A masked ball: At the start of the 2020 Drag March in Tompkins Square Park

The 26th annual Drag March took place last evening ... starting, as always, in Tompkins Square Park before participants made their way over along Ninth Street to Sheridan Square and then the Stonewall Inn... marking the start of Pride Weekend.

It was a much smaller, and more organic gathering this summer... there was social distancing and outfits incorporating face coverings (including a gas mask or two) as well plenty of support for Black Lives Matter ... EVG contributor Stacie Joy shared these photos...

LinkNYC kiosks continue to transform

😬

Third Avenue at Ninth Street.

What a beautiful feeling

Mia Berrin of Pom Pom Squad released this cover of "Crimson and Clover" last Friday on Juneteenth ... with proceeds going to For The Gworls Medical Fund. (The Bandcamp sales went to the NAACP legal fund.)

Here's what she had to say about the track via Instagram:

This marks the first song we’ve released that I produced all by myself (!!!) and both the song and video were made completely in quarantine. This year would have been my first Pride as an ‘out’ person. It took me a long time to come to terms with my identity in a true and honest way, but I am proud to meet myself where I am now. This year, the idea of walking down a street proudly, in my queerness and in my brown skin, feels particularly difficult for a multitude of obvious reasons, but this song is my small celebration of the scary, complicated, empowering process of owning my black, queer identity. Hope you love it.

Another reader report of a fireworks-related roof fire on Avenue C

The FDNY responded to a report of a fire last night around 9:45 on the southwest corner of Fifth Street and Avenue C... a nearby resident shared these photos...



The cause of the fire is unknown, though the resident suspects it was related to the ongoing illegal firework displays nearby... the reader points out the remains of fireworks in the lights of the fire truck in the photo below...



There wasn't any word of damage to the building, which houses 69 Avenue C Laundromat...



Last Saturday night, people setting off fireworks along Avenue C and neighboring buildings caused a fire on a building rooftop on Fourth Street.

Fireworks-related complaints to 311 and 911 topped 20,000 in 2020, "an unprecedented increase over previous years," Gothamist reported.

The NYPD has started making arrests...

These fireworks won't be set off in your neighborhood thanks to the Intelligence Bureau. Their precise work has led to several arrests and the confiscation of these fireworks.

Not only is this a quality of life issue, fireworks are illegal. pic.twitter.com/iaJpDEA6DC

— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) June 26, 2020

East Village-based activist curates BLM art displays in Brooklyn

Text and photos by Stacie Joy

East Village artist/activist Holli Porreca and the team at J&M Special Effects collaborated with NYC-based black artists to project their work onto public spaces, including, recently, the Washington Square Arch.


[Holli Porreca]


[J&M special effects team]

This action, the one I am documenting, is projecting onto two spaces in DUMBO — the walls of St. Ann’s Warehouse and the side of a building near Old Fulton Street and Everit.

Artists selected for this installation are street photographer Kobie Proctor, whose images include several shots from recent Union Square and Astor Place-based peaceful protests. His slideshow is shown on the St. Ann’s Warehouse walls, with permission from the performance space.


[Kobie Proctor]













A few blocks away, the collage work of Patrick Dougher and graphic illustrations of Kiriakos "Yako 440" Prodis are shown...













The team expects to do more site-based Black Lives Matter installations in the days and weeks to come.