Upcoming Events
SWAP IT UP - A CLOTHING EXCHANGE PARTY
Saturday, April 24th, 2010
Freedom Clothing Collective (939 Bloor St. W.)
2PM - 6PM
$5 and a bag of used clothes
Event details:
There will be music. There will be baked goods. There will be piles and piles of clothes and accessories.
Entry is $5 and a bag of gently used clothing and/or accessories. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Clothing and accessories should be gently used. No stained, ripped or malodorous contributions!
This swap is a free for all – bring the clothes and accessories that you’re ready to part with, and then dig through the contributions of others to see what you can find. The sky’s the limit on how much you can take.
If you want to drop off your bag of clothing before the swap takes place, or if you simply want to donate clothes to the swap, you can do so by bringing your clothes to Freedom Clothing Collective during the week of April 17-April 24. For store location and hours, visit www.freedomclothingcollective.com.
This clothing swap is open to anyone and everyone – but venue capacity is limited, so come early!
At the end of the swap, all unclaimed clothing will go to Sistering. Find out more about Sistering at www.sistering.org.
LADYFEST PRESENTS... TRAVELOGUES: FEMENIST FILM/VIDEO
Monday, March 15th, 2010
UofT Hart House Board Room
8 PM
FREE!
JOURNEY-WOMEN
This night will focus on the narrative. The Journey is a story in which one character moves forward, and presents herself in beginning, middle, and end. The works shown on this evening focus on personal experience, self-determination, and process.
Themes of bravery, independence, and aping will be discussed in relation to the films
"Very Good Advice” by Jenn E Norton
"A Siamese Cat Would Be So Small” by Helena Kvarnström & Kevin Marchand
"Wedding Video" by Jennifer Chan
"Song No. 11” by Celine Trouillet
Monday, March 22, 2010
UofT Hart House Board Room
8 PM
FREE!
MAPS
Visual artists and psychologist have long used the term map to refer to visual practices used to make sense of the outside (or inside) world of the individual. Mapping is a way that we refer to ourselves as part of a larger geography. It helps us make sense, find our way, and communicate with others. Works shown on this night will reflect the idea of a Map in that thay visually, and textually express a larger context (a “making sense of”). Placement, perspective, symbols, and power will be discussed as well as the usefulness of this constantly called-upon metaphor.
"Experimentation//Nature of Technology” by Adrienne Crossman
"Inexhale” by Kristen Lytle
"Falling with Force” by Sofia Bohdanowicz
"Everyday Monsters" by Onyinyechukwu Udegbe
"Fuck like a Warrior" by Darcel Bullen
"Song No. 9” by Celine Trouillet
Monday, March 29, 2010
UofT Hart House Board Room
8 PM
FREE!
SURVIVAL
A large amount of submissions we received dealt with the theme of survival. Some of these referred directly to sexual or gendered violence and others were more generally about moving forward. Tonight we honour the brave filmmakers willing to tackle this subject.
"waiting to testify" and "They Were, S/he Was" by Bryn Ludlow
"The Survivor's Guide to Freedom from Violence" by Lindsay Angus
"Losing the Light" by Niamh Heery
"Olivia” by Anna Rolek
"Song No. 8” by Celine Trouillet
Past Events!
HOMOS FOR HAITI
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Tranzac (292 Brunswick Ave.)
$10/PWYC
LADYFEST PRESENTS... ALL IS FULL OF LOVE
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Tranzac (292 Brunswick Ave.)
8 PM
$5
8:30pm Gender Non-Specific Speed Dating*
Isla Craig
50/50 Draw
Cinnamon Heart Eating Contest
Artist-Made Valentines
Slow Dancing All Night
Make Out Room!
*This means that everyone who is speed-dating will meet everyone else, whether they are a potential match or not! So unfortunately, if you are a lobster who only mates with crustaceans or sharks, you are still going to sit down for 5 minutes with an elephant. On the upside, you could meet 2 lovers, 3 friends, and a babysitter all in one night! If you have any questions please contact ladyfesttoronto@gmail.com with the subject line Speed Dating. $5 for speed-dating.
LADYFEST TORONTO 2009 LAUNCH PARTY
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Gladstone (1214 Queen St. W)
7PM - 11PM
FREE!
Join us to kick off this year's Ladyfest Toronto Festival at Granny Boots!
BOLLYWOOD BURLESQUE performance by Masti Khor
FLICKER ON OFF film by Caroline Koebel
QUEEROPOLIS film by Alexis Mitchell and Tori Foster
D-LISHUS and SHAMELESS word flow legends
NOLAN NATASHA, AIRHEART and SARAH MANGLE bring beautiful music
ELISHA LIM and LOREE ERICKSON will host!
RELATIONAL POLITICS
drawing,video,performance
Thursday, November 26th to Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Toronto Free Gallery (1277 Bloor Street West)
7PM
FREE!
Featuring:
Asma Arshad MahmoodAsma Arshad Mahmood received her BA from the University of Punjab, Pakistan, and her MFA from York University. Mahmood is the Programming director of Cre8tive80, chair of Canadian Community Arts Initiative, and one of the founding directors of SAVAC. She has exhibited in Los Angeles, Toronto, Karachi, and Bombay.
Dina TaubDina Taub is a Toronto artist. She attended Claude Watson School for the Arts and completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University. Her art has been exhibited at the Toronto Public Library, AWOL Art Gallery, Carmel Art Gallery and Lonsdale Art Gallery and belong to private collections.
Helena KvarnströmHelena Kvarnström is a Toronto-based artist working with with photography, video and text. Her work has been exhibited internationally and her first novella, Violence, was published in 2005. & Kevin MarchandKevin Marchand is a broadcast engineer and videographer in Toronto.
Margaret Jean BroughtonMargaret Jean Broughton is a Toronto-based activist and poet who is excited to return to Ladyfest this year as a contributor, having been involved as a participant and as an organizer in the past.
Sarah CreagenSarah Creagen has been drawing for 23 years but has a bad short term memory, so is still learning the same lessons.
svessves is currently situated in Montreal figuring out how to live in a city where the fog keeps rolling in. She draws to keep her sanity intact, rides her bike to keep her heart in shape, and thinks a lot because that’s how she rolls.
Tannis NielsenTannis Nielsen is a Cree Danish Métis multimedia artist with a Master's of Visual Studies from the University of Toronto. She has held teaching positions at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and on the board of the Association of Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA), A-Space Gallery and The Métis Artists Collective.
curated by Drew Belsky
The relationship between the personal and the political are neither simple nor proscriptive. There is no one-to-one relationship between political ideologies and personal choices, but rather a web of complex and evolving dialogues. Hosted by Ladyfest and the Toronto Free Gallery, Relational Politics invites six artists to explore the ways in which our relationships shape our identities and our politics, as well as how new ways of doing relationships and communities can create social and political change. What do we learn from the families who raised us, and what do we leave behind (or wish we could)? How do we construct new families? How do relationships break us and how can they build us up again?
In Helena Kvarnström's collaboration with partner Kevin Marchand, A Siamese Cat Would Be So Small, intimacy and violence intertwine within a delicate inter-generational family narrative while pastoral landscape evokes domesticity, isolation, and anxiety. Meanwhile, in response to family violence in the Pakistani Muslim community, Asma Arshad Mahmood's works on paper employ traditional techniques and imagery to contemporary issues, examining and reconfiguring the social regulation of women's dress. The negotiation of traditional values and contemporary society find no easy solutions, however family can also be a source of strength and a framework for identity. The videos of indigenous artist and activist Tannis Nielsen reconstruct identity, family and solidarity through oral history and indigenous knowledges, reclaiming (and rewriting) colonial texts in defiant resistance to erasure.
Diasporic, indigenous, and queer communities are often formed out of a need for belonging and mutual support. Sarah Creagen’s intuitive mark making connects with sves's richly textured drawings to elaborate conversations that the artists are having with themselves, each other, and their art. The artists view their work as a form of self-care, where they can share their stories as queers, people of colour and anxious artists. At times hopeful, anxious, funny, and emotionally challenging, poet and activist Margaret Jean Broughton's installation Interpretations and Alternate Endings struggles with the messy business of creating an analytical framework for new kinds of relationships using old, flawed tools. The spare lines of Dina Taub's portraits of romantic partners merge, recede and are shared between the individuals. New relationships are formed and re-formed while maintaining the individual’s own identity.
Relational Politics examines and interrogates, transgresses, re-situates and celebrates the categories of family, parent, friend, lover, partner, stranger, in the relationships that shape our identities. It is a constant negotiation of political ideals and personal realities, theory and practice, belief and experience, past, present, and future. Our relationships with other humans, friends, lovers, families, and communities show us the gaps in our philosophies and inspire us to create new ways of relating to each other. We are learning and teaching and building together.
QUEENS OF COUNTRY
Presented with Steers & Queers
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
Grossman's Tavern (379 Spadina)
8:30PM
PWYC
LadyFest Toronto offers you more twang and more pangs as we pay tribute the ladies of country & western.
Featuring Amy Campbell, Brescia Birdthroat Bloodbeard, Kay Pettigrew, Steers & Queers DJ's Sigourney Beaver and Leanne Grimes and maybe even a little all-star country karaoke.
LES BLUES PRESENTS: THE GOSPEL SHOW
Friday, November 27th, 2009
Tranzac (292 Brunswick Ave.)
8PM
$10 (no one turned away due to lack of funds)
In this program Les Blues examines the conflict of blackness, religion, gender, and sexuality. Confronting religious upbringings, we look at what it's like to come to terms with own ones sexuality and gender. We will also explore the possibilities of maintaining your religious/spiritual connection without compromising, breaking free from the binary sexual and gender codes of conformity.
See performances by Dainty Smith, Kim Katrin Crosby, Kalmplex, Robin Akimbo,Shi Wisdom, Kiana Eastmond, and David Lewis]
Les Blues' focus is to bring the colour back into the queer/trans community. So often our stories aren't told and if they are they're told by someone other then ourselves. Reclaiming space by using our voices and many talents to raise awareness about our lived experiences as black people existing in this white mainstream. Transforming the conversation into including our struggles and accomplishments within the queer/trans community.
Les Blues inspires and challenges. Evoking ideas through entertaining, beautiful documentary-style multimedia performances. Expect spectacular music, theater, videos, art and choreography from the troupe that packed Granny Boots in Toronto and Perversite in Montreal with the show BLACK MATERIAL WHITE GURL: 30 YEARS OF MADONNA'S APPROPRIATION
FAMILY LADYFEST
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
Tranzac (292 Brunswick Ave.)
2:30PM - 4:30PM
FREE!
Ladyfest Toronto is putting on it's second annual completely FREE event for families and children!
There will be crafts, food, and an interactive performance!
Coffee and cake for adults!
TTC fare provided to families. Please contact
youth.lfto@gmail.com if you are a family or group that would like to attend and need TTC fare in advance!
LADYFEST MUSIC SHOWCASE
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
Tranzac (Main Hall)
8PM
$10
ARTHUR RUSSELL IN THE KITCHEN
A fundraiser to make Ladyfest completely wheelchair accessible!
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
Tranzac (Tiki Room)
9PM
$5
Featuring:
Alanna Stuart (Bonjay, Everything All the Time)
Anna Linda Siddall
Brooke Manning (Owl Eyes)
Lisa Bozikovic
Maya Postepski (Princess Century, Katie Stelmanis)
Nathan Rekker (SPORTS: the Band)
Niall Fynes and Drew Smith and Andy Lloyd and Dana Snell and Drew Smith (the Bicycles, the Adorables, Township Expansion)
Nick Storring
Sandro Perri
Sari Lightman (Ghost Bees)
Sebastian Butt and Charlie Murray
SPECIAL guest DJ Craig Dunsmuir
a screening of ::: WILD COMBINATION :::
and more.... Free seasonal soups (pumpkin, squash) and corn bread for ALL
Will begin at 9:30 SHARP. Come EARLY--the TIKI ROOM is so small (cozy).
LADYFEST BINGO! FUNDRAISER
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Holy Oak Cafe
8PM
PWYC
