Episode 7: The Queer City ft. Ferdie Lopez, Ryan Persadie, Cornel Grey, and Samuel Yoon Cities Unmasked

Queer lives are unrepresented and/or misrepresented in our thinking of urbanism. This episode focuses on what queer work and lives means for urbanism by listening to our guests’ work, we hope to consider how queer experiences in the city can help us build a more inclusive city after the pandemic. Dr. Catherine Nash has said that the “post-mo,” that’s post-modern, “generation is less interested in (or does not frequent as often), Toronto’s traditional gay Village and is utilizing alternative urban spaces in ways that rework the gendered and sexualized meanings of those locations and suggests transformative processes are underway for LGBT social, political and economic life in Toronto.” At the School of Cities, we know from our everyday work that Toronto is rapidly changing, for better and for worse. The lessons of shifting queer lifeforms that work across the city are often unseen and we hope to learn more about the implications of this for the city today, and how this can be mobilized to better urbanism today.