AUDIO: Ithaca Pride Celebrating Queer Joy & Queer Power with 2025 Festival June 13-15

The Ithaca Pride Alliance (IPA) was formed in 2024 to serve as the first official group of organizers for LGBTQ+ focused events in Tompkins County. Andrew Scheldorf, local drag performer and current Chair of the IPA Board talked with WRFI in advance of their second annual "Pride in the Park" festival, which will take place Sunday June 15th in DeWitt Park. Supporting events and programming celebrating queer joy and LGBTQ+ community will occur across the community throughout the month of June.

This interview with Andrew Scheldorf hosted by Executive Director Ben Coakley aired on WRFI on Wednesday June 11th.

ABOUT ANDREW SCHELDORF

Hailing from the rural upper Midwest where values of collectivism and community care were instilled by parents and grandparents who were union, co-op, and community leaders, Andrew came to Ithaca in 2018 to pursue a PhD at Cornell. While completing their PhD they got heavily involved in queer organizing in Tompkins County; organizing and performing in drag shows at many venues in the area and collaborating with the Downtown Ithaca Alliance on some initial Pride programing and creating and maintaining the Ithaca Pride Events Calendar for several years. During the shut-down days of the COVID19 pandemic Andrew collaborated with two other queer organizers to put on Flame Night Fever, a digital drag and burlesque show that ran 13 shows in 12 months, giving queer performers a venue to stay active and continue their craft. After the shut down Andrew launched and led Thursgays at The Range (now Thursgays Ithaca) a weekly queer event that now takes place at Lot10. After collaborating with DIA for several years they joined with others to found the Ithaca Pride Alliance in 2023.
Andrew currently works as a Active Learning Initiative Fellow, and focuses on inclusivity and equity in the classroom, as well as a Diversity Educator, leading trainings and workshops on inclusive pedagogy, queer inclusion, and queer artistic expression. They continue to host and perform in drag events in the area and teach courses about getting into drag and starting performing.