Diaspora Dialogues

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Upcoming DD Workshop!

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Check out “The Orchard” by 2016 DD playwright Sarena Parmar. The workshop, a play adapted from Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”,  is playing this Saturday, December 10th at 2:3opm.

Admission is free but a ticket is needed to get into the Young Centre during the Christmas Market without paying for entry. To get your tickets please click on this link: http://tickets.youngcentre.ca/auxiliary/Reserve.aspx?p=9930

About the play: Set in the Okanagan Valley, B.C. during the 1970s, amidst a changing world, a Punjabi family must decide the fate of their beloved orchard and in turn their future.

Map to Young Centre for the Performing Arts:

Diaspora Dialogues Celebrates Indigenous Literature at the Evergreen Brick Works

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Sunday June 19, 2016, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
North Pavilion sharing Circle at the Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Ave

Performers for Indigenous Literature at the Evergreen Brick Works: From left to right: Alicia Elliott, Drew Hayden Taylor, Gwen Benaway and Lee Maracle

Join Diaspora Dialogues for National Aboriginal Day at Evergreen Brick Works, for an afternoon of literature showcasing the works of Indigenous writers, poets and spoken word artists and their contributions to Canadian culture and heritage. The performers will discuss contemporary issues affecting themselves and their communities through the power and strength of words.

FEATURING

Alicia Elliott

Alicia Elliott is a graduate of York University’s Creative Writing program. Her writing has appeared in TOK 6: Writing the New Toronto, Initiations: A Selection of Young Native Writing, The Malahat Review and is forthcoming in The New Quarterly. She lives and writes in Brantford, Ontario, where she’s currently working on a feature screenplay and a collection of short stories about indigenous women.

Drew Hayden Taylor

Drew Hayden Taylor is an award winning playwright, novelist, scriptwriter and journalist.   He has done everything from performing stand up comedy at the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C. to being Artistic Director of Canada’s Premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts Inc.  This October will see the launch of his 29th book, a collection of Aboriginal science fiction short stories titled TAKE ME TO YOUR CHIEF AND OTHER STORIES, published by Douglas & McIntyre. He was raised and currently lives on the Curve Lake First Nation.

Gwen Benaway

Gwen Benaway is a two-spirited poet of Anishinaabe and Métis descent. She was born in Huron Country and currently lives in Toronto. Her first collection of poetry, Ceremonies for the Dead, was published in 2013 and her second collection is forthcoming from Kegedonce Press this fall.

Lee Maracle

Lee Maracle is an accomplished, award winning author and teacher born in North Vancouver. A member of the Sto: Loh nation, she is the mother of four and grandmother of seven. Maracle is currently an instructor at the University of Toronto. She is also the Traditional Teacher for First Nation’s House and instructor with the Centre for Indigenous Theatre and the S.A.G.E. [Support for Aboriginal Graduate Education] as well as the Banff Centre for the Arts writing instructor. In 2009, Maracle received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from St. Thomas University and recently the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work promoting writing among Aboriginal Youth. Maracle has served as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, and the University of Western Washington. She received the Ontario Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. Her works include: the novels, Ravensong, Bobbi Lee, Sundogs, short story collection, Sojourner’s Truth, poetry collection, Bentbox, and non-fiction work I Am Woman.

FREE ADMISSION 

Reimagining our History

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Diaspora Dialogues invites you to join us for a weekend of readings reimagining Canadian history. Our country’s defining attributes are its multiculturalism and inclusivity. Yet, we tend to tell Canadian history through the eyes of the white settler. For Doors Open 2016, Diaspora Dialogues has invited some of city’s finest writers, spoken word artists, and playwrights to explore a moment or figure from Canadian history reimagined through a more diverse and inclusive lens.

Saturday May 28, 2016, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sunday May 29, 2016, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Old City Hall, Court Room 121
60 Queen Street West

FEATURING:

Hosted by: Dianah Smith, writer, teacher, and arts educator.

Readings are happening throughout the entire weekend so be sure to stop by Old City Hall between taking in other historical sites at Doors Open.

Tickets:
FREE
Available here.

Spurring the Spoken Word

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Omar Musa, a Malaysian-Australian author, rapper, and poet kicked off the entire festival. We were so thrilled he joined us all the way from Queanbeyan, Australia to regale us with his melodic spoken word readings—even weathering the unusually frigid April temperatures.

If you enjoyed Omar’s work, be sure to follow him on Twitter at @obmmusic and pick up a copy of his book, Here Come the Dogs.

Shadiya Aidid and Zeinab Aidid performed a haunting spoken word piece about assimilation at the festival’s migration panel.

If you enjoyed Shadiya and Zeinab’s performance, follow Shadiya at @shashaFUNK and Zeinab at @zayyAIDID.

Poet Trish Salah was next to join us at the festival. She performed some wonderful pieces from both of her books—Wanting in Arabic and Lyric Sexology Volume 1.

Trish kicked off our panel on gender fluidity, and she also does a lot of excellent work within the trans community, including organizing the Writing Trans Genres and Decolonizing and Decriminalizing Trans Genres conferences at the University of Winnipeg. To stay up-to-date on Trish’s latest projects, follow her @Anasemia.

Bardia Sinaee gave a superb reading to kick off our masculinity panel.

If you enjoyed hearing Bardia’s work, be sure to check out his chapbook, Blue Night Express, and follow him on Twitter at @unclePoetry.

Emma Healey read her poem, “A Game of Chess,” at Spur’s feminism panel.

It was such a fitting poem to open a lively discussion about contemporary feminism. If you enjoy Emma’s work, you should pick up a copy of her book, Begin with the End in Mind, and follow her on Twitter at @emmafromtoronto.

DD alum Phoebe Wang took the stage at Spur to give a reading to open a panel about designing the city’s landscape.

Her lovely work was a huge hit at the festival and we were so pleased she was able to join us. If you’d like to read more of Phoebe’s work, check out her blog, A Little Print, and follow her on Twitter at @alittleprint.

David Alexander opened a lively discussion about politics with two phenomenal poetry readings.

David has a chapbook out with Puddle of Sky Press called Chicken Scratch and can be found on Twitter at @readeverything. When he’s not writing or reading poetry, he’s hard at work as the executive director of the Toronto Vegetarian Association.

DD at Spur

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Diaspora Dialogues is pleased to announce it’s programmed a number of established and emerging spoken word artists and poets to open Spur Toronto’s panels.

Omar Musa will be reading his work at the opening session of Spur festival on Thursday, April 7 at 7 p.m. at the Toronto Reference Library in the Brama & Bluma Appel Salon. The event is free, but register in advance to reserve your seat.

Omar Musa is a Malaysian-Australian author, rapper and poet from Queanbeyan, Australia. He is the former winner of the Australian Poetry Slam and the Indian Ocean Poetry Slam. He has appeared on ABC’s Q&A and received a standing ovation at TEDx Sydney at the Sydney Opera House. His debut novel, Here Come the Dogs, was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, the International Dublin Literary Award and he was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year in 2015.

On Saturday, April 9 at 12 p.m. at the Hart House Debates Room, Zeinab Aidid and Shadiya Aidid will be opening the Human Migration panel with a spoken word performance.

Shadiya Aidid, is a poet, fashion designer and DJ. She often infuses the two vocal art forms of storytelling and song, so you could call her a quasi-rapper. She spends most nights getting the perfect noodle to MSG ratio in her ramen as she studies for her degree in environmental studies at York University—which by the way is more than tree-hugging and going vegan. She’s been writing poetry ever since she was told that poems are just essays with line breaks, writing about female empowerment, black excellence and environmental justice. Stalk her life @shashafunk.

Zeinab Aidid is a Toronto-based writer, speaker, spoken word artist and educator. Born to Somali immigrant parents, she draws upon her experience navigating the world as a black Muslim woman. She’s inspired by her storytelling ancestors, as well as the many artists in her life. When she’s not performing, Zeinab spends her time facilitating writing and spoken word workshops for youth all around the city. She hopes that through her work she will guide young people in finding their voice while creating a space for alternative narratives. By day, Zeinab is a student at the University of Toronto completing a double major in Equity Studies and Anthropology.

Also on April 9, at 2 p.m. in the Hart House Debates Room, poet Trish Salah will be opening a panel on gender fluidity.

Born in Halifax, Trish Salah is the author of the Lambda Award-winning Wanting in Arabic, and of Lyric Sexology, Vol. 1. Active in labour and social justice movements, Salah advocated for trans representation and sex worker solidarity in CUPE and at the Canadian Labour Congress. She is widely published in journals and anthologies, and is co-editor of a special issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, on Transgender Cultural Production. Her research program, Towards a Trans Minor Literature, is an inquiry into aesthetic and political projects of transsexual, trans, genderqueer and two-spirit writers. She recently organized the Writing Trans Genres and Decolonizing and Decriminalizing Trans Genres conferences at the University of Winnipeg. Currently Salah is assistant professor of Gender Studies at Queen’s University.

Beginning at 5 p.m. at the Al Green Theatre in the Miles Nadal JCC, Bardia Sinaee will take the stage to perform a reading to kick off Spur’s panel on masculinity.

Bardia Sinaee was born in Tehran, Iran and currently lives in Toronto. His poems have appeared in magazines across Canada and in the Best Canadian Poetry 2015.

A panel on the intricacies of the feminist movement will wrap Saturday’s Spur festival events. Stick around the Al Green Theatre to see Emma Healey read at 8 p.m.

Emma Healey’s first book of poems, Begin with the End in Mind, was published by Arbeiter Ring in 2012. She is the Globe and Mail’s poetry critic, and a regular contributor to the music blog Said the Gramophone. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including theLA Review of Books, the Hairpin, the National Post and the Toronto Star. She is currently at work on a second collection of poems.

On Sunday, April 10 at 11 a.m. in the Hart House Debates Room, Phoebe Wang will read some of her poetry to kick off a panel on designing our shared landscapes.

Born in Ottawa, Phoebe Wang is a writer and educator based in Toronto. She holds a BA in English from York University and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto. Her poetry and criticism has appeared in numerous journals, such as Arc Poetry Magazine, Canadian Literature, Maisonneuve, The Malahat Review, This Magazine and Diaspora Dialogues’ TOK 6: Writing the New Toronto anthology. Her first chapbook,Occasional Emergencies, was published with Odourless Press in 2013, and she was the 2015 Grand Prize winner of the Prism International Poetry Prize. She serves as volunteer Outreach Coordinator with Puritan Magazine and has been a Teacher-in-Residence at Artscape Youngplace. Her second chapbook is forthcoming with The Emergency Response Unit this spring and her debut collection of poetry, Admission Requirements, will be published with McLelland and Stewart in spring 2017. More of work can be found at alittleprint.com.

The final poet appearing at Toronto’s Spur festival is David Alexander. On April 10, David will be opening the political tribalism panel at 1:15 in the Hart House Debates Room.

David Alexander is the author of two poetry chapbooks—Chicken Scratch, from Puddles of Sky Press, and Modern Warfare, forthcoming from Anstruther Press. His writing has appeared in Lemon Hound, subTerrain, The Week Shall Inherit The Verse, The Steel Chisel, and The Edible City from Coach House Books. He is the Executive Director of the Toronto Vegetarian Association.

We hope to see you there!

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