Fall 2025 • Halifax • Wayves Staff
In 2012, Halifax queer event organizer, activist, Wayves Magazine team member, and beloved bonvivant Raymond Taavel was murdered. A few years later, a Halifax park at the corner of Inglis and Barrington Street was renamed and re-dedicated in his memory. Here's the Halifax Rainbow Encyclopedia entry about the park.
The park is about to be redesigned, and the City is asking for input, via planning and design company OSO.
From: OSO planning & design: Help us reimagine + beautify Raymond Taavel Park!
Please join us on Saturday October 4th between noon and 4pm at Raymond Taavel Park to help us reimagine and beautify the space! There will be creative activities, stories, and snacks. All are welcome! This community engagement will kick off a project led by OSO planning + design, a local community-based urban design studio. With the support of Downtown Halifax Business Commission, OSO has set out to create a new vision for the park that centers community voices and ideas.
The current unassuming park presents important opportunities: The abundant tree cover offers natural shade, and the paved path creates an accessible way through the space. Positioned on a corner that gets lots of pedestrian and vehicle traffic, it is highly visible, safe, and inviting. The park is beloved by community members who host picnics, plant flowers, decorate and gather.
The project will beautify the site not only by what we make, but by how we make it. Community engagement is essential to this project: inviting community participation from the very start will ensure that the project reflects the wants and needs of folks who use the space. The engagement sessions will help to build and strengthen connections between the queer community members, local businesses, and neighbors of the park. A permanent installation will showcase the contributions off all who participate. This could include new furniture, landscaping, or public art. This project embodies the real definition of placemaking: projects that connect people to the places they share and build a stronger sense of community along the way.
This project is meant to benefit the community in both the long and short term. In the short term, the project will bring folks together and build a more functional and beautiful space for gathering and play. Over the long term, the project will endure as a celebration of Raymond Taavel, his advocacy, his creativity, and his legacy. Creating spaces that mark the queer history of Halifax create hope, safety, joy and opportunity for present and future generations of 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. The vision behind the project is ensuring that the park is a place where Raymond's story is carried forward and re-told for generations.
If you have any questions, email us here.
