Nico Mara-McKay

Project Management | Strategic Storytelling | Community Engagement

Nico Mara-McKay

Project Management | Strategic Storytelling | Community Engagement

ExhibitionsFeatured

New digital exhibition at The ArQuives

In 2023, I was hired by The ArQuives to coordinate a large capacity-building project, and part of that work involved community consultations across the country, as well hosting online consultations, and meeting one-on-one with folks from coast to coast to coast.

During the in-person sessions in February and March 2025, participants created zine pages representing their communities in Ottawa, Montréal, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Fredericton, Halifax, and St. John’s. These pages were later assembled into community zines for each city and are now available in this digital exhibition in both English and French.

These zines present a vibrant portrait of queer and trans life across Canada today, reflecting both local creativity and a shared commitment to preserving and celebrating these stories.

The zines are freely available for download in two formats: a print-ready booklet you can print and fold into a physical zine, and a digital layout designed for easy reading on screen.

I hope you enjoy them!

Covers and pages from a few of the zines

Nico Mara-McKay

Nico Mara-McKay (they/iel) is a historian, writer, editor, and occasional curator whose work focuses on histories of gender and sexuality through lenses of embodiment and identity. They write about queer and trans history, culture, and community ephemeralrecord.com, and share updates on Bluesky @nicomaramckay.com.