Queerly Yours 2025 Recap
Posted on May 21, 2026
Our first Queerly Yours was held in March of 2025 - just a virtual community art hang and a dream. We came together to work with collage and the theme of Queerness.
In May of 2025, InnerSpace Art Therapy studio agreed to host us - Woooo! We hosted our first in-person Queerly Yours with guest facilitator, Tyler, demonstrating intentional and mindful illustration practices. We also hosted an in-person collage where we explored Queer celebration!
Zine-Making with J
J. Avolio is a multidisciplinary artist who focuses on brand and packaging design, community organizing, zine-making, and writing. They facilitated a guided activity on making your own zine that also included discussion around creative ideation, medium possibilities, zine formats, community events, and selling your art.
Knitting & Wool 101 with Leah
Leah facilitated the perfect starting point for the fibre curious - we learned about knit, spin, stitch and crochet, fibre types, techniques, how to pick the perfect colours, and many of us learned how to knit and spin on a drop spindle!
Polymer Clay & Harm Reduction with Kat
Kat is a local, Autistic/ADHD Queer artist who loves experimenting with many modalities - their favourite being polymer clay! Kat shared their experiences with intentional art-making as a way that they have learned to regulate themself as a Neurodivergent person, and how art-making has saved their life.
For this Queerly Yours, Kat demo’ed and walked us through making our own mini Naloxone kits while we learned about Harm Reduction.
We were able to collaborate with SOPEN (Substance Overdose Prevention and Education Network) to have Naloxone and harm reduction supplies available at the event (as well as Naloxone trainings for anyone who was interested). We donated all of the proceeds from the event to SOPEN to go towards continuing all of the amazing work that they do for the Hamilton community.
Vocal Lesson with Deanna
Deanna is a local singer-songwriter who has been teaching piano and voice lessons for over 10 years. She is also the facilitator of Heretical Happy Hour (HHH) hosted out of Stardust Co-Operative. HHH is a support group for folks working with adverse and / or traumatic religious-related experiences.
We learned about body awareness and posture, the breathing basics, vocal warm-ups, pitch matching and ear training, group song learning, cool downs. We got to play vocal-related games, and Deanna even got us to harmonize and sing The Middle-Jimmy Eat World together.
Illustration & Trans Supply Library with Kat
Kat is a tattooer and person-about-town. They are a big fan of community building, and your pet specifically. They lead us through a smorgasbord of drawing beyond the standard square, two-dimensional confines.
This Queerly Yours, as promised by Kat, was deeply unserious, playful, free-form art-making time - and we absolutely loved it!
Kat runs the Hamilton Trans Supply Library, and so, we were able to learn more about this life-saving resource. All proceeds from this Queerly Yours were donated to the Trans Supply Library.
Calming Calligraphy with Hannah
Hannah led us through grounding exercises where we practiced at art of zooming in and focusing on simple motions to facilitate mindfulness. We learned about the art of calligraphy and experimented with various mark-making tools.
Art & Emotions with Alex
Alex has been an artist their entire life, and they firmly believe that “being good at art” isn’t supposed to be the point of creating art. During this Queerly Yours, we discussed how art-making can be so many things, regardless of skill level: an outlet for expression, an exercise in patience, or an avenue for self-exploration. Alex shared their own experiences and journey of art-making and creative acts both big and small as a major way that they show up for their inner child through play.
We learned about low-barrier creative acts while playing with a gorgeous buffet of art supplies. Alex shared some prompts designed to help us explore and work with emotions.
Self-Harm & Art with Finnick
Finnick’s offering gave us a space to get together and learn about ways one can use art to work with self-harm urges and alternatives with a focus on experiences impacted by minority stress and transphobia. Finnick is a peer-support worker with Stardust Co-operative and an Trans activist within the Hamilton community. We were able to facilitate meaningful and safe( r ) discussions around self-harm, as well as share information, resources and strategies that have been helpful for folks. Finnick shared their own experiences, and facilitated an art-making journey in creating our own drag personas as a way of conjuring our own inner strengths and protectors.
Tarot & Spirituality with Victor
Victor is a Psychic Witch who offered the group the opportunity to play with a variety of tarot & oracle decks. This offering was a safe and inclusive space for people of all walks of life to come and bare witness to the energetic influence and connection that they hold in this world. Victor was able to gently guide us to our own inner wisdom and clarity through our own innate darkness, encourage faith in the inherent strength of our own heart and intuition, and provide a sense of understanding and autonomy in the roles we play here.
Print-making & Motifs with Andrea
We explored South Asian block printing with Andrea - she taught us about the history of South Asian block printing, storytelling through motifs, and using this art-form as a way to embrace imperfection. We made tote bags, we listened to Bollywood music, and Andrea gifted us with the opportunity to use some of her lovely print-making wood blocks.
Junk Journalling with All Out Collective
We collabed with Hamilton’s All Out Collective to host a community junk-journalling event held at the Art Gallery of Hamilton!
Attendees were invited to bring some type of art-making material (we used this term loosely) to contribute to the collective art-making material pile which we would all be able to take from. Examples included, but were not limited to: envelopes and stamps, stickers, scrap paper, old study notes, board game cards, beads and bedazzle jewels, and pressed flowers.
This event was free to the public, and we were able to collect donations for All Out Collective to go towards their True Colours Club.
Working Out The Kinks & Collage with Brooke
Brooke is a queer, trans, polyamorous, and kinky social worker trained in sex therapy, committed to creating safer spaces where people can show up authentically and without shame. They facilitated a lovely, inclusive and safe( r ) event where we worked with collage while discussing all this kink and sexuality. We played a fun game of Dog Toy or Sex Toy?, and were given take-home Yes/No/Maybe lists for more information and exploration on desires and boundaries. This was a lovely space to ask questions, share insights, and connect with others in an open, supportive environment.
Brooke helped to facilitate time and space where we were able to collectively honour the beauty of queer sexuality, celebrate pleasure as an art form, and make room for honest conversations that often stay in the shadows.
Kintsugi-inspired Journey with Laken
Laken is an art therapist dedicated to providing a warm, compassionate, and judgment-free space where people can show up exactly as they are. Through this practice heavily inspired by and pulling from the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi—mending broken pottery with gold—, we were able to reflect and explore resilience, self-worth, and the beauty in our stories.
Quite literally, we broke, mended and transformed our own ceramic pieces. This creative process translated to metaphors mirroring healing, reclaiming identity, and embracing the parts of ourselves that have been shaped by challenge and growth.
Spotted @ Queerly Yours:
Delicious snacks and beverages
Warm, soothing tea options
Fun mugs…so many fun mugs
Our (toolbox) zine library
STICKERS!! Everyone loves stickers
So many art supplies
Quiet rooms, in case you need a break
FIDGETS (we love a good fidget)
Amazing resources and information sharing
Really cool and kind humans