Pride Toronto and Blockorama Organizers Reflect on the Future of Events

Construction work will happen along Church Street in the years ahead; Blockorama has outgrown the Wellesley Street parking lot.

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed  Sherwin Modeste, Executive Director, Pride Toronto

Sherwin Modeste has only been the executive director of Pride Toronto since November 2020 but already he and members of staff have faced threats filled with anti-Black racism while doing their job.

In the months ahead, the organizers of one of the largest Pride events in North America will have to strategize about next steps for future festivals as construction reduces public space in the city. Blackness Yes! — organizer of the very popular annual Blockorama stage — will also have to think about a space that can comfortably accommodate its swelling number of supporters. It also organizes the annual Blockobana that has been around since 2010.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of Global Black Pride — held in partnership with Pride Toronto, Global Black Pride, and Blackness Yes! — on July 27, Modeste said the work of his team continues despite the orchestrated email and phone call threats they received during Pride 2022. He said the staff and board are supportive of his work.

“Despite all that I was called during Pride Toronto, I stood my ground,” said Modeste who shared with those gathered that he was accused of trying to bring Jamaica Pride to Toronto. He reminded everyone that he is from the spice isle of Grenada. 

Modeste said he and board members knew who were behind the threats and while the matter was reported to Toronto Police Service, he described the threats as “more harassment and a lot of anti-Black racism. It was, ‘why are you bringing these straight black women to Toronto Pride. If you want to do Black Pride, why don’t you go back to Jamaica? It’s that kind of undertone. Don’t come to Pride, you’re not going to leave Pride alive.’” 

Describing it as an organized tactic to try to redirect Pride Toronto from its focus to deliver the best Pride they have had, he said his goal is that every year they have to get better.

“As leader, if I can’t see myself in what is happening something is drastically wrong. But at the same time, it is my responsibility to make sure that everyone else sees themselves within the movement. Your story will be told, my story will be told whether it’s through history, her story or their story, let us make sure that our story is told by us and not by them,” said Modeste.

 

Also speaking at the event were Nik Redman and Craig Palmer of the collective, Blackness Yes! Redman said over the years they have seen the community grow from being on the sidelines of the Wellesley Street parking lot to taking over the entire space. They fought as well with Pride Toronto to get that parking lot back for the annual Blockorama celebration after they were moved to a few different locations in consecutive years and the community pushed back against those moves. 

 

“And now we’ve outgrown the parking lot. We’ve outgrown the parking lot and we are so happy that we are able to provide programming by Blackness Yes! for the community.”

Modeste agrees with Redman’s assessment that Blockorama has outgrown the space. Finding a new space to accommodate the annual celebration is not an easy thing to do in the city but he said this is something they will have to talk about in the future. 

“Even if we look at the downtown, where could we put Blocko that they will be able to accommodate? One, Blocko has definitely outgrown the space, but two, people were trying to jump the fence. People were trying to bypass the process that Pride put in place in order to make sure that folks get in. Once the space got to capacity, which was around 3,000, we could no longer allow people in. Yes, there were people that did not get to come in because at a certain point in the day the area was at capacity,” says Modeste about this year’s Blockorama which celebrated its 24^th anniversary.

He said police showed up because people were literally pushing down the fence and at that point in time they needed to get additional support for the safety of all.

“What we did, we had to stop the program and that request was not made by us. That request was actually made by Blocko. Blocko wanted to ensure that they ran a safe event,” said Modeste who noted that working with Blocko has been phenomenal. 

However, Palmer said Blackness Yes! was told by Pride staff to stop the event. He said the collective would never request to pause their own program.

Modeste said Pride Toronto had to take into consideration a COVID-19 protocol and general safety as it related to the threats the queer community had been receiving globally.  “So with all of this in place, we needed that additional security. The delay in people getting in had to do with making sure that the space is safe for all.”  

Asked whether a space could be found on the street without fences, for example the intersection of Church and Wellesley where a stage used to be in past Pride festivals, Modeste said the City of Toronto no longer approves stages on the streets, and especially when they are so close to businesses. 

The Pride Toronto executive director said in the years ahead — 2023 to 2025 — Church Street will be under construction so they will have to think about contingencies. “The conversation has started with the City of Toronto into what the footprints and the staging and all of that would look like for 2023. We have no confirmation yet but the conversation has started.”

Modeste said as someone who is Black, queer, and from the Caribbean, it was a huge eye-opener of how white Pride has been and the lack of acceptance of diversity within the Pride movement. “They speak one thing but the reality is very different, very different.”

Moving forward, Modeste intends to make sure that: “BIPOC folks can see themselves truly in Pride. It is so important. White gay men have been the voice and the reality is the Pride movement is not about them. The Pride movement was started by trans women of colour but they have taken it over for whatever reason. But it’s about time that we start seeing the true Pride by seeing the diversity that it really represents.”

He has also challenged folks that Pride Toronto wants to make sure that queer artists are represented but also want to make sure that through allies they are able to make some headway.  

“As a result of having Spice, and when they attacked Spice on social media, Spice came out and she lambasted them. And she was a true ally and that’s the kind of allyship that we need. We don’t just want someone that will sit in the backroom. We want someone that will use their voice and use whatever means they have to support and to advocate for change. And that if we got nothing else, we heard loud and clear that you know what as Jamaica’s top female dancehall artist she stands with the community. For me, that is important.”

Photo credit: Neil Armstrong    Nik Redman and Craig Palmer of Blackness Yes!, organizer of Blockorama and Blockobana

Craig Palmer said he will focus more on sponsorship in the years ahead — something he commended the organizers of the global event for doing well. In the past, Blockobana has been a smaller party but Palmer always wanted to build it.  He notes that smaller parties are hard to exist because of the lack of space. He is into opening up more horizons.

Palmer was beaming from the successful staging of Blockobana at Stackt Market on July 31. Estimates are that over 2000 people attended the 11-hour event. Blockobana is usually held on the same weekend as Caribana and is one of the activities to attend during the weekend dubbed as Toronto Black Pride since 2018.

“I do think that in the past at Regent Park we’ve had a lot of people there but we never actually counted. And because the park is so big, you can’t really get a full-scale idea of who is in the space. So it was nice in this space which was a little bit more confined, not too confined, but a little bit more that we could see everybody and just feel everyone’s energy in one space.”

Asked whether Stackt Market will become the new space for Blockobana, Palmer said it is up for discussion. They will have to see what happens for next year and if they get the same kind of support. 

Regarding Blockorama, he said this year, logistically, did not go as well as Blackness Yes! would have liked. 

“The VIP situation was a problem. I feel like our space needs to be reflected in us in every space of our space, including VIP. That’s something that we will be discussing with Pride to wrest back a little bit more control of who is in that space. But also I think the event was great.”

Palmer said Blockorama had outgrown the parking lot space from many years ago and because of that there is a line up.

“On one hand, I get it, everyone bombarding the space. I get why they wanted to maybe close the space but I also understand, from the people who bombarded, from their perspective as well. Blocko is something they hold dear, something they have attachment to and to be on the outside that can’t happen again. We need to find a space that will fit everyone in there and have minimal line ups at best. I will say, logistically, it was a much, much, too small space even though it is historical for us. We’ve outgrown the space.”

Asked what would be the ideal space for Blockorama, Palmer says that is the problem. 

“We’ve been thinking about this for years because we’ve been under threat of not having Wellesley for reconstruction since 2014, I think. It hasn’t happened yet so we’ve been trying to think of a space but where could you go, that’ the problem. Maybe Nathan Phillips Square but is that too out in the open, maybe. We can’t do Queen’s Park, we can’t go too far away from the footprints of the festival or from the footprint of the TTC as far as the subway goes as well. We don’t want to be too far from that, we want to make it convenient, Wellesley is perfect for this location but it is not the perfect location.”

In 2014, there were news reports that the Toronto Parking Authority was pursuing plans to sell the parking lot for a possible multi-tower development. During Pride it is transformed to become the Wellesley Stage — the festival’s largest outdoor performance space — and has hosted performers at Blockorama such as Alison Hinds, Destra, Diana King, SWV, and others.

On April 4, 2017, the City of Toronto held a pre-application community consultation at the Toronto Central YMCA where residents could learn more about the development proposal for 15 Wellesley Street East and 20 & 26 Maitland Street.

“The Toronto Parking Authority lot across from the Wellesley subway station (15 Wellesley Street East), which was conditionally sold to Plazacorp in 2012, and the adjacent 20 and 26 Maitland Street properties are in the process of being consolidated by Plazacorp for a comprehensive development. An application has not yet been submitted. This meeting is being held to obtain community input prior to the submission of an application to the City. 

“City staff, in consultation with Councillor Wong-Tam, have been in discussions with Plazacorp to ensure that any development on the site incorporate a significant urban park fronting Wellesley Street East. 

“In addition to an urban park, the current proposal includes a 50-storey and 29-storey mixed use development. The Children's Catholic Aid Society, currently located at 26 Maitland Street, would relocate to the base building of the new development and replacement Toronto Parking Authority parking spaces would also be incorporated,” notes the proposal. 

In January 2022, the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association wrote on its website: “In the recently released, "TOCore Implementation Strategy: Downtown Parks and Public Realm Plan," 15 Wellesley East is listed as one of the “New Parks Secured through Development and Acquisitions.” According to Councillor Wong-Tam's office, the City has not yet determined if the entire lot will go to parkland or if some will be allocated to affordable housing.”  

Palmer is concerned that in the city of Toronto it is becoming a bit harder to host cultural events. “That’s a problem that really people need to look into because we are losing not just our culture — not the culture that we have, Black culture — but the culture of the arts we’re losing.”

Blockorama is the longest running and largest stage at Toronto’s annual Pride festival. 

 

For over 20 years, it has been a celebration of and for the Black LGBTQ+ community and allies, organized by the collective, Blackness Yes! It was born from the lack of representation for African, Black and Caribbean LGBTQ community members during Pride Toronto’s yearly festival and has been a space that celebrates Black love, joy, music, and community.

 

The story was revised on August 8, 2022 to indicate the difference in opinion between Pride Toronto and Blackness Yes! regarding who requested a stop to Blockorama during the course of the event.