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Event and interview with Leanne Prain, author of Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery

September 26, 2011 • Team Shameless

Hoopla, by the co-author of 2009’s bestselling Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet & Knit Graffiti, showcases those who take the craft of embroidery where it’s never gone before, in an astonishing, full-colour display of embroidered art. Hoopla rebels against the quaint and familiar embroidery motifs of flowers and swashes, and focuses instead on innovative stitch artists who specialize in unusual, guerrilla-style patterns such as needlepoint nipple doilies and a ransom note pillow; it demonstrates that modern embroidery artists are as sharp as the needles with which they work. - Arsenal Pulp Press

(Arsenal)

Leanne Prain, author of Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery, took some time out from preparing for her Toronto launch/”stitch n’ bitch” (Tuesday, September 27 at 7pm at Type Books, 883 Queen St. West) to answer a few questions for Shameless about her book and subversive crafting.

Shameless: Can you explain what the subtitle of your book, “The Art of Unexpected Embroidery,” means for those who have never heard of this before?

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The Revolution Starts at Home - Toronto Launch Party

May 17, 2011 • Julia Horel

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Doors 6:30, 7 PM reading

PLEASE NOTE VENUE CHANGE

Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M6J 1J6, Canada

Come to the launch party for this long-awaited, beloved book: The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence In Activist Communities, co-edited by Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.

Featuring readings, snacks, discussion and book signings
DJ’d by Syrus Ware
Contributors Jessica Yee (Native Youth Sexual Health Network) and Juliet November, and co-editor Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha will attend and read.

Book sales by the Toronto Women’s Bookstore.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We want to acknowledge that this workshop is taking place on stolen Indigenous land and that it is at Indigenous people’s expense that we occupy this land. Community accountability is work that Indigenous communities have been doing outside of and in resistance to systems of state power since before the arrival of colonial settlers and continue to do.

ACCESS IS LOVE AND JUSTICE: The Gladstone is fully wheelchair accessible, including bathrooms. This is an all ages event. There is reserved seating for folks who need it.

Fragrance free is hella love! So that beloved community members including the editor can be present without throwing up or having to leave, please come to this event fragrance free! This means no cologne, perfume, essential oil and also switching to unscented products. We know folks have a learning curve around this, but if you can ditch the scented (yup, even with ‘natural’ scents) detergent and fabric softener, it’ll go a long way.

Awesome scent-free list here: http://eastbaymeditation.org/accessibility/scentfree.html
For more information about the book and other launch dates in other cities, check out the book’s blog.
- Bibliothèque
- Body Politics
Myth One: Fat is Unhealthy

April 18, 2011 • Shaunta Grimes

Dr. Pattie Thomas wrote a book called Taking Up Space: How Eating Well and Exercising Regularly Changed My Life that is just really awesome.

The first chapter of the book has 10 fat myths.

As I read them, I had so many ideas and thoughts and things I wanted to say about each one. I contacted Dr. Thomas and she said that it would be okay for me to use her list to talk about each of the myths here. So—welcome to a 10-week series.

Myth number one on Dr. Thomas’ list: Fat is unhealthy.

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- Bibliothèque
- Body Politics
Missing the point: Portia de Rossi’s Unbearable Lightness

March 20, 2011 • Julia Horel

Portia de Rossi (best known from her role as Nelle Porter on Ally McBeal, as well as a couple of movie roles, and of course for being the famous wife of Ellen DeGeneres, recently released a memoir chronicling her battle with anorexia entitled Unbearable Lightness: A story of loss and gain.

In talking to a few others who have read the book and reading reviews on Goodreads, I found that some people were put off by the writing style and lack of polish. In fact, I was mostly with this book until the epilogue. I found the writing to be honest and straightforward, if not completely polished. The book is likely to be very triggering to anyone recovering from an eating disorder, as she is extremely candid about her daily activities and obsessive habits. I’m glad Portia de Rossi went public with her eating disorder to remove stigma and give insight into the pressures of Hollywood and the tragedy of having to hide one’s sexual orientation because of fears of the public’s reaction.

But Portia de Rossi fell short of what could have been an inspirational “you’re perfect the way you are” message. The fatphobia inherent in the narrative seems reasonable to her story, if disturbing, at first, given her obsession with thinness and her belief that it’s necessary for her career. But in the epilogue of the book, she repeatedly makes reference to her fatness during recovery at her top weight of 168 lbs, refers to gaining that much weight as “the other end of the same situation” (as if being 168 lbs. is the fat extreme as 82 lbs. was the thin extreme) and reacts with horror to her highest size of 14.

Her assertions that diets don’t work, and that learning one’s own hunger and fullness cues and eliminating the good/bad food dichotomy are better alternatives are absolutely true. What isn’t true is her strong implication that eating this way will make everyone’s weight settle into a thin (but not TOO thin) setpoint. In fact, she more than implies this false conclusion with fatphobic comments like “I’ve never seen an overweight person walking their dog, but I’ve seen plenty running on treadmills at the gym.” If she’s never seen a fat person enjoying pleasurable movement rather than punishing themselves for their perceived flaws at the gym, she isn’t looking very hard, and she utterly fails in respecting the diversity of people’s bodies.

I’m left with the impression that while Portia de Rossi believes eating disorders are terrible and deadly, being fat (defined by de Rossi as 168 lbs, which at her stated height of 5‘8” is precisely three pounds overweight according to the flawed body mass index) is no better an alternative—is in fact the opposite “extreme.” This is incredibly dangerous and damaging, and there is no way I can recommend this book, no matter how compelling de Rossi’s personal story is.
a love letter to feminism (for real)

March 2, 2011 • Shaunga Tagore

cross-posted on www.shaungatagore.com

I feel blessed and honoured to be a part of the anthology, Feminism for Real: Deconstructing the Academic Industrial Complex. (Also see the follow up event here!) Not only because it gave me space to put down in print and solidify forever my XTREME-RAGE-AGAINST-GRAD-SCHOOL, but for many other reasons as well. As editor Jessica Yee has stated many times, including in the book, it is not a “hate-on” feminism or academia. To me, it is exactly the opposite: in deconstructing all the things that feminism far too often tends to be (ie. oppressive!) what’s revealed is a love for all the beautiful and powerful things feminism is and can be FOR REALZ. I think that one of the reasons it means so much to me to have been a part of this project is because of where I realized my tumultuous relationship to feminism has brought me.

I’ve had my (un)fair share of emotionally intense, be-all/end-all uber-dawson’s-creek-stylez dramatic love relationships. And feminism is right up there with them. when i first met feminism it was like fireworks and stars exploding in the sky. It was passionate, energetic and exciting - the kind of all-out love where you would gladly spend all night awake talking online, confessing your undying love for each other. “Truly Madly Deeply” by Savage Garden playing in the background on repeat. (You might have noticed by now that yes, I was once a teenage girl growing up in the late 90s.) It was like the kind of relationship that gives you the oxygen you didn’t know you were missing.

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Follow-up event: In conversation with Jessica Yee

February 28, 2011 • Julia Horel

Due to such incredibly popular demand that many folks (this blogger included!) were turned away at the door of the book launch for Feminism FOR REAL: Deconstructing the Academic Industrial Complex, there will be a second event held at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (73 Harbord Street, Toronto) on Monday, March 7 at 7pm.

Missed the book launch? Want to go more in depth with Feminism FOR REAL?

Join host Annemarie Shrouder on Monday March 7th from 7pm to 8:30pm for Facing Out - a conversation with Jessica Yee about her new book Feminism FOR REAL: Deconstructing the Academic Industrial Complex.

Join us at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore as we go more in depth about the book and take your questions - either in person or via live stream.

Facing Out is a project in collaboration with the Toronto Women’s Bookstore. Facing Out’s vision is to inspire connection, discussion, and community around arts and politics - here and around the world.

The Toronto Women’s Bookstore is located at 73 Harbord St. The main area is wheelchair accessible - we regret that the washroom space is not wheelchair accessible.

Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=204788389538521#%21/event.php?eid=204788389538521
Why I can’t ignore How to Raise a Boyfriend [Book Review]

February 22, 2011 • Emma Woolley

If there is a book that can be accurately judged by its cover, it is How to Raise a Boyfriend by Rebecca Eckler. It’s a “humour/non-fiction” book offering “sound” relationship advice based on the idea that men are just like children, desperately in need of raising by women. If not the cover or its premise, surely we can judge it by its marketing. (An earnest quote from this video: “You have to disguise the nagging.”)

Not according to Eckler. When people starting talking about How to Raise a Boyfriend in overwhelmingly negative ways, she decided that everyone talking about her must be grumpy. I dropped some real talk. Eckler told me that I was wrong, that her book is funny, and that I had to read it. Okay, Eckler, I thought. Game on. (This is part of my explanation why you are reading about a blatantly sexist book on a feminist blog.)

It took me two long weeks to read How to Raise a Boyfriend. This is because a) I was too embarrassed to read it in public (I see you subway lurkers, reading over my shoulder), and b) I couldn’t make it through a paragraph without scowling. (more inside…)
- Bibliothèque
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Book launch: Feminism FOR REAL

February 10, 2011 • Julia Horel

Join us on Friday February 25th at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore to celebrate the official book launch of Feminism FOR REAL: Deconstructing the Academic Industrial Complex of Feminism, edited by Jessica Yee.

This book features our fabulous columns and opinions editor, Shaunga Tagore, as well as three of our own Shameless bloggers: D. Cole Ossandon, Diandra Jurkic-Walls and Erin Konsmo!

Where: Toronto Women’s Bookstore, 73 Harbord Street, Toronto
When: Friday February 25th, 7pm to 9pm
Main area is wheelchair accessible. We regret that the washroom is not wheelchair accessible.
Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191238847561961#!/event.php?eid=191238847561961

With an opening address from Lee Maracle, drumming by Shandra Spears-Bombay and rattle dance by DJ Danforth, this event will feature spoken word performances and round table discussions from the book contributors, followed by a screening of “The Road Forward”, dedicated to the countless First Nations women who have “disappeared” on British Columbia’s “Highway of Tears”. More information about “The Road Forward” can be found here: http://www.reddiva.ca/?p=557

Proceeds from the evening will go to a scholarship fund created for the children of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.

For more information please contact Erika Shaker at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives at erikas@policyalternatives.ca

To pre-order your copy of the book, visit http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/ourschools-ourselves/feminism-real

More information about the book and editor:

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Parkdale Street Writers want you! (Toronto)

January 17, 2011 • Julia Horel

Are you 16-29 years old? Do you keep a blog or journal? Constantly update your Facebook page? Write super-long e-mails? Make up stories, films, rants, video games, lyrics and/or poems in your head? Love to read and talk about books?

Why not join the…
PARKDALE STREET WRITERS
Free writing workshops led by kick-ass local authors, comics creators, hip hop poets and street artists!
www.parkdalewriters.ca

Work directly with writers like: Kristyn Dunnion (author of Moshpit and Big Big Sky), Willow Dawson (graphic novelist, Lila and Ecco’s DIY Comics Club and 100 Mile House), Martin Mordecai (journalist and author of Blue Mountain Trouble), Mindbender (hip hop M.C. and journalist), Emily Pohl-Weary (author of A Girl Like Sugar and Strange Times at Western High)

What will we do?

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“Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out” Launch at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (Thurs, Dec. 9 @ 6:30pm)

December 9, 2010 • Desirée O

If you’re looking for an awesome event to attend tonight and you happen to be in Toronto, be sure to drop by the launch of Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out (edited by Adebe De Rango-Adem and Andrea Thompson), which has just been published by Inanna Publications.

OTHER TONGUES: MIXED-RACE WOMEN SPEAK OUT is an anthology of poetry, spoken word, fiction, creative non-fiction, spoken word texts, as well as black and white artwork and photography, explores the question of how mixed-race women in North America identify in the twenty-first century. Contributions engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis.

The launch is Thursday, December 9th at 6:30 p.m., and will be taking place at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (73 Harbord Street). Refreshments will be served. Authors will read at 7:15 p.m.

The editors are also working on setting up launches elsewhere in North America, so be sure to join the Other Tongues Facebook group to keep informed about events in your area.