Toronto, Images Festival, and Love-In Dance Festival, to name a few.

The Rude Collective says venue closures and lack of support from the City of Toronto to help cultivate a safe queer nightlife scene continue to present obstacles to racialized queer communities ability to congregate for programming significant to their cultural backgrounds.

Its response is ‘Rude xx Maricon.’ “Artists from Toronto’s queer POC-centred nightlife like Yes Yes Y’all and Raven’s Vision are represented on the lineup, and this artistic coming together is to demonstrate that we are present, resilient, and know how to throw a fun, safe and inclusive event,” says the organizer.

Photo courtesy of The Rude Collective

Asked how he finds the venues, Devonish says he does so through word of mouth and through speaking to organizers and promoters who have been around much longer than he has.

“We chat about if the staff and/or venue owner is racist or homophobic, we chat about if their security engages in transphobia and/or racism and how they prioritize folks with intersecting identities' safety and what the overall experience was like. We have to be careful as one event in a space that doesn't share your values could mean that you lose supporters and attendees for upcoming events but on the flip side, due to the constant venue closures, our options are becoming more and more limited.”

He says the feedback he has received from people who attended The Rude Collective’s events has been good.  

“Folks message us to say that they feel welcomed in the space, and they love feeling like they can embrace their cultural identity while celebrating being part of the queer community. Attendees love seeing artwork in the space or learning about queer performers who they can support. It's a safe space for many without us calling it a safe space as we know it's constantly a work in progress.”

Rude xx Maricon takes place on Friday, June 21 at the Northern Contemporary Gallery, 1605 Queen Street West, from 9:00 p.m.-3:00 a.m.

Aside from Joey LaBeija and Joselo (NYC), the lineup includes: Myst Milano (Rude Collective), Nino Brown (Yes Yes Y’all), Chippy Nonstop (Intersessions, Pep Rally) and Bliptor (Raven’s Vision). Early bird tickets are $15. For more details, check out Facebook and Eventbrite.