Send us your Pride Anthem requests
June 22, 2016
The Current will be celebrating Twin Cities Pride with special programming for the weekend's celebrations (look for us in Sunday's parade, too!).
To help us create the best Pride playlist, we want to hear from you. Send us your Pride Anthem requests by filling in the form below, then listen to Mark Wheat on Friday, June 24, from 6 to 8 p.m., as he plays them back for you.
Also, be sure to tune in Thursday, June 23 at 10, for Jake Rudh's Pride-themed Transmission, and on Saturday, June 25, from 7 p.m. to midnight, when DJ Shannon Blowtorch welcomes a number of guest LGBT DJs to keep the Pride jams spinning all Saturday night long. We'll keep the Pride songs thumping all throughout the weekend.
What songs for Pride do you want to hear? Tell us:
You must be 13 or older to submit any information to Minnesota Public Radio. The personally identifying information you provide will not be sold, shared, or used for purposes other than to communicate with you about things like our programs, products and services. See Terms of Use and Privacy.
A note from Jeffy Hnilicka, Events Co-Director for MPR
I'm Jeffy Hnilicka, co-Director of Events for Minnesota Public Radio. One of my favorite projects I work on is Rock the Garden, so if you were one of the 14,000 people who joined us -- THANK YOU. Tune in on June 30 when we Rock the Garden AGAIN by playing sets of music and debuting videos recorded at the festival.
We are already on to our next big event -- the Twin Cities Pride celebration. The Current is turning it out this year -- check out all our activities here. Like many other LGBTQ people, this year's Pride resonates for me as especially raw, urgent, and scary in the wake of the Orlando massacre. And, in other moments, Pride 2016 feels like just a continued slow-burn resistance to the generational violence that Queer and Trans people — especially people of color — have experienced in our culture.
I know this historical resistance because of the long tradition of Pride Anthems. These are the songs that spoke to you in the respite of your lonely teenage bedroom, the lyrics you scream out in your car, the bass lines your hips sway to at 2 a.m. Some of the songs dream a utopia (think "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" or Queen's "I Want To Break Free"). Some dare to simply exist (Prince's "Controversy," or Diana Ross's "I'm Coming Out," or Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"). Some speak to the fellowship of chosen family (dare I say it... the Theme Song to The Golden Girls). And then sometimes... well sometimes... 49 people you never met get slaughtered in a gay bar, and Beyoncé's "Lemonade" and Anohni's "Hopelessness" help you to make a little sense of it all.
Here's to a safe and fun and sexy Pride weekend,
--Jeffy
