The month of June in the arts: A Pride-ful calendar

St. Pete Pride returns for its 20^th annual celebration of all things LGBTQ+ in June, including one of the nation’s largest and best-attended Pride parades, which has been in the closet for a couple of years due to pandemic concerns.

There are events all month long – see the list on the official website – but the thing most anticipated happens June 24-26.

The 24^th brings the Friday Night Concert, with headliners Todrick Hall and the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, with other artists. This 4-10 p.m. event happens at Spa Beach, with general admission lawn seating.

Parade Day is the 25^th, with a vendor and food truck festival in and around North and South Straub Park (starting at 2 p.m.). The parade – which organizers expect will draw tens of thousands – begins at 4 p.m., from  Vinoy Park to Albert Whitted Park along Bayshore Drive.

From 7 to 10, South Straub will be transformed into a non-binary pop-up nightclub, with entertainment TBA.

No less a gay icon than actor and comedian Sarah Bernhard will take the Palladium Theater stage June 12, for a performance trumpeted as “a completely unique and raucous mix of cabaret, stand-up, rock-n-roll, and social commentary.”

Queer Eye For the Straight Guy guy Carson Kressley will be at the Palladium June 11 to host “Queer-E-Okee,” at which live musicians will perform “some of the LGBTQIA+ community’s most-beloved songs” for everyone’s singalong pleasure, with lyrics projected above the stage.

King of the concerts

Hillsborough County’s Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheatre is back in full-tilt concert mode this month. Coming to the big venue at the Florida State Fairgrounds: June 3 (this Friday) it’s the Doobie Brothers’ 50^th anniversary tour, with the rare combination of both lead singers (Tom Johnston and Michael McDonald) from the band’s two distinct hitmaking eras; June 10, Tears For Fears; June 11, Kid Rock, with Grand Funk Railroad; June 17, Keith Urban; June 18, Styx and REO Speedwagon with Loverboy; June 21, Backstreet Boys; June 25: Train, Jewel and Blues Traveler; June 28, Brian Wilson with Al Jardine and Blondie Champlin, and Chicago.

More music

At the Floridian Social Club June 10: Soul/jazz vocalist Gregory Porter.

At the Tampa Theatre June 21: Joe (“Steppin’ Out”) Jackson.

At the Mahaffey Theater June 24: Country music’s Leann Rimes.

At Ruth Eckerd Hall June 26: Ringo Starr and His All-Star Band, which this time around includes Colin Hay, Hamish Stuart, Edgar Winter and others.

And the opera

St. Petersburg Opera Company‘s final big production of the season, Dozinetti’s La fille du Regiment (Daughter of the Regiment), opens Saturday at the Palladium, with additional performances June 5 and 7.

The visual arts

The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts (Tampa) debuts The Art of Life Friday. It’s a retrospective of works by the late Suzanne Camp Crosby, the City of Tampa’s 2004 Photo Laureate, and a 40-year photography instructor at Hillsborough Community College.

Works by Zulu Painter, Eb&Floww, Dr. Goggles, Myiah Pink, The Nature of Fire, Nomadic Fete, Tenea D. Johnson and Vivia Grier are included in Journey to Emancipation, opening Saturday and running though June 30 at thestudio@620.

June 10 brings LIT, the latest exhibition at the Atelier de SoSi Gallery. It consists of new works in neon, plasma, glow paints, lighting and other illuminating materials.

At the Mize Gallery, Say Gay debuts June 10. It is, as the name suggests, an eclectic of art that “speaks, screams and yells gay!”

The new exhibition at the Dali Museum, by Uruguayan-Spanish artist Yamandú Canosa, opens June 18. The Visit is described as “a contemplative dialogue between Surrealism and contemporary art.” The artist will speak at the Dali in two sessions June 10.

The Tampa Museum of Art celebrates Juneteenth with a day-long, family-friend event June 19. Highlights are free museum admission, art-making activities, live music and performances and more.

Also on the 19^th, the Woodson African American Museum hosts a “Jazzy Juneteenth Jubilee” on the lawn between the Dali Museum and the Mahaffey Theater.

The Lyrical Moment: Modern and Contemporary Abstraction by Helen Frankenthaler and Heather Gwen Martin opens June 17 at The USF Contemporary Art Museum. Artist Martin and Curator-at-Large Christian Viveros-Fauné will lead a walk-and-talk through the exhibition at the opening reception.

Theater

At Stageworks, the musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee opens Friday (June 3) and will run through June 19.

This weekend also brings the Tampa Repertory Theatre production of The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, a drama by John Patrick Shanley (the Tony-winning writer of Doubt), at USF Theatre Centre. It runs June 2-19

The two-person musical The Last Five Years closes out the season at Studio Grand Central June 26-28.

American Stage’s Director of Education Erica Sutherlin directs Amiri Baraka’s powerful drama Dutchman, opening June 29 and running through July 31.

As always, dates are subject to change, and additional events will most certainly be scheduled as the month continues.

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You can also submit your events to the Catalyst calendar, by clicking here.