The Youth Project is gearing up for a great fundraiser this coming May.

Called Strike out Homophobia, the event will help raise funds for the Youth Project's various services, outreach and education programs, and more.

You can sign up either as a team or as an individual if you are looking to participate and raise funds through social media forums and more. You can also sponsor individuals and teams.

For more information, check out the Youth Project's website.

Yesterday, the Halifax Youth Project announced on their Facebook page that they had recently been the victims of a series of thefts. 

 

[We] feel we have no choice but to close [our drop in services] for the time being. We're very saddened, disappointed and a little angry that someone would choose to do this to a non-profit, especially around the holiday season. The ones impacted the most by this will be LGBTQ youth, who will lose resources and opportunities. We will announce when our space is back open, because we know the holiday break is the time we see a lot of YP returnees! We want to see you, give us some time to bounce back and re-open. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact us.

Down East spoke with Sheena Jamieson, the Youth Project's support services coordinator about the recent happenings. "We're still making an inventory of everything. As for what we know has been stolen, there is a Wii, a Play Station, as well as their accessories and games, a camera and battery, power tools, cash and a student visa card." Jamieson believes the thefts took place over a few days, most probably while the Youth Project was organizing a GSA conference here in the city.   

As for Halifax's queer youth who are looking to gain access to the Youth Project, Jamieson says that for the next few weeks, youth will have to contact the YP to organize times that they can come and gain access to the space.  

However, with all of this bad luck, she notes, "People have been supportive in asking what we need and seeing if they can help recoup items." Jamieson also notes that the local community was "amazingly generous" at a recent auction that the YP held last month.

If you'd like to help out, check out The Youth Project's donate page.

This Sunday, the Youth Project will be holding their annual brunch and auction at the Lord Nelson Hotel.

Hosted by the fabulous Candy Palmater, the event is one of the biggest ways the Youth Project raises funds for their programs and services.

The event takes place this Sunday, Nov 18. Tickets are $40, including meal and auction. Contact the Youth Project for ticket info.

***

This Monday, Azealia Banks released a new video from her Fantasea mixtape.

One of the tracks from that album, "Fierce," was made into a fan video, featuring snippets from famed documentary Paris Is Burning.

Well, another version was recently released. This one is a promotional clip for the clothing/shopping site Asos. Unfortunately, this is technically only a bit of a teaser and doesn't include the wonderful samples used in the original track - Jack & Jill's "Fierce Talk."

But we'll be happy to listen/watch in any case.

.

 

There were a lot of cheers at the Youth Project last week.

The organization received $1,000 from an employee at Telus, who is a big fan. The donation was matched by Telus as part of a Celebration of Giving event put on by Telus on Sept 27.

The Youth Project's Leighann Wichman picking up the cheque

The employee, Tim Richards, wanted to give a little something to the Youth Project “because it provides support and services to LGBTTQ youth in the province. I was happy to be able to have my employer match my donation to provide double the amount.” Richards, who grew up outside of the city in Sheet Harbour, wished that he had been able to access programs like the Youth Project when he was younger. “The work being done by the Youth Project is helping to make a better world by addressing phobias, bullying and promoting equality. It’s important work and I am proud to help out a little.”

Sheena Jamieson, the coordinator of support services at the Youth Project, told Down East that donations -- any donation -- help out. “A donation like this means we get to continue to do the great work that we do – supporting youth through their challenges and victories, hosting education workshops on homophobia and bullying, fostering leadership skills in youth who don’t always get the opportunity to be leaders, providing resources and information, running our food bank, and many more things we do in the run of a day.”

Just goes to show that every little bit helps.

 

There's no denying that I love The Youth Project. They've been mentioned on this blog more than once.

They're currently fundraising with their Strike Out Homophobia Bowl-A-Thon.

As of this posting, they've raised over $7,500, half of their fundraising goal. According to their website, the money raised from the event will be "in support of the Youth Project and their efforts to combat homophobia and transphobia in schools."

Also over at the YP, the gang recently put up this great little video of chants and slogans for the upcoming International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia and the Halifax edition of the rally in support of the day. 

After Friday's first Reading List, I found myself this morning with a few more interesting links to share.

I've always been a fan of history.

When I came out to myself in the mid-'90s, I spent as much time as I could digging through every possible trove of queerness: you read certain books, you watched certain movies, you talked to certain people. I wanted to feel a sense of continuity, both forward and back. 

Recently, two separate collections of images on two separate coasts are doing just that.

In New York City, the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art is holding an exhibition called The Piers: Art and Sex Along the New York Waterfront. The show is about the people, the art and the sex that was found along "the piers" in New York. David Wojnarowicz and Peter Hujar were two artists who were known to frequent the piers. The exhibition also collects candid images of the artists, as well as other men who were part of the scene.

Sunners, by Frank Hallam (part of The Piers exhibition).

Over on the other side of the US, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation has curated a collection of images about the beginning of AIDS in San Francisco: how it changed the lives and the character of the gay community. From images of a small office where the Kaposi's Sarcoma Foundation (later to become the SFAF) to posters to images of early AIDS walks, it's a strong collection to remind people of their own history.

***

On a more local tip, there are a couple of interesting events happening this week in Halifax.

NSRAP is hosting a Trans Health and Policy Symposium planning committee meeting at Just Us Coffee House on Spring Garden Rd this Tuesday. According to a message posted on GayHalifax: 

NSRAP has been presented with the opportunity of some direct funding from the department of justice to put on a trans positive agenda themeed conference. This will be aimed at influential public servants/community members/academics and politicians regarding trans positive/negative policies including those in health. We need lots of help from the groud up to organize this even in its entirety! Come one come all if you're keen to pitchin with ideas and participation, tentatively the conference will be planed for the fall or winter of 2012.

To RSVP or for more information, contact lucas@dal.ca.

Also coming up this week, the Youth Project and Dalhousie are hosting an information/training session on how to become an ally to the queer community. The event is this Thursday, in Room 224 at the Dalhousie Student Union building, 6136 University Ave. The session is for individuals interested in reaching out to and supporting others in the queer community. Contact the Youth Project for more information.

The Youth Project, a Halifax-based resource and social centre for queer youth, is putting on a series of workshops during the month of March.

The first of the three workshops is Tuesday, March 6, called How to Become an Ally, with discussions on how to support queer people, how to identify oneself as an ally and more. The workshop takes place from 9am until noon at the Canada Games Centre, 26 Thomas Raddal Dr. The other two workshops will take place on March 23 (Working with Transgender Youth) and March 27 (Dealing with Homophobic/Transphobic Bullying). For more information, check out the application form here.

***

I've noticed recently that most Friday posts contain some sort of video, a little pick-me-up for the weekend. I've also recently gotten stuck in a strutting/voguing/whacking groove. In continuing that tradition, here's a little something for you to duck walk around the office to.

There will be a little bit of art and joy spread around this Thursday at the Youth Project.

For the past four years, the Youth Project’s Brunswick St offices have hosted an event called TransMosaic – an unveiling of that year’s additions to an ever-expanding collection of mosaic tiles depicting the names of various transgender individuals and allies. The unveiling and the mosaic were born out of discussion around the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

“We participate each year [in the Transgender Day of Remembrance],” says Sheena Jamieson, support services coordinator for the YP. “It’s a way to get transgender youth connected with others in the community, albeit in a very sombre atmosphere. We as YP staff heard from youth that while this kind of recognition is absolutely important, it made them feel like nothing positive was happening, which they know to be untrue. They were aware of allies and other transgender people who were doing great work. ”

Looking for a more positive and uplifting way to foster discussion around transgender individuals and rights, the youth came up with the idea of creating a mosaic. “Each year we nominate approximately 10 role models, allies, people or organizations doing outstanding work in combating transphobia, or making spaces safer for transgender people,” says Sheena. “We then hand-paint a tile for each nominee and join them together to create a mosaic.” The mosaic is one of the first things you see when you walk into the meeting space at the YP. The tiles are framed above an old fireplace, where everyone can see them. You will find the names of musicians like Rae Spoon and Lucas Silveira, as well as athletes such as Caster Semenya and Michelle Dumaresq, as well as fictional characters, such as Adam from the Degrassi franchise.

Although the mosaic has serious origins, for the people at the Youth Project, it has transformed into something joyous. “Tile-painting is one of my favourite yearly events,” says Jamieson, “because we get together at Clay Café and chat about what our nominees are doing, what services out there exist for trans-identified people, and we get to see the mosaic get bigger as the community does.” This year’s additions to the mosaic will bring the total to 66 tiles, and for the first time, all of them will have connections to Nova Scotia.

The event takes place this Thursday at the Youth Project’s office at 2281 Brunswick St. The event takes place from 6 until 8pm and is free. For more information check out the Facebook event page.

This weekend the Youth Project will be hosting Making Waves, a conference all about gay-straight alliances (GSA). The conference will include various workshops, as well as a presentation by keynote speaker Ivan Coyote (see yesterday's story about Coyote here). The event is free and open to staff and students across Nova Scotia.

Leighann Wichman, the executive director at the Youth Project, spoke with Down East about the event.

What will happen there?

The conference is an opportunity for students and staff who are in GSAs or want to start GSAs to get together, learn and share. There will be opportunities for skill building and networking. Many rural schools have few chances to connect with other schools. Our keynote speaker is Canadian storyteller Ivan Coyote. In the afternoon we have a series of workshops; some for students and some for advisors, which include the role of the teacher’s union, starting a GSA, GSAs in rural communities, making your GSA more trans friendly, and many more. Ivan Coyote will be offering a writing workshop and there will also be a filmmaking workshop.

What will the youth involved learn and experience? Hopefully, the students will learn more about making their GSAs stronger through leadership, inclusion and some new and exciting project and event ideas. It is also hoped that students will feel connected to a much larger movement in Nova Scotia that includes all GSAs. We want to create a stronger voice for GSAs and provide opportunities for youth to use that voice.

How did Ivan Coyote get involved? Our GSA conference planning committee spent a lot of time discussing who they wanted as a keynote speaker. Ivan had been at the Youth Project in the past so was already a popular choice. We learned that Ivan was going to be in Nova Scotia around the time of the conference, so it seemed a perfect fit. It is also exciting to represent gender identity so strongly, as it often isn’t so prominent a topic.

What do you want the youth to get out of the weekend?

We want you to feel part of something bigger. We want them to have the opportunity to share and learn from their peers around the province and be able to connect with them after the conference. We want them to have the confidence, skills and knowledge to be strong leaders in their schools and communities and be prominent in the act of making schools safer, healthier and happier for all students, especially LGBTQ students and their allies.

For more information, check out Making Waves' website.