Stories

What are you looking for?

Filter stories

  • Hot Wheelz lip syncs on stage in a seven-pointed mask with many eyes, which obscures their own eyes.

    Hot Wheelz: Raising a Middle Finger and Building World Class, Accessible Drag

    Kels Valenzuela Delamarter

    Hot Wheelz is a drag artist and self-described “disabled genderqueer monster.” They are widely celebrated as one of the first ambulatory wheelchair users to join the Edmonton drag scene. In this addition to ECAMP’s labour history series, author Kels Valenzuela Delamarter tells the story of their rise, deliciously macabre costuming, and goal “to turn the corporate ladder into a ramp.”

  • Tessie Oliva, a young Filipina woman, pictured in a nursing school graduation photo wearing a 1960s white nursing uniform.

    “She Can Move Mountains”: Tessie Oliva’s Impact on the Nursing Sector in Edmonton

    Giselle General

    In 2020, Giselle General discovered a museum exhibit honouring Tessie Oliva, a pioneering Filipino-Canadian nurse who supported immigrant nurses in Alberta. Oliva’s decades of work included founding the Filipino Nurses Association in Alberta, advocating for Internationally Educated Nurses, organizing large-scale recruitment from the Philippines, and fighting for permanent residency for newcomers—cementing her legacy in Edmonton’s healthcare and immigrant communities.