Last month, Violet Hour presented Queer & Italian in Montreal at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Montreal as part of the Fierté Montréal Pride celebrations.
I got the idea for this event after learning that Montreal’s Pointe a Calliere Museum had recently wrapped their Italian Montreal exhibit with no real mention of the contributions of LGBTQ Montrealers of Italian origin. I felt this would be a good opportunity to correct that omission, celebrating our accomplishments while also creating a conversation around what more can be done to create change and foster acceptance among the old guard.
The event took the form of a screening of the short documentary Creative Spaces: Queer and Italian Canadian and a panel discussion about the past, present and future of queer Italian-Canadian culture in the city featuring Gaspare Borsellino (Gruppo Italiano Gay e Lesbico di Montreal), V Di Gregorio (CIAO – Canadian Italians Against Oppression), and Steve Galluccio (Mambo Italiano). I hosted the talk, which you can now watch below.
There was a lot of electricity in the room that night and many of us left wanting more events like this (I’m working on it, so stay tuned).
Big thanks to my partners on this one: Istituto Italiano di Cultura Montreal (Sandro, Laura), Fierté Montréal Pride (Guillaume, Oswaldo) and Accenti Magazine (Licia, Domenic).