In an effort to uncover Toronto’s queer history and connect different generations, the Senior Pride Network (SPN) invites community members to help assemble an “interactive queer timeline.”
SPN is a community organization dedicated to promoting the needs of queer people who are 50 years and older. At SPN’s upcoming dance party, Time After Time, there will be an area set aside for recording and sharing past experiences. “We are creating a brick wall that will have pictures of events, bars, groups from the 1920s until modern day, and we are encouraging attendees to graffiti the wall with their own memories,” says Vanessa Dunn, chair of the Time After Time event committee. “For instance, someone may write, ‘Met my wife at Cherry Bomb’ or ‘Got my first blowjob at Pride ’87.’”
The timeline is very much in accord with one of the primary objectives of the party, which is to bring together people of different generations. DJs Kaleb “Daddy K” Robertson and Verlia will play music from the 1920s, and as the hours pass, the music will progress through the decades to present day, covering genres ranging from Motown to new wave. Whether it’s zoot suits or parachute pants, attendees are encouraged to wear costumes appropriate to any era from the 1920s to present day. The event will also feature performances by Sasha Van Bon Bon, Yosha Sifferman, Joy Lachica and Moxie Moxon.
The Time After Time party is a fundraiser for SPN’s first queer intergenerational conference, Opening the Closet on Aging: Wired to Connect, set to happen in Toronto during WorldPride. “[We] wanted to bring the ‘intergenerational’ aspect of the SPN conference to the dance,” Dunn says. The conference will be all about building connections between older and younger queer people and will feature such presentations as Connecting Through Kuwento: Conversations of Younger and Elderly Queer Filipinos, and Hidden Rainbow: Queers with Disabilities.
Time After Time is Sat, April 26, 7–10pm, at The 519 Community Centre, 519 Church St. the519.org
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