June 2023 in Halifax is packed with events for the Q community! At press time there were only four days without Q events and many days have several, for a total of over 70 events for one month including several activism events - see that section.
The official Halifax Pride Festival is scheduled for 20 - 30 of July; see the Wayves article about it here, but many organizations are celebrating during June which is coming to be known as Pride Month, in recognition of the Stonewall Riots. All Halifax Pride Festival events (scroll down to July 20th) are marked with this "Prideful People" logo from 2001 by out, proud Halifax firefighter Sam Meehan.
On Friday the 2nd, Halifax Pride will be holding a public meeting to present information and answer questions. As is the format with previous Pride meetings, the Zoom link will be sent out to registrants.
Here's an overview of what's going on in Halifax (and a few other places) in June. For more information on these events and listings of many more, visit the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia Calendar which is updated every day by several volunteers, from a variety of sources. Events are marked with an icon indicating the type of event, or the producer. That link is also at the bottom of this article.
If you'd like to join the team keeping that calendar up to date, please email us.
OK, fasten your seat belt! Here's the month, roughly by category
Activism
- In Kentville on Saturday the 3rd: the support rally for the drag queen reading at the King's Arms, read the Wayves article about it here.
- Also on the 3rd: Flag raising in Hubbards
- UPDATE: as of the morning of 2nd of June, the Dartmouth anti-bigotry support rally has been cancelled at the original location. Please check LocalEvents for updates.
The next day in Dartmouth, at 1:00pm, there'll be a very loud and musical picnic by Q folk to drown out transphobic hate speech, at Sullivan's Pond.
Halifax Public Libraries
Halifax Public Libraries hosts ten events during the month. Here's a whole article about them, and the schedule is in the HRE Calendar, link below. The Halifax Public Libraries events are marked with a green, blue and pink L.
Arts & Crafts
- Queers & Allies Craft Night at Good Robot on the 5th
- Craftpalooza at Glitter Bean on the 16th, "A queer vendors market with local queer and youth oriented businesses."
- Out & About Pride Market at Halifax Brewery Market on the 25th.
- There are a number of all-ages craft events at the Halifax Library - look for the big L.
Sports
Each sports type has its own icon in LocalEvents
- We've got East Coast Rainbow Softball Association games on the 4th and 11th at the Canada Games Diamond. Spectators are welcome.
- There's dodgeball at the Zatzman Sportsplex every Friday evening.
Drag
Since the end of Covid there have been a simply mind boggling number of drag events - sometimes four a day! If you're connected to Halifax's drag community and like to write news, please drop us a line; we'd like to run an article about the phenomenon.
Drag events are mostly marked with this icon.
There's a drag king show on Monday the 12th at Grafton Street Dinner Theatre.
Music, Theatre, Film
A play based on the poetry of Sapphos at Alderney Landing? Absolutely! On the 7th & 8th.
Friday the 9th and the following night, the Halifax Gay Mens Chorus presents Welcome to the 60s at the MacInnes Room on the Dalhousie campus.
On Saturday the 10th, Eastern Front Theatre presents Mind The Light, an original queer musical about one woman’s fight for love, family, and freedom.
On the 11th, a house concert in Bedford that evening with queer singer-songwriter Brooklyn Doran
AND, same evening, an album debut by Vivek Shraya, at Alderney Landing.
On Sunday the 18th, the Halifax Camerata Singers present Considering Matthew Shepard, a musical contemplation of homophobia, hatred... and transcending those.
On Wednesday the 21st, a new very queer musical, Rain On The Parade, opens at the Neptune Scotiabank Theatre and runs for five nights.
Rainbow Refugees NS marks World Refugee Day with a screening of Someone Like Me at the library on the 20th.
Q History
For the old-timers, there's a talk about the future of The Turret building on Sunday the 11th
Halifax Central Library presents a history & archives "Café" and social, with displays, refreshments, and music, right after work on Wednesday the 21st at the Central Library. All are welcome.
On the 9th, the Canadian museum of Immigration will present Unarchived, a feature-length documentary about the people and places often left out of traditional archives including our LGBTQ2+ communities.
And Everything Else
Sunday the 4th: St Luke's United in Upper Tantallon will celebrate becoming Affirming. What's Affirming? In this Wayves article, the minister of St John's United says:
Affirming in the church world means that a faith community publicly and explicitly states that they strive to be fully inclusive of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in all aspects and on all levels of that organization.
Jane Kansas died last December; we are just now staging her funeral with an event from 1pm to midnight Monday the 5th at the Bus Stop Theatre. There'll be play readings, short film presentations, refreshments, open mic, and a chance to leave messages to & about Jane.
And:
- Queer tarot card reading lessons at Venus Envy? On the 6th
- Q Parents Play Group? On the 4th.
- Pottery for Q newcomers to Canada on the 6th
- A workshop on pre-op surgery selfcare, 11th
Halifax art and activisim matriarch Jim MacSwain will be celebrated on Friday the 23rd at the Light House Arts Center.
Under The Big Top is a circus and burlesque theme drag show at the Seahorse on the 25th.
The month closes with another couple of events at the library.
Here are the links:
