Diaspora Dialogues and Hart House present an evening of readings, drama and music.

CrossSections: Writing from the UofT community

Diaspora Dialogues and Hart House present an evening of readings, drama and music.

The University of Toronto is home to a vibrant mix of writers and performers. Join Diaspora Dialogues and Hart House, Thursday March 5, 7:30 pm in the Arbor Room, for the words, images and sounds of some of UofT’s most exciting artists.

Selected from a Diaspora Dialogues open call for submissions, emerging writers Annette Gagliano, Fan Li, Catronia Wright and playwright Maureen Gualtieri will present new work they’ve been developing with mentors Karen Connelly and Yvette Nolan. Also on tap that evening will be Karen Connelly, University College’s Barker Fairley Visiting Fellow in Canadian Culture, and Lee Maracle, writer-in-residence for First Nations House and Visiting Scholar in the Aboriginal Studies and English Department.

After the readings, DJ urbansteve takes the stage, so sit back, relax, and enjoy.

WHAT: CrossSections: Writing from the UofT CommunityWHEN: Thursday, March 5, 2009 - 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Hart House, Arbor Room - 7 Hart House Circle

COST: Free

CONTACT: Julia Chan, julia@diasporadialogues.com or 416-944-1101 x 277

Diaspora Dialogues supports the creation and presentation of new fiction, poetry and drama that reflect the complexity of the city through the eyes of its richly diverse writers. Diaspora Dialogues is supported by The Maytree Foundation, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation and TO Live With Culture. Hart House is at the centre of student life on campus at the University of Toronto. We offer a broad range of social, artistic, cultural and recreational programming and involvement opportunities. We strive to be a place where all voices, rhythms and traditions can converge, and where opportunities for self-expression and self-knowledge can take root.

Biographies:

Karen Connelly is the author of seven books of best-selling nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, the most recent being The Lizard Cage. She has read from and lectured on her work in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. She is also a working photographer. Her best-selling book, Touch The Dragon, A Thai Journal, won the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction in 1993, and was a New York Times Notable Travel Book of the Year in 2002. Her latest book The Lizard Cage won Britain's 2007 Orange Broadband Prize for New Writers, as well as being shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize 2006 and longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Award, 2006.

Annette Gagliano is currently a first year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, St. George campus. She enjoys reading and writing in her spare time. Gagliano also enjoys playing the piano. She lives in Mississauga with her twin sister, younger sister and parents.

Maureen Gualtieri has lived in Toronto her entire life. She has just graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in English, having focused on theatre and text. Her produced plays include Chopsticks at the Beg Borrow and Steal Festival, Monkey Love at the Toronto Fringe (both in 2007), and Afterimage at U of T in 2004. When not writing, Gualtieri can be found exploring High Park, riding her bike along the lake, or baking copious amounts of cookies.

Fan Li is studying English at the University of Toronto.

Lee Maracle, Sto: Lo nation, grandmother of seven, mother of four, was born in North Vancouver, B. C. and now resides in Ontario. Her works include: the novels, Ravensong, Bobbi Lee, Sundogs, and Daughters are Forever, Will’s Garden, the short story collection, Sojourner’s Truth, the poetry collection, Bent box, and non-fiction work I Am Woman. She is Co-editor of My Home as I Remember and Telling It: Women and Language across Cultures, editor of a number of poetry works, Gatherings journals and has published in dozens of anthologies in Canada and America. Ms. Maracle is a both an award winning author and teacher. She is currently Aboriginal writer-in-residence for First Nations House, and Visiting Scholar in the Aboriginal Studies and English Department at the University of Toronto.

Steve Phillips (a.k.a. DJ urbansteve) plays warm, funky, eclectic music. Depending on his mood or the vibe of the crowd and party, you can catch urbansteve spinning anything from roots reggae, dubby techno, deep house, 70’s afrobeat, funk, soul, breakdance and electro, old hip hop, retro 80’s, and indie/alternative rock. Perhaps his mixed tastes reflect his ethnically mixed background (he’s “Chinese-Jamaican-miscellaneous,” as he likes to say). He is part of Hot Sauce, a Toronto trio of DJs who throw parties around the city. He is also half of the Bass Culture DJs tandem who specialize in reggae and Jamaican music. Currently, urbansteve plays every first and third Fridays of the month at The Cobourg in Cabbagetown.

Catronia Wright is an English graduate student at the University of Toronto. She has previously published in journals such as Contemporary Verse 2 and The Claremont Review. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.