Halifax Pride recently put out a press release to promote the upcoming OUTBid!, their annual auction to raise funds for Pride festivities.

Well, they pulled a pop culture doozy this time.

This year you can bid for a date with Big Brother Canada cast members Emmett Blois and Andrew Monaghan.

The event is hosted by Eureka Love, and the doors open at 6pm this Thursday down at the Harbourfront Room at Casino Nova Scotia. As well as the aforementioned dates, there are lots of other prizes available. Check out the Facebook event page for more details.

In collaboration with the NSCAD Queer Collective, Halifax Pride recently put out a call for submissions as organizers are looking for the 2013 Halifax Pride visual artist. The artist's work will be exhibited during this summer’s Queer Acts Theatre Festival, be featured in the 2013 Pride Guide, as well as on tickets to various events during Halifax Pride. The deadline for submissions is May 15.

For eligibility criteria and more, check out Halifax Pride’s guidelines on their website.

As well as looking for artists, Halifax Pride is also looking for submissions for events for this year’s Pride Guide, as well as entries to the parade and booth for vendors and organizations at the Community Fair.

For more information on all this and more, check out Halifax Pride’s website.

Halifax Pride's annual Fancy Gay Dress Party is almost here.

The event this year will feature Elizabeth Chiu as host for the evening, along with Ian Mullan and Quartet La Corde providing entertainment. The party is a fundraiser for Halifax Pride's upcoming events throughout the summer. For more info, check out the FB page.

The library is playing host to an exhibit detailing the history of Halifax Pride all month long. It was commissioned as a "look back" at how a protest march in 1988 became a festival over a quarter century.

This Friday at noon, exhibit designer and GLBTQ activist Chris Aucoin will be presenting a guided talk about the exhibit. For more info, check out the Facebook event page.

Errata: The original version of this post noted that the discussion would take place today, Thursday the 14th. Down East regrets this error.

It looks like Halifax Pride is looking to fill three vacancies on its board of directors. 

According to Halifax Pride's Christopher Scullino, applicants to the position do not need to be current members of Halifax Pride. Applications are due Tuesday, Jan 22. For more information, contact Halifax Pride at communications@halifaxpride.com. 

There will also be a meeting on Tuesday, Jan 29 at the North End Library, on Gottingen Street, as the organization is looking to "establish a new hire steering committee to conduct a needs assessment and report back to the membership in January 2013." A press release states:

"A committee has been established and is currently working on collecting and finalizing the data. As per the motion, a meeting has been set up to report these findings back to the membership. The meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 29th at the North End Library, and is open to all members of Halifax Pride. Those interested in attending, but not currently a member of Halifax Pride, are free to come early and sign up to become a member."

Doors open at 5:30pm, with the meeting starting at 6pm.

***

Halifax's Queer Acts is making sure they don't lose their knack during the winter by warming themselves up with a comedy show this Tuesday, Jan 22 at 8pm at the Company House. The theme of the evening is a twisted homage to mothers, entitled Mommie Dearest.

The lineup includes Scott Contessa Bosse, Megan MacKay, Travis Smith, Megan McDowell and Ian Mullan.

For more info, check out their Facebook event page.

So much to see, so much to do this weekend.

Start your night off right with a dance at the Garrison Grounds; $5 at the door. Shake your shimmy under the stars.

Saturday, of course is the parade, with expectations of as many as 100,000 spectators and 111 floats in this year's event. There will also be fireworks that night at 10 o'clock, so find a good spot for watching. Maybe up on the hill?

And of course, there are multiple house parties, shindigs at the local watering holes and down at the Garrison, there is the ever-popular Wet Spot.

And as this is Friday, ie Office Dance Party day, a special something I have not been able to get out of my head for the past week. And now, with an official video! So you can kiki it up with all your friends.

Enjoy the weekend!

After a few days of Open Letters about Pride, I thought it might be nice to take a little break and give you a mini playlist of pride-filled tunes, all of which are made for dancing, and maybe a little bit of ballroom posing.

First and foremost, a little disco:

Loleatta Holloway's "Love Sensation" is probably one of the greatest records to be put out by Salsoul Records, arguably the most prolific and important disco label out there. The record is full of show-stopping shouting, but since the record's release, it has been sampled by countless house DJs, and even Marky Mark hit it up for a great sample or two. A classic, made for walking and prancing.

The original video, which you can see here, featured the legendary New York ball-scene maestro Willi Ninja doing what he did best: strike a pose.

Speaking of voguing and the ball scene, there were some records that came out in the early '90s that were tailor made for it. Masters at Work's "The Ha Dance" is one of those records. Played on a big system, it challenges you NOT to duck walk across the floor.

On a more contemporary tip, queers still rule the dancefloor, but the beats are a little phatter, a little more on the R&B and hip-hop tip. Azealia Bank's "212," which was released under a year ago, is still a great record. "I guess that cunt gettin' eaten" indeed.

One of Azealia's fave records of the past year (she played it when she DJed at a Mugler fashion show and even created her own version for a mixtape) is Zebra Katz's "Ima Read," a flashback to those ballroom floor records of the '90s, only this time the 808 is punching out harder than perhaps ever before.

Strut your stuff, Halifax.

Day three of the Letters of Pride Open Letters series  

The first time I met Sylvester I was just a baby gay. A friend of mine had somehow finagled a satellite dish that broadcast a signal from a public access signal in San Francisco. The show he was fond of was called Lavender Lounge, a very queer and low-budget version of American Bandstand, with dancers and a kooky host. The particular episode he wanted to show me was a tribute to Sylvester, featuring rare concert footage and live performances from the '70s.

I had heard "Do You Wanna Funk" for the first time in Sandra Berhard's "Without You I'm Nothing" but didn't clue in to the significance of the song, let alone how much of a game changer Sylvester was in the world of disco, dance and pop music.

If you'll permit me to mythologize for a moment, I can imagine that when Sylvester came out of the womb, his wail was probably a musical one. The young man became a gospel wunderkind at a tender age, and at 16 he moved to San Francisco, a time he recalled as the true beginnings of his life. Sylvester became part of the Cockettes and performed with them at a few of their shows. But it was in the late 1970s that his career really took off with the release of Steps II, an album that featured "Dance (Disco Heat)" and the disco anthem "You Make Me Feel Mighty Real." It was also at this time that he met producer and remixer Patrick Cowley. This was a musical union made in disco heaven.

Sylvester matched his previous success with "Do You Wanna Funk," another track recorded with Cowley.

It has been argued that it was that record that sparked the commercial and artistic fire that would become hi-NRG music, a sound that has its roots in San Francisco.

I remember watching this man, stunned by the voice that came out of him and equally stunned by the fact that here was a black man in drag, on television, and that this performance had taken place in the '70s. That a man in drag could rule the charts was unbelievable to me (however much I respected and admired it). It would take 15 years for RuPaul to do the same thing in the 1990s.

And as much as Sylvester was known for his strong performances on dance and disco records, it was how strongly they were steeped in gospel tradition that made them shine. His songs were gospel revivals brought to life in a club, moments of reverential ecstasy amidst the insanity of a dancefloor. Do yourself a favour: find a copy of Steps II. Dance to the disco beats but then stop and listen to the short reprise of "You Make Me Feel" at the end of the album. It's probably one of the greatest and most subdued performances of his career, but it is also, perhaps, his most stellar.

***

If you're wondering what to do for today's Pride events, check out the Funny HaHa Funny Queer show at the Atlantica Hotel. Show starts at 8pm and is $5 at the door.

If you're looking for something a little more sensual, Hot Times is putting on an event as SeaDogs. This event is for women, transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, non-binary, genderfuck, genderfluid, bi-gender, trans women, trans men, third gender, agender and further gender expressions. See Hot Time's Wordpress for more deets.  

Day two of the Letters of Pride Open Letters series

Dear Beth Ditto,

Can I have a hug?

I'm not asking because I'm sad or in need of comfort. In fact, quite the opposite. I'd like to give you a hug so that maybe you can catch a glimpse of what you provide for so many people: comfort.

The comfort you provide comes from all sorts of places. It comes from your voice, when you sing, when you yell, when you pronounce everything from lyrics to slogans to quips to rabble-rousing (because that's who we are as your fans, the rabble rousers of the world) and all those things that come out of your mouth. They are comforting because they are honest. Even when you're singing someone else's songs, you make them your own and you deliver them to us, your audience, in a way we didn't think possible.

Oh, that voice. Equal parts hillbilly country, deep Southern soul, punk rock angst and pop presence, it is a thing of beauty. "Coal to Diamonds" recalls Janis Joplin's "To Love Somebody" in its absolutely harrowing desire and want. "Standing in the Way of Control" is anthemic not just because of its subject or its throbbing and driving beat but because of the absolute insane energy that drives itself out of your body, straight into ours.

You are a comfort because of the way you present yourself. We read reports of you stripping off your clothes onstage, making jokes about how it’s "too hot" to stay clothed. But you are too hot. Hot as in sexy. Sexy because you obviously love your body. You embrace it. Your confidence reads not as a reaction, but as an embrace of self-love and acceptance. It's like you eschew any possible concept that anyone could not love their bodies, themselves. You make it seem illogical to do so.

You are a comfort because of yourself. I won't assume to think that you aren't capable of having bad days, shitty moments. I won't assume that you're not hurt, offended or at the least miffed at negative criticism or snide remarks made about your art, your opinions or your person. But if I can make an assumption about you and how you deal with such things, it's that you persevere. And that is the greatest comfort of all.

So yeah, if I'd like to give you a hug, it's not because I want one for myself, but because I think you deserve one for being who you are and for giving others room to do the same.

- S.

***

Tuesday is a learning day for Pride, with two great lectures.

NSRAP presents The State of Pride: Roots & Grassroots NSRAP's annual timeOut lecture series returns. Pride celebrations across Canada in 2012 might look unrecognizable to the participants in the original Pride marches. As Pride celebrations grow in size and acceptance, are they continuing to serve our communities’ needs? A panel of activists will discuss. Location: Spring Garden Rd Memorial Library, basement meeting room at noon.

Take Pride in Art: Nudity, Heroism and Lust: The Idealised Body and the Desiring Gaze at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Join the AGNS for a lecture presentation by long-time gay activitist Robin Metcalfe, director/curator of Saint Mary's University Art Gallery, as he traces the history of how the human body has been represented. Robin dishes the dirt from 7pm until 8.

To Mister White.

Sitting in my outbox is a letter addressed to you. It's been sitting there for over six months: a collection of notes and reminders of things to say, personal recollections and a compliment or three.

But I recently learned that you had suffered a stroke. This spurred me on to write this open letter, to thank you.

When I was fifteen years old, I smuggled a copy of one of yours books into my house. It was a paperback edition of A Boy's Own Story and The Beautiful Room Is Empty, with a big pink triangle on the spine. I had it sent to a friend’s house so that my parents wouldn’t open my mail. This is not to say that my parents would do such thing, but teenage boys are paranoid creatures.

That book was the first truly “gay” thing I ever owned, and I cherished it. It was like I gave myself permission to say it outloud, even if only to myself. That book was an object of desire.

I remember looking at it on my nightstand, wondering if my parents or sister would notice it, decipher the secrets that were hinted at by the pink triangle printed on the spine.

I would pull it out at night and read it, hoping to decipher the secrets of gay male sexuality. Like you, I was a bookish kid, precocious for his age (read: pretentious) and had a tendency to seek out literary reflections. You found "Death In Venice", and I found you. You studied French, I speak it fluently. The character of you, the struggles, the angst, the beauty of it all, were characteristics I understood and - perhaps in a bit of teenage angst - admired.

That book came into my house during the early 90s. AIDS was a big, scary word, drilled into my head by scared-straight big media, high school teachers, and the death of Freddie Mercury. But those two books were written and set before the onset of the-disease-that would-be-named. Your books gave me insight into a collective past, filtered through prose.

I am now near the age that you were when you started writing "A Boys Own Story". I don't see the world in the way I used to when I first read it, and perhaps not in the way you described it. But I wouldn't have gotten to this place in my life without having been given access to your past.

I wish you a full and speedy recovery,

S.

P.S. - In 1996, a friend of mine gave me a copy of "The Farewell Symphony". He had it signed by you, to me. It is still a treasured possession. A small link to you that I am grateful for.

***

Don’t know what to do today on the first Monday of Halifax Pride?

How about Hissy Fit? It’s kind of an annual tradition where all kinds of Halifax bands get together and get dressed in drag and perform their own tunes. No lip syncing here, this is rock’n’roll drag baby. For more info, click here.

The YouthProject's Pride Week Kick-Off BBQ is open to all LGBTQ youth and their allies ages 25 and under. It's free, starts at 5:30 and it's at The Youth Project, 2281 Brunswick Street in Halifax.

As mentioned in a previous post, PrideHealth is presenting it's Let’s Talk Trans Talk! at Hugh Bell Lecture Hall, Nova Scotia Hospital. Transgender, Transsexual, Two Spirited, Gender Queer, Gender Variant, Gender Identity, Cis Gender, Gender Binary, Gender Dysphoria…what do these terms mean and how do they relate to providing person-centred health?  For more info, contact Cybelle Rieber at 473‐1433 or prideHealth@cdha.nshealth.ca. And it's free!