Felicia Santarossa
Monday Magazine contributor
Get ready to dance, and learn about LGBTQ+ people in B.C. with the Royal BC Museum’s latest Night Shift: Pride.
Partnering with Atomique Productions, this July 6 party is filled with history, drinks and dancing in part of celebrating Pride Week.
Participants can listen to members of the University of Victoria’s Transgender Archives on transgender peoples’ history, along with checking out events such as performances by drag king, Persi Flage, and self-described “Queen of Green,” Henrietta Dubét.
“We want to have a party, but also talk about some of the history and the issues faced by the community in the past and still ongoing,” says Kim Gough, the museum’s program director. A previous happy hour event on Pride, along with discussion events around gender and LGBTQ+ issues, allowed the museum to dip its toe in water on the subject, she adds. “We just felt the time was right to do something bigger.”
The Royal B.C. Museum’s learning department has something called Museum History Hacks. In it, museum staff work with learners of all ages, invite them to tour the galleries and identify missing narratives – that is, whose stories are missing or left out – then determine ways to address that.
“We’ve also had an event called It’s Complicated, which was a discussion series that facilitates getting conversations started and a dialogue going on issues,” Gough says.
Previously the group has had a dialogue on gender, and last year had a conversation hosted, in part, by AIDS Vancouver Island called Dating Can Be Queer.
This event is open to anyone LGBTQ+ and allies, too. As well, if anyone wants to take a break from the festivities, the museum’s current history exhibit Maya: The Jaguar Rises will be open for visiting.
Partial proceeds of the 19+ event will go to the Victoria Pride Society. Tickets are $40. For more information, visit royalbcmuseum.bc.ca and find Night Shift under upcoming events.
editor@mondaymag.com
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