Amid the prominence of digital media in Queer spaces, recent events around Kingston show that physical art remains an important medium and powerful tool for queer expression and activism.
While Pride Month brings added visibility to queer issues, events like the Agnes Etherington Art Centre’s monthly Queering Collage Series from June 8-22 and on June 12 the Kingston Frontenac Public Library presents Create and Resist! in partnership with Kingston Pride—highlight that queer artistic expression in Kingston extends far beyond June.
These ongoing programs highlight the lasting power of physical art as a tool for creativity, activism, and community connection for both Queen’s students and the wider queer community in Kingston.
For Alyssa Vernon, ConEd ‘22 and founder of the Queer Collage Collective (QCC), creating physical art is a meaningful way to honour the history of Pride as a protest and rebellion. After leading individual workshops in previous years, Vernon launched the Queering Collage workshop series at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre in fall 2024. This June, the series is expanding with two additional sessions to commemorate Pride Month.
“Zines have a long-standing history in civil rights movements as a creative and alternative way to spread awareness and information that is continually ignored in mainstream media, news outlets, and even educational institutions.,” Vernon wrote in an e-mail statement to The Journal.
Amidst the prevalence of rainbow washing by corporations—a superficial and performative marketing tactic in support of the 2SLGBTQ+ community during Pride month— Vernon says that art has the power to remind people of 2SLGBTQ+ truth and experiences.
“Queer people have long used physical art to represent Queer history, trans experiences, lesbian and gay rights, the AIDS epidemic, practicing safe sex, and many other queer topics,” Vernon said.
On June 12, physical art extended beyond Queen’s ivory towers, as the Kingston Frontenac Public Library hosted Create and Resist!, a Pride Month workshop led by local 2SLGBTQ+ artists SpiderWebWorks and LGBteaQ_Creations. After a brief introduction to the role of zines, buttons, and other physical art forms in queer activism, participants created their own pieces to take home.
Workshops like Queering Collage Series and Create and Resist! remind participants of the personal and historical power of handmade art to 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Through the creation of buttons, zines, and signs, participants not only celebrate queer identities, but also engage with the activist roots of Pride. As Vernon states, partaking in physical art forms can remind us that, “no one is free when others are oppressed.”
Beyond Pride month, Queen’s students can continue to participate in Queering Collage Series, which will resume in Sept. 2025.
Tags
Kingston Frontenac Public Library, Pride 2025, Queer Collage Collective, Zines
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to eic@queensjournal.ca.