Hand in Hand
On April 7, Orange County Mayor, Teresa Jacobs hosted the State of the County address at the Orlando Eye on International Drive.
During her address, Mayor Jacobs paid tribute to the Pulse tragedy by addressing the massacre and sharing a video. In her own words, Mayor Jacobs said, “The world watched as we mourned and rallied with the common goal of supporting our LGBTQ and Latinx communities and all of those affected. Through our response to the greatest attack we’ve ever withstood, the greatest loss we’ve ever suffered, we learned something incredible about ourselves: We know that our culture of collaboration has allowed us to accomplish so much – but we [also] discovered that it is our culture of compassion that makes Orlando such an incredible place to live.”
During the event, over 500 attendees joined hands to form a massive heart as part of the #LetsAllConnect project that has traveled to the world to spread peace, healing and human connectivity.
A Super Gay Fringe Preview
The Orlando Fringe recently hosted their local preview, consisting of two acts; General Audience Preview and Mature Audience preview. Each act/show only had two minutes to present a preview of their show with either a song, dance or just a description of what to expect.
As the host of the Mature Audience show Michael Wanzie mentioned Orlando’s International Fringe Festival is known in the circuit for being “the most gay Fringe” in North America. With many of the featured acts, this was certainly the case.
With an approximate 34 confirmed LGBTQ theme shows this year, ranging from the comical one-man show, like MJ Layman’s Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Ethel Merman to the Orlando Gay Chorus’ musically upbeat Bitch Perfect to Wanzie with Z, Michael Wanzie’s life story as told by Michael Wanzie in three a different age groups. And of course, Fringe can’t be Fringe without the dramas including the somber and all too real, O-Town: Voices from Orlando, by David Lee, a play which features a collected stories from the weeks and months following the Pulse attack. Onward and upward. Orlando Fringe is on its way.
