SOLIDARITY IN STORYTELLING: OPEN MIC NIGHT

Join us for an evening of storytelling in solidarity for our shared liberation on Thursday, April 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Theatre Centre.

This space is physically accessible to audiences and artists alike. Each level has a barrier-free washroom and there is a lift available for public use. 

We at Living Hyphen are a community made up of people from diasporas from all around the world, as well as Indigenous people from many nations. We sit with the entangled fact that all of our histories and our present-day realities are similarly bound up in colonization, imperialism, military occupations, and racist immigration policies in our homelands and right here on Turtle Island. Today we continue to see the violence and harm stemming from these systems of oppression. We have been watching that violence on full blast on our screens for the last five months to Palestinians in Gaza. While our mainstream media does not cover these stories in full, we know that this violence has also been unfolding and continues to unfold in Sudan, to Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, in Ukraine, to Uyghurs in China, and so many more places and people around the world.

We understand the interconnectedness of both our struggles and our liberation. Together, we speak truth to power. Join us for an evening of storytelling in solidarity for our shared liberation!

When: Thursday, April 4 at 7-9 p.m.

Where: The Theatre Centre Café/Bar on 1115 Queen St. West.

We invite our attendees to come prepared with a 5(ish) minute story to share with our community. We will randomly select storytellers to take the stage to speak their stories. Each randomly selected performer will be given an honorarium of $50. All levels of experience and works-in-progress are warmly welcomed!

We strive to cultivate a supportive space for courageous and tender storytelling and to bear witness to each other’s lived experiences in all their complexity.

While this is a free event, we are encouraging our attendees to consider donating to the Toronto Community Justice Fund to support community members who are facing legal and financial repercussions stemming from the criminalization of their Palestinian liberation and solidarity work. As writers, artists, and storytellers, we at Living Hyphen know how important it is to speak out against injustice and we affirm our right to do so.

ABOUT THE THEATRE CENTRE

The Theatre Centre is a nationally recognized live-arts incubator and community hub. Their mission is to offer a home for creative, cultural, and social interactions to invent the future.

They make work that spans disciplines and genres; work that pushes the boundaries of what is considered “art”. The Theatre Centre’s programming and role as a community space are inextricably linked. Art is not made in a silo: it is connected to the world around it. 

They also offer one of the only spaces in the neighbourhood where folks can pop in for a coffee, spend the day working, or just hang out (no purchase necessary). It is a community hub and a place to gather; a place where you — regardless of class, race, ethnicity, religion, or ability — are welcome to be. You don’t have to identify as an artist or performer to use the space. They want you to feel at home in their space.

We are grateful to The Theatre Centre for so generously donating their space with us so that we can speak our stories out loud in solidarity across racial and religious lines.