The Pirates Leave the Village: Queering New Spaces
Journal for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology Volume 02 - Number 02, 2004
Leila Pourtavaf Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec)
" I will then move on to take account of alternative queer spaces in Montreal's landscape as the site of a more radical and politicized constitution of queerness in relation to urban space. Specifically, I will look at a local queer community that I am involved in named the Anti-Capitalist Ass Pirates, which has recently floated away from the cities gay village and temporarily infiltrated a series of other spaces throughout Montreal. It is therefore no surprise that many of Montreal's queer constituents have chosen to carve a space for themselves outside of the gay village. Among Since then, the Ass pirates have hosted free monthly queer events throughout the city (usually in bars, sometimes in residential." Said Pourtavaf.
[Footnote from Pourtavaf's Journal piece] While this paper will be specifically focusing on the Ass Pirates, the phenomenon I am describing is by no means limited to this group or this city. It is a phenomenon that is happening in most major North American cities. For example, in a recent article in Fab Magazine titles "How the Queer West Was Won", Rolyn Chambers describes a fairly similar movement that has taken shape in Toronto over the past decade.
(Editor's Comment It's not surprising that queers are leaving various old established gay ghettos to start new villages and neighbourhoods. Within their own cities. There will always be dissenters who say the new queer or gay village is product of someones, imagination and doesn't exist. I feel, as with the new Queer West district in west Toronto, if you're going to get in the ring and try to take the belt, you have to prepare to get hit.)
The full Leila Pourtavaf Journal
Journal for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology Volume 02 - Number 02, 2004
Leila Pourtavaf Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec)
" I will then move on to take account of alternative queer spaces in Montreal's landscape as the site of a more radical and politicized constitution of queerness in relation to urban space. Specifically, I will look at a local queer community that I am involved in named the Anti-Capitalist Ass Pirates, which has recently floated away from the cities gay village and temporarily infiltrated a series of other spaces throughout Montreal. It is therefore no surprise that many of Montreal's queer constituents have chosen to carve a space for themselves outside of the gay village. Among Since then, the Ass pirates have hosted free monthly queer events throughout the city (usually in bars, sometimes in residential." Said Pourtavaf.
[Footnote from Pourtavaf's Journal piece] While this paper will be specifically focusing on the Ass Pirates, the phenomenon I am describing is by no means limited to this group or this city. It is a phenomenon that is happening in most major North American cities. For example, in a recent article in Fab Magazine titles "How the Queer West Was Won", Rolyn Chambers describes a fairly similar movement that has taken shape in Toronto over the past decade.
(Editor's Comment It's not surprising that queers are leaving various old established gay ghettos to start new villages and neighbourhoods. Within their own cities. There will always be dissenters who say the new queer or gay village is product of someones, imagination and doesn't exist. I feel, as with the new Queer West district in west Toronto, if you're going to get in the ring and try to take the belt, you have to prepare to get hit.)
The full Leila Pourtavaf Journal
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