What’s Your Story, East Toronto?
Sunday, September 17, 2017, 12-5pm
East York Civic Centre, 850 Coxwell Avenue, Toronto
Facebook Event page
Part of the Weekend of Words
FREE! (register for workshops & Open Mic session in the forms below)
What’s Your Story? is a free celebration of reading and writing in East Toronto, and is presented by Ontario Book Publishers Organization (OBPO), Toronto Arts Council, and East End Arts.
What’s Your Story? is a series of literary events taking place in the inner suburbs of Toronto: East Toronto, Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough. These reading and writing events will help to provide all Toronto residents with access to Toronto’s dynamic literary scene. A writing contest was held by the OBPO and four writers were selected from each neighbourhood. The OBPO has commissioned each one to write a piece about their neighbourhoods. These pieces have been published on Open Book and will be performed at the events.
What’s Your Story? East Toronto is presented as part of the Weekend of Words, a free 3-day celebration of language and literary arts from September 15-17 at the East York Civic Centre.
Join us as we gather to honour the stories and voices of East Toronto and celebrate the winning writers of the What’s Your Story, East Toronto? competition as they share their work. You’re invited to participate in one of the engaging writing workshops, enjoy a performance, and express yourself creatively during the friendly open mic session.
SCHEDULE
What’s Your Story? East Toronto is a free event hosted by spoken word artist, playwright, actor, and musician Charlie Petch on September 17 at the East York Civic Centre:
- 12:00–2:00 pm: WORKSHOP: How to Revise Your Writing
- Successful kids’ and teen writer Karen Krossing will discuss how to re-envision a work-in-progress, explore the craft of revision, and share tips for focussing and polishing your stories.
- 2:00–3:00 pm: WORKSHOP: Find Your Best Onstage Self
- Spoken word artist and actor Charlie Petch will guide a simulating workshop for writers on the art of presenting your work. Learn to overcome stage fright, how to use a microphone, and win the attention of your audience.
- 3:30–4:00 pm: READINGS by What’s Your Story contest winners
- The What’s Your Story, East Toronto writing competition winners read their East Toronto inspired works. Featuring established, award-winning author Terri Favro, and emerging East Toronto writers Jason Freure, Susana Molinolo, and Sadi Muktadir.
- 4:00 pm: PERFORMANCE: A Choir of Demands and Desires on Repeat
- Artist Annie Wong’s A Choir reimagines and reclaims the tools of sound poetry, and engages a choir of 3-6 women who read from a collaborative score of demands consisting of three movements.
- 4:00–5:00 pm: OPEN MIC session
- Attendees are invited to share a short story, poem, spoken word piece, or other creative work.
FREE WORKSHOPS
How to Revise Your Writing with Karen Krossing
September 17, 2017, 12-2pm, East York Civic Centre (*register below!)
To make readers care, your memoir or fiction writing must be told with finesse. In this workshop, you’ll discuss how to re-envision a work-in-progress, explore the craft of revision, and learn tips for focusing and polishing your stories. Since this workshop will include writing activities, you’re welcome to bring a work-in-progress that you want to revise.
Karen Krossing wrote poetry as a teen and dreamed of becoming a published writer. Today, she’s the author of seven successful novels for kids and teens, and she conducts workshops to empower emerging writers. Her latest novel, Punch Like a Girl, is about a teen girl with a hero complex.
Find Your Best Onstage Self with Charlie Petch
September 17, 2017, 2-3pm, East York Civic Centre (*register below!)
In this writing and performance workshop we will learn how to overcome the fears of the stage and public speaking. As a slam poetry coach and theatre director, I know many tips and tricks to finding the best onstage you. We will learn how to use a microphone, how to win over the attention of your audience and all the ways you can shine. The icebreaker and writing workshop gets even the most shy person laughing and sharing. This is your stage to have, let’s conquer fear, let’s laugh at ourselves together. Let’s be unapologetically human. Open to all levels of experience. Not a poet but want to join us? Perfect! We’ll see you there.
Charlie Petch is a spoken word artist, playwright, actor and musician. They have won awards for their work in theatre and spoken word. They have been a coach for slam teams and individuals interested in exploring bravery and performance potentials. Learn more about Petch’s work at www.charliecpetch.com
Thank you for your interest in this event. Registration is now closed.
READINGS
September 17, 2017, 3-4pm, East York Civic Centre
We proudly present readings by the What’s Your Story, East Toronto? writing competition winners and invite you to join us as they share their East Toronto-inspired works.
Terri Favro’s novel Sputnik’s Children (ECW) was a CBC Books and Canadian Living recommended read for spring 2017. Terri is also the author of the awarding-winning novella The Proxy Bride, with a novel-length sequel upcoming from Inanna in fall 2017. A CBC Literary Prize finalist, Terri’s stories have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Humber Literary Review, Geist, Prism, and Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction.
Jason Freure is the editor of The Town Crier, the literary blog of The Puritan. He has also published work in Maisonneuve, Carte Blanche, Vallum, and Spacing. He lives in Toronto’s east end.
Susana Molinolo is Toronto based writer, producer, and community builder. Publication credits range from poetry in Taddle Creek Magazine to advertorial in The Globe and Mail. She is currently working on her first novel, The Buddha Luck.
Sadi Muktadir is a Toronto native born and raised, squandering his twenties working in an office downtown. He dreams of the day he can write every day, but until then, you can find him eating his way across the city, running 6ixspots with a close friend, a website devoted to celebrating the multicultural owners of the city’s lesser known restaurants.
PERFORMANCE
A Choir of Demands and Desires on Repeat with Annie Wong
September 17, 2017, 4pm, East York Civic Centre
A Choir of Demands and Desires on Repeat is a performance of recalling, reminding, and repeating the demands made by women across history to the present day. The performance engages a choir of 3-6 women who read from a collaborative score of demands consisting of three movements. Each movement is punctuated with a moment of pause to intervene the score with noise, audience participation, or silence. A Choir reimagines and reclaims the tools of sound poetry: repetition, noise, and spontaneity to imagine a political poetics at the border of experience, expression, and emotion in the relationship between language and womanhood.
OPEN MIC
Open Mic session
September 17, 2017, 4-5pm, East York Civic Centre (*register below!)
Attendees are invited to share a short story, poem, spoken word piece, or other creative work. Spots will be available on a first come, first served basis. Please register by completing the form below.
Thank you for your interest in this event. Registration is now closed.
*East End Arts strives to make our programming as accessible and inclusive as possible. If there are any accommodations that you need for this event, please email info@eastendarts.ca – we will do our best to meet your needs.
Be sure to check out the 2016 What’s Your Story? winners! You can read the winning texts from each neighbourhood: East York, Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough.
What’s Your Story? East Toronto is presented by Ontario Book Publishers Organization, Toronto Arts Council, and East End Arts.
This event is part of the Weekend of Words, a free, three-day celebration of language and literary arts in east Toronto from September 15-17 at the East York Civic Centre, presented by East End Arts. See the full weekend lineup including an exhibition, readings, performances, workshops, and activities: www.eastendarts.ca/weekend-of-words
