Author: Syriah Bailey
The late 1970s and early 1980s were a time of radical change. The civil rights, gay and lesbian liberation, and women’s movements were reshaping North America, challenging the status quo, and demanding justice. In Toronto, Black queer activists were building spaces, creating art, and making their voices heard. Their stories live on at The ArQuives, Canada’s largest independent 2SLGBTQIA+ archive. The ArQuives acquires, preserves, organizes, and gives public access to information and materials in any medium, by and about 2SLGBTQIA+ people, primarily produced in or concerning Canada. Its shelves, attic, basement, reading room, library, and two offsite storage facilities house a wealth of ephemeral items and pivotal moments in Canadian 2SLGBTQIA+ history. Within its walls, you’ll find a powerful collection of interviews, periodicals, books, and ephemera that help piece together history.
One of the more intimate ways to learn about this history is listening to the voices themselves. The ArQuives holds records and interviews with and about key figures like Makeda Silvera, Courtnay McFarlane, Junior Harrison, and Douglas Stewart, whose contributions were integral to the growth and strength of the Black queer community in the city.
“Family for me has been broadly defined. It’s the family into which I was born as well as the family at different stages of my life have chosen. Within the queer context that family that has nurtured and supported me, I really feel literally, are more significant in my life than my biological family.”
Courtnay McFarlane
In his interview for The Family Camera Network Project, poet and artist Courtnay McFarlane reflects on his mother’s photo album, flipping through pages of his past. You can hear the sounds of Isabella Street, where The ArQuives has been housed since 2006 in the background —a historic building itself, now over a century old. The bustling street noises juxtapose the intimate stories being shared.
Within the same fonds, HIV/AIDS activist Junior Harrison reflects on various outreach and organizing events he was involved in, recalling particular memories of Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention’s (Black CAP) presence at Caribana, held every August in Toronto.
In a 2001 interview with Nancy Nichol, gay rights activist Douglas Stewart provides another critical narrative of 2SLGBTQIA+ activism in the late 20th century. Stewart traces his activism from coming out in 1978 to his involvement in organizations such as Lesbian and Gay Youth Toronto, ZAMI, Anti-Apartheid Committee, and Reunited African Youth (RAY).
McFarlane met Stewart through ZAMI; a lesbian and gay Black and Caribbean group formed in Toronto in the 1980s. ZAMI is a West Indian Creole word for lesbian, and was also the title of Audre Lorde’s important 1982 biomythography, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Although the group’s focus was on the Black community, members of Toronto’s queer Caribbean diaspora were welcome.
In the image above, Anthony Mohamed, a gay, South Asian, Caribbean, Canadian activist stands with his arms crossed wearing a jean jacket at a ZAMI gathering. For decades, Mohamed has been a pivotal figure in various advocacy groups and organizations spanning decades. These groups include ZAMI, Khush, and the AIDS Committee of Toronto.
ZAMI’s primary purpose was visibility, according to Stewart, “People felt like something needed to be available so that Black people could find a place to go.By seeing something in a newspaper that said Black and gay together, they came.” Stewart describes ZAMI as a space that fostered political dialogue, discussion, and support.
“People really connected because it was a very small activist community.”
– McFarlane
In one interview indexed at The ArQuives, McFarlane shares a flyer for Lesbians Gays + Race, an event in collaboration with Gay Asians of Toronto, which included a screening of Orientations and earlier film of Richard Fung. McFarlane was also involved with Lesbians of Colour, a group that, alongside other organizations, helped form the foundation for a supportive network of queer people of color.
Want to learn more about archiving queer Black communities in Canada? In part two of this article, you’ll learn how Lesbians of Colour organization laid the foundation for future movements like Black CAP, and what it means for queer Black people living in Toronto today.
Author: Syriah Bailey is an interdisciplinary creative thinker focused on inclusive data practices and storytelling. Their portfolio includes curating film festival programs, providing consulting and evaluation to predominantly queer and trans-serving organizations, and leading communications at The ArQuives. Bailey holds a Masters in Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy.
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