#WeAreCalgaryPride

I’m looking very much forward to Pride Week which starts today. So many community organizations and businesses have taken up the call to be celebrate pride creatively in reaction to the pandemic.

There is a lot of queer history programming in 2020, in recognition of Pride’s 30th Anniversary. Four events remain in our colleague, Tereasa Maillie’s Our History Matters online series. {In fact, the Calgary Pride Founders are speaking tonight in a panel called Origins!}

Calgary Pride has set up a helpful mobile app to help organize your pride week schedule.

I {Kevin} have four more gay history walking tours – all of which are fundraisers for Calgary Pride.

Beltline Walking Tour with Brunch – Saturday, August 29th @ 11 AM

Downtown Walking Tour – Saturday, August 29th @ 2 PM

Beltline Walking Tour with Brunch – Sunday August 30th @ 11 AM

Downtown Walking Tour – Saturday, September 5th @ 2 PM

On Thursday, September 3rd @ 7PM, the Calgary Institute for the Humanities at the U of C is presenting The Rise and Fall of Lesbian Nation: A Brief History of Lesbian Feminism, with one of my favourite historians. Dr. Lillian Faderman is the award-winning author of 11 books on lesbian and LGBT history; The New York Times named three of her books on its “Notable Books of the Year” list, and The Guardian named her book, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, one of the Top 10 Books of Radical History. Amazing!

In collaboration with Calgary Public Library and Shelf Life Books, I will be doing an outdoor reading from Our Past Matters in Central Memorial Park on Sunday, September 6th from 3-4 PM. Books will be available for sale and enticingly I have some new stories to tell—history that was discovered after the book was published. Please register in advance.

Surprisingly, a medallion arrived in the mail this week for a book award we received earlier this summer. (I didn’t know a medallion was coming—it is too embarrassing to wear—but I am very grateful and proud.)

Finally, I would like to give a shout out to the Library’s current Historian in Residence, Shaun Hunter, who came up with a sensational YYC Pride Week reading list, queering our city in fiction, non-fiction, and on our stages!

{KA}