Gathering to remember the trans lives lost to violence this past year, a group of about 20 people attended a candlelight vigil at Evanston’s Pride Park June 9.
Rainbow-colored candles were lit during the ceremony to emphasize the metaphorical fire inside the LGBTQ community. Photo by Lu Calzada, Windy City Times
The event, hosted by Evanston Pride, included brief words from co-president Rada Yovovich, trans artist Agito Abbott and Northminster Presbyterian Church senior pastor Michael Kirby. Following short speeches, attendees were invited to light candles and plant paper butterflies with seeds inside them, each with the name of a trans person lost this year written on them.
Yovovich opened the ceremony with comments on how this type of ceremony is a “both and” for Pride Month—a time to both mourn our losses and express grief while coming together to find strength in community.
Evanston Pride co-president Rada Yovovich welcomes the small crowd to Pride Park. Photo by Lu Calzada, Windy City Times
“There’s still violence, there’s still harm, and the only way that we can show up to that … is in community,” she said. “To show up, to resource each other, to hold hands and keep marching.”
Many attendees gathered to socialize with their community before the vigil, some even bringing pets. Photo by Lu Calzada, Windy City Times
Abbott, the logo designer for Evanston Pride, spoke about the importance of this year’s Pride logo—a dragon with black, brown, pink, white and blue coloring breathing rainbow fire.
Part of what drew him to the dragon was the idea of reclaiming them as monsters and instead thinking of them as something “fighting in self-defense, fighting to exist as they are in their own home.” The colors on the dragon itself specifically represent the contributions of Black and brown trans folks in the LGBTQ liberation movement.
“The only way queer people have won any rights is by fighting,” Abbott said. “In the courts, in the streets, for each other.”
He spoke further about how it’s important to center trans people right now given how much pushback the community is currently facing. Their challenges range from difficulties accessing proper medical care to legal issues with name changes to general societal acceptance.
A table was set with items such as rainbow candles, flowers and a dragon motif tablecloth ahead of the ceremony. Photo by Lu Calzada, Windy City Times
Before the reading of names, Kirby lit rainbow candles on a small table as a reminder of the figurative fire driving the LGBTQ community to push forward.
Thirty-six names were read out loud, with each immediately followed by the ringing of the bell. He emphasized the importance of the bell in the memorial, saying that sound doesn’t simply disappear—it just spreads out far and wide and becomes smaller.
While a violinist played and Kirby sang, people came up and took lighters to ignite the white candles settled around a flower bed, with one for each name read. Attendees also had the opportunity to hand-plant seeded butterflies with a small shovel and watering can. Extra butterflies were also available for those who wanted to remember a name that wasn’t read.
Attendees took turns lighting memorial candles, representative of trans folks lost this year. Photo by Lu Calzada, Windy City Times
The event concluded with a short call and response hosted by Yovovich, including admissions of “I am afraid” and concluding with affirmations about the queer community’s strength and resilience.
Attendees hand-planted seeded butterflies on a small patch of land in the park near other new plants. Photo by Lu Calzada, Windy City Times
The seeded butterflies were planted in the western area of the park and will grow alongside other new small plants. Yovovich said that each year she tries to make sure there is an action or activity “meant to be lasting” beyond just Pride month.
“We do things that are for the long term, because it can be hard to stay in the long term vision when the short term is so tough,” she said. “Seeds are a beautiful metaphor for what’s possible and what we can grow if we cultivate it.”
