Sick & Disabled Queer Zine Fair - August 25th

The Sick & Disabled Queer Zine Fair (SDQZF - known last year as SDQYZF) is back again for a second year with Bricks & Glitter! Come check out the fair featuring zines, art and merch to purchase from a sweet line-up (TBA) of sick, disabled, d/Deaf, Mad and neurodivergent 2SLGBTQ+ vendors.

The fair will take place Sunday August 25th from 1pm-5pm at the George Chuvalo Community Centre (50 Sousa Mendes St). This venue is a fully accessible facility, has all-gender washrooms, and ASL interpretation has been confirmed. The event is FREE or by donation (optional) for the Bricks & Glitter festival fund.

ACCESS INFO
The building has power doors, level floors (no steps) , all-gender washrooms (including one large single stall accessible washroom, and multi stall washrooms with some larger stalls), an elevator, and there will be a 'chill out' room for folks to sit, relax, and have light snacks. The main space is lined with very large windows so the space will be lit with natural light, and supplemented with lighting from multiple standing lamps if needed (if it is overcast and darker outside).

The George Chuvalo Community Centre strives to provide a scent-free environment. For the safety of our vendors and attendees with chemical disabilities, we ask that you do not wear scented products (perfume, cologne, essential oils, scented body products) in the space. If you are a smoker, please take a walk/roll down or across the street to smoke and make sure to wash your hands with the scent-free soap in the bathroom before approaching vendors.

BRICKS & GLITTER - We are a trouble of queers who believe in creativity and collectivity, in imagining together a world worth living in. Intersectional by default and critical by necessity, we are trying to create a space for us all of us, to world build together, and to practice the future in the now. Bricks and Glitter is a community arts festival, celebrating two-spirit, trans and queer talent, ingenuity, caring, anger, and abundance.

Make Your Own Zine April 11 w/ Althea Balmes

Make Your Own Zine w/ Althea Balmes

An assuring zine making workshop for IBPOC. This workshop will be facilitated by Akin King member Althea Balmes. This workshop is open to Indigenous, Black and People of Colour interested in creating or collaborating on pocket zines. Its small size makes it a useful tool for organizing, mobilizing or declaring your love for someone! In this workshop we’ll create pocket zines that focus on self-healing, affirmations and words of wisdom, perfect for times when you feel like your world is out of control. Just take this zine out and remember, you have a loving community who supports you.

Connect, share resources and start creating a self-affirmation pocket guide to feeling okay!

Date: Thursday April 11, 2019 from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Location: Tea Base (Basement of Chinatown Centre) 222 Spadina Ave, Unit C-15
To register, email: hello.wayf@gmail.com
PWYC (no one turned away at the door for lack of funds): WAYF is currently fundraising for future programming and would love it if folks can help us out with some donations.

Snacks and tokens provided. Please let WAYF know ahead of time of your accessibility and dietary needs. WAYF are asking folks to register so that we know how much food to prepare for.

About Althea Balmes:

At the core of her practice is the embodiment of anti-oppressive framework, process of decolonization and community building. In creating visual narratives, she explores themes and stories of migration, labour and personhood. Her work expands on the decolonial aesthetics of the Filipinx diasporic experience.

Her films have been shown at Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, Kaohsiung International Film Festival, Scarborough Arts Bridging Festival. Her illustrations and comics have been published in Briarpatch Magazine, Rice Paper Magazine, Our Times Magazine, Carte Blanche, Looseleaf Magazine and by Between the Lines Press. As part of Kwentong Bayan Collective, she creates work with and about the love and struggle of Filipinx (live-in) migrant care workers. The Collective have exhibited works in Centre d’art la Ferme du Buisson, Workers Arts and Heritage Centre, A-Space Gallery, Blackwood Gallery, Mayworks Festival among others.

Althea facilitates workshops on visual storytelling and comics working with newcomers, youth, 2SLGBTQI+, racialized groups and under-served communities. She started the Comic- Making Workshop + Residency Program (Cup Doodle Project) in 2016 to nurture and provide a creative space for Asian youth interested in telling their stories through comics.

As a UX researcher she helps designers and developers create consensual, accessible and ethical digital experiences.

She received her B.A in Anthropology and International Development Studies at York University and her Master of Information in University of Toronto in User Experience Design.

About WAYF Collective:
The Where Are You From? Collective (WAYF Collective) is an art-based and activism program for Asian-identified people (that includes but is not limited to Southeast Asian, South Asian, East Asians, Asian-Pacific Islander).

WAYF’s work seeks to address issues of agency that Asians living on Turtle Island experience in defining our identities, visibility, and representation by offering workshops for youth, running Arts events, and creating an online platform for self-representation.

WAYF work from an intersectional, anti-oppression framework to empower Asians to develop critical art practices and build activist spaces that challenge dominant culture after decades of collective silence. WAYF’s mission is to celebrate Asian identities and achievements, build capacity for Asian-identified youth, and connect diasporic Asian communities so that we can create intentional dialogue that disrupts status quo.

Akin Zine Workshop - Make a Mini Zine!

Saturday October 15, 2016 / 12pm-3pm at Akin Lansdowne, 87  Wade Ave, Studio 101

Make mini zine! At this hands-on workshop we will introduce participants to zines and zine culture. You will be shown a simple method for designing and creating an 8-page mini zine and then create your own. Materials will be provided and lots of zines will be on hand for inspiration!

Everyone welcome. $5 to participate. Limited seats available, reserve your spot here: https://www.universe.com/zineworkshop

Zine originals will be left with us after the workshop. We will make 5 copies of the zine for you. You can come to pick up your zine copies and original later in the week or they will be mailed to you for the price of postage.

This is a special event for in preparation for Edition Art Book Fair.  Everyone will get 5 copies of their zine to keep, sell or give away. We will also make 5 copies of Akin Collective member’s zines to bring to Edition Art Book Fair as a part of a special limited edition collection. Proceeds from the sale of the special collection at the book fair will go to support Akin Projects’ art initiatives such as events, workshops, collaborative projects and community outreach. For more info visit www.akinprojects.org

Materials will be provided but feel free to bring:
    •    Any images you want to use. High contrast black and white is best. Each page of the zine is 2.75” x 4.25”.
    •    Black and white mark making materials (pens, pencils, inks, stamps etc)
    •    Books or magazines for cut and paste
    •    Drinks and snacks

What is a zine?
A zine (pronounced “zeen”) is an independently published, small circulation book, magazine or other object printed in multiples. A zine can be any size, and be about anything and created by anyone in any format.