Riis Beach

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Review

Jacob Riis Park is one of the rare beaches of New York city. New York is one of these amazing places where you can walk into a subway station in Times Square, arguably the most hectic and intense urban setting in the world, and emerge a little while later on a strip of sand where the waves of the Atlantic ocean come crashing.

To be perfectly honest, the journey is a tab bit more complicated that that: to get to Riis Beach, you need to ride the 2 Train to Flatbush avenue in Brooklyn, and then embark on the Q35 bus which takes you straight to Jacob Riis beach, for the price of a one way transit ticket.

Riis beach is located at southernmost tip of Queens, at the very beginning of the Long Island shore. The setting may not be as paradisiac as the immaculate beaches of Fire Island, but it is close enough.

Now, here is the insider’s tip for first time’s visitors: the gay area is located at the northernmost part of the beach! So walk up all the way up if you want to hang and have fun in the company of our gay and lesbians brothers and sisters. The crowd frequenting the area is a typical blend of New York’s multi-ethnic population and the vibe sometimes feels like the Christopher Street Piers on a beach.

Every year in August, Riis Beach is home to the “Beach Event” of New York’s annual Gay Black Pride festival.

While Riis beach always has a sizable contingent of black gay and lesbian visitors all summer long, this sandy strip of land taken by storm on the day of Black Pride by legions of scantily clad queer men and women of color is a sight to behold.

The mood is decidedly festive and laid back, and the event provides all kinds ways to keep oneself entertained: from dance music divas singing their timeless anthems (Cece Peniston), to underground gay rap artists (Brooklyn’s “illest MC” Shorty Roc) performing for the aspiring homo-thugs in attendance, and from ballroom children vogueing away on the dance area, to the hottest black studs competing at the Hot Body contest hosted by New York’s most beautiful ebony diva Tyra Allure. Of course, you can also just stick to frolicking in the water, laze away under the sun, or cruise on the boardwalk.

Black Pride takes place every summer, in the beginning of August, and the beach event is an all afternoon affair, from 12PM to 10PM.