The City of West Hollywood will close-out Pride Month events with Free Myself: A Conversation and Concert with Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins. This first-ever combined Lesbian Speakers Series and Summer Sounds event is free and will take place on Sunday, June 25, 2023 beginning at 4 p.m. at Plummer Park, located at 7377 Santa Monica Boulevard. Seating is not provided; picnic blankets, low chairs, and picnic snacks are encouraged.

At 4 p.m., the conversation will focus on the topic of visibility for lesbian/queer women in the music industry with insights and stories from Sophie B. Hawkins’ more than three-decade-long career. Free Myself is the title of her sixth studio album, which was released in Spring 2023 to rave reviews.

At 5 p.m. Hawkins and her band will perform her greatest hits and some brand-new favorites to launch the 2023 Summer Sounds Free Outdoor Concert Series. Sophie B. Hawkins’ acclaimed 1992 debut album Tongues and Tails achieved massive global success and earned her a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, vaulting Hawkins into the limelight and revealing her as a cultural luminary way ahead of her time.

Hawkins’ ever-evolving career has included releasing six widely beloved albums, breaking chart records with her smash hit As I Lay Me Down (which held the record as the longest-running single on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart), four worldwide hit singles from her second album, Whaler, songs in cultural touchstone TV shows and films (from recent hits Stranger Things, Euphoria, Ozark, and PEN15, to landmark series Beverly Hills, 90210, Dawson’s Creek, Community, The L Word and more), and she played the lead role starring as Janis Joplin in the critically-acclaimed musical Room 105, which made its stage debut at Macha Theatre on Kings Road in West Hollywood in 2012 and the show was extended multiple times before touring nationally. Hawkins is a long-time supporter of animal rights and environmental causes, as well as a social and political activist, supporting events promoting women in music and LGBTQ equality.

RSVP is requested via Eventbrite

About City of West Hollywood

The City of West Hollywood was officially founded on November 29, 1984. Previously, the area had been an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County. Cityhood was proposed by an unlikely coalition of LGBT activists, seniors, and renters who came together to form a City with progressive policies and strong tenants’ rights protections. For more than 30 years, the City of West Hollywood has demonstrated that it is like no other city in the world. West Hollywood has become one of the most influential small cities in the nation. No other city of its size has had a greater impact on the national progressive public policy agenda. A strong spirit of community activism and civic pride thrives in the City and people from all over the globe visit to experience its iconic destinations such as the rainbow crosswalks and LGBT clubs on Santa Monica Boulevard (historic Route 66), trendy shopping on Melrose Avenue, and nightlife on The Sunset Strip.