Category Archives: Press Release

Aveline-Vázquez LGBTQ+ Collection Launch

Posted on February 22, 2024 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

The Mount Royal University Archives and Special Collections is proud to announce the launch of its newest acquisition, the Aveline-Vázquez LGBTQ+ Collection.

This collection was donated by MRU professor Dr. David Aveline. At the launch, David will speak about his reasons for/experience of building the collection over the past 50+ years, and will discuss how it documents the history of queer communities, activism, and issues throughout Canada and the United States. Archivist Peter Houston will explain how the collection will be made accessible to the MRU community and the wider public, and archives intern Sydney Morrissette will speak to the value of this collection from a student perspective. Refreshments will be served. A Credit/Debit bar will be available.

Please RVSP here.

When: Wednesday, March 6, 2024 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Where: Ideas Lounge (EL1270) at the MRU Library

{The Calgary Gay History Project got a sneak peek of the Aveline-Vázquez LGBTQ+ Collection as it was being catalogued—it is amazing and huge! We’re very excited to explore it further. KA}

History With a Drag Queen

Posted on February 1, 2024 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

The newly formed QriTical Research Hub at Mount Royal University is hosting History with a Drag Queen next Thursday, February 8th at MRU’s West Gate Social. Doors open at 6:30 PM.

This event will be a teach-in hosted by the fabulous Karla Marx!

Karla is a drag queen, burlesque artist, and comedian, using the art of drag to shed new light on the histories of fascism and the contemporary rise of global fascist politics.

Developed and embodied by Dr. Victoria Bucholtz (History Dep. MRU), Karla Marx is known for her comedic brilliance, riveting historical analysis, and cheeky approach to educating through entertainment.

Karla Marx is inviting you, the audience, to learn more about the ideologies and impacts of fascism, and to think critically and carefully about the role that “sexual anxiety” is playing in our current social and political landscape. Taking inspiration from Jason Stanley’s book, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (2018), fascist leaders often position themselves as the protectors of women and children against “dangerous homosexuals.” In the context of growing and loudening anti-2SLGBTQIA+ movements in Canada – often under the guise of “protecting the children” – this teach-in will offer individuals a chance to better understand the functioning of “sexual anxiety” in right-wing movements.

Check out her Instagram here: karla.marx

When? February 8th

Doors open at 6:30 pm
‘Class’ starts at 7:00 pm
Ends at 10:00 pm

Where? MRU’s West Gate Social

You can find more information about this event here: www.qriticalhub.com/events

The QriTical Research Hub is a connector and intellectual hub created by, with, and for 2SLGBTQIA+ MRU faculty, students, staff, and the broader community. Their goal is to create a space to engage with research, pedagogies, and social change mobilizations that challenge cisgender and heterosexual norms from an intersectional lens.

{KA}

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Posted in Gay history, Press Release

Tagged bisexual, drag, gay, history, History with a Drag Queen, Karla Marx, lesbian, Mount Royal University, MRU, QriTical, queer, transgender, Victoria Bucholtz

Kokomo City @ CUFF

Posted on April 13, 2023 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

We salute our friends at the Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) for their ongoing commitment to queer content. Celebrating their 20th anniversary—the festival runs April 20-30, 2023—CUFF is presenting the Canadian Premier of Kokomo City.

Directed by two-time Grammy nominee D. Smith, Kokomo City presents the stories of four Black transgender sex workers in New York and Georgia.

Shot in striking black and white, the boldness of the facts of these women’s lives and the earthquaking frankness they share complicate this enterprise, colliding the everyday with cutting social commentary and the excavation of long-dormant truths. Accessible for any audience, unfiltered, unabashed, and unapologetic, Smith and her subjects smash the trendy standard for authenticity, offering a refreshing rawness and vulnerability unconcerned with purity and politeness.

D. Smith is a two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter-producer who produced and is featured on “Shoot Me Down” from Lil Wayne’s 8x platinum album Tha Carter III and wrote and produced the No. 1 Billboard dance single “Love Yourself” by Billy Porter. She made history as the first trans woman cast on a primetime unscripted TV show. This is Smith’s directorial feature film debut.

“As a Black and trans filmmaker, Smith refreshingly creates the space for [her subjects] to be provocative, raw and daringly glamorous in her taboo-breaking work filmed in gleaming black-and-white and edited with a fiery spirit.” – Harper’s Bazaar

“The principal participants … are an electric bunch, and the diversity of their testimonies propels this worthwhile project into refreshing, uninhibited territory.” – The Hollywood Reporter

Kokomo City screens twice: April 26 at 7 PM and April 29 at 1:30 PM. See you at the festival!