Tag Archives: Chinook Fund

June Pride Month Highlights

Posted on June 6, 2024 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

Happy Pride Month, Calgary! If you want to learn why we celebrate Pride twice—in June and on the Labour Day Weekend, read this!

Many queer organizations are hosting events this month—check out Calgary Pride’s community calendar to find one to attend. We want to highlight some impactful events you should consider.

Thursday, June 13th: Chinook Fund Cabaret from 6-9 PM

The successful Chinook Fund is hosting its second fundraising cabaret. The evening will include drag, male burlesque, singing, and dance performances.

Every year, the Chinook Fund donates more than $50,000 (and growing) to local queer community organizations.

Sunday, June 23rd: Jane Perry Commemorative Concert, 3 PM

Earlier this year, we lost the inspiring and talented queer choir director Jane Perry to cancer—far too young. The Calgary Gay History Project worked with Jane on creative history/choral pairings that were wonderfully memorable.

*One Voice Chorus’ Club Carousel Cabaret in 2015. Gavin Caldwell (Piano), Kevin Allen (Historian), Lois Szabo (Club Founder), and Jane Perry (Former Artistic Director, One Voice Chorus).*

“You are invited to a commemorative concert, celebrating the musical spirit of Jane Perry. The Calgary Unitarians are proud to present this collaborative tribute to her legacy, with the ensembles she directed and helped build, and many special guest performers she worked with and shared musical connection. We’ll have music inspired by Jane’s joy, her musical taste, her world-class skill, and her kindness. Featuring the wonderful Melissa Ko on piano and Tonia Bates, emcee. Participating are One Voice Chorus, the Calgary Renaissance Singers and Players, UUphonia, and many more. We are happy to lift our voices in song together in two mass choir sing-along pieces.”

The concert is at Temple B’nai Tikvah (900 – 47 Ave SW). Tickets are $25 general, $20 student/senior, free under age 14, and a pay-what-you-can option at the door. Reception to follow the performance.

June 27-30: The 26th annual Fairy Tales Queer Art & Film Festival

“Attention film buffs, arts fans, and creative kin across the Treaty 7 area: Early Bird tickets for the 26th annual Fairy Tales Queer Art & Film Festival are available now! Discover 33 short films, 15 artists, 10 makers, 7 feature films and 2 DJs spanning all genres, media and runtimes at the storied Grand.

Come together and celebrate 2SLGBTQIA+ lived experiences and narratives YOUR WAY! For the first time, discover a makers’ market and arts exhibition, featuring over a dozen of the finest creative talents from all disciplines and mediums.”

{KA}

Pride Panel Announced

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Kevin Allen | 2 comments

October is Queer History Month! The Calgary Gay History Project has organized a panel to explore Pride’s local history in collaboration with Calgary Pride and the Calgary Public Library. Join us Tuesday, October 24th, at 6 PM for Calgary Pride: A Catalyst for Social Change.

To speak with us, we have found four amazing people from different points in Calgary Pride’s history: Nancy Miller, James Demers, Dallas Barnes, and Sumit Munjal.

Nancy Miller joined the Military Police right out of high school. Following her release, Nancy testified to the Canadian Human Rights Commission during their 1983 cross-country hearings on discrimination against homosexuals in the military. Nancy was recognized in 2016 with the Chinook Fund LGBTQ Hero Award for her role in coordinating Calgary’s first Pride marches and other equity-seeking actions as a member of the Calgary Lesbian and Gay Political Action Guild (CLAGPAG) in the early 1990s.

James Demers has been involved in Calgary Pride in various capacities since 2007. James is a senior strategist and equity educator specializing in gender and sexual diversity (GSD) communities. He has worked as a local community builder ranging from trans health advocacy to public education to performing and producing queer art with Fake Mustache Drag and Reading with Royalty. Currently, James is championing non-violent protest intervention strategies to address increasing misinformation and charter violations against queer citizens.

Dallas Barnes is a queer feminist, activist, and writer who has worked with Calgary Pride, Interpride, Calgary Outlink, and the Treaty 7 Dyke and Trans March. Dallas joined the board of Calgary Pride in 2008 after it financially collapsed and was part of the leadership team which moved the parade from June to September and incorporated Pride as a non-profit society.

Sumit Munjal is the current Manager of Production and Programming at Calgary Pride. Sumit is an Indian-born Canadian with a diverse communications, marketing, retail development and design background. As an avid supporter of minority groups and diversity in the workplace, Sumit takes a unique inclusionary approach to design and marketing that challenges the status quo high art. He believes the narrative of Canadian diversity needs to shift from tokenism to shared beliefs of fundamental human rights and respect for lived experience.

The panel will be hosted by the Calgary Gay History Project’s Kevin Allen.

Seats are limited. Reserve your spot (free) for Calgary Pride: A Catalyst for Social Change today.

{KA}

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged bisexual, Calgary, Calgary Pride, calgary public library, Chinook Fund, Dallas Barnes, gay, Gay history, James Demers, lesbian, Nancy Miller, queer, Sumit Munjal, transgender

Love Independent Bookstores!

Posted on April 27, 2023 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

April 29th is Canadian Independent Bookstore Day. If you buy a book at your favourite indie bookshop this Saturday, you can enter a contest to win a $1000 gift certificate.

We genuinely appreciate these stores and thank our hometown favourites: Shelf Life, Pages, and Owl’s Nest, for stocking and selling literally hundreds of copies of our books: Our Past Matters and What Narcissus Saw.

*Kevin in front of Shelf Life Books in 2018*

Browsing the bookshelves, talking to informed staff, and bumping into people you know, are all good reasons to shop in indie bookstores. {Also: social snacking is good for our health!} The stores have online shops as well, so there is no need to support booksellers that are foreign corporate behemoths.

The following Saturday, May 6th, you are invited to Twisted Element for the Chinook Fund Variety Show Fundraiser. Tickets are only $20 and go to the great cause of the Chinook Fund. This endowment fund, housed at the Calgary Foundation, disperses grants to local queer community organizations under the direction of a volunteer steering committee. So come out for a good cause and be entertained at the same time!