Our Joy is a Protest: GALA Festival Through a NYCGMC Member’s Eyes
By Charlie Rickle, NYCGMC member since 2022
“The New York City Gay Men’s Chorus!” You could barely hear it before screaming and cheering erupted so loud I could hear it from the furthest corner of backstage. Some had waited all summer for this moment like myself and some had waited since the last GALA in 2016 only for their anticipation to be met with the cancellation of the festival in 2020. I knew it was going to be emotional and thrilling, especially after the rehearsals where there was this invisible connection between everyone as we tuned into Johnny’s every word.
GALA Choruses was founded in 1982 as the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses and was the first queer choral membership association of its kind. Throughout its history, GALA Choruses has helped to bring queer choral organizations around the United States, and eventually around the world, together for fellowship, music, information sharing, solidarity, and community. The flagship program of GALA Choruses is the quadrennial festival which, before this year, had last taken place in Denver in 2016 due its 2020 cancelation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. After eight years, the queer choral community came to Minneapolis to participate in highest-ever-attended event of its kind.
I was beyond excited after the past few days of phenomenal performances from the other choruses - hearing stories told through song, dance, spoken word, and theatrics struck chords in my heart as they depicted our queer experiences: the joy, the transformation, the fear, and the pride. Music embodied me as I found myself hugging my friends in laughter and in tears, and myself being held when the songs spoke to me in a language I thought only I spoke.
It was as though the sound waves wove us all together and I found myself connecting with everyone I could; I smiled and waved at every blue lanyard I saw, and clacked my NYCGMC fan to every familiar face passing by. I met new friends and listened to their stories and strengthened bonds with chorus friends who were just as excited about the performances as I was. There was never a moment where I felt as though I was alone. From groups as large as us to groups whose members you could count on your fingers, voices were heard and validated.
And it was finally our turn to share the same stories and experiences with the world— to show them not just who the NYCGMC is but who we as individuals are. The names I had met over the past few days were sitting before me in this beautiful hall.
We didn’t want to stop. The lyrics were there in our song and when the music started and I embraced my friends next to me I could feel the emotions flowing. But then when we reached the end and continued to sing and Johnny turned around to the audience I felt a joy that I could not put into words. After watching these performances where the performers were so unapologetically themselves and proud, I knew that I felt the very same. “We will not stop! Insist!” My hands were burning from clapping and my cheeks were sore from smiling. I didn’t want to stop. But when it was time and we hit those last few notes, I had never sung louder in my life. I wanted everyone to hear my voice. Our theme was “Our Joy is a Protest” and in that moment I knew that I had never protested so hard.
It was a protest to know that we made incredible music. It was a protest to be heard. But to me the biggest protest of all was being surrounded by 7,000 of my queer siblings and knowing that with our similarities and differences, we would never have to protest alone.
