Pride P.E.I. to honour 2SLGBTQIA+ trailblazers

Pride P.E.I. has launched Honouring the Trailblazers, an initiative to support local artists tasked with creating portraits of 2SLGBTQIA+ trailblazers who have made a significant contribution to P.E.I.

Until Jan. 21, Pride P.E.I. invites Islanders to nominate trailblazers, living or deceased, as well as artists who specialize in a visual medium to create the portraits. The three trailblazers chosen will be selected based on merit by Pride P.E.I. directors.

The three artists nominated to create the portraits will receive a $750 honorarium and will be selected by a jury composed of members from P.E.I.’s arts, gender and sexual diversity (GSD), two-spirit, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (2S-BIPOC) communities.

Trailblazers and artists can be nominated online at bit.ly/ pei-trailblazers. Pride P.E.I. will announce the selected trailblazers and artists on Jan. 28 at pridepei.ca, followed by posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

After the three portraits are complete, Islanders will be invited to an unveiling in Charlottetown to showcase the portraits and celebrate both trailblazers and artists, as per public health guidelines in effect at that time.

Pride P.E.I.’s Honouring the Trailblazers is co-funded by the City of Charlottetown’s community sustainability micro-grant program and the province’s Culture Action Plan.

Honouring the Trailblazers is one of the first in a series of initiatives by Pride P.E.I. to showcase the work of 2SLGBTQIA+ artists by memorializing 2SLGBTQIA+ trailblazers. As a follow to recent community-developed initiatives to commemorate GSD/queer history on the Island, notably Dave Stewart’s documentary film interview series, Before Grindr, this project endeavours to establish representations of lived queer history on P.E.I. across artistic disciplines and media.

To date, there has been no permanent, physical recognition of 2SLGBTQIA+ community members on P.E.I. — a situation Pride P.E.I. endeavours to change in the run-up to July 2021’s summer Pride Festival.

This initiative will begin to add physical assets to what has existed mainly until now as an oral history.