About this Event
We usually think of an archive as something we visit: boxes, catalogues, the official record. The Living Archive is something you hear. To open DD’s Women’s Literary Symposium, this evening of short readings and performances brings together poets, playwrights and storytellers who carry memory, history and lived experience off the page and into the room. These are the stories that don’t always make it into the record, told by the women who live them.
The setting matters. The Heliconian Club was founded in 1909, when women were barred from joining Toronto’s Arts and Letters Club, a door that stayed closed until 1985. More than a century later, its hall is still a home for women in the arts, and a fitting place to begin a weekend that asks whose voices get heard.
Featuring:
Britta B., poet, performer and Trillium Book Award finalist, and Poet-in-Residence for Poems in Passage. Millions of TTC riders read her poems on their commute.
Therese Estacion, poet and essayist, author of Phantompains and the new collection Jelly, Baby: Essays on Disability and Vulnerability.
Trisha Harlan, Ajax-based playwright whose bold, playful work centres Black-Canadian stories of identity, community and belonging.
Bänoo Zan is a poet, translator, and curator, with numerous published pieces and books including Songs of Exile and Letters to My Father.
Jessica Spurrell, a Toronto-based singer-songwriter and instrumentalist.
Jumoke Verissimo, author of five books and Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Arrthami Siva-Kuruvinth, Toronto-based Bharatanatyam artist, teacher, dancer, and arts administrator.
Event venue & nearby stays
Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto, Canada
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.