Stockholm -- Tupilak (Nordic rainbow culture workers) and ILGCN (international rainbow culture network) had an usual five seminars this time at Stockholm Pride in the first week of August, 2023 -- 3 at Pride House at Clarion Hotel, 2 at Pride in the City including at a friendly Gamla Stan hotel after the rain washed out plans for a planned open-air café.
The Tupilak/ILGCN seminars covered LGBT history, the power of LGBT culture, the work of the International Commitee on LGBT History Months and the Nordic campaign to establish LGBT monuments in this region as well as the rest of the world -- with a congratulations to Gothenburg to unveal this November the first permant LGBT monument in the Nordic zone.
Other seminar discussions covered Nordic rainbow co-operation and solidarity over the years with colleagues in Eastern Europe and beyond. All 5 seminars included rainbow art and photography from the Tupilak/ILGCN collection from over 70 nations and film screenings from Sweden, the Nordic region, Canada, the U.S., the UK and from the UN short film series, "Free and Equal.".
Awards to UK/South Africa, to a Swedish Theater Company
Award diplomas handed out during the week at Pride in the City events went to South African/British movemaker, Melanie Chait (via Zoom), honored for her moving documentary of her partner's last years of life and struggle with breast cancer in "Dance Me to the End of Time."
And -- in person -- to the Swedish theater company, Katakombe, for their powerful music/song/drama, "Jag vill Ju Bara Leva (I Just Want to Live)" portraying the fate of three individuals destroyed by the Nazi regime -- a Jewish woman, a gay man, and a female dissident activist. The company is now planning performances in Malmö, Uppsala and returning to Stockholm.
The Stockholm Pride House this year had a large number of seminars with foreign invited guests dedicated to international solidarity -- focusing on Iran, Russia, Ukraine, Asian nations, Turkey and the Balkan nations of Albania, Serbia and Montenegro.
Future Tupilak/ILGCN events
The next planned events will be film screenings and discussion of LGBT history at the Roslagens Pride in Norrtälje on August 21/22 -- with the film award going to Viktor Mörk of the Warsaw LGBT Film Festival, a Spanish-language culture and history event on September 15 with award diplomas (via Zoom) to two gay Spanish artists and with a report on the Cuban LGBT History Month (via Zoom), in Stockholm at the Cervantes Institute.
Then the October Nordic Rainbow History and Culture Month (shared with Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark) -- with discussions, performances, art exhibits, film screenings and input from Romania, Canada, Hungary, Japan, U.S. and Cuba.
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| Melanie and Dance me to the End of Time |
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| Katakombe Poster |
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| Katakombe award ceremony with actor Stefan Clarin, text writer Emma Broström, producer Martin Johansson, and friends and supporters |
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| Melanie Chait |
