Minnesota Disability Pride Festival brings community and advocacy to the Capitol
Friends, families and rainbow flags filled the lawn outside the Minnesota State Capitol on Thursday, Sept. 17, for Minnesota’s fourth annual Disability Pride Festival.
“Pride is all about celebrating oneself,” said Samrica Zogar, who attended the event. “It’s about celebrating the resilience, the strength of persons with disabilities.”
Hosted by Advocating Change Together (ACT), this year’s festival centered on connection, inclusion and advocacy.
For Zogar, those themes are personal.
The Liberian immigrant was born with a deformity affecting both of her feet and her right hand but has never received a formal diagnosis. Growing up in Liberia, Zogar said she faced limited access to health care and resources for her disability.
“I didn’t have shoes for 25 years. I had to come to the state before I wore my first pair of shoes,” she said.
Now, Zogar is preparing to take another step in understanding her disability. She said she has an upcoming appointment at Mayo Clinic, where she plans to undergo medical evaluations in hopes of receiving a diagnosis.
Along the way, her experience has become a way to educate others.
Zogar is a social media content creator who shares her journey as a person with a disability with an audience of more than 100,000 followers on both TikTok and Instagram.
“Being a person with disabilities, it’s my goal to be able to educate people,” Zogar said. “They can achieve anything. I am an example.”
Zogar said that being an immigrant, a Black woman and a person with a disability comes with overlapping challenges. But having space to talk about it has given her something she said she didn’t experience in Liberia.
“Where I’m from in Africa, a lot of people are afraid to talk about disabilities,” she said. “It’s a topic that people shy away from, even if people have children that have special needs.”
Since moving to Minnesota in 2018, Zogar said spaces like the Disability Pride Festival have helped her find community and a sense of belonging.
“It’s a warm place, and I love the people here,” Zogar said.
That sense of community is part of what ACT hoped to create when it launched the Disability Pride Festival four years ago.
ACT is a St. Paul-based, disability-led nonprofit focused on self-advocacy, leadership development, fighting ableism and building inclusive communities. The first festival was held in 2023 with a food truck, tables, chairs, tents and music. Jennifer Walton, ACT’s executive director, said the event has continued to grow each year.
“We had, I think, just under 30 vendors and sponsors last year. We had over 50 this year,” Walton said.
This year’s festival was originally scheduled for July during Disability Pride Month but was postponed due to extreme heat and poor air quality.
The September date landed during Disability Voting Rights Week, giving organizers another opportunity to highlight advocacy and civic engagement.
Walton said she’s happy the event was still able to go on, especially during a time when many people are facing uncertainty.
“It is such an authentic, joyful community space,” she said. “We try to plan all the other parts, and we miss the mark on a lot. But this community hits the mark every time.”
For Minnesota filmmaker Hannah Hayes, that sense of community also created an opportunity for collaboration.
Hayes attended the festival for the first time while looking for members of the disability community to participate in a narrative science-fiction short film she co-wrote and is directing. She said the film was driven by concerns about the treatment and rights of disabled people.
“We don’t live in a world where disabled people are free and equally human,” Hayes said.
The project explores ableism and disability justice at a time when Hayes said federal changes have left her concerned about the future of disability rights and community-based care.
“We are trying to transform how the value system of the world operates, especially when it comes to ableism,” Hayes said.
But for Hayes, the festival was also about being around people who understand her experience.
“I feel like anytime I’m around a bunch of disabled people, it’s almost like the feeling of like I can let my guard down,” Hayes said.
That feeling is what organizers say the festival is all about.
For Zogar, it’s also about accepting yourself and embracing what makes you different.
“One of the things I had to do to be the way I am today is about self-acceptance,” Zogar said. “It’s about loving myself and not seeking validation from people. Just love yourself. Be authentically you. Embrace all of your imperfections, because being you is beautiful.”
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