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Emily Dreyfuss

Jack Dorsey Is Captain of the Twittanic at TED 2019

On Tuesday, Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, came to TED 2019 to answer for the sins of his platform. In his signature black hoodie and jeans, unkempt facial hair, and black beanie, he sat with TED head Chris Anderson and Whitney Pennington Rodgers, who curates current affairs for the conference, for a conversation that left all three members, along with the audience, frustrated.

“We’re on this great voyage with you on the Twittanic,” Anderson told Dorsey after roughly 20 minutes of interrupted back and forth. “There are people in steerage who are saying, ‘We are worried about the iceberg ahead!’ And you say, ‘That is a good point’ and ‘Our boat hasn’t been built to handle it,’ and we’re waiting, and you are showing this extraordinary calm and we’re all worried but we’re outside saying, ‘Jack, turn the fucking wheel!’”

Dorsey stoically listened to this comparison, like the meditative yogi he often talks about aspiring to be. “It’s democracy at stake! It’s our culture at stake! It’s our world at stake!” Anderson continued. “You’re doing a brilliant role of listening, Jack, but can you actually dial up the urgency and move on this stuff? Will you do that?”

“Yeah, yeah, yes,” Dorsey replied, but then added, “We could do a bunch of superficial things to address what you’re talking about, but we need to go deep.”

It’s been more than a year since Dorsey publicly committed to “fixing” Twitter, and figuring out what a platform that encourages healthy discussions looks like. He’s been on a mea culpa tour since then, telling the world—and regulators —that he knows Twitter is broken, that it’s toxic and terrible and that he and the team are planning to radically rebuild it. He reiterated all of this on the TED stage, explaining that he wants to rethink what behavior the site incentivizes, for instance, by possibly getting rid of the like button and de-emphasizing follower counts while emphasizing topical interests instead. He repeated that he wants to focus on maximizing the health of conversations, and prioritizing people spending their time learning on the site, rather than getting outraged or harassed. He admitted Twitter was full of problems, problems he didn’t anticipate 13 years ago when the site was founded, and which he’s still trying to figure out how to solve.

The urgency of this task couldn’t have been made clearer in the days leading up to Dorsey’s appearance. Over the weekend, Ilhan Omar—a woman of color, an immigrant, and a Muslim representing the state of Minnesota in the US House— reported an increase in death threats after President Trump tweeted out a video that intercut a speech she recently gave with footage of the 9/11 attacks. Many of the threats were made on Twitter . Then on Monday, as Notre Dame burned , people came to the platform to mourn the loss in real time, but also to spread lies and hate as quickly as the flames engulfed the cathedral’s spire. When Omar tweeted her own heartfelt condolences, people replied with more death threats. Twitter was very much itself, showcasing the power of its network as well the danger.

Dorsey didn’t address any of these incidents specifically at TED. In fact, his answers lacked specificity overall. When he was asked pointed questions, he evaded them, as he often does . Rodgers asked him how many people are working on content moderation on Twitter—a number the company has never published, and Tuesday continued the vagueness streak.

“It varies,” Dorsey said. “We want to be flexible on this. There are no amount of people that can actually scale this, which is why we have done so much work on proactively taking down abuse.”

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Jessica Rawnsley

That proactive work was the big news Dorsey announced from the stage: A year ago, Twitter wasn’t proactively monitoring abuse actively using machine learning at all. Instead, it relied entirely on human reporting—a burden Dorsey was quick to recognize was unfairly put on the victims of the abuse. “We’ve made progress,” he said. “Thirty-eight percent of abusive tweets are now proactively recognized by machine-learning algorithms, but those that are recognized are still reviewed by humans. But that was from zero percent just a year ago.” As he uttered those words, Twitter sent out a press release with more information on the effort, highlighting that three times more abusive accounts are being suspended within 24 hours of getting reported compared with this time last year.

That progress is good, but 38 percent is not exactly a lot. Facebook’s most recent transparency report , by contrast, says that over 51 percent of content it acted on for violating policies against hate speech was flagged before users reported it. Nor did Dorsey or the official Twitter announcement provide many details about how the technology to proactively flag abuse works.

Relying on algorithms and automation won’t solve all Twitter’s problems, either. Facebook just announced a slew of changes to better fight abuse and misinformation, which for all its technological sophistication, it hasn’t come close to eradicating. And on Monday YouTube briefly flagged news broadcasts' live video of the Notre Dame fire with a link to information about the 9/11 attacks—an effort at automated fact-checking that in this case demonstrated how imperfect such systems can be.

For years, organizations like Amnesty International have urged Twitter to be more transparent about abuse on its platform and the steps the company is taking to combat it. Rodgers noted that last year, a crowdsourced study by Amnesty found that a problematic or abusive tweet is sent to a woman every 30 seconds. For women of color, one in every 10 tweets they receive is abusive.

By bringing up the very real suffering of people on his platform, Rodgers and Anderson tried to bring a sense of urgency to the conversation. But Dorsey’s signature laconic and intensely calm style of speaking was at odds with the tone they were trying to set. When Dorsey tried to get into specifics of how Twitter is measuring healthy conversations on the site—using four metrics developed by MIT’s Cortico team —Anderson cut him off.

“How hard is it to get rid of Nazis from Twitter?” he asked.

Dorsey sighed. Deeply. He explained that the team has taken hateful accounts down, and when they can see that an account is associated with a hate group, they are banned. “We’re in a situation right now where that term is used fairly loosely and we just cannot take any one mention of that word accusing someone else as a factual indication that they should be removed from the platform,” he explained. Twitter, and Dorsey in particular, have long upheld free speech as a defining value for the service.

The conversation was clearly frustrating for all three participants. “You didn’t let me finish,” Dorsey told Anderson at one point, after he was cut off again. In that way, the TED event was also quite meta: To use Twitter is to be frustrated by its promise and limitations, by how much of a garbage fire it is while also being so useful to modern life, by how obvious some of its problems are while seeing how apparently elusive solutions can be.

Dorsey did bring up one specific fix. “The first thing you see when you go to [the page to report abuse] is about intellectual property protection. You scroll down and you get to abuse and harassment,” he noted. “I don’t know how that happened in the company’s history, but we put that above the thing that people actually want the most information on. Just our ordering shows the world what we believed was important. We are changing all that, we are ordering it the right way.”

For all his insistence on the bigger picture, this was a very small problem for Dorsey to point out, and one with a very obvious solution. Nevertheless, Twitter is not fixed. Why? The reasoning here is agonizingly circular: Because Dorsey says he doesn’t want to do a bunch of small iterative quick fixes; he wants to fundamentally rebuild the site to encourage better conversations, and that will take time—time it’s unclear the world can afford.

The day before Dorsey appeared at TED, Carole Cadwalladr, the British journalist who broke the story about Cambridge Analytica’s role in the Brexit vote, stood on the same stage and issued a challenge to all the “gods of Silicon Valley,” listing them by name: Zuckerberg, Sandberg, Brin, Page, and Dorsey last among them. “This technology that you have invented has been amazing, but now it’s a crime scene,” she said. “My question to you is, is this what you want? Is this how you want history to remember you? As the handmaidens to authoritarianism all across the world? You set out to connect people and the same technology is now driving us apart.”

Of those gods, only Dorsey showed up. But unlike an omniscient being, Dorsey doesn’t have all the answers. He’s more like a captain of a ship, wondering aloud how to avoid the many icebergs in his path while continuing ahead at full steam.

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Kelly Rowland Stuns At 'Mea Culpa' Screening Event In Chicago

Leading lady energy: kelly rowland gives ’em the blues at ‘mea culpa’ screening event in chicago, extends slay streak.

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Source: Barry Brecheisen/Getty Images

Kelly Rowland brought her leading lady energy to Chicago for a special screening of upcoming erotic thriller Mea Culpa ahead of the buzzy film’s premiere this Friday, Feb. 23 on Netflix.

The classy stunner extended her slay streak in an elegant blue jumpsuit that popped in photos from the latest major city screening event of her nationwide promo tour.

In Mea Culpa , Kelly Rowland stars as a criminal defense attorney named Mea who takes on the case of a seductive artist ( Trevante Rhodes ) accused of murdering his girlfriend.

“But when burning desire takes hold things get hot… and dangerous,” per the official synopsis.

“This idea came to me because I love all of those older thrillers from the ’80s and ’90s,” said Perry in an interview with Tudum . “It was fun to explore the best and worst of humanity through the genre of an exotic thriller.”

Check out the sexy trailer below:

Written and directed by Perry, Mea Culpa is another star vehicle for Rowland who continues to make power moves in Hollywood.

“I never had an experience where I was working with someone who had so many great ideas to bring to the table,” said Perry about Rowland. “As a producer, she was fantastic.”

And, at this point, it’s very clear that she’s not the one to play with based on her reportedly walking out of the Today show and checking Big Tigger and co-host Jazzy McBee over Beyoncé questions during a recent interview.

Kelly Rowland said uh uh to them DC/Beyoncé questions 😭 #MeaCulpa out in 3 days!! pic.twitter.com/HYoLm7urd4 — Key (@kedewayne) February 20, 2024

If you’re interviewing a celebrity, the LEAST you can do is research & watch their MOST RECENT interviews! There’s no way, in the same week on various platforms Kelly Rowland should be asked about Beyonce/Destiny’s Child when she already shot down & redirected those questions.. pic.twitter.com/NmC9NUYQfW — Jerome Trammel (@MrJeromeTrammel) February 21, 2024

Will you be seated for Mea Culpa ? Do you think Beyoncé/Destiny’s Child questions should be off limits in Kelly’s interviews? Tell us down below and enjoy more of her promo tour slays on the flip.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kelly Rowland (@kellyrowland)

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Kelly Rowland’s Latest Press Tour Look Is A Must-Have For Spring

Beyoncé would’ve approved.

Whether or not you splurged on Beyoncé’s new hair care brand Cécred this week, there’s a good chance footage from the corresponding launch party has flooded your Instagram timeline since Feb. 20. Behind-the-scenes videos of the soirée showcased the white sartorial theme — an assignment Beyoncé, her mother Tina Knowles, Blue Ivy , and the rest of the guests certainly understood. While Queen Bey’s former Destiny’s Child bandmate and longtime friend Kelly Rowland was noticeably absent from the Cécred fête, a few days later, she channeled the party’s dress code in a luxe all-white suit set which she wore to celebrate the release of her new film, Mea Culpa .

On the evening of Feb. 22, just a few hours before the new Tyler Perry thriller dropped on Netflix, Rowland was snapped by the paparazzi out and about in L.A. dressed in the aforementioned ivory co-ord. Supposedly en route to a star-studded release party, the A-lister styled a matching cream set courtesy of Poland-based label, EPUZER . On top, Rowland styled a timeless white blazer synched with a fringed belt around the waist. Her wide-leg trousers — also sourced from EPUZER — continued the fringe theme as one of the pant legs was adorned with a coordinating tasseled hem. Staying true to the Beyoncé-approved white-on-white aesthetic, she slipped on a pair of white pointy pumps, which she offered a closer look at on IG . Rowland gave her final ‘fit a glitzier finish via layered diamond tennis necklaces (one from Lūvente with a price tag of $89,000 ), eye-catching drop earrings, and various mismatched silver rings, specifically a three-stone ring from New York-based jeweler, FANA .

Rowland’s latest outing was the bookend on a fabulous week-long press tour for Mea Culpa , where the fashion muse delivered over five stellar red-carpet-ready moments. The other looks we can’t stop thinking about? On Feb. 20 (the evening of Beyoncé’s launch party), Rowland stunned at a Chicago screening for the film in a royal blue bodysuit coupled with an of-the-moment fur coat. A few days earlier, at the film’s New York premiere, the singer posed in an ankle-grazing Area Fall/Winter 2023 coat overtop a celeb-approved no-pants outfit that featured a brown button-down and matching underwear.

If you don’t already have your plans secured for this weekend, thanks to Rowland’s newest Netflix movie, now you do. And while you’re cozied up on the couch, consider treating yourself to Rowland’s latest suit look with the curated edit below. These pieces are practically begging for starring roles in your spring wardrobe.

• Cast & crew
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Follows an ambitious criminal defense attorney that, in her aspiration to be named partner, takes on the case of an artist accused of murdering his girlfriend. Follows an ambitious criminal defense attorney that, in her aspiration to be named partner, takes on the case of an artist accused of murdering his girlfriend. Follows an ambitious criminal defense attorney that, in her aspiration to be named partner, takes on the case of an artist accused of murdering his girlfriend.

• Tyler Perry
• Kelly Rowland
• Trevante Rhodes
• 157 User reviews
• 34 Critic reviews
• 33 Metascore

• Judge Brodan

• Reporter #2

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Goofs Mea asks her client if he wants to die by Lethal injection. The death penalty isn't legal in the state of Illinois.

Mea : It's a really good look for an Anesthesiologist. Kal... .addicted to his own shit. And now I'm here trying to hold it all together. This case will earn me just enough to get us through the next few months. So don't tell me what I will or will not do.

Kal : Mea..

Mea : Pick one.

• Connections Referenced in Brad Tries Podcasting: ChatGPT Cinema Snob 3 (2024)
• Soundtracks Walk on By Written by Hal David , Burt Bacharach Performed by Isaac Hayes Courtesy of Craft Recordings, a division of Concord Published by Universal Music Corp. on behalf of itself, PW Arrangements and New Hidden Valley Music Co and BMG Gold Songs

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• Runtime 2 hours
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Kelly Rowland Stars in Tyler Perry’s Crime Thriller ‘Mea Culpa’: Watch the Trailer

The film hits Netflix's streaming library in February.

By Michael Saponara

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“You have no idea who he is,” Mea is told in the clip. “A snake is never violent when stalking their prey. It’s only when they get right into striking distance that they become very violent.”

Mea Culpa , which arrives Feb. 23, serves as Perry’s fifth feature film with Netflix and comes as part of the first-look deal he signed with the streaming giant last year.

Additional producers behind Perry and Rowland include Dianne Ashford, Will Areu, and Angi Bones. The rest of the cast is rounded out with stars including RonReaco Lee, Sean Sagar, Nick Sagar and Shannon Thornton.

In recent years, the Destiny’s Child singer has cut her acting chops with appearances in television series such as Grown-ish and The Equalizer .

While Rowland adds to her acting résumé, the multi-hyphenate will be hitting the stage as part of the star-studded Lovers & Friends lineup coming to Las Vegas in May.

Alongside Rowland, the loaded 2024 festival features performances from Usher, Backstreet Boys, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Nas, Alicia Keys, Nelly Furtado, Ludacris, Mary J. Blige, Ciara, TLC, and Timbaland, to name a few.

Watch the Mea Culpa trailer below.

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Where to Watch

Watch Mea Culpa with a subscription on Netflix.

What to Know

Neither campy enough to qualify as a guilty pleasure nor exciting enough to hold up as a thriller, Mea Culpa is a sorry entry in the Tyler Perry filmography.

Mea Culpa might keep you guessing for a while, but the real question is who's supposed to fall for this movie's unbelievable plot.

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Mea Culpa Filming Locations: Where the Netflix Thriller Was Shot

Tyler Perry’s latest crime drama, “Mea Culpa,” starring Kelly Rowland and Trevante Rhodes, is set to hit Netflix on February 23, 2024. The film promises danger, desire, and plenty of twists along the way.

But where did this intense story unfold on screen? Let’s explore the real-world locations that brought “Mea Culpa” to life.

The Main Filming Hubs: Atlanta and Chicago

“Mea Culpa” was brought to life in two major cities:

• Atlanta, Georgia:  The production made extensive use of Atlanta, nicknamed the “Hollywood of the South” for its thriving film scene.
• Chicago, Illinois:  The Windy City provides the overall setting for the film, adding its unique mix of urban grit and sophistication to the story.

Tyler Perry Studios: The Heart of the Production

Much of the interior filming took place within the walls of Tyler Perry Studios, located in Atlanta. This massive 330-acre complex, once a former army base, now houses soundstages, backlots, and everything needed for efficient filmmaking. Think of it as the central hub where many of those intense courtroom and apartment scenes played out.

Bringing Chicago to the Screen

While Atlanta provided the production base, Chicago shines through as the film’s true backdrop. The trailer alone teases glimpses of:

• Downtown Sprawl:  Shots featuring Mea approaching Zyair’s house give us a taste of Chicago’s vast urban landscape.
• Iconic Skyline:  Establishing shots highlight the Chicago skyline, with recognizable buildings like 330 North Wabash adding to the authenticity.

Why Atlanta and Chicago?

These cities weren’t picked randomly. Here’s how they enhance the story:

• Atlanta’s Efficiency:  Studios like Tyler Perry’s offer controlled environments and streamlined production, allowing for a quick yet polished 20-day shoot.
• Chicago’s Atmosphere:  This city provides a blend of big-city energy and raw realism, perfectly reflecting the complex themes of “Mea Culpa.”

Where can I watch “Mea Culpa”?

The film premieres exclusively on Netflix on February 23, 2024.

Who directed “Mea Culpa”?

The film is directed by Tyler Perry.

Was “Mea Culpa” filmed entirely in Atlanta and Chicago?

While the bulk of the filming took place in these two cities, it’s possible some minor scenes were shot elsewhere.

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‘Mea Culpa’ Review: Who’s Really to Blame, and for What?

The tagline of Tyler Perry’s new movie is “everyone’s guilty of something,” but the responsibility for this willfully steamy, decidedly silly thriller is all his.

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By Lisa Kennedy

Is creating a guilty pleasure something a director can — or even should — aim for? That’s one of the questions wafting over the writer-director Tyler Perry’s willfully steamy thriller “Mea Culpa.”

Cast for sizzle, the movie stars the singer-actor Kelly Rowland as Mea Harper, a Chicago defense attorney, and Trevante Rhodes (“Moonlight”) as a successful painter accused of killing his girlfriend. Her body has yet to been found, but there were skull fragments in one of his paintings.

The assistant district attorney Ray Hawthorne (Nick Sagar) hopes to leverage the case for a mayoral run. He’s also Mea’s brother-in-law. In the firm clutches of the matriarch Azalia (Kerry O’Malley), the Hawthornes are an ambitious clan who appear to have borrowed much of their dialogue from the daytime soaps of yore. Among Mea’s reasons for taking this case is the Hawthorne family’s condescension and the excessive deference her husband, Kal, (Sean Sagar) shows his mother. (In case the family isn’t close enough, the actors Sean and Nick Sagar are brothers.)

Rowland commits to the thankless task of playing a smart woman gone stupid. Rhodes can’t do much with Zyair, whose affect is more flat than seductive. Or, as Mea’s private investigator and friend Jimmy (RonReaco Lee, a bright spot) quips: Zyair’s either a great liar or a psychopath.

While the movie teases with its “is he or isn’t he a murderer?” quandary, the soundtrack boasts killer tunes, including Isaac Hayes’s cover of “Walk on By,” playing like a caution the first time Mea visits Zyair’s loft. The warning goes unheeded, and the two embark on a possibly dangerous and decidedly silly liaison, one that taps into spousal angst and features plenty of soft-core intrigue.

Mea Culpa Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, language, some violence and drug use. Running time: 2 hours. Watch on Netflix .

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Kelly Rowland Shuts Down Radio Hosts For Asking About Beyoncé & Destiny's Child: "I'm Here Talking About ‘Mea Culpa'"

Kelly Rowland is on a press tour promoting her Netflix film Mea Culpa and was asked about Beyoncé's new country album and the possibility of a Destiny's Child reunion.

Rowland and her Mea Culpa co-star Trevante Rhodes stopped by radio station V-103 Atlanta for an interview on The Big Tigger Morning Show with Jazzy McBee to talk about their film. However, things turned awkward when the show's host asked about Beyoncé's music.

"Your sis just dropped a whole new couple of songs, and it's my understanding that Renaissance II may or may not be country-based, and then there's a rumor going around that Renaissance III may be, either rock-based or a DC reunion," Big Tigger asked.

Rowland replied with a wink, "That is her business to talk about, not mine."

Jazzy McBee intervened and said, "And I know that you all are tired of answering those questions, but fans like me for the Destiny's Child reunion, it got me really excited … we still gotta ask every time we see you."

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"I know, but just ask them," Rowland replied. "I'm here talking about Mea Culpa , out Feb. 23, and that's what I'm most excited about right now. I think that, that's that."

Big Tigger smiled and praised Rowland for dodging the question adding, "Your matrix game is nice."

Watch the awkward moment in the video below starting at minute 9:45.

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Mea Culpa is a Netflix thriller that was directed, written and produced by Tyler Perry. Rowland stars as criminal defense attorney Mea Harper, who takes on a case involving an artist (Rhodes) who is accused of murdering his girlfriend.

The film also stars Sean Sagar, Nick Sagar, RonReaco Lee, Shannon Thornton, Angela Robinson, Kerry O'Malley and Connor Weil.

Watch the trailer for Mea Culpa below.

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• Russia Tours
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• Khabarovsk and Vladivostok Tour

7-day Khabarovsk and Vladivostok Tour 7 Days | Khabarovsk, Vladivostok

Visit the two largest cities in Russia’s remote Far East region - Khabarovsk, on the Russian-Chinese border, and the legendary Vladivostok, terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway. With a mix of nature, military and political history, indigenous culture, and gastronomy, this Vibrant Cities of the Russian Far East Tour showcases many diverse highlights of this unique part of Russia. From your base in Khabarovsk, venture into the surrounding area to visit an indigenous Nanai village, see Neolithic petroglyphs, and take a guided walk through the Bolshekhekhtsirsky Nature Reserve. Moving to Vladivostok, discover the city’s rich military history, beautiful coastal landscapes, and delicious seafood. Highlights include visiting famous forts; seeing lighthouses, bridges, and more on an evening boat tour; and visiting a sea cucumber farm to learn how this delicacy is harvested.

HIGHLIGHTS & SIGHTSEEING IN KHABAROVSK

• The City Tour along wooden and brick houses preserved from the time of the city’s founding will enable you to feel an unmistakable charm of Khabarovsk. The oldest Komsomolskaya Square houses the remarkable redbrick building dating 1901(now the Public Library). Splendid view of the St.Innokenty church – the first church built in the city. During the Stalin’s period, a well known GULAG Camp existed near the Ulakhan village which was located close the city.
• The Archaeological Museum contains over 40,000 artifacts; among them, there are the world famous petrogliphs of Sikachi Alyan and cultural heritage of the Golden Empire of the Jurchen People.
• The Art Museum possesses a unique collection of the Far Eastern aboriginal crafts and arts that includes fish skin outfits, beautiful carpets and bone engraved items. Some wonderful ancient Russian icons and paintings by famous Russian artists Ilya Repin, Ivan Shishkin and Isaac Levitan, as well as works by Western masters, such as Rembrandt, Rubens and Monet are exhibited in the Art Museum.
• The Cruise along the Amur River is might be a beautiful journey within a live archeological museum. The riverside rocks make an unusual display of man-made carvings – petrogliphs that are the images of ancient cultural heritage of local ethnic groups. The Bolshekhetsirsky State Nature Preserve has conifer-broadleaved forests rich in typically virgin nature and genetic stock of organic life. In 30 miles to the southwest of the city, there is the Khekhtsir State Nature Reserve, a unique place where southern lianas, Manchurian walnuts grow side by side with evergreen conifers. Bears, foxes, wolves, elks and tigers could be watched occasionally there. The Badjal Range – one of the most picturesque parts of the Russian Far East with unique flora and fauna is abundant in sable, musk deer and bears.

Pride Parade will now allow participants from schools, organizers say

A teacher says nettelhorst school will help “coordinate” a group of schools into one entry after six schools had been denied participation when organizers scaled back the popular parade..

Students from the Catherine Cook School march in the annual Chicago Pride Parade in June 2018.

Sun-Times file

Pride Parade organizers have reversed their earlier decision, now allowing some school participation in the June 30 festivities after originally cutting all schools that had previously joined the popular event.

The change came a day after the Sun-Times reported parade organizers denied entry to six Chicago schools that had a history of participating in the parade.

Nettelhorst School will now coordinate with the five other previously denied schools, said Francis W. Parker School teacher Karen Liszka. The heavily attended parade passes by Nettelhorst in the heart of the city’s well-known LGBTQ+ area in Lake View .

Motoko Maegawa, a teacher at Catherine Cook School, confirmed parade organizers contacted the denied schools with a new plan.

According to an email to participants that Liszka sent the Chicago Sun-Times, a pride organizer said, “Nettelhorst School is pleased to help us coordinate our group of schools into one entry, which is helpful with the new, smaller limit on the available number of entries.”

Schools that were previously denied will now be allowed 30 overall participants but will not be able to use cars or buses, the email stated. Instead, golf carts will be provided by Nettelhorst, according to the email.

The schools include: Francis W. Parker School, Nettelhorst School, Catherine Cook School, Near North Montessori School, Rogers Park Montessori School and Lycée Français de Chicago.

The entrance fee will be waived as a “mea culpa” for the initial denials, according to Liszka.

• Take a self-guided tour of 17 Chicago LGBTQ landmarks

"[The Pride organizer] said that strength of LGBTQ+ work in the community was a large determining factor initially, not finances, but also admitted that their decisions may have been rushed,” Liszka told the Sun-Times about her conversation with the organizer.

According to Chicago Public Schools, Nettelhorst was placed on a “waitlist” earlier in the week for the Pride Parade, before being accepted.

Pride Parade organizers said in an email statement Thursday, “Engaging in open communication and collaboration with all stakeholders, including Ald. Bennett Lawson’s office, we’re excited to announce that we’ve been able to come up with a creative solution that ensures the spirit of inclusivity and celebration continues.

“As of the present moment, confirmation has been secured from four of the six schools. Efforts are underway to finalize arrangements with the remaining two schools from 2023.

In future years, the schools will share the cost of the one entry slot, Liszka said.

Admission into the parade typically comes at a steep cost to national franchises and corporations that frequent the event yearly. These companies pay over six times more than a nonprofit to participate in the parade, according to 2023 documents reviewed by the Sun-Times.