Sadé Carpenter

Sadé M. Carpenter has written and edited for the Chicago Tribune, RedEye, Thrillist and more. She is an eclectic storyteller who selects her subjects and platforms based on the needs of community. She centers Black women in all of her work. Period. We tell people who are not from Chicago the same thing whenever they ask about our city: Visit during the summer. Our summers are exceptional. We trade nearly nine months of suffering for three—if we’re lucky—of summertime Chi. For roughly 90 days, we get to hear the joyous jingles of paletas and elotes carts. Three months of firecrackers going off on the block come dusk. And one full month of Pride celebrations each June. But how do you celebrate Pride during a global pandemic? With technology, of course. This weekend, the minds behind Chicago staples Reunion Chicago, Slo ’Mo Party and OTV | Open Television present #4theQulture, a three-day virtual Pride festival that will honor Chicago’s queer culture across multiple decades. Boasting a lineup of at least 50 Black artists, musicians and performers, organizers Elijah McKinnon and Kristen Kaza are producing the best virtual “party with a side of education” we’ve seen this side of COVID-19.   Photograph: Courtesy Duan Powell   “These things that are happening in our world are impacting us in a lot of different ways, and also impacting the way we organize, (and) the ways in which we produce and consume art,” says McKinnon, the director of development for Reunion gallery space and t