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Lots of fun at the Cadillac Barbie IN Pride Parade in Downtown Indianapolis, Saturday, June 10, 2017.

Though the vibrant colors, expressive dancing and energetic performances of the Indy Pride parade and festival wont fill the streets of downtown Indianapolis Sunday, they will still be present as the celebration shifts to an online event.

This year, while there will be virtual dance parties, celebrity shout-out videos and performances from artists including Huckleberry Funk, there will also be a focus on amplifying and supporting the voices of Black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).

Given the tragedies that are happening in our community with Dreasjon Reed and the tragedies that are happening across the country, said Tabitha Barbour, Indy Pride program director, we felt like our festival was an important place for us to contribute to the conversation.

Scenes from the Cadillac Barbie Pride Parade on Mass Ave. in Indianapolis, Saturday, June 8, 2019.(Photo: Jenna Watson/IndyStar)

As part of this effort, this weekend's celebration will include a fireside chat with Queering Indy and Indy10 Black Lives Matter, and organization dedicated to "serve, support and love Black people," according to the organization's Facebook page.

"While Pride is definitely a celebration, Pride has always been a protest as well," said Matty Slaydon, an organizer of an organization called Queering Indy.

Queering Indy is dedicated to raising up the voices in the queer community, especially those ofpeople of color and transgender people. Sladon said the two organizations have spent a lot of time working together to explore the best way to use their platforms to "raise up the voices of Black and brown people within our community."

There will also be several opportunities for meditation and reflection throughout the night.

"I think the virtual Pride has given us more of an opportunity to spend time using it as an educational platform for people in our community," Sladon said. "I think we have a responsibility now to take the time to educate ourselves and listen to the voices that are traditionally quiet in our community."

Barboursaid it's important to remember that the first Pridewas the Stonewall Uprising, a protest led by Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who were both trans women of color.

She added that combining celebration, education, history and healing is important to ensure everyone feels like they have a "place and space in Pride."

Barbour and Indy Pride Executive Director Chris Handberg said they hope individuals feel able to "freely and unapologetically" be themselves without fear of oppression or persecution while also taking time to listen, learn and help the message that Black Lives Matter and Trans Lives Matter extend beyond the celebration.

"It's time for us to admit that we have been wrong and our silence is wrong, so we need to really intentionally lift up their voices to speak ... and let their voices be heard," Handberg said.

The virtual event will start at 2 p.m. Click here for the full schedule.

Click here to watch the Indy Pride Virtual Celebration.

Contact IndyStar Pulliam Fellow Brooke Kempat bkemp@gannett.com.Follow her on Twitter@brookemkemp.

Read or Share this story: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2020/06/18/indy-pride-sees-changes-due-coronavirus-black-lives-matter/3205840001/

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How coronavirus and the Black Lives Matter movement is changing Indy Pride - IndyStar

There is some precedent for massive giving at cultural inflection points. In mid-2018, as the Trump administration was separating families at the border, a single Facebook fund-raiser for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services in Texas went viral, raising $20 million in a few days.

But that was one fund-raiser and one group, not the vast array of organizations that have experienced recent windfalls, including the activists and advocates as well as some of the journalism outlets that cover them.

One tiny group in Chicago, Equity and Transformation, which serves black people left behind in the economy, saw a dormant GoFundMe page go freshly viral, raising $44,000. Weve never had that kind of resources, Richard Wallace, the founder, said.

Unicorn Riot, an alternative media company that closely covered the early Minneapolis protests, blew past an initial $5,000 online fund-raising goal by a factor of 100, raising $570,000, according to the sites online tracker. And The Marshall Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit news organization that reports on the criminal justice system, saw its membership double, from 4,000 to 9,500, according to Carroll Bogert, the groups president.

Were just sitting here doing our jobs and donations started skyrocketing, she said.

The energy to contribute is so vast that even those without money have sought ways to contribute, including watching videos on YouTube that promise to direct every dollar of revenue to racial justice causes.

I wish I could give money I cant, Im broke, said Zoe Amira, a 20-year-old who lives outside Chicago and posted an ad-laden video that was viewed more than nine million times, generating $42,000 before it was yanked for violating ad policies. She later said on Twitter that YouTube told her it would make a donation of an equal size because it so believed in the essence of the project.

Celebrities Chrissy Teigen, Lady Gaga, Leonardo DiCaprio, among others have joined and amplified the giving, too. One pop singer, Abel Tesfaye, known as The Weeknd, posted receipts for $500,000 in donations. And the K-pop boy band BTS announced giving $1 million to Black Lives Matter; its fan group matched that by donating $1.3 million to a dozen advocacy groups.

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Black Lives Matter and Other Groups Flooded With Millions in Donations - The New York Times

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) Prairie View A&M students and staff are painting a Black Lives Matter street mural on Sandra Bland Parkway.

The stretch of road was renamed after Bland, whose death fueled national outrage about police brutality.

Sandra Bland (source: CBS Chicago/Facebook)

Mayor David Allen teamed up with the Universitys School of Architecture to design a template for the permanent mural.

Students and alumni, leaving and coming into campus can read it and know that, in Prairie View, were doing our part to spread the message, said Allen. It solidifies the fact that were sick and tired of being sick and tired; were not going to go through the racial profiling unaddressed; were not going to go through some of what they did to people like George Floyd, Sandra Bland, and countless more, any more.

Staff and students from PVAMUs Fabrication Center created templates and renderings for the mural, which will be 12-feet wide and 19-feet tall, with three-feet of spacing in between.

Continued here:
Black Lives Matter Mural Coming To Sandra Bland Parkway In Prairie View - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

While Wieden + Kennedy has spent recent weeks launching work for clients that supports the Black Lives Matter movementincluding for some frequently vocal brands like Nike and some surprising newcomers like McDonaldsthe independent agency hadnt released an official statement of its own until today.

In a video of animated text created for Instagram, the agency bluntly states that it will not work alongside clients, employees or partners who dont support Black Lives Matter.

Black Lives Matter. This is not a controversial statement, the video says. If you do not support this sentiment as an employee, you should find somewhere else to work. If you do not support this sentiment as one of our parters, we do not want to be affiliated. If you do not support this sentiment as a client, well gladly support you finding another agency.

Over its nearly 40-year history, Wieden + Kennedy has often been one of the agency worlds more opinionated players and has reveled in its role as a global independent.But in recent years, the agency has also been on one of its biggest growth spurts ever, winning A-list clients like McDonalds, Ford, Facebook and HBO.

Some of its clients have been more proactive than others in responding to Black Lives Matter since nationwide protests began in late May after Minneapolis police killed unarmed resident George Floyd by kneeling on his neck. Nike and HBO were quick to respond, with the athletic brand and W+K Portland creating a spot about racism and the premium network posting a message of support on Twitter:

Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind. James Baldwin

We stand with our Black colleagues, employees, fans, actors, storytellers and all affected by senseless violence. #BlackLivesMatter

Even McDonalds, traditionally a brand that avoids political or polarizing issues, launched a June 3 ad from W+K New York in support of Black Lives Matter, though some of the chains critics said the ad was hollow given McDonalds track record on income-inequality issues such as raising the minimum wage.

On June 5, Yum Brandsparent company of W+K Portland client KFCposted a letter from CEO David Gibbs announcing it would donate $3 million toward social justice initiatives. Gibbs ended his note by saying Black Lives Matter.

Wieden + Kennedys most polarizing client throughout the debate around police violence against Black Americans has been Facebook, which counts W+K among its roster of core agencies. Besieged by critics both outside his company and within, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg became a political lightning rod whenunlike Twitterhis platform declined to amend or flag posts by President Donald Trump, such as his comment that when the looting starts, the shooting starts.

However, even Zuckerberg eventually expressed support for Black Lives Matter in a June 5 note to employees. To members of our Black community: I stand with you, Zuckerberg said. Your lives matter. Black lives matter.

Sources at Wieden + Kennedy said its unlikely the statement posted today will result in the agency resigning any current accounts, given that most of its notable clients have come out in support of Black Lives Matter. But they do believe it will serve as a warning sign of sorts for any potential clients whove kept the movement at arms length to avoid backlash from conservative consumers.

In terms of timing and why the agency is posting its statement more than two weeks into the national protests against police violence, the agency sources said they spent that time discussing and addressing the issues of inequality through internal conversations rather than prioritizing a public statement.

Read more:
Wieden + Kennedy Says It Only Wants Clients and Staff Who Believe Black Lives Matter - Adweek

The Next Steps rally event looks to use the recent momentum in the Black Live Matter movement as an opportunity to educate people about change.

SEATTLE On Friday, state and local leaders will speak at Judkins Park in Seattle during a rally event called The Next Steps.

Rally organizers say Friday's event is an opportunity for people to listen and learn about ways they can promote change and help support the Black Lives Matter movement.

The event is organized by the non-profit Not This Time.

"People are now wondering what's next? Once they've done the marching, people wonder if this all that it takes?" said Andre Taylor, who leads Not This Time, "It's not all that it takes. There's a lot more than has to be done."

Following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by police in Minneapolis, thousands in Washington state have come out to march in support of the Black Live Matter movement. Taylor believes it's time to take the momentum and use it as an opportunity to educate people about change.

He said Friday's event, scheduled on Juneteenth, will be about putting forth a united message.

"[Washingtonians] are leaders and we're going to have to act like that. In order to act like that you have to be conscientious about what's going on around you because anybody that's coming to disrupt our unity they are outliers," said Taylor, "We all need to take an important part in that process and make sure that no one is distracting us from the unity that Washington led in police accountability and the unity that we will lead in building upon that for the rest of the country."

In 2018, Taylor said Washington state led the nation in police accountability by passing Initiative 940, which requires police training to de-escalate volatile situations and avoid the use of deadly force. Taylor believe this is one example of why Washington state can lead the nation in further police reform.

Friday's rally event will be at Judkins Park starting at 1 p.m.

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Black Lives Matter rally in Seattle will focus on educating people about change - KING5.com