Book Launch: I Remember Lights

with Ben Ladouceur

Hosted by David Currie

In Person Streaming Fiction Free
Date
General Admission
Free
Date
Tuesday
Apr , 2025
22
7:30pm
Eastern
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street • Ottawa
Book Launch: I Remember Lights
Ben Ladouceur

Without shying away from the realities of injustice, both history-making violence and insidious, everyday cruelties, this remains a book suffused with tenderness, radiant with hope, a beautiful reminder of what the fight for queer liberation is fighting for... I loved it with my whole heart.

Kim Fu

Presented with Library and Archives Canada.

 

PLEASE NOTE: Free Tickets are available to attend in-person. This event will also Livestream from this page.

 

We are thrilled to be launching the first novel from award-winning poet Ben Ladouceur. I Remember Lights depicts a time when the world promised everything to everyone, however irresponsibly.

 

In summer 1967, love is all you need…but some forms of love are criminal. As the spectacular Expo 67 celebrations take shape, a young man new to Montreal learns about gay life from cruising partners, one-night stands, live-in lovers, and friends. Once Expo begins, he finds romance with a charismatic visitor, but their time is limited. When the fireworks wither into smoke, so do their options.

 

A decade later, during the notorious 1977 police raid on a gay bar called Truxx, he comes to understand even more about the bitter choice, so often made by men like him, between happiness and safety.

 

I Remember Lights is a vital reminder of forgotten history and a visceral exploration of the details of queer life: tribulation and joy, exile and solidarity, cruelty and fortitude.

 

 

Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.

 

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The Authors