Monday May 5
TORONTO
Trampoline Hall, 7:40pm, The Garrison, 1197 Dundas West, buy tickets at door (6:30pm) All of the lecturers this month were chosen by Erica Kopyto. She has chosen these speakers: Gemma Foley will speak about the manic pixie dream girl. There will be a lecture given by Adam Lazarus about the uncanny valley. John Mutu-Grigg will speak about First Nations tourism.
Tuesday May 6
TORONTO
I Put a Spell On You: A Night of Comics and Stories, 7pm, The Pilot Tavern, 22 Cumberland Great night of pre-TCAF readings and chats, featuring: Annie Mok, Sophia Foster-Dimino, Michael DeForge, Kelly Kwang, and Georgia Webber, game maker merritt kopas debuts a prose story; and artist and printmaker Sab Meynert talks about transitioning from a comic & zine context to the fine art world. A short moderated discussion between the panelists, and an audience Q&A follow.
KITCHENER-WATERLOO
Greg Bechtel, Tom Cho, Carrie Snyder, 7pm, Death Valley’s Little Brother, 84 King Street North Greg Bechtel and Tom Cho will launch their new books at Death Valley’s Little Brother, with a special guest reading by Carrie Snyder.
Wednesday May 7
TORONTO
Echolocation Reading Series, 5:30pm, Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George St. Featuring our poet-on-the-ground Kevin Spenst (as part of his 100-venue Small Books, Big Country poetry reading tour) with Souvankham Thammavongsa and Phoebe Wang. Kevin reads again later in the evening as part of the Pivot Reading Series (see below.)
Pivot Reading Series, 8pm, The Press Club, 850 Dundas Street West With David James Brock, Jacob Wren, Kevin Spenst and Nicholas Ruddock.
Brockton Writers’ Series, 6:30pm, Full of Beans Coffee House and Roastery, 1348 Dundas West Hosted by Farzana Doctor, with readings from Adam Abbas, Kate Cayley, Tom Cho and Amanda Leduc. Come early at 6:30 for a talk from Amanda: “From Couchsurfing to Cafés: The Magic of the DIY Book Tour.”
Biblioasis Toronto Fiction Launch, 7pm, TYPE Books, 883 Queen Street West Biblioasis presents its spring fiction lineup, with readings from Ray Robertson, K.D. Miller and C.P. Boyko.
Thursday May 8
MONTREAL
The Geography of Pluto launch, 6pm, Cabaret Mado, 1115 Sainte-Catherine Ouest Christopher DiRaddo launches his latest book – 14 years in the making!
Conundrum Calvacade, 7pm, Librarie Drawn and Quarterly, 211 Bernard Ouest Holy stacked lineup Batman! With Meags Fitzgerald will be on hand to present her process making the formidable Photobooth: A Biography. Also: Jimmy Beaulieu will launch My Neighbour’s Bikini, his second translation for Conundrum’s BDANG imprint. Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame artist Réal Godbout will present his first work in English, an adaptation of Kafka’s Amerika. And Mark Connery will come from Toronto to launch his book of comics Rudy (2D Cloud) profiled in Issue 63 of Broken Pencil.
Friday May 9
Crip Your World, 7pm, Palmerston Library Theatre, 560 Palmerston Avenue, unceded and occupied Mississauga of New Credit territories, $10 or pay what you can. In this amazing performance experience, disabled, sick, Deaf and crazy queer and/ or 2POC artists will take you on a journey into our bodies’ genius. Featuring performances by Atellis The Blue-Joce, k. ulanday barrett, Melannie Gayle, Askari Gonzalez , Rosina Kazi, Masti Khor, Eddie Ndopu, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and many more.
The ACROSS Series, No. 1, 7:30pm, Church of St. Stephen In-the-Fields, 103 Bellevue, $5-$10 sliding scale ACROSS is a new reading and performance series in Toronto that reaches from poetry communities outward to other genres and artforms, and proposes more intermingling of audiences, creative positions and social identities. With Gary Barwin, Tom Cho, Beatriz Hauser, Kaie Kellough and Hoa Nguyen.
Saturday May 10
TORONTO
TCAF 2014! 9am – 5pm, Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, free Going strong since ’03, it’s Toronto’s Comic Arts Festival! Featuring a whackload of creators and vendors, including Moyoco Anno, Isabelle Arsenault, Kate Beaton, Fanny Britt, Gabrielle Bell, Christoph Blain, Ed Brubaker, Darwyn Cooke, Michael DeForge, Est Em, Pascal Girard, Real Godbout, Jimmy Gownley, Ben Hatke, Akira Himekawa, Lynn Johnston, Kazu Kibuishi, Reinhard Kleist, Abel Lanzac, Luke Pearson, Sean Phillips, Mimi Pond and MANY MORE. Also runs Sunday May 11.
TCAF Queer Mixer, 7pm, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street, free Hosted by Anne Ishii of MASSIVE, the Queer Mixer is a social event for creators and readers of queer comics. This year we want to spotlight the wide-variety of work being done by LGBTQ cartoonists at TCAF. Through a mix of on-stage presentations, interviews, and mingling, the Queer Mixer is a chance to get exposed to current and forthcoming work by some of the best LGBTQ cartoonists in the business.
The 10th Annual Doug Wright Awards, 7pm, Forest Hill Ballroom, The Marriott, 90 Bloor St. East, free Hosted by Scott Thompson! Founded in 2004, The Doug Wright Awards recognize the best in English-language comics (or translations of French) by Canadian cartoonists. The finalists for the 2014 Doug Wright Awards were chosen from a long list of more than 100 works and submissions published during the 2013 calendar year. Good luck to all the finalists!
Rudy and Detrimental Book Launches, Weird Things, 998 Bathurst Authors Mark Connery and John Holden will do readings.
Toronto Queer Slowdance, 10pm, Dovercourt House, 805 Dovercourt, $10 With a lending library of designated dancers for all you wallflowers, and a dancecard-booklet to set up dances in advance (should you choose to), Toronto Queer Slowdance has all slow songs, all night long. It’s high school – with a happy ending.
CANADA
Art Battle Day, 12pm, various locations across Canada, visit website for tickets and locations near you More than 250 artists will compete in same-day events across 20 Canadian communities for the chance to advance to the 2014 Art Battle National Championship event this summer. In each participating community, local organizers will host a 3-round live painting competition featuring 12 local professional and emerging artists. Audiences will vote to determine round winners and ultimately one individual event champion. The event winners will advance to compete in regularly scheduled Art Battle regional or provincial championships.
OTTAWA
The Uncertainty Principle launch, 5pm, The Manx, 370 Elgin Come celebrate the launch of Ottawa writer rob mclennan’s first collection of short fiction, The Uncertainty Principle: stories, (Chaudiere Books, 2014).
MONTREAL
The Girl Who Was Saturday Night launch, 7pm, Rialto Hall, 5711 ave. du Parc, $5 (includes $5 book discount) Celebrate the launch of Heather O’Neill’s much anticipated new book, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night! The event will feature a reading, followed by a Q&A and a conversation between Heather O’Neill and Laurel Sprengelmeyer (Little Scream).
Sunday May 11
HALIFAX
Sappy Forever book launch, 9pm, Gus’ Pub and Grill, 2605 Agricola, $10 Clocking in at 252 pages, SappyForever is a retrospective tome that includes photos, essays, and other memories from SappyFest’s eight-year history in Sackville, New Brunswick. The best fest! Celebrate its launch with Nap Eyes, Quaker Parents and Shotgun Jimmie.