The final day of West Hollywood’s 2025 WeHo Pride Arts Festival brought a dynamic mix of music, poetry, dance, and storytelling to venues across the city, offering a vivid close to the three-day celebration.
In a highlight performance titled VIVA TRANS: A Celebration of Trans Visibility and Pride, the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles joined forces with Mariachi Arcoíris de Los Angeles, the world’s first LGBTQ+ mariachi band. Their collaboration filled the space with harmony and pride, uniting the voices of two trailblazing ensembles to celebrate identity, community, and allyship. The one-hour concert was presented as an all-ages event at 5:30 p.m.
Earlier in the day, Everyone Deserves a Poem, an ongoing project by Pride Poets, invited attendees to receive custom-written typewritten poems based on short interviews. The interactive poetry booth, open from 1 to 4:30 p.m., continued the group’s tradition of honoring LGBTQ+ stories through verse. Over the last six years, Pride Poets has created more than 3,000 personalized poems for Pride-goers.
At 1:30 p.m., visual artists and writers had a choice between two overlapping one-hour sessions. Miguel Angel Reyes hosted a Live Model Drawing Workshop designed for participants of all skill levels. With both guidance and drawing materials provided, attendees were encouraged to sketch a scantily clad model in a relaxed, come-and-go environment.
Simultaneously, Write Out Loud, a presentation by The HIV Writers Workshop, featured personal narratives and memoirs read aloud by workshop participants. The reading centered on experiences of those living with or affected by HIV, and was billed as a celebration of eloquence, emotion, and resilience. The event was recommended for ages 16 and up due to adult themes.
At 3 p.m., two performance-based programs offered very different but equally bold perspectives on queer identity. In AGE PLAY, a new play written and directed by gina young, the audience followed the charged and witty dynamic between ME, a 40-something lesbian, and YOU, a nonbinary person in their early 20s. Framed as an “unproduceable” work for its unflinching focus on queer women and nonbinary desire, the piece explored ethics, attraction, and power through a proudly unapologetic lens.
Running concurrently from 3 to 5 p.m., BiP:DiP (Bodies in Play: Dance is Pleasure) featured work by a wide range of queer choreographers and dancers. The showcase blended movement, politics, and sensuality in a dance-based variety format. Artists included Bernard Brown/bbmoves, Marisa Ervin & Emma Vicaña, Nathan Kim, LORDMAN, Mackenzie Martin, Muda, Andrew Pearson, and Owen Scarlett.
Closing the evening at 4:30 p.m., drag performer Pickle and pianist Victor Buccellato offered a short musical set titled Pickle on the Courtyard at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. The 20-minute set included original songs and marked the final live performance of the festival.
All events were free to attend and organized as part of the WeHo Pride Arts Festival, running May 23–25. Additional information is available at wehopride.com/artsfestival.
