Tag Archives: Calgary Institute for the Humanities

YYCGayHistory @ Pride 2023

Posted on August 24, 2023 by Kevin Allen | 5 comments

Here is a smattering of queer history offerings and more. So exciting – #OurPastMatters!

Tuesday, August 29th @ 7:00 PM @ The Central Library

Through the Multiverse: Queer Media Today. The 5th Annual Calgary Institute for the Humanities LGBTQ2S+ Lecture. Presented by Dr. Amy Villarejo, Chair, UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media. Registration is required, reception to follow.

Wednesday, August 30th, 5:30 – 7:00 PM @ CommunityWise

*Pride Gay History Walk 2017. Photo: Gary Evans*

Beltline Gay History Walk. Have you ever been curious about the role of CommunityWise (formerly the Old Y) in Calgary’s queer history? Join Kevin Allen and the Calgary Gay History Project to find out more! Tickets are what you can afford, and all proceeds go towards strengthening CommunityWise’s work in supporting all 2SLGBTQ+ community. Spaces are limited.

Thursday, August 31st, 6:00 – 7:00 PM @ The Backlot

*A famous sign which predates the current location*

The Golden Age of Gay Bars in YYC. There are many storied drinking holes, taverns, discos, and clubs in Calgary’s queer history. Join Kevin Allen for an informal chat about where they used to be and their significance to our community’s history. Meet up at one of the last remaining gay bars in the city—The Backlot (209 10 AVE. SW)!

Saturday, September 2nd, 7:30 PM @ Rising Tides Taproom

Program Pride Relaunch. Program Pride was a community access television program in Alberta that ran from 1995 until 1997. A group of dedicated volunteers from Red Deer, Calgary and Edmonton created programming that ran on Shaw Cable in all three cities. Join former cast and crew members at Rising Tides Taproom (4545 Bowness Rd NW) as Program Pride episodes get relaunched on YouTube. Solid gold for Alberta historians!

Sunday, September 3rd, Calgary Pride Festival @ Prince’s Island Park

Our Past Matters Book Signing. After the parade, find the Calgary Outlink booth at this year’s Pride Festival and buy a copy of Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary. Book sales support Outlink, Calgary’s exceptional community peer support organization. Author Kevin Allen will be signing books in the afternoon between 2:00-3:00 PM—or just come by for a visit!

There are so many excellent Pride events this year to choose from. Come out! Support community!

Happy Pride!

{KA}

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged Amy Villarejo, Backlot, Beltline, bisexual, Calgary, Calgary Institute for the Humanities, Calgary Pride, Central Library, CommunityWise, gay, gay bars, Gay history, Gay History Walk, lesbian, Our Past Matters, Prince's Island Park, Program Pride, queer, Rising Tides Taproom, transgender

YYCGayHistory @CalgaryPride 2022

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

A big thank you to all of the Calgary Gay History Project readers who filled out our survey for queer history offerings at Calgary Pride this year (August 26 – September 5). Here is where you will find us:

Saturday, August 27, 2 PM

Join Shelf Life Books and Kevin Allen for a talk about his book Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary. The talk will be followed by an open mic, where audience members can share their stories of Gay Calgary or read poems or prose pieces (with a 6-8 minute time slot limit). If you identify as a part of the 2SLGBTQ+ community and would like to participate, then please let us know at events@shelflifebooks.ca! You can also sign up before the event, space permitted. Registration for audience attendance is recommended and appreciated! Free event.

Saturday, August 27, 4 PM

The Calgary Gay History Project’s Kevin Allen will lead a gay history walk through the Beltline. Learn about the City’s fascinating LGBTQ2 past. The walk begins at 4:00 PM in Central Memorial Park (meet at the Boer War Memorial in the centre of the park) and ends at 5:30 PM at Lois Szabo Commons, a new city park celebrating LGBTQ2 history. Spaces are limited; please register in advance through Calgary Pride. Free event.

Friday, September 2, 7 PM

Our friends at The Calgary Institute for the Humanities presents the 4th Annual LGTBQ2S+ Lecture, featuring Dr. Jules Gill-Peterson. Titled: Trans Panic: A Global History, Dr. Gill-Peterson explores the history of violence against trans women. Where did it come from? And when did it arise? Letting go of a purely psychological lens, history shows that targeting trans femininity has been integral to colonial statecraft around the world for the past 150 years. On Zoom or in person at the Central Library. Reserve your spot: here. Free event.

Sunday, September 4, Noon

Our History Booth at the Calgary Pride Festival—Immediately following the Pride Parade on September 4, join us at Pride’s new festival venue – Fort Calgary. At our table there will be history artifacts, books, and ephemera as well as Project volunteers to answer questions and have conversations about Calgary’s Queer History. Sponsored by Calgary Pride. Free event. Stop by and say, “hi!” Happy Pride!

{KA}

It Was a Place to Meet People Like Me: Sport & YYC LGBTQ+ History

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

{Free public lecture at the University of Calgary on December 2nd at 7 PM, hosted by the Calgary Institute for the Humanities—see their press release below. – Kevin}

Please join us for a talk by Calgary Institute for the Humanities 2020-21 Resident Fellow William Bridel

“Our history is about the stories, lives, experiences, and thoughts of individuals who built their lives around their newfound and often hard-won identity. We cannot lose that”. Stephen Lock wrote those words in the October 1994 issue of Clue!, one of Calgary’s queer publications at the time. In 2018, LGBTQ+ historian Kevin Allen released Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary, noting that the project was “ultimately about memory, and recording these essential stories of our humanity.” In this talk I follow the lead of Lock and Allen, by using archival and interview materials to explore the place of sport in Calgary’s LGBTQ+ history, from the 1970s through to the early 2000s. From softball to volleyball, running to swimming, Apollo Friends in Sport, and the Gay Games, the retelling of these stories on their own and in conversation with one another, reveal that sport played a necessary but sometimes complicated role in individual empowerment, community-building, and the Pride movement.

Dr. William Bridel is Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. He specializes in sociocultural aspects of sport, physical activity, and the body. Current projects include investigations of LGBTQI2S+ inclusion in sport, as well as inclusion and safe sport policy. He is also interested in sport-related pain and injury, with a recent focus on athletes’ experiences of sport-related concussion.

This event will be simultaneously hosted in a live venue (University of Calgary, Taylor Institute Forum) and online on Zoom. All registrants will receive event details one week before the event and may decide to attend in either setting.

In-person attendees are required to follow all UCalgary COVID-19 event requirements: see event for details.

{KA}