Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Event Teasers!
Wes Nov 25 - Bollywood Burlesque, Film by Caroline Koebel, lotsa Music @ the Gladstone
Thurs Nov 26 - Opening of Visual Arts SHow @ Toronto Free Gallery
AND Queens of CUNTry @ Grossman's Tavern
Fri Nov 27 - Brand spanking new LES BLUES production @ the Tranzac
Sat Nov 28 - FamilyLadyfest, FREE, food, crafts, storytelling, theatre @ the Tranzac
Young Ladyfest, talented teen artists and performers @ the Tranzac
Masia One and Katie Stelmanis and MORE @ the Tranzac
Sun Nov 29 - Great FREE workshops!
Delicious Brunch
Town Hall meeting and Community Dialogue Initiative LAUNCH! all @Tranzac
There are so many more updates and a full schedule coming soon!
See you soon!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Ladyfest Toronto Mission
How did Ladyfest Start?
The festival began in August of 2000 in Olympia, Washington, the home of the Riot-Grrrl movement. It was a woman-organized and woman-run event that featured performances by bands, spoken word artists, authors, and visual artists with pro-feminist attitudes. It also included workshops, panel discussions, and dance parties. The 2000 festival had a strong momentum, inspiring women from around the globe to organize similar festivals in their own communities. In the last seven years Ladyfest's have taken place in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Canadian cities that have hosted Ladyfest's include: Vancouver, Guelph, Toronto, Halifax and Ottawa. Although each city puts its own spin on Ladyfesting, all Ladyfest festivals belong to a global web of feminist communities each devoted to similar social goals and celebrating in solidarity with each other.
Where is it going?
Next year will be the 10th anniversary of Ladyfest internationally. That’s why this year in Toronto the collective has agreed to pay more attention to where our Ladyfest is going in the future. Sometimes politics need to be reframed, and since Ladyfest’s purpose is representation, politics without pretension, inclusion, and exposure for pro-feminists arts and activists it is important for the collective to make sure the festival is doing what it’s supposed to. For the Ladyfest Toronto collective that means being in dialogue with other communities, causes, and organizations, as well as volunteers and festival attendees, to have open conversations and get feedback about what Ladyfest Toronto is doing to and for our city, its artists, and its community members. The better we know about what Ladyfest is doing for those in our community, the better we can know what it ought to do in the future. To make this happen Ladyfest Toronto ’09 is generating a Community Dialogue Initiative, a forum for open discussion with anyone interested about the Ladyfest presence in Toronto, what it does, has done, and should do in following years.