Mar 30, 2021: The Poetics of Queer Resistance: An Hour with Nicole Tanguay

In our first official episode of the series, Resisting the Script: 25+ Years of Queer Activism, the poet and activist Nicole Tanguay joins to talk about their forty plus years of attending demos, raising hell and the experiences of queerness later in life. We say the biggest thank you to Nicole!
If you'd like to learn more about Nicole's work, here are a few places to check out:
Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer: https://chbooks.com/Books/A/Any-Other-Way
The Yellow Medicine Review: https://blackcoffeepoet.com/tag/yellow-medicine-review-queer-international-voices/
Beth Brant's work: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/beth-brant
Chrystos' work: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/chrystos
Caremongering: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51915723

Thank you to the wonderful team - Hannah Maitland, Stephanie Jonsson, and Angela Stanley.
Here are links to our land acknowledgements:
Reparations work, including Resource Generation: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/queer-devotions/id1539414887?i=1000500801900

Mar 25, 2021: Bonus Episode: 'Fighting the Good Fight 45 Years Later' with LeZlie Lee Kam

Today in our first unofficial episode of the series, LeZlie Lee Kam, community organizer and founder of Out of the Closet Lecture Series, joined to speak about why this project matters, how queer seniors' experiences are marginalized within 2SLGBTQ+ conversations and the invisibilized impacts of COVID-19 on the community. Want to learn more about LeZlie's series?
YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnwtKtQRA5ttO87By1w6ikg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OUToftheClosetLectureSeries.
Thank you again and thank you to our wonderful team: Angela Stanley, Stephanie Jonsson and Hannah Maitland.
Join us next week for our first episode with Nicole Tanguay!
Here is LeZlie's full bio:
"I am a world majority, brown, trini, Carib, Indo, Chinese, callaloo, differently-abled, queer DYKE elder/senior..67 years young..
I live my life from an anti-oppression, anti-racism, anti-colonial, intersectional and
inter-generational perspective..I advocate for 2 Spirit, Indigenous, black and brown queer and transgender people AND Queer Seniors..
I enjoy doubles, dancing, dim sum, a cold beverage and a hot “lime “ anytime..
My EXISTENCE is my RESISTANCE!"

Mar 23, 2021: Resisting the Script: 25+ Years of Queer Activism Series Trailer

Queer elders’ stories matter! Announcing, Resisting the Script: 25+ Years of Queer Activism, a special series in partnership with Out of the Closet Lecture Series and New Horizons for 2SLGBTQ Older Adults. Through this podcast we hope to introduce you to unwritten histories of queer organizing in Ontario, the people who are central to these histories and direct witness to them.
These voices in this series include Nicole Tanguay, poet and community worker, Cheri DiNovo, politician and reverend, Cait Glasson, community organizer and translator, and Anthony Mohamed, policy specialist, among many others. This work has been graciously funded by the Michael Lynch History Grant through the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, as well as RFF. 

I’ve been working with a wonderful team to make this series possible - Angela Stanley, Stephannie Jonsson and Hannah Maitland and special thanks to my brother, Westley Pawliw-fry for designing our lovely music. 

Mar 15, 2021: Pillar Episode: Queering the Talk with Hannah Maitland

How do we hold conversations about what it means to be both LGBTQ2S+ and religious or spiritual? How do we learn to frame discussions of gender, sexuality and faith in effective ways? Brigitte interviews Hannah Maitland, a PhD student at York University, who has led a successful series on queer pedagogies with her colleagues, identifying key tools to bring into your next discussion.

Mar 2, 2021: Pillar Episode: Catholics in Recovery with Elders leZlie lee kam and Lila Pine

This is a very special episode that we are rereleasing this week!  In the fall, Brigitte spoke with facilitator and storyteller, leZlie lee kam, and academic and artist, Lila Pine, two elders and dear friends who came to know each other through a performance in the Youth Elders Project at Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto. Describing their shared experiences of being schooled in Catholic institutions and the violent colonialism enacted upon both of their communities, leZlie and Lila reflect on their dual processes of reclaiming spirituality and rejecting the shame of institutionalized Catholicism.

In leZlie's words: "I am a world majority, brown, trini, Carib, Indo, Chinese, callaloo, differently-abled, queer DYKE elder/senior..67 years young. I live my life from an anti-oppression, anti-racism, anti-colonial, intersectional and inter-generational perspective..I advocate for 2 Spirit, Indigenous, black and brown queer and transgender people AND Queer Seniors.. I enjoy doubles, dancing, dim sum, a cold beverage and a hot “lime “ anytime.. My EXISTENCE is my RESISTANCE!" 

Lila Pine is a New Media artist and Indigenous thinker. She is the Director of Saagajiwe, FCAD’s Indigenous Communication and Design network, whose mission is to facilitate the creation and dissemination of Indigenous thought and ways of knowing and doing at Ryerson University and in the larger Indigenous community in Toronto.

Lila is the Principle Investigator of Imag(in)ing Indigeneity in Language, a SSHRC funded program of research creation. Through the visualization of sound, Imag(in)ing Indigeneity in Language seeks to develop a way of  “seeing” language in order to identify distinct qualities in the speaking of different languages. It employs digital art creation as a scholarly research tool and it engages Indigenous research methods to shift perceptions around the relationship of language to worldviews and ecological concerns. 

Lila is also collaborating with Buffy Sainte-Marie on a project called Creative Native: Youth Mentorship in the Arts Initiative. The Creative Native Project will bring touring multi-arts festivals to First Nations communities across Canada. Beginning in Ontario the festival will showcase local and professional Indigenous entertainers and artists of all kinds, while building a corps of local Indigenous youth who will take leadership positions in doable jobs and then mentor their peers at subsequent community events. 

Lila teaches Indigenous Media and New Media courses. She received her MFA from York University in Toronto and PhD from the European Graduate School. In 2011, she defended her dissertation, entitled Memory Matters: Touching the Untouchable, which theorizes oral, literate and “electrate” cultures, as well as the divergence and convergence of Indigenous and Eurocentric ways of knowing. Dr. Pine graduated Magna Cum Laude. 

Feb 16, 2021: Pillar Episode: Decolonizing Gender with Anthropologist Hazim Ismail

This is such a favourite episode that we are releasing it with a new intro! Queer, nonbinary and Muslim anthropologist Hazim Ismail brings to Queer Devotions a wealth of knowledge on the long history of gender fluidity and colonialism’s role in imposing strict and violent definitions. In a deeply informative conversation, Brigitte speaks with Hazim about how misconceptions of the incompatibility with queerness and religion, their early teachings about gender in a Muslim context, and so much more.

Want to learn more? Visit our RFF database to explore more about non-Western gender fluidity: https://rainbowfaithandfreedom.org/resource-portal.

Further, there are countless books and podcasts about sexuality and Islam. One of my favourites is called Hidayah, Queer Muslim Stories, and can be listened to here: https://www.hidayahlgbt.com/podcast.

Feb 15, 2021: From the Bathhouse Raids to Black Lives Matter: 40 Years Since Brent Hawkes' Hunger Strike

Today is a special bonus episode to commemorate and contextualize the 40 years since Brent Hawkes' went on a 25-day hunger strike in protest of the Bathhouse Raids, which was the second largest mass arrest in Canadian history. On February 5th, 1981, police arrested hundreds of men at gay bathhouses in the city, brutalizing them and causing thousands of dollars in property damages. The city erupted immediately in protest and a new LGBTQ movement was born with it.
I spoke with Brent and asked him about what gave rise to these protests, the immediate aftermath, and the trajectory of the raids in conjunction with Black Lives Matter and calls for racial justice within the queer community.
There are many helpful resources to learn more about this:
Track Two: Enough is Enough is a groundbreaking documentary about the raids, which is available on Xtra Magazine's YouTube channel.
Professor Rinaldo Walcott wrote up a piece. called "Black Lives Matter, police and Pride: Toronto activists spark a movement" for The Conversation and it's a great introduction to the protests.
This is a longer video of the Pride shutdown, where Black Lives Matter Toronto issues their demands. It is horrifying to watch as the crowd boos the protestors.
This is an academic investigation into the media discourse surrounding how queerness is situated as White: Queer inclusion precludes (Black) queer disruption: media analysis of the Black lives matter Toronto sit-in during Toronto Pride 2016.
I mentioned the activists Sandy Hudson (https://twitter.com/sandela), Syrus Marcus Ware (https://twitter.com/TrudoLemmens), Janaya Khan (https://twitter.com/janaya_khan) and Alexandria Williams.

Credit for Audio:
Track Two: Enough is Enough by filmmakers Harry Sutherland, Gordon Keith and Jack Lemmon, which has a fascinating history. If you'd like to learn more about it, Xtra Magazine has written up it's history: https://www.dailyxtra.com/track-two-58046.
Black Lives Matter sit-in at Toronto Pride 2016 | 4K, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57NbmDL06gU&ab_channel=cheatingthesystem21
Black Lives Matter Chant at the 2016 Pride Parade, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d4Q3EfPD4w&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=XtraMagazine.

Feb 9, 2021: Putting Queer Seniors to the Front and Fighting Ford's Sanction of Religious-Based Homophobia with MPP Jill Andrew

Today, on the podcast we have the great honour of hearing from Dr. Jill Andrew, the MPP from Toronto-St Paul’s, and in this episode she describes her fight against the profit model in long term care homes, the issues facing queer seniors, and opposing the homophobia and transphobia that so housed within the Ford government. 

We spoke about the Ontario Senior Pride Network's submission to the long-term care commission. Read more about it here: http://cloud2.snappages.com/dc2e80b91489071f85f20ad99eab8984caed145e/LTC%20COVID-19%20Commission%20Submission.pdf. 

Special thanks to LeZlie Lee Kam for connecting me with Jill Andrew. 
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter! 
https://twitter.com/rainbow_freedom
https://www.facebook.com/rainbowfaithandfreedom

Feb 2, 2021: Season Two Trailer: Queer Histories and Futures

Queer Devotions is back for Season Two. 

I’m Brigitte Pawliw-Fry, your host and a Rainbow Faith and Freedom researcher focused on where faith-based homophobia and transphobia manifest in Canada. Queer Devotions seeks to uncover those stories in new ways, help us conceptualize queerness and spirituality as places of transformative justice and point to activists, scholars and community members doing this work. 

Part of season two is looking back, exploring our most popular episodes and also bringing you new ones, including my interview with MPP Dr. Jill Andrew, the first Black and Queer person first elected to the Ontario Legislature and reportedly in Canada, who has fought tirelessly for LGBTQ2S+ and progressive issues in Ontario. 

We’ll also hear from Carmen Del Rae, the drag queen who performed with us for Faith in Crisis, about her experience in the divinity of drag. 

We’re also looking forward to a special series this spring, 25 Years of Queer Activism partnering Out of the Closet lecture series to bring you oral histories with queer seniors, which has been generously funded by the Michael Lynch History Grant from the University of Toronto 

Make sure to subscribe to Queer Devotions wherever you get your podcast and look for new podcasts every Tuesday. 

Music Credits to Westley Pawliw-Fry. Listen to his Songs in the Key of Life podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/songs-in-the-key-of-life/id1535578103. 

Nov 29, 2020: Reconnecting Communities of Faith Land Acknowledgement

For each day of programming of Faith in Crisis, we seek to acknowledge the first peoples who have inhabited and cared for the land we now call Canada, and the ongoing existence and struggle for reconciliation and justice. These acknowledgements are limited in their ability to address even a small part of centuries long history of genocide, land theft and institutionalized racism. We hope to use these recordings to provide opportunity for more learning and reflection, as well as calling participants to action with additional resources.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18i4T1QYMBwJbR3dH7eKtx-1B06a9_mj5CtuQP4PviMg/edit?usp=sharing