EngiQueers and Degroote Pride's karaoke night builds community through music and laughter for a smooth transition from the holidays into the semester
The McMaster EngiQueers and DeGroote Pride Association collaborated to host Divas & Icons karaoke night on Jan. 10, 2025. The event took place from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. at Emerson 109 Bar where students gathered for karaoke, drinks and food.
Rachel Ord, vice-president social of McMaster EngiQueers, discussed the club's role at McMaster. "Our main goal is to provide a safe space and a welcoming community for queer engineering students. And that involves doing things like outreach activities, fundraisers and planning social events for our community members," said Ord.
Ord shared that the motivation behind hosting a karaoke night was to connect the queer community. "Karaoke or lip syncing to something and dancing and singing to those sorts of songs is a big thing in the queer community, at least with drag race and that sort of thing. So that's where the divas and icons theme came from. You find a lot of queer culture surrounds singing and dancing and performing a lot of self-expression," said Ord.
This unique collaboration was prompted by the DeGroote Pride Association, a new club looking to connect with established groups.
"Being a relatively new club they had a lot of great ideas and they were reaching out to a variety of equity clubs on campus. And so we thought it would be a great idea to collab just because I know that engineering and business isn't something that we see collaborations happen with often. But there's a lot of potential there with people coming together and enjoying themselves," said Ord.
And so we thought it would be a great idea to collab just because I know that engineering and business isn't something that we see collaborations happen with often. But there's a lot of potential there with people coming together and enjoying themselves.
Rachel Ord, Vice-President Social
McMaster EngiQueers
The event allowed attendees to signup to perform a song of their choice by themselves or with a group on stage throughout the entire night. Guests were also able to order food and drinks were available at the bar.
"We do actually have custom drinks available during the evening that are based off of various queer themes . . . it's something that Emerson 109 offers, which is a lot of fun, because it adds like a little extra thing to the event that you wouldn't otherwise get," said Ord.
New students were welcomed at the event as it was a great opportunity to connect with other people and club members. "All the EngiQueer execs are always ready to look out for people who are perhaps sitting alone and provide a welcoming vibe for everybody involved," said Ord.
Ord discussed the importance of creating spaces through fun events like a karaoke night.
"Because when you see people running events like this, like evening events and especially kind of in club atmospheres, as a queer person, you're not always sure that that's someplace you'll be welcomed at . . . I think the importance of creating these spaces kind of speaks to what these spaces can produce, which is friendships and lifelong relationships between other queer students and other members of the queer community," said Ord.
Because when you see people running events like this, like evening events and especially kind of in club atmospheres, as a queer person, you're not always sure that that's someplace you'll be welcomed at.
Rachel Ord, Vice-President Social
McMaster EngiQueers
Looking ahead, Ord discussed the importance of creating queer-friendly spaces for students at McMaster. "Not speaking from a club perspective but speaking from a business perspective, hosting events like this shows that you, as a company or an event space, are willing to support their community and are willing to put effort into creating safe spaces for queer individuals," said Ord.
Ord strongly encouraged students to get involved and engage with people in their own communities at least once before graduating. "You never know what connections you can make and you never know the people you can meet and you never know what you can learn from that and how you can grow from that," said Ord.
Check out McMaster EngiQueers and DeGroote Pride Association on Instagram to stay tuned for more engaging events!
From the creator of Mixed in Hamilton, Fruit Salad Hamilton is creating space for queer folk all year round
Community forms a core part of many of our support systems. It’s the places and the people who make us feel seen and welcome. It’s the places and the people where we feel we can be our authentic selves.
However, often times these spaces can be difficult to find. Sarah Barnhart has made it her job to create such spaces and help people to find their community, first with her work on Mixed in Hamilton and now with Fruit Salad Hamilton.
Inspired by an event she attended in Montreal, Barnhart started Fruit Salad Hamilton in 2021 looking to create more spaces for the lesbian, femme and gender non-conforming folks in Hamilton.
"Hamilton has a massive queer community and also a lot of people, especially women and femmes found themselves coming out in the pandemic and then really having no idea how to make friends, meet community [or] where to go. And then this space was available so I’ve had lots of people come and sort of say this is my first queer event, I just came out in the pandemic . . . and now there’s this space where I can do that and people who are also kind of in the same situation and build community,” explained Barnhart.
Through Fruit Salad, Barnhart has largely been organizing dance parties, including the city’s first queer prom. So far, the reception has been overwhelming positive. The happiness and excitement from the community is apparent in all the photos from the events.
"It makes me really emotional to see people experiencing queer joy . . . There’s just a lot of happiness and kind of euphoria around being allowed and welcomed into community and I’m hoping to [continue to] create that space for other people,” Barnhart said.
It makes me really emotional to see people experiencing queer joy . . . There’s just a lot of happiness and kind of euphoria around being allowed and welcomed into community and I’m hoping to [continue to] create that space for other people.
Sarah Barnhart, Founder of Fruit Salad Hamilton
Fostering this feeling is at the heart of Barnhart’s work. It’s important to her everyone feels welcome and seen in the spaces she’s creating, from people who questioning or still figuring out their identy to those who’ve known who they are forever and everyone in between.
“I’m hoping that they can see themselves represented. There’s not only one way to identify as queer or gay or lesbian or whatever the way you identify. I’m hoping that people like walk away with a sense of community . . . that’s the thing I hope people find the most is like a sense of belonging, community [and] connection,” explained Barnhart.
Barnhart also encouraged students consider coming out to future events.
"Especially if you’re new to your post-secondary education, maybe you’re newly out, maybe you’ve left home and now you have this opportunity to explore your identity [and] I think that’s a perfect reason to come out to an event.”
Going forward, Barnhart is hoping to also expand into doing more low key events, such as poetry readings.
"[I want to] have more events that out-side of just the dance party vibe because that isn’t for everyone . . . I love that we keep being able to create spaces for people to be queer all year,” said Barnhart.
C/O Mike Highfield
Nim Agalawatte introduces Sounds Gay!, a new queer-dedicated musical space
It is no secret the city of Hamilton lacks dedicated queer spaces. The 2018 assessment of Hamilton’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community, Mapping the Void, found many did not feel a strong sense of queer belongingness in the city and wanted to see more initiatives.
In the early 2000s and mid-2010s, the Hamilton core was home to several gay bars: The Embassy, The Werx, Rainbow Lounge, M Bar, The Windsor and The Steel Lounge. However, all of them have since closed their doors.
To help fill the void, new queer-focused spaces have been slowly appearing in the past few years, including Queer Outta Hamilton, House of Adam and Steve and Fruit Salad.
One of the latest queer-friendly spaces in the city is Sounds Gay!, a live music performance event hosted by Nim Agalawatte, which had its first event in November 2021 and second in December 2021.
Sounds Gay! aims to fill a gap in the current queer space landscape. There is no denying gay bars and nightclubs play an integral role in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Historically, these places served as safe havens for queer individuals. However, it is also important to recognize the need for more low-pressure inclusive spaces.
“The main reason I started [Sounds Gay!] was I was noticing a lot of queer events were focused on dancing or drag shows and it wasn’t very much like music performance stuff,”
Nim Agalawatte
Agalawatte is a Hamilton-based musician, bassist and synth player for the Basement Revolver, 2SLGBTQIA+ advocate and member of the Hamilton Music Advisory Team. They became more aware of the gap after performing as part of Hamilton Pride last year and being one of two non-drag performances.
The positive response to both events of Sounds Gay! reaffirmed the need for diverse queer spaces. Attendees appreciated the friendliness and how welcoming the space was. Tickets were made more accessible as well by using a sliding scale ticket system. Upcoming Sounds Gay! dates have not been planned yet due to the rise in COVID-19 cases, however, Agalawatte is looking forward to continuing them this year.
For Agalawatte, not only was their opportunity to perform affected by the pandemic, but they also lost an important part of their support system.
“A lot of months, I’ve been out of work which kind of does two things: one, not having my regular schedule and things I’m often working on and two, not being able to be around people who often gives you drive and support. I’ve definitely felt down periods and found it hard to motivate myself to work on music,” said Agalawatte.
However, they noted interesting opportunities and new forms of community also arose out of the lockdowns and the pandemic. Agalawatte was able to work on new music remotely with Shanika Maria, queer Black singer-songwriter, for her new recording project Shn Shn. Digital spaces have also become a new place of community gathering.
“I find there has been a light within the pandemic where people, because they’ve been extra lonely or maybe feel more isolated, have found newer forms of community. There [are] a lot of people reaching out on social media or finding each other through the internet and musicians from different parts of the country are also quite connected,” said Agalawatte.
While continuing to create more safe queer events in Hamilton through Sounds Gay!, Agalawatte hopes to support new musicians in Hamilton and open opportunities for those who have not had access to a comfortable and safe stage. Currently, they are promoting their band’s latest album, Embody, and continuing to work on their solo music as well.
