Note: A recording of this living library event is available on the NC Libraries and Learning Commons website.
On Friday, June 18 from 1 to 3 p.m., NC Libraries and Learning Commons will host “Spilling the Tea: A Conversation with Empress Claudia Silva (Pride Niagara)” a virtual storytelling event celebrating sexual and gender diversity.
Pride Niagara’s Empress Claudia Silva is a Niagara native, drag personality, pageant coordinator, event planner, entertainer, activist, and community influencer. She will host a conversation and Q&A, leading participants through questions about her origin story, life experiences, community involvement, and overall experience, which involves educating and celebrating our LGBTQ2+ community in Niagara.
“Pride Niagara is excited to be partnering with NC Libraries and Learning Commons. As Niagara Region’s longest operating not-for profit exclusively serving our LGBTQ+ communities, developing new partnerships is key,” said Kevin Manninen, Pride Niagara co-founder and Board of Directors. “Events like these providing open and honest communication promote a mutual understanding and respect for a difference in views, interests and needs. Providing an open and honest place for conversation with full transparency builds our sense of self-worth.”
All are welcome to register for this event via Zoom, held in honour of Pride month. NC’s Gordana Vitez will moderate this session on behalf of NC Libraries and Learning Commons.
This is the third offering in NC Libraries and Learning Commons Living Library series, which seeks to provide a forum for guest speakers to share their experiences firsthand. The living library concept, where books are people and reading consists of a conversation, has been adopted by organizations across the globe to challenge stereotypes, stigma, prejudice and discrimination. The NC Libraries and Learning Commons team hosted educational events for Treaties Recognition Week in Fall 2020, and Black History Month in February 2021.
NC’s celebration of Pride Month kicked off in early June with the raising of the rainbow flag at both the Welland Campus and Daniel J. Patterson Campus in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
About Empress Claudia Silva – Pride Niagara
Niagara native, drag personality, pageant coordinator, event planner, entertainer, activist, and community influencer “The Empress” Claudia Silva is your friendly neighbourhood Empress with an inherited insight of shiny things. Operating out of the Niagara Region, performing and fundraising with various LGBTQ2+ organizations across Canada and the United States over the past 20 years. A regular face and voice behind countless microphones of Niagara one-time Gay nightlife and now cohost of Niagara Region’s Original Drag Brunch, the infamous “Drag it to Brunch,” and Pride Niagara’s online Series Spilling the Tea.” The Empress describes herself as fun, single and recommends you do not touch her hair.
To register for this Zoom event, visit: nclibraries.libcal.com/event/3611004?hs=a
