Items · Alberta Public Interest Research Group Archive · Alberta Public Interest Research Group

The Queer Agenda

Funded 2021-2022 The Queer Agenda is a recurring zine publication looking to give a platform to queer voices. They exist to uplift and promote voices from the community and want to educate their audience on experiences different from their own, and show their own experiences so they feel supported and not alone. The goal of this project at its inception was to produce something for our community to showcase the lives and experiences of queer people.

MSDAA BIPOC/Queer Speaker Series

Funded 2021-2022

All Ya'll Series

Funded 2021-2022 All Y’All Calendar, an astrology calendar for prairie queers and gender-bending BIPOC cowboys. Salem (they/them) is a multimedia story-teller, astrologer and an amiskwacîwâskahikan-based prairie boy, Born and barely raised in small-town Alberta, they have loudly declared amiskwacîwâskahikan their soul’s muse. Salem’s vision of the prairies paints it as the backdrop to the stories of flourishing black and indigenous creatives. Their work as an emerging filmmaker and digital media artist works to elevate narratives that centre the stories, aesthetics and values of QTBIPOC and BIPOC artists. Salem’s artistic practice and mission is fueled by astrology, Afrofuturism, and Emergent Strategy practices. In 2021 Salem launched project the All Y’All Calendar, an astrology calendar for prairie queers and gender-bending BIPOC cowboys. “The ultimate spirit of this project is to foster a creative space where Black, Indigenous, and creatives of colour of all bodies can access experience on a photoshoot that celebrates decolonizing what it means to be a cowboy. Queer and racialized people aren’t commonly associated with Western wear, cowboy lifestyles, and gritty plains that are so emblematic of Alberta and the Prairies. This project inserts these people and histories into the contemporary narrative of what it means to be an Albertan.”

Augustana Pride Week Speakers

Funded 2019-2020 Hosted by AQUA From Event Organizer(s): "The Augustana Pride Committee is very grateful to APIRG for their contribution towards our Pride Week Kick Off Event with Anthony and James! They were wonderful and understanding to work with and their support gave us the financial ability to provide quality LGTBQ2S+ representation to our community in Camrose and the surrounding area."

Underrepresented Genders in Philosophy: Queer Philosophy Panel

Funded 2018-2019 From Event Organizer: "APIRG's funding has helped our student group so much for our events. We are very grateful that it was given to us and we wouldn't have been able to host the event otherwise."

Queer 2 Peer

Funded 2018-2019 Queer Youth Peer Support Program in Collaboration with AHS.

Exploring Identity Through Graphic Novels

Funded 2018-2019 Queer Muslim Graphic Novel Project.

Prairie Sage Protectors (PSP)

Funded 2021-2022 Prairie Sage Protectors was established in amiskwaciwaskahikan (Edmonton AB) in 2021 by a group of Black, Indigenous and colonized people of colour, new and experienced organizers, who saw a need for a more unified and radical response across the Prairies to the ongoing/escalating oppression of the state and its agents (police & military, fascists) against Indigenous, Black, immigrant, queer, unhoused/displaced, impoverished, and otherwise marginalized people.

El-Tawhid

Funded 2020 El-Tawhid in partnership with The Muslim Feminist Collective are striving to uphold the values of speaking truth to power, acting against injustice, and living in relationship to the land at the core of Islam. MFC amplifies the voices of those who are doing justice work and offers a condemnation of injustice from an Islamic doctrinal and historical perspective. El-Tawhid strives to offer an inclusive space to pray and practice justice centered Islam with a community invested in dismantling systems of oppression. This space centers and exists for those whose identities exist at the margins of mainstream Islam including BIPoC and LGBTQ+ Muslims. Both virtual and physical spaces serve to hold Muslims, including ourselves, accountable to dismantling racism and patriarchy within ourselves, our communities, and social systems.

LGBTQ Newcomers and Refugees

Funded 2017-2018 Creates supportive safer community for LGBTQ newcomer and refugee youth in Edmonton.

In Arms Queer Theatre

Funded 2015 In Arms is the first queer mandated theatre company in Edmonton. With the intention of expanding beyond the confines of the University, In Arms hopes to serve the broader Edmonton community by nurturing the Edmonton Theatre community with yearly original devised plays as well as professional productions. Further, Drama Based Queer Education programs that work with a variety of groups will enrich our city’s culture of queer theory. The fight against homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and patriarchal power imbalances is rooted in a strong and confident educated stance. Through the use of the arts, In Arms will be another voice telling all its current and prospective citizens that they are welcome in our city.

Safe Zone

Funded 2003-2004 There are two basic aspects to the SafeZone mandate.The first goal is education, raising awareness about various Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) issues faced by LGBTQ people at a University campus. The second aspect is to identify and train LGBTQ allies that exist at the U of A and beyond.