Pride and passion: LGBTQ+ artists meet for the first time after making album together

The Future Perfect Project, an organization created to amplify young LGBTQ+ voices, took 10 young queer artists who have never met in person, one album created virtually, and one live performance in New York City and created the experience of a lifetime.

Celeste Lecesne and Ryan Amador co-founded The Future Perfect Project in early 2017 with the mission to learn about this next generation of LGBTQ+ artists and amplify their voices. They travelled to different communities around the United States to see how queer youth connected, supported, and related to one another. They visited high schools and LGBTQ+ Youth Centers to provide them with a safe space to engage in creative writing and performance. The organization offers difference workshops and creates different media in order to accomplish their goal of creating a future where all LGBTQ+ youth feel safe, seen, and celebrated.

“We became the means by which those stories, animations, songs got out into the world. And that's just inspiring to hear actually from them about what it's like to be fully themselves and have the opportunity to be themselves in this world,” Celeste says.

This was not the first time co-founder Celeste had created a community to help the LGBTQ+ youth. In 1998, Celeste founded The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that focuses on ending suicide among the LGBTQ+ young people. This community started when Celeste was doing a one-person show called Word of Mouth. The show then went on to become a short film called Trevor, which won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Seeing the power of telling their stories and the stories of others around them, Celeste was inspired to help the next generation do the same.

The Future Perfect Project program Future Perfect Records, led by Emma Seslowsky and Ryan Amador, chose 10 young artists from applications to create an album together. Daniel Cruz, Elias Brix, Michael Stolar, Delia Hughes, Ruby Pine, Christian Inman, Katelyn Handy, Alysia Macias, Kai Warrior and River Wildes virtually worked together for a year to create all original music for this album. They bonded, expressed themselves, and learned about the music industry along the way.

“I think my favorite part was songwriting with them. And watching them grow their artistic voice in the songwriting process and becoming more decisive about what they wanted to say and how they wanted to say it,” explained Emma.

The Future Perfect Project worked hard to cultivate a safe, supportive environment for these young artists to express themselves. They were encouraged to be their authentic themselves while they mastered original songs for the album.

“It was just a really comfortable space to be in. The love was acknowledged and known,” says Kai.

“And for many of these 10, I think the idea of being able to be a queer artist to bring that to their artistry, freed up something in them,” says Celeste.

Then, the big day came. Anticipations were high as the moment came for them to meet in person for the first time to perform their hard work live at the Lincoln Center in New York City.

“When we all first met, I mean, it was like we were already a family kind of. Our experiences being queer, our experiences are many the same and we understand each other,” explains Christian. “There are certain people who can sympathize, but I feel like we were able to empathize with each other and understand who we were, where we were coming from, where our art derived from. And I think that's what really helped us connect even more.”

They had 48 hours to get the show together. This amazing crew rehearsed, laughed, and explored the city while leading up to this long awaited performance.

“They got to know each other, they got to help one another, just by being themselves," says Ryan.

One by one, these talented artists got to experience the joy of singing their original music on stage. For some of them, it was their first time ever performing live.

“I knew that these people were talented, but hearing it live and seeing their faces and the emotion and love they put into their performances, I was like, wow, this is actually so incredible. And I feel inspired and so grateful to be around so many talented, wonderful individuals,” says Katelyn.

The entire show accomplished the goal of making each one of these young queer artists feel seen, safe, and celebrated. Not only did they leave this beautiful experience feeling there for themselves, but they left knowing they have a new community of friends there for them as well.

“It was so beautiful to watch them over the course of 48 hours really blossom as artists right in front of us. For them to have a sense of, ‘Oh my God, I'm in New York city performing for an audience of people who actually see me as an artist,’” says Celeste. “But by having other people see you, as you see yourself, it's such an affirmation."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LGBTQ+ artists meet for the first time after making an album together