PRIDE is coming!!

October is nearly upon us – and for the Perth GLBTI community that can mean only one thing: PRIDE!

Yes indeed – break out the glitter and lace up your favourite cons, because this year is Pride’s 21st birthday and all of Perth will be dressing up and coming out in style to support the festival and all the wonderful events and activities that come with it.

This year the Freedom Centre will have several things to offer during Pride month – first and foremost being the FC stall at Fairday, which is the first big event of the Pride festival, on Saturday 9th October. There will be a shady chill-out space and cool fundraising goodies for sale. We’ll also be giving out free condoms, and there will be heaps of info available about mental health and safe-sex (because protection is sexy!). We’ll also be asking you guys to contribute to the Queer Map of Perth with your stories and experiences.

A little later on the calendar we have the new Skills Sharing sessions at the Freedom Centre. We’re looking for clever and creative young folks that have cool skills and talents they want to share. So if you’ve got a flair for drawing, music, language, cooking, costume design – or anything else for that matter, you’re more than welcome to come on down and show us how it’s done!

The SkillShare session starts on Thursday 14th October, at 5pm and will go until 8pm. This session will continue as a monthly affair on the 2nd Thursday of every month 5-8pm
Following on from the skills sharing workshop will be another new venture for us – The ATSIQ sessions will be hosted on the third Thursday of every month beginning on the 21st of October and are especially for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of diverse sexuality and gender. Again, this session will start at 5pm and will finish at 8 and will continue as a monthly drop-in session on the 3rd Thursday of every month.

Those of you with impressive memories will remember the success of our Emerge art project that was run in 2006. This year, we will be rejuvenating the program with a series of facilitated workshops for young GLBTIQQ people hosted by local community artists to improve YOUR creative and artistic skills. The workshops will begin following the launch of the new exhibition/artspace at the Freedom Centre Open Day on the 23rd of October. More news on this to follow!

Finally, the festivities will conclude (as all good things must) with the Pride Parade on the 30th October. We’re still working on ideas for this year’s Freedom Centre entry into the parade (email us if you have any suggestions!) and we’re hoping for a big turn out of young, passionate and fabulously attired people to represent us this year.

So, it looks like we’ve got a busy month ahead of us – and we’re looking forward to seeing you and watching your ideas and contributions become a part of our ongoing and thriving community project.
Check out the calendar at www.freedom.org.au for more details on the Skills Sharing and ATSIQ sessions, or email info@freedom.org.au for more information.

Happy Pride!

The Freedom Centre Team