Sylva celebrated its sixth annual Pride festival Sunday, Sept. 20, at Bridge Park. Tents of vendors and food trucks lined up to sell handmade crafts and assorted food and beverages, while local businesses and nonprofits shared information about their work supporting the LGBTQ+ community in Sylva.
The long-anticipated Pride parade started at 2 p.m. on Main Street for the first time in two years. People of all ages marched down West Main Street and back down to Bridge Park, waving pride flags and holding banners.
Despite local commissioners denying Sylva Pride’s parade march for the past two years due to funding restrictions, local donors and Sylva Pride came together and raised funds to cover the bills from the town of Sylva, bringing the parade back.
“We had a parade for the first three years,” said Beulah Land, a drag performer and president of Sylva Pride. She has partnered with Sylva Pride since their first festival. “Even in the small towns, we have lots of our community.”
Among the businesses and nonprofits at the festival was Cornbread and Roses, a queer-run nonprofit that provides accessible mental health services and operates a local food pantry. The organization was at Pride to share information about its work and LGBTQ+ representation in Jackson County.
Jessie Roberts, a therapist and clinical coordinator, was there representing the nonprofit. Roberts has attended every Pride festival in Sylva, and believes visibility is important.
“The world feels really scary, and we feel like people are having to take a step back,” Roberts said. “As a person that also carries privilege in [my] identity, being visible is something that I can do. I think it’s really important [for people] to be more visible to fill gaps.”
According to Roberts, Cornbread and Roses’ food pantry moves 20 to 30,000 pounds of food a month. Their food bank is open every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.
“We started with wanting to do community mental health, but we found that people had a hard time getting access to food. And it’s really hard to do therapy when we’re hungry,” Roberts said.
Zachary Turner, an intern at Cornbread and Roses, advocates that they are open to everyone, regardless of age or background.
“Making sure that everyone has a space is important, even if you are older. This is a college town, so it’s a lot of young people, but remembering that we do have a big older population as well,” Turner said. “Everyone in the community is welcome here and to feel supported in their identities and hopefully find support they may not be able to in other places,”
In the afternoon the festivities continued with live drag performances, including an opening performance by Land, who sang a Smoky Mountain rendition of “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver.
Land came out as a transgender woman in Sylva a few years ago. For her, pride is more than a yearly celebration. It’s her livelihood.
“Pride is not a day. Pride is not a month. Pride is not a weekend.” she said. “Our community has found ways to move forward, to come together, to connect, to share resources, to laugh, to cry, to remember and to plan ahead for the future. Pride as a movement represents our community. Putting aside our differences.”
You can follow Sylva Pride on Instagram @sylvapride, or check out their website for more information on events coming up in the area.
