An annual Black pride event's continuity was interrupted—it was not formally held in 2014. Montrose Rocks, credited as the nation's largest one-day HIV testing event and health fair, didn't take place this year.
"It wasn't [feasible] to host the event to test," said event organizer Ariq Cabbler. He said the problem stemmed from the denial of a request to keep the sound system on until 6:30 p.m. "We didn't submit a permit this year [for the Montrose location]."
A "retooling" of both the event and time will occur in 2015, according to Cabbler. It's slated to take place on the Saturday before the Chicago Pride Parade. Burnham and Union parks, both considered as locations in 2014, are possible locales for next year.
The Rocks Coordinating Committee was incorporated in May 1998. Although the document noted Gabbler was designated as a new agent, effective March 2013, the non-profit organization lost its tax-exempt status in May 2012, according to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
The Rocks Coordinating Committee has a new governing board for 2014-15. Cabbler declined to reveal the members' names at this point. That group is expected to begin planning the application process in October.
"In the future, it [the board] will be diverse," he said.
Even though a permit was not applied for at Montrose and the Lake, according to documents obtained by the Windy City Times, Cabbler did prepare a permit application on behalf of Brothers Health Collective for another park. Gabbler serves as the collective's executive director.
Cabbler said Brothers Health Collective had served as primary fiscal sponsor. But, to receive government funding, the organization had to hold the event instead of serving as a sponsor.
Due to budget cuts, both the Illinois Department of Public Health and Chicago Department of Public Health stopped funding one-day events.
According to a May 21 fax cover letter, Brothers Health Collective was prepared to send Chicago Park District the permit—a little more than a month before the June 28 event ( that was a Saturday, the day before Pride; usually the Rocks event was held on a Sunday ).
It requested space at Union Park, 1501 W. Randolph St., from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., after being denied the time extension at Montrose Park. Union Park is located in the 27th Ward, where Walter Burnett Jr. serves as alderman.
Cabbler said the extended time and new day was necessary, in order to reach testing goals. However, the park district planned to only allow four large events to take place at the park. If the event had taken place there, it would've been the park's fifth large event.
Cabbler said he dismissed holding the event at Burnham Park—another location option—since it was only available Sunday. He noted that holding the event costs between $12,000 and $15,000.
The permit said the event was slated to draw 800 people and planned to feature 10 health vendors and drag queens as featured entertainment.
Cabbler, in part, blamed the event's failure on 46th Ward Ald. James Cappleman's lack of support.
"[Cappleman] was quite clear that he was going to do things differently," Cabbler said. "He was very hands-off."
Unlike his predecessor, former 46th Ward Ald. Helen Shiller, Cappleman didn't organize a meeting between the Chicago Park District and special events commanders. Shiller, according to Cabbler, was a "champion" of the event. Shiller's coordination ensured a police presence helped reduce any incidents.
"There were no police resources at Montrose [Park]," Cabbler said, referring to last year's event. "That's a coordinated effort that requires all hands on deck."
In addition, Cabbler credited Shiller for helping unauthorized vendors gain proper credentials before the next event. However, violence prevention, not event improvements, has been Cappleman's sole focus.
"It seems as if he saw it as a nuisance," Cabbler said.
Tressa Freher, Cappleman's chief of staff, responded to the organizer's allegations in a statement. Freher said Cappleman signs off on event permits after the Chicago Police and Park departments have signed off.
"The permitting process for this event never got to the point of reaching [his] desk," she said.
Unlike Montrose Rocks, Freher said, none of the various park events held each year require a joint meeting with the alderman's office, event organizers, as well as the police and park departments. She said organizers were told last year that they would follow the same permitting process as everyone else.
In response to Freher, Cabbler stressed the Rocks Coordinating Committee had always worked with the alderman and involved agencies, since it was the 46th Ward's largest event. Unlike Shiller, Cappleman refused to hold community meetings. Cabbler said the park district's jurisdiction only extends to policing permit holders—not the event itself.
Rocks Coordinating Committee Co-Founder Michael O'Connor also expressed displeasure with Cappleman. O'Connor said Cappleman is being insensitive to the cultural tradition of Montrose Rocks. He also stressed the event's focus on HIV testing, given the 46th Ward has a high rate of HIV and AIDS. [The Chicago Department of Public Health HIV/STI Information Coordinator Marjani Williams said the city doesn't track HIV rates in each ward.]
Tensions between the community and commanders reared its head in 2013. Police attempted to connect a gang-related incident at the intersection of Wilson Street and Montrose Avenue to the Rocks event.
That prompted a suggestion to turn the public address system down at 5 p.m. A change in the Pride Parade route meant that people couldn't get back to Montrose Avenue until after 5 p.m. So, testing numbers fell. Cabbler said only 60 people were tested in 2013.
How Montrose Rocks began
The event has gone through a few changes during its nearly 20-year history. Event Organizer Ariq Cabbler said what's now known as Montrose Rocks began life as Belmont Rocks and would move to Irving Park for a time.
However, the event didn't waver from its focus on health. In addition to HIV testing, it offered breast and cervical cancer services. And, Montrose Rocks also offered domestic violence resources. In a 2012 Windy City Times story, former organizer Anthony Galloway said it provides more than health information and testing services.
"It brings a sense of community," Galloway said. "It's essential that an event like this occurs."
Research apparently reveals LGBT people—with a community of supporters—have better health outcomes. Also, Lakeview isn't the only neighborhood where LGBT Chicagoans live.
"We know that our community is spread out all over Chicago," Galloway said.
Gabbler and Galloway took over leadership from Rocks Coordinating Committee founders O'Connor, Marc Loveless and Lloyd Kelly and other board members. However, only Cabbler's name appears on an Illinois Secretary of State Corporation File Detail Report.
O'Connor stressed what inspired and sustained the event during its lifetime.
"We wanted more than a party," O'Connor said about the efforts of him, Marc Loveless and Lloyd Kelly to launch the Montrose Rocks event, several years after the original Belmont Rocks celebration had started.
"It's the largest [organized] African-American presence on the lakefront," he said.
"We decided we were going to be proactive," O'Connor said. "We had a legal right to get the permit and we used that permit."
That permit allowed Montrose Rocks to showcase entertainment, a vital health service and a platform to policymakers as well as LGBT constituent access to those power players.
U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Jesse Jackson Jr. as well as late former Cook County Board President John Stroger Jr. and former state Rep. Constance Howard have headlined the event. O'Connor is a former staffer for Howard.
"We've honored anyone who's successfully achieved what we consider community service," O'Connor said.
O'Connor said the Rocks Coordinating Committee was the only active organization to honor African-American policymakers as well as allies publicly. He stressed why he and fellow Rocks Coordinating Committee founders had such a civic-minded focus.
"We understood the importance—unlike the apolitical [individuals] who fought us—of visibility of public policy decision-makers," he said. "That visibility translates into helping public policy."
House-music producer Frankie Knuckles, who died earlier this year, was also part of the event's history. Knuckles played out of the back of his van at Belmont Rocks.
"As far as I can remember, African Americans have always gathered separately from the parade," O'Connor said. "There was a time we were not effectively reached out to."
Belmont Rocks was a direct response to the "inability of promoters to adequately and legally have a party on the lakefront," according to O'Connor. He recalled when the Chicago Police Department ran us off the lakefront" in the 1980s.
"They said we were not a part of the pride events," he said.
