Noah Powers
Noah grew up in Toronto and moved to Montreal to attend McGill University, where he is graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Urban Systems Geography. He is passionate about the intersection of urban planning and sustainability, and aspires to work in a sustainable planning/architectural consultancy firm or think-tank. Noah is currently attending the London School of Economics for their MSc in City Design and Social Science.
Partner: Our Place Sustainable Developments
Policy Brief: A Strategy for Heritage Preservation of 2SLGBTQ+ Spaces
Final Report: Investigating the Decline and Preservation of Queer Spaces
Queer spaces are sites of community building and activism and work to create a sense of belonging amongst people with 2SLGBTQ+ identities. Over the past few decades, threats to the existence of queer spaces have initiated their decline and prompted fears of their eventual disappearance. This report identifies three main factors influencing the decline of queer spaces: the ubiquity of technology replacing the need for physical queer spaces, the ‘super-gentrification’ of physical queer communities, and the rising acceptance of 2SLGBTQ+ identities in urban areas around the world. Further, this report investigates the usage of heritage preservation and queer-focused urban policies to preserve historic queer spaces and protect extant queer spaces from these threatening factors. Overall, this report aims to educate policy-makers and other relevant actors of the continued importance of queer spaces to 2SLGBTQ+ communities and provide recommendations to safeguard these spaces for future generations of 2SLGBTQ+ people.
Keywords: queer space, 2SLGBTQ+, urban policy, social isolation, technology, Grindr, gentrification, urban studies, heritage preservation, queer history
Photojournal
In addition to the final report, Noah produced a photojournal, Cataloguing Queer Spaces in Montreal, which explores existing and revamped queer spaces in Montreal.
Community Engagement Initiative: Queer Here, Queer There Podcast
As part of his outreach, Noah produced a podcast titled ‘Queer Here, Queer There’ with the goal of making his research more accessible to the wider community. Click below to listen to the episodes: