Pride may be all about celebrations, but it's also about conversations. Since 2005, the timeOUT Lectures have been held at the Spring Garden Road Library on all sorts of topics, from queer history to HIV, trans rights to sex. Put on by Halifax Pride and the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project, this year's crop of topics include spirituality, health, activism and language.
Kevin Kindred has been organizing the event since 2006. According to him, the lecture series originated as a cultural component to Pride.
"We've tried to have a wide range of topics, some very academic, some quite political and others designed just to shed some light on important work being done within our communities," he says. "We get good feedback every year, particularly to the idea of rounding out the fun and festivities of Pride with a little serious thinking as well."
This year's crop of speakers includes Nolan Pike, who will be hosting a discussion called "Talking Trans" (Thursday, noon-1pm). For Kindred, it's important to talk about topics that individuals in the queer community deal with, such as gendered language and the use of non-gendered or trans-specific pronouns such as they and ze instead of he or she. "It's a subject of some debate, and it fits right in with the education work that Nolan has been doing for some time with the Youth Project," says Kindred.
Kindred will also be on the podium this season, talking about the fight for equality for the LGBTQ community. "Lies, Damned Lies...and Activism" (Friday, noon-1pm) touches on how sometimes information get misconstrued. "I think it will be fun to unpack some of the more common points of misinformation," says Kindred, "and contemplate a little bit why we encounter so much of it in this kind of work."
timeOUT Lecture Series
Spring Garden Road Memorial Public Library, FREE
5381 Spring Garden Road
