About this Event
Help us keep this event scent free! This is a masked event, and masks will be provided. The launch will be interpreted in ASL.
When artist Sonali Menezes found herself struggling with mental illness, disordered eating, and the crushing weight of capitalism, she began to look for easy and delicious ways to feed herself that would both fulfill her hunger and her need for care. Her method — non-judgmental, anti-diet, and approachable — became Depression Cooking, a book that combines recipes, personal memoir, and illustrations to provide a guide for those moments in all of our lives when making a meal, and loving yourself, feels impossible.
In each chapter, Sonali writes and draws about a challenging period in her life, when food seemed more like an enemy than an ally, and shares the recipes and cooking tips that nurtured her body and her soul. From dal to ramen to “things on toast,” Depression Cooking lays out an approach that helps us through life’s hardest challenges, whether that’s becoming a new parent, being fired from a job, weathering grief, or living on our own for the first time.
Part comic, part food memoir, part cookbook, Depression Cooking is a love letter to the sad, hungry, and exhausted versions of ourselves who always deserve care, community, and good food. This empathetic, innovative, and delightfully funny book is one of one, and exactly the permission we all need to enjoy beautiful meals just because we can.
Sonali Menezes is an artist, zinester, and writer. She lives in Hamilton, ON, with her husband, cat, and houseplants. She loves food and eats it every day in celebration. Depression Cooking is her first book. Find her on Instagram @sonaleeeeeee.
Headshot credit: Alex Jacobs-Blum
Sean Lee (he/they) is Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability, Canada’s first gallery dedicated to exhibiting Deaf, Mad, and disability arts and advancing accessible curatorial practices. His work focuses on disability arts as a site of cultural innovation and on embedding accessibility as a creative methodology across exhibitions, institutions, and public programs. He has taught and presented with organizations including the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, NODE Curatorial Studies Online, Humber College, and the Goethe-Institut, and has contributed writing to Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation and Living Disability.
Headshot credit: Felicia Byron Photography
Alt text: Sean Lee, a male-presenting East-Asian Chinese person smiles at the camera. He wears steampunk circle glasses that are brown with gold frames, and has wavy dark brown hair that pools at his shoulders. He wears a long sleeve dress that is green and purple with a thick winding black stripe that runs down the middle
Jody Chan is a poet, multidisciplinary artist, care worker, and community organizer based in Toronto. They are the author of three books of poetry: sick (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), impact statement (Brick Books, 2024), and madness belongs to the people (Brick Books, 2026).
Headshot credit: Albert Hoang
Event venue & nearby stays
Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles Avenue, Toronto, Canada
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