2019 Edition

Programmation

* 11:00 am to noon - Yoga session presented by lululemon

* Before the official opening of the JVL. By reservation, via Eventbrite (limited places) Yoga session at le Never Apart a space for LGBTQ and allied women. Come and practice this unique sport which promotes well-being and health. No need to be a pro !

2:00 p.m. - Opening of the Lesbian Visibility Day 2019 + the community and lesbian market

* Before the official opening of the JVL. By reservation, via Eventbrite (limited places) Yoga session at le Never Apart a space for LGBTQ and allied women. Come and practice this unique sport which promotes well-being and health. No need to be a pro !

3:00 p.m. - Intergenerational panel

Outstanding women will testify their lesbian memories! In their respective fields, these activists participated, in their own way, in promoting lesbian visibility, paving the way for future generations. Today, their voices carry more than ever positive messages that need to be heard! We wish, through this panel, to offer moments of empowerment to women of all ages, moments of Lesbian History through the stories of those who wrote it.

4:00 p.m. - Reading and drawing for LGBTQ families

In collaboration with L’Euguélionne bookstore, you can attend a reading of works related to LGBTQ families. In addition, Never Apart’s historic LGBTQ coloring book is a fun, retro-kitsch project that also serves as an educational tool. Much of LGBTQ history has been erased and is not taught in school. Growing up, many of us didn’t had queer models. In Color by Icons, it’s up to you to color the lines. Come color your favorite icons!

20/5000 5:00 p.m. - festive 5@7

Come celebrate Lesbian Visibility Day with the music of several DJs including our spokesperson, Safia Nolin. Two special awards (visibility and tribute) + speech and door prizes.

21h00 - End

You will have the chance to continue the evening in a bar / partner establishment. See you next year!

spokeperson

Safia Nolin

With her dark folk-flavored songs, Safia Nolin has charmed both critics and audiences alike, winning the Félix for Female Performer of the Year at the 2017 ADISQ Gala, one year after being named Révélation de l’année at the same gala. Whether she sings her own compositions or covers of Quebec classics, the artist transports us to her unique universe.

Safia Nolin’s third album – her second consisting of original songs – is titled Dans le noir and was released on October 5, 2018 via the label Bonsound. Named on the long list of the Polaris Music Prize and at ADISQ in the categories Album of the Year – Folk and Album of the Year – Critics’ Choice, Safia’s first album, entitled Limoilou, was released in September 2015 via Bonsound. The artist, originally from Quebec, has since won the prestigious 2016 Félix-Leclerc Prize for Song, the 2016 SOCAN Revelation Prize and two GAMIQ 2016 awards (Folk Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year) . The day after the ADISQ Gala in November 2016, Safia launched a surprise album entitled Reprises Vol.1, on which she paid tribute to the beautiful music of here.

She revisits eight classics from the Quebec repertoire with all the sensitivity we know her. The album won the Félix for Album of the Year – Covers at the 2017 ADISQ Gala.

Invited panelists

Myriam Fougère

Outstanding women will testify to their positive lesbian memories! In their respective fields, these activists participated, in their own way, in promoting lesbian visibility, paving the way for future generations. Today, their voices carry more than ever positive messages! We wish, through this panel, to offer moments of empowerment to women of all ages, moments of Lesbian History through the stories of those who wrote it.

Myriam Fougère did photography and sculpture before turning to video. During the 1980s, she was part of a collective of women and lesbians who opened a space for women in Quebec, a clandestine bar as well as a cultural space for lesbians, called “la Maison des Elles”. From 1988 to 1991 Myriam Fougère and Lin Daniels organized the “East Coast Lesbian’s Festival” in New York state, and in 1991, “Lesbian Celebrations”, the Quebec component of this festival. In 2007, Myriam produced an experimental work on breast cancer Déroutes et route. In 2012, she filmed, edited and directed Lesbiana – Une Révolution parallèle, a documentary both personal and political, about the lesbian movement in Quebec and in the United States in the 1980s. This film was selected in more than 60 film festivals around the world. In 2015, Myriam hit the road again with her camera. This time she travels to Europe to find out how young feminists campaign. She joins the Feminist Caravan which, during a 7 month trip, meets other feminists across 20 countries of Europe. They are from France, Serbia, Portugal, Germany and Brazil. Their mission is to go and meet feminists who are struggling locally, in order to bond, share strategies and encourage each other. Myriam Fougère shares this journey with us in Feminista, a feminist “road movie”, finalized in 2017.

Laura Yaros

Laura Yaros has been a lesbian, proud and activist, for 46 years. For decades, she has collaborated with various lesbian, feminist and community groups. In October 1981, on Radio Center-ville, she began collaborating on the weekly feminist / progressive show “Matrix”, an English-language show by and for women, including a lot of lesbian-themed content. For 14 years, she also collaborated on the inter-team program “Montréal sans accent”, a weekly progressive program in French. She has been part of various groups for LGBT Jews in Montreal: Montreal Jewish Lesbian Group, Ga’ava and Nice Jewish Girls. With her spouse, Beth, she has been a member, since 2003, of the Congregation Dorshei Emet, the reconstructionist synagogue in Montreal. The two women participate actively while being 100% visible as a lesbian

Monique Lavoie

Monique worked as a social worker with children in schools. “My coming-out was the happiest moment in my life and I can’t wait to share it on Lesbian Visibility Day,” she said sincerely.

Gloria Escomel

“I was born in Uruguay, where I lived my first 20 years, and then went to Paris, where I did my BA in letters. I left in 1965 to teach a year in Guadeloupe and I came in Montreal in 1967 to follow the woman I loved. I have stayed there until now. While teaching, I did my doctorate here, I became a lecturer at UdeM and UQAM , and freelance journalist for twenty years. I participated in the first days of lesbian visibility in the center of Gilford Street and wrote a few articles in the magazine Treize. In three of my books published in Quebec, it talks about of lesbian love (Passion fruit, Traps, Waters of memory). I retired in 2014. I’m surviving. “

Johanne Coulombe

Moderator

Activist since 1984 in the collective of the review Amazons of Yesterday, Lesbians of Today (AHLA), Johanne Coulombe co-founded, with Dominique Bourque in 2014, Les Éditions sans fin. These favor the works of lesbians who articulate in an artistic, scientific or conceptual way their visions of the world.

JVL Awards

Judith Lussier

Lesbian Visibility Award

Judith Lussier is an author, journalist, columnist and host. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in Communication and Political Science from the University of Montreal, she is interested in social issues, and in particular feminism and the rights of sexual and gender minorities, which she tackles in particular as a columnist for opinion in Journal Métro. We owe him several essays, including The Aid to Procreation in Quebec (VLB), Beyond Limits: The History of Wheelchair Sports (Flammarion), and We Can No Longer Say: Activism in the Age social networks (Cardinal). She collaborates on ALT (VRAK) and We will make no friends (Télé-Québec), in addition to co-hosting the feminist capsule series Les Brutes at Télé-Québec.

Line Chamberland

Tribute Award

Line Chamberland is a longtime lesbian activist. In the 1970s, she participated in the creation of the first group of French-speaking feminist lesbians in Quebec, the Coop-femmes. Since then, she has been involved in several popular and union organizations as well as in the lesbian magazine Treize. A sociologist by training, she became interested in the history of lesbians in Quebec and published a book, Mémoires lesbiennes, which reports on the difficult experiences of lesbians in Montreal during the 1950s and 1960s. She then did several research on different forms of social exclusion and discrimination against LGBTQ people, especially in education, work and health. Since November 2011, she has held the Research Chair on Homophobia at UQAM, which benefits from the support of the Minister of Justice as part of the government’s plan to combat homophobia and transphobia in Quebec. She is currently leading the SAVIE-LGBTQ project, Knowledge on the inclusion and exclusion of LGBTQ people, which brings together a large number of researchers and partners.

Partners