Hintonburg’s The Grove began as a pilot project for queer creatives in 2023.
The results are in now, say the founders of the space, and they’re hopeful the studio’s recent move to Centretown will bring further success and greater demand from Ottawa’s 2SLGBTQ+ population.
As queer culture blossoms across the city, there is a lack of dedicated spaces representing the community’s diverse needs and interests.
That’s one of the reasons Hingman Leung and Adrienne Row-Smith created The Grove. After it opened in October 2023, the studio space became a safe haven that nurtured creativity and mindfulness for queer community members.
“Growing up, there weren’t a lot of places I felt comfortable, whether it was because of the vibe or the kind of people or activities,” said Leung.
Now, she curates events such as speed-friending and speed-dating, Queer Club Friday, art workshops and dance parties for people who don’t subscribe to mainstream queer party culture.
The partners also collaborate with others to provide a spectrum of weekly programs.
“We want people to use the space as a launching pad for their ideas and to learn from each other,” Leung said.
In addition to their creative inclinations, she noted The Grove’s circle is very mindful of everyone’s different needs, which provides an added layer of comfort. The Grove is also a COVID-safer and sober space that prioritizes flexible pricing.
Row-Smith says their ethos is the antithesis of a business, though, because it’s not profit-driven.
But late last year, The Grove grappled with possible closure in the face of an unaffordable rent hike.
Rather than closing, the partners pivoted, packed up the Hintonburg nook and moved a short distance east.
In the final week of December, they settled into a bright and breezy second-floor unit in a building off Gladstone Avenue and Louisa Street, which is expected to house the studio for another three years.
Homo Phono co-organizer Shelley Taylor says she couldn’t be happier about the move.
Taylor and her partner Tasha Coldevin, also known as DJ del Pilar, curate music for accessible queer and trans gatherings. Over the summer, their first dance party at The Grove was met with an eager, masked and sober crowd overflowing onto the sidewalks.
Like The Grove’s mandate, Taylor says Homo Phono’s model “is to work collaboratively with organizations to work against isolation for queer and trans folks.”
Some of the less-common strategies within her holistic approach to creating safer spaces include masking and air filters, sobriety and buddy systems which are most common when people are nervous at an event or about to commute home.
She says this is especially impactful for people who can’t participate in mainstream activities because of illness, lifestyle or physical and mental disorders.
In 2023, the journal Frontiers in Public Health published a study that showed queer people experienced mood or anxiety disorders, or depression at twice the rate of the overall population. It also found that gay and bisexual men had higher rates of anal and genital cancers and that lesbian and bisexual women had higher engagement in binge eating behaviours, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis.
“There’s been a lot of work over the last decades to get to where we are. I think there’s a real possibility of that being rolled back, and in order to protect people, we need to keep these safe spaces.”
— Josephine Nielsen, host of crafting socials at The Grove
That’s why Ottawa resident Josephine Nielsen says: “It doesn’t hurt anyone to wear a mask, whereas it does hurt people to say you don’t have to wear a mask.”
As someone who says she’s never quite fit into queer spaces, Nielsen said she’s proud that the community she’s built with her monthly crafting socials at The Grove is so accommodating of various needs and interests.
Now, she’s worried about the implications of the current political landscape on marginalized communities.
The growing anti-queer movement and attempts to erase gender and sexual diversity by prominent political figures — particularly new U.S. President Donald Trump, who issued an executive order in January declaring there are only “two sexes” — have fuelled safety concerns for the 2SLGBTQ+ population across North America.
“There’s been a lot of work over the last decades to get to where we are. I think there’s a real possibility of that being rolled back, and in order to protect people, we need to keep these safe spaces,” she said.
“We’re not forcing you to come. If you don’t want to support that space, that’s up to you, but there’s a clear segment of the population that needs the space.”
