{During Pride Week, we were honoured to be featured in a Calgary Herald Changemaker Profile. A heartfelt thank you to the Herald for shining a light on the importance of preserving Calgary’s queer history. And now on to another changemaker, Ari Agha. —Kevin}
There’s something wonderful about a room full of people singing together.
On Sunday, September 27, trans singer and activist Ari Agha (they/them) returns to Calgary with Key of T, a joyful, participatory show that blends queer storytelling, music, and community.
For Agha, it’s also something of a homecoming. They lived in Calgary for more than a decade before moving to Ottawa last year, and they’re looking forward to reconnecting with the queer and trans communities they knew here.
“Key of T undermines trans oppression with something both simple and radical: a loud, communal celebration of trans joy,” Agha says.
Agha has been touring Key of T for the past two years and describes the energy when a room fills with queer folks as “electric.”
Agha adds: “Key of T is a sing-along, and the sing-along format has roots in queer history, from the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt gatherings often featuring collective singing, to the tradition of gay men’s and lesbian choruses emerging in the late 1970s/80s. The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, founded 1978, is often cited as the first, formed partly in response to Harvey Milk’s assassination as a direct, public act of visibility and resistance.”
Come for the stories, stay for the songs—and perhaps make a little Calgary queer history together.
{KA}
