Best Bets: Our Guide to the Best LGBTQ Events in Atlanta for August 30 – September 12

Friday, August 30

The Atlanta Team Tennis Association (ATTA) kicks off its annual Peach International Tennis Tournament today, hosting players from across the country, various venues.

Through September 2

 

Dragon Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe. It’s also gay as heck, with a line-up this year that includes George Takei, Colton Haynes of “Arrow” and many more performers.

Through September 2

 

Atlanta Black Pride runs through September 2 with a series of parties, events, panels and more, various venues.

 

The Decatur Book Festival opens tonight and runs through Sunday with a large slate of LGBTQ writers and representation. The keynote panel is Effecting Change in a Changing World: Latinx Writers on Immigration. Other events will take place in the Decatur Square

8pm

Schwartz Center for 

the Performing Arts

 

Kick off your Labor Day weekend with a big Yeeee Haaaww with the best country music all night long with DJ Kimberly. Free two-step Lessons and pen Dance!! No Cover All Night Long

9pm – 3am

Heretic Atlanta

 

Saturday, August 31

Decatur Book Festival in partnership with Poetry Atlanta and Java Speaks presents the Local Poets Stage today. Poetry Atlanta was created by Atlanta Review editor Dan Veach to help promote poetry and spoken word in Atlanta. The non-profit organization hosts open mics, readings, workshops, and events around the city. Java Speaks Open Mic is a weekly series celebrating 18 years. The open mic originated at Java Monkey Coffee House, destroyed in a fire November 2018, but Java Speaks continues at Ammazza Decatur.

10am – 6pm

The Children of the ‘90s house music event is today, celebrating music from the famed decade, with a terrific line-up of DJs.

Noon – 8pm

Piedmont Park at the large pavilion by the pool 

 

Out On Film and Atlanta Pride join forces with the Decatur Book Festival for a free screening of the highly acclaimed film “TransMilitary,” which chronicles the lives of four individuals (Senior Airman Logan Ireland, Corporal Laila Villanueva, Captain Jennifer Peace and First Lieutenant El Cook) defending their country’s freedom while fighting for their own. They put their careers and their families’ livelihoods on the line by coming out as transgender to top brass officials in the Pentagon in hopes of attaining the equal right to serve. The screening will be followed by a discussion with community members, including Atlanta’s Monica Helms.

7pm

Decatur Public Library Auditorium

 

Bear Invasion returns to Atlanta Labor Day Weekend at Heretic. DJ Eric James! NO COVER ALL NIGHT LONG!!!

10pm – 3am

Heretic Atlanta

 

The Atlanta Eagle welcomes the BEARBUST Party! Come dance the night away with DJ Moose and your closest friends and strangers in the city!

NO COVER all night long!

10pm – 3am

 

Sunday, September 1

Join DJ Ed Wood at Xion after hours where the party continues into Sunday morning!

3am – 7am

BJ Roosters

 

Edie Cheezburger is the hostess for

a dazzling set of performers at The Super-Sized Sunday Show.

8:30pm

Blake’s on the Park

 

Labor Day Sunday will be off the charts packed to celebrate the holiday weekend with the amazing DJ ALEXANDER spinning all night long!

10pm – 3am

Heretic Atlanta

 

Monday, September 2

Atlanta Premier Events presents its signature LGBTQ celebration: the 10th-anniversary reunion and return of Rainbow Days at Six Flags over Georgia, in partnership with Meak Productions, Inc., Atlanta Black Pride, Inc., and other partners. The event will feature the closing pool party of Atlanta Black Pride (at 6pm) featuring a sultry set of DJs and a special tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

10:30am – 8:30pm

 

The PFLAG support group for parents and families of LGBTQ children opens its doors today.

7:30 – 9pm

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta 

 

Tuesday, September 3

Lose those inhibitions at Underwear Night at the Atlanta Eagle.

7pm – 3am

 

Wednesday, September 4

Tonight’s the night to turn into Melissa Etheridge (albeit briefly) at My Sister’s Room karaoke night, hosted by

Thad Stevens.

9pm

 

Thursday, September 5

Help raise money at AID Atlanta’s Bar Wars as some of Atlanta’s best bartenders will be out at Out Front Theatre Company. For $10, you can help decide tonight’s outcome. After cocktails will be the first annual talent competition where audience members choose the winner based on the number of tips collected.

5:30pm – 8pm

 

Friday, September 6

Set amidst the bohemian high society of 1920s England, “Vita & Virginia” tells the scintillating true story of a literary love affair that fueled the imagination of one of the 20th century’s most celebrated writers. Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton) is a brash, well-to-do socialite and popular author who refuses to be constrained by her marriage to a diplomat, defiantly courting scandal through her affairs with women. When she meets the brilliant but troubled Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki), she is immediately attracted to the famed novelist’s eccentric genius and enigmatic allure. So begins an intense, passionate relationship marked by all-consuming desire, intellectual gamesmanship, and destructive jealousy that will leave both women profoundly transformed and inspire the writing of Orlando, one of Woolf’s greatest works. The acclaimed film opens at the Midtown Art Cinema today.

Various showtimes

 

Join MAAP on the first Friday of each month for It’s Friday – Mix, Mingle & Network session. This is your chance to leave the workweek behind and connect with other like-minded professionals over drinks, laughter, and good professional conversation. Help speed up your check-in process and RSVP now at https://maap090619.eventbrite.com.

6 – 8pm

TEN Atlanta

 

Every Friday at midnight, it’s time to slip on those fishnets and make-up for the greatest live troupe in the city, Lips Down on Dixie, Inc., for a righteous party in front of the big screen for “The Rocky Horror Show.”

Midnight

Plaza Theatre

 

Saturday, September 7

It’s bound to be one of the biggest productions of the fall. The Alliance Theatre presents the world premiere of “Becoming Nancy,” based on the novel by Terry Ronald and directed by the legendary (and out) Jerry Mitchell.

7:30pm, through October 6

 

Elevate Your Nightlife Productions with music by DJ Karlitos!

10pm – 3am

Heretic Atlanta

 

Sunday, September 8

Join the fun at the Sunday T-Party on the big deck at Henry’s today, with no cover. Enjoy an early evening with cocktails, friends and DJs spinning fun, happy, throwback T-Dance music on the deck. Guests can mingle outside or inside at the air-conditioned bar.

4pm 

 

Monday, September 9

Local drag goddesses are on tap all night at The Stars of the Century show.

11pm

Heretic Atlanta 

 

Tuesday, September 10

Show tunes, show tunes, and more show tunes! Join hostess Bubba D. Licious, Erica Lee, and more to raise money for PALS and be thrilled by unique performances of Broadway classics. 6:30pm, Lips Atlanta. (Photo via Facebook)

 

Theatrical Outfit’s version of the LGBTQ-themed “The Laramie Project,” running in rep with the classic “Our Town,” starts previews tonight.

7:30pm, through September 29 

 

Wednesday, September 11

Join Charis Circle and the ArtsXChange for a special event in celebration of Bassey Ikpi’s memoir, “I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying.” Bassey will be in conversation with Atlanta author and publisher Denene Millner. In “I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying,” Bassey Ikpi explores her life – as a Nigerian-American immigrant, a black woman, a slam poet, a mother, a daughter, an artist – through the lens of her mental health and diagnosis of Bipolar II and anxiety. Her remarkable memoir in essays implodes our preconceptions of the mind and normalcy as Bassey bares her truths and lies for us all to behold with radical honesty and brutal intimacy. From her early childhood in Nigeria through her adolescence in Oklahoma, Bassey Ikpi lived with a tumult of emotions, cycling between extreme euphoria and deep depression – sometimes within a single day. By the time she was in her early twenties, Bassey was a spoken word artist and traveling with HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, channeling her life into art. But beneath the façade of the confident performer, Bassey’s mental health was in a precipitous decline, culminating in a breakdown that resulted in hospitalization and a diagnosis of Bipolar II.

7 – 9pm

Charis Books & More

 

Thursday, September 12

Southern Fried Queer Pride presents a night of queer film.

7 – 9pm

Charis Books & More

 

7 Stages presents Sean Dorsey Dance’s “Boys in Trouble,” a timely and urgent commentary on contemporary masculinity, in which powerful dances place a trans and queer lens onto intersectional questions of embodiment, violence, black queer love, whiteness, shame, and posturing. This one-week residency includes four performances and an artist workshop with trailblazing transgender choreographer Sean Dorsey.

8pm, through Saturday and 5pm on Sunday

 

UPCOMING

Friday, September 13

The LGBTQ-themed “This is Not Berlin” opens at the Midtown Art Cinema.

Various showtimes

 

Jump on your broomstick and head over to RITUAL’s Hocus Pocus: Witches & Warlocks party! It’s the first of a three-month season of spooky themes to celebrate Halloween! DJ System Fail and DJ Aesthetic will be spinning the beats all night long! Don’t miss tarot card readings and spooky art for sale as well! $10 Cover at the door!

10pm – 3am

Heretic Atlanta

 

Saturday, September 14

Sonia Leigh maintains an individuality that is so liberating it extends beyond genre. From her mainstream country catapult with Zac Brown’s in 2011 to her 2018 dark, pop-rock full-length release “Mad Hatter” to her latest release “Sonia Leigh and Friends,” recorded live at Abbey Road Studio in London, England, she continues to rock. The out musician performs tonight.

9pm 

Eddie’s Attic

 

Saturnalia Productions is excited to announce the first anniversary of the ROME party! Come dressed in your best Roman empire gear and be ready to dance and party the night away with an unbelievable set from DJ J Warren! Tickets available on event Facebook page.

10pm – 3am

Heretic Atlanta

 

Sunday, September 15

Atlanta’s very own DJ Seth Breezy heads to Xion after hours for an early morning of sweaty dancing with your closest friends!

3am – 7am

BJ Roosters

 

Monday, September 16

Trans and Friends is a youth-focused group for trans people, people questioning their gender and aspiring allies, providing a facilitated space to discuss gender, relevant resources and activism around social issues.

6:30 – 8pm

Charis Books and More

 

More than 40 years before “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the groundbreaking documentary “The Queen” – about the 1967 Miss All-American Camp Beauty Pageant – introduced audiences to the world of competitive drag. The film takes us backstage to kiki with the contestants as they rehearse, throw shade, and transform into their drag personas in the lead-up to the big event. Organized by LGBTQ icon and activist Flawless Sabrina, the competition boasted a star-studded panel of judges including Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, and Terry Southern. But perhaps most memorable is an epic diatribe calling out the pageant’s bias delivered by Crystal LaBeija, who would go on to form the influential House of LaBeija, heavily featured in “Paris Is Burning” The film screens tonight, sponsored by Wussy Magazine.

7:30pm

Plaza Atlanta

 

Show your support for Pets Are Loving Support and Planned Parenthood Southeast tonight as both charities will split the proceeds of this special Drag Queen Bingo event. The theme is Pretty in Pink, so dress like P!nk, wear your best ’80s clothes as a nod to the film “Pretty in Pink,” or just wear pink if you want to get into the spirit of the evening.

6:30pm

Lips Atlanta