ShOUT – Queer West Young Adult Program & Unconferences @ Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre
This month?
Queer West Shout Youth Program
Queer West Motto – Building a Community Strengthening the City
All Positive & Respectful Folk are Welcome to attend!
Happening again on Wednesday March 31, 2010
Unconference format
“ShOUT is an Unconference” A Participant-Facilitated Discussion
OUTtv.ca and Youth Employment Services and the Gay West Community Network Inc. (Queer West) have initiated a series of monthly community events through the SHOUT Unconference Program for Young Adults.
The Program offers Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, Intersexed, Queer, Questioning and Two-Spirited (LGBTTIQQ2) youth and their friends and allies (ages 18-27) residing in West-Central Toronto with a focus on Parkdale, an innovative series of live monthly events that aim to stimulate a needed community dialogue on a wide range of pertinent topics to them.
Thematically-relevant community leaders, scholars, activists and artists are invited to act as panelists, performers or workshop instructors at each unique event that is wholly planned promoted and facilitated by the Jaclyn Isen and her Queer West Beehive Arts Collective.
Each month a wide range of topics pertinent to young adults with an emphasis on the theme of gender and sexuality in the arts and in culture in doing so, ShOUT! provides a safe, supportive and enriching context in which its participants can foster new knowledge, skills, and above all, meaningful relationships in their community.
AnUnconference is a facilitated participant-driven face-to-face conference around a theme or purpose. This style of public forum, is not happening anywhere else in LGBTQ (Canada, Latin America or USA). Meets on Last Wednesday of every month, in the Toronto Parkdale – Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre, except during warmer months when it may meet outdoors.
Topic: Wednesday March 31 – Culture Jamming / Guerilla Art / Bent Media
Thought Provoking Topic Resource Links
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Local artist, Daryl Vocat does a lot of guerillla-type art. Visit his web site Infestant Propaganda
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Another group of performance artists/jammers called “Finger in the Dyke Productions”www.fingerinthedyke.ca/ Though they are montreal based, they internationally known, (Famous for their “Lesbian National Parks and Services… piece).
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Similar, Allyson Mitchell is a Toronto maximalist artist working in sculpture, performance and film. Her ongoing aesthetic/political project, “Deep Lez” advocates a return to the histories of radical and lesbian feminisms, and has been taken up by lgbtq activists and artists through alternative curatorial projects. Mitchell is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Women’s Studies at York University.www.allysonmitchell.com/AMbio.cfm
Culture Jamming on an ex-gay movement billboard
The focus of our March Unconference
Will be on a plethora of independent media-art-and-culture-making tactics through which folk (especially marginalized subjects, ie-those whose voices and stories don’t always get heard such as queer youth) enact resistance and “talk back” to the damaging messages they are inundated with. With the inspiration of our artist/activist presenters, we will explore together the extent to which these practices work as a strategy of personal/political/social healing and transformation.
Our visual, virtual, and physical space have become increasingly taken over as commercial space. We are bombarded with messages and images that normalize and naturalize dominant/normative/and often hurtful ideas, including those about our gender and sexuality.
Poster by Jaclyn Isen
Poster, click to open, click closed.
Details on all panelists and suggested discussion questions…coming soon.
This draft layout is not the final page
As of Sunday March 7th. Two guests are confirmed. Queer zinester, Sarah Pinder as facilitator and Journalist Victoria Gray, will be talking about blogging as indy-media. There are more to be confirmed.
Teaser Videos
In Video Below: Featuring footage from the 2007 Portland Zine Symposium, a zine bicycle tour of Portland, and activities bringing zine culture to life. An original documentary culled from over 64 hours of footage. Best suited for people with a new interest in zines, pros, and novices. Artwork by Cristy Road and music by J Church and Defiance, OH! Created by Basil Shadid, Rev. Phil Sano, Nickey Robo, and Joe Biel.
In video below, Toronto Culture Jammer Carly Stasko is a self-titled Imagitator who agitates imagination as a Toronto-based but globally inspired artist, writer, activist, producer and holistic educator. Carly is interested in love, healing, jamming with culture, as well as working and playing towards environmental and social justice through education and the arts. You might find her presenting workshops on media literacy and indymedia activism in high schools and universities across North America. Visit her web site: http://www.intrinsik.net/
In Video Below: Social activism through street art. Frank Shepard Fairey (Born February 15, 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina) is a contemporary artist, graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today’s best known and most influential street artists.
The SHOUT evening is Free and Wheelchair Accessible. Vegetarian food, cupcakes and green tea, will be provided.
ShOUT- Happens on last Wednesday of every month From 6:30 pm to 8: 30 pm at the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre, 220 Cowan Avenue (Toronto Parkdale) Street Map In the warmer months it will be held outdoors at various locations in the city. Families welcome to attend too. Queer West Office 416-879-7954 Program Manager and Queer West, Vice President : Jaclyn Isen: qwshout@gmail.com
Join Queer West’s mailing list get all the news and our events every two weeks. Become a member of Arts Collective. Stay informed with The Bent eBlast
ShOUT is brought to you by our Fabulous Sponsors
Bent Expressions Newspaper | Queer West Arts and Culture Centre| Youth Employment Services| OUTtv.ca | Naco Gallery & Cafe| IvarDesign.com| | Lesbian Social Business NetworK (LSBN) | Parkdale Liberty Villager Newspaper | Swagger
