NWT Pride puts diversity on centre stage
Much of festival moves to Somba K'e Civic Plaza with plenty of all-ages programming
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Friday, August 5, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The fifth annual NWT Pride festival scheduled is filled with performances from local and non-local artists all with a common feature - their diversity.
Emma Cameron and Damian Benoit prepare for their workshop giving young people advice on how to be active in their support of the LGBTQ community at last year's NWT Pride festival. - NNSL file photo |
Iman Kassam, event co-ordinator of NWT Pride, said the board made a point of inviting LGBTQ artists because they don't receive as much exposure as non-queer artists.
"We're a Pride festival, we want to focus on hiring LGBTQ+ musicians," she said.
"If we're spending this amount of energy into bringing up artists (to the North), they are going to be queer and they are going to have a message to bring to Northern queer people."
For example, Toronto-based stand-up comedian Michaela Washburn is leading a workshop on coming out stories and spoken word poetry. Indo-Tanzanian-Canadian musician Alysha Brilla will be discussing queer folks in positions of power on Saturday afternoon and singing at night.
Teal MacIntosh, arts co-ordinator of NWT Pride, said musicians with a diverse background - not just queer - are coming to the festival.
"We really wanted to open up our stage to queer performers so our criteria was queer, and Canadians with a diverse background. We didn't want to have one type of person visible on stage," she said.
The Pride festival kicks off today with cake at the post office over lunch hour. Later in the afternoon the fun moves to Somba K'e Civic Plaza with Yellowknife music hip-hop artist Aaron "Godson" Hernandez and the electro rock musician The Bushman.
Then, on Saturday, Storm Trooper and Quantum Tangle will jam at Somba K'e Civic Plaza. In fact, much of the festival is staged in the plaza, a new feature of this year, which Kassam explained represents growing visibility for the LGBTQ community in Yellowknife.
"We want to be front and centre in the city and we want it to be an event that everybody feels welcome to come to," she said. "Pride festivals are community festivals. They are city festivals. They need to be in place where everybody can see and attend and feel welcome to attend them. And it's a part of showing our pride too."
The fifth NWT Pride theme is "You've Got the Power."
