Events

With successful pilot symposiums in Winnipeg and Ottawa, Diaspora Dialogues is launching TOK Toronto. Join us in our hometown for a three-day symposium dedicated for writers and readers On September 20 – 22, 2019. TOK, the digital magazine of Diaspora Dialogues, publishes fiercely honest, freshly original writing from our cities, and from around the world.

Day One will be at the Heliconian Hall and includes workshops for emerging authors about pitching to agents and publishers. These sessions will be taped for later podcasts. All events are free but registration is required.

Day two includes four on-stage interviews with eight authors, at Harbourfront Centre – Studio Theatre. Authors include Leslie Shimotakahara, Rebecca Fisseha, Melanie Florence, Joanne Vannicola, Zalika Reid-Benta, Becky Blake, Derek Mascarenhas and Anar Ali. These are free and open to the public but registration is required.

Day three we will have two panel discussions for Word On The Street Toronto at the Harbourfront Centre  – City of Toronto Book Awards Tent. Black Writers in CanLit and Writing In The Age of #MeToo.

For more information visit: https://tokmagazine.ca/tok-toronto-symposium/

Celebrating Women in the Choral Art

DD is delighted to partner with Orpheus Choir of Toronto and Orpheus Chamber Ensemble on a ground-breaking celebration of Canadian artistry and International Women’s Day, featuring an array of choral works by female composers, and the premiere of four commissioned Canadian works by Christine Donkin, Anika-France Forget, Katerina Gimon, and Tawnie Olson, based on poems by DD writers.

Join us for a unique mentoring of acclaimed female composers and poets with emerging female artists to highlight the very best of established and undiscovered Canadian talent. This evening honours the woman’s expressive and singular perspective in song!

BUY TICKETS

Friday March 8, 2019 | 7:30PM

Grace Church on-the-Hill, 300 Lonsdale Rd

Adult $45 | Senior $35 | Under 30 $20 | Family $100

A bit about the artists and the pieces:

“beneath/sound” 

The lyrics of this piece are from Toronto native Yaya Yao’s book Flesh, Tongue. She is paired with Vancouver-based Katerina Gimon who is an award-winning composer, improvisor, and experimental vocalist.

“careful careful”

This beautiful piece was created through the blending of work by two highly accomplished artists and mentors – poet Priscila Uppal and composer Christine Donkin. Priscila tragically passed away in September at the age of 43. We will honour her work and her memory at this concert.

“A Prayer for Return” 

Shadi Eskandani, an Iranian-born Toronto-based poet pairs with University of Toronto student Anika-France Forget, a three-time winner of the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Associations National Student Composition Competition.

“Two Tea Bowls”

Award-winning poet and author Phoebe Wang’s poem is set to music by in-demand composer and educator Tawnie Olson, who is also currently an adjunct professor of composition at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

Join us on February 23rd at Heliconian Hall for “Hello, Neighbour” — a three tiered community engagement piece that begins with residents of Toronto and ends with live performances of new works by six artists!

Hello, Neighbour began with residents of Toronto submitting short content pieces animating a favourite element of the city; an intersection or a neighbourhood; a restaurant, a building, a park. Chosen submissions were then taken as inspiration by six artists — poets, writers and playwrights alike — to create pieces that will be performed as new works at our Hello, Neighbour event.

February 23, 2019 2-5PM at Heliconian Hall (35 Hazelton Ave.)

Interview/Podcast Schedule hosted by Nana aba Duncan:

2-2:45pm Ibi Kaslik & Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
3-3:45pm Jules Lewis & Rasiqra Revulva
4-4:45pm Jason Maghanoy & Phoebe Wang

This event is free but registration through our Eventbrite page is required to reserve your spot.

Artists:

Ibi Kaslik is an internationally published novelist, freelance writer, editor and teacher. Her most recent novel, The Angel Riots, is a rock n’ roll comic-tragedy and was nominated for Ontario’s Trillium award in 2009. Her first novel, Skinny, was a New York Times Bestseller, was nominated for the Best Young Adult novel of the year by the Canadian Library Association (2004), as well as the Borders’ Original Voices Award for Young Adult Novel (2006). Skinny has also been published in numerous countries. A native of Toronto, Ibi teaches creative writing at The University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies and works as an arts educator. Ibi has helped write, mentor and publish award-winning books for Inhabit Media, an independent Arctic publisher, based in Iqaluit and Toronto. She has a Masters in English literature and Creative Writing from Concordia University and travels to the Prairies and the Arctic, from time to time.

Jules Lewis is the author of the novel Waiting for Ricky Tantrum (Dundurn, 2010) and the play, Tomasso’s Party, which received a Dora Award for Outstanding New Independent Production in 2012. His writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, Canadian Notes and Queries, The Brooklyn Rail, The Canadian Encyclopedia, and other publications. He has also written for radio and children’s television. He is a fellow of The Edward Albee Foundation. He lives in Toronto.

Jason Maghanoy has been playwright-in-residence at fu-GEN Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and Young People’s Theatre. He’s also been a member of the Tarragon Playwrights Unit, the Banff Playwrights Colony, and the 2017 Stratford Playwrights Retreat. Jason has received grants for his work from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts, and his plays have been produced in Vancouver, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Japan. Jason’s play Throat received second place in the Uprising National Playwriting Competition (2010); his play Hangman won the 2011 Write-On-Q Playwriting Competition in Quebec; and Heart won the 2013 Mario Fraati-Fred Newman Political Play Contest in New York City. His plays Gas and Dust were published by Scirocco Drama, and his play The Corner was published in Canadian Theatre Review. Maghanoy’s plays have been taught at McGill University, Humber College, the National Theatre School of Canada, and Smith College. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and was a finalist for the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwriting Fellowship at Juilliard. Jason was a 2017 Finalist for the K.M. Hunter Artist Award, which is presented to emerging artists who are making a mark in their field.

Rasiqra Revulva is a queer femme writer, multi-media artist, editor, musician, performer, SciComm advocate, and Databat. Her debut collection “Cephalopography” will be published by Wolsak and Wynn in spring 2020. “If You Forget the Whipped Cream, You’re No Good As A Woman” (Gap Riot Press, 2018) is her second chapbook. Follow: @rasiqra_revulva.

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright, administrator, and agitator.  Works for the stage include Sound of the Beast, Cake, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes and Gas Girls. She is a coordinator with the AdHoc Assembly, artistic director of New Harlem Productions and former general manager of Native Earth Performing Arts. Her work has been recognized with nominations for the Governor General’s Award, Siminovitch Prize, KM Hunter Award, Herman Voaden Award, Enbridge PlayRites Award Dora Mavor Moore Award. She is co-editor with Yvette Nolan of the Playwrights Canada Press anthology Refractions: Solo and Refractions: Scenes, and editor of Indian Act. DM is currently emcee in residence at Theatre Passe Muraille and playwright in residence at lemonTree Creations.

Phoebe Wang is a writer and educator based in Toronto, Canada and a first-generation Chinese-Canadian. She is the author of two chapbooks and her debut collection of poetry, Admission Requirements (McClelland and Stewart, 2017) was shortlisted for the Gerald Lambert Memorial Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and nominated for the Trillium Book Award. Her writing has recently appeared in BRICK Magazine, the Copenhagen-based Sindroms Magazine and in the REFUSE: Canlit in Ruins anthology.  In 2017 she co-hosted and organized Fuel for Fire: Professional Development for Writers of Colour in partnership with the OAC. Her work has been included in The Unpublished City, shortlisted for a Toronto Book Award, and she co-edited The Unpublished City: Volume II, The Lived City. Currently she works with the organization Poetry In Voice and as a Writing and Learning Consultant for ELL students at OCADU. More of her work can be found at www.alittleprint.com.

Host/Moderator:

Nana aba Duncan is the host of Fresh Air on CBC Radio One, 99.1 FM, a top-rated weekend morning program in Ontario. Nana aba Duncan has been working at CBC Radio for ten years. She also produced and hosted the Radio 2 Top 20 music countdown and guest hosted Radio 2 Morning and Radio 2 Drive. Nana aba was born in Ghana, raised in Newmarket, and has lived in Toronto since getting her masters in journalism at University of Western Ontario. Since then she worked as country director with Journalists For Human Rights in Ghana before moving on to CBC. Nana aba started out as a guest on GO! and soon ended up working on the show. After contributing to Metro Morning and guest hosting Big City Small World, she worked at CBC Music and Radio 2 as a producer and host. Nana aba supports and amplifies the perspectives of diverse women who work in Toronto’s media through her personal podcast, Media Girlfriends. She also enjoys okra stew and banku with tilapia fish, a traditional Ghanaian dish. Nana aba is okay with not being able to make it properly. Nana aba currently lives in the east end of Toronto with her husband and two children.

This event would not be possible without the support of the Canada Council’s Arts Across Canada Public Outreach program, and the ongoing support of the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council.

Join us for TOK Ottawa, a two-day symposium for writers and readers taking place November 30-December 1, 2018. TOK, the digital magazine of Diaspora Dialogues, publishes fiercely honest, freshly original writing from our cities, and from around the world.

Day One includes workshops for emerging authors about publishing and promotion and four on-stage interviews with best-selling Canadian and American authors whose books are loved by hundreds of thousands of Canadian teenagers and young adults. These sessions will be taped for later podcasts. The end of the day includes a networking reception for authors, publishing pros and speakers. All events are free but registration is required.

Day two includes two panel conversations, Writing in the Age of Netflix and Writing the Future: Kid Lit and Young Adult, and one more on-stage author interview. These are free and open to the public but registration is required. For more information visit:

https://tokmagazine.ca/tok-ottawa-symposium/