After Dark: Unfolding Queer Nightlife in Kelowna

Abstract

After Dark: Unfolding Queer Nightlife in Kelowna is a mapping project that has reimagined queer nightlife in Kelowna as a relational and embodied experience rather than specifically locational. This work moves beyond simple analysis to draw on queer geographic theory to examine how Kelowna's nightlife has developed alongside exclusion, negotiation and partial visibility. This project unfolds queer nightlife across time, tracing its movements from underground and hidden spaces to more visible forms. It understands queer spaces as produced through spatial relations that shape exclusion and belonging.  This map highlights the ways in which access remains uneven and so often privileges able-bodiedness and cisnormativity. Incorporating my personal reflections, this paper examines positions mapping as a reflexive and feminist practice that helps to highlight what is both visible and overlooked. Through decolonial practices and perspectives, I recognize that queer mapping occurs on colonized lands that are still in conflict with ongoing power structures. Overall, this project aims to display both the critique and possibility of queer mapping, tracing how nightlife in this city has continued to unfold with the potential of a future with more inclusive power structures.