2022 Event De-Tails!
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Our 2022 theme is 'Rainbow Waters'
A shellabration of Queer merfolk in Portland, and the efforts being made to cultivate equity, inclusion and human rights for LGBTQ+ communities. The Portlandia Mermaid Parade stands together and in alliance for trans rights, visibility, and compassion.
Event Logistics
The parade will gather at 12 noon at Poets Beach. (Please note we have changed our parade route this year to mix things up a bit!) We will then make our way down the waterfront promenade to the Bill Naito Legacy Fountain for a merfolk splash mob in the water!
Event Schedule
12 noon Merfolk Gather
12:30 Opening Ceremony Begins
1:30 Parade Starts
12:30 Opening Ceremony Begins
1:30 Parade Starts
Heat Preparation
We are expected to have a hot day on the 30th. The opening ceremony is being held under the Marquam Bridge next to Poet's Beach and will be shaded. We will have water misters on site, and along the parade route there will be opportunities to splash and dip into a couple of Portland's fountains.
Please be sure to bring water to drink, wear a minimum of 50spf sunscreen (reapply after getting in water), and carry a sun parasol if you are sun sensitive. Feel free to bring your own personal misting bottle or cooling neck fan. Leave your puppers at home so their paw pads don't burn. Avoid drinking alcohol, or anything that may cause extra dehydration. You may decide to change your costume plans if your outfit is too heavy, hot, or restrictive. Stay safe, have fun, and let's make some mermaid magic!
Please be sure to bring water to drink, wear a minimum of 50spf sunscreen (reapply after getting in water), and carry a sun parasol if you are sun sensitive. Feel free to bring your own personal misting bottle or cooling neck fan. Leave your puppers at home so their paw pads don't burn. Avoid drinking alcohol, or anything that may cause extra dehydration. You may decide to change your costume plans if your outfit is too heavy, hot, or restrictive. Stay safe, have fun, and let's make some mermaid magic!
Pre-Parade Mermaid Movie Screening
PLEASE NOTE: Due to issues concerning heat at the 107 year Clinton Street Theater this event has been moved to the Queens Head and has an earlier start time of 3pm.
Come for a pre-parade meet & greet & mermaid movie screening of Erzulie on Friday July 29th at the The Queens Head at 3pm located at
19 SW 2nd Ave, Portland, OR 97204.
Tickets are by suggested donation.
Watch the trailer below!
19 SW 2nd Ave, Portland, OR 97204.
Tickets are by suggested donation.
Watch the trailer below!
2022 Mermazing Citizen Award Winners & Parade Grand Marshals
The Portlandia Mermaid Parade is proud to announce our 2022 parade Grand Marshals and winners of the annual Mermazing Citizen Award! This year we are amplifying the themes of radical acceptance, equity, and justice as it pertains to LBTQIA+ efforts in Portland. We had several wonderful nominees all of whom are worthy of being recognized. This year we had two categories for nomination, social change work through art & performance, and social change through direct action.
Our winners for social change through art and performance are Isaiah Esquire & Johnny Nurie of the dynamic performance duo, IZOHNNY. On stage, in life, and through love, this married couple continually breaks down barriers of gender, sexuality, culture, and age. Isaiah is passionate about working with youth and is a dance instructor, mentor, and diversity/inclusion liaison. Johnny has a life coaching practice and specializes in working with folks on self-empowerment. IZONNY seeks to help empower others through joy, imagination, and creativity! IZOHNNY also produces and headlines the performance spectacular: BOYeurism; A show offering a dazzling variety of talent/ gender/ and expression.
Our winner of social change through direct action is Katie Cox, executive director of The Equi Institute, a community-based, gender affirming health/medical care services provider for trans, queer, intersex and gender diverse communities of Portland. The Equi Institute is currently providing weekly outreach at Q Center and Hygiene4All and will be starting street outreach with Rahab's Sisters next month. Katie has been instrumental in advancing the mission, values and work of The Equi Institute.
Please learn more about our winners below:
Our winners for social change through art and performance are Isaiah Esquire & Johnny Nurie of the dynamic performance duo, IZOHNNY. On stage, in life, and through love, this married couple continually breaks down barriers of gender, sexuality, culture, and age. Isaiah is passionate about working with youth and is a dance instructor, mentor, and diversity/inclusion liaison. Johnny has a life coaching practice and specializes in working with folks on self-empowerment. IZONNY seeks to help empower others through joy, imagination, and creativity! IZOHNNY also produces and headlines the performance spectacular: BOYeurism; A show offering a dazzling variety of talent/ gender/ and expression.
Our winner of social change through direct action is Katie Cox, executive director of The Equi Institute, a community-based, gender affirming health/medical care services provider for trans, queer, intersex and gender diverse communities of Portland. The Equi Institute is currently providing weekly outreach at Q Center and Hygiene4All and will be starting street outreach with Rahab's Sisters next month. Katie has been instrumental in advancing the mission, values and work of The Equi Institute.
Please learn more about our winners below:
IZOHNNY
Isaiah Esquire & Johnny Nurie
IZOHNNY is the dynamic performance duo of Isaiah Esquire & Johnny Nuriel. This statuesque pair of 6’6’’ ebony & ivory specimens deliver a jaw-dropping performance experience with an androgynous and gender-fluid style that audiences swoon over. Known as the "Goliaths of Glam" this duo exhibits an impressive and unique array of disciplines: Isaiah Esquire is a seasoned dancer/choreographer/creative director and internationally acclaimed entertainer. Known for his mastery of face, character, and intricate lip-sync, Isaiah is a bright star on the horizon. Johnny Nuriel illuminates the stage with a light all his own. His expansive arsenal of talents encompasses the circus arts (aerial/object manipulation/fire performance), burlesque, belly dance, and live-vocals. He is known for his ability to fuse these disciplines seamlessly. Referred to by America’s Got Talent scouts as one of the top 10 traveling queer performance duos in the US. Independently and combined, Isaiah and Johnny have been featured in multiple music videos, film documentaries, historical archives, magazines, websites, and even comic books!
Isaiah and Johnny are passionate about creating social change by inspiring others to embrace their own sensuality, softness and vulnerability. Johnny states, that their performances are an opportunity for others to take a moment, slow down, and exhale the stressors of life; to step into a moment of peace and creativity. Johnny is also driven by a desire to help people become emboldened to feel powerful in their own lives, and to provide a living example of a healthy, loving, and intimate partnership between two men. Isaiah feels that his performance art stems from a deep personal calling, a sense of obligation to create, hold, protect, and love others. To help make the invisible seen, and to be mirrors to the world by inspiring joy, authenticity, and the liberation of self, particularly as it pertains to celebrating black empowerment and queer identity. Through their combined efforts and talents, IZOHNNY invites others to join in their movement and witness the magic as they show you limitless self-expression through fearless art.
Website: www.izohnny.gay
Insta: @izohnny
Johnny Nuriel - Life Empowerment Coaching: www.johnnynuriel.com
Isaiah and Johnny are passionate about creating social change by inspiring others to embrace their own sensuality, softness and vulnerability. Johnny states, that their performances are an opportunity for others to take a moment, slow down, and exhale the stressors of life; to step into a moment of peace and creativity. Johnny is also driven by a desire to help people become emboldened to feel powerful in their own lives, and to provide a living example of a healthy, loving, and intimate partnership between two men. Isaiah feels that his performance art stems from a deep personal calling, a sense of obligation to create, hold, protect, and love others. To help make the invisible seen, and to be mirrors to the world by inspiring joy, authenticity, and the liberation of self, particularly as it pertains to celebrating black empowerment and queer identity. Through their combined efforts and talents, IZOHNNY invites others to join in their movement and witness the magic as they show you limitless self-expression through fearless art.
Website: www.izohnny.gay
Insta: @izohnny
Johnny Nuriel - Life Empowerment Coaching: www.johnnynuriel.com
IZOHNNY's next show will be on August 12th, 9pm at the Bossanova Ballroom. Please see link for more event details!
www.tixr.com/groups/bossanovaballroom/events/boyeurism-aug-12th--45578
www.tixr.com/groups/bossanovaballroom/events/boyeurism-aug-12th--45578
Katie Cox, Executive Director of The Equi Institute
Katie Cox (she/they) is a white, queer, fat, femme-leaning, gender fluid, neurodivergent, temporarily able-bodied, organizer and activist in Portland, Oregon. They bring a radical framework, abundant compassion, and a deeply tenacious spirit to their advocacy for the LGBTQAI2S+ community.
Katie was hired by Dr. Angela Carter (they/them) as a billing manager for their trans and queer-focused primary care practice in 2015. Katie then co-founded The Equi Institute, a queer and trans health access organization, alongside Dr. Carter in 2016. Thanks to the visionary work of Katie and Dr. Carter, The Equi Institute received a Nonprofit of the Year award from Blackout Leather Productions in 2017. After Dr. Carter left the organization in 2019, Katie graduated from the Willamette Valley Development Officers Executive Leadership Program and was appointed as the Executive Director of The Equi Institute.
When the world was rocked by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Katie engaged Equi with the Creating Conscious Communities with People Outside (C3PO) Coalition, a newly forming group of organizations and individuals determined to support the most marginalized members of the houseless community. Katie worked with the coalition to develop three outdoor shelters based on the Dignity Village model. The Queer Affinity, BIPOC affinity, and Old Town villages provided tiny homes, access to food, hygiene, showers and laundry for over 150 unhoused folks.
Clearly seeing a need for more comprehensive health support in the midst of a global pandemic, Katie piloted a culturally-specific community health worker program in the villages from October 2020-October 2021. Equi’s team of community health workers have since established several outreach locations to serve unhoused and insecurely housed LGBTQAI2S+, BIPOC, disabled, and elder folks providing connections to peer support, COVID-19 education and vaccine access, medical and mental health care, services navigation, harm reduction, and wound care. Additionally, Equi's community vaccine event coordinators planned and executed 16 vaccine events from June 2021-May 2022, vaccinating over 175 community members. Equi's program participants benefit deeply from the culture of support, kindness, and intersectionality that Katie has cultivated in the program.
In 2021, Katie and her colleague Debra Porta forged a partnership between The Equi Institute and Debra's organization Pride Northwest to begin work on a statewide, community-driven, data justice project called "LGBTQAI2S+ in Oregon". The project aims to collect the very first set of comprehensive data on the lived experiences of LGBTQAI2S+ Oregonians.
Katie's dynamic leadership is rooted in anti-racism, disability justice, intersectionality, harm reduction, and community care. As a legacy to the work of Dr. Marie Equi, Katie aims to support integrated healthcare, social justice, advocacy, and programming for community members living at the sharpest intersections of oppression. Katie's quiet resilience and fierce advocacy in the face of so much adversity for the unhoused queer and transgender community has saved lives and put countless individuals on a path to self-sufficiency.
Katie received a Queer Heroes NW award from the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest in 2021. They are also a founding member of the LGBTQAI2S+ Housing Collaborative, an organizer with the PDX Trans Housing Coalition, a member of the Oregon Health Authority's Health Equity Committee, a board member on the Joint Office of Homeless Services Continuum of Care Board, and a member of the Patient Centered Primary Care Home Standards Advisory Committee. She is always looking for an opportunity to lift up and address the disparities they see within the LGBTQAI2S+ community.
In their free time, Katie enjoys spending time camping, watching Netflix, or trying new food with her partner Mary and their two dogs, Penny and Junior.
For more info about the Equi Institute please see website link and the video below:
www.equi-institute.org/
Katie was hired by Dr. Angela Carter (they/them) as a billing manager for their trans and queer-focused primary care practice in 2015. Katie then co-founded The Equi Institute, a queer and trans health access organization, alongside Dr. Carter in 2016. Thanks to the visionary work of Katie and Dr. Carter, The Equi Institute received a Nonprofit of the Year award from Blackout Leather Productions in 2017. After Dr. Carter left the organization in 2019, Katie graduated from the Willamette Valley Development Officers Executive Leadership Program and was appointed as the Executive Director of The Equi Institute.
When the world was rocked by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Katie engaged Equi with the Creating Conscious Communities with People Outside (C3PO) Coalition, a newly forming group of organizations and individuals determined to support the most marginalized members of the houseless community. Katie worked with the coalition to develop three outdoor shelters based on the Dignity Village model. The Queer Affinity, BIPOC affinity, and Old Town villages provided tiny homes, access to food, hygiene, showers and laundry for over 150 unhoused folks.
Clearly seeing a need for more comprehensive health support in the midst of a global pandemic, Katie piloted a culturally-specific community health worker program in the villages from October 2020-October 2021. Equi’s team of community health workers have since established several outreach locations to serve unhoused and insecurely housed LGBTQAI2S+, BIPOC, disabled, and elder folks providing connections to peer support, COVID-19 education and vaccine access, medical and mental health care, services navigation, harm reduction, and wound care. Additionally, Equi's community vaccine event coordinators planned and executed 16 vaccine events from June 2021-May 2022, vaccinating over 175 community members. Equi's program participants benefit deeply from the culture of support, kindness, and intersectionality that Katie has cultivated in the program.
In 2021, Katie and her colleague Debra Porta forged a partnership between The Equi Institute and Debra's organization Pride Northwest to begin work on a statewide, community-driven, data justice project called "LGBTQAI2S+ in Oregon". The project aims to collect the very first set of comprehensive data on the lived experiences of LGBTQAI2S+ Oregonians.
Katie's dynamic leadership is rooted in anti-racism, disability justice, intersectionality, harm reduction, and community care. As a legacy to the work of Dr. Marie Equi, Katie aims to support integrated healthcare, social justice, advocacy, and programming for community members living at the sharpest intersections of oppression. Katie's quiet resilience and fierce advocacy in the face of so much adversity for the unhoused queer and transgender community has saved lives and put countless individuals on a path to self-sufficiency.
Katie received a Queer Heroes NW award from the Gay and Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest in 2021. They are also a founding member of the LGBTQAI2S+ Housing Collaborative, an organizer with the PDX Trans Housing Coalition, a member of the Oregon Health Authority's Health Equity Committee, a board member on the Joint Office of Homeless Services Continuum of Care Board, and a member of the Patient Centered Primary Care Home Standards Advisory Committee. She is always looking for an opportunity to lift up and address the disparities they see within the LGBTQAI2S+ community.
In their free time, Katie enjoys spending time camping, watching Netflix, or trying new food with her partner Mary and their two dogs, Penny and Junior.
For more info about the Equi Institute please see website link and the video below:
www.equi-institute.org/
Merfolk & Social Justice
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Representation Matters!
Merfolk from left to right (starting on the top row):
Axelle Mermaid
www.facebook.com/pages/category/Performance-Art/Axelle-Mermaid-2262382047405663/
Mermaid Chemonique
mermaidchemonique.com/
Keeva Mercorn
www.facebook.com/pg/Keevaqueenmercorn
Merman Maui
www.facebook.com/mermanmaui/
Merman Glitterito
www.facebook.com/alberto.hurtado.35175
Day The Mermaid
www.facebook.com/beautifulblackmermaid
Axelle Mermaid
www.facebook.com/pages/category/Performance-Art/Axelle-Mermaid-2262382047405663/
Mermaid Chemonique
mermaidchemonique.com/
Keeva Mercorn
www.facebook.com/pg/Keevaqueenmercorn
Merman Maui
www.facebook.com/mermanmaui/
Merman Glitterito
www.facebook.com/alberto.hurtado.35175
Day The Mermaid
www.facebook.com/beautifulblackmermaid
A letter to our portland community...
The Portlandia Mermaid Parade openly supports the pursuits of racial equity and justice. We support a reimagining of public safety; a vision that includes restorative justice, and an END to institutional violence, and white supremacy, and an END to the killing and murders of black citizens. Black Lives Matter, period. The wisdom of the merfolk stems from depths of consciousness, and egalitarian values which support truth and justice. For too long white culture has perpetuated perceptions of our world as being made up of entirely of white, thin, cis gendered females. Our world is far more diverse and colorful than the imagination of colonial history would tell you!
Here on land there is much work to be done to dismantle racism. The mermaid industry is no exception. Often these sub-communities (despite their intentions) simply become microcosms of the greater social ills of human society. People often view racism as some large social issue happening somewhere “out there” rather than an issue happening ‘right here’. Many Americans narrowly define racism as only overt violence or egregious behaviors towards people of color. Folks that don’t participate in those behaviors often think that they are not complicit or participating in a system of racism, so they exempt themselves from critical self-reflection. They will vehemently deny any responsibility or complacency. Racism is far more complex and often includes less overt behaviors, words, and thoughts that occur in our daily lives-- be it at home, in the work place, hobby circles, or in places of racial comfort. To dismantle racism, we must go inward and unpack our own implicit bias. We must be willing to allow ourselves to be vulnerable to discomfort so we can become consciously aware of the myriad of ways our racist culture has shaped and conditioned our thinking. Even the greatest allies among us have serious work to do.
The Portlandia Mermaid Parade is committed to hearing and doing the difficult work of vulnerability. White silence is violence. The fear of the loss of white support, money, and social capital often prevents groups, organizations and businesses from speaking out in matters of injustice. We are not afraid to speak the truth that needs to be said. Those who would no longer support the parade after hearing this truth, are not those we would wish to align ourselves with. We shall stand on the right side of history. This is not a matter of politics, but a matter of human rights, and the values of democracy. We stand and rise with you. Black mermaids matter! Black and brown lives matter! There can be no justice, until there is justice for all.
Here on land there is much work to be done to dismantle racism. The mermaid industry is no exception. Often these sub-communities (despite their intentions) simply become microcosms of the greater social ills of human society. People often view racism as some large social issue happening somewhere “out there” rather than an issue happening ‘right here’. Many Americans narrowly define racism as only overt violence or egregious behaviors towards people of color. Folks that don’t participate in those behaviors often think that they are not complicit or participating in a system of racism, so they exempt themselves from critical self-reflection. They will vehemently deny any responsibility or complacency. Racism is far more complex and often includes less overt behaviors, words, and thoughts that occur in our daily lives-- be it at home, in the work place, hobby circles, or in places of racial comfort. To dismantle racism, we must go inward and unpack our own implicit bias. We must be willing to allow ourselves to be vulnerable to discomfort so we can become consciously aware of the myriad of ways our racist culture has shaped and conditioned our thinking. Even the greatest allies among us have serious work to do.
The Portlandia Mermaid Parade is committed to hearing and doing the difficult work of vulnerability. White silence is violence. The fear of the loss of white support, money, and social capital often prevents groups, organizations and businesses from speaking out in matters of injustice. We are not afraid to speak the truth that needs to be said. Those who would no longer support the parade after hearing this truth, are not those we would wish to align ourselves with. We shall stand on the right side of history. This is not a matter of politics, but a matter of human rights, and the values of democracy. We stand and rise with you. Black mermaids matter! Black and brown lives matter! There can be no justice, until there is justice for all.
Black Mermaid Book List
Mermaids Have Always Been Black
A relief sculpture of the goddess Mami Wata on the wall of a voodoo temple in Benin.
NEW YORK TIMES- Opinion July 10th 2019
Mermaids Have Always Been Black
By Tracy Baptiste
As a young child growing up in Trinidad and Tobago within sight and walking distance of the Caribbean Sea, I was gripped by the intrigue of mermaids. I was introduced to one version of a mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen, whose tale of a magical girl creature, an impossible location and an outrageous desire was thrilling.
But I already knew mermaids. We spent most weekends on the beach. There were plenty about. Every cousin, aunt and uncle who threw me in the waves and laugh-shouted at me to swim back to shore seemed to know that we were all part of the sea.
My father, in particular, was a surrogate Poseidon. He would strike out into open water, disappearing for minutes at a time behind huge waves, then appear again, hanging off the side of a fishing boat, where he rested, chatted with the fishermen and then swam back to shore. I didn’t need a Danish fairy tale to tell me that he was part fish. By the time I came across Andersen’s tale, I already knew that mermaids were black and brown people: my family. Besides, what happens when you stay out on the sea? You get darker and darker, deepening to shades of black and brown that glow from absorbing the sun.
It was in this state last week that I first heard about Disney’s decision to cast the black teenage actress and singer Halle Bailey (of Chloe x Halle fame) in the title role for “The Little Mermaid,” and the flood of white people’s tears over it. When the announcement was made, I was swimming in the sea off the Bahamas, getting sunburned as fish swam past me. A lifeguard had just warned me that there were baby sharks about. Was I concerned? Honey, please. This was my natural state.
Back in my hotel room, I turned on my phone for a bit, and several notifications came in, people tagging me in social media posts. The Wi-Fi was spotty, so it was another day or so before I figured out what was going on. I laughed. It was so laughable, this idea that a mermaid couldn’t be black. Didn’t they know?
When I wrote Mama D’Leau into my series of middle grade novels, The Jumbies, I didn’t have to stretch my imagination very far from home. Aiming at kids who don’t know Caribbean folklore, and Caribbean parents who maybe had forgotten it, I reimagined supernatural creatures I had known since I was a child.
Mama D’Leau in the oral tradition was huge and hideous, fierce and unstoppable. She ruled the water, both river and sea alike, and reveled in upturning fishing boats by whipping her powerful anaconda tail and watching her victims drown in the blue. As a young feminist, I was delighted by the idea of such a powerful and free woman, the murder notwithstanding. In my story, I made her as beautiful and well coifed as any of my aunts, and just as fearsome as the stories — or again, any of the aunties.
Mama D’Leau always existed in my imagination. I worried when my father swam out so far that I couldn’t see him, and worried again that the creature would capsize the boat he was hanging on to before he could swim back. In the stories, Mama D’Leau never cared whom she killed. It was sport. Though, same as any fisherman, I suppose. I don’t remember when I figured out that this was only a story.
The story likely started during chattel slavery, when people were kidnapped from the west coast of Africa and brought to the Caribbean and the Americas. The mother of the sea came with them because she already existed in West Africa as Mami Wata, a deity who promised fertility and prosperity to her devotees. It was incredibly good luck to encounter her in person. In West Africa, the goddess was beautiful, sometimes appearing fully as a woman, sometimes as a woman with a fish tail, sometimes with two fish tails. Check your Starbucks cup to see how she’s been co-opted.
LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2019/07/16/the-black-mermaid-booklist/?fbclid=IwAR3JROEJ1O23zjASY0ynSrW0c5qlJ4r0SRgmYmLSVCuihVo7bwUCHja6WRw
Merfolk are here, and many of us are Queer!
Here are some Queer friendly merfolk tales, and resources:
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/queer-merfolk
https://abitlit.co/history/sacha-coward-on-queer-history-museums-and-mermaids/
https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/I/I-ve-Heard-the-Mermaids-Singing
https://pankmagazine.com/piece/mermaids/
http://queercomicsdatabase.com/series/thirsty-mermaids/
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-little-mermaid-lgbtq-fans-ursula_uk_5dce8608e4b0d2e79f8adb51
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/queer-merfolk
https://abitlit.co/history/sacha-coward-on-queer-history-museums-and-mermaids/
https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/I/I-ve-Heard-the-Mermaids-Singing
https://pankmagazine.com/piece/mermaids/
http://queercomicsdatabase.com/series/thirsty-mermaids/
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-little-mermaid-lgbtq-fans-ursula_uk_5dce8608e4b0d2e79f8adb51
For questions, please click the link below.
To submit your virtual parade entry video , please e-mail directly to
portlandiamermaidparade@gmail.com
To submit your virtual parade entry video , please e-mail directly to
portlandiamermaidparade@gmail.com
Questions? Comments? Want to get involved? Find the Portlandia Mermaid Parade on Facebook by clicking the social icon link below, or send a message!
