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Arts, Event Listings
Young Centre’s Waves Festival

Young Centre’s Waves Festival

A collaborative explosion of creativity between Toronto and its artists.

June 18th, 19th and 20th.
ALL EVENTS FREE!

Over a hundred of Toronto’s established, emerging and youth artists come together under one roof for a multidisciplinary explosion of original works and creative happenings. Artistic disciplines, cultures, and generations blur as Toronto audiences and artists share their creative spark.

Ranging from choreographed pieces inspired by simple, everyday tasks, to vocalists disguised as architectural wonders, to bedtime stories and site-specific theatre, New Waves offers something for all ages and interests, free of charge.
(more inside…)

Shameless Women
Shaheen Ashraf: Believing in Peace

Every other Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!

So without further delay, let me introduce the wonderful Shaheen Ashraf…

Shaheen Ashraf

Sitting on the Board of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, Shaheen Ashraf was born in Karachi and grew up in a little town called Khulna (then East Pakistan). She came to Canada in 1976 with 4 young children and once they were grown, she became involved with several volunteer organizations “to help other human beings,” her aim in life. Holding a diploma in Hotel Management, she is presently enrolled in a Psychology & Social work course and works full time with her husband as an administrator of a Ship Brokering firm. She also takes the time to answer our questions to let us know why being pushed into a corner can make you resilient and empowered.
(more inside…)

Event Listings, Playlist
Celebrating 15 Years of Honey Jam – Upcoming Auditions

Honey Jam Auditions 2010

Honey Jam is celebrating 15 years! The event that helped launch the careers of Jully Black and Nelly Furtado is now the longest running all-female talent showcase in Canada.

And they’re getting ready to do it all again this year! Are YOU ready to audition?

(more inside…)

All About Shameless
Subscribe to Shameless for Only $12!

Like what you see? Want to support independent media? Get Shameless delivered straight to your door, three times a year, for only $12, and save a couple bucks off the newsstand price to boot!

Subscriptions are available through PayPal right now! Or, if you’d rather mail in a subscription form, you can print one off here (2,438K PDF). All prices are in Canadian Dollars (CAD).

Buy a two-year subscription and save an additional $2 off the normal subscription price. That’s $22 for a two-year Canadian subscription and $42 for a two-year American subscription.

Body Politics, In My Opinion...
To Know or Not to Know? That is the Question.

In just under 2 weeks I’m going to be having a baby. I’ve resisted blogging about it here because while having children, child rearing, parenting, birthing, and all the facets tied up with it (consumption, children-in-the-world, industrial capitalism, gender dynamics, etc) are Feminist issues, I’m still on the fence as to where I stand regarding my feminist experience and the whole “having a baby”-thing: I just haven’t felt I have anything really coherent or “new” to add to the literature.

But, my opinions and responses to my experience slowly trickle in and form, often in response to people’s reactions/comments or responses to parenthood/motherhood/birthing in the media and government policy.

There’s a big “to-do” going on out here in BC about ultrasounds and the recent addition of policy that will require a $50 fee from expectant parents to find out the sex of their fetus. Basically, in BC it was hit or miss if you could find out from an ultra-sound technician what your fetus’s sex is. We wanted to find out the sex of our fetus primarily to have an answer when we were/are consistently inundated with the question, “what are you having?” (sarcastic answer, “a baby?”). And then feeling pressured to say which way you’d prefer (“I don’t really care as long as their not a facist”). And then having to endure people’s gendered biases like, “Girls are so much harder than boys”. But, at both of our ultrasounds the technician (same technician both times) wouldn’t tell us (“we’re not allowed to tell”) and made us avert our eyes of the screen. Neither of these things disappointed me or frustrated me, as the medical system + pregnancy is all new to me, so hey, whatever, it’s got 4 limbs, a beating heart, and kidneys! Success!
(more inside…)

Shameless Women
Donna Linklater: Billie Hollies’ Voice

Every other Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!

So without further delay, let me introduce the awesome Donna Linklater…

Donna Linklater

Lead vocals and autoharp player for The Billie Hollies, Donna Linklater founded the female folk-noir quartet two and a half years ago when she moved to Toronto after studying opera at Brandon University. The band was most recently involved with the event Torn From The Pages where Donna composed a piece of music based on the novel “Stunt” by Claudia Dey, which will be expanded into a full-length oratorio. Now she tells us why, as a Shameless Woman, she challenges the expected norm and why this is a very exciting time to be a female musician.
(more inside…)

Arts, Bibliothèque, Playlist
The Billie Hollies

The Billie Hollies

I’m always intrigued and excited to find out about a band that’s exploring new territory when it comes to what music can do. That’s why it was so great to find out about The Billie Hollies.

The joined talents of Coralie Martens (piano, vocals, French horn), Julia Hambleton (clarinet, bass clarinet, vocals), Janet Morassutti (guitar, vocals), and Donna Linklater (lead vocals, autoharp), make up one super-cool band.

Why?
(more inside…)

Shameless Women
Tanya McGinnity: Proudly Geeky

Every other Thursday I profile a new incredible woman, each from a different walk of life. Different professions, causes, backgrounds, ethnicities, orientations, and anything/everything else!

So without further delay, let me introduce the wonderful Tanya McGinnity…

Tanya McGinnity

Photo credit: Marianne McEwen

Tanya McGinnity is proudly a geek and the founder of the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners, an offshoot of the London Girl Geek Dinners, started by Sarah Blow. With the desire to provide a welcoming atmosphere and platform for learning in an informal environment, the goal of these monthly events is to make technology accessible and interesting to all age groups and all people, particularly women.
(more inside…)

Arts, Bibliothèque
Pin Up, Party Down with WORN!

WORN buttons

In celebration of the launch of their 10th awesome issue, WORN (a fashion journal actually worth reading) is presenting: Pin up, Party down: an exhibition of wearables presented on wearables.

And they want you to be involved…(more inside…)

Event Listings
Event: Pink Ink Zine Launch

Next week, The Gladstone Hotel and Granny Boots hosts the launch of this year’s Pink Ink zine. Pink Ink is a weekly creative writing drop-in facilitated by queer community artist and activist Karine Silverwoman, and a program of Supporting Our Youth.

The launch event is hosted by Karine Silverwoman and Joseph Soobram, with performances from the talented queer and trans youth whose work is featured in this year’s zine. With post-show music from Yes Yes Y’all co-founder and DJ Elle Niño, spinning hip hop, R&B, reggae, electro and ‘90s classics.

The details:
Wednesday, April 28 at 7:30pm
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto.
Free for youth, PWYC $5-10 for adults (no one turned away for lack of funds).
All ages welcome!

For more information check out the Facebook page.