QUANI 2 Cabaret
Thursday, October 23, 2008 @ 7:30 p.m.
Tickets $15.00 at the door
For info call 647-300-2383 or email crowningmonkey@yahoo.ca
QUANI is an ECLECTIC CABARET to raise funds for WOMEN in Kenya. This evening of creative expression is hosted by AWARD WINNING Comedienne Rachelle Elie and features the musical talents of Eden Hertzog, Brian MacMillan, Luke Jackson, former Cirque du Soleil Clown Helen Donnelly, “Winking Circle” Filmmaker Benny Zenga and Ethiopian Dance Group Manding Folu Kan Don with Mohammed Diaby.
Rachelle is a local comedienne and painter who lives in Toronto with her obstetrician husband and two kids. The idea for QUANI CABARET came when Rachelle’s three-month humanitarian trip to Kenya with her family was cancelled because of political turmoil and violence in the once stable country. Once this occurred, Rachelle wanted to act. Having organized ten successful cabarets at The Rivoli, Drake Hotel and Holy Joe’s it seemed natural for her to assemble a group of wonderfully talented Toronto performers to help bring some relief to the East African nation. This will be her second fundraising CABARET for Kenya relief. All proceeds will benefit ASANTE-Reproductive Health.A dynamic and original performer, Rachelle Elie has been developing her unique vision of contemporary society for over ten years. Her recent one woman show JOE: The Perfect Man won a OUSTANDING COMEDY AWARD at The Ottawa Fringe festival and was described in EYE Magazine as “some of the most fun you’ll have in a theatre all year.” This acclaimed comedian has been showcased on The Comedy Network and The Women’s Television Network
CROSS-POLLINATIONS
Photography and Social Change in the Americas
A Retrospective by Deborah Barndt, Photographer/Educator
September 30 - October 20
Opening October 2, 7-10 pm
Cross-Pollinations traces four key moments in the evolution of Deborah’s photographic work – from creating foto-novelas and Freirean codes for literacy classes in Peru in the 1970s to making photo-stories and posters for ESL classes in Toronto in the 1980s, from teaching popular photo-journalism to adult educators in Nicaragua in the 1980s to coordinating collective photo-story production in the Moment Project in Toronto into the 1990s. While the educational contexts vary, they are all aimed at developing people’s awareness and activism; cameras and photographs are creative tools that encourage people to tell their own stories, to create their own images, to make their own history.
The exhibit combines strong black-and-white portraits of people in these four contexts with images of the participatory photographic processes Deborah has pioneered, cross-pollinating practices from the south to the north and back again. Samples of educational materials produced in each context are also on display to stimulate the use of photos in both formal and non-formal education.
This is the first of a series of mini-retrospectives of Deborah Barndt’s photographic work, focusing on cultural production and social movements. The opening evening will have a presentation by Deborah as well as music by Heather Chetwynd and Marcelo Puente. Cash bar.
Silent auction in benefit of the Community Arts Practice Program at York University.
Self Cynic is an alt-folk rock act that’s rotating line-up challenges what it means to be a band. With its collection of upbeat songs, open instrumentation, and powerfully introspective vocals, Self Cynic is an evolving experiment that aims to demonstrate that the song will communicate its character despite the performing arrangement. Though generally a five-member effort, Self Cynic has performed in numerous forms with varying arrangements and (to-date) has involved contributions by over a dozen musicians from both Canada and the U.S.A.
"Arun Pal oozes talent", "Arun is just as engaging a singer and piano player as he is as a percussionist" (Michael Barclay), "To say Arun Pal is prodigiously talented is an understatement" (Errol Nazareth - CBC Radio 1).
Arun’s range as a writer and performer is opening doors as his career grows in every aspect. He is an accomplished singer/songwriter (4 full band-solo albums), has just released a new music video and as an engineer/producer/performer has contributed to over 40 albums of almost every musical style.
Arun has also collaborated with the most revered modern dance choreographers in Canada both as an accompanist and composer. As a result, Arun was recently commissioned to create a work for the world renowned Penderecki String Quartet.
Arun has the ability to be the highly energetic front man in his 5 piece band or perform solo while doing everything from the intimate singer/songwriter vibe to playing piano, drums and singing at the same time. He is also regarded as one of the most versatile, original and skilled drummers in Canada.
FREE SPEECH
Tuesday, November 18 About the artists:
Mary Jo Leddy is a Canadian writer, speaker, theologian and social activist. She lives in and leads the Romero House community for refugees, which she helped found in 1990. After thirty years, as a member of the Roman Catholic Sisters of Our Lady of Sion, she left that congregation in 1994. Leddy teaches theology at Regis College, in the University of Toronto's School of Theology, and has written several other books including At the Border Called Hope (which was a finalist for the Trillium Award) and the best-selling Radical Gratitude. She received the Ontario Citizenship Award in 1993 and the Order of Canada in 1996.
Kathleen Phillips is a founding member of the Laugh Sabbath Comedy Series at the Rivoli and has performed at comedy venues in Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, London, and San Francisco. This fall she's starring in the Comedy Network's new series, "House Party." In addition to chuckles, Kathleen is also a member of "Cow-Over Moon Children's Theatre Co." and hosts a reading series called, "Super Pen Pals Secret Reading Society." In Now Magazine' s "Best of T.O. 2008" she was named Toronto's best character comic.
Jeff Latosik has been living and writing in the Parkdale area for two years. He would like to give a shout out to the Film Buff, the High Park Library, Pharma Plus, and No Frills. If these places had magazines, he would make it his life's goal to publish his poetry in them. He would like to suggest that these places should start their own literary journals. The No Frills one could be called "Okay, Frills, but only in meter." Jeff thinks that Parkdale is awesome.
Paul MacDougall is a born-and-raised Toronto musician. He started his musical journey in St. Michael's Boys' Choir and studied jazz guitar at Humber College. As a member of JUNO-nominated Toronto band Mr. Something Something, he has recorded three albums and toured from coast to coast over the past five years. He is also one of the driving forces behind The DoneFors, whose debut album will be released in February 2009. Paul has played with many of Canada's most exciting up-and-coming jazz musicians and songwriters. His inventive and evocative guitar playing is turning him into a sought after session player, and he appears on numerous albums. Paul first solo album has been in the works since 1997 and he claims that it will be released in 2019.
Tuesday, October 21About the artists:
Russell Smith is the author of six works of fiction. A well-known journalist and cultural commentator, he writes the weekly "Virtual Culture" column, on issues of representation, in The Globe and Mail. His first non-fiction book, Men's Style: The Thinking Man's Guide to Dress, was published in Canada in 2005 and in the U.S. in 2007. In 2003 he published a book of pornographic fiction under the pseudonym "Diane Savage". That novella, Diana: A Diary In The Second Person has just been reprinted, with a new introduction by the author, under Russell Smith's name. In 2006-2007 he was the host of the popular CBC Radio One weekly program on language, And Sometimes Y. He is currently the editor of the online men's magazine XYYZ.ca.
www.russellsmith.ca
James Loney is a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams and has served on violence-reduction projects in Iraq, the West Bank, the First Nations communities of Esgenoopetij (Burnt Church, NB), Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows, ON), Kenora and Ardoch, ON, and as CPT's Canada program coordinator. In November of 2005 he was kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents and held for 118 days before being rescued by British and American forces. He was a founding member of a Toronto Catholic Worker house of hospitality and lived in community with formerly homeless people for 10 years. He has also been a cook, sawyer, baker, maintenance worker and volunteer community mediator. He is currently working on a book about his experiences in Iraq.
Kathleen Phillips originally trained as a stage actor before making the switch to comedy in 2003. Her popular character monologues and videos were rewarded with a 2005 nomination for Canada's prestigious Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award for emerging comedians. Outside of Canada, Kathleen has made triumphant appearances at top comedy venues in New York, Los Angeles and, most recently, London, England. Her writing has appeared on Canadian television, radio and in the theatre. Kathleen is a founding member of Toronto's Laugh Sabbath comedy series.
Coco Love Alcorn: As a songwriter and vocalist, Coco effortlessly embraces her diverse musical influences—jazz, pop, r&b and folk—melding them seamlessly into her own distinctive and compelling sound. She has crisscrossed Canada numerous times, played many music festivals (including Lilith Fair), made countless tv and radio appearances, enjoyed much success in the realm of licensing songs to TV and film and has appeared on close to 50 albums. The long list of artists she's toured or recorded with include 54 40, Ani DiFranco, Burton Cummings, Chantal Kreviazuk, Jesse Cooke & Loudon Wainwright III. Coco's new album will be released in the winter of 2009.
www.cocolovealcorn.com
Tuesday, September 23
7pm. Show at 7:30pm sharp. PWYC.
About the artists:
Paul Vermeersch is a poet and editor. Born in Mississauga in 1973, he grew up on the shores of Lake Huron, in southwestern Ontario, studied at the University of Western Ontario, and taught at the English Language Teachers' Training College of Słupsk in Poland. He was the founder of The I.V. Lounge Reading Series and editor of The I.V. Lounge Reader anthology (Insomniac Press, 2001). He has written the poetry collections Burn(ECW Press, 2000), which earned him a place among the finalists for the 2001 Gerald Lampert Award, The Fat Kid (ECW Press, 2002), and most recently, Between the Walls (McClelland & Stewart, 2005). His next collection of poems, The Reinvention of the Human Hand, is forthcoming from McClelland & Stewart in spring 2010. He lives in Toronto, teaches at Sheridan College, and is poetry editor for Insomniac Press.
www.paulvermeersch.blogspot.com
Robert Everett-Green grew up in Alberta, famous for its dinosaurs. On a recent visit, he was surprised to find these great beasts stampeding through the tar sands.
He has had short fiction published in Geist and Queen's Quarterly, is working on a novel, and writes about music and other things for the Globe and Mail.
Erin Robinsong is an interdisciplinary writer, dancer and salonista. She is co-curator of The Twilight Bike-In (an outdoor movie theatre on Ward's Island) and Tertulia, a monthly literary salon (launching September 25th). Other activities include singing with her (mostly conceptual) bands Barbershop Celan and Decibelle, bookbinding and teaching dance to kids at the Harbourfront Centre. Currently earning an MFA from the University of Guelph, she is a recipient of the Irving Layton award for poetry, and is working on a book of poems structured around homonyms.
Treasa Levasseur is a well-connected member of the roots music scene in Canada, and has shared the bill with artists as varied as Terra Hazelton, Fred Eaglesmith, the D.Rangers, Dan Whiteley, Justin Rutledge, Fefe Dobson, Peaches, Danny Marks, Shakura S'aida, Divine Brown, The Hidden Cameras, Bob Wiseman, Kurt Swinghammer, Valdy, Mia Sheard, Claire Jenkins, The Undesirables and Serena Ryder. Her first full-length album, Not A Straight Line, was released in early 2006. The release of her follow-up, Low Fidelity, will be celebrated with a launch party at Lula Lounge on October 2.
www.treasalevasseur.com
About the host:
Johan Hultqvist is an activist and the lead singer of JUNO-nominated Afrobeat collective
Mr. Something Something. He grew up in Sweden but calls Roncesvalles Village home. His only remaining vice is wine gums.
Click here to see some of the previous line-ups.
The Children of the Boondocks
an exhibition by alex felipe * 11 to 25 September 2008
>>> discussion and slideshow with the photographer on monday 22 september 2008, 700pm <<<
This exhibition it dedicated to the children that live in mountain communities. Using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as a basis of analysis, the images explore the effects of neo-colonialism on their well being.
In American English, the term refers to a place further off than ‘the sticks,’ the ‘boondocks’ are the ‘backwoods,’ the bush, the place of wilderness and savagery.
I remember using the derivative word ‘boonies’ when I was in high school when referring to people that lived out of town. It was meant as an insult to where they were from. I used it casually, with a smile---all the while unintentionally disrespecting my forebears.
The word’s origins are from my native Philippines. The original term ‘bundok’ means ‘mountain.’ The mountains are where the resisters of colonial power took refuge. It’s where they plotted to strike back.
It’s also where Pilipino tribes took sanctuary, it was as far as one could get from the urban centres set up and controlled by the colonials, it was there that the people did their best to retain their true identity.
Today, because American soldiers took it home with them after the Philippine-American War, the term is used to denigrate.
It’s time to reclaim it.
* * *
In my visits to the Philippines following human rights stories I have inevitably come to many mountain towns. Sadly, while they retain their independent spirit, they have now been encroached by modern neo-colonialists. The original cultures are being eroded through the education system, and the land taken by foreign companies.
Despite it all, the bundok remains the sanctuary of nationalist resistance forces and to many tribal cultures—it remains the symbol of the people’s spirit.
* * *
Alex currently resides in Toronto, Canada. He returns regularly to the Philippines.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Toronto with the goal of being a human rights lawyer instead he became a documentary photographer who focuses on human rights issues. Though he also does work in other genres and issues, his focus is on stories that involve the relationship between his country of birth (the Philippines) and his country of upbringing and citizenship ( Canada).
He returned from three months in the Philippines this past January 2008 where he worked with local and international NGOs around human rights issues. Other than his personal projects (the centre-piece being a project about Canadian-owned mining in the Philippines) he worked with organizations like the Children’s Rehabilitation Center and the Children’s Participation Center to help provide art therapy for children and youth in urban poor areas of Manila, and with victims of military violence. *** ©2005-08 alex felipe * www.alexfelipe.com ***
* * *
Donations will be collected during the discussion night to support a humanitarian mission by the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Mindanao. Since the end of the ceasefire in August upwards of 500,000 civilians have been displaced, many have died. I hope you will support this fundraising effort.
For more information please visit http://www.mindanews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5131
Taste for Justice 2008
Special fundraiser menu in support of
Amnesty International’s
work in defence of
Human Rights
June 1-15, 2008
20% sales from this menu donated to
Amnesty International
to support their work for
Human Rights.
Amnesty Spicy Chicken Summer Wrap
Slices of spicy chicken breast, chemical-free and hormone-free, free range from Mennonite farms in Ontario, marinated in achiote and pan-broiled. Organic goat cheese from Ontario. Strips of fresh mango. Mixed greens sprinkled with our honey-orange vinaigrette. All wrapped in a whole wheat flour tortilla. Served with organic tortilla chips. Amnesty Sausage Grilled Wrap
Two smoked sausages from Mennonite Farms in Ontario, scrambled seasoned organic egg, organic sharp cheddar cheese and guiso (our mild salsa-like combination of baked vegetables). All wrapped and grilled in a whole wheat flour tortilla. Served with fresh fruit. Amnesty Guava & Fresh Orange Juice Smoothie
A natural way of getting the vitamin C your good health demands: thick guava juice, freshly squeezed organic orange juice and ice. Amnesty Red Iced Tea
A blend of Fair Trade and organic ingredients like cranberries, hibiscus flowers, lemongrass, cinnamon and cardamom. With just a touch of liquid sugar (optional). Amnesty Tipsy Revuelto
One shot of Cuban rum over a double shot of Fair Trade, organic espresso from Latin American coffee beans with ice, liquid sugar made from panela - unrefined sugar - direct fairly traded from Colombian campesinos . Refreshing, energizing and dangerously delicious.
- Do not drive if you’re getting Tipsy.
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Friday, June 13, 2008 7:30 - 9 p.m.
Cosmetics
Lina RodriguezLive webcast through http://www.perfoartnet.org/Perfoartnet-2008-lina-rodriguez1.htm
Although to speak about the historical construction of the feminine and its symbiotic relationship to media is considered passé, on an everyday basis we continue to be bombarded with images of the "perfect" woman. Cosmetics explores the role and impact of cosmetics in the construction of female identity and on how we perceive, interpret and apply ideas of femininity.
For 2 hours, I will offer my face as a canvas and invite people to put make up on it, potentially transforming it either into a grotesque mish mash of make up styles or a harmonious combination of colors and techniques. By inciting viewers to participate, they become voluntary and involuntary builders of both my identity and the performance itself.
Cosmetics is part of PerfoArtNet 2008, an International Performance Meeting on the Internet that brings together performance artists and academics from Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, USA, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Colombia. For more information check http://www.perfoartnet.org/ Cosmetics will also be projected live in Bogotá at Galería Santa Fé and the Museum of Contemporary Art. At Museo Bolivariano de Arte Contemporáneo in Santa Marta- Colombia, Casa Tres Patios in Medellín- Colombia and Organización Nelson Garrido in Caracas- Venezuela.
Sunday, May 11th through Sunday, June 1st, 2008
Ordinary Women, Ordinary Choice
Opening evening May 15th, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Kathleen Palmateer, Photographer
April 18 - May 9, 2008
Maman Haiti
Photographs by Julie Rémy, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Closing night (Slideshow and Q&A) May 9, 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
April 1 - 17, 2008
The Philippines: Vignettes of Struggle and Resistance
Photographs by Alex Felipe
Opening Evening/Presentation: Tuesday, April 8, 2008 @ 730pm
About the photographer
Alex graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Toronto with the goal of being a human rights lawyer, instead he became a documentary photographer who focuses on human rights issues. Though he also does work in other genres and issues, his focus is on stories that involve the relationship between his country of birth (the Philippines) and his country of upbringing and citizenship (Canada).His photography has been featured in publications and exhibitions in Canada, the USA, Italy, Australia, and the Philippines. His work has been published and/or exhibited by Amnesty International, CARE-Canada, Oxfam-Australia, NOW magazine, Canadian Dimensions Magazine, Red Bull Entertainment, the Immaginario Scientifico museum in Trieste, and others. An upcoming issue of This Magazine will be featuring his mining images from Marinduque and Mt. Canatuan.He has just returned from three months in the Philippines where he worked with local and international NGOs around human rights issues. Other than his personal projects (the centre-piece being a project about Canadian-owned mining in the Philippines) he worked with organizations like the Children's Rehabilitation Center and the Children's Participation Center to help provide art therapy for children and youth in urban poor areas of Manila, and with victims of military violence. He also gave photography workshops to these and other Philippine NGOs.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 - 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Short Films Screening - Open discussion to follow
World Health Day, Stories from the Middle East
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”
West Bank and Gaza
Through short films, the World Health Organization (WHO) aims at motivating a public debate in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) on how the current conflict affects the physical, mental and social well-being of the Palestinian and Israeli societies. Recalling its definition of health, WHO is engaged worldwide in the promotion of healthy lifestyles and healthy attitudes that can improve health and combat behaviors threatening people’s health status. The well-known fight against tobacco and alcohol is a clear indication of this, as are the initiative to promote collective and personal hygiene, appropriate diet, drinkable water and campaigns against violence. WHO is particularly interested in understating other sources of ill health, in order to have a better awareness of its causes and identify the prevention measures that could be adopted to combat them.WHO activities in the OPT focus on the promotion of good health among the Palestinian population, through the improvement of the health systems, guaranteeing its equality and sustainability, and taking into consideration the social, economic, cultural and environmental determinants of health, specifically on issues related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.Within this framework, WHO is dedicating special attention to the promotion of principles of dialogue and peace, against phenomena related to the conflict (such as violence, social injustice, exclusion, discrimination, racism, social polarization, stigmatization of the other, use of selective communication, etc.).As part of this effort, WHO called upon filmmakers and producers from the OPT and Israel to present proposals that could show some of the physical, mental and social consequences of the conflict within each society. Two Palestinian and two Israeli short films were selected and financed with the support of Turin Municipality and the Rabinovitch Foundation (the latter only for the films by Israeli directors). The four films, produced and filmed independently, were compiled into a one–hour film that will be screened in Israel, throughout the OPT and internationally, in order to motivate a public debate concerning violence and other social determinants of health, their causes and how to tackle the problems that they bring about.
The films
Missing Gaza - Sobhi Al Zobeidi
The Mall - Jonathan Ben Efrat
Power - Ayelet Bechar
Journey with Naba'a - Hanna Musleh* The Mall (10 min)
Director: Jonathan Ben Efrat
Producer: Video 48 Nir NaderShopping malls are the western symbol of richness and abundance. The moment we enter these labyrinths of plenty, time stops; we are in another world, a world that meets all our needs and emotions. But not in this case…During the week, Geha Junction – one of the largest junctions in the greater Tel Aviv area, a fifteen-minute drive from Tel Aviv – is the home of hundreds of Palestinians, illegal workers in Israel who find shelter here. They live their stories underground, in the foundations of a mall that was abandoned during construction, without light, air or water. In the suffocating stench, mattresses, blankets and other belongings are spread out over the floor – the possessions of workers trying to maintain some human dignity even in inhuman conditions.* Missing Gaza (13 minutes)
Director/Producer: Sobhi al-ZobaidiA group of friends meet for lunch at a friend’s house in Ramallah. All of them are from Gaza, but are unable to return due to lack of freedom of movement. Before, during and after lunch (where Gazan traditional food is served) the film explores and traces their homesickness and how they miss their families, friends and Gaza in general. Their anxiety is heightened in light of the anticipated Israeli pullout from Gaza. The filming of their meeting in Ramallah is inter-cut with actual footage of the people and palaces in Gaza that they mention.* Power (15 min)
Director & Producer: Ayelet BecharWhen talking about the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the south of Israel, one imagines tents with many wives and children. In the north, the picture is quite different. Most of the unrecognized spots have received some status and informal permission for building. There are houses and some roads paved by the people themselves but no basic services such as electricity. The scenery is beautiful and serene.
In this lush green backdrop, where the children are well dressed and educated and everyone speaks fluent Hebrew, the ‘no electricity’ situation seems absurd, out of place.These are Israeli citizens who want to belong. They are both ashamed and angry at the lack of basic services in their villages – and some feel they need to voluntarily join the Israeli Army in order to belong.* Journey with Naba'a (17 min )
Director & Producer: Hanna MuslehThe film shows us the complexity of life in a refugee camp through the story of one family from Dheisheh, a camp with a total population of over 12,000 refugees located near Bethlehem. The story comprises the relations with IDF soldiers, the poverty conditions to which refugees are exposed to by the conflict and how the conflict affects the physical and mental well-being of some of the family members. This story can be considered as an example of the experience of the thousands Palestinian families in refugee camps.
About Voices Forward Festival
The Voices Forward Festival, in its third year, is proud to present an insightful programme of films about people from Israel and Palestine. This is a unique opportunity to see cinema that will cross boundaries and shift perspectives. Films you will only get to see at this festival.
Every year, the programme is carefully selected by Toronto-based programmers from Palestinian, Israeli and Canadian backgrounds who believe that cinema has in it the power to communicate, touch hearts, minds and souls, and shift perspectives.
The team views many films and compelling works revealing the human stories of people living in the region. The selection brings forward personal accounts of struggle, joy and pain, activism and hope, and sheds light on an alternative reality that differs from the banal news and headlines witnessed in North American mainstream media.
The aim of Voices Forward film festival is to help give a voice to people who have to deal with dwindling international attention, failed promises, fear and poverty... Despite this reality, the filmmakers succeed in creating remarkable works that reveal the endurance of the human spirit.
www.voicesforward.org
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 7 to 9 p.m.
FREE SPEECH
About the performers
Shyam Selvadurai was born in 1965 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He came to Canada with his family at the age of nineteen. He has studied creative writing and theatre, and has a B.F.A. from York University. Funny Boy, his first novel, was published to immediate acclaim in 1994, was a national bestseller, and won the W. H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and, in the U.S., The Lambda Literary Award, and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association. Cinnamon Gardens, his second novel, was shortlisted for the Trillium Award. It has been published in the U.S., the U.K., India, and numerous countries in Europe.
Jordan Scott is originally from Coquitlam, British Columbia. His first book of poetry, Silt, was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. In the fall of 2006, Jordan worked on the final sections of his new book Blert, while acting as the writer in residence at the International Writers' and Translators' Centre in Rhodes, Greece. Blert has been called a "poetics of stutter" and "an investigation into how the stutter originates", and has received a lot of attention across Canada this spring. Sections of the book have appeared in filling Station, drunken boat, and nypoesi. Jordan spends the spring and summer slinging canoes at Pitt Lake, the largest freshwater tidal lake in North America.
www.blert.ca
Nikki Payne is a comedienne who hails from Nova Scotia and is one of Canada's most original comics. Her no holds barred style of comedy, and lisp are two things which make Nikki Payne standout as an innovator in the Canadian comedy scene. She is the recipient of three Canadian Comedy Awards and two nominations for Gemini's. Her Comedy Inc special on CTV was one of the networks most viewed. She has appeared on NBC's Last Comic Standing and is a regular on Much Music's Video on Trial.
www.nikkipayne.com
Elizabeth Shepherd's Juno-nominated debut album Start To Move was voted the Top 3 Jazz Album of the Year by the listeners of The Gilles Peterson Show on BBC Radio 1 UK in 2006, and continues to receive critical acclaim. Shepherd's international touring includes sold out shows at London's legendary Jazz Café, and a week long residency at the prestigious Cotton Club in Tokyo. Raised by Salvation Army ministers, an early exposure to brass band sounds mixed with a love for house, disco, classical and hip hop, lay the foundations for this soulful musician. She celebrated the release of her new album Parkdale with a sold out show at The Gladstone Hotel Ballroom in earlier this month. Parkdale has already received rave reviews in The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star, NOW and on CBC Radio.
www.elizabethshepherd.com
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 7 to 9 p.m.
FREE SPEECH
About the artists
Michael Winter is the author of the acclaimed novel, The Architects Are Here. His previous novel, The Big Why, won the Drummer General's Award and was nominated for Ontario's Trillium Book Award and the Atlantic Book Awards' Thomas Head Raddall Fiction Prize. Winter's fictional memoir This All Happened won the Winterset Award and was nominated for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction prize. He has also published two short-story collections, Creaking in Their Skins and One Last Good Look.
www.michaelwinterbooks.com
Claudia Dey's plays have been translated into French and German, and produced internationally - including at the former Communist Headquarters of New York City. They include 'Trout Stanley', 'Beaver' and the Governor General's-and Trillium Award-nominated 'The Gwendolyn Poems.' Claudia writes the 'Group Therapy' column for the Globe and Mail. 'Stunt', published by Coach House Books, is her first novel.
www.claudiadey.com
Katie Crown has done stand-up/character performances for Comedy Central's "Comedians Of Comedy", UCB's Comedy Death Ray, and the Just For Laughs Festival's "Alternative Show". The Tim Sims Encouragement Award-winner has written and starred in shorts for the Comedy Network and has been a guest writer for CBC's "This Hour Has 22 Minutes". Katie co-produces "Laugh Sabbath", a weekly comedy night at The Rivoli. When not doing solo performance, she's crooning along with Ryan V. Hays as part of The Remainders. She is also one of the four members of Knock, Knock. (Who's There?) Comedy!
Justin Rutledge released his debut album No Never Alone to rave reviews at home and in the UK in 2005. The following year, the former editor-in-chief of a literary journal was named singer/songwriter of the year by the NOW Magazine. His second record, entitledThe Devil On A Bench In Stanley Park, was nominated for a Juno Award in 2008. Justin's latest album, Man Descending, was released on April 8 and he is currently in the midst of a North American tour with Kathleen Edwards.
www.justinrutledge.com
FREE SPEECH
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 @ 7:30 p.m About the artists:
Ray Robertson graduated from the University of Toronto with High Distinction with a B.A. in philosophy and later gained an M.F.A. in creative writing from Southwest Texas State University. He is the author of the novels Home Movies, Heroes, Moody Food, Gently Down the Stream, and What Happened Later, as well as a collection of non-fiction, Mental Hygiene: Essays on Writers and Writing. He is a contributing book reviewer to the Toronto Globe and Mail, appears regularly CBC's Talking Books, and teaches creative writing at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies.
www.rayrobertson.com
Maev Beaty is a performer, writer and voice-over artist living in Toronto. She was named Best Emerging Female Actor by NOW Magazine in 2007. Her stage work ranges from the classics (Dream in High Park, Resurgence Theatre Festival, Theatre By the Bay, Driftwood Theatre), to collectively created works (Goblin Market, Housebound, Theatre Columbus), to contemporary plays (The Russian Plays by Hannah Moscovitch, Ritter, Dene, Voss by Thomas Bernhard, Angel's Trumpet written and directed by Sharon Pollock, Garden by Andrea Donaldson), to co-producing and performing in original works with her company Belltower Theatre, founded in 1999 (the critically acclaimed and award-winning ma jolie and The Unforgetting). She was most recently seen in Judith Thompson's Palace of the End for CanStage.
Karen Solie was born in Moose Jaw and raised in southwest Saskatchewan. Karen was on the poetry faculty for the 2005-2006 Banff Centre for the Arts Wired Writing Studio and served as Writer in Residence at the University of Alberta for 2004-2005. She has reviewed books for the
Globe and Mail since 2001. Her first book of poems,
Short Haul Engine (Brick Books 2001), won the BC Book Prize Dorothy Livesay Award, and was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Gerald Lampert Award, and the ReLit Prize. Her second,
Modern and Normal (Brick Books 2005), was shortlisted for the Trillium Poetry Prize.
Andy Sheppard: A protégé of legendary guitarists Don Ross and Pierre Bensusan, Andy has traveled the globe, searching out musical experiences in the South Pacific, Europe, South East Asia, and North Africa. He combines influences from around the world, all performed with a remarkable guitar technique. Andy's most recent album features songs inspired by the folk music of Appalachia, traditional Brazilian Samba, the Palm Wine guitar music of Sierra Leone, the hauntingly beautiful melodies of Haiti, and the unstoppable rhythms of Zimbabwe. In 2006, he won the prestigious Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award.
Andy was recently added to the International Guitar Night roster, and will be touring with 3 other world-class guitarists through the UK and across Canada in 2008.
www.andysheppard.com
FREE SPEECH
Tuesday, February 26, 2008 @ 7:30 p.m
About the artists
Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer's novel The Nettle Spinner was nominated for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her story collection Way Up won a third place Danuta Gleed Award and was nominated for the Relit Award. She has published in various newspapers and magazines in Canada, and is the magazine editor for the on-line literary site Bookninja.
www.kathrynkuitenbrouwer.com
Paul Hutcheson is a writer/performer/video store clerk living in the West End. He has been actively pursuing a career in solo theatre for 4 years. His two solo comedic shows, "THE FIRST TIME" & "ON SECOND THOUGHT" toured the Canadian Fringe Circuit garnering fantastic reviews and a comfortability on stage. "ON SECOND THOUGHT" is traveling to Orlando, Montana & California in 2008. He produces comedy nights around Toronto, most notably, midnight shows at the 7-24 Movies & More (Queen&Fuller) where he has worked for six years. He hosts a monthly series entitled "Soapbox Readings" the last Sunday of every month @ Not My Dog Bar in Parkdale.
www.wogproductions.com
David Seymour was born in Campbellton, New Brunswick and was raised beside the Niagara Escarpment in Milton, Ontario. In the past twelve years he has lived in Hamilton, Ontario, Leith, Scotland, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Toronto, Ontario, and Rosarito Beach, Mexico. During that time he has worked as a security guard, built in-ground pools, travelled through Europe, dish-pigged, acquired two academic degrees, lectured and led tutorials for English survey courses, taught a creative writing workshop, worked as a video store clerk, a book store clerk, proofread, was a staff writer and editorial coordinator for a magazine company, freelanced as a writer, played an extra, photo-doubled for Russell Crowe, learned to set sails on a tall ship, and worked as the production assistant for a casting director on numerous films. Inter Alia, his first collection of poetry, was nominated for a Gerald Lampert Award. His work has been widely published in journals and was selected by Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane for Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets.
Claire Jenkins Avec Band have recently put out their fantastic fantastical album Crow's Nest/ Nid de Pie. They will be touring across Canada this summer, playing festivals and the like. Turn on CBC Radio One March 1st in the morning and you will catch them live on GO! Claire Jenkins has just finished playing Pixie in Hannah Moscovitch's play Essay at the Factory Theatre, is working on new material for the next album and will be touring Australia this spring.
www.clairejenkins.com
About the host
Johan Hultqvist is an activist and the lead singer of JUNO-nominated Afrobeat collective Mr. Something Something. He's lived in at least half a dozen different places on both sides of Roncesvalles and loves his neighbourhood so much that he leaves it only to go on tour.
Past FREE SPEECH performers include Bob Wiseman, Carl Wilson, Catherine Bush, Evalyn Parry, Teresa Pavlinek, Levi MacDougall, Chris Gibbs, Jowi Taylor, Sean Dixon, Emily Pohl-Weary, Michael Johnston, Alayna Munce, Rachelle Elie, Jon Brooks, Christine Fischer Guy, Mike Smith aka White Noise Machine, Sarah Selecky, Brian MacMillan, Amanda Hiebert, Noah Kenneally, Marianne Apostolides, Andrew Westoll, Janine Stoll, Jay MillAr, Michael Holt, Marcia Johnson and Carolyn Bennett.
Since January 2007, the popular West End reading series/cabaret FREE SPEECH has proudly been showcasing the prose, poetry, spoken word, comedy, storytelling and songwriting of Parkdale-High Park based writers and performers. The monthly, intimate gatherings at Tinto quickly became a neighbourhood hit and for most of the 2007 fall season there was standing-room only in the old Polish banquet hall, which - after sitting vacant for years - has been transformed into a vibrant art & activism community hub.
SHUKAR LULUGI
Beautiful Flower
Preciosa Flor
Zubug Fiory
Obobo Nomose
Belle Fleur Shukar Lulugi is a women’s community arts project initiated by women from the Roma Community Centre and facilitated by Toronto-based Red Tree artist’s collective with major community partner Sojourn House, as well as Roma Community Centre and CultureLink. Red Tree artists and invited artists worked with sixteen girls and women, from eleven to fifty-six years of age, who have sought refuge in Canada and now share with us a rich and vibrant vision of their new home. From May to September of 2007, the eighth floor of Sojourn House was busy with photography, painting and poetry workshops. The installed works and the girl’s and women’s poetry are the culmination of four months of art-making, in which the participants explored new forms of expression, found new skills, and shared their stories, hopes and dreams. Since 1989, Red Tree has facilitated collaborative and community projects which have been based in Toronto and toured in Canada and Mexico.Red Tree is grateful to Sojourn House for its generous support of this project.
Through art we all reflect upon the feeling which joins us together as women, and we discover that nationality, language and age don't matter, because in art there are no barriers. We are women with great hearts, strong women with the desire to triumph, women who overcome our adversities, women with courage to face our daily struggles, women who encourage our children to succeed, women who are lovers of life, of nature. We are conquerors. We are women who love, suffer, cry, laugh, struggle, and we triumph because we are women.
- project participant Margarita
Ciclo de videos sobre Arte y Cultura Latinoamericanos
Video, Art and Latin American Culture. February 8, 15 and 22
March 28
April 4 and 11, 2008
7 to 9 pm Este Ciclo es organizado y presentado por Jorge Lozano de aluCine y Arlan Londoño de e-fagia Collective. En colaboración con Ricardo Rozental y Elvia Sáenz de Tinto Coffee House. This series is organized and presented by Jorge Lozano from aluCine and Arlan Londoño from e-fagia Collective, in collaboration with Ricardo Rozental and Elvia Sáenz from Tinto Coffee House. Los videos tendrán máximo una hora y treinta minutos de duración. Cada video estará acompañado con un corto texto y una breve charla previa a la presentación. El ciclo se realizará los viernes de 7 - 8:30 p.m. comenzando el 8 de febrero. The videos will run for a maximum of 90 minutes. Each video will be contextualized with a short text and a brief talk before every screening. The cycle will take place Fridays from 7 to 8:30 pm starting on Feb 8.
Con este ciclo, e-fagia Collective, aluCine Festival y Tinto Coffee House dan comienzo a sus actividades conjuntas para este año. Una de las principales características de aluCine y Tinto es la de ser entidades inclusivas; es decir, son organizaciones dirigidas por latinoamericanos pero que trabajan conjuntamente con diferentes organizaciones en las que se expresa el contexto multicultural de la ciudad de Toronto. Sin embargo, en esta ocasión hemos decidido sumergirnos en temas y tópicos característicos de nuestra cultura tales como la lengua y la música, a través del Ciclo de videos sobre Arte y Cultura Latinoamericanos. El ciclo incluye artes visuales, poesía y música, y las fibras nostálgicas que en él se entretejen constituyen un reconocimiento público de que los organizadores de este abandonan la segunda y entran en la tercera edad. This series kick starts our joint activities in 2008, for e-fagia Collective, aluCine Festival and Tinto Coffee House. One of the main characteristics of AluCine and Tinto is their inclusiveness. They are organizations directed by Latin Americans who collaborate with different associations, expressing the multicultural context of the city of Toronto. However, this time we have decided to embrace themes and topics characteristic of our culture through this Series of Videos About Latin American Art and Culture. The series includes topics like visual arts, poetry and music, so the nostalgic atmosphere surrounding some of the videos may force the organizers - not to mention some members of the audience - to publicly acknowledge that they’re already past their youth and are now entering seniority.
Quick overview of the series
February 8
- Ana Mendieta, 50 min., color, Spanglish. Presented by Arlan Londoño. February 15
– Pedro Pietro, a Pueto Rican Poet in NY, 20 minutes and Paquita la del Barrio, 20 minutes, color, Spanglish. Documentaries created and presented by Jorge Lozano. February 22
- Bolero y Balada, screening videos of about 20 artists - (Lola Flores, Sandro "de América", Leonardo Fabio, "El Jefe" Daniel Santos, "el primer poeta latinoamericano" Armando Manzanero...) - color, black and white. 90 minutes, Spanish. Presented by Jorge and Arlan. This brief sample aims at trying to conjure the nostalgic heavy breath associated to “the dive”. March 28
- Nuestra Cosa Latina (Our Latin Thing). Presented by Arlan Londoño.
The Fania All-Stars & The Spanish Speaking People of New York City
Directed by Leon Gast, 90’, video, color, English/Spanish/Salsa, 1971
Our Latin Thing played across the States and was reviewed in mayor publications like Rolling Stone and Time magazine. “Live At The Cheeta” Vols, 1 & 2 became massive sellers. The LP’s, but particularly the film, presented salsa as raw, vibrant, sexy and flowing with good times. It was an incredible advert for Fania and Latin music. Their releases publicized the bona fide birth of the Fania All Stars, transformed the Fania lebel into a mayor player and ignited the seventies salsa explosion. Larry Harlow is in complete acquiescence: ”Record sales rocketed and we began touring Latin America. Our Latin Thing opened the doors for salsa to the rest of the world.”
April 4
- José Bedia, 23 minutes, color, Spanglish. Jean Baudrillard y el Fin de La Ilusión Estética , 25’ minutes, color, Spanish. Presented by Arlan Londoño.
April 11
- Café Tacuba, Un Viaje. Café Tacuba's album A Trip earned the quartet a new set of awards. It was recorded last year to celebrate the quartet's first 15 years during a special concert in the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico city. Directed by Tito Lara, produced by Gerald Gutiérrez, the concert caught great and touching memories before an audience of forty thousand.
Friday, January 11, 2008 @ 6:30 p.m.
Documentary screening & PresentationVilma Almendra, of the indigenous Nasa people.
"Somos alzados en bastones de mando" ( We're Up in Command Batons) a documentary video from the indigenous community of the Nasa people in southern Colombia.
Only Latin American piece participating at the Documenta Madrid 2007.
Vilma Almendra made a presentation at Tinto two years ago. On that occasion she introduced us to the meaning of the project of the Nasa people in the northern part of the Cauca province in Colombia. She is part of the project of the ACIN or Association of Communities of Northern Cauca. Appart from being a student of social communication/journalism she plays an important role in the Network of Communication for Truth and Life which is responsible for a vast number of tasks in the community such as the radio station, the website, the circulation of comuniqués and alerts for urgent actions when especially theatening situations occur and the production, among other things, of documentaries that give testimony of what the project and the struggle of the Nasa people are.Vilma will open the evening (in Spanish with English translation) by giving an update on what the situation in Colombia is like and what changes have taken place in the two years since her previous talk. This context presentation in key to understand what her people are fighting for and resisting against. She will proceed with an update on the activities of the ACIN and the Communications Network. Do keep in mind that the Canadian government wants to sign a free trade agreement with Colombia in the same spirit of the one that the government of the United States has been unable to sign due to the pressure from the Democrats who recognize the magnitude of the Human Rights problem in Colombia. But Canada has kept the details of the negotiations in secrecy, not allowing the public nor Parliament to review and have a say on this delicate matter.
Following her presentation, the screening of the documentary will take place. Vilma will be available for a discussion afterwards.
Jowi Taylor is a writer and radio broadcaster for CBC Radio. For over 10 years, Taylor was the host of Global Village, which broadcast on CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2 and Radio Canada International. He has composed music by commission, coordinated major music festivals, appeared in films and on television and contributed reviews and other journalism for magazines such as Shift and Montage. He is also the creator, producer and artistic director of a multi-media project called Six String Nation, a movement based on a guitar that connects people from all regions of Canada through music and by sharing our stories. Just before the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty, Taylor got the idea of building the Six String Nation guitar as a symbol of national unity. Luthier George Rizsanyi built the guitar in his workshop near Pinehurst, Nova Scotia with Taylor over a period of 10 years, using 64 pieces of bone, metal and wood. Much of the front piece came from the Golden Spruce, a 300-year-old tree revered by the Haida Gwaii of British Columbia. Other parts include wood from Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle, gold from Maurice Richard's Stanley Cup ring and a piece of the oldest rock in the world, found near Great Bear Lake.
www.sixstringnation.com
Sarah Selecky's first collection of stories, This Cake is for the Party, was published by Greenboathouse Books in 2003. Standing Up For Janey, a second chapbook, was published by Delirium Press in 2006. Her stories have been published in Geist, Boulevard, and The New Quarterly, Prairie Fire, and the Journey Prize Anthology. She has almost completed her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Sarah lives in Parkdale, where she runs a variety of writing workshops and events, including "Writers' Soup" and the "4-Hour Writing Marathon".
A dynamic and original performer,
Rachelle Elie has been developing her unique vision of contemporary society for over ten years. A graduate of Vancouver's Studio 58, Rachelle has studied with such well-known clown/ physical comedy teachers as Philiipe Gaulier (Ali G), John Turner & Mike Kennard (Mump & Smoot) and Gina Bastone (Cirque Du Soleil). This acclaimed comedian has been showcased on The Comedy Network and The Women's Television Network.
www.crowningmonkey.com
Jon Brooks is part unrepentant idealist, part fallen mystic, part secular preacher, part Gen X Cohen, Cave and Cash - he is a troubadour wholly devoted to the song as being a necessary means toward greater social justice. His inspiration is taken from those on the outside of the circle of approval. Brooks maintains, "only a stranger will save this world." In 2007, Jon Brooks was named an Ontario Council of Folk Festival 'Songs From The Heart' award winner. His new CD, 'Ours And The Shepherds', is a collection of songs examining Canada's war experience. He also became a published essayist in 2007 with his contribution to 'Barry Callaghan - Essays on His Works', which includes the likes of Margaret Atwood, William Kennedy, Patrick Lane, Joyce Carol Oates, Noah Richler and others. In 2006, he was named 'Songwriter of the Year' from the international Green Man Review. Brooks' 2005 debut release, 'No Mean City,' was a 13-song/novel set amid the homelessness of Toronto streets and is aimed without caution at what Brooks consider "our contemporary moral fatigue and lack of inner life".
www.jonbrooks.ca
About the organizers:
Johan Hultqvist is an activist and the lead singer of JUNO-nominated Afrobeat collective Mr. Something Something. He's lived in at least half a dozen different places on both sides of Roncesvalles and loves his neighbourhood so much that he leaves it only to go on tour.
Eden Arabella is a proud parkdalian. She divides her time between running
New Moon Kitchen, writing tales of her life, and singer-songwritering.
FREE SPEECH is produced with generous support from Mill Street Brewery, New Moon Kitchen and Envoy Business Services on Roncesvalles.
Award-winning author Emily Pohl-Weary has lived her entire life in
west-end Toronto. Her most recent book is Strange Times at Western High, a
young adult mystery novel featuring a zine-making sleuth. She's written a
book of poetry (Iron-on Constellations), a novel (A Girl Like Sugar), a Hugo
Award-winning biography (Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril), and a four-issue comic (Violet Miranda: Girl Pirate). In 2004, she toured North America with contributors to her female superhero anthology, Girls Who Bite Back. She also publishes sassy hybrid Kiss Machine magazine.
www.emilypohlweary.com
The White Noise Machine was designed and built in 1980 to act on one
belief: that the most radical act possible is to attempt to state the obvious. Three-time hometown rep in the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, current Toronto Poetry Slam semifinalist, and columnist for NOW Magazine (under the bizarre psuedonym "Mike Smith"), he's read to and performed for audiences across Canada and the American Midwest. For more Noise, go to www.linebreaks.com
Lisa McGlade grew up in Ottawa and has been writing since the age of
twelve. Her short story "The New Wives" was recently featured in the online
publication Raise the Hammer. She is currently working on a novel and works
for the Royal Conservatory of Music to pay for her writing habit. Lisa has
lived in Parkdale for six of her ten Toronto years - right now she's on
Dowling - and wouldn't want to live anywhere else in the city. She likes the
feeling of cycling home from work, turning off Brock and thinking "Ah, I am
home."
Frank Patrick is a songwriter, poet, musician and vocalist who has toured
Canada, the US and Europe over the past three and a half decades. He has
shared the stage with countless artists including Buffy St. Marie, Cyril
Neville (Neville Brothers), Jonathan Best (David Byrne) and Dr. Timothy
Leary (!). In the late 90's fronting the super group Zombo Zombo, Frank
released the CD "Into the Market' in the US. It received extensive airplay
on AAA and college stations across the country, topping at #1 for 2 months
on KMUD in California. In 1999, before the CD was to be released in Canada,
Frank had a very serious bicycle accident. Now, after a long and painful
healing process, Frank is back with his new solo CD, "Worlds In Transition",
featuring some of Canada's finest musicians including Kevin Breit (Norah
Jones, Cassandra Wilson), Kevin Hearn (Barenaked Ladies), Hugh Marsh, Ian
deSouza, Ed Hanley, Mia Sheard, Katherine Rose, and Neil Chapman. "Worlds In Transition" is a rich sonic and lyrical journey of wonder, change and
redemption.
www.frankpatrickmusic.com
Thursday, October 25, 2007 @ 6:30 p.m.
Documentary Screening
Undermined: Communities, Consultation & Corporate Accountability
Introduction and post-screening conversation with Researcher/Director/Producer Emily Wilson
Guyana is a small English-speaking country tucked away in the northeast corner of South America. There are nine Indigenous groups in Guyana that inhabit much of the country’s resource-rich interior regions. The Guyanese government is increasingly looking to these regions to promote economic growth for the country, by encouraging the development of large-scale logging and mining operations. Until now, Guyana’s Indigenous Peoples—Amerindians—have not been involved in any formal decision-making about these developments, even though many of the permits being given out by the government transgress the boundaries of their traditional lands.This 35-minute documentary profiles the perspectives of eight Amerindians on issues relating to mining—in particular, the issue of community consultation—thus giving voice to a group of people who have so far been silenced. It also offers a case study by focusing on the situation of the Wapichan People, who have had interactions with a Canadian mining company operating on their ancestral lands for over ten years. While there is some mention of the negative impacts of mining, the film concentrates mainly on exploring solutions. Each person interviewed offers ideas and recommendations about how the community’s relationship with companies and government could be improved in the future. Overall, the film is meant to be an educational tool for Amerindian communities in Guyana and for other Indigenous organizations/communities dealing with similar issues. However, because of the focus on interactions between the Wapichan and a Canadian company, the documentary is also relevant to members of the Canadian public who have an interest in issues relating to corporate accountability, Indigenous Peoples, and social justice. For more information, please contact:
Emily Wilson
Researcher/Director/Producer
613-421-0751
mlekwilson@yahoo.ca
Click to visit the web site of e-fagia Video screenings:
The screenings of digital event'07 will take place in Tinto Coffee House at 7 pm. and will be presented by invited curators. Starting Sept 22.
September 22
Digital environmental culture: Paolo Lugari: A Renaisance Man. by Miguel Rojas Sotelo. Executive producer: Gioconda Perez Snyder. English (25 min.)
The documentary has footage of Paolo Lugari's recent lecture on the history of Gaviotas and the approval of Gaviotans, back in the Vichada State in Colombia. It was made during Lugari's visit to the city of Pittsburgh (USA) in May 2007 to receive an honorary PhD., in Science and Technology by Carnegie Mellon University. http://amigosdelcinelatinoamericano.googlepages.com/paololugariarenaissanceman
1 @andalusi@ The Baglady by Miguel Rojas Sotelo (30 min)
Documentary piece on the artistic practices of an (i)ndymedia artist-activist. This video can be seen as a pseudo-portrait of an imaginary-real artist that deals with a counter systemic way to produce art and communication in an urban setting in contemporary United States.
September 29
Streets Mutha a video produced as part of the Alucine workshops in collaboration with the Centre for Spanish Speaking People, coordinated and produced by Jorge Lozano and Guillermina Buzio in 2005 (28 min). The second part of the screening has videos produced as part of the Alucine workshops in collaboration with the city of Cali, Colombia, 2006, (20 min). October 5
Video Art Curated by Arlan Londoño
October 12
Dead Babies and Blood by Ulyses Castellanos
October 20
Digital Event'07 Web Video, Curated by Arlan Londoño
October 26
Narrative Resistance By Vicky Moufawad-Paul
Balata Film Collective, Akoub the challenge , 2005, (8 min).
Balata Film Collective, Women in death castles , 2005, (7 min).
Balata Film Collective, Grass doesn't grow in the camp , 2005, (6min).
Balata Film Collective, Children of the stones, 2005, (5min ).
Annemarie Jacir, Like Twenty Impossibles , 2003, (7 min).
Majdi El-Omari, At the Window , 2004, (30 min).
Fadia Abboud, I remember 1948 , Palestine/Australia, 2005, (24 min ).
Jackie Salloum, Planet of the Arabs , 2005, (9 min ).
About the artists
Sean Dixon is a writer and an actor and a banjo player. He is the author of The Girls Who Saw Everything, The Feathered Cloak (YA) and several plays, including Billy Nothin' and The Gift of the Coat. Sean helped found the innovative Winnipeg theatre company primus and is Playwright-out-of Residence for Victoria's Theatre skam.Teresa Pavlinek was a member of The Second City for four years during which time she wrote and performed three Dora nominated shows. Her first two plays, Dumplings And Death and Hot August Night have been produced in Toronto and New York. She co-wrote and starred in her own half-hour TV special, As I Was Saying, for The Comedy Network. Her TV and film credits include five seasons of the Gemini nominated series History Bites, More Tears, Sonic Temple, Sue Thomas FB EYE, The Sean Cullen Show, and Bless The Child. Teresa co-wrote, produced and starred in her own TV series, The Jane Show, for Global and The W Network. She was nominated for a 2006 Writer's Guild Award and is nominated for a Gemini for her performance as Jane. She is also a member of the critically acclaimed sketch comedy group, Women Fully Clothed, who will be performing at The Wintergarden Theatre Nov.15th – Dec. 8th 2007. In 2001, Andrew Westoll was training to become a primatologist, his lifelong goal. He lived for a year in Suriname, South America, studying monkeys deep in the jungles of the Upper Amazon Basin. Then he gave it all up to become writer. His first book, "The Riverbones," details his return to those same jungles five years later and will be published by McClelland and Stewart next fall. Andrew asks that you go easy on him on Tuesday; he's a week away from handing in his manuscript and is worried one million typing chimpanzees might have done a better job with it.
Janine Stoll has been crafting gutsy and deeply personal songs for more than ten years and has two solo releases to her credit ('This is where we bury it' and 'everything you gave me') with a third set for release early 2008 ('Melancholia'). Janine also busies herself with two side projects: The Ladybird Sideshow and The DoneFors .
Click here for Janine's site.
Monday, October 1, 2007 @ 6:30 p.m.
Screening and presentation with director
Denali DeGraf
"As land values in Patagonia, Argentina, have skyrocketed in recent years, large corporations, wealthy individuals (from within Argentina as well as from overseas, such as Ted Turner, Sylvester Stallone, the Benetton family [who are reputed as having over 2.5 million acres of land in Patagonia], or Joe "Hard Rock Cafe" Lewis) have been appropriating enormous tracts of land, at the expense of those who have lived there for decades or centuries. Sometimes through threatened or real violence, sometimes through fraudulent paperwork, or twisting the legal system to their favor, these transfers of territory are stripping land from those who inhabit it and work it as an integral part of their lives, in favor of gigantic feudal kingdoms belonging to those who only use it for profit. From high-end tourism to extremely destructive mining and forestry practices, land is being plundered for the benefit of a few, at the cost of those who have always stewarded it. This film documents and analyzes the growing land conflicts in Patagonia, similar to so many other parts of Argentina and the rest of Latin America, through the voices of its original inhabitants and commentary by other local people involved in the issue. By presenting a few particular cases, it discusses the methods, motives, and consequences of these massive appropriations of territory, and chronicles the resistance of indigenous communities, local citizens' assemblies, and individual families, in the face of adversity."
68 min, Spanish, with English subtitles.
Donations will be forwarded to the Argentinean Campesino (rural workers) and Mapuche (indigenous population) community of the region.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 @ 7 p.m.
Mike Nickerson
Presentation & discussion of
Life, Money & Illusion
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Living on Earth as if we want to stay
With huge public concern about climate change, everyone is singing the green tune. More than ever, it is important to understand what the lyrics mean.
Climate change is a symptom, the problem is that the growth phase of the human story is drawing to a close because collectively, we are verwhelming the Earth's ability, both to provide natural resources, and to absorb our waste. Continuing efforts to expand the material economy are self-defeating.
Is it proper, now that our biggest problems result from our size, to hold growth as a goal? Would it be better to focus on securing necessities
for everyone within the carrying capacity of the Earth?
Please join author Mike Nickerson for a presentation and discussion about "Life, Money & Illusion; Living on Earth as if we want to stay".
Click here for Mike's web site.
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Roncesvalles' own reading series FREE SPEECH returns on Monday, September 24, with an evening of personal stories, pop songs and puppetry.
The first instalment of the fall season features readings by Jessica Moore and Eden Arabella, a puppet tale by Noah Kenneally, and music by Graham Powell.
FREE SPEECH is hosted by Johan Hultqvist.
Thursday, September 20, 2007 @ 6:30 p.m.
Temporary Foreign Workers in Canada: New Programs - Old Story
Presentation with Laurell Ritchie and Jojo Geronimo
A presentation and discussion about temporary foreign and migrant workers in Canada with Laurell Ritchie from the Canadian Auto Workers and Jojo Geronimo from the Labour Education Centre.
Agricultural workers picking tomatoes and cucumbers… live-in domestic caregivers… health care workers…. oil-sands workers…. construction and engineering workers… hotel workers… and even those serving Canadian's most sought after coffee and doughnuts. The range of jobs being filled by temporary foreign workers is widening. But their rights aren't.
These workers are not free to move to another job within the sector they work in. They contribute to health care and EI but are not full beneficiaries. They may belong to a union, depending on the sector, but they can’t really use their contract rights. In certain cases they may be able to apply for immigration, but even then it’s at the discretion of their employer.
Some sectors benefit from temporary foreign labour. But they do so at the expense of the migrant workers who don’t enjoy full rights while they’re here in Canada, and the Canadian residents whose job rights and access to training may be undermined by these programs. At the same time, Canada contributes to the “brain drain” and export of workers from areas of the world much in need of their skills. Mexico, Jamaica, the Philippines, Mali, Nigeria and many other favourite Canadian vacation destinations provide workers for these programs.
This is an invitation to learn more from Laurell Ritchie and Jojo Geronimo about Canada’s long-standing and newer programs for temporary foreign workers. Together we’ll discuss the implications for our society and what actions might be helpful.
Some issues with the new low-skill temporary foreign worker program:
- the Harper government is fast-tracking employer applications for temporary foreign workers in Alberta, BC and now Ontario. the government's new interest in temporary foreign workers has been triggered by the assumed "skills shortage" employers in a wide variety of industries - health care, hotels, restaurants, construction, agriculture, manufacturing - are accessing these permits. a BC nursing home management corporation threatened to bring in temporary foreign workers unless there were major contract concessions. When the workers refused, a contractor secured a permit arguing "labour shortages" and brought in temporary foreign workers from India, Colombia, Philippines and South Korea. The 70 union members lost their jobs. immigrant mushroom workers are being released while their employers argue "labour shortages" and get permits for temporary foreign workers. The temporary workers from Jamaica and Thailand get lower pay, longer hours and fewer rights. It’s breeding deep resentment and worsening race relations in a community where new immigrants see themselves being pushed out of their jobs by temporary foreign workers from other countries.
The Canadian Labour Congress has called on government to:
provide more training, apprenticeships and mobility supports for workers already in Canada emphasize immigration over temporary foreign work permits which lead to abuse and exploitation of temporary foreign workers. The permits are also used to undercut the working conditions of the current work force fix the immigration point system and its class bias towards elite education and technical training
- consult with labour as well as business about skills shortages and other labour market information.
Laurell Ritchie has worked in the labour movement for over 30 years, originally as an organizer with immigrant women and men in the textile industry. She now works with the Canadian Auto Workers and sits on the Canadian Labour Congress temporary workers advocacy group.
Jojo Geronimo has done education, policy research, and organizing with unions, social justice organizations, and service agencies on issues of worker and immigrant rights. He is involved with Philippine solidarity groups and Filipino community-based organizations. He's the Executive Director of the Labour Education Centre.
July 8, 2007 - 3 pm
The Scream Literary Festival Presents
Under the Microscope: The State of Poetry Criticism. Even with a microscope, it's (almost) too small to see: where's the discussion of poetry among non-poets?
The mainstream media carries intelligent criticism of all kinds of arts, from architecture to audio installations, but no one seems to talk about poetry. Is that absence a failure of the critics? The mainstream media culture? How can that gap between the poet and the public be bridged? Who can make the words and ideas explored by poets relevant/accessible to those whose lives don’t revolve around poesy? (It’s true. Some people’s lives don’t revolve around poesy.)Explore these questions with us.
Free. Donations welcome.The panelists include:
Elizabeth Bachinsky, poet whose latest collection, Home of Sudden Service (Nightwood), was nominated for a 2006 Governor General's Award.
David Orr, poetry critic for The New York Times Book Review and Poetry magazine, as well as the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle citation for Excellence in Reviewing.
Damian Rogers, arts editor at eye weekly, poet and Toronto impresario.
Carl Wilson, music critic and proprietor of Zoilus.com whose book about love, taste and Celine Dion will be published in the fall.
The moderator will be Toronto writer Marianne Apostolides.
**SCREAM 15: From July 3 to July 9, The Scream Literary Festival turns Toronto into a laboratory of poetry and ideas. Now in its 15th year, this year’s festival considers the strange alchemy of poetry and science through readings, panels, and performances. As always, the festival reaches its boiling point with The Scream in High Park, Canada’s largest single-night outdoor reading, on July 9. Check out all the events online: www.thescream.ca.
Most known for her work on stage at the Shaw Festival Theatre, Trish Lindström is also an accomplished photographer. A passion for travel and photography has taken her on several ventures through Latin America including trips the Highlands of Guatemala and the silver mines in Bolivia.
This exhibit features portraits of the unrelenting human spirit in these high-altitudinal regions saturated in the power of their export industries.
In the last three years, proceeds from photograph and postcard sales have funded the construction of two potentially sustainable projects for the Aguilar Lorenzo family in Guatemala. A slideshow featuring a “behind-the-fence” glance at this family’s life at home and on the coffee plantation will be shown on June 25 th at 7pm.
For more information please visit www.trishlindstrom.com .
June 22 , 2007, 6 - 9:00 p.m.
The Community Grows Through Dialogue
Community Forums
The Solidaridad Museum launches a series of eight community forums starting Friday, April 27.
Invited panelists will participate in a series of presentations through which a thirty-year (1973-2003) history of the Chilean and Latin American Diasporas will begin to be constructed. For more information please visit:
Viernes 22 de Junio, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.
"Trabajadoras/es sociales y las organizaciones de la comunidad" or "Social workers and the creation of the first organizations to serve the L.A. community."
- In Spanish with English translation -
Panelistas invitadas:
- Maria Antonieta Smith, trabajadora comunitaria.
- Magaly San Martin, sociologa y activista.
- Rodolfo Arenas, trabajador comunitario.Invitamos a todas y todos los trabajadores comunitarios a que asistan y
contribuyan con sus experiencias y relatos al desarrollo de contenido
para el Museo Solidaridad.Las panelistas invitadas hablarán acerca de las organizaciones que
miembros de la comunidad chilena fundaron o ayudaron a establecer. El
enfoque estará puesto en las siguientes áreas sociales: ayuda a recién
llegados, ayuda legal, contrarrestar la pobreza y adultos mayores. En futuros foros se tocarán otros temas como el trabajo educativo, los derechos
de la mujer y la vivienda. Se analizará cómo las organizaciones han ido
evolucionando en la medida que la comunidad chilena y latinoamericana
ha ido creciendo y sus necesidades cambiando.Les invitamos a que envien sus preguntas, testimonios y comentarios por
correo electrónico si desean hacerlo de manera anónima y nosotros las
presentaremos durante el foro: barreda@sympatico.caEl Museo Solidaridad es un proyecto de LACAP.
Patrocinado por: Grupo Cultural Victor Jara, Grupo Cultural Orlando
Letelier, Casa Salvador Allende, Cooperativa de Viviendas Arauco.Para mayor información visite: www.solidaridadmuseum.org
June 1-15, 2007
June 5 - Documentary Screening 7:30 p.m.
Finding Dawn
Finding Dawn illustrates the deep historical, social and economic factors that contribute to the epidemic of violence against Native women in this country [Canada]. It goes further to present the ultimate message that stopping the violence is everyone’s responsibility.
Please click to visit NFB/ONF web site for a wealth of information about this film.
June 6 - Documentary Sreening 7:30 p.m
Killer's Paradise
With stunning realism, Killer's Paradise documents these heartbreaking stories. Victims' friends and family, police officers and investigators, rapists and gang members - even a serial killer who still roams freely - offer gripping testimonies to the stark reality in Guatemala. Meticulously crafted and beautifully shot, Killer's Paradise is a bold film that captures the raw emotions of all those affected and the harsh reality of a struggling nation.
Please click to visit NFB/ONF web site for more information on this film.
Many thanks to Amnesty International for allowing us to show these two films. Our thanks to you for attending, getting involved and supporting the defence of Human Rights.
June 7 - Presentation & Discussion 7 p.m
Michael Craig
Presentation and discussion focusing on the campaign to stop violence against women. The situation of women in Guatemala, Mexico and Canadian First Nations' will be addressed.
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Offered June 1-15 2007, all profits from this menu will be donated to Amnesty International in support of their Human Rights work.
The more you come and return to order these items, the more we’ll be helping Amnesty International.
You may combine your choice with our regular menu.
Amnesty Chicken Sandwich
Strips of chicken breast, chemical-free and hormone-free, free range from Mennonite farms in Ontario, marinated in achiote and pan-broiled. Fine slices of soft avocado and oven roasted onions, seasoned with balsamic vinegar and herbs. Shredded organic sharp cheddar cheese, grilled till melted. We use organic sourdough marble bread from St. John’s Bakery. Served with a side salad of red leaf lettuce, red bell peppers and tomato. Sprinkled with our honey-orange vinaigrette. Amnesty Tofu Sandwich
Same as above, but with organic tofu marinated in achiote and pan-broiled, instead of chicken. Refried Amnesty Beans and tortillas
Organic tortilla chips, made in Canada, to dip into our homemade refried beans. Very mild spiciness. Served with guiso, our mild salsa, on the side. Amnesty Espresso Revuelto a.k.a. Turmoil Espresso
A double shot of Fair Trade, organic espresso from Latin American beans. We add ice and liquid sugar made from panela, unrefined sugar, direct fairly traded with Colombian campesinos.
We bring everything to the blender to obtain a granita-like mildly bitter-sweet drink. Drink it soon and it will be refreshing. Let it stand a short time, and distinct layers appear in your drink. Guava & Fresh Orange Juice Smoothie
A natural way of getting the vitamin C your good health demands, this smoothie is made using freshly squeezed organic oranges and our regular guava thick juice. Only water and ice are added before blending. No dairy, flavour enhancers or dietary supplements.
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At Tinto we celebrate diversity in a number of forms: food, music, language and culture, ethnicity and gender, political options and the arts. Human Rights issues can be regarded as a major concern wherever there is a lack of understanding of the importance of diversity. People working at Tinto join you in supporting Amnesty International by having a special menu with profits to be collected for donation toward their work in defence of Human Rights anywhere in the world where their mediation is required.  Just recently the government of Canada modified its policy towards Afghans in custody of Canadian troops due in part to the legal pressure of Amnesty International (AI) and to avoid a legal challenge that would have looked badly in the international scene. By extending our support to the whole two weeks of this year’s Taste for Justice we are, you and us, trying to keep this issue alive with friends and relatives, at home and work. In short, we try to make our concern for Human Rights an every day matter. AI is but one organization. There are thousands more and they too need our support. Being permanently informed of Human Rights issues both in the domestic and the international sphere is easy through the Internet. And although information is not action, no personal choice will be better than an informed option. Violations of Human Rights are of worldwide occurrence, every day, several times a day. Respect to Human Rights should be built in the same manner. One form of action is through establishing a link between being well informed and adopting sound ethical consumer choices. Look for products and services with a clean record. Be aware of those that have a history of threatening Human Rights. Favour the former, avoid the latter. Make a first choice of Fair Trade, locally produced and organic. Think twice before buying from the larger, more publicized brands. Consider supporting, buying from and joining co-ops.
Please accept our invitation for an evening of Human Rights at Tinto. Michael Craig, a member of AI and a family member rooted in this very neighbourhood will join us June 7th at 7 p.m. for a short presentation about women’s Human Rights issues in Latin America. A specific threat with many aspects yet to be investigated and discussed is the situation in certain places of Mexico and Guatemala where women are being killed in alarming numbers.
Join Michael, ask your questions, give him your feedback and take part in the discussion. We also invite you to make a special donation to AI in cash, credit or debit card. Thank you very much for letting us help those who help.
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June 15, 2007, from 7 p.m.
May 22 , 2007, 7:00 p.m.
FREE SPEECH |
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a neighbourhood reading series
presented by
eden hertzog & johan hultqvist |
Kate Sutherland
Carolyn Bennett
Ian Gardner
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Music by
Michael Johnston
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About the writers/artists/performers:
Kate Sutherland is the author of two collections of short fiction. The first, Summer Reading, won a Saskatchewan book award in 1995. The second, All In Together Girls, was published just this spring. She is co-organizer and co-host of the Fictitious Reading Series. She blogs about reading and writing at Kate's Book Blog: www.katesbookblog.blogspot.com
Carolyn Bennett (not the MP) is a writer and comedian. She has written for television (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Air Farce, Chilly Beach, The NHL Awards) and has had two plays produced by CBC Radio. She has been a contributor to eye weekly, NOW, The Toronto Star, the Montreal Gazette and other publications. A touring comic for ten years, Bennett now does the occasion standup gig when provoked. A graduate of the Humber School for Writers, Bennett has just completed her first novel. She lives on Indian Road, without cable. www.carolynbennettwritercomic.blogspot.com Ian Gardner: A native of the high Rocky Mountain Hills in Alberta, Ian combines a desire for new and invigorating experiences with a love for the world and all it contains. While writing various poetics and newfound songs, he has been waiting tables, painting houses, cleaning toilets, sweeping floors, digging ditches, fixing fences, being an uncle to his friends' kids, and watching jet airliners fly overhead to the Bahamas. An inhabitant of Toronto for over 8 years, he spends much of his time down in Roncesvalles on Sunnyside Avenue listening to the wind. Delicately savouring organic chocolate, he continues to follow the long open road where the right words flow and time stands still. He believes in the power of Love and the Heart to generate miracles. Michael Johnston is a musician's musician and an in-demand sideman. His 2005 full-length solo debut - Curious Heart - was produced with drummer Don Kerr (Ron Sexsmith). Built around the piano, the album's 14 songs are a mix of exquisite melodies, rootsy ballads, and spirited vocal harmonies. Johnstons soulful, intricate and quintessentially Canadian songs create engaging moods and enduring images. A cast of dream musicians including Maury Lafoy (Sarah Harmer), Lewis Melville (Cowboy Junkies), Reid Jamieson ("The Vinyl Cafe"), and Don Rooke (Mary Margaret O'Hara) embroider Curious Heart with class and soul. www.michaeljohnston.ca
About the organizers:
Eden Hertzog is a proud parkdalian. She divides her time between running New Moon Kitchen www.newmoonkitchen.com , writing tales of her life, and singer-songwritering.
Johan Hultqvist is the Swedish front man of JUNO-nominated Afrobeat collective Mr. Something Something www.mrsomethingsomething.com . He's lived in at least half a dozen different places on both sides of Roncesvalles and leaves his neighbourhood only to go on tour. Johan will, once agian, be the host in this last Free Speech of the season.
April 24, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
FREE SPEECH |
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a neighbourhood reading series
presented by
eden hertzog & johan hultqvist |
Chris Gibbs
Levi MacDougall
MarianneApostolides
Evalyn Parry
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About the writers/artists/performers:
Marianne Apostolides is the Grants Coordinator for the Scream Literary Festival and the Books Editor for The Women's Post. Her current writing explores/ignores the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction. She may herself be a fiction, though she's not yet sure.
Chris Gibbs is a stand-up comedian, improviser, writer and actor. Born in the UK , he started working as a street performer in London's Covent Garden in 1991. A year later he co-founded the theatre group HOOPAL, whose innovative physical comedy shows toured through Europe, Australia, New Zealand and best of all, Canada. Chris moved to Canada permanently in the summer of 2002, immediately touring with his one-man stand-up show, GIBBERISH. The following year he co-wrote his second one-man show, a mock motivational seminar called THE POWER OF IGNORANCE, with TJ Dawe. In 2005 Chris moved further away from straight stand-up with ANTOINE FEVAL, a one-man play telling the story of Victorian England's most overlooked detective. The show won 'Best of the Fest' at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and was held over at the Edmonton Fringe. VUE Weekly writes that "Gibbs is such an effortlessly natural, off-the-cuff comedian that it's easy to overlook what a superb playwright he is." Aside from producing his own theatre shows Chris has found time to branch out into film work, including the lead role in the Canadian feature RUN ROBOT RUN. Chris has also co-written THE POWER OF IGNORANCE: 14 STEPS TO USING YOUR IGNORANCE, a self-help spoof based on the show.
www.chrisgibbs.ca Levi MacDougall has been called "master of the surreal observation" by NOW Magazine and "one of Canada's finest young comics" by Time Out New York. He appears regularly at just about every mainstream and alternative stage in Toronto. He is a past Phil Hartman Award nominee and a former winner of the Tim Sims Encouragement Award. He has also appeared in his own hour-long Comedy Now! stand-up special on CTV. Along with this, Levi was a full-time writer and cast member on popcultured with Elvira Kurt. Levi recently appeared on Andy Kindler's Alternative Show at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. He won two Canadian Comedy Awards in 2005 (Best Taped Live Performance and Best TV Writing in a Special or Episode) and was nominated for a Gemini Award in the category of Best Performance in a Comedy Program. He tells jokes and stories.
www.levimacdougall.com Singer-songwriter, poet, theatre artist and ironic social commentator Evalyn Parry is building a strong reputation for her outspoken, witty, and highly original creations. Whether she's costumed as a singing maxipad, rhyming off incisive spoken word rant about bottled water or chemical lawn care, or singing about sailors, pro-wrestlers, gay rovers or bumblebees, Evalyn's live performances are as thought-provoking as they are hilarious, and as deeply political as they are personal. She has had numerous spoken word pieces commissioned and broadcast by the CBC, and has been a featured performer at the Hillside Festival, The West Coast Poetry Festival, The Halifax Pop Explosion, The Toronto International Storytelling Festival, The Ottawa Folk Festival, The Vancouver Storytelling Festival, North by North East, to name a few. Evalyn has also performed extensively at colleges and universities, folk venues, poetry slams, and activist events in Canada and the United States. Parry's latest recording, Small Theatres (Borealis Records, 2007) is a double album, one of music and one of spoken word, produced by John Switzer.
www.evalynparry.com
About the organizers:
Eden Hertzog is a proud parkdalian. She divides her time between running New Moon Kitchen www.newmoonkitchen.com , writing tales of her life, and singer-songwritering.
Johan Hultqvist is the Swedish front man of JUNO-nominated Afrobeat collective Mr. Something Something www.mrsomethingsomething.com . He's lived in at least half a dozen different places on both sides of Roncesvalles and leaves his neighbourhood only to go on tour.
April 14 , 2007, 8 - 10 p.m.
Live Jazz Trio
Mike Wark - Sax
Ben Miller - Bass
Max Senitt - Drums & Percussion
Pay What You Can
April 11 , 2007, 7:00 p.m. 
Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)
Documentary screening
This documentary chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1, examining its cultural and economic ripple effects and how they reverberated through the halls of government and big business.
It was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. It ran on electricity, produced no emissions and catapulted American technology to the forefront of the automotive industry. The lucky few who drove it never wanted to give it up. So why did General Motors crush its fleet of EV1 electric vehicles in the Arizona desert? The year is 1990. California is in a pollution crisis. Smog threatens public health. Desperate for a solution, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) targets the source of its problem: auto exhaust. Inspired by a recent announcement from General Motors about an electric vehicle prototype, the Zero Emissions Mandate (ZEV) is born. It required 2% of new vehicles sold in California to be emission-free by 1998, 10% by 2003. It is the most radical smog-fighting mandate since the catalytic converter. With a jump on the competition thanks to its speed-record-breaking electric concept car, GM launches its EV1 electric vehicle in 1996. It was a revolutionary modern car, requiring no gas, no oil changes, no mufflers, and rare brake maintenance (a billion-dollar industry unto itself). A typical maintenance checkup for the EV1 consisted of replenishing the windshield washer fluid and a tire rotation. But the fanfare surrounding the EV1's launch disappeared and the cars followed. Was it lack of consumer demand as car makers claimed, or were other persuasive forces at work? Fast forward to 6 years later... The fleet is gone. EV charging stations dot the California landscape like tombstones, collecting dust and spider webs. How could this happen? Did anyone bother to examine the evidence? Yes, in fact, someone did. And it was murder. The electric car threatened the status quo. The truth behind its demise resembles the climactic outcome of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express: multiple suspects, each taking their turn with the knife. WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? interviews and investigates automakers, legislators, engineers, consumers and car enthusiasts from Los Angeles to Detroit, to work through motives and alibis, and to piece the complex puzzle together. WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? is not just about the EV1. It's about how this allegory for failure—reflected in today's oil prices and air quality—can also be a shining symbol of society's potential to better itself and the world around it. While there's plenty of outrage for lost time, there's also time for renewal as technology is reborn in WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?
Directed by Chris Paine
www.whokilledtheelectriccar.com
April 5 - 19, 2007
Opening night and presentation
April 12, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
Death and Form by Arlan Londoño
Pared/Cinematic
by Arlan Londoño
Video, B&W Photography and Lead
Duration of the video: 3:30 min loop,
6 Photographs (8’x11’)
Dimensions variable,
1996 - 2006 
“Why should I shorten my life letting my shadow be captured?"
Crazy Horse, Sioux Chief.
A. The vision machines have changed our perception of reality, accelerating the communication processes.
They have mutated the human being; they have created an excess of images and information where contemporary man has collapsed, mass media view of the world is an experience of disorder and chaos. B. This work consists of decomposed cinematic images: When a frame is disclosed in image and text and this separation happens, we realize the word presupposes an individual subject, it creates worlds.
The image creates the individual subject, is public as the glance, it express shared worlds. C. In my latest works I have analyzed the images produced by machines emphasizing the relationship image-subject-reality. I look at how they are created and mutually influence each other, trying to generate different forms of creation to confront the imposed silence when we assume the dominating narratives.Visit e-fagia to find out more about Arlan Londoño's projects.
FourFilms is curated by Johan Hultqvist. Artwork by María Paz Lira.
April 4 , 2007, 7:00 p.m.
The End of Suburbia
Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream (2005)
Documentary screening
Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness.
Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary. The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?
Directed by Gregory Greene
www.endofsuburbia.com
March 30, 2007, 6:30 p.m.
Singin' About Us -- an evening of singing together, our songs
Open No-Mic Night
Alan Gasser, singer, voice teacher at York University and organizer
Bob Davis, special guest"I'd like to invite you [says Alan] to an early Friday night event in my neighbourhood, to meet and sing with a friend of mine, Bob Davis, who edited the book Singin' About Us, in the 70s. I have attached a scan of the cover of the book of songs, published in 1976, by Bob, founding editor of This Magazine Is About Schools, the precursor to This Magazine".
Alan will be accompanying his voice students on keyboards and Bob will be available to accompany on guitar or sing while playing on his own. Alan's students are welcome to bring their own instruments or their friends with theirs.
It will be a pleasant evening of refreshing songs by young enthusiastic singers.
March 28, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
The Future of Food
Documentary Screening
The Future of Food (2004) offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.
From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply. Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, The Future of Food examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.
Directed by Deborah Koons Garcia
www.thefutureoffood.com
March 27, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
FREE SPEECH |
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a neighbourhood reading series
presented by
eden herzog & johan hultqvist |
poetry by
jan millAr
prose by novelist alayna munce and
eden arabella
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music by roman tomé |
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About the artists:
Alayna Munce grew up in Huntsville, Ontario, and has spent most of her adulthood in the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto, where she spends her time writing and working in bars and community centres. Her poetic novel When I Was Young and In My Prime was nominated for the 2006 Trillium Award. Her work has appeared in various Canadian literary journals and has three times won prizes in Grain Magazine's annual Short Grain Contest. In 2003 she won second prize in the CBC Literary Awards' travel writing category. In 2004 she was featured in the anthology Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets.Jay MillAr is a poet, bookseller, publisher and environmental research asisstant. His publications include The Ghosts of Jay MillAr (2000), Mycological Studies (2002), and False Maps for Other Creatures (2005). His most recent publication is Double Helix (2006), a collaborative novel written with Stephen Cain. He is also the author of many privately produced editions. A small press activist, Jay runs BookThug, an independent literary publishing house, and sells these and other books of poetically minded literature through Apollinaire's Bookshoppe, his on-line bookstore specializing in the books that no one wants to buy. Jay lives in Bloor West Village with his wife Hazel and their two sons, and has done so for more than ten years.Roman Tomé has been playing various styles of percussion and drums for nearly half his life. While playing and singing in different bands, his own songs have been patiently simmering. A thick rhythmical feel on guitar, insightful lyrics and strong vocals make for an enjoyable listen. Roman lives in The Junction area.
About the organizers:
Eden Arabella is a proud parkdalian. She divides her time between running New Moon Kitchen www.newmoonkitchen.com , writing tales of her life, and singer-songwritering.Johan Hultqvist is the Swedish frontman of JUNO-nominated Afrobeat collective Mr. Something Something www.mrsomethingsomething.com . He's lived in at least half a dozen different places on both sides of Roncesvalles and leaves his neighbourhood only to go on tour.
March 22, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
Maquilápolis
Documentary screening with guest speaker.
Presented through TorontoTheBetter
A film by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre
The Film
Carmen works the graveyard shift in one of Tijuana’s maquiladoras, the multinationally-owned factories that came to Mexico for its cheap labor. After making television components all night, Carmen comes home to a shack she built out of recycled garage doors, in a neighborhood with no sewage lines or electricity. She suffers from kidney damage and lead poisoning from her years of exposure to toxic chemicals. She earns six dollars a day. But Carmen is not a victim. She is a dynamic young woman, busy making a life for herself and her children. As Carmen and a million other maquiladora workers produce televisions, electrical cables, toys, clothes, batteries and IV tubes, they weave the very fabric of life for consumer nations. They also confront labor violations, environmental devastation and urban chaos -- life on the frontier of the global economy. In MAQUILAPOLIS, Carmen and her colleague Lourdes reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change: Carmen takes a major television manufacturer to task for violating her labor rights. Lourdes pressures the government to clean up a toxic waste dump left behind by a departing factory. As they work for change, the world changes too: a global economic crisis and the availability of cheaper labor in China begin to pull the factories away from Tijuana, leaving Carmen, Lourdes and their colleagues with an uncertain future.
The Process
To create MAQUILAPOLIS, the filmmakers brought together factory workers in Tijuana and community organizations in Mexico and the U.S. to collaborate on a film that depicts globalization through the eyes of the women who live on its leading edge. The factory workers who appear in the film have been involved in every stage of production, from planning to shooting, from scripting to outreach. This collaborative process breaks with the traditional documentary practice of dropping into a location, shooting and leaving with the "goods," which would only repeat the pattern of the maquiladora itself. The process embraces subjectivity as a value and a goal. It merges artmaking with community development to ensure that the film's voice will be truly that of its subjects.
The Outreach Campaign
We are currently seeking funding to implement a binational Community Outreach Campaign, designed and implemented collaboratively with stakeholder organizations in the U.S. and Mexico. The campaign utilizes a high-profile public television broadcast, top tier film festivals and community screenings of the film to create meaningful social change around the issues of globalization, social and environmental justice and fair trade. Our outreach team includes dedicated activists on both sides of the border, mediamakers commited to social change, and most importantly a group of women factory workers struggling to bring about positive change in their world.
visit the MAQUILAPOLIS website
March 21, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Documentary screening
WalMart: The High Cost of Low Price is a feature length documentary that uncovers a retail giant's assault on families and American values. The film dives into the deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to fight a goliath. A working mother is forced to turn to public assistance to provide healthcare for her two small children. A Missouri family loses its business after Wal-Mart is given over $2 million to open its doors down the road. A mayor struggles to equip his first responders after Wal-Mart pulls out and relocates just outside the city limits. A community in California unites, takes on the giant, and wins! Producer/Director Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films take you on an extraordinary journey that will change the way you think, feel -- and shop.
Visit http://www.walmartmovie.com/ for a wealth of information, things to do and not to do.
February 27, 2007, 7:00 p.m.
FREE SPEECH |
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a neighbourhood reading series
presented by
eden herzog & johan hultqvist |
an intimate evening with west-end writers
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justin conley
christine fischer guy
marcia johnson
alayna munce |
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accordion, guitar & film by
bob wiseman |
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About the artists:
Christine Fischer Guy is a writer and journalist who has lived and worked in London, England. Her fiction reviews have appeared in Bookninja.com, Books in Canada, and The Globe and Mail. She was a finalist in The Writers' Union of Canada 2004 short prose competition and won Grimm magazine's Random Highbrow competition in 2005. Two of her stories are forthcoming in Descant, the first of the two in the Spring 2007 issue, and she's working on a novel. She lives in Bloor West Village with her husband and two children.
Justin Conley is an actor and playwright who recently returned home from living in Dublin, Ireland. Some of his most memorable experiences include: Both the Dublin and New York City productions of One Good Marriage (D.I.Y./Kneeling Bus), Pig (Kneeling Bus Theatre), Knives in Hens (Graduate Centre for Dramatic Studies - UofT), Power of the Dog (Equity Showcase Theatre), and Atom Egoyan's Salome (Canadian Opera Company). Justin lives right where Parkdale meets High Park.
Marcia Johnson is an actor and playwright. She is a member of Obsidian Theatre Company's Playwrights' Unit. Her radio drama, Viola Desmond, will air March 18 on CBC's Sunday Edition with Michael Enright. She lives in High Park.
Bob Wiseman has put out eight albums in his own name and worked with Blue Rodeo, Ron Sexsmith, The Hidden Cameras, The Barenaked Ladies, Wilco, Owen Pallett, and many other artists. Suddenly without warning he became a composer for film and television and hid away in a blacksmith shop near Lake Erie. Fortunately, after frequent pleas from the Premier of Ontario he decided to take up the pen and start up the van again. He lives in the Junction with the best cats on the block.
About the organizers:
Eden Arabella is a proud parkdalian. She divides her time between running
New Moon Kitchen, writing tales of her life, and singer-songwritering.
Johan Hultqvist is the Swedish frontman of Toronto afrobeat collective Mr. Something Something. He's lived in at least half a dozen different places on both sides of Roncesvalles and loves his neighbourhood so much that he leaves it only to go on tour.
February 26, 2007 , 6:30 p.m.
Problems in Africa and who's responsible
Introduction to the subject and discussion with Dr. Gerald Caplan
Documentary screening prior to Dr. Caplan's Presenation
Friday, February 23, 2007 at 7:00 p.m.
Shake Hands with the Devil
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Famine, drought, raging epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malnutrition, rape, children with assault riffles, villages burnt to ashes with their dwellers inside, government corruption, arms trafficking, over a basis of gold mining, diamonds, oil, cheap labour...
Africa seems to have all the problems, appears to be tremendously poor yet supplies the whole world with some of the most expensive and sought-after commodities.
Wouldn't, and hasn't it been too easy to place all responsibility on Africans?
In the several unending massacres occurring in Africa is there any one else responsible? The colonial powers of the past, the colonial mentality of the present? Are you and I responsible for what we don't do and what we do? Many horrible aspects of Africa can and should change and we have a part to play.
Find out through Dr. Caplan's presentation and broaden the possibilities for action with your involvement. |
The Walrus magazine published an enlightening article The Conspiracy Against Africa. Africa is a mess and it's not going to get better any time soon, by Gerald Caplan a few months back. You may want to read through that article again, look for a copy of the November issue of The Walrus or go on-line where you can access the full text. Just click on the title above.
- Shake Hands with the Devil is a documentary by Peter Raymont. The film tells about Canadian Lieutenant Roméo Dallaire and his mission in Africa when we was rendered powerless to stop a preventable genocide in Rwanda. Together with Gerald Caplan's article, this screening will aid in focusing on some of the many aspects to cover about Africa today.
- Screening Friday, February 23, 2007 at 7 p.m.
Dr. Gerald Caplan
Has an MA in Canadian history from the University of Toronto and a Ph.D. in African history from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. For 10 years Dr. Caplan was an associate professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Education at the Ontario Institute for Education (OISE)/University of Toronto. He is the author of two scholarly history books, co-author of a book on the 1988 Canadian election, as well as author of a collection of his newspaper articles, two UNICEF reports, two major Canadian public policy studies, and many articles and book reviews in magazines and academic journals. His most recent major publication was a comprehensive report called Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide.
After leaving OISE in 1977, Gerry Caplan became the Director of the CUSO volunteer program in Nigeria, and then was selected as Federal Secretary(National Director) of the New Democratic Party from 1982 to 1984. During 1985-86, he was co-chair of the Task Force on Canadian Broadcasting Policy. For the next half-dozen years he was primarily a newspaper columnist and television commentator as well as a consultant on government relations. In 1993 he became co-chair of the Royal Commission on Learning (Ontario), which released its report, For the Love of Learning, in 1995.
After the Commission he was the principal author of two UNICEF State of the World’s Children reports, one on children in conflict situations, the other on child labour around the globe. He represented Canadian international NGOs on missions to assess human rights, aid projects and elections in Central America, Namibia and Mozambique. He was a regular columnist for the Toronto Star and a member of the weekly Pundits Panel on CTV. During the 1999 Ontario election, he was Director of Research and Strategic Issues for the Ontario NDP. In 2000, Dr. Caplan authored the 300-page report Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide for the International Panel of Eminent Personalities established by the Organization of African Unity to Investigate the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. The following year he was named by the United Nation’s Special Coordinator for Africa as a member of the senior experts’ team undertaking an evaluation of the UN’s New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. He has acted as a senior consultant for the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa, based in Addis Ababa. Much of Gerry Caplan’s time in recent years was devoted to a major international initiative that he founded called "Remembering Rwanda: The Rwanda Genocide 10th Anniversary Memorial Project." He became the volunteer co-coordinator of this movement, which culminated with the 10th anniversary in April 2004. He also co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Genocide Research devoted to recent scholarship related to the genocide.
He has made presentations on Rwanda, genocide and genocide prevention in various cities in Canada, the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Africa. Gerry Caplan recently completed a report for UNICEF and the Africa Union on The State of Africa's Children. He has also developed a curriculum on the role of the media in the Rwandan genocide for the UN's University for Peace and its Institute for Media, Peace and Security which he is currently teaching. Dr. Caplan is the volunteer chair of the International Advisory Board for the African AIDS Initiative of the Centre for International Health, University of Toronto as well as advisor to Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa. On behalf of UNICEF and the World Health Organization, he prepared an Action Plan for improving the well-being of African children presented to the 2005 Summit of African Heads of State.
February 16 - March 7, 2007,
Casa Canadiense Revolutionary Art Show
February 16, 7 p.m.
Opening & panel discussion
Donations in support of Casa Canadiense will be welcome
This exhibit will show a great part of the collection of over 35 pieces of revolutionary art, created during the early years of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. Legendary Canadian art dealer/gallery owner Avrom Isaacs collected, mounted and displayed these works throughout the 1980's in Canada. He has now kindly donated them to Casa Canadiense.
Casa Canadiense is a volunteer-based solidarity group that sponsors aid projects and global education delegations to Nicaragua.
The highlight of the exhibition occurs opening night on February 16th, with a panel discussion on Revolutionary Art and on the current political situation in Nicaragua now that the Sandinistas, led by Daniel Ortega, have returned to power.
PANELISTS:
- Avrom Isaacs (Isaacs Gallery, Toronto),
- Pastor Valle-Garay (Professor, York University, Former Nicaraguan Consul General in Toronto) - Andrés Pérez (Professor, University of Western Ontario),
- George Manupelli, artist, founder of Aid to the Arts of Nicaragua.
- Canadian high-school students returning from brigades currently in Nicaragua.
February 22, 2007, 7:30 p.m.
The Fight for True Farming / Pas de Pays Sans Paysans
Documentary screening with guest speaker.
Presented through TorontoTheBetter
Directed by Eva Lamont, produced by Nicole Hubert in 2005, "in this [Canadian made] documentary, crop and animal farmers in Quebec, the Canadian West, the US Northeast and France offer solutions to the social and environmental scourges of factory farming. Driven by the forces of globalization, rampant agribusiness is harming the environment and threatening the survival of farms. The proliferation of GMO crops is a further threat to biodiversity as well as to farmers' autonomy. In Europe as well as North America, a current of resistance bringing together farmers and consumers insists that it is possible--indeed imperative--to grow food differently. The Fight for True Farming is a film of grim lucidity but also irrepressible hope. (National Film Board / Office Nationale du Film du Canada - NFB/ONF)
February 17-18, 2007
Warming spot for participants in Toronto 4th Photomarathon.
After walking for hours in the cold and searching for the perfect shots during the 24hr event, photographers will love to be recognized and acknowledged and may come to Tinto to receive discounts.
February 9, 2007, 6:30 p.m.
Literary Meeting to
promote poetry and short-story writing and readings in Spanish. Meeting
is to promote a literary prize in Spanish. Readings, publication of
works. Drop-in to get a copy of the rules or call poet Ernesto
Jobal Arrozales at 519-651-0313 or e-mail him at int_ship_books@yahoo.ca
Con el nombre
Certámen Literario Verbal de Literatura Jobal Arrozales se
llevará a cabo esta reunión en Tinto.
Organizing Women or Women Organizing? War, 'Reconstruction'
and Women's NGOs in Iraq
Shahrzad Mojab and Nadeen El-Kassem
Thursday, December 14 at 7 p.m.
This presentation is an exploration of
the transnational links between women's NGOs in Iraq and external sources of
their funding. They will specifically analyze the
consequences of the US occupation and its bid to make women's issues an
integral part of their reconstruction policy in Iraq.
They will argue that the US project of gender, democracy and
governance in Iraq is part of a larger ideological plan of
neo-liberalization in the region. Their detailed
fieldwork on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the region shows that
most of the Iraqi women's NGOs are acting as subcontractors to advise or
implement gender policy and projects sanctioned by the state. This clear
ideological bent and the funding that the Bush Administration and its
allies are contributing to direct and control Iraqi women's desire for change
have crucial consequences for the future of women's movement in Iraq, in
particular, and the rest of the Middle East, generally.
Although there has been a proliferation of women's NGOs, there is a dearth of
research on their activities. While there is a significant
scholarship about NGOs in South Asia and Latin America, the literature
on the Middle East, with the exception of the Palestinian case in post-Oslo
period, is quite limited. Studying the impact of NGOization on the women's
movement in Iraq is especially urgent in order to understand the role of women
in post-war reconstruction, and under conditions of internal war, terrorism,
resistance against occupation, religious fundamentalism, and
fragmentation of state power.
The oppositional activism and knowledge that has emerged in recent years in
Iraq and in diaspora will also be covered in this presentation.
Shahrzad Mojab
Professor, Ph.D. (Illinois)
Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology
Director, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto
Past-President, Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education
AWARDS
Noted Scholar, University of British Columbia
EFF Distinguished Visitor, University of Alberta, Edmonton
First prize winner in the Women’s WORLD writing contest, "Women’s Voices in
War Zones."
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Shahrzad Mojab’s specialty includes: educational policy studies with focus
on policies affecting the academic life of marginalized groups in
universities; comparative and international adult education policy; adult
education, globalization and learning. Her areas of research and teaching are:
critical and feminist pedagogy; power and difference in the workplace; women,
state, globalization and citizenship; women, war,
violence and learning; and comparative analysis of lifelong learning theory
and practice. She has conducted extensive research on immigrant women’s access
to employment and training in Canada and the impact of war and violence on
women’s
learning in the diaspora.
FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS
“Education Research for Conflict Prevention, Human Security and
Peace-building: Understanding and Responding to Gendered Dimensions,”
Connaught International Symposia/colloquia, University of Toronto.
“Role of women’s organizations in post-war reconstruction: Diaspora-homeland
relations in the Kurdish “Safe Haven,” 1991-2003,” SSHRC, Standard Research
Grant.
“War, Diaspora and Learning: Kurdish Women in Canada, Britain, and Sweden,”
SSHRC Standard Grant.
Lana Stermac (Applicant) and Shahrzad Mojab (Co-applicant) “Academic
achievement and access in higher education among recent
immigrant and refugee youth,” CESC-SSHRC Educational Research Initiative.
“Transnational Organizations and Post-war Reconstruction: Mapping Women’s
Learning in Afghanistan and Kurdistan,” SSHRC Institutional Grant.
“The Role of Lifelong Learning Policy in the New Economy: Toward a Comparative
International Policy Framework. SSHRC Institutional Grant.
“Collaborative Learning for Change,” New Approaches to Lifelong Learning (NALL).
BOOKS PUBLISHED (since 2000)
Co-editor with Nahla Abdo Violence in the Name of Honour: Theoretical and
Political Challenges. Istanbul: Bilgi University Press.
Co-editor with Himani Bannerji War and Militarization, special issue of
Resources for Feminist Research, 30 (3/4).
Editor, Women of a Non-State Nation: The Kurds. Costa Mesa, California: MAZAD
Publishers, 263 pages.
Co-editor, Of Property and Propriety: The Role of Gender and Class in
Imperialism and Nationalism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 244 pages.
Editor with Afsaneh Hojabri, Women of Iran: A Subject bibliography. Cambridge,
MA: Iranian Women's Studies Foundation, 106 pages.
Editor with Afsaneh Hojabri, Two Decades of Iranian Women's
Studies in Exiles: A Subject Bibliography [in Farsi]. Cambridge, MA: Iranian
Women's Studies Foundation, 154 pages.
Want to find out more about the courses she teaches or the articles she's
published? Please click on this link
http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/aecp/faculty/mojab.html
. Our short version was taken from there.
Nadeen El-Kassem
Nadeen is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Toronto, Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education, in the collaborative program between Adult
Education and Comparative International and Development Education. Her areas
of specialization include women's NGOs and women's
movements in Iraq, Kurdistan and Palestine. She holds an MA in Gender Studies
from the School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London. In the past she has worked in the Kurdish Human Rights
Project legal department on women's issues. She is also
involved in community activism in her hometown, Toronto, Canada.
December 1 - 21, 2006
Presentation & Panel Discussion - Thursday, December 7, 2006 at 7 p.m.
Adam Perry is presently a
graduate student at OISE/UT. This is his fourth solo photo exhibit since
first exhibiting his Dubious Battles: Photos of Migrant Agricultural
Workers in Halifax in 2003. Adam gained access and befriended many
migrant agricultural workers as a labourer/teacher with Frontier College's labourer/teacher program in 2003, 2004, and 2005. As a labourer/teacher, Adam
worked on tobacco farms and fruit orchards in Delhi, Vineland, and Ruthven,
Ontario. He lived in bunkhouses with Mexican colleagues and taught English
as a Second Language during the evenings after long hours in the fields. In
the off seasons Adam returned to Mexico with his colleagues and spent the
winters with them and their families in their hometowns. In Mexico he worked
as a day labourer in agriculture and construction. In 2005 he was the
artistic director of the Leamington Blue House Popular Players, a
community theatre troupe composed of migrant workers from Mexico and the
Caribbean. The photos that comprise Out of Their
Labours were taken on farms in Southern Ontario and in various areas
throughout Mexico including Guanajuato, Chiapas, Puebla, and Michoacan.
Contact: Paul Baines (media educator,
producer, organizer)
pjbaines@yahoo.ca
October 26 - November 30,
2006
Featuring the work of Jesus
Abad Colorado, Dana Lixenberg, and Stephan Vanfleteren.Starting Tuesday, November 14, 2006 there
will be two screenings Monday through Friday
6 p.m. and 8 p.m. of a short 20 min. video that synthesizes both presentations
of MSF's report on Colombia held in Ottawa the night before the opening of the
photo exhibit at Tinto,
and at Tinto on the 26th.
The video was shot by Alvaro Giron and edited by Diana Cadavid.
Monday, November 6, 2006 at 6 p.m.
Commemorating Free Expression
A Look at Independent Media and the Indigenous Movement
in Colombia
Screening of video by Hollman Morris, veteran
Colombian Journalist. Debate to follow.
&
Presentation by Ezequiel Vitonas, Chief of Council for the Association of
Indigenous Authorities of Northern Cauca (ACIN)
Hollman Morris is a veteran journalist from Colombia, who will
be in Canada to receive the International Press Freedom Award from the
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). His career spans more than
two decades, and includes his role as producer of the weekly program CONTRAVIA,
correspondent for the channel RCN, editor of the Peace and Human Rights
Section of El Espectador, (one of Colombia's two most prominent newspapers)
and founder of the university journal El Universitario.
Ezequiel Vitonas, Chief of
Council for the Association of Indigenous Authorities of Northern Cauca (ACIN),
and a former popularly elected mayor of Toribio (a town suffering increased
militarization over the past years, and recent site of civilian disobedience
manifested through the collective removal of military installations). He has
also been recognized by UNESCO as a "Master of Wisdom".
Hollman Morris is this year's recipient of the
International Press Freedom Award from the Canadian Journalists for Freedom of
Expression. In Colombia, where self-censorship is the norm, and where there
have been 28 cases of journalists slain over the past decade, Hollman Morris
is representative of the independant journalist under threat. The
Communications Network for Truth and Life of the Indigenous Councils of
Northern Cauca (ACIN) who nominated Morris for the award, describes him as a
journalist who "drop by drop, image by image, word by word, allow the threads
of resistance... to weave together with distant places, in the construction of
another country that we all dream about and deserve."
During the week of November 2-9,
Pueblos en Camino (www.en-camino.org)
will be hosting a series of events in different parts of Ontario by
these two very important Colombian leaders.
no cover. collection
Saturday, July 15, 2006, opening of
exhibition
www.hopeandhistory.tyo.caThursday, July 13, 2006 at 7:00 p.m
Shoulder to Shoulder: men and vulnerability
Screening of video by Paul Baines
 |
In a
culture of tough guys and strong-yet-silent types, we hear barely a
whisper from men talking about vulnerability.
What does vulnerability feel like?
What barriers keep men from being more vulnerable?
How does a lack of vulnerability affect men's relationship with others and
themselves? |
Paul Baines wanted to focus
on these questions by looking both outward and within. He spoke to a
group of five men who shared his experience of supporting men living with
a disability.
It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.
- Irish Proverb
|
 |
After screening discussion with
director Paul Baines.
OCAP celebrates one more
All through June 2006The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
is celebating fifteen years of work looking at poverty in the face and bringing
achievable solutions to poverty in Ontario.A very small but meaningful selection of B/W
photos remind OCAP members and illustrates for the public, what actions OCAP
has been involved in. Come and see the exhibit, join the list to be
contacted by OCAP and become part of the struggle against poverty in Ontario,
and donate to OCAP, an organization that´s supported by people like you, not
by the government nor by corporations.Find more information about
OCAP at http://www.ocap.ca/
|
Taste for Justice
Special menu items in support of
Amnesty International
In June
of 2006 Tinto Coffee House introduced three new items in its
menu with profits donated
to Amnesty International in support of their
Human Rights work.
The more you came and returned to order these items, the more we
helped Amnesty International.
You could combine them with any other item in our menu.
Amnesty Chicken Sandwich
Strips of chicken breast,
chemical-free and hormone-free, free range from Mennonite farms in
Ontario, marinated in achiote and pan-broiled. Fine slices of soft
avocado and oven roasted onions, seasoned with balsamic vinegar and
herbs. Shredded organic sharp cheddar cheese, grilled till melted. We
use organic sourdough marble bread from St. John’s Bakery.Served
with a side salad of red leaf lettuce, red bell peppers and tomato.
Sprinkled with our honey-orange house vinaigrette.
Amnesty Tofu
Sandwich
Same as above, but with organic tofu marinated in achiote
and pan-broiled, instead of chicken.
Refried
Amnesty Beans and tortillas
Organic tortilla chips, made in Canada, to dip into our homemade
refried black beans.
Nothing too spicy.
Amnesty Espresso Revuelto
a.k.a. Turmoil Espresso
A double shot of Fair Trade, organic espresso from Latin American
beans. We add ice and liquid sugar
made from panela, the rawest possible form of
sugar, direct fairly traded with Colombian campesinos.
We bring everything to the blender to obtain a granita-like mildly
bitter-sweet drink. Drink it soon and it will be refreshing. Let it stand a short time, and distinct layers
appear in your drink.
|
Saturday, May 13, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
Screening of documentary film Birdsong & Coffee. A Wake Up Call.
Fair Trade Weeks in Toronto
Birds & Beans is a roastery in Toronto. They supply Tinto with
the excellent Fair Trade, organic, Latin American coffee beans from which our
espresso based drinks and brewed coffees are made. They are dedicated roasters
and besides their knowledge of coffee matters they have a real love for birds.
Somehow birds brought them to coffee. And now they have contacted the
producers of the documentary we'll be screening to share with you the
connection between migratory birds, shadegrown coffee and Fair Trade. The connection, by the way, is you. Your choice of Fair Trade
certified coffees brings back migratory birds to the North; your choice helps
preserve and encourages coffee growers to plant trees taller than coffee trees
to bring shade, biodiversity, food and water to the entire ecosystem;
with your support coffee farmers along Latin America make these things happen.
And they need to be paid a fair price for all they do. It´s not just about
trading a commodity. A complex connection between environmental, social,
political and economic issues runs through Fair Trade coffee crops. Cultural
diversity, you will see that in the documentary as well, is a great part of
what is involved.Come and join us. Watch this documentary and stay for an open
discussion with David Pritchard and Madeleine Pengelley from Birds & Bean
Roastery. For more information about this film please visit
www.olddogdocumentaries.comThis screening is hosted by Tinto and Birds & Beans in support
of the Fair Trade weeks, an annual event seeking education, promotion and
celebration of Fair Trade.
Screening is free of charge. There is limited seating so a
repeat screening can be scheduled. Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Begining of photo exhibition by Jon Elmer: Children of
Palestine
Thursday, Februray 9, 2006, 6:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.: Opening night with
slideshow presentation by Jon Elmer.
Donations ($5) collected at entrance. Proceeds from drinks to support
independent work like Jon's.
Exhibition will run all February.
Jon Elmer is an independent Canadian photographer and
writer; his work has recently
appeared in The Journal of Palestine Studies, The Progressive,
This Magazine, Z, The NewStandard and elsewhere.
Please visit
http://fromoccupiedpalestine.org/disengagement/
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 at 6:00 p.m
No nos oyen: Perfume de violetas
Screening of a Mexican film by director Maryse Sistach.
Main character actress, Ximena Ayala, will be available at the end of the
projection.
Admittance free of charge. Limited seating.
Please join us for the screening of this
Mexican film shown previously at the 26th Toronto Film Festival in 2001 and now at Tinto.
After the sreening, Mexican actress Ximena Ayala, 19 by the time the film was
shot, will be available for a talk on the impact the film has made in Mexico.
This film is in Spanish with no English undertitles. Whether you are a native
Spanish speaker or not, this film speaks to everyone. This is a good
opportunity to practice your Spanish, both through the film and with Ximena
Ayala after the sreening. You can start right now.
Opening Saturday, December 17 at 6:00 p.m.
The exhibition will run through January 30,
2006.
Guatemala 1996 - 2000: Images of a Troubled
Peace
An exhibition by photo journalist Jorge Uzon. A Presentation by Edgar Godoy.
Jorge Uzon
was born in Chile . He has worked extensively in Latin America. His photos
have been published in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Jorge has worked as a
freelancer and as staff member for Agence France-Presse. He spent several years
in Central America and Mexico capturing images of a complex, rich, varied,
sometimes painful and always intriguing reality. Images of Nicaragua and
Guatemala, where he lived during troubled times, are being kept for scrutiny, to
watch them and learn from them.
The current exhibition provides an insight into the work of an extraordinary
photographer who is at the same time a reporter of our times and a person with a
keen eye capabale of capturing extreme situations and its sense of terrible
beauty. Jorge is now based in Toronto.Edgar Godoy was born in Guatemala where he lived,
fought for better conditions for the Guatemalan people, suffered the loss of
family members and was finally turned an exile in Canada. For almost two decades
Edgar has been part of labour movements, traveled Canada throughout and visited
abroad frequently. As a member of CUPE, he has devoted his efforts to
constructing international solidarity. His involvement has placed him in
dangerous places at dangerous times, over and over again.
Guatemala is not just a matter of remembrance for Edgar. He knows the country,
its rural populations, its miners and the investment projects that add so much
to the problems already present, the military who never stood trial for their
crimes, the suffering of a vast population now being struck by gangs not
unrelated to weapons, drugs and crime and rooted deeply into the inner cities of
the United States. Edgar also knows the ways the left and the popular armed
movements took. He is aware of their responsibility in the situation of
Guatemala. There could hardly be better ways of getting
closer to feel and sense what Guatemala went through and is still facing than by
putting together the photographs of Jorge Uzon and the presentation of
Edgar Godoy.
This exhibition is supported by
The Salvador Allende Arts
Festival for Peace. Please visit their web site and find out more about the
Festival.
Thursday, December
15 at 6:00 p.mCaminando la Palabra
The Popular and Indigenous Struggles of Colombia and the Indigenous of Cauca
Vilma Almendra, a member of the Colombian
indigenous community of the Nasa people makes part of the communications team
for their Northern Territory Association. She is currently visiting Canada and
will be at Tinto to make a presentation of their most recent strategies. She
will be joined by Manuel Rozental, communications team coordinator, as well.Why does this matter to you?
For over five centuries the indigenous peoples have been struggling against
physical and cultural anihilation. They have suffered all imaginable persecution
and deprivation. Still, they are there. Not only as reminders of the past, but
as citizens of today, and if we pay attention, they may very well hold the keys
to understanding how the rest of us, just like them, may excercise our future
citizenship in full rights.The Nasa people are now being targetted for
another set of reasons. They have chosen to stop the war that Colombia has been
proggressively involved in for the past half century. Unarmed, they are making
every effort to keep the murderous forces of the guerrilla, the paramilitary,
the Colombian Army and all other armed interveners out of their territory. So
far, not without loss of lives, they have been able to do that and more. Their
projects have a social scope in mind that considers care for the land,
sustainable agriculture, schools and education, research and food supply, trade
alternatives among the Nasa and with other struggling peoples like the Afro
Colombians, protection for the continued use of their own language and culture,
and more.They walked, 60.000 strong over 300 Km in a
peaceful and orderly effort to claim respect for their rights and those of the
rest of the people who are unarmed but victimized in Colombia. They made an
incredible display of true democracy when they consulted 100.000 of their people
about the Free Trade Agreement to be accepted by the Colombian government and
imposed upon by the government of the US. The result was an overwhelming NO in a
process so transparent that no democracy promotion program can possibly claim to
have. They have received UNESCO awards, prizes and recognitions for bearing a
knowledge that is dear to humankind as a whole. To learn about this please join us. Caminando la Palabra:
The Popular and Indigenous Struggles of Colombia and the Indigenous of Cauca.
Please follow this link to Pueblos En Camino - Weaving Autonomies, for more
details.
The second and last part of this series of
presentations will be held on Saturday, January 7, 2006 at 6:00 p.m. Vilma
Almendra and Manuel Rozental will show how the indigenous communities of
northern Cauca view their relations with other communities and groups, how they
integrate into a web of social initiatives and how they are projecting their
views into what other processes have achieved, may review and help build
together and finally, the threats sorrounding the project.
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