Jim Ellis | Calgary Gay History

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Historic Calgary Week

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Kevin Allen | Leave a comment

July is one of our favourite times of year—not for the über-famous Calgary Stampede happening currently, but for Historic Calgary Week, running July 23-August 2, 2021. It is the signature event for the Chinook Country Historical Society, who program engaging history events all year long. An incredible number of volunteer hours go into making Historic Calgary Week happen; the 2021 iteration is cleverly subtitled: Unmasking Our History.

The Calgary Gay History Project’s Kevin Allen was invited on a mapmakers panel discussion on Tuesday, July 27 at 7:00 PM.

Behind the Scenes with the Mapmakers will tackle how one maps a city’s unknown histories. Kevin is joined by Calgary Through the Eyes of Writers Author Shaun Hunter and the Calgary Atlas Project’s Jim Ellis. They will chatter about charting the city’s cultural landscape, using maps to (sometimes literally) pin down the past. The panel will be moderated by Heritage Calgary’s Asia Walker and hosted online by the Calgary Public Library.

Gay Activist Doug Young’s map of the 1980s Beltline: Glenbow Archives M-8397-1.

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YYCgayhistory Map Launch

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Kevin Allen | 2 comments

A few years ago, Dr. Jim Ellis, Director of the Calgary Institute for the Humanities (CIH), emailed the Calgary Gay History Project about an idea the Institute was musing: the Calgary Atlas Project. The CIH thought it would be illuminating to create a series of alternative maps exploring unknown layers of the city.

On Thursday, November 21st, the inaugural map in the Calgary Atlas Project launches – A Queer Map: A Guide to the LGBTQ+ History of Calgary: text by Kevin Allen and map art by Mark Clintberg. Join us at the recently renovated Contemporary Calgary (Planetarium), at 701 11 Street SW for artist talks and a reception from 6:30 – 8:00 PM. Tickets for this free event can be found: here.

Hot off the presses: A Queer Map from @HumanitiesYYC (Twitter)

At the reception, you will be able to pick up a copy of A Queer Map by donation to the CIH. Donations will support the new LGBTQ2S+ endowed lecture series (notably, the Institute brought in seminal historian George Chauncey, author of Gay New York this past August).

The CIH explains: “The Atlas Project seeks to recover crucial stories about Calgary’s past and present, stories that will illuminate in surprising ways the character of the city. Individual maps will document such phenomena as the early histories of Calgary’s Queer communities, the history of Indigenous involvement with the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, the traces left by immigrant communities, and the lasting effects of the labour movement. The Atlas aims to bring a new vision of Calgary to Calgary; to show us how we got to where we are, and who we got to be.”

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