Over the past three years, the Queer Print Project (QPP) has used screen printing – a medium rich in political history – as a catalyst to create safe(r) spaces for Guelph’s queer communities to gather, reflect, and connect. Through multi-week workshops, 2SLGBTQIA+ participants explore their identities and share their collective and individual experiences, hopes, and struggles, while learning print fundamentals. Recent QPP workshop series have culminated in the production of screen-printed t-shirts that function as forms of everyday armor and resilience in the pursuit of queer liberation and safety, particularly amid rising anti-queer policy, rhetoric, and systemic violence.

The Queer Print Project was founded by Anna Gaby-Trotz and is co-facilitated by Jude Akrey and Maeve Hind with technical support from Addison Ali. QPP gratefully acknowledges the community partners who have supported this project over the years: the University of Guelph’s School of Fine Art and Music, the University of Guelph’s Equity and Diversity Enhancement Fund, the City of Guelph’s Equity in Action Fund, Art Not Shame, the Art Gallery of Guelph, and PS Guelph. Body Language is organized and presented by the Art Gallery of Guelph with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.