Tag Archives: human-rights

Club Carousel Cabaret! + Filling the Sydney Opera House?

Posted on January 17, 2014 by kelstress | Leave a comment

The Club Carousel Cabaret is happening in just under two weeks. The event at this year’s High Performance Rodeo might sell out – if rumours are correct – so if you are thinking of going, get tickets soon: here.

Thanks everyone who came to the lecture and panel discussion yesterday at the University of Calgary. Apparently it was the best attended history colloquium ever! Here are some photos:

Kevin Allen beginning public presentation at U of C

: Questions after history presentation at the U of C

Panel Discussion: Doing Queer History (r.-l., Dr Rebecca Sullivan, Institute for Gender Research, Kevin Allen, Queer History Project, Karen Buckley, University Archives, Dr. Annette Timm, History Department)

Panel Discussion: Doing Queer History (l-r, Dr Rebecca Sullivan, Institute for Gender Research; Kevin Allen, Queer History Project; Karen Buckley, University Archives; Dr. Annette Timm, U of C History Department)

For those who like website statistics, The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for Calgary Gay History. Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,800 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

The University of Calgary’s Queer History

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Kevin Allen | 1 comment

Happy New Year. 2014 promises to be another fruitful year for the Calgary Gay History Project. Please join us on Thursday, January 16th at the University of Calgary for a lecture and panel discussion on Calgary’s Queer History.

The lecture from 12:30 – 1:30 PM in the History Department (Room SS623), will uncover the hidden social-cultural past of GLBT people in Calgary’s post-war period. In the 1950s and 60s, queers were widely deemed to be mentally ill and often treated as criminals by society. Kevin Allen, from the Calgary Gay History Project, will explore how a growing social and political community with support from key institutions such as the University of Calgary played a strategic role in queer emancipation. This research presentation is co-sponsored by The Institute for Gender Research and the Department of History.

Check out these previous queer history posts: Harold Call at the U of C (1969); and gay bashing invitation (1992), to get a taste of how important the U of C was in advancing new frontiers of thought while sometimes clashing with society at large.

After the lecture, there will be an afternoon panel discussion from 2:30-4:30 PM in The Loft (4th Floor, MacEwan Hall) exploring the topic of doing queer history research itself. Titled, “Doing Queer Public History” the discussion is being co-sponsored by the The Institute for Gender Research and Queers on Campus, and will feature, Kevin Allen from the Calgary Queer History Project, Karen Buckley from the U of C Archives, and Annette Timm, from the U of C Department of History.

Universities, historically, have been centres of liberalization. Even today, this work continues. The University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Service put out a job call this week for their new We are Here: Edmonton Queer History Project. Congratulations to the U of A, we look forward to working closely with them, on our shared Alberta history.

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Posted in Gay history

Tagged Calgary, gay, Gay history, history, human-rights, lesbian, queer, University of Calgary

Queer History Project News

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

It has been all quiet on the website for a bit, so I wanted to give you an update about work that is going on behind the scenes for 2014.

Club Carousel Mascot

Firstly, we are working with Third Street Theatre to present the Club Carousel Cabaret, January 30th, as part of the 2014 High Performance Rodeo. Club Carousel was the first gay owned social club (and drinking place) in Calgary which began in 1968. It was the dawn of the community as we know it today – and it began while homosexuality was still a criminal offense (decriminalization happened in 1969 – read story: here). Third Street, Calgary’s Queer Theatre Company has a new show opening this week: UNSEX’d – check it out!

Running Oct 29th – Nov 2nd.

Secondly, we are specifically researching the University of Calgary’s role in our human rights movement, over the past 45 years. This will culminate in a new public presentation, January 16th at the U of C’s Institute for Gender Research. From Noon – 1 PM there will be a public lecture, and from 2-4 PM a panel discussion on queer history in general.

Professor Rebecca Sullivan, pictured here with co-op student Sasha Krioutchkova, has led the relaunch of the Institute for Gender Research. Photo by Riley Brandt

New history posts will begin in January, but as always please contact us, if you have artifacts you would like us to see, or stories you would like to tell!

[KA]