everydayqueerarchive

[everydayqueerarchive]

[everydayqueerarchive]

Photos from this weekend's programming: OF SOULS and ROLES salon and STILL ON GUARD conversation

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PROJECT GUARDIAN is a story of curiosity, survival, sex, lack, state violence, ignorance, and frustration. It includes communities under attack, and communities attacking back. It was one of the largest ever police operations in Canada and it took place in LONDON ONT starting in 1993 when the London Police thought they had uncovered a "kiddie" porn ring. What they actually found was a loose knit group of male hustlers, men who pay for sex, and all that comes with these forces come together. In the wake of the investigation men went to jail, lost their jobs, were kicked out of their homes, and reputations were ruined. Homophobia was both exposed and enshrined. Standing up against the police were community members who could see the homophobia and heterosexism at play. People like Richard Hudler used the media to call out the London Police and cultivate community rage at the queer witch hunt that was being performed. Hudler, with other,s released a report entitled ON GUARD itemizing the violence of PROJECT GUARDIAN and included suggested ways forward. Even though PROJECT GUARDIAN ended in 1996, the story continues to this day. We can see it's haunting in everything from the G20 in Toronto, systemic transphobia, HIV Criminalization, to the ongoing censorship of PRIDE. Queer thoughts, actions, and bodies are always under surveillance and attack, and judgement. And that is why queers in Canada are STILL ON GUARD. I hope you can join us today at 2pm (at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives in Toronto) for the mother of all conversation regarding queer bodies.

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androgyne: a person who live without appearing or behaving particularly male or female.

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Curator's Tour with Aidan Cowling and Ted Kerr The Practice of Everyday Freedom: Richard Hudler and Rupert Raj Sunday, May 12th, 2013 1pm Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives 34 Isabella Street Free, With an almost non existent budget, limited resources, a great community, a lot of passion and a desire to do right by long time community activists, 2 queer strangers—Aidan Cowling and Ted Kerr— embarked on curating an exhibition long distance for the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives National Portrait Collection exhibition. Brought together by senior curator Karen Stanworth, fueled by Beyonce lyrics, the enduring legacy of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and the wise words of Heather Love, Cathy Busby, and Paulo Freire, collaborators Aidan and Ted dove into the remarkable lives of Richard Hudler and Rupert Raj to curate, The Practice of everyday freedom. Learn more about their process, influences, challenges, and learnings, as they lead a curators's tour of the exhibition. Join them to find out more about archiving, and be part of a conversation about what you would like to see at the archives. Stick around for Still On Guard: queer bodies in Canada a community discussion starting at 2pm.

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OF SOULS AND ROLES, OF SEX AND GENDER A salon hosted by Ryan G. Hinds Featuring: S. Bear Bergman, Kirk de Matas and many more! May 11, 2013 7pm to 9pm Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives 34 Isabella Street Free Join us for an evening of amazing performance, spoken word and poetry hosted by Ryan G. Hinds inspired by the work of Rupert Raj. As part of his ongoing work to increase the life chances for people challenging and questioning gender, Rupert Raj worked on getting a book of poetry published in the early 80s by over 100 trans writers from around the world. The working title of the book was OF SOULS AND ROLES, OF SEX AND GENDER, which is where we get the name for this event. This event is connected to The Practice of Everyday Freedom: Richard Hudler and Rupert Raj More information about Rupert Raj Born in 1952, Rupert Raj is a Eurasian counsellor/psychotherapist, clinical researcher, educator, lecturer, writer, editor, activist and Gender Specialist. He is a trailblazing activist who has been paving the way to improve life chances for trans people across Canada and around the world since 1971, the year before his own transition. During the ‘70s and ‘80s, Mr. Raj established and operated three transsexual organizations: Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Transsexuals (FACT), Metamorphosis Medical Research Foundation (MMRF), and GenderWorker. Concurrently, he also edited and published three TS periodicals: Gender Review, Metamorphosis Newsletter/Metamorphosis Magazine and GenderNetworker. In 1999, Rupert co-founded a peer-support group for transmen and female-to-males (part of the Meal-Trans Program at the 519 Community Centre), as well as a support group for transpeople who use or have used alcohol and/or drugs. He has Bachelors in Psychology (Carleton University, 1975), and a Masters in Counseling Psychology (Adler School of Professional Psychology, 2001). Currently Mr. Raj works at the Sherbourne Health Centre as an LGBT Mental Health Counsellor and maintains his own private practice, RR CONSULTING. BIOS: Ryan Graham Hinds is an award-winning performance artist and writer. He has contributed to Xtra! both as a freelancer and columnist since 2009, with Toronto at Night beginning in early 2010. As a writer, he has also contributed to NOW, eye weekly, fab magazine, ARToronto, and Recapo.com. He was featured in Vivek Shraya’s film & book “What I Love About Being Queer”, Matti Mclean’s “Human Canvas Project”, and the inaugural edition of “10x10: 100 Portraits of Queer Artists”, for which he was photographed by Tanja-Tiziana. Ryan is the 2011 recipient of the prestigious $10,00 Steinert & Ferreiro Award, EGALE Canada’s 2010 Queering Black History Month honor, and is a past Mississauga Citizen of the Year. Kirk deMatas is a poet and artist living in Toronto. His first poetry collection Wordspeak received positive reviews and media coverage across North America. Kirk's most recent collection is a unique and core-shattering collection of verses; Conversations with Skeletons visits the seemingly autocratic world of the past. He continues to collaborate with various artists on video poetry shorts, music, film, and dance. He is currently working on his third poetry collection.

S. Bear Bergman is a storyteller, a theater artist, an instigator, a gender-jammer, and a good example of what happens when you overeducate a contrarian. Ze is the author of Butch Is a Noun (reissued with a new foreword by Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010) and Lambda Literary Award-finalist The Nearest Exit May be Behind You ( Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009) as well as the editor (with the inimitable Kate Bornstein) of the multiple-award-winning Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (Seal Press, 2010). Bear is also the creator and performer of three award-winning solo performances and a frequent contributor to anthologies on all manner of topics. About the exhibition: The Practice of Everyday Freedom: Richard Hudler and Rupert Raj, curated by Aidan Cowling and Ted Kerr The practice of everyday freedom is “the means by which people deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” Pablo Friere The exhibition makes use of the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Archives and the Pride Library of Western Ontario to provide context for the outstanding contributions of Hudler and Raj, trailblazers in asserting their lives in matter in the face of ongoing oppression as experienced by many Canadians.

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STILL ON GUARD A PUBLIC DISCUSSION ON QUEER BODIES IN CANADA With AIDS ACTION NOW, and Queer Ontario Sunday May 12, 2013 2 to 4pm Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives 34 Isabella Street, 2nd floor, wheelchair accessible Free, light refreshments will be served Everyone is Welcome From the Bathhouse raids to HIV Criminalization queer bodies have long been under attack in Canada. Join us for this public discussion where we will talk about the ways in which LGBTQ+ bodies are ignored, displaced and criminalized. Meet artists, activists, friends, and neighbors. Hear what they are doing to push back, make space, and create a better world. With a reading by Gerald Hannon, and screening John Greyson’s “After the Bath” More information: In the late 90s, Hudler spoke out against Julian Fantino’s London Police Force for Project Guardian, their witch-hunt of an investigation, which honed in on the sex lives of a group of men. Hudler, along with…. released a report called ON GUARD, which is where this event derives it’s name. About the exhibition: The Practice of Everyday Freedom: Richard Hudler and Rupert Raj, curated by Aidan Cowling and Ted Kerr The practice of everyday freedom is “the means by which people deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” Pablo Friere The exhibition makes use of the Canadian Gay and Lesbian Archives and the Pride Library of Western Ontario to provide context for the outstanding contributions of Hudler and Raj, trailblazers in asserting their lives in matter in the face of ongoing oppression as experienced by many Canadians. Through the use of letters, manuscripts, newspaper articles, and other ephemera, viewers will gain a sense of the everyday freedom as lived by the men. Through the journey of engaging in common details, and historical highs, viewers can see Hudler and Raj as both exceptional for their contributions, and emblematic of other LGBTQ+ Canadians, who through their practice of everyday freedom, transform lives by living, increasing the life chances for those around them. A hope is that the exhibition will broadcast the achievements of Hudler and Raj, while also communicating the idea that they are as special as any viewer. In this way, LGBTQ+ viewers will understand the NPC and the CLGA, as a space for all of us. While some may have portraits in the collection, we all have a place in the archives.

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Speaking at the induction ceremony last night, Richard Hudler acknowldged all the progress that has been made around rights and freedom in Canada for queer people. And then concluded by reminding us that the work is not over. As proof, he read a letter he received from someone the day before in which the writer stated that 'sodomites gained rights in Canada though fraud."

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Towards a Transpositive Therapeutic Model: Developing Clinical Sensitivity and Cultural Competence in the Effective Support of Transsexual and Transgendered Clients

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After all there is no original, only one original certificate of authenticity. – Felix Gonzalez Torres

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Jim Verburg came by to help us out today!

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it is coming together!

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We took this photo of writer and performer Ryan G. Hinds in front of questionnaire created by Rupert Raj

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Aidan went to the Pride Library at the University of Western Ontario to pick up work for the exhibition! Shout out to James Miller for the amazing work he is doing there.

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Or maybe archives are just a catalog of hubris and humility?

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Maybe archiving is the way we tell the world.... I WAS HERE.

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The concept of the everyday illuminates the past. Everyday life has always existed, even if in ways vastly different from our own…The everyday implies on the one hand cycles, night, and days, season and harvests, activity and rest, hunger and satisfaction, desire and its fulfillment, life and death, and implies on the other hand the repetitive gesture of work and consumption. - Henri Lefebvre