Pride 2025 as We Had it!

In the year since Obodo’s last Pride, our community has grown exponentially. Our house was full and bursting with queer joy throughout June. Books have been added to our shelves and art to our walls, and we are beyond grateful to be in communion with you all; to have shared, made art with, danced with, and spoken to you.  

This year’s Pride programming focused on documenting, archiving and telling the stories of our queer existence as a people. Every event was transformative in the sense that art was used to communicate, examine and share. 

Every workshop made an artist out of or honed the artist in us. We have grown our repository of soulful, queer art, and we can only hope that Pride at Obodo this year left as warm a feeling in your chest as it did in ours. 

Here’s a recap of some of the things we did this Pride: 

The Soapbox with Liber was the first of the month-long Pride programming at Obodo Nigeria, in tandem with global celebrations of Pride. In drawing from the spirit of The Soapbox, which historically has been a call to public speaking, where people stood on a raised platform in the park for impromptu speech about a subject of a political nature; Obodo’s Soapbox seeks to spotlight women, queer and allied creatives and cultural producers who still struggle to find an avenue to share their thoughts and art with the world.

The first edition of the Soapbox with Liber was a twist on last year’s Open Mic Night, where new and old members of the Obodo community gathered for an evening of performances. This year, at The Soapbox with Liber, we took it a step further with a wider range of creative performances and a debate, tying back to the original premise of The Soapbox; a platform for public discourse and debates on necessary political conversation.

Uyoyo, a member of the Obodo team, says, 

“As queer people, whose existence is laden with the constant and urgent need to fight for our place in society, our homes, and our workplaces. As a marginalised community always being denied our existence, it is our duty to ensure that we are not erased. We do this by daring to exist, and raising our voices in unity to announce that we are here, have been here, and will always be here. The Soapbox with Liber was just another way for us to raise our voices, stand on the soapbox and express ourselves how we deem fit.”

There were musical performances, poetry and spoken word, a debate, and room to mingle, network and grow the community.

We intend for The Soapbox to be a recurrent event, as there will always be a need for political conversation and a safe space to foster sharing and community and growth, so look out for future iterations! 

The Fragments of Us with Ojinika Agbu was a collage workshop—the first in our line-up of knowledge sharing sessions in our Pride programming. 

This carefully crafted workshop by the facilitator was tagged ‘Telling New Proverbs’, and had participants reimagining old Igbo proverbs through the lens of queer lived experiences. 

These proverbs have been passed down through generations, through heteronormative lenses, leaving almost no room for queer people to peer through and draw connections to these experiences. Through this workshop, we were able to create these spaces for the Obodo community to share their perspectives on how some of these proverbs tied to their lives. 

From a bowl containing handwritten proverbs, participants selected one proverb at random and were asked to sit with it, and interpret the meanings in ways that echoed their lived experiences. After a moment of sharing and reflection, we shared materials and turned the interpretations into visual art in the form of collages.

It was a beautiful session that left participants feeling healed and held by their forefathers.  

Next in our lineup was Little Pages, Loud Stories: Queer Archive in Zines, a cosy zine workshop with the facilitator, Tosin Jerugba, joining in remotely from Brazil. Tosin spoke about zines through history, as they connected this ageless practice with modern zine making and explored zines as a personal form of expression. 

After this enlightening background, the session became practical as participants all made zines of their own, exploring identity through their designs.

One attendee, Temi, says, 

“I really liked the zine workshop. The facilitator was really passionate about the subject and engaged us. They talked about the history, current manifestations, influences from the Harlem resistance and the importance of zines today. I loved learning about the history of zines and the various zine archives that exist. The best part was actually making the zines. It was a little confusing when it came to the paper construction, but we got it in the end. It was fun coming up with ideas for our zines, and interacting with other people in the workshop and checking out their zines was amazing.” 

For pride this year, we prioritised the work of our hands by engaging our community in practices that required them to make things and explore self expression through art in multiple forms. 

The linocut workshop, Etchings in Time: Queer Memory in Print, was a transformative session, where artists blossomed and artistic inclinations bloomed. The facilitator, Yadichimma Ukoha-Kalu, asked participants to conjure visions of safety as they sketched, and then drafted their images on linoleum. The workshop ended in multiple beautiful prints made and donated to Obodo’s Collection, which have been framed and will soon adorn the walls of the Human Rights Hub, making all our participants artists in their own right and Obodo, a proud gallery. 

To wrap up the month, the Pride Souq and One Year Anniversary of the HRH was a buzzing bazaar of beautiful things to buy and beautiful people to speak to and celebrate Pride and Obodo’s first anniversary with. There was much to buy from an array of queer vendors, great music, and an impromptu vogue battle right in the reception area. The building was brimming with queer joy, as is the spirit of Pride. There could not have been a more suitable event to wrap up the month. 

As Pride came to a close, Obodo felt more like a home, shaped by your presence and participation. Every sketch, zine, dance step, and voice contributed to a tapestry of queer memory.

If Pride at Obodo moved you, inspired you, or simply made you feel seen, we’d love to hear from you. Please take a moment to fill out our feedback form as your words help us grow.

Until next year’s celebration!