Latest news with #MamaCeleste
CBS News
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Oaklash Festivals returns to Oakland to celebrate LGBTQ community
The Oaklash Festival was back in Oakland this weekend and it's a three-day celebration of drag and the LGBTQ community. Organizers said they have managed to avoid the struggles some other LGBTQ organizations are experiencing because of the elimination of government grants. Sunday was their Oaklash Kick Back event at Panther Skate Plaza. Executive Director Mama Celeste says it's a culmination of months of work, but every second was worth it. "We're just here having a good time, out in the sun, just getting together and being queer and living our dream," Celeste said. Celeste moved to the Bay Area in 2015 and, for the first time in their life, felt at ease. "I love this community and I think everything that I do is an effort to give back to that feeling that I got of feeling welcomed and feeling like I belonged," Celeste said. Queer spaces like this continue to be needed. Celeste acknowledges that the Trump administration's policies and actions have rolled back protections and reinforced discrimination against the LGBTQ community. But they say it's not the first time this has happened to their community. "Queer and trans people have always been the subjects of violence in this country and what we're going through now is no different than what generations have had to experience," explained Celeste. Celeste says they've learned from the generations that came before them, and they continue to organize and fight back. But they're trying to do it in a sustainable way. Instead of relying on corporate sponsors and government grants, many of which have been eliminated, they're relying on the community that continues to show up year after year. They have fundraisers and receive donations at festival events. "We really just rely on the people who come to this event wanting to see it year and year and every $20 that people give at the door makes this possible and helps us keep this going and that's what we need to be doing right now, surviving," Celeste said. There were also resources at the event, like health vendors to help people get gender affirming care and mental health care. Oaklash is no longer focused on trying to scale up their non-profit, but instead maintaining what they have already built. Brandy Hyatt has been attending the event for years and she's grateful for spaces like this one. "It solidifies what's going on a national level is not what's happening locally," said Hyatt regarding seeing so many people come out to support the event. "People care about each other in the community. It doesn't matter about who you love, or the color of your skin, your religion, any of those things." The non-profit tries to be welcoming to everyone. Ryana Wilkin is deaf and she is working with Oaklash to try and connect that community with more LGBTQ resources. "Deaf people need to come on, don't be shy," Wilkin said while signing. "Come out now." Celeste said no matter what happens politically, Oaklash will keep fighting for the LGBTQ community. "Creating these safe spaces and giving people the opportunity to feel liberated, even for a moment, is the most important thing that we can do and it's also the only thing we can do," Celeste said. While the festival is Oaklash's biggest event, they do put on other drag and queer performances throughout the year.
San Francisco Chronicle
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. Pride is struggling. Here's why Oaklash is thriving
At a time when many LGBTQ organizations are struggling due to the elimination of government grants and sudden abandonment by corporate sponsors, the leadership at Oaklash is cautiously optimistic about the future. The nonprofit arts organization, which produces large-scale drag events year-round, is back with its signature Oaklash drag festival, from Friday-Sunday, May 16-18, and the lineup is stacked. The three-day queer celebration in Oakland will begin with the ApocaLipstick kickoff party at the downtown Oakland White Horse Inn, dubbed 'a party fit for the end of the world,' and book ended by Oaklash Kick Back, featuring workshops like queer calisenics and 'twerklates' (think pilates with twerking dance moves) and various performances. The centerpiece, its Saturday Block Party in old Oakland, boasts 60 performers and seven DJs over four blocks and two stages. They've even booked international drag performer Yvie Oddly, the winner of Season 11 of 'RuPaul's Drag Race,' as the headliner. But in spite of that marquee name, leaders said they're weathering the difficult climate for queer organizations because they've been focused on the Bay Area LGBTQ community. The organization has also been careful not to depend too much on any one type of funding and has made sure not to grow beyond its means. 'It's proof that something that we thought was sustainable — relying on corporations for our communities — is not a long-term solution,' said Mama Celeste, cofounder and executive director of Oaklash, referring to funding cuts organizations like San Francisco Pride have faced so far in 2025. Much of Oaklash's funding this year comes from individual donors and fundraising events, tactics that rely on community connections and goodwill rather than the whims of politics. This move by the now 8-year-old festival prepared them to navigate the current anti-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion moment the country is facing under the second Trump administration. Another pivotal decision that positioned the nonprofit for today's reality was launching year-round programming in 2023. While Oaklash was on a growth trajectory following a successful return to in-person programming in 2022, Mama Celeste said that now, 'the objective is stability and deepening our roots.' In keeping with Oaklash's mission, that means leaning 'more into the nonprofit sector and really think about the queer arts environment and queer nightlife economy as ecology-building,' explained Mama Celeste, who is also a drag performer. 'That's where my head is at as the executive director.' Although the organization lost a $14,000 festival grant from Oakland when the city cut their 2025 festival grants program, Oaklash Board President Charles Hawthorne describes the organization's finances as healthy. 'The thing we have learned repeatedly is we like to put our money into people who help create our events, and we also like to focus our efforts and our energy towards uplifting people and performers who are not uplifted in other areas of our community,' said Hawthorne. 'I think, in this moment when the resources are being taken away, what's been really beautiful to see is how much people are still excited about Oaklash.' Over the past two years, Oaklash has expanded beyond its signature festival into a year-round queer arts program, focused on producing large-scale drag events and mentoring emerging queer and trans leaders in nightlife. It's set up the Oaklash Disability Fund, offering unrestricted grants to disabled LGBTQ artists in the Bay Area. It's also made accessibility practices a cornerstone of its ethos, staffing events with ASL interpreters and exclusively presenting in ADA-compliant venues. Oaklash has also hosted a number of community workshops on issues ranging from arts funding and money management to makeup and wig artistry. In February, the organization even launched its first trio of artists-in-residence: performer and disability rights advocate Glamputee, performer and classical musician Obsidienne Obsurd and performer and visual artist Evian. Meanwhile, the organization has a long history of political and social advocacy, which Mama Celeste said the community 'demands of us.' That has included boycotting Israeli products due to the country's conflict in Gaza and resisting what co-founder Beatrix LaHaine has described as 'joy-washing' and the 'weaponization of kindness' as a way of avoiding addressing bigger issues beyond the LGBTQ community. 'It's not just joy for the sake of disassociating and coming together and forgetting about everything that's happening in the world,' said Mama Celeste. 'A big part of why we did this in Oakland to begin with is Oakland has always had that vibe where the community doesn't mess around out here.'
