Norwood Pride 2026: Out of This World

On Saturday, June 6, Progress Norwood held its sixth annual Norwood Pride celebration on the Town Common. Unlike previous Pride celebrations, this one featured a theme called “Cosmic Kindness,” complete with a small parade of community members dressed in themed costumes and attire that were emblematic of unity and inclusion.

“I really want to focus on promoting kindness and community,” noted Nora Zaldivar, one of the event organizers. Zaldivar explained that she was inspired by how the Artemis II mission to the moon brought people together. “That experience rallied people across generations and interests,” Zaldivar explained. “We want to publicly acknowledge that Norwood celebrates Pride.”

The annual Norwood Pride celebration began in 2021, as a response to protests that were held outside the Morrill Memorial Library related to Drag Queen Story Hour. Community members came together to support the library, and that event inspired future celebrations.

“We had an older gentleman come to us who said it was the first time he felt welcome in his hometown,” noted event organizer Julie Barbour-Issa, recalling that first Pride celebration.

This year’s celebration drew in new organizations to the celebration, including nurse practitioner Michael Bezreh, who promoted his practice Mosaic Psychiatric Care, located in Needham. Bezreh, who married his husband Tommy on the Town Common’s bandstand last year said, “I encountered bullying growing up and I want to cultivate a safe space,” he explained, for other members of the LGBTQ community. According to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s “2023 LGBTQ+ Youth Report,” 59.4 percent of LGBTQ youth have been “teased, bullied or treated badly at school for at least one reason.”

After six years of owning his own practice, Bezreh explained, he had the bandwidth to have a table at the event to promote his practice and hand out Pop Rocks candy, his tie-in to the cosmic theme. Additionally, his positive experience at this year’s event encouraged him to return to the town’s celebration next year.

Other organizations at the event were regular supporters, such as the Norwood Montessori School on Walpole Street.

“A lot of our staff are open, and a lot of supporters are open. We’re always a safe space for kids and adults,” explained lead teacher Ryan Wicker. “Pride means openness. We like to be inclusive, loud, and accepting,” she added.

One of the Montessori school’s staff, Deirdre Sandstrum, an assistant toddler teacher, is asexual and aromantic (that is, someone who experiences little to no sexual and romantic attraction to others). She said she found community at the school and among the people who came to celebrate. “Being asexual and aromantic is hard. But it’s nice to be in a like-minded community,” she noted. Sandstrum wore a flower crown with sparkles that she originally wore to her prom 10 years earlier. “The theme is cosmic kindness, and there are sparkles in space,” she remarked.

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Around the bandstand, children dressed as a mermaid, Buzz Lightyear from “Toy Story,” and The Incredible Hulk, marched in a mini parade and received cosmic-themed pencils and astronaut-shaped erasers from Progress Norwood organizers. Nearby, the Norwood Historical Society appreciated the community and the event’s unifying atmosphere. “With all that is going in the world, it’s important to focus on what unites us,” noted Toni Eosco, who just completed her first year as board member at large for the society. “We all have to learn to get along, no matter the topic,” she added.

The Morrill Memorial Library handed out Pride-themed buttons and bookmarks to patrons, and they were happy to see the community continue their years-long support since that first Norwood Pride. “It’s our sixth time out here to share in the joy of Pride with our community,” said Dina Delic, the library’s youth services and teen program coordinator. “It’s great seeing our patrons out here to learn more about the library.”

All donations that Progress Norwood collected were donated to the Anemoni LGBTQ+ Peer Respite, a non-clinical crisis alternative for people struggling with emotional distress located in Holyoke. Learn more at https://gvimes.link/wldflwr