- It's important for people to have spaces where they feel free to be themselves, to fully express themselves, and I think, we give people the opportunity to do that here.

(energetic upbeat music) - [Mariano Vera On Radio] I am, Mariano Vera, and this is your Pride Month Minute.

- [Person On Radio] What is wrong with teaching about what really happened in this country?

- Make sure you get down here to Fogartyville, and support what's going on here in the community.

Attitude of gratitude, WSLR.

- Community conversations are important, and we have them all here on the air and we have them live at Fogartyville as well.

People need to talk to each other.

(crowd chatter) (upbeat music) I was running for the State House in 2000, and that's where I met my partner, Dave Beaton.

He became my campaign manager.

We had really energized a lot of the community around issues that we cared about, right?

And we're like, "How do we keep it going?"

And we thought, "Maybe we should do a coffee house and have live music."

We really do believe that music has the power to heal, music has the power to bring people together, music has the ability to help people cross those cultural barriers.

Dave and I operated a cafe called the Fogartyville Cafe in Bradenton, and we built a really strong community there and it was really out of that community that we built there that we thought, "Okay, we can actually do this radio station, right?

We have the support."

And we first went on the air in the summer of 2005.

(upbeat music) The station started in the back room of a residential house on Myrtle and Royal Palm Avenue.

It was a former crack house.

We found a friend who lived in that area, and we put our antenna on a 35 foot pole in his backyard.

We sat down with two students who were hosting the radio club, and we joined their application.

So, we moved here in 2011.

We have about a seven mile radius with our broadcast signal, but we live stream.

We have free mobile apps.

Get us anywhere in the world.

Take us with you.

We are in our values and in our mission a progressive organization.

We promote peace, democracy, social and economic justice.

We bring people to our stage who progress those values.

And right now, with what is happening in the state of Florida, a lot of people don't feel they have a safe space to go, but they know that we are a safe space.

- Happy pride to every single one of you that have come up today.

I'm the Executive Director and Founder of the Fabulous Arts Foundation.

And I'm a musician.

My lyrics are based around like fighting for equality and demanding rights.

I absolutely do think that the LGBTQ+ community is under attack.

(thoughtful music) A lot of folks that I've been meeting with have informed me that they are fleeing the state because they are trans and they don't feel safe.

It feels different.

(thoughtful music) I think after the, you know, Pulse shooting that happened, a lot of folks have resonated at a very similar thing where they don't feel safe in bars.

And that's kind of always been for the LGBTQ+ community, it's been our safe space.

And so this has, you know, become how do we find a way to celebrate community and have a space that's for everyone?

So, being at Fogartyville really lent to having more control of the narrative, and be at an indoor venue that's private property.

That felt like a good move for us.

- We want them to be safe.

You know, we want them to be treated with dignity and respect.

What we have right now, It's so polarized and so divisive, and there's a lot of hate.

You can't teach about this.

You can't say that.

No, we need to be talking about all of it.

We need to be reading about all of it.

You know, this is how we grow.

This is how we understand each other.

People can reach a different understanding and open their minds to maybe not agreeing with somebody, but to accepting the difference and still respecting the individual.

(crowd chatter) We think that the way change is made is from the grassroots up, right, from the people up.

The organizing potential of the radio station and the community space is very important.

We are here to support freedom of expression, freedom of thought, freedom to learn, and freedom to read.

We are supposed to live in a democracy, and people need to remember that.

(thoughtful music) We need to be prepared, and we need to be organizing every day to fight back, to protect our rights, and to make sure we save our democracy.

(inspiring music)