TOK Launch Party
Please join us for the launch of TOK Magazine, a new platform for fiercely honest, freshly original writing from our cities, and from around the world.
Thursday, June 21, 2018
6:30 p.m. Doors Open
7:00 p.m. Writers’ Roundtable featuring Augusto Bitter, Mia Herrera, Aisha Sasha John, and Reema Patel. Moderated by Aparita Bhandari.
8:00 p.m. Q&A with Writers’ Roundtable
8:30 – 9:30 p.m. Reception
Heliconian Hall
35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto
RSVP
miranda@diasporadialogues.com
Cost: Free
You may also register for this evening event through Eventbrite
Stories from the Six Recap
Thank you very much to everyone who came out to celebrate Stories from the Six: Diaspora Dialogues at Doors Open.
The day began with a screening of David Bezmozgis‘ NATASHA. NATASHA is the story of a forbidden romance between a 16-year-old Russian Jewish immigrant kid in Toronto and his cousin by marriage, a 14-year-old girl from Moscow with a scandalous past. It was adapted from David Bezmozgis’ book of the same name.
Following the screening, actor Genadijs Dolganovs (who portrays Roman in the film) sat down with film critic Tina Hassannia to discuss the film and his experience as an actor.
After a short break, we returned to watch Self, an episode of Moumy Mbacké’s docu-series, On the Topic Of. Following the screening, Moumy discussed her inspiration for the series, as well as her experience as a Toronto-based filmmaker with DD moderator, Miranda Newman.
Next up, we were honoured to share the trailer and behind-the-scenes footage for Sharon Lewis’ film, Brown Girl Begins, adapted from DD mentor Nalo Hopkinson‘s book, Brown Girl in the Ring. The screening was followed by a wide-ranging discussion moderated by NOW Magazine‘s Chris Rattan.
Finally, we closed with a panel called, “Writing Toronto on Screen,” featuring Charles Officer, Lu Asfaha, and Sanjay Talreja. The engaging discussion was moderated by DD’s Zalika Reid-Benta and featured clips from Charles Officer’s Unarmed Verses, Lu Asfaha’s Freedom Summer and Sanjay Talreja’s Cricket and the Meaning of Life, Toronto Taxi, Surkhaab and Looking for Yusuf.
DD would like to thank our wonderful roster of talented filmmakers and writers and Zoomer Media for hosting us as part of their Doors Open programming. We’d also like to acknowledge Mongrel Media, and our supporters, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Toronto Arts Council, the Michael Decter Foundation, Manulife, the McLean Foundation, and the Kaszas Group – BMO Nesbitt Burns.
Orpheus Choir of Toronto: “Raising Her Voice” Partnership
Diaspora Dialogues is delighted to partner with the Orpheus Choir of Toronto for their “Raising Her Voice” concert in 2018/19. In this exciting project that brings our proven mentorship model to a cross discipline enterprise, we will pair poets who have published in our programs, both mentors and mentees, with established and emerging composers chosen by Orpheus Choir to produce compositions for this concert celebrating International Women’s Day in 2019. Directed by Robert Cooper, the Orpheus Choir’s mantra is “Expect Something Different”, so who better for DD to partner with? We’ll be featuring stories and progress reports as the project comes to fruition.
Both of our organizations are seeking to invest in the ongoing nurturing of the talent that has been developed through our programs. For writers, music and text is an area that they may not have considered, or felt that they or their works were not suited to. This is an opportunity to work with the actual composers, and see their input reflected in the final composition. Both composers and authors have told us that this is an element that is missing from current modes of training, and the value that such feedback can bring to their process, as well as broadening their appeal across disciplines, can give audiences a chance to discover an artist they didn’t know about. We already have a good idea of who has agreed to be involved in this project, and we’ll share the list with you soon!
Stories from the Six: Diaspora Dialogues at Doors Open
Join Diaspora Dialogues for a full day of events at Doors Open, including free screenings of movies, interviews with directors and writers and more.
Program
- 10 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. — Introductions
- 10:15 a.m. to 12 p.m. — Screening of David Bezmozgis‘ NATASHA
- 12:00 p.m. to 12:15 p.m. — Break
- 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. — Interview with actor Genadijs Dolganovs, moderated by journalist Tina Hassannia.
- 12:45 p.m. to 1 p.m. — Break
- 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. — Interview with videographer and editor Moumy Mbacké, moderated by DD’s Miranda Newman.
- 1:45 p.m. to 2 p.m. — Break
- 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. — Interview with writer and director Sharon Lewis by NOW’s Chris Rattan, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Brown Girl Begins
- 3 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. — Break
- 3:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. — “Writing Toronto On Screen” panel featuring writer and director Charles Officer, filmmaker Lu Asfaha, cinematographer Marlon Paul, and editor and director Sanjay Talreja. Moderated by Zalika Reid-Benta.
- 4:45 p.m. to 5 p.m. — Closing remarks
RSVP today.
DD thanks Zoomer Media for hosting us as part of their Doors Open programming.
Welcome the 2018 Mentorship!
We’re happy to announce Diaspora Dialogues’ 2018 Long Form Mentorship participants. Starting in January 2018, established authors will mentor emerging writers in the development of a full novel, short story, or poetry manuscript. Our mentors are: George Elliott Clarke, Olive Senior, Cherie Dimaline, Shyam Selvadurai, and Rabindranath Maharaj. The writers receiving mentorship are: Louise Boileau (short story collection), Fiona Clarke (short story collection), Vivian Li (short story collection), Sadi Muktadir (short story collection), Annie Wong (poetry) and Sujeet Sennik (novel). We are very excited for this year’s program. Stay tuned for news about our Playwright Mentorship and other updates about our events!