DRAG PERFORMANCES, an albino alligator, and a celebration of inclusivity took center stage at PRIDE NightLife, an event at the California Academy of Sciences ahead of this year’s San Francisco Pride parade and festival.
Over 2,000 tickets were sold for the Thursday night celebration. Partygoers filed into the massive research center and museum in Golden Gate Park as music blasted from the central courtyard and the main stage in the garden area. Visitors from all over the Bay Area donned their finest sequins and eccentric outfits as they walked around the institution’s rainforest, aquarium, and other science exhibits.
NightLife is a weekly event at the museum that brings in adults 21 and over to explore the building, often times with a central theme. Notable past events have included Black Thursday, a deaf dance party, and a Palestine cultural night.
Richie Lipton, the California Academy of Sciences’ NightLife event producer, was excited to see the community come out in support of the event. He said celebrations of the LGBTQ+ community have happened at the museum for almost 10 years. His team started to plan for this year’s event in January, expecting it to continue the legacy of being one of the museum’s biggest events.
NightLife events, according to Lipton, are considered successful if they complete two main goals. First is looking at how many tickets are sold and analyzing how engaged local communities were with an event. He believes PRIDE NightLife is considered one of the museum’s most successful events because it draws in large diverse crowds to feel unified as a community.
“The event and the environment that it creates for everybody feels like, ‘this is the one where I feel welcome and I feel seen, and I can be around people who feel the same.’ We’ve really leaned into events that are very culture- and community-oriented. And those actually end up being some of our most successful events too,” said Lipton.
The party at the museum featured local artists and vendors that Lipton said are integral parts of the Bay Area’s LGBTQ community. Throughout the night, local DJ team MAKE ROOM let the bass encapsulate the crowd as they played in the central atrium of the museum. Oakland-based production group Oaklash helped produce the night’s highly anticipated drag show for a third year.
“What we really like about them is that they’re not traditional drag. It’s not just drag queens. It’s weird drag, it’s everything drag. There’s drag kings and drag queens and, you know, we’ve had a performer in a wheelchair. They take inclusivity to the maximum extent,” said Lipton.
Mama Celeste is the co-founder and executive director of Oaklash. They helped curate the list of performers and said the organization actively tries to provide a spotlight to queer and trans artists so they can make a living while also celebrating their identities.
“Tonight, you see a lot of especially trans people of color that we’re trying to give a platform to right now and also get resources to. Doing an event of this scale gives us an opportunity to help pay people’s rent for the month. And that’s not something that we take lightly,” Mama Celeste said.
Mama Celeste went on to say that queer performance is a political art form. They said events like PRIDE NightLife at the museum give space to a community of people that historically are fighting for their existence to not be questioned.
Pride is for queer rights. Pride started as a riot, as a protest. We are all here together!
Nicki Jizz, OAKLASH SHOW HOST
“In a world where trans people don’t have basic autonomy, just getting up there and being and existing a bold queer example of living your truth is sometimes enough,” Mama Celeste said.
During the Oaklash show, local performers energized the crowd with their lip-sync renditions of Michael Jackson, Celia Cruz, and Doechii. The host of the show, Nicki Jizz, was met with ravenous applause as she repeatedly told the crowd that Pride celebrations were a time to support each other.
“Pride is for queer rights. Pride started as a riot, as a protest. We are all here together!” she said between sets.
Throughout the night, people flocked to greet Claude, an albino alligator, as they visited the vendors and activity areas throughout the museum. Those who had never visited the California Academy of Sciences before were elated to be in a mock rainforest and see the fossils of dinosaurs.
Diane Eilerts said she came with a friend group made up of LGBTQ people and allies. She agreed with the messages spread throughout the night about unifying as a community to combat hate.
“I think in a lot of ways, queer people feeling joy is a form of protest. It’s not great for queer people, for trans people, for immigrants or anyone in the outskirts or underrepresented right now. It’s really important that people take time to feel joy,” said Eilerts.
Watching the stingrays glide across the mangrove pool were Erika Reyes and her date Alicia Porras-Pozos. The pair talked about how much fun they had at the event.
“I’m a little older now, so I like to celebrate pride in a more inclusive and nerdy way,” Porras-Pozos said. “There’s so much segregation outside and inside our community. Prime example is disability. The show made it as accessible as possible. It’s those little things that make a difference and truly make shows like this inclusive.”
The California Academy of Sciences and Oaklash expressed excitement to continue producing community-centered events.