Springfield's PrideFest organizer hopes festivalgoers 'enjoy the journey'

There’s still a few days left before Springfield’s 14th annual PrideFest, but Duane Williams, known better as his stage name Deanna Knight, is busy putting plans into action.

Williams lives a hectic yet happy life, with a husband he loves dearly and a new job at the Phoenix Center as director of operations with plenty of fun wearing colorful outfits strutting down Springfield’s catwalks after work.

The art of drag has been an integral part of Williams life, who started exploring the world of drag performances in 2008.

“I was at a lower point of my life at that time and Deanna just gave me some strength,” Williams said. “She was an outward expression of an inward feeling I needed.”

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While the stage will be full of glitz and glam Saturday night at PrideFest, most of the work goes off-stage with plenty of towels, choreography and up to 10 hours of work for a single custom costume.

Williams wouldn’t be who he is today without the persona of Deanna; who started as a $99 trip to Walmart and Goodwill on the spur of an opportunity with Mahogany Knight, mother of the Knight family.

“I was actually in a heterosexual relationship,” Williams explained the process, “Long story – then I came out and then I was in a relationship where I was asked to be a little less than (who I am) ... Deanna helped me come out of that relationship and be who I am.”

Drag isn’t just a single form way to represent creativity, it's LGBTQ+ experimentation and a multi-part performance. A performance which opened the door for Williams, as Deanna, to meet people of similar interest and be a safe space for curious friends or passerbys to ask questions about gender and sexuality.

The love of drag has brought Williams into a welcoming community.

With matron Mahogany Knight, Deanna now guides other members of the Knight family, a group of drag performers who train and perform with each other in the Springfield area. Performers Jay Estelado Knight, Chad W. Knight, McKenna Knight and Sara-Belle Knight are daughters of Deanna, taught by their drag mother Deanna.

The family is held together not just by performances and PrideFest, but memories they make as a group that’s tied together not by blood, but by choice.

'Enjoy the Journey'

PrideFest, the one-day event in downtown Springfield is hosted yearly by the Phoenix Center, an LGBTQ center offering public health service, social education and various group activities to the greater central Illinois community. Typically, Pride parades are held in June during Pride month, but the capitol city does it a little bit differently.

This year’s theme is “Enjoy the Journey”, which Williams says since Pridefest’s inception in 2010, the festival has grown to meet the bustling crowds.

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Many members of the LGBTQ+ can feel isolated in central Illinois from others – causing members of the community to choose to live a quiet lifestyle “in the closet” instead of expressing themselves how non-LGBTQ+ people are allowed to.

That isolation starts young and affects mental health, as LGBTQ+ young people are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers according to the Trevor Project.

“We are very much a pinpoint in Springfield,” Williams said. “If you go too far out from where we are it’s very stigmatic. LGBT culture is pretty accepted here but you don’t have to travel too far for it to be very, very closeted.”

Williams remembered an occasion earlier in the year when handing out resources to unhoused people, a person turned down a bag of goods because of the rainbow flag on it – the refusal struck Williams, that being stigmatized as queer person was worse than not receiving food and water.

The Phoenix Center during and after Pride offers educational courses on LGBTQ issues to help loved ones better stand queer identities. On top of education, the center also provides housing aid, public health HIV testing, Narcan and different counseling groups.

Williams and many other vocal leaders of the queer community in Springfield are happy to share information about sexual orientations, dispelling myths about what LGBTQ+ really is: a spectrum of sexual and gender, diverse like the people of Illinois.

“As time has grown Duane got a little stronger,” Williams said. “Deanna came right along for the ride. They’re kind of one person now.”

Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for the State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@gannett.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield's PrideFest organizer wants people to 'enjoy the journey'