Celebration of Queer Culture (CQC) is a city-wide, youth-focused Pride event focused on highlighting and providing education for parts of queer culture (specifically queer history, art, music, and intersectionality) that are usually erased or taken out of the spotlight. Created by Rhiannon Esposito and Julia Dun Rappaport, two queer high-school students, we achieve this through a queer history segment, panel highlighting the intersectionality of local queer high schoolers (touching on race, ethnicity, religion, and family make up), queer art display, an art activity, live music, and more! We also have a resource fair with queer-centered community organizations.

This year, CQC will take place on June 15, 2024 at Newton City Hall from 10am-3pm. To learn more, check out our Instagram @cqc_newton, or contact us at rhiespo@gmail.com and julia.elizabeth.dun.rappaport@gmail.com.

Event Agenda

All Day

Queer Art Display (inside)

Resource Fair (outside)

The History Corner (outside)

On-site Historian, History of Drag Display, Interactive Activities

New Art Center Art Activity (outside)

ages 3-13 (everyone is welcome!), adult-staffed,

caregivers welcome to drop off their young people

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10:15 am - 11:15 am

Student Intersectionality Panel (inside) 

12:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Live Performances from Queer Youth (inside)

Food & Drink (outside)

Sandwich Works and Frosty's Ice Cream Truck

1:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Queer History Jeopardy (inside)

Call for Youth Panelists!

If you identify as queer and are open to talking about how your racial, ethnic, gender, and religious identities have impacted your queer journey, this is the panel for you! With a spotlight on family makeup, we are looking for 8th -12th graders in the Boston and Greater Boston areas to join us as panelists. 

If you are selected, we will meet a couple times with the panel moderator to build trust with one another and give you more information!

Let us know you're interested in joining the CQC panel by filling out this form.

If you have questions please email Julia Dun Rappaport (julia.elizabeth.dun.rappaport@gmail.com), Rhiannon Esposito (rhiespo@gmail.com), and celeste.silverstein@gmail.com.

We are seeking young queer artists to showcase their talent at this year's queer art display. Not only do we want to give you a platform, but this portion of the day will also expose community members to unapologetic queer art.

Let us know you're interested in displaying your art by filling out this form.

Call for Musicians!

If you know or are a queer musician, we want you to be part of the live music portion of CQC!  We would like to have performances representing all genres of music, and we're open to original or cover songs.  We welcome bands, songwriters, individuals, instrumentalists, a cappella groups, and more!  Whether you'd like to play one song, or a longer performance, we're excited to hear from you!!

Let us know you're interested in performing by filling out this form!

We hope to see you at Celebration of Queer Culture ‘24! 

Please note: We are aware that CQC falls on the same day as Newton’s celebration of Juneteenth this year. CQC and Juneteenth organizers are working together to ensure Black and queer identifying folks, and all community members are able to attend both events to the fullest extent possible.

 CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF QUEER RESOURCES  

This year's event is made possible by a generous donation from Village Bank, as well as support from the City of Newton's Health & Human Services Department and the Newton Human Rights Commission.