Calling Older Lesbians!

Love … Work … Play…  What were you doing in the 1950s, 60s and 70s?

Calling Older Lesbians!

The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives (CLGA) is planning an upcoming exhibition to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Lynne Fernie and Aerlyn Weissman’s 1992 documentary, Forbidden Love: Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives.  It will examine the contradictions, tensions and victories of the daily lives of lesbians from 1950 to 1980, so we need your help!

Do you have stories, photographs, clippings, buttons, t-shirts, or other lesbian memorabilia from those years?

We'd love to see them and see you at our older lesbians' get-together.

Join us on Sunday May 27 from 4-6pm at the

CLGA

34 Isabella Street

Toronto, ON, M4Y 1N1

The CLGA is wheelchair accessible.

Light refreshments provided. Cash bar.

Please register free here as space is limited: www.eventbrite.ca/event/3473761113

If you are unable to attend but have memorabilia to share please get in touch:

E: queeries@clga.ca or T: 416.777.2755

Queer photography anyone? Robert Giard exhibition opens Friday

Above: Robert Giard, Ana Marie Simo, 1990, gelatin silver print, 16 x 20 inches. 

© Estate of Robert Giard / Courtesy of Stephen Bulger Gallery

Just as You Are: Portraits by Robert Giard opens this Friday May 4th at the University of Toronto Arts Centre (UTAC).

Robert Giard's black and white portraits of gay and lesbian literary figures capture an extraordinary cultural moment in 80s and 90s America. This exhibition features forty vintage prints from the Estate of Robert Giard (1939-2002). It also includes eight portraits of gay and lesbian Canadian writers recently donated to the University College collection by Jonathan Silin.

The opening reception will begin at 7:30 and it will be preceded by a panel discussion on Giard's work, portraiture, and psychoanalysis (from 6:00 to 7:30). All CLGA friends and supporters are invited to attend the panel and reception, just note that RSVP is required.

Location: UTAC art lounge 15 King’s College Circle (University of Toronto)
RSVP: 416-978-1838 or utac.rsvp@utoronto.ca

Just As You Are: Portraits by Robert Giard April 28 - June 30, 2012
Curated by Diana Gore, Renée van der Avoird, and Julia Cyr.

For more information about UTAC and this exhibition, please visit the UTAC website at: http://www.utac.utoronto.ca

Listen up, Queercore Fans!

Perhaps surprisingly, OUT magazine recently published a pretty comprehensive oral history of the Queercore scene in whichBruce La Bruce, G.B. Jones, Donna Dresch, Lynn Breedlove and others reminisce about the history and significance of the movement. On a similar note, She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column will be showing at Hot Docs in Toronto on April 27th.

Fun Fact: you can find some of the zines described here (like J.D.'s and Double Bill) at the CLGA, which features the largest LGBT periodical collection in the world.

St. Charles Tavern

The St Charles Tavern was the gay hotspot during the 1970s in Toronto. It was also the focus of innumerable homophobic attacks, especially during Halloween, when the tavern held an annual drag contest. These events usually began with an outdoor promenade until attacks by homophobes hurling eggs and rotten fruit made that impossible. Canada's 'Stonewall'? Perhaps.... Do you have a story to tell about the St. Charles? If so, let us know!

Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of information about when these two photos were taken or by whom. Can you help us figure out the details? Drop us a line. Send us a note. We would love to hear from you.

Art Mart to Benefit the CLGA and Casey House

It’s Artmart! – a silent auction to benefit the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives and Casey House.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we have amassed an eclectic array of visual art. As interesting as they are, these are works that fall outside of our collecting mandate. To extend the generosity of the original donors, this sale will raise necessary funds to help us meet our $120,000 annual operating budget.

We are pleased to be partnering with Casey House for this event. Casey House is also selling approximately forty pieces of their donated works.

Admission is free. Cash bar and hors d’oeuvres.

For Auction:
Wide range of media for sale including:
• Photography
• Posters
• Graphics
• Watercolour
• Acrylics
• Male & Female erotic images

Artmart includes works by Joe Average, Peter Flinsch, Barbara McGivern, Weyman Lew, Gerard Brender a Brandis, Jim Shea and more.

View images of some of the art for sale on flickr.

Keep checking back as we upload more images of the work for sale.

Come out and save a fistful of dollars in support of CLGA and Casey House! Check out the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives for a fun, social evening and find out more about the important work that we do to keep our stories alive.

Name that Place!

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting a few older photos from the CLGA's collection. In many cases, the CLGA acquired photographs with little or no contextual information. Our resident archival experts have managed to identify some of the places (and people) in the photos, but we still rely on participation from our friends and allies in the community to help us learn more about the photographs we have and what they mean to the LGBTQ people in Toronto and across Canada.

Let's start with an easy one. We believe this photo was taken in 1982 at Hanlan's Point, Toronto Island, at a Pride Party/Picnic.... do you know anything more about this photo? Were you there? Do you have any interesting stories to tell us about this event or others that took place at Toronto Island? Looks like a fabulous party!

Berenice Abbott

If you enjoy a) photography, b) lesbians, or c) lesbian photographers, listen up: The Ryerson Image Centre (Toronto) and the Jeu de Paume (Paris) have co-organized an exhibition called 'Berenice Abbott: Photographs' and it will be at the Art Gallery of Ontario from May 23 - August 19. For those who aren't familiar with Abbott or her work, here's a bio from the National Museum of Women in the Arts (it doesn't mention Elizabeth McCausland, her partner and collaborator of 30 years, but it does provide a pretty good overview of her career):

Berenice Abbott
American, 1898-1991

"I didn't decide to be a photographer; I just happened to fall into it," Berenice Abbott once recalled. In 1917 Abbott went from her hometown of Springfield, Ohio, to Columbia University, intending to study journalism. Disappointed by her courses, Abbott soon switched to sculpture, which she studied in New York, Berlin, and Paris. It was only in Paris in 1923, when the avant-garde American expatriate Man Ray was looking for a darkroom assistant, that Abbott discovered her love and natural ability for working with the camera. She began taking portrait photographs and in 1926 opened her own studio. Abbott had the first of many one-woman exhibitions that same year.

During the 1920s Abbott became "the semiofficial portraitist of the intelligentsia" in Paris and New York. Her straightforward, detailed, powerful images of such luminaries as James Joyce, André Gide, and Peggy Guggenheim made her famous. In the 1930s, Abbott continued her portrait work while completing a 10-year project commissioned by the Works Progress Administration: documenting the changing landscape of New York City.

Remarkably prolific, Abbott produced numerous books and several other ambitious series, notably images demonstrating various physical laws of nature and a photo essay on U.S. Route 1. When she began her career, photography was not considered a serious art form and women were not regarded as serious artists. Berenice Abbott overcame these and many other obstacles during her illustrious 60-year career. She also invented new photographic equipment and techniques, received several honorary doctorates, and was the subject of many retrospective exhibitions. Abbott died at age 93 in rural Maine, where she had been living since 1965.