Browsing the bookshelves, talking to informed staff, and bumping into people you know are good reasons to shop in indie bookstores. {Plus: social snacking is good for our health}
Most indie bookstores have online shops, so there is no need to support foreign corporate tech giants and send your hard-earned dollars out of the country.
The Backlot, a historic Calgary gay bar, will be moving (again). Founded in 1976, its current and third incarnation at 10th Avenue and 1st Street was established in 1996. However, the City has approved this site for redevelopment despite organized resistance last year called “Save Our Backlot.”
Interestingly, the developer is keen to acknowledge the history of the site—both its contemporary importance to the queer community as well as its location in Calgary’s second Chinatown from 1901-1910.
A rendering of the future intersection from the Brief.
Senior Urban Planner Zack Hoefs is looking for community feedback through a survey.
He writes:
On behalf of Truman Homes and in partnership with FAAS Architecture, I’m reaching out today to share an opportunity for discussion on a commissioned piece of art for a recently approved development called Gallery at 1001 1 ST SW and 209 10 AV SW.
The approved project involves redeveloping the Calgary Gas Co. Workshop building, which is significant to the Queer Calgarian community in its use as The Backlot and the significance of The Backlot’s name to Queer Calgarian history. There is a Brief that, on pages 16-17, outlines what our project team currently knows about the site from the perspective of Queer Calgarian History, links to documentation that we used in our research, and a description of the location of the art.
What we are missing in this work is valued feedback from the Queer Calgarian community and Backlot ownership on what they would like to see in this commissioned art. We are looking for your opinions and feedback! Our team will combine this feedback with the history we know to create a brief that future artists will interpret when bidding on the work. The main questions we will be asking are included in the Brief.
The survey will be available to complete until Friday, April 26.
The first Backlot bar at 808 9 Ave. SWcirca 1980. Photo: Philip Hannan.
In April, wear blue jeans to support gay rights—so says history!
One of our earliest Calgary Gay History Posts was about Blue Jeans Day at the University of Calgary in the early 1990s. However, we recently discovered details about how the event echoed a gay liberation initiative first begun at Rutgers University by the groundbreaking Rutgers Student Homophile League.
The first Blue Jeans Day occurred in 1970 at Rutgers (although the first advertised event happened in 1974). Blue Jeans Day was traditionally held on a Friday in April and, by the late ’70s, had spread to dozens of campuses in Canada and the United States.
Vintage Poster, Campus Unknown
When it was resurrected at colleges in the late 1980s, the event migrated to October to align with National Coming Out Day. Although we have yet to find evidence that the U of C hosted Blue Jeans Days events in the ’70s, we found them on many other campuses.
1978 Poster from the SaskatchewanArchives
International Blue Jeans Day was often declared at the University of Saskatchewan with little advanced notice. The event forced heterosexuals to find something else to wear! This hilarious event was held by the Gay Academic Union, which existed from 1975-1982.
Calgary Gay History 