San Jose artist Danny Feliz Hanson has been creating artwork since she was a child, however her work will quickly be seen on a scale that youngsters — even artistic ones — can solely think about.
Her new colourful road mural, “Romance,” will probably be unveiled Friday evening on Submit Avenue within the coronary heart of the San Jose’s LGBTQ-centered Qmunity District in unbelievable trend. Bay Space aerialist Drago Nesa, who describe themselves as a nonbinary dragon residing life as a fulltime artist entrepreneur, will carry out through the reveal of the 416 foot-long mural, which was painted on the asphalt between Lightston Alley and South First Avenue.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan paints part of a mural on Submit Avenue in downtown San Jose alongside its designer, artist Danny Feliz Hanson on Monday, Aug. 4, 2025.
“Already this is a dream come true,” stated Hanson, 25, who can also be on the board of group gallery Works/San Jose. “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Romance” incorporates a dancing pair of unicorns — legendary beasts that Hanson says she loves to attract — surrounded by swirling colours. As a queer artist, Hanson stated she wished to include plenty of rainbow colours into the design, which nonetheless went by way of a couple of iterations earlier than she obtained the inexperienced mild to proceed.
The mural was made doable when Submit Avenue was completely closed in February. Plenty of palms contributed to this explicit job — nonprofit Curatus, the San Jose Downtown Affiliation, the Qmunity District, the Youngsters’s Discovery Museum, the downtown Property-Based mostly Enchancment District and the Metropolis of San Jose. Teams of volunteers — together with Hanson and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan — spent a couple of days in early August portray the mural.
The 6 p.m. mural reveal is the unofficial begin of Silicon Valley Pleasure weekend and proceeds the precise kickoff get together within the Qmunity District at 8 p.m. with drag performers, a tie-dye station, dancers, video games and DJ music. Get extra data at qmunitydistrict.org.
SV PRIDE TURNS 50: Talking of the Silicon Valley Pleasure festivities, the annual celebration is hitting a significant milestone this yr with its fiftieth anniversary.
Latin Grammy-nominated rapper Snow Tha Product — a San Jose native — will headline the competition Saturday at Plaza de Cesar Chavez, which runs from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. and continues Sunday from midday to six p.m. It’s also possible to anticipate an enormous crowd to return out for Sunday’s parade, which is able to begin at Market and Julian streets at 10:30 a.m. and proceed in spectacular trend alongside Market Avenue to Plaza de Cesar Chavez.
Along with all of the group organizations, companies and elected officers participating, the parade additionally will embody a VTA bus adorned with a particular Silicon Valley Pleasure wrap designed by artist Haley Tang. It options pictures of key figures within the LGBTQ motion through the years, together with assassinated San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk; Billy DeFrank, a Black LGBTQ trailblazer in San Jose; and Ken Yeager, who was the primary overtly homosexual particular person to serve on each the San Jose Metropolis Council and Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.
The theme of this yr’s celebration if “Unstoppable: 50 Years of Love, Legacy & Liberation.” Silicon Valley Pleasure traces its roots to a 1975 homosexual rights rally at San Jose State, which was adopted in 1976 by the primary Pleasure competition at St. James Park. Extra particulars on the weekend occasions, in addition to tickets, can be found at www.svpride.com.
LOWRIDERS CRUISE INTO DOWNTOWN: Get able to get low, when Lowrider Day returns to the San Jose Metropolis Corridor plaza on Saturday.
The graceful celebration of San Jose’s lowrider tradition — organized by the United Lowrider Council of San Jose and Councilmember Peter Ortiz’s workplace — runs from midday to six p.m. The customized vehicles — in addition to lowrider bikes — will roll onto the plaza and on Santa Clara Avenue, which will probably be closed between Third and Seventh streets. You’ll be able to take a look at the automobiles, watch a hop exhibition or take pleasure in dwell music courtesy of the Santa Cruz Latin Collective.
The annual festivities commemorate the day when town lifted its decades-long ban on cruising. The restrictions have been put in place again in 1986 due to respectable issues about public security and site visitors congestion, however as then-Councilmember Raul Peralez identified, the regulation was typically misused as a pretext to tug over Latino drivers or anybody in a tricked-out lowrider.
