Jackie Shane Pride Celebration

As a graduate student, I’ve had the chance to work with a lot of neat organizations, my favorite of which has been a partnership with Jefferson Street Sound Museum (JSSM). Lorenzo Washington, their founder, was friends with legendary Jackie Shane leading up to her passing and we wanted to collaborate to do something really fantastic for Pride to honor her life.

Another part of graduate life has been fellowships and scholarships. I was fortunate to be a Curb Public Scholar at Vanderbilt, which comes with a $2,000 budget to implement some kind of public-facing piece of scholarship. I was able to leverage this budget to equip JSSM to host the first annual Jackie Shane Pride Celebration.

This was an absolute blast to plan and host and, most importantly, could not have happened without the generosity of volunteers, friends, and our planning committee.

As I wrap up my time in academia, it is fulfilling to get to put on an event that raises awareness for such a fantastic artist (read more about Jackie Shane’s story in this post), work with an awesome local museum, and create a space for queer folks to unite and celebrate during Pride.

Based On A Novel By Stephen King

You might be aware that spooky season is my favorite season. I was a late bloomer when it comes to horror movies, but I’ve now come to enjoy the genre and watch spooky movies even outside of spooky season. (! I know, right!)

Jackson and I throw an annual Halloween party where we pull out all the stops: the drinks are flowing and the food is plentiful. I absolutely love hosting and Halloween is a great excuse for us to invite our friends out for an evening of rowdy fun. While our dining room is still awaiting its construction projects, we were able to turn it into a buffet easily and we placed the bar outside on the porch.

The last few years, we’ve tried to select a different theme. This year, we went with Stephen King since I’ve lately been reading his novels. (The man is a master of the craft of writing for sure).

Naturally, we opted for a couple’s classic: Jack and Wendy Torrance from The Shining. Potato opted for a simple yet complementary costume: Georgie from It.

Make a balloon arch, light all your candles, and crank up the Haunted Hits playlist - it’s party time, y’all! Yes, we built a Pet Sematary in our backyard. Yes, the way to get into the party was to make your mark on the Overlook Hotel’s redrum door with an axe. Any more questions?