The story behind this year’s PrideFest St. Louis Jewish community t-shirt design
Published June 20, 2022
June is Pride Month, which boasts numerous local celebrations and events, including several Shabbat services at St. Louis-area synagogues, in support of the LGBTQ+ community. This year’s PrideFest will culminate with the annual Gay Pride Parade in downtown St. Louis on Sunday, June 26th at 11 a.m.
Jewish Federation of St. Louis is inviting everyone to stand with them at this year’s Fest and show their support by donning the new PrideFest Jewish community T-shirt, designed by local artist Josie Talve-Goodman.
Josie Talve-Goodman
Talve-Goodman, 40, grew up at Traditional Congregation and graduated from Pattonville High School in 2000. She earned a bachelor’s of fine arts degree from the University of Kansas and her Master of Arts in Teaching from Lindenwood University. She now teaches art at the Deutsch Early Childhood Center at Congregation Temple Israel, but she and her husband, Jake Talve-Goodman are members of Central Reform Congregation.
When asked by her friend Randi Smith, who works at Federation, to create a new design for this year’s Pride T-shirt, she jumped at the chance and volunteered to do it.
“I worked in a high school as a GSA (Genders & Sexualities Alliances) sponsor,” said Talve-Goodman.“We used to lobby and do a lot for LGBTQ+ rights. This is the first time in a while I got the chance to do something for the community, and be an ally and advocate for my friends, and strangers alike.”
The design
In creating her design, Talve-Goodman says she wanted to represent several ideas; Pride, St. Louis, the transgender community, and Jews of color.
“I wanted to also create a new design that was different from the past. Shira Berkowitz, utilized the Arch to represent St. Louis, so I decided to use the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers seen in the flag of St. Louis,” said Talve-Goodman.
The design features an outline of the Star of David, which is filled with a blend of the six colors of the Pride Flag; red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet.
“I had started another design, where I weaved another star into the design and used the negative space for the confluence. I liked it and it led me to this look,” said Talve-Goodman.
The Missouri River is depicted in the lower left, with colors representing Jews of Color, a mix of black and brown. The Mississippi River is depicted in the top left, with colors representing the transgender flag, pink, light blue, and white. Over the point of confluence is a second Jewish star featuring the fleur-de-lis, calling attention to St. Louis’ French background. The continuation of the Mississippi after confluence is depicted on the right side of the design, featuring the colors of the St. Louis flag, red, yellow, and blue.
The deadline to order PrideFest St. Louis Jewish community t-shirts to ensure delivery before the parade has passed, but you can still order yours here, to be picked up at Baked T’s in University City.
