Happy Pride!
This is a whole month of acknowledging and celebrating our 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and it feels timelier and more relevant than ever. WPL has a full list of events and reads curated on our website, and these are a couple of my personal top picks from our selection.
tri-Pride Summer Festival 2023
Saturday, June 10
12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Victoria Park, Kitchener
If there’s one Pride event you engage with, let it be this one. This is big thing, with performers and vendors all in the gorgeous setting of Victoria Park. There’s something for everyone here, from a kids’ area to a ticketed beer garden to a Juno award winning headliner!
Learn more and RSVP on Facebook.
Dive Into Pride – Pride After Party
Saturday, June 10
8:00 pm – 11:30 pm
Dive Bar Waterloo
Heads up, this is a 19+ event, but it’s got so much going for it: it’s the official Pride after-party, which will be at the aptly named Dive Bar in Waterloo. It’s local talent and comedy, it’s a fantastically entertaining drag show, it’s supporting our Charter rights to freedom of thought, belief and expression at a time when that support feels particularly imperative. What’s not to love? Also, one of the performers is named Fetishini Alfredo, which is the best pun I’ve heard in WEEKS.
Get tickets on Eventbrite.
Book Recommendations
Of our excellent reading carousel, my absolute favorites are Alexis Hall and Brandi Carlile. I’ve written before about Hall’s baking novels, and his latest in Glitterland continues my personal mission to read most if not everything he’s put out. Hall is a lemon drop on the tongue when things feel a bit grey, there’s so much pathos and earnestness in his books.
If you’re feeling something a little more true-to-life, Brandi Carlile is an incredible singer-songwriter who has branched literary with her autobiography Broken Horses. Taking you from her dysfunctional childhood all the way through to her and her wife’s experiences with parenting, this is a touching piece that basically comes free with its own soundtrack!
Here’s to a joyous and happy June for you, reader, and everyone you love. Pride is a protest, and we can both celebrate and defend this year.
Check it out 