OPIRGatYorkUniversity

Creative Drag & Gender Performance Workshop
with Sheesha Yadil and Prince Deep

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Saturday, April 5, 2009
1 - 5pm
Rm 2011, Sherbourne Health Centre
(333 Sherbourne Street)
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THIS WORKSHOP IS FREE AND ONLY OPEN TO INDIGENOUS INDIVIDUALS AND PEOPLE OF COLOUR.

Ever wanted to dress up and perform on stage? Interested in exploring with your gender identity? This workshop will introduce you to the art of drag outside of the more mainstream depictions of drag you may see on your popular TV or at a Club. Workshop artists Prince Deep and Sheesha Yadil will be bringing in a variety of alternative gender performance tools than the typical drag queen lip-sync. The purpose of this workshop is to provide resources to people of colour and Indigenous folks who have been interested in gender performance but may not know where to start. In this queer and trans-positive space, we will go through the technical aspect of preparing and getting ready: from covering the clothes and materials drag artists use for getting dressed to the methods of make-up and facial hair. Participants will also have to opportunity to play with their creative side as we try out different styles of presentation on stage. We will also get a chance to view some video clips on the different genres of gender performance and have a discussion on some issues that can emerge from drag shows, namely, cultural appropriation and passing. At the end of the workshop, we hope participants will feel more comfortable with the style of gender performance they wish to explore and we will end with ideas of spaces and events where that can happen.

Sherbourne Health Centre is a fully accessible location.

Registration is required. Interested participants are asked to email their name to ywc@riseup.net to register.

Any questions, inquiries and/or concerns please contact Cristina at 416 736 2100 ex. 33484 or at ywc@riseup.net.

Sex Work in Toronto:
Decriminalize vs. Legalize. What are the issues?

Tuesday, 10th March 2009
5 - 7 pm
at CWTP, Rm 322, The Student Centre

As part of International Women's Day events, join us for a talk and discussion with speakers Kara Gillies and Ayoola Silvera from Maggies Toronto: The Toronto Prostitutes' Community Project.

Refreshments Served!

Kara Gillies is a sex worker who has been active in the sex workers rights movement for over twenty years. She currently works at Maggie's providing educational workshops for sex workers and community organizations.

Ayoola Silvera has been a volunteer, board member and activist with Maggie's for over three years and with SWOP East (Sex Worker's Outreach Project) for 2 years.

Presented by OPIRG and Centre for Women and Trans People at York presents. For more info: ywc@riseup.net or opirg@yorku.ca

Film Screening: Mohawk Girls

Tuesday, 3 March 2009
5pm - at Nat Taylor Cinema (N102, Ross Building)

2005, 62 minutes
Written and Directed by Tracey Deer

In MOHAWK GIRLS, filmmaker Tracey Deer intimately captures the lives of three exuberant and insightful Mohawk teenagers as they face their future. Like Amy, Lauren and Felicia, Deer grew up on the Kahnawake Native Reserve, but she left to attend school. Now, she returns to document two critical years in the lives of these teens who are contending with the unwritten rules of their close-knit community. To move away from the reserve means risking the loss of credibility, or worse, rights as a Mohawk. But to stay is to give up the possibilities offered by the "outside world." With insight, humor and compassion, Deer takes us inside the lives of these three teenagers as they tackle the same issues of identity, culture and family she faced a decade earlier.

Interspersed with home videos from Deer's own adolescence, MOHAWK GIRLS is a deeply emotional yet unsentimental look into what it means to grow up Native at the beginning of the 21st century.

Presented by OPIRG and Centre for Women and Trans People at York presents. For more info: ywc@riseup.net or opirg@yorku.ca