Intimate space. Roots. Growth. Identity. These are all things we might think of when we consider hair. How does hair define us and affect the way we navigate the world? Our hair holds history, memory, tangible sacrifice, intangible inheritances, culture, fierceness, boldness, and sometimes even indifference. Our stories of hair can be direct, but they can also tangle. They can pull, and fall out. But we are resilient. Join contributors Téa Mutonji, Cheryl Thompson, Hannah McGregor, Délani Valin, Chantal Gibson, and Mallory Tater for the launch of Room issue 43.1 “Hair” as we explore what it means to climb this ever-changing terrain. Hosted by Chelene Knight and Tamara Jong.
Event Type: Reading
Event Code: BEA/THU-1
Venue: Beaumont Studios
Date: Thursday, March 12, 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Cost: Pay What You Can (recommended: $12.50)
ASL Interpretation Available by Request Before February 15, 2020
Chantal Gibson is an artist-educator working in the overlap between literary and visual art. She is the author of How She Read (Caitlin Press 2019).
Chelene Knight is the author of two books and founder of LearnWritingEssentials and Breathing Space Creative. Find her at cheleneknight.com.
Cheryl Thompson, Ryerson University Assistant Professor, School of Creative Industries, is author of Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture.
Délani Valin is a Cree-Metis writer living on traditional Snuneymuxw territory on Vancouver Island. Her work has been awarded the Malahat Review‘s Long Poem Prize and subTerrain‘s Lush Triumphant Literary Award. She is part of the Room Collective and is the editor at Culturally Modified.
Hannah McGregor is an Assistant Professor of Publishing at Simon Fraser University and the host of Secret Feminist Agenda, a podcast about the mundane and radical ways we enact our feminism in our daily lives.
Mallory Tater is a writer from Ottawa living in Vancouver. Her debut novel is The Birth Yard (HarperCollins Canada, 2020). Mallory is the publisher of Rahila’s Ghost Press.
Tamara Jong is a Montreal-born mixed-race writer of Chinese and European ancestry. Her work has appeared in Ricepaper, Room, Carte Blanche, The New Quarterly, Invisible Publishing and Body & Soul; Stories for Skeptics and Seekers. She is a graduate of The Writer’s Studio (Simon Fraser University). You can find her on Twitter @bokchoygurl.
Congolese born, Téa Mutonji is a writer and poet. Her collection of short stories, Shut Up You’re Pretty, was the first book published by Vivek Shraya’s imprint, Vs. Books with Arsenal Pulp Press. Originally from Scarborough, Téa now lives and writes downtown Toronto.