With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, a unique opportunity has been organized in Central Ohio to celebrate love and build community, with a special emphasis on uplifting Black LGBTQ+ individuals.
“Coffee Date: A Unique Valentine’s Day Experience” (Sat., February 8, 10:30 am – 2:00 pm at Stonewall Columbus) will feature coffee, tea, pastries and exclusive shopping with local Black and Brown vendors, creating a welcoming atmosphere for everyone.
For those seeking romance, Blind Dating Pods will allow eligible singles to connect in a fun, intimate setting designed for meaningful conversations while keeping their identities a surprise until the big reveal.
“I want people to really walk away having meaningful connections and fully experience what Valentine’s Day is really all about and that’s love and joy,” said event organizer Eboni Partlow.
The Buckeye Flame spoke with Partlow to talk all about love, intersectionality and why an event like this is especially important at this moment in time.
To listen, click play directly below or read our (edited) conversation beneath the audio link.
Before we even talk about this vitally intersectional event, I want to highlight that you’ve been doing intersectional work for a pretty darn long time. What drives you to do this work?
Eboni Partlow: I think it’s really my life’s mission to address intersectional work: how we can be more inclusive in social spaces for BIPOC people and for LGBTQ folks, both adults and youth. Really helping to center marginalized people is part of my work, not only in community, but in my day job and also in my doctoral studies.
I also had the privilege and the pleasure of serving as the board president for Black, Out & Proud, which is one of the local nonprofits here [in Central Ohio] serving the intersection between being Black and LGBTQ. That experience gave me a lot of insights into how we might be even better situated to serve and create the spaces that are specific for Black LGBTQ folks and really uplift and center them.
Can you give me one of those Black, Out & Proud highlights?
One of the things I’m most proud of is the creation of the art and fashion show. We started that shortly after 2017. We looked at the landscape and said, “How can we center Black folk and how can we center LGBTQ folk?” We started with this idea that there are a lot of artists who weren’t getting seen, a lot of fashion designers who weren’t a part of the larger and broader space in Columbus. So we created that space for them.
And over time, we’ve saw that event grow, not only in the way that we are able to uplift folks, but in the spaces and the partners that we’re able to gather now. We provide a stipend for those artists who go on to bigger and better shows right after they received that experience of being centered and highlighted in a way that’s special.
Black, Out & Proud is still doing that work today. It’s amazing to see [the fashion show] come around every Pride and to feel like you had a piece of establishing that important work.
Well, Valentine’s day is coming up, Eboni. Where did the idea for “Coffee Date: A Unique Valentine’s Day Experience” come from?
This is again rooted in a broader vision of my academic and community work. I wanted to continue to provide welcoming spaces, but really focus on building meaningful relationships and celebrating our identities. This event was really about figuring out how we form relationships, whether it be platonic or romantic, especially with social media, where we know everything about everybody.
So I thought about this social experiment of creating these blind date pods. People can come and meet some of the hottest, most eligible Black and Brown queer people, but behind a partition. So it’s really focusing on the dialogue.
And doing that all over coffee just felt really authentic. I know that going for coffee and pastries is something that I often do with friends and loved ones. So I wanted to expand that idea of, “What if you went on a bunch of coffee dates?”
That’s how this event started, but then it got bigger. I wanted to open this space beyond singles. The connection that you have through coffee can come in many different forms so let’s open it up to everybody: singles, couples and friends. There will be vendors, amazing music and engaging ways for you to connect with one another in the space.
But the blind dating pods are essentially the key feature of the morning.
Why is an event like this important, especially now?
When you think of the social landscape, wherever we can provide safer, affirmative spaces for our community is going to help really promote and celebrate our love, our identity and our community. So it’s bigger in that way, right? At the core, we are looking at, “How can we foster joy? How can we foster resilience?” Those are essential components of healing our marginalized communities. And so now more than ever, it’s important to provide spaces like this. We hope to provide more spaces like this throughout the year.
How do people prepare for the event? Do you need to get in a certain mindset?
You just have to be open, you know? It’s really about connection. If you want to just come with your partner and enjoy some coffee, or if you just want to sit with us, listen to some music and have some conversation, just come with an open mind. And if you’re really, really open to it, you can go back to our single dating pods and really connect in a more unique way.
Will there be someone there who is ordained who could just marry people on the spot? Because I’m available.
[laughs] Are you?
100%.
[laughs] Let’s do it. Let’s do it. You never know, right? And that’s why I’m excited about this because I’m kind of a geek in a way. And I think I’m thinking about the data that we could collect, right?
Did you make a platonic connection? Did you make a romantic one? Do you want to get married right now today? And we can use that data for future events.
At the very end of the event, what do you hope people leave with?
I just want people to leave with a sense of feeling celebrated and connected. I want people to really walk away having meaningful connections, and fully experience what Valentine’s Day is really all about and that’s love and joy. We want to affirm that with this event, so I hope people walk away feeling that. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- Coffee Date: A Unique Valentine’s Day Experience will be held on Saturday, February 8 from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm at Stonewall Columbus (1160 North High Street). General admission tickets are free and access to the Blind Date Pods are $15. Tickets are limited and can be found here.
- Follow Black, Out and Proud here.
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