DORIANNE EMMERTON: Diaspora Dialogues Emerging Artist in Fiction 2010

by Janice Goveas

You wouldn't expect a self-described "femme, but low-maintenance femme" to be into Mixed Martial Arts. But then meeting Dorianne Emmerton will correct that expectation, because she has enough energy to snap you, me and a score of others out of our sleepy sense of contradictions and into a world where they make total sense.

Let's begin by qualifying our terms. On being femme, Dorianne includes among the things she enjoys: not wearing pants. Not, she explains, that she walks around with nothing on her bottom half, even if she does think that the recent trend for women to wear tights as pants is deplorable. She just prefers skirts and dresses. However, she can’t wear high heels and rarely wears makeup. Therefore, she’s femme, but low-maintenance femme. On her love of Mixed Martial Arts: it's the homoerotic text that most engages her. "It's goons in Tag Out shirts and oooh! they're hugging. That's so sweet," she coos. Even the language used, like doms and subs, is "totally kink terminology"

The other things she enjoys are cheese, cats, beer, direct sunlight, unconventional relationships and board games. We didn't discuss beer, direct sunlight, board games or unconventional relationships because those seemed self-explanatory - but now that I've met Dorianne I'm wondering if that was a misperception.

About cheese: "everything tastes better with cheese," she argues. She could write a commercial about it. She's not into very mouldy blue cheese, but judiciously consumed pizza topped with it when it was served to her on her second date with her current girlfriend. She remembers a recent trip to Paris where the cheese experience was outstanding. "But the French don't believe in refrigeration, and even my girlfried wasn't hard core enough to eat the furry parts, so we cut around them."

She is also an internet junkie. "If I could have a wifi connection implanted under my skin and wear glasses with screens displayed on the backside I would, and I don’t care how much that would make me look like a member of the Borg." She is a fiction junkie, as well, and would like nothing better than to spend all day reading and writing and tooling around the internet.

"However, I have not yet found a way to pay my rent with these pursuits, so I sadly spend 36.25 hours a week at an office job in the public sector."

THIS WEEK IN TORONTO - OCTOBER 25-31

1) Rasik Arts Roundtable

We meet informally around a table, hand out scripts, read a play (outloud) together, and then talk about it. There is no admission charge. All are welcome. And anyone who wants to read a part is more than encouraged to do so! We will be reading "After the Fall," by Rafi Khan and Alim Khan of Ottawa and Toronto, respectively.

When: Monday October 25, 7-9pm
Where: Urbana Coffee, 1033 Bay St (corner of Bay & St. Joseph)

2) Project Humanity's The Middle Place

When: Ongoing - Saturday November 13, 10pm
Where: Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave, north of Queen St W, east of Bathurst

3) Toronto Women's Bookstore Three Day Re-Opening Party & Cabaret

The Toronto Women's Bookstore invites you to join us for our official opening party! Come celebrate the re-opening of the store with a three-day cabaret featuring readings, performances, DJ's and refreshments.

When: Wednesday October 27 - Saturday October 29, 7-10pm
Where: Toronto Women's Book Store, 73 Harbord St

4) Homeland

Presented by Godot Art Productions, Homeland is a multi-faceted examination of the meaning of home in a hybrid setting of dance, live music and documentary film. The words of the personalities in the film are translated into a solo dance and physical theatre against the beat of drums and flow of electronic sequences performed by two musicians on stage.

Tickets: $20, Mantinee & Preview $10, Advance in Group $15

When: Thursday October 28 - Saturday November 6
Tuesday-Saturday 8pm
Saturday Mantinee 2pm
Preview October 27
Where: Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave, north of Queen St W, east of Bathurst

5) WESTEND Stories

Spend Halloween 2010 by hearing ghoulish tales and horrifying stories to celebrate the joy of fears that we all secretly have deep within. Join us in friendship surrounded by books and stories from around the world and the intimate bookstore of The River Trading Company and WESTEND Stories, a different way to spend a Saturday night!

When: Saturday October 30, 7-9pm
Where: The River Trading Company, 1418 Queen St W

6) Latin-Afro-South Asian Festival

The Latin-Afro-South Asian Festival is a 3-day contemporary multi-disciplinary arts festival that shows the fusion between the different cultures and roots of the Latin American, African and South Asian artists involved and the influence of the multicultural society where they work and reside.

October 30, 2010 - TRANE STUDIO – Music and Dance
November 5, 2010 – GLADSTONE HOTEL – Music and Dance

Cover: $5

When: Saturday October 30, 8pm
Where: Trane Studio, 964 Bathurst St

PRADEEP SOLANKI: Diaspora Dialogues Emerging Artist in Fiction 2010

The Inner Editor

When I first began writing in earnest, the words used to pour out like a river whose dam had just burst. Those were the good old days, when I could sit at the computer for hours on end. Of course, most of the things I wrote then have been deleted, banished to some cyber-purgatory. The writer, Carol Murphy. once told me about the ‘golden turd’ phenomenon. Babies, when they first learn to defecate, think they have produced the most wonderful thing in the world. New writers are not unlike babies. And if one keeps at writing, slowly the inner editor emerges. The stronger the inner editor, the better the quality of writing one produces. And also less the quantity.

Writing workshops help educate the inner editor, as does the guidance of a good mentor. I was lucky enough to have been guided this summer by Rabindranath Maharaj, through the Diaspora Dialogues Mentorship program. I have to be honest, the first time I sent a draft for him to review, I was apprehensive. Just who was this man, he didn’t even know me, nor the style of writing I was aspiring to? How could his advice possibly have any merit? It turned out that he is not only a seasoned writer, but a seasoned mentor also. He seemed to understand immediately both my strengths and my weaknesses. And he explained each one of his critiques in a way that made sense to me. That is important. Often in writing groups, people have valid feedback, but they are unable to express it in a constructive way.

Being a co-editor at Descant Magazine has also sharpened my inner editor. Seeing the mistakes in others’ writing helps one see them in one’s own writing because we all make very similar mistakes.

Thus, when the inner editor has sharpened enough, one finds the volume of writing slows to a trickle. One scrutinizes each word, every comma; the rhythm, the imagery of each sentence has to be sing before it allowed into one’s fiction. Sometimes, the inner editor can be debilitating for the writer. Writer’s block is sometimes a symptom of a too-powerful inner editor. When this happens, how does one learn to switch off the inner editor?

I discovered one way recently, quite by chance. A short story of mine, "The Glass Eaters", was published in Echolocations, the literary magazine for the University of Toronto English Department. This is a magazine that only began in 2002, and is thus not well-known. However, I knew anything to do with the U of T should not be underestimated. Atwood, Ondaatje, and many other literary stars are alumni and/or mentors there. Publishers read such publications, searching for the next fresh voice. When I was asked to read an extract from my story at the launch, my inner editor worried me. Each time I practiced reading aloud, it kept doubting my grammar, my choice of words and imagery. I wasn’t even sure why Echolocations had even accepted my story, it was so full of flaws.

To add insult to injury, the morning of the launch I woke up with a head cold, my nose stuffed up and my throat sore. Should I cancel? Luckily I didn’t. Because when I did read my work aloud, to a room of perhaps fifty students and alumni, a surprising thing happened: it was my inner editor who was silent with fright, not me. Reading the words without the editor, I began to appreciate what was good about the story.

I had discovered a wonderful secret: like fire, the inner editor is a good servant, but a very poor master.

DD Wraps Up Its Season with Fun at the Park and a Glowing Night at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche!

Have you ever had a personal reading from a Giller Prize nominee? Or taken a psychogeographic tour of Queen’ s Park? Have you ever had a personal line of verse written just for you by a professional poet? If so, you probably participated in our Literary Scavenger Hunt at Word on the Street this year! We had close to 500 people divulge their favourite Canadian authors and books to us, find writers hidden around the park, and hit the tents and booths of our literary friends—all in competition for our fabulous grand prizes. The weather was lovely, competition was fierce but friendly, and it turned out to be a huge success! It was the perfect way to cap off a busy summer. Check out our pictures and video.


And while our energy was still high, we geared up for collaborative project Future City at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. On a night where the city belongs to pedestrians, artists and art lovers, we transformed the top floor of the Gardiner Museum. With help from poet Heather Hermant and glass artist Melina Young we mounted an installation called “Nice Bumping Into You” — an open exchange of poetry, art, ideas and anything else you can express with a piece of glowing glass, a sharpie, and a crowd of good-spirited and like-minded people. Atop a custom built light table courtesy of Humber College, visitor’ s thoughts, fears, desires, drawings – and sometimes even phone numbers! – glowed. People wrote or drew whatever they wanted, with our artists there to guide them should anyone need inspiration—and our guests didn’ t let us down. One guest captured the night perfectly, writing “ stoplights in the rearview, as the city falls cold” and another advised “ don’t let life and love slip by.” A young sightseer declared his hunger, and an even younger one told us how much her family meant to her. By the time the sun broke through the windows of the Gardiner, “ Nice Bumping Into You” had been an outlet for the whole spectrum of human emotion and thought, and it was hard to know if it was the journey or the all-nighter that had us all so spent. Either way, it was exciting, inspiring and gratifying to see how excited and willing people were to share.

It was a hectic change in season for us, with two major events back-to-back, but WOTS afforded us the opportunity to enjoy one of the last days of summery sunshine by soaking up the air in Queen’ s Park. And we kept warm all night long despite the first chill of autumn, bumping into strangers and huddled over the glow of our art exchange at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche. As always, it was beyond worth it to share in the enthusiasm, curiosity and talent of everyone who came out to both events, our endlessly talented writers and artists and our ever-patient volunteers. Thank you to all, and we hope to see you at the next one!

THIS WEEK IN TORONTO - OCTOBER 18-24

1) Asian Arts Freedom School - Vivek Shraya

You don’t want to miss this special writing workshop facilitated by Vivek Shraya focusing on creative and editing processes and techniques derived from working on his collection of short stories, God Loves Hair.

When: Tuesday October 19, 6-8:30pm
Where: Kapisanan Centre (in the basement), 167 Augusta Avenue

2) Book Launch: Imagining Toronto

Amy Lavender Harris will launch her long-awaited new book, Imagining Toronto. This is also Mansfield's 10th anniversary party, and other books launching the same evening will include Leigh Nash's Goodbye, Ukulele, Peter Norman's At The Gates Of The Theme Park, Natasha Nuhanovic's Stray Dog Embassy and Priscila Uppal's Winter Sport: Poems.

When: Tuesday October 19, 7pm - Wednesday October 20, 1am
Where: The Boat, 158 Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market

3) imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is an international festival in Toronto that celebrates the latest works by Indigenous peoples on the forefront of innovation in film, video, radio, and new media. The works accepted reflect the diversity of the world's Indigenous nations and illustrate the vitality and excellence of our art and culture in contemporary media.

Ticket pricing here.

When: Wednesday October 20, 1pm - Sunday October 24, 9pm
Where: See here for events and locations.

4) Rakkatak's Cd Release

Rakkatak is Anita Katakkar's solo project, incorporating Indian classical rhythms, lustrous melodies, tabla soaked electronica and waves of synths. She collaborates with like minded Toronto musicians to create an atmospheric backdrop for her work.

Cover: $15 (including cd)

When: Wednesday October 20, 8-11:30pm
Where: The Painted Lady, 218 Ossington just south of Dundas West

5) The Middle Place

Project: Humanity's The Middle Place starts this week at Theatre Passe Muraille. Come see this new version of the play, further developed since our SummerWorks showing.

When: Thursday October 21, 7:30pm - Saturday November 13, 10pm
Where: Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Avenue, just north of Queen
St. West, east of Bathurst Street

6) Book Launch: Echoes of the Other Land

You are invited to the book launch of Echoes from the Other Land, a collection of short stories by Ava Homa. Event is free. Books will be available to purchase at the launch, along with author signing, readings and light refreshments.

When: Friday October 22, 6:30-8:30pm
Where: Beit Zatoun House, 612 Markham Street (Bathurst Station, beside Honest Eds)

7) Latin-Afro-South Asian Festival

The Latin-Afro-South Asian Festival is a 3-day contemporary multi-disciplinary arts festival that shows the fusion between the different cultures and roots of the Latin American, African and South Asian artists involved and the influence of the multicultural society where they work and reside.

October 22, 2010 - LULA LOUNGE - Music, Dance and Video
October 30, 2010 - TRANE STUDIO – Music and Dance
November 5, 2010 – GLADSTONE HOTEL – Music and Dance

Cover: $5

When: Friday October 22, 7:30pm
Where: Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas St. W.

8) Canzine 2010: Canada's Largest Festival of Zines and Underground Culture

Over 100 zines, book publisher, comic artists and crafters will take over The Great Hall. Plus play homemade video games on the Hand Eye Society's video console and buy tiny poems from the Toronto Poetry Vendors poem vending machine.

Cost: $5 at the door. Includes a copy of the fall issue of Broken Pencil.

When: Sunday October 24, 1-7pm
Where: The Great Hall, 1087 Queen Street West (Dovercourt and Queen)

THIS WEEK IN TORONTO - OCTOBER 11-17

1) OUTwords 2010: a queer| spectrum community arts exhibition & fundraiser

When: Ongoing - Friday October 15th at 9:30 pm
Where: The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West

2) Hard Times

based on the novel by Charles Dickens
adapted and directed by Chris Earle, with the company

performed by Ann Powell, David Powell, Anand Rajaram
puppet design and construction by Ann Powell and David Powell
dramaturged by Shari Hollett
music by Rick Sacks
design consultant Camilla Koo
Stage managed by Bonnie Thomson

Performances:
Tuesday-Saturday 7:30pm
Saturday Matinees 2:30pm
Tickets $15 - $25 at Arts Box Office or at 416.504.7529

When: Ongoing - October 16 at 7:30pm
Where: Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, 16 Ryerson (East of Bathurst & North of Queen)

3) 10½ Stories

A night of ten 5-minute stories on a common theme, "Choices", told by volunteer audience members drawn at random from a hat. The eleventh story will be left unfinished – its ending will begin our next storytelling night. Hosted by MothUP Toronto's Daniel Goldbloom.

When: Wednesday October 13, 8-10:30 pm
Where: Terrazza Restaurant, 372 Harbord St. (Just east of Ossington)

4) Breakfast Club Series: Bravo!FACT & You

Discuss with Executive Director Judy Gladstone why both established and emerging filmmakers are interested in working on shorts, and pick up some tips on how to put together a great application.

When: Wednesday October 13, 8-9:30 am
Where: Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, 49 Ontario Street, Suite 501

5) Broken Pencil's Indie Writers Deathmatch IV

Enter your best story (1500-3000 words) by December 31, 2010!

JOYCE WAYNE: Diaspora Dialogues Emerging Artist in Fiction 2010

When you’re my age, 59, being included in the Diaspora Dialogues literary mentorship program is the most rewarding experience imaginable. This year I completed my first novel, The Cook’s Temptation and I also began writing short stories focused on the 1947 spy trials of Soviet sympathizers in Canada. Robin Maharaj is my mentor and his editorial comments have been so helpful that I can envision writing more stories (maybe even a novel) based on the tragic characters embroiled in the start of the Cold War. I think this is called “finding your voice.”

My day job is as the head of the Media for Global Professionals program at Sheridan College. Right now I’m leading a research project investigating the relationship between diversity arts organizations and “mainstream arts” in the GTA. By the way, it was a former student of mine, and an emerging voice in last year’s Diaspora Dialogues contest, Mayank Bhatt, who encouraged me to submit my story to the 2010 competition. I’m so thankful that he did.

THIS WEEK IN TORONTO - OCTOBER 4 - 10

1) The Brockton Writers Series - readings and performances by:
Vivek Shraya, Catherine Paquette, Michael Erickson,
Fraser Sutherland and Hema Vyas

We pass a hat for the writers ($3-$5, pwyc suggested donation).
Books and drinks also available by donation to the Jeremiah Community, who provide us with yummy baked treats.

Limited parking available--choose spots labelled "St. Anne's Church"

When: Tuesday October 5th, 7-9 pm
Where: St. Anne's Church, 270 Gladstone Ave (just north of Dundas)

2) Asian Arts Freedom School - Free Silk Screening with No One Is Illegal

This is a free silkscreening from No One Is Illegal-Toronto!
Bring Shirts. Patches. Canvass. Enthusiasm. We will use art as a tool
of resistance within the migrant justice movement and highlight through
our workshop changes in the immigration system, lived realities of migrants in this sweatshop city, and resistance both globally and locally.

When: Tuesday October 5th, 6-8:30 pm
Where: 167 Augusta, Kapisanan Centre in the basement

3) 2010 De Colores Festival of New Works

The playwright’s festival that started it all for Latin American writers in Canada is back and better than ever! Toronto audiences will be able to hear the new works in development by Martha Chaves (Nominated for Best Female Stand-up, Just For Laughs), Amaranta Leyva (one of Mexico’s most prolific playwrights for children), Marilo Nuñez (Artistic Director of Alameda Theatre Co.) and Juan Carlos Velis (Lead actor in The Refugee Hotel by Carmen Aguirre).

General tickets $15, Students/Seniors $12, Festival Pass $28 (HST Included)

When: Thursday October 7th, 8 pm - Friday October 8th at 8 pm
Where: Theatre Direct's Wychwood Theatre, 601 Christie St. (at St. Clair Ave. W.)

4) Music and Stories from Persia

Shahin Fayaz (tar, setar)
Kouhsa Nakhaei (kamanche)

special guest:
Ariel Balevi (storyteller)

With storyteller Ariel Balevi, Sarv Ensemble will take you on a journey to the mysterious land of Persia. Close your eyes, open your ears, and let your imagination
bring the story to life.

Admission: $15

When: Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 7 PM
Where: Musideum, 401 Richmond St W. suite #133

5) OUTwords 2010: a queer| spectrum community arts exhibition & fundraiser

This exhibit showcases the work of the participants of OUTwords, a free and intensive eight month Media Arts and Leadership program for LGBTTQQ2SIA* youth. Their work engages themes of homophobia, gender performance, and racism, with proud and political undertones. The photography and short films being screened communicate the vulnerabilities and resilience of diverse queer/trans personalities.

October 8 opening 7pm | 2nd floor
October 9 tour & talk back 1pm | 2nd floor
October 13 OUTwords @ Granny Boots 7pm. after party at Vitamin G 10pm | Melody Bar

When: Friday October 8th at 12 pm - Friday October 15th at 9:30 pm
Where: The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West

6) Broken Pencil's Indie Writers Deathmatch IV

Enter your best story (1500-3000 words) by December 31, 2010. Grand prize includes publication in the Spring 2011 issue, $300 cash money, a BP prizepack worth $300, and, most importantly, bragging rights forever more. Two runners-up Will also receive publication in Broken Pencil and paid standard publication rates.

Entrance fee: 20 dollars (includes a 1 year subscription to Broken Pencil).

SARAH FELDBLOOM: Diaspora Dialogues Emerging Artist in Poetry 2010

I've lived with my best friend for a cumulative five years. We've had homes blocks from both oceans that touch Canada's toes, but spent the majority of our cohabitation in one kind old house in Toronto's annex. We aren't big partiers, but have been known to throw hullabaloos here that make everyone laugh sideways. One February when we were undergrads we had a Valentines celebration. We had prepared a piñata but couldn't figure out how to hang it up. A small team of guests drunkenly bashed it open on the floor atop a spilling pile of hermaphroditic porno magazines that someone had brought to craft magnets out of. This was the crowning ceremony for the main event - a poetry reading where we recited our worst love poems. Encouraged were those written in high school or earlier. The idea was to take something that wasn't “good” and appreciate it for how raw and emotionally elicit it was. My favourite piece was a narrative rhyme-scheme written by the fifteen year-old version of a flower of a friend about the experience of giving her first blow job.

I've read lot's of “bad” poems that I've admired. I've also read many poems that have disappointed me - in that they relied too much on prettiness, or used language so well to say something that didn't feel particularly new. Of course everyone has their own preferences, but there are many “fine” poems that I find haughty or gushy and really turn me off. I guess that's why I write poetry, because I see more than your insecure, brainiac older brother in it. It's got wide shoulders, and pink lips. I don't want it to have a lame-o reputation.

To me poems are the delivery of special moments. They are the bird's eye view of a great story, or the magnification of an integral flash in one. They are songs without melodies. I like when they prickle like record static over and over in my head. I like to watch the words up close, look at their curves, see where they shake or stay still.

I spent much of this year living in St. John's, Newfoundland, a place of fairies, and forest ponds, and kind eyes. I had fallen in love with the city when I moved there on a whim the summer before, and had returned to it with a hasty lack of self-control. As much as I wanted to be there I was finding it a struggle to be actively “different” everyday. I didn't talk like a Newfoundlander, think like a Newfoundlander, joke like a Newfoundlander, or drink like a Newfoundlander. The culture there has defined itself through hundreds of years of invasions, isolation, and heartiness. I often felt like a lone mainlander living in a foreign country that was considered part of my own in name only. All winter I came home from my day job and sat in my living room in the dark, craving stories from my home, written by poets who had developed similar ticks and cultural reflexes to my own, as a result of exposure to concrete, admirably hard-working Toronto. When I visited my family in December I grabbed books to bring back to the rock, titles by Stuart Ross, Zoe Whittal, Tara Michelle Ziniuk, Elyse Friedman and Pasha Malla - contemporary Toronto writers, who are funny, and frank and weird. Such books weren't stocked in the Memorial University Library where I scouted out reading material in St. John's.

After that trip I decided to move back to T.O. I felt like I needed to find a sturdy place in my mind so I could reflect. I missed the comfort of being somewhere where everyone belongs because no one seems to more than anyone else. I came to Diaspora Dialogues to explore this feeling, and am working on poems that shriek and giggle about the wide-world of Toronto. Though I'm sure I will continue to move around this country and live beyond it too, I'm glad for this time to write about home from home.

“Nice Bumping Into You”: Future City at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche - Part III

On Saturday, October 2, Diaspora Dialogues is gearing up for another all-night-long, twelve-hour, caffeine-fuelled annual art extravaganza – otherwise known as Scotiabank Nuit Blanche.

This year, we are partnering with the Gardiner Museum
and the Humber School of Creative and Performing Arts to present a joint project called
Future City – an imaginary public square of a future Toronto, if it were run by artists. In this future city, your civic responsibility is to give a little art in order to get a little art.

In DD’s corner of the City is “Nice Bumping Into You,” co-created by spoken word artists Heather Hermant and glass artist Melina Young, and we asked them explain the installation in their own words. Here is part three of a three-part interview.

DD: How are the preparations going?

Heather: Production designer Heather Kent and her students at Humber have been incredible. Under Heather's guidance, the students have built us the light table, and they are also building what we hope will work out as the projection surface. (I don't want to give away that part!) We'll be running some tests in the lead-up out at Humber, and sorting out the logistics of sound, video and light with the essential help of our tech guru David Findlay, as well as the great folks at Gardiner. But really, you just can't prepare for what will happen when you don't know what will happen till it's up and running!

DD: What can people expect to experience that night?

Heather: Funny that that's the next question! Well, the thing about Nuit Blanche is that everything depends on what the people do who come into contact with the work throughout the city. In the least, people who visit Nice Bumping Into You will experience the sight of moving colour and hands as the activity of the table is projected. They'll experience this against the backdrop of the city at night as seen from the wide open window space of the Gardiner restaurant. Those who are drawn in to the table itself--and I hope many will be--will at first witness others engaging, like they're watching a kind of chess game or something.

They can then step in to experience the tactility of the glass themselves, and the moment of the glass and the words and doodles of others inspiring their own impromptu response(s) on the glass. Like a chat, with the time available to just stay, find the words, compose. Those who are drawn into the exchange might also experience moments of collaboration with others. And maybe some of those collaborations will involve spoken word performance.



DD: What do you hope will happen?

Heather: I hope people will be engaged by the installation and want to contribute to it -- by writing or drawing on the tiles, by moving the tiles around, by collaborating with other people around the table, and/or by collaborating on the mic in performance, with each other, or with me. Or all the above. I hope the gorgeousness of the tiles will do something to highlight words in a new way, their meaning, their weight, their worth, potential and power. I hope the table of tiles will be like a collective journal, as intimate, lighthearted, serious or profound, as critical, moved or silly as people may feel in the moment.

Melina: My work is done but Heather's going to be performing live throughout the night with spoken word. I hope people will play with the tiles and text and also feed from the performance. It'll be a loop, a creative play between performer, glass tiles and participants. It's a beautiful space at night with a gorgeous view of Toronto. When we created this piece we were mindful of the way the projection,performance, glass and light table could create an ethereal sense of being part of the city just by being in the space.

DD: Tell us a bit about your other creative work.

Melina: I love working with glass and I'm going to continue creating glass work using especially warm glass techniques. I'm also a video maker and have a video to finish about Lesbos, the actual Greek island from where we get the word "lesbian". Heather and I have invitations to do video production workshops from Athens Pride in Greece and from a lesbian group in China.

Heather: I'm just about to head to Montreal for a run of a stage adaptation of my multidisciplinary performance installation, ribcage: this wide passage, at Le Mai (Montreal Arts Interculturels) at the end of October. This piece incorporates spoken word, physical theatre, live fiddle music by Toronto composer/player Jaron Freeman-Fox, and live videomixing by Kaija Siirala, another Toronto artist. Melina did much of the videography for the live videomixing. ribcage is based on an historical tale of a Jewish woman who came to Canada in the 1730s passing as a Christian boy and was then deported. I also do community-based work, largely through Toronto's backforward collective, and as a Resident Artist of Vancouver's urban ink productions. I dabble in curation, sound work, video and writing of many forms, and have been teaching at York University for the Community Arts Practice certificate since 2006, taking a teaching hiatus this year though to start a PhD.