[quiltbag & glass bookshop]

In Edmonton and looking for something different? Here are two ideas ...

glass bookshop

Visit the Glass Bookshop at City Centre Mall West, focusing on "Canadian writing with special attention paid to LGBTQ2SIA and IBPOC {Indigenous, Black and people of colour} writers, as well as the independent publishers who help to produce their work."

Fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks (somewhere in between fiction and non-fiction!), cards, pronoun pins, and more. Knowledgeable friendly staff who are well-connected to the literary and arts community here in Edmonton.

P.S. if you are reading this in the spring of 2020, the store is probably at its new location - check the website for the address.

https://www.glassbookshop.com/



quiltbag

"The QUILTBAG is an LGBTQ+ retail shop carrying queer & trans wares... The shop carries an always changing assortment of custom and curated used & new clothing; accessories like pins, pronoun buttons, patches, stickers; art by local artists; small gifts; and trans gear including chest binders and compression underwear."

Located at 7603 104 Street NW (Calgary Trail).

https://thequiltbag.com/

[towards an inclusive church]

Progress report: 

1. The church bulletins have had the Treaty statement (bottom of page) and a rainbow on the cross (upper left).

2. The church has started a "Towards an Inclusive Church" Committee, which I've been asked to be part of.

3. This week, the following appeared in the bulletin, and the committee was asked to come to the front where the priest prayed for us. 

Prayer & Blessing for the ‘Towards an Inclusive Church Committee

In response to the last General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada, our congregation expressed a strong desire to be a more openly and explicitly welcoming congregation. To that end, Vestry has appointed a group of individuals in our parish to lead our congregation through the process of becoming and being a community that openly welcomes and embraces people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. One might say: surely, we are already such a community! And they would be right! We are a community that welcomes all people, but we feel it is important to go through an intentional 'Welcoming Process' in the life of the faith of our congregation.

So there is indeed progress being made at Christ Church, which  after a long time waiting is exciting...

[Honor Song - Jeremy Dutcher]

I've been listening to the music of Jeremy Dutcher lately -- and have heard from several friends who have seen Jeremy in concert in the past few months...


           direct link if video does not appear above

About Jeremy Dutcher

Performer, composer, activist, musicologist — these roles are all infused into his art and way of life. His music, too, transcends boundaries: unapologetically playful in its incorporation of classical influences, full of reverence for the traditional songs of his home,and teeming with the urgency of modern-day struggles of resistance.

A member of Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Jeremy first did music studies in Halifax before taking a chance to work in the archives at the Canadian Museum of History, painstakingly transcribing Wolastoq songs from 1907 wax cylinders. “Many of the songs I’d never heard before, because our musical tradition on the East Coast was suppressed by the Canadian Government’s Indian Act.” Jeremy heard ancestral voices singing forgotten songs and stories that had been taken from the Wolastoqiyik generations ago.

As he listened to each recording, he felt his own musical impulses stirring from deep within. Long days at the archives turned into long nights at the piano, feeling out melodies and phrases, deep in dialogue with the voices of his ancestors. These “collaborative”compositions, collected together on his debut LP Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, are like nothing you’ve ever heard. Delicate, sublime vocal melodies ring out atop piano lines that cascade through a vibrant range of emotions. The anguish and joy of the past erupt fervently into the present through Jeremy’s bold approach to composition and raw, affective performances enhanced by his outstanding tenor techniques.

“I’m doing this work because there’s only about a hundred Wolastoqey speakers left,” he says. “It’s crucial for us to make sure that we’re using our language and passing it on to the next generation. If you lose the language, you’re not just losing words; you’re losing an entire way of seeing and experiencing the world from a distinctly indigenous perspective.”
       (from https://jeremydutcher.com/biography/)

Further reading:
http://muskratmagazine.com/jeremy-dutcher-on-climate-change-two-spirits-and-the-ethos-behind-wolastoq-music-and-the-indigenous-cultural-renaissance/

https://www.cbc.ca/arts/the-extraordinary-rise-of-jeremy-dutcher-2018-gave-canada-the-two-spirit-polaris-prince-we-need-1.4931935

https://calgaryphil.com/interview-with-jeremy-dutcher/

[all people and all genders...]

This is at the top of our church bulletin. I like that it says "all peoples and genders"... nicely includes non-binary people as well as Two Spirit people, which is very appropriate in a Treaty statement. Also a small but fitting indicator of being an affirming parish.

an affirming and embracing parish

Our parish announced this summer that they are an inclusive parish and that they will perform same-sex marriages. Subsequently, I was asked to be on a committee to help make this a reality.

The following mind map contains some of the ideas I've been thinking about in preparation for our first meeting:

Click image above for a bigger version.

Click here for a PDF version of this mind map
Note: the PDF version may be more recent.

conference emcee

Hey guys! As good as some of the other resources I highlight have been, I know you've all been waiting for another original cartoon from me -- and here it is!

I work in an office environment where the majority of staff are female, and "guys" is the most common form of address in a meeting of any size. What's worse is "your guys's" as in, "I read your guys's report...".

I remember when the transition from "man" to "human" and from "mankind" to "humankind" was taking place. It was hard for some people to grasp how using the same word for both "all members of a group" and "one specific type of member of a group" should not be done, how it made that one specific type of member the standard for the whole group.

Imagine if there were four kinds of dogs: German Shepherds, Dachshunds, Shih Tzu Bichons, and Dogs. How would that work?

Alternative words to use in welcoming remarks, greetings and more:
Colleagues
Folks
Kin
Friends
Everyone
Participants
Team
Occupational titles as applicable (I.e., Teachers, for a teachers' conference, Social Workers for a social work conference, etc.)
Fellow workers (note that "fellow" here is an adjective, not the noun for a guy. ...)
Members of our community
Neighbours
People
(Or, simply skip "Guys" and better alternatives, and just say "Welcome to our conference!")

Here's some interesting ones shared in a graphic:

[indefinite arts centre]

The Indefinite Arts Centre, based in Calgary, is Canada's oldest and largest disability arts organization. Here's what they say on their site:

We are proud to be Canada’s oldest and largest disability arts organization, founded in 1975 and now serving close to 300 artists per week in our 11,000+ square foot studio and gallery space in southeast Calgary.

Yes, our niche is to serve artists with disabilities, but our vision is to provide them with a platform to stand strong on their merits and their efforts – as artists. Throughout our website, we hope to give you a glimpse into how we provide artistic training, creation and exhibition opportunities for our artists – and at the same time, advocate for more meaningful, inclusive arts policies that shine the light on the creativity of artists living with disabilities.

Read more about them at https://indefinitearts.com/

[standing up for people being called what they want to be called...]

Here's an interesting clip from a TV show, which nicely shows the challenges of challenging other people when they use derogatory and disrespectful terms for others. Ironic though not surprising that the person doing the challenging is a QPOC (queer person of colour).

Watch how this discussion evolves, and some of the classic responses that those challenged pull out.

🚧 SPOILERS AHEAD 🚧 This was a very important scene in the latest installment of @TalesofTheCity. Watch the whole thing on @netflix. https://t.co/LkbYB9T0gh

— GLAAD (@glaad) June 21, 2019

If the tweet and embedded video do not show up above, click here.

Read CBC's article "We need to talk about the dinner party scene in the Tales of the City reboot"