Pride Week remains one of the few times of the year when the community comes together in all its diversity. It is a time when all types, flavours and styles of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people get together along with straight friends and family to celebrate diversity.
Right: Participants at last year’s Pride Parade
Pride at York has organized a host of events to celebrate Pride Week and the festivities start today with the York Pride Kick Off at the Flag Pole in the Commons, on York’s Keele campus. Join Joni Seager, dean of York’s Faculty of Environmental Studies; Lynnette Dubois, external coordinator of the student-run Trans Bisexual Lesbian Gay at York (TBLGAY) organization; and Chris Jai Centeno, host of the program Pride Vibes on CHRY and Excalibur’s editor-in-chief, for the raising of the Pride flag today at noon.
Then, from 4 to 7pm today, catch the Queer Expo art opening in the Akasa Gallery in York’s Student Centre. The expo offers a variety of art created by York students and alumni. The Akasa Gallery is located at the north end of the Student Centre’s food court.
On Wednesday, June 22, from 10am to noon, catch “The Joy of Gender” slide show and workshop presented by artist Hershel T. Russell. The slideshow and workshop will take place in the Social Science Lounge, room S742, Ross Bldg. The event examines binary gender and its discontents; the histories and geographies of gender; gender-variant communities; and the challenges facing service providers.
From 2pm onward in Room 1015, TEL Bldg., Keele campus, York’s Pride Committee presents a film festival titled “Projecting the Margins: Queers Making Change”. The festival will feature screenings of York new media Professor Nancy Nicol’s film Stand Together; independent filmmaker Wendell Collier’s Fluid Boundaries (with Miqqi Alicia Gilbert), filmmakers Nathan Chan & Candace Padmore’s Disability & Society and Inner City Film and Life Channel’s Skin Deep, featuring fourth-year Faculty of Arts student Susan Gapka.
On Thursday, June 23, from noon until 2pm, there will be a Positive Space reception in the Glendon Rose Garden at the Glendon campus.
On Saturday, June 25, from 11am to 5pm, York will take part in the Pride Parade’s Dyke Day celebrations. For more information, vist the York information booth located on Wellesley, just west of Church Street in Toronto.
Pride Week events wind up with the Pride Parade on Sunday, June 26, from 11am to 5pm. York University will have a float in this year’s parade and all are welcome to join in the fun. Celebrants are asked to meet at 1pm at the York information booth located on Wellesley, just west of Church Street.
For more information e-mail York’s Pride Day Committee at jwallace@yorku.ca or call ext.20394. Visit the Pride Toronto Web site for more information on Pride events in and around the City of Toronto.