Most weekends when I go home, I feel like I have no time to enjoy something in the Queen City at all. Lately, however, I’ve made balance a top priority by: taking time for myself, committing to trying new things and sharing weekend time with family. Needless to say, juggling the 2016 Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade and my mom’s 50th birthday celebration was a unique challenge this past weekend.
If you were in Charlotte and ventured to Uptown, you probably had some difficulty navigating the city streets. That’s because a portion of Tryon Street was blocked off to make room for vendors during the Charlotte Pride Festival & Parade on Saturday and Sunday. Last week, I shared a couple memories from past Charlotte Pride celebrations as well as events I had already set my sights on for this year. While I didn’t make it to every planned event, I did have the opportunity to go to a couple.
Friday after getting off work I decided to kill some time before jumping into a drinking frenzy and walked to the McColl Center for Art + Innovation to meet a co-worker. I was beyond ecstatic to check out one of their newest installations called,
Open Occupancy: Artists Respond to HB2.
The seven installations are strategically placed on every floor of the art center in public restrooms. Artists respond to attacks surrounding NC’s House Bill 2 by infiltrating the very spaces that are being threatened. Talk about powerful! Through video, audio and art, each piece seeks to question, reveal, expand and transcend traditional narratives of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression.
My favorite? A positive image installation created by artist, Andrea Vail. Surrounded by silver streamers and a neon disco ball, viewers are invited to celebrate the beauty of all of our differences in a mirror while listening to a play list that can be navigated by following instructions located in the bathroom. You know I had to capture the moment with a selfie. My co-worker and I had to cut our trip short because the McColl Center was closing at 5 p.m., but I would highly suggest you check out the installation before it ends on Sept. 10.
After leaving the McColl Center, another co-worker and I decided to take a peek inside The Bar at 316. An LGBT-friendly bar located in South End, I was stoked to visit it for the first time. I assumed that I would find it somewhere along South Boulevard, so I was pleasantly surprised when we pulled up to a cozy two-story house on Rensselaer Avenue. While there weren’t a lot of parking spaces, and we had to buy some time at another bar before they opened, we felt right at home as soon as we walked through the parlor door.
Inside, on the first floor, we were met with an intimate atmosphere. The music from the second floor flowed down the stairs, but it wasn’t too loud to watch a show on a large screen from the comfort of two large couches, play pool with friends or have a conversation over a couple beers at the venue’s small bar. After grabbing drinks, my co-worker and I decided to venture up to the second floor.
There was another bar, — this one larger —a stage, more intimate seating and my favorite, a roof top deck. A comfortable space, The Bar at 316 is definitely a place you can feel free to be yourself and chill. Trust me, I’ll be making another trip very soon. After all, I didn’t get to see the space through night vision.
Before I knew it, my boyfriend and I were meeting up and heading to Bradshaw Social House in Ballantyne to meet up with some old co-workers that I hadn’t seen in a while. Rumored to be a popular spot for cougars, I wasn’t too surprised when I was informed the next day that an older couple, who’d given their fair share of compliments, seemed to be fishing for a plus one at home — if you catch my drift. Fortunately, no one got recruited prior to making an early exit for wind down time at home.
The next morning, I wouldn’t say I was hungover, but I wouldn’t say I was feeling very chipper either as my boyfriend and I drove to Childress Vineyards and Badin Lake for my mom’s birthday. The entire day included wine, beer, football, jet skis and a boat ride before we called it a night at my parent’s house. Upon returning to Charlotte by 2 p.m. on Sunday, I felt like a perfectly balanced weekend had come to an end, with a few hours to spare.
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