Brooklyn Pride weekend: 17 things to do

By Joshua Encinias

Brooklyn Pride’s making it hot in the streets and the sheets all weekend long. So hold onto your butts, or someone else’s, because this weekend will see a dazzling array of queer celebration, with some family-friendly events sprinkled in.

ChamberQUEER brings their original chamber music to Littlefield on Friday night, and the final weekend of the Brooklyn Film Festival begins today. Saturday has the Brooklyn Pride Festival, capped off with the Twilight Pride Parade on Fifth Avenue, with plenty of gay stuff to do in between.

For art fans, all weekend long there is Photoville and the new Hannah Gadsby-curated exhibit at Brooklyn Museum, “It’s Pablomatic.” If you’re not recovering on Sunday (or even if you are!), there’s a drag brunch at Fandi Mata and “The Jungle Book” marionette show for the whole family.

Now, sashay away:

Friday, June 9

Final Weekend of the Brooklyn Film Festival
All weekend
The 26th Brooklyn Film Festival concludes this weekend with 155 new movies from every genre. Not sure you want to sit through a bunch of feature-length movies and docs? The fest also has shorts and animated projects for every taste. Movies will play at Windmill Studios, Wythe Hotel, and The Center for Fiction. Come see what festival programmers have cooked up for this year’s edition! Various ticket packages are available.

Photoville
Noon to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday
Brooklyn Bridge Park is once again the hub of this annual two-week photographic extravaganza, which runs daily through June 18, with free open-air exhibitions, interactive workshops and, of course, those iconic shipping containers that serve as mini-galleries. Photoville has locations throughout the city; Emily Warren Roebling Plaza features more than 55 exhibitions. Free, check Photoville’s website for specifics.

ChamberQUEER at Littlefield
Doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.
ChamberQUEER performs a collection of newly composed works at Littlefield. Written by the seven-member ensemble for flute, violin, cello, guitar, harp, mridangam, percussion, and voice, “ChamberQueer 2023: We Refract,” meditates on questions that strike at the heart of the ensemble’s commitment to building queer communities. 635 Sackett Street. Tickets start at $12.

‘Trash Can Liza!’
8 p.m.
Macy Rodman performs a special Pride edition of “Trash Can Liza!” at C’mon Everybody on Friday night. The show is a surreal exploration of Broadway through a punk lens, combining Rodman’s brand of comedy with heartfelt musical performances in an intimate setting. The show is irreverent to good taste and takes the one-woman show format into new and disorienting territory. 325 Franklin Avenue. Tickets are $18.50.

David Duchovny at Baby’s All Right
8:30 p.m.
Most of us know David Duchovny for his work on “The X-Files” and “Californication,” but he’s also carved out a music career, including three albums that received good reviews. In celebration of his directorial debut, “Bucky F*cking Dent,” the Tribeca Festival hosts a performance of Duchovny’s band on Friday night at Baby’s All Right. Broadway-trained singer Caroline Iliff and songwriter Blake Harmon will be on opening duties. 146 Broadway. Rush tickets will be available at the door.

Saturday, June 10

The New York Transit Museum’s Bus Festival
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The New York Transit Museum’s Bus Festival returns with the chance to board vintage buses spanning more than 90 years of New York City transit history — buses like “Betsy,” a double-decker from 1931, the oldest bus in the vintage fleet. The festival will also offer a pop-up shop, and sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline from the Emily Warren Roebling Plaza underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, where the festival is being held.

Brooklyn Pride Festival
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Park Slope 5th Avenue BID hosts the immensely popular Brooklyn Pride Parade & Festival, on Saturday. The all-day Pride Festival showcases performers on the Brooklyn Pride Entertainment Stage, and LGBTQIA+ 5K Run beginning at 10 a.m., and affirming local restaurants, stores, and bars. 4th Street Plaza on 5th Avenue. Free.

Family Pride Fest at City Point
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Primark and City Point celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and family with Family Pride Fest on Brooklyn Pride Day on Saturday. Hosted by Lola Star of Dreamland Productions, the inclusive celebration for all ages will shine a spotlight on fabulousness and creativity. Join in the family-friendly fun that includes a marching band, a parade, a hula hoop show, and a family dance party. 455 Albee Square West. Free.

FAD Market
Noon to 5 p.m.
Offering everything from hand-crafted jewelry and apparel to bath and body care, tableware, home furnishings, and artisanal packaged food, this weekend the FAD Market will cover the two blocks between Clinton and Hicks streets on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights. Free to attend.

Free Store in Kensington
1 to 5 p.m.
Kensington-WT Mutual Aid serves the Kensington and Windsor Terrace neighborhoods with physical, mental, emotional, and economic needs, and this Saturday they will have a store with free items. Clothes, toys, home goods, toiletries, and more will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The event is hosted with Arts & Democracy, The Brooklyn Book Bodega, and ArtBuilt, and if you would like to donate, please do so here. Spread the word! Avenue C Plaza at Avenue C & MacDonald Avenue.

Queer Art Summerfest
2 to 8 p.m.
The third annual Queer Art Summerfest comes to 3 Dollar Bill on Saturday. Featuring a market with 35+ Queer vendors plus the gayest lineup of performers this side of Coney Island, come for MC Glow Job, and stay for DJ Sad Boy. Performances will be ongoing throughout the day, along with complimentary non-alcoholic beverages provided by Guayaki, free and confidential HIV/HCV/STI testing by GMHC, self-defense workshops by Enough Self Defense, plus, if you arrive early, you receive a gift bag. The event is strictly 21+. 260 Meserole Street. Free.

BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Family Day 
3 p.m.
Head to Prospect Park’s Lena Horne Bandshell for the 2023 BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Family Day with innovative Afro-futurist griotsSoul Science Lab and Brooklyn-based openers Olivia K and The Parkers performing. Ninth Street at Prospect Park West. Free.

Twilight Pride Parade
7:30 to 10:30 p.m.
The Northeast’s only evening Pride parade is in Brooklyn on Saturday night. Seven floats and 1,500 marchers will skip, twirl, and twerk their way down Fifth Avenue between Lincoln and Ninth Streets. Grand marshals for Twilight Pride Parade include Eddie Moran, Brooklyn-raised Mayor of Reading, Pennsylvania, who has been instrumental in assisting Reading Pride organize the first Reading Pride March held last Saturday, June 3. Get your absolute freak on in the streets on Saturday night.

Himbo: Brooklyn Pride Edition
10:30 p.m.
Callings all chubs, bears, daddies, and those who love ‘em: Himbo is throwing a special Brooklyn Pride edition of their dance party on Saturday night at C’mon Everybody. It’s going to be a night of everything masculine and musk, so this one is not for the kids. 325 Franklin Avenue. Tickets are $12.

Sunday, June 11

Pride Brunch with Shequida and friends
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In celebration of Brooklyn Pride this weekend, Fandi Mata, a Mediterranean restaurant in Williamsburg, will host a drag brunch on Sunday. If you’re hungover from the Twilight Brooklyn Pride Parade, you can soak up last night’s mistakes at brunch, or just keep the party going with hosts Shequida, Baby Love, Serena Tea, and Virginia Thicc. For this Sunday and the remainder of the month, $5 of each one-liter cocktail pitcher sold will go to the Trevor Project. 74 Bayard Street.

‘The Jungle Book’ puppet show
12:30 and 2:30 p.m.
Park Slope’s Puppetworks was founded in 1980, and on Sunday, you and the kiddos can see their summer show “The Jungle Book” performed with marionettes. The show is suggested for ages 4 and up and lasts 55 minutes. Registration is strongly suggested as walk-in admission is not guaranteed. 338 Sixth Avenue (at 4th Street). Tickets are $10 for children and $11 for adults.

Sober Queer Social: Pride Edition
5 to 8 p.m.
Billed as “a party minus the alcohol (and all the other bullshit),” June’s Sober Queer Social meets this month at Here BK on Sunday night. They’ll have booze-free drinks, conversation prompts, music, and lots of lovely people to meet. Come early for the free vegan mini donuts because they won’t last long. Some proceeds will be donated to New Alternatives, a resource center dedicated to the care and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and HIV+ homeless youth in New York City. 26 Bushwick Avenue.