RE:ORIENTATIONS

Richard Fung’s RE:ORIENTATIONS  brings together a filmmaker, historian, and sociologist to produce a groundbreaking longitudinal documentary film on LGBTQ Asian Canadians covering a 30-year period. It fosters collaborations between community groups and academic institutions and brings critical conversations around sexuality, race, and nation to wider audiences.

RE:ORIENTATIONS (2016) revisits the interview subjects of Richard Fung’s 1985 film Orientations: Lesbian and Gay Asians, which was the first documentary on diasporic queer Asians in North America. RE:ORIENTATIONS presents seven surviving subjects of the original documentary with raw interview footage from the 1980s, putting them in dialogue with their younger selves. Their reflections on identity, sexuality, racism, activism, and cultural expression are contextualized through conversations with six younger queer and trans activists, scholars, and artists. The project examines continuities and transformations in identities, political discourses, social processes, and legal frameworks as they relate to the intersecting and continually shifting categories of ‘LGBTQ’ and ‘Asian Canadian’.

RE:ORIENTATIONS had its world premiere at Inside Out: Toronto LGBT Film Festival on Saturday May 28, 2016.The film was presented in international LGBT film festivals as well as Asian and Asian diaspora festivals. It has been acquired by university libraries and screened at universities and academic forums. In addition, RE:ORIENTATIONS opened the inaugural Shanghai Queer Film Festival and was the focus of a residency and roundtable at Simon Fraser University, to be published in a peer review journal.

Re:Orientations has produced enriched discourse among, and advocacy on behalf of, LGBTQ and Asian/Asian diaspora/Asian Canadian communities. and provided a pedagogical tool for academic institutions and a resource for research.

 

This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

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Creator: 
Still from Re:Orientations - Interview subject on a Toronto street, standing before a wall covered in LGBTQ-postive statements
Photograph of a dancer performing. He is lying on the ground, wearing a mask.
Film still: a photograph of a man playing the piano while an elderly man listens in the background.
Monday, October 30, 2017 - 10:15am

Sex is a Funny Word wins Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction

Sex is a Funny Word
Friday, November 18, 2016 - 5:00pm

"Sex is a Funny Word: A Book about Bodies, Feelings, and You" a book written by Canadian sex educator, Cory Silverberg and Illustrated by Illustration Sessional Instructor Fiona Smyth has received the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction.

About the book:

“A hugely important book that both normalizes diverse sexuality and gives it the respect it deserves… Silverberg’s introduction to sex and sexuality is a pitch-perfect guide for kids seeking answers to some of life’s most embarrassing and confusing questions… The tell-it-like-it-is text is inclusive and sensitive, creating a resource full of acceptance for readers regardless of gender, sexuality, ethnicity or social standing.”

The Jury was conformed by Dory Cerny, Books for Young People Editor, Quill & Quire; Nadia L.Hohn, teacher, Toronto District School Board and author of "Malaika's Costume (Groundwood Books); Heather Kuipers, Owner, Ella Minnow Children's Bookstore.

A full list of this year's winners can be found here.

Coungratulations!

LIVE: Nicholas & Sheila Pye

The Pyes
Wednesday, January 23, 2008

This will be the first public performance by Toronto artists and OCAD alumni Nicholas & Sheila Pye, the collaborative duo whose videos and staged photographs draw on the history of performance art and vaudeville to explore tropes of auto-eroticism, narcissism, and co-dependence. Responding to themes of gender politics and sexuality in the work of exhibiting artists Steven Shearer and Andrea Bowers, they present a fable-filled world where masculine and feminine collide. Work by Nicholas and Sheila Pye has been exhibited and screened internationally and was recently acquired by the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC.

Venue & Address: 
The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery 231 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
$2 Members, $4 Non-Member

Playing Doctor

Shannon Gerard
Wednesday, September 26, 2007 - 4:00am to Sunday, December 9, 2007 - 5:00am

AGYU presents PLAYING DOCTOR with OCAD Instructor Shannon Gerard and artist stef lenk at York University's Bookstore. Gerard's multi-media presentation, featuring models in crocheted strap-ons, guides the audience through a self-examination of their bathing suit areas, while lenk's life-sized game of Operation has participants digging for anatomical treasures on a fully functioning game-board. The installation will be on view from 26 September to 9 December 2007.
Books and comics by Gerard and lenk will be on sale in AGYU Bookstore for the duration of the exhibition.
PLAYING DOCTOR is part of a larger project called BOOBS & DINKS: Early Detection Kits:
Shannon Gerard's BOOBS & DINKS Early Detection Kits are crocheted breasts and testicles containing small lumps that can be found by following instructions provided in accompanying booklets. Warm up on these plush privates and then examine your own precious bathing suit area! The softness and humour of these BOOBS & DINKS aims to eliminate some of the fear surrounding monthly self-exams. Five dollars from each purchase will be donated to Cottage Dreams'a cancer recovery initiative in the Muskokas (cottagedreams.org).
The dates and times of PLAYING DOCTOR:
Opening Wednesday, September 26 2007, 6 to 9 pm
Get along on the Performance Bus! On the Harvest Full Moon, Wednesday, September 26, spirit yourself onto the AGYU performance bus with artist Katie Bethune-Leamen to the opening reception of PLAYING DOCTOR and FASTW'RMS Donky@Ninja@Witch. The free bus departs OCAD (100 McCaul St.) at 6 pm sharp and returns downtown at 9 pm.
The AGYU is located in the Accolade East Building, 4700 Keele Street Toronto. Gallery hours are: Monday to Friday, 10 am'4 pm; Wednesday, 10am'8 pm; Sunday from noon'5 pm; and closed Saturday. Admission to everything out there is free.

Venue & Address: 
Art Gallery of York University 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Who’s dating whom in Toronto… and how often

Single doesn’t have to mean lonely this Valentine’s Day — not in a city as vibrant as ours, and definitely not according to findings from the 2016 NOW LOVE AND SEX SURVEY. INSTUDIO asked OCAD U Graphic Design student Shaheer Tarar to dive into data supplied by Now and create a picture of how we date.

The resulting visualization shows how frequently Torontonians date according to age, gender and sexual orientation. A matrix was used to organize survey respondents by age (see the columns) and frequency of dates (see the rows). Each dot represents a person — with an inner-circle colour identifying gender and an outer-circle colour identifying sexual orientation. 
 

Who’s dating whom in Toronto, and how often visualizes the 735 Torontonians who fully completed the survey. Want to learn more about how they lusted and loved? See full survey results at nowtoronto.com/love-and-sex-guide.

 

Who’s dating whom in Toronto… and how often, Shaheer Tarar, 2016

Click to see larger version

 

Dating patterns and presumptions:

  • The grass isn’t always greener. That is, no one is dating as much as we think that they are. Across all categories of respondents, ‘several times a week’ was selected by a comparative few.
  • Toronto youth really embrace diversity. In the 19–25 age group, dating frequency is fairly even across the board, with similar numbers of people going out ‘weekly;’ ‘monthly;’ ‘less often, if ever;’ or responding with the words ‘at this point…’
  • Millennials aren’t that easy to peg. The majority of those aged 26–35 date weekly. But a surprisingly high number in this group also identified their dating frequency as either ‘monthly’ or with the words ‘at this point…’
  • Our second-timers are a whole new breed. No clear pattern emerged in the 36–45 age group. Are these the divorce and re-marry years, or is middle age just a lot more fun?
  • Either love wins at some point, or Netflix does. Most of those aged 46–55 identified their dating frequency as ‘at this point…’ A high number still admitted to dating, albeit only ‘monthly’ or ‘less often.’
  • Some romance required? Most of those aged 56–69 described their dating frequency with the words ‘at this point…’ For this age group, the selection got double the number of respondents than the three other most popular answers.
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Just Me and My...

Friday, February 12, 2016 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm

This is a FREE workshop hosted by the OCAD Student Union and Come As You Are. It's happeining at noon on February 12th in the second floor student lounge (next to That Place on the Second Floor). We're going to be talking sex toys, consent, and sex positivity for 90 minutes. 

This event is open to everyone but space is limited. Please email outreach@ocadsu.org to confirm your attendance!!

Venue & Address: 
Second Floor Student Lounge, 100 McCaul
Website: 
http://www.facebook.com/events/1749130618632413/
Email: 
outreach@ocadsu.org
Phone: 
416-977-6000 x 241
Cost: 
FREE
Just Me and My... poster with event info

Bottom is Forever: A Lecture by Nguyen Tan Hoang

Thursday, November 12, 2015 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

This lecture examines how anal erotics and bottom positioning refract the meanings of race, gender, sexuality, and nationality in Asian/American visual culture. Nguyen Tan Hoang argues that "bottomhood" simultaneously enables and constrains Asian American men in moving-image media. Conceived as a sexual position, a social alliance, and an aesthetic form, bottomhood affirms a politics that embraces risk, receptivity, and vulnerability.

Nguyen Tan Hoang is an Associate Professor of English and Film Studies at Bryn Mawr College. His videos, including K.I.P, PIRATED!, and Forever Bottom!,have been screened at MoMA, The Getty Center, The Pompidou Center, and numerous film and media festivals. His book A View from the Bottom: Asian American Masculinity and Sexual Representation was recently published by Duke University Press.

This lecture is sponsored by the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Minor in Art and Social Change at OCAD University.

RSVP on the Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1103871486292738/

Venue & Address: 
OCADU University, 100 McCaul Street, Room 550
Cost: 
Free

She & He - The Erotic Art of Anita Kunz & Blair Drawson

Thursday, November 5, 2015 - 5:00pm to Sunday, November 29, 2015 - 11:00pm

Artist's Reception
Thursday, November 12th 7:00 to 10:00 pm

She & He - The erotic Art of Anita Kunz and Blair Drawson

Venue & Address: 
Mirvish Village 588 Markham Street Toronto, Ontario 647-527-4253
Email: 
chaleandassociates@gmail.com
Phone: 
647-527-4253
Cost: 
By Appointment
Poster with images of nude women

Let's Talk Consent!

Logo with the words Bad Subject in a black oval surrounded by blue lines
Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - 7:00pm to 9:00pm

Let's talk sex, love, dirty talk, desire, intimacy, rejection, and consent!

Join BAD SUBJECT for a free activities-based workshop on practical tools to gaining/understanding consent. This workshop is facilitated from an anti-oppression, intersectional framework and is facilitated by a volunteer from Bad Subject.

Bad Subject is a youth-led, grassroots, non-profit group that offers interactive, non-hierarchal, intersectional workshops designed by-youth-for-youth on “Consent” and “Media Literacy: Spotlight on Rape Culture”.

changing rape culture into consent culture...
one workshop at a time!

Venue & Address: 
OCAD U Student Gallery 52 McCaul Street, Toronto, Ontario M5T1W1
Website: 
http://www.facebook.com/events/684178091683799/
Cost: 
FREE
Bad Subject logo