Tag Archives: Calgary

Big August for the Calgary Gay History Project

Thanks to everyone who came out for the gay history walk last Saturday for Historic Calgary Week (which is still happening throughout this weekend)!  Our next walk, in partnership with Calgary Outlink, will happen during Pride Week, on Wednesday, August 27th, at 7 PM starting at the Memorial Park Library.  This is a new walk going to sites downtown instead of last year’s Beltline tour.  A reception will follow at the Community Wise Resource Centre (223 12 Ave SW) with non-alcoholic drinks and refreshments for purchase.

Also, we would like to give a shout out to Terry MacKenzie and the Bankview Community Association for their Picnic 91 – A Queer Takeover Picnic of Buckmaster Park on Thursday, August 28th, marking the City’s first gay pride proclamation in 1991.

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Watch for new social media developments with the Calgary Queer History project as well.  We will be adding Twitter and renovating the website in August as the project seeks to branch out past the 50s and 60s.

We are also putting out a call for volunteers.  The project to date has been lucky to work with, Del, Tereasa, Nevena, Jonathan and Leslie.  Now that research lead, Kevin Allen, has left his job to pursue the project full time, we can take on more project volunteers.  Specifically, we will be needing help during Pride Week.  If you have some time and are interested please contact us at calgarygayhistory@gmail.com.

{KA}

Walk, Don’t Run, This Saturday!

The Calgary Gay History Project is honoured to participate in Historic Calgary Week 2014, a program of the Chinook Country Historical Society.  We are reprising the very popular Beltline Gay History Walk that happened during last year’s Pride Week celebrations.

The event “runs” from 7:00 – 8:30 PM, Saturday, July 26th and begins and ends at CommunityWise (formerly known as the Old Y) at 223 12 Ave. SW.  We will be meeting outside the building near the front steps.  As an aside, those steps and porch were recently renovated and have been nominated for the Calgary Heritage Authority’s Lion Awards on July 31st (also an event in Historic Calgary Week).

Doug Young personal papers, Glenbow Archives M-8397-1.

Doug Young personal papers, Glenbow Archives M-8397-1.

In a happy coincidence, I was at the Glenbow Museum Archives today, going through gay activist Doug Young’s personal records and came across his hand drawn map of the Beltline from the mid-80’s.  Interestingly, there were more queer spaces at that time, then we have today.

Looking forward to seeing you at the walk!

{KA}

Queer History on CKUA’s ArtBeat

Last week’s post got more attention than usual due to its sensational content.  Let’s hope that the events of last week were an anomaly.  I have since fully recovered from the shock…

Wrapping up my AMAAS job this week, I have now retreated to the mountains for a bit of R&R, but I wanted to feature Megan Clark’s ArtBeat feature on CKUA concerning gay history research in Calgary.  She talks to Jonathan Brower, of Third Street Theatre, and myself about the stories we are gathering.  It seems like a good launching point for my year of Calgary gay history.  Also, I believe we will see some of Jonathan’s research popping up here on the Calgary Gay History Website this summer.

You can listen: here

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Thanks Megan!

{KA}