TOK Launch Party Recap

Thank you very much to everyone who came out to celebrate the launch of TOK Magazine, a new platform for fiercely honest, freshly original writing from our cities, and from around the world.

The launch party started with a little mingling, and a few opening remarks before our Writers’ Roundtable began. The Roundtable, moderated by Aparita Bhandari, kicked off with readings from Reema Patel’s upcoming untitled novel, an excerpt from Augusto Bitter’s play, CHICHO, poetry by Aisha Sasha John and an excerpt from Mia Herrera’s novel, Shade.

Following the readings, the Roundtable launched into a discussion about the literary landscape, how its succeeding and failing, and what we have to do to make the space more inclusive and representative of our social fabric.

“I wasn’t seeing people like me getting published” – Reema Patel on why she thought no one would be interested her book.

— TOK Magazine (@TOKwriting) June 21, 2018

“Finding these communities, like @ddialogues, is so important to me… it’s nice to see changes to the literary scene orgs like DD are making” –@miaherrera

— TOK Magazine (@TOKwriting) June 21, 2018

“When I was younger, when I was a poet in the city, it was unthinkable that I wrote… I couldn’t be seen as a writer for the longest time” – @metheaisha

— TOK Magazine (@TOKwriting) June 21, 2018

“I think the progress I see is finding other ways to tell stories that aren’t the Anglo/Eurocentric ones we’ve inherited in Canada” – @augustobitter on subverting expectations in theatre

— TOK Magazine (@TOKwriting) June 22, 2018

These are just a few of the ideas discussed during the Roundtable. The on-stage conversation was followed by a thought-provoking Q&A with audience members.

Of course, our TOK Launch Party would not have been possible without the support of our funders, our extremely talented panelists and the lively and engaged audience members who attended.

For more compelling and original ideas, check out fiction, poetry, podcasts and more at tokmagazine.ca.

To attend more events like the TOK Launch Party, be sure to visit diasporadialogues.com/news-and-events/.

BOOKS FROM THIS EVENT