Concordians at the 2017 Fierté Canada Pride Montréal

Montreal will host the inaugural Fierté Canada Pride parade and festival from August 10 to 20.

Organized by Montréal Pride and modelled on EuroPride and WorldPride, Fierté Canada Pride Montréal 2017 will feature a sports tournament and two international LGBTQ human rights conferences, as well as an unprecedented choice of more than 200 activities, including DJ sets and free large-scale concerts every night. Some 80 Pride organizations from across Canada will also take part in the August 20 Pride parade.

Here are some events featuring Concordia alumni, faculty and students.

In an event co-produced by the Concordia Community Solidarity Co-op Bookstore, author Christopher DiRaddo, BA 98, will host award-winning writer and journalist Kamal Al-Solaylee at Never Apart, at 7049 St. Urbain St. on August 14.

DiRaddo also curates The Violet Hour, an evening of short readings and performances by LGBTQ writers and musicians at gay-male strip joint Stock Bar, 1171 Ste. Catherine St. E.

The same venue hosts Authors in Undies, which will include legendary Concordia professor Thomas Waugh, on August 18. Admission: $5 suggested donation, with all proceeds going to AIDS Community Care Montreal.

The LGBTTIQA2S Lives: Our Struggles, Our Victories, Our Challenges conference runs August 15 to 17 and features a number of Concordians:

Alaa Jarban, who’s pursuing an MA in political science at Concordia, will take part in the panel At The Interesection of Homophobia and Islamophobia: LGBTIQ Experiences in Canada in the Global Context.

Kimberley Ens Manning, principal of Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute, will take part in the Parent Advocacy Under Trump/Trudeau: Affirmation, Access, Autonomy round-table.

Thomas Waugh, film studies professor and outgoing Concordia University Research Chair in Documentary Film, will host a Q&A session. The talk will follow Pride, Posing, Protest: Documentaries and Communities of Desire 1962 / 1977 / 1990 screenings of the 28-minute doc We’re Here, We’re Queer, We’re Fabulous by filmmaker Maureen Bradley about the Montreal police raid on Sex Garage and subsequent protests, July 15-16, 1990; and the 19-minute doc TRUXX by filmmaker Harry Sutherland about the October 22, 1977, Montreal police raid on gay bar Truxx, where 146 men were arrested and charged with being found-ins in a common bawdyhouse.

Julien Roswell Johnson, a second-year women’s studies student at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute and outreach coordinator of the Women’s Studies’ Student Association, will co-present Resisting in Solidarity: Fighting The Gentrification of LGBTQ Neighbourhoods For All Queer Populations.

The Queer Concordia group usually marches in the Fierté Montréal Pride parade. This year’s August 20 parade begins at noon and runs east along René-Lévesque Blvd. from Drummond St. to Alexandre-DeSève St.

Don’t forget to observe the Moment of Silence at the Pride parade at 1:30 p.m., to honour LGBTQ pioneers and those we have lost to violence and AIDS. 

Related links

• Fierté Canada Pride Montréal
• Queer Concordia