OUTeXpressions Newspaper
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OUTeXpressions Newspaper, a social enterprise of QueerWest.org. Located in edgy, artsy, booming Queer West Village, which has room for everyone: Hot indie music scenes, celebrity-chic shopping, all-night dance parties and an uber-cool mixed crowd. We are an Exclusive Media Publication. Listing only the hottest happenings, in the coolest places. Girlsport.com Montreal: 2010 "Calling itself Toronto's second gay village, the city’s west end is an Absolute Hothouse for LGBT life. In recent years tons of hip bars / restos / shops that cater to or favour a homo clientele have opened up shop, and you’ll find them all via QueerWest.org. Their listings section is excellent! OuteXpressions has been tearing up gay Toronto for 10 years, finding cool stuff, we think you'll enjoy. Copyrighted 2010. All Rights Reserved. Masthead Get our Free: Bent eBlast Hey! Get Social. You can now join us on Twitter Contact: Michel outexpressions@gmail.com
NEWS - EVENT LISTINGS - SHOTGUN REVIEWS - HOT PARTIES, HOT SHOWS and HOT SPOTS IN QUEER TORONTO See Also | Films, Festivals and Art | Theatre Events | Weekly & Monthly Events | Queer West Events | Gay West Bicycle Club Events | What's in Queer Toronto Today? , Pride Toronto decides funding more important than free speechPhoto by Pride Coalition for Free Speech
Listen to, one on one interviews (No 'Israeli Apartheid' in Parade, says Pride Toronto rabble.ca Podcast) with queer activists Tim McCaskell (0:13 - 5:45), Amy Gottlieb (5:49 - 11:32) and Elle Flanders (11:35 - 17:29) followed by the press conference and question and answer session (17:30 - 39:21) and a one on one interview with former Pride organizer Zahra Dhanani (41:22 - 43:40) and speeches by free speech proponent Brad Fraser (43:41 - 44:30) and Tim McCaskell (44:35 - 47:07) and a short speech and a one on one interview with queer activist Keli Bellaire (48:08 - 49:14). Length: 49:26 minutes (45.26 MB) Format: Stereo 44kHz 128Kbps (CBR) Pride Toronto officials, and a glum looking Tracey Sandilands told a crowd of about 150 jeering demonstrators, in front of Pride Toronto headquarters at 14 Dundonald St that the term "Israel apartheid" has led to "complaints of discriminatory and exclusionary messaging." The issue "has escalated to the point where Pride Toronto's festival is in a state of operational crisis," D'Iorio co chair told the crowd. With the City of Toronto and corporate sponsors threatening to pull funding, she insists, the board has rescued the Pride festival from cancellation. A surprising remark considering they have $2.5 million dollar operating budget. The Pride board voted 4-3 to approve the ban. D’Iorio, interim co-chair Margaret Ngai, Mark Singh, and Daniel Knox voted in favour, while Gaya Arasaratnam, Helen Kennedy, and Francisco Alvarez voted against. Previous co-chair Jim Cullen resigned soon before the vote. Cullen probably had enough of the political controversy that has been dragging on for five months and left. Cullen is the Clinic Head/Manager for Rainbow Services and IGT Concurrent Disorders at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and holds the rank of Assistant Professor (status-only) at the Faculty of Social Work and is cross appointed with the Department of Family and Community Medicine. He is also the Social Work Coordinator of the Collaborative Program in Addiction Studies at the University of Toronto. Toronto will experience Mexican weather in July - Chilly Today and Hot Tamale. (QuAIA) spokeswoman Elle Flanders. said Queers Against Israeli Apartheid will attempt to march in the July 4, Pride Toronto parade despite a Pride ban on the use of the phrase “Israeli apartheid,” setting up a potential confrontation with Pride officials on the day of the event. "We're putting on our 5th annual 8 day, Queer West Arts Festivalwith $200 bucks, a wing and prayer. We're having Fun and bringing the Arts to the People. In fact 2009, we put on a ten day arts festival with $0 dollars. Although we are a non-profit, nonpartisan arts festival, without a city parade, we have no discriminatory policy against any queer group. Our vision is a community that promotes positive attitudes and eliminates discrimination toward people of all sexual orientations; Inspires change through positive educational effort. Provides social, recreational and cultural opportunities for our members and the larger community." said Michel F. Paré, President and Founder, Queer West Arts and Culture centre. VIDEO BELOW Video of cheers, jeers and boos, at today's pride Press Conference. Video by Las Perlas del Mar Inc. a Toronto spanish women's collective dedicated to bringing awareness to issues affecting women and children. lasperlasnoticias@gmail.com click on * to see larger screen.
Historical Event: Queer West Arts Festival spatializing it's identity(Sunday May 23, 2010. By Parul Pandya, Queer West media spokesperson and Casey Reid program director, Queer West Film Festival.) August 2010 will mark the 5th annual QUEER WEST ARTS FESTIVAL - this year QUEERING BOUNDARIES will be the vision to initialize a wide-scale community reinvention. Though it is certainly important that gay, lesbian, bi & trans individuals express individualities, uniqueness and differences, this year’s festival will promote a central platform to create inclusiveness and communication between these groupings. Limits typically placed on a queer identity will be explored and re-explored in an effort to move away from "Queer" as a singular, often fixed, and essential identity. The Queer West Toronto community is committed to ushering in a necessary and more contemporary attitude in reaction to the ever-changing threads of fiber that fashion the notion of “queer” in its entirety. The festival will view the complexity of queer identity beyond set places, spaces and community settings and bring diversity to the forefront of all programming. Art and performance will be utilized as the vehicle to show queer identity as a contested space. Though the theme is QUEERING BOUNDARIES, where and how those boundaries are formed is subjective. The Queer West community emphasizes a sharing of space and the exchanging of ideas as a political act, within and outside of the Queer West Village. Though queers may converge and diverge on particular spaces to create a community,
the heart of the festival is to emphasize however different our identities,
we all share our humanity. To mark this historic event, Toronto's "West
End" will be (re)claimed, (re)presented and (re)named as "queer"
over the course of 8 days (Saturday August 7 to Sunday August 15, 2010). Artists
and performers will convey genuine and relative ideas across multi-disciplinary
forms to entertain, educate and enlighten.  Queer West Toronto gay pioneer dead at 35Will Munro (1975-2010) passed away on Friday May 21, after a long battle with brain cancer. Will was the owner of the Beaver Cafe. As person who helped establish the Queer West Village in the west end of gay Toronto The QW Founder knew Will for 10 years. "Poor wee lamb." Michel said . His cheerful smile will be missed, by many. We had bugged co owner Lynn MacNeil for a month to get the Beaver. Will stepped in, even though he was sick as a dog from his recent head operation. Giving us space for our Queer West Fest Launch Party @ Beaver Cafe & Patio, on Friday June 13, 2008. - Friends of Gay Toronto's Queer West Fest, crew, organizers and a bevy of DJ's were at Will's NOT T.O. as we kick off Queer Festival Week 2008. Will also allowed us to collect door, something Beaver never does. ( Leave it to Beaver ) While DJ-X and DJ-4est entertained the crowded bar, spinning sexual mayhem and girly tunes for girly boys, Beaver Cafe 1192 Queen W. "Let's Not Wait" We will meet again my friend, We will know each others' eyes We will meet, I'm sure of this, "Let's Not Wait" Michel F. Paré (President & Founder, Queer West Arts and Culture Centre).
 Queer West VP speaker at The Central Ontario Youth Leadership SeminarToronto May 15, OUTeXpressions. Jaclyn Alia Isen,Shout Queer Young Adult UnConferences Project Director will be a key speaker at Central Ontario Leadership Seminar (COLS) During the 3-day seminar this year (May 28 - 30, 2010) a panel focused on "Diversity". Central Ontario Leadership Seminar feels that ShOUT celebrates diversity and Queer West Arts and Culture Centre would bring a youth-related experience and knowledge to share with the students. The format of the panel is a moderated discussion; 4 panelists and a COLS volunteer moderate the session. Panelists are not required to prepare a speech, they simply need to arrive and be ready to have a great discussion in front of our Ambassadors (approx. 125 grade 10 students) in a lecture hall. Jaclyn is Vice President of Gay West Community Network Inc (Queer West) and also Program Coordinator for the 2010 Toronto Queer West Arts Festival She holds a Masters of Arts in Women’s Studies from the University of Western Ontario. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Education in Adult Education and Community Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at University of Toronto (OISE). Past speakers at the COLS Seminar have included: Her Worship Hazel McCallion Mayor, City of Mississauga, Dina Pugliese Host Breakfast Television, Gord Stellick Sports broadcaster, Buzz Hargrove National President CAW, Barry Duncan Founder, Association for Media Literacy, Larysa Harapyn Host, Star! Daily, George Stroumboloupolous Host, The Hour, CBC Eugene Roman Chief Information and Technology Officer, Bell Canada, Sunjay Nath Motivational, Speaker Andy Thibodeau Motivational and Speaker Ray Bechard COLS Founder Panel Abstract: "Imagine a society without prejudice and discrimination, a society that celebrated diversity, difference and allowed for all groups to feel included. Now imagine the opposite, a society where individuals who do not conform to mainstream culture and norms are excluded and are prevented from accessing opportunities that others have (e.g. post secondary education, meaningful employment, health care, etc.). Now think about your own schools and communities, is diversity taught and celebrated as a leadership tool? How can young leaders create a culture of understanding and empathy in their schools and communities? This panel will challenge youth to recognize and strengthen their leadership skills while positively affecting social and attitudinal change in their school and community." The Diversity Panel Discussion takes place Saturday, May 29rd, 2010. University of Toronto, Mississauga Campus (3359 Mississauga Rd. N.) www.cols.ca  OUTeXpressions News Desk: Thursday April 8, Toronto Ontario. On the weekend before the official G20 Summit, the People's Summit will take place at Ryerson University in Toronto June 18. The People's Summit is taking place to educate, empower and ignite positive change, through a wide array of workshops, presentations, skills training and cultural events. Planning for the People's Summit has been underway for several months, and is the latest counter-summit in a long lineage of grassroots responses to international summits. Organizers are calling this summer’s G8 and G20 summits “the largest security event in Canadian history” — more expensive and elaborate, even, than the Vancouver Olympics. The federal government will spend at least $179 million on security, first at the Huntsville G8 Summit and then in Toronto, where the G20 will meet at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. "The people of the world are demanding system change, not more of the same economic, social, and environmental injustices that are perpetuated by the G8 and G20," "And so the People's Summit will have more legitimacy in representing the aspirations of the people of the world than the G8 and G20 can ever claim." said Marya Folinsbee, coordinator of the G8/G20 People's Summit. "The Canadian government, host of the G8 and the G20 Summits, has lost credibility on a broad range of issues that do not reflect the opinion of the average Canadian, such as on climate change, foreign policy and now maternal health," "People in Canada and around the world have lost faith in this government." said Dylan Penner, a People's Summit spokesperson and media officer for the Council of Canadians. "The G20 wants to maintain the status quo for its own benefit. The rest of the world wants change," adds Folinsbee. "The People's Summit is building solidarity across movements to ensure all voices are represented, and unlike the G8 and G20, this is what democracy looks like." The People's Summit will bring together people from all walks of life working for solidarity, self-determination, human rights, a people's economy, justice, peace, a healthy planet, and transformative social change against current economic policies. "The People’s Summit is really a conference, backed by a steering committee that incorporates labour, environmental, student and social justice groups. Queers have already received shout-outs in the advance materials.“I think the G20 is invading space that Pride Toronto created. The Pride festival is being impacted by the G20,” “But I think that really the People’s Summit is about solidarity amongst all people who are affected by the oppressive systems that are currently in place. It’s about system change.” Said Marya Folinsbee, coordinator of the G8/G20 People’s Summit, planned for June 18–27 in Toronto. Below footage from G20 Climate Camp April 2009 in London as Protesters and Riot Police battle it out. The steering committee of the People's Summit includes the Council of Canadians, Canadian Labour Congress, Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario, Canadian Peace Alliance, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), CUPE Ontario, Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, Greenpeace, Ontario Council for International Cooperation, Polaris Institute, Rainforest Action Network, Toronto Community Mobilization Network, and the United Church. The website of the People's Summit is www.peoplessummit2010.ca. Organizers say they won't dictate the content of the summit, nor will they handle protest plans. A separate organization, the Toronto Community Mobilization Network, will run events and assist protesters. Following the People's Summit, a week of G20 protests and marches will take place throughout Toronto, between the June 21st and 27th, organized by the Community Mobilization Network, a network of Toronto-based organizations of people of colour, indigenous peoples, women, the poor, the working class, queer and trans people and disAbled people. For more details on Queer G20 Call-Out Visit g20.torontomobilize.org/node/34 Straight Anarchists Protesters at the G20 summit in Pittsburg in September 2009 dismissed a single march of 200+ Queers, Trannies, Womyn, POC, and some allies on September 24 taking all the credit in the media. The video below was taken during the 2009 Pittsburgh G20 Protests, and the Police Occupation of the University of Pittsburgh. Police used mace, tear gas, and Long Range Audio Device (LRAD), allegedly never before used on American citizens, to break up demonstrators . This film was in collaboration between Pittsburgh Indymedia, Chicago Indymedia, Twin Cities Indymedia, and the Glass Bead Collective. In Pittsburgh, which hosted the G20 last September, 6,000 police and National Guard were called in the assist city police. Ontario and Federal Police forces have entered into an alliance to deal with the threat of violent protest at Toronto’s G20 summit with as many as 10,000 uniformed officers and 1,000 private security guards teaming up to protect world leaders. The Toronto Mobilization Network has no steering committee or affiliation with larger groups, but rather a number of open committees. The next meeting (TMN) will be held tonight April 8, 6:30 pm, at the 519 Community Centre. The next open planning meeting for the People’s Summit will be held April 20, 6:30 pm, at the Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St. G8/G20 Toronto Links: | G20 Munk Information Centre (uToronto) www.g20.utoronto.ca | Resist Toronto G20 Facebook page www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=222337082312 | www.peoplessummit2010.ca | Queer.torontomobilize.org/node/34 | People's Summit Toronto Facebook www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=284064558762
Discover the New & Improved Toronto Queer West Arts Festival this August!Wednesday April 7, 2010. The annual Queer West Arts and Cultural Festival will NO LONGER be held in June. The Queer West Board of Directors and Arts Collectives feel Toronto's LGBTQ fabulousness shouldn't be all jam packed into that month. Our Arts Festival doesn't hold parades, it's more about artistic performances, visual art and culture. Queer West Fest Week has moved to August. Staged from Saturday August 7 to Sunday August 15, 2010. We feel there are tourists in the city all summer long, especially in August; they will be looking for something different. In August there is; Caribana, Distillery Arts Festival, Buskerfest and Toronto Festival of Beer and now Queer West Arts and Cultural Festival Queer West Arts and Cultural Festival will then be able grow; faster, bigger, better and more international, if the Toronto queer public and out of town tourists, doesn't confused us, with Pride Week. We don't think there's really, a shortage of sponsors to approach in August. Securing media coverage, sponsorship and funding, is more a function of how successful we market our Festival. On top of it all that, doing it later, gives us more time to plan. What Queer West Fest means to me.Posted with permission. I think about Queer West Fest, a totally different image is there for me. It's the artists and political movers and shakers. The guys who sleep with other guys but don't have the polished image the east side (Church St.) wishes to maintain. It's the trans community who gets excluded, the Native community which is ignored from Pride. The women who sleep with women but don't have children, ride bikes or wear plaid. It's everyone who has ever been ignored, or put down, or felt they didn't even belong in a gay community of a large city (which is supposedly a community which embraces diversity? what). A community that embraces those which embrace each other, no matter who you are, or who you happen to go to bed with. Queer! Nick Watson Toronto Parkdale (Age group Generation-Y) Synopis of our Festival Theme: Queering BoundariesPRESS RELEASE: Parul, Philip Michel, Jaclyn and Casey are working this weekend, on our new, direction, vision and festival identity statement. It will be release on Monday or Tuesday May 17/18, 2010! QUEERING BOUNDARIES means going beyond a fixed identity and embracing fluidity. Though situated in the West of Toronto, we see the literal city borders and boundaries as contested and in flux. The QUEER WEST ARTS FESTIVAL will push for a more inclusive and complex queer identity; a queer identity that is necessarily shaped through interactions with place, space and community. Toronto is a city where queers come from different spaces, converging and diverging to create their own sense of community, and the QUEER WEST ARTS FESTIVAL emphasizes that sense of connectedness. At the same time, the sites, sounds and boundaries of Toronto's "West End" will be (re)claimed, (re)presented and (re)named as "queer". and about our choice to hold the festival in August... instead of June. Revised List of Events Tuesday April 6 - All Venues are Tentative and to be confirmed in next two weeks:
• Sunday August 08 - Sunday Brunch at Gayley's (Confirmed) • Sunday Evening August 08 - OUTeXpressions Newspaper Presents: SEXY WORDS an evening of poetry & spoken word • Monday August 09 - Wilde Chats Philosophical Discussion for Hip Cats • Tuesday August 10 - Potentially Live Theatre Premier Performance. • Wednesday August 11 - shOUT Youth & Young Adult Queer Literature Extravanganza • Thursday August 12 - Gallery Spin Tour of 6 art galleries and exhibition • Friday August 13 - Queer Mxed Music Night. • Saturday August 14 – 3rd Annual Queer West Film • Sunday August 15 - 6th annual Gay West Bicycle Club's 54k Toronto Pride Ride • Sunday August 15 - Parkdale Queer Youth and Young Adult Community Fair hosted by shOUT! Queer West Arts Festival Call out August 7 to 15Raise the Roof Women's Music Festival in July 23 to 25 2010 Kingston ON. When women singers and musicians are done there, be sure to give Queer West Arts Festival a shout for August. There are far too few opportunities for queer women to perform and for women to enjoy and support queer women’s music. Most of the acts are booked and we thank everyone that applied. We still need Queer Artists & artwork, DJs 5 women (blues/folk/jazz/indy) singers/musicians, bands, youth photographers, poets & spoken word and 5 fiction authors and of course submissions for film festival. Contact Jaclyn Isen queerwestfest@gmail.com Queer West Arts Festival Aug 7 to 15, 2010. All performers will receive an honorarium for their involvement. Booking Deadline for Submissions: July 1st. LGBTQ Video Submissions All submission must be received no later than Wednesday June 30, 2010 SUBMISSION FORM IN PDF FORMAT QWFF2010-Submission-form Queer West Arts & Culture Festival - Program Coordinator - Jaclyn Alia Isen queerwestfest@gmail.com Queer West Film Festival - Program Director - Casey Reid qwfilmfest@gmail.com |
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