==>Free Film! Free Snacks! Free Talk!

The Trans Inclusion Group hosts a FREE screening of: “TWO SPIRITS”
co-hosted by the Women and Gender Studies Student Union

Everyone welcome. Allies welcome.

► TWO SPIRITS: In 2001, 16-year-old Fred Martinez was brutally murdered near his hometown of Cortez, Colorado. Two Spirits is a compelling documentary about a life that was cut short for a Navajo teenager who was nádleehi – person with both masculine and feminine essences. The film is more than a story of what it means to be poor, transgender, and Navajo, but also looks at the lives of the friends, family and larger community of Fred Martinez, reaching beyond the violent act that ended with his murder, and exploring issues of gender, spirituality and sexuality.

When, in his early teen years, Fred begins to express his femininity, his mother and family members understand who Fred is based on their traditional Navajo beliefs. They feel pride in being related to someone who has been gifted. What is tragic is how dominant society has much more narrow views on race and gender. What do we do to end these tragedies? How do communities heal loss?

Fred Martinez will not be forgotten. Two Spirits shows regard to the horror of Fred’s death but also unveils this story in a way that unearths deeper value and gives greater meaning to this young life. Featured is rare archival footage and photography of the American Southwest, and a score by Navajo composers. The film and the education and outreach efforts of the Fred Martinez Project are poised to play a role in deepening and expanding the ongoing national dialogue about self-identity, gender, freedom of expression, and human rights. Two Spirits will touch viewers and rally viewers around honouring those who remain true to themselves, and embracing the potential for diversity, dignity, beauty, and strength.

dir.: Lydia Nibley
rated: unrated (2009)
language: English
* regretfully the film is not available closed-captioned *
<65 min>

website: www.twospirits.org

Date and Time: Monday November 22, 2010
6pm-8pm
FREE
Location: William Doo Auditorium
45 Willcocks st.

Open community discussion afterwards.

** This event is part of “LINKED OPPRESSIONS: Racism, Homophobia, and Transphobia” organized by the Equity Students Student Union, Women and Gender Studies Student Union, LGBTOUT and The Centre for Women and Trans People UT **

** TRANS DAY OF REMEMBRANCE EDITION **
This screening is part of The Centre’s week long series of TDOR programming (Nov.15-22). Check the website for full details.

CONTACT INFO:
womenscentre.sa.utoronto.ca
womens.centre AT utoronto DOT ca
416-978-8201

Vegan & nut-free meal/snacks (ingredient list available)
For accessibility accommodations contact: tig.action.toronto AT gmail DOT com

The Centre is participating in ‘Take back the Night’ event demanding justice when it comes to eliminating all violence against women. Join The Centre’s at the fair/rally and march (look for our pink/fuchsia banner at the location) and help us TAKE BACK THE NIGHT!

(A few Centre members will meet at The Centre at 3:30pm to pick up supplies for our table and go to the community fair together. You are welcome to meet here and go with us if you wish. 563 Spadina Ave, Room 100)

Date: Friday October 22nd, 2010

Theme: 30 years of Struggle, Resistance, Liberation

Location: Young and Dundas Square

Timing:

4pm-8pm: Community Fair/Town Cry/Rally (look for our table and hot pink/fuschia banner at the fair!)

8pm – 9:30pm: March

9:30pm – 11pm: Afterparty with DJs

The fair will be set up on the South end of the square (close to the Hard Rock Cafe) and is FREE of charge.

Tuesday October 12
4-6pm

October is Women’s History Month, but the Aboriginal Women and Women of Colour group (AWWOC) want to ask the question, whose history? Which women’s histories are celebrated, explored and narrated this month? Whose histories are ignored, marginalized and excluded? Drop by for discussion, agitation, and a potluck at The Centre for Women and Trans People at UofT on Tuesday October 12, 2010 from 4pm to 6pm. Bringing food is optional, drop by! The Center is child friendly, wheelchair accessible, and trans and queer positive. All self-identified Aboriginal Women and Women of Colour are welcome to attend.

Free Film! Free Snacks! Free Talk!

The Trans Inclusion Group hosts a FREE screening of: “LA DANY”

Everyone welcome. Allies welcome.

► LA DANY: is an intimate doc-portrait of the odd and extraordinary Dany Castaño Quintero, a transvestite street performer from Medellín, Colombia. For over 20 years, Dany has entertained the crowds that gather in Bolívar Park every Sunday following mass. Her improvised show, with its over-the-top depictions of kidnappings, rapes, murders and infidelities, is pure entertainment, high on audience participation and low on good taste. Dany endears the poor and dispossessed. With her theatrics and heart she’s become an icon for the city’s gay community. Dany is adored for her humour, spirit and generosity. But away from her adoring public, life is a struggle. Barely able to read or write, Dany forges a day-to-day existence to stay safe, sane and alive.

Dany makes weirdness work. By playing with found objects, absurdity and her own identity, Dany ultimately plays with the constructions of joy, violence, imagination, reality, innocence, vulgarity, community, conflict, show and life, and gender and self. LA DANY celebrates art as activism and makes spectacle political. But what will you see in LA DANY? Come be her audience…

dir.: Julie and Jim Giles
rated: unrated (2010)
produced by: Julie and Jim Giles for Brother & Sister Productions
music by: Alex Cuba, Ron Davis, Rubén “Beny” Esguerra, Diego Marulanda
language: Spanish with English subtitles

website:http://ladany.com

Date and Time:
Monday October 25, 2010
6pm-8pm
FREE

Location:
The Centre for Women and Trans People
563 Spadina Ave. rm.100
wheelchair accessible through Bancroft Avenue
seating may be limited

womenscentre.sa.utoronto.ca
womens.centre AT utoronto DOT ca
416-978-8201

Vegan & nut-free meal/snacks (ingredient list available)
Open discussion afterwards.

For accessibility accommodations contact: tig.action.toronto AT gmail DOT com

** Thank you to the filmmakers for their work and generous donation
** And thank you for your support of the Trans Film Screening Series

Post-event a DVD copy of LA DANY will be available through The Dr. Chun Resource Library (a social justice library and joint project with OPIRG Toronto located at The Centre for Women and Trans People) http://library.opirguoft.org

Come check out our space, enjoy yummy food and make new friends! We’ll have DIY t-shirt reconstruction patterns and materials so bring an old t-shirt you want to make new, or get one from us!

Thursday September 23 from 12pm – 3:30pm
Featuring The Spice Community Cooking (Sugar ‘n Spice edition: Vegan Desserts!) and RAFFLE prizes from Come As You Are, Sammy’s, Brazilian Film Festival and more!

FREE

Stay for Fearless Voguing Workshop from 3:30pm to 5:30pm!

Thursday September 23
3:30pm – 5:30pm
FREE

Trans and queer people of color, come express your fierce selves at
the Fearless Voguing workshop with ILL NANA/DiverseCity Dance Company.

No experience necessary.

Allies and stilettos welcome.

ILL NANA/DiverseCity Dance Company- is a queer positive multiracial dance company that embraces difference as strength, combats oppressive power structures by expressing their voices through dance, and operates from the grassroots as a collective through consensus. Utilizing both classical dance techniques and urban dance forms of hip hop, ballet, jazz, house, vogue, step, latin, modern, and wushu kung fu, ILL NANA creates dance works with a style all their own. These performers are fearlessly out and proud, sexy, masculine, feminine, and all that is in between, representing the super queeroes and real humans in all of us .

www.illnana-dcdc.com

* This workshop is part of Queer Orientation 2010

Free Film! Free Snacks! Free Talk!

The Trans Inclusion Group hosts a FREE screening of two films:
“Cruel and Unusual” and “Red Lips [Cages for Black Girls]”

Tuesday September 21, 2010
6pm – 8pm
SPECIAL LOCATION: Koffler House, 569 Spadina Ave. Room 108
wheelchair accessible

Everyone welcome. Allies welcome.

Welcome to the first Trans Film Night of 2010-2011 (now in its third
year). These nights offer a great opportunity to come together as a
community, meet new people and share in alternative art and alternative learning. Please plan to attend and feel free to help shape the upcoming year’s programming with your input. Look forward to more special guests and local artists.

*Special Event – Trans Film Screening Series – “Prisoners’ Justice
Edition”*

We offer this night in recognition of Prisoners’ Justice Day (August
10th) and in opposition to a summer (and history) of police violence.
This specific night’s plans are still growing so please check-back for
additions or get in touch if you want to be involved.

Cruel and Unusual
This documentary follows five trans women incarcerated in men’s prisons across the U.S. Ashley, Linda, Anna, Yolanda and Ophelia describe their experiences undergoing inhumane and violating treatment including rape, violence, solitary confinement and denial of medical care. Their stories raise very important questions about the prison system, the criminalization and institutionalization of particular bodies, and the relationship between human rights and gender identity. The film asks if the punishment for their crimes is indeed cruel and unusual. These women are not criminal in the way the public understands them to be. This unsettling documentary exposes harsh realities and pain – please be aware that the film may be triggering.

This film may be hard to witness because of the stories of cruelty.
Let’s share in those tensions, uncomfortable moments and pain together where possible and productive. If it helps to prepare yourself for what you will see continue reading this section for more overview: Ophelia, beautiful and bold, cuts herself when left alone in solitary confinement for an entire year. Yolanda, 21, has taken hormones since age 12; after surviving a childhood of poverty and drugs, she is raped by fellow inmates. Rough and tough Linda, imprisoned for stealing pantyhose, performs her own correctional surgery when the Idaho Correctional Facilities deny her request for drug therapy. Anna loses not only four years of hormone treatment but also custody of her only son when she is sent to prison for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

dir. Janet Baus, Dan Hunt, Reid Williams (2006)
rated: unrated

Red Lips [Cages for Black Girls]
dir. Kyisha Williams
Film description and director bio coming soon!

Everyone welcome. Allies welcome.

Light vegan meal/snacks (ingredient list available).

Open discussion afterwards.

* This screening is part of Queer Orientation 2010

Dr. Chun Resource Library presents…

Lee Maracle and her book Ravensong!

Hosted by OPIRG & The Centre for Women and Trans People

This month the reading circle will be featuring the novel Ravensong, and a discussion with beloved author of I am Woman, Lee Maracle! Please bring along your thoughts and ideas to share and engage in this discussion with Lee about her novel.

When: Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 6:00 PM

Where: The Dr. Chun Resource Library at The Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T, 563 Spadina Ave., Room 100 (North Borden Building)

FREE event! Yummy refreshments will be provided!

We have a copy of the book available to borrow at the Dr. Chun Resource Library. As well, it is available at U of T libraries: Robarts, New College Library, Thomas Fisher Rare Book, Victoria College library, OISE, UTM Library, and Trinity College library. Moreover, Ravensong can be borrowed from the Toronto Public Libraries, including: York Woods, Toronto Reference Library, TRL Stacks, and Flemingdon Park.

Ravensong is a passionate novel about a young woman’s search for answers to difficult questions by one of our foremost First Nations writers. Stacey must balance her family’s traditional ways against white society’s intrusive values. It is set in the 1950’s Pacific Northwest.

Lee Maracle is of Salish and Cree ancestry and a member of the Stó:lō Nation. She was born in 1950 and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She grew up in a poor neighborhood in North Vancouver and was one of the first aboriginal people to go to public school. Feeling isolated from her own culture as well as an outsider in Canadian culture, she dropped out of school and later drifted from western Canada to California to Toronto, supporting herself by working in construction, hospital laundry, nightclubs, film production, adult education, theatre, radio, stand-up comedy, aboriginal arts and crafts, and traditional healing. Eventually, she became politically active and remains active in the Native struggle against racism, sexism and economic oppression.

Besides being a professor at the University of Toronto, she has also been the Stanley Knowles Visiting Professor in Canadian Studies at the University of Waterloo. She was one of the founders of the En’owkin International School of Writing in Penticton, BC (1981); a learning institute with an Indigenous Fine Arts Program and an Okanagon Language Program. In 2001, Maracle was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor of Canadian Culture at Western Washington University to engage in activities focused on promoting Canadian culture and awareness. She is a member of the Red Power Movement and Liberation Support Movement. Maracle has been the Traditional Cultural Director of The Centre for Indigenous Theatre and has worked as an instructor of dramatic composition and theatrical representation. Maracle’s works reflect her antipathy toward racism, sexism, and white cultural domination.

The Dr. Chun Resource Library is a joint project of the Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T, and OPIRG-Toronto.

Thursday, August 5
6pm
The Centre for Women and Trans People @ U of T
563 Spadina Ave , Room 100

Whether you are looking into law school, masters programs or doctoral programs, this workshop is a great place to start. Workshop covers discusses reference letters, standardized testing, funding, pre-selection research, setting timelines and writing personal statements to compile a winning application package.

Why Is This An Equity Issue?

• Because education is power yet this door to upward equity slams shut to those of us from marginalized/underrepresented groups.

• Because this information is not readily accessible to immigrant/racialized students who are more likely to be the first in the family to attend university.

• Because equal access to higher education is fundamental to equalizing power relations in society.

• Because low-income students can not afford exclusive $300 sessions on the topic such as those offered by Kaplan, Princeton Review, Oxford Seminars and other institutions which make up the “Get Into Law/Grad School” industry.

Facilitated by: Saron Ghebressellassie

Saron Ghebressellassie, activist and scholar, has completed multiple successful law school applications, doctoral applications, masters applications and over thirty successful scholarship applications.

Refreshments will be served!

How do you feel about the G20? Community Cooking and Gathering
Thursday July 8th, 2010

5pm – 6pm: Evening ‘Spice’: Community Cooking and Dinner (all vegan)
6pm – 8pm: Sharing circle/Discussion

The Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T is hosting a community cooking and gathering to provide a space for UofT students and community members to gather and support one another during the brutal aftermath of the G20. Join us at The Centre from 5-6pm for community cooking and dinner (all vegan) and 6pm-8pm for sharing circle/discussion about our G20 experiences. All views are respected. Everyone is welcome!

FREE
at The Centre for Women and Trans People at U of T
563 Spadina Ave.
North Borden Building rm. 100
wheelchair accessible entrance through Bancroft Ave.

** Please note The Centre will be largely closed that week, we regret that it will not be staffed to respond to calls or emails.
TTC tokens available upon request