Ladyfest Toronto 2008
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"Ladyfest Toronto is a four-day arts, culture and music festival. We are a non-profit, grassroots, do-it-yourself collective who seek to promote urban feminism. We work from a framework that is pro-feminist, trans-inclusive, pro-diversity and anti-oppressive. We seek to build community among Toronto's feminist businesses, artists, activists and academic community. We believe that art is a powerful form of resistance and hope to incite dialogue about contemporary feminist issues in our city. We will be providing a venue for women to express themselves and showcase their work free of sexism, classism, racism, and homophobia; as well as other forms of oppression.
We believe that politics can be fun and hope to facilitate political action and create tools for feminist networking at our annual event. We will proudly showcase the talent and actions of both local and international women. Ultimately, we hope Ladyfest Toronoto inspires women everywhere to organize themselves and create similar spaces that allow women's creative works to be seen and heard, as other Ladyfest's have for us.
Herstory
Ladyfest is a non-profit, community-based event designed by and for women to showcase, celebrate and encourage the artistic, organizational and political work and talents of women. The festival began in August of 2000 in Olympia, Washington, the home of the Riot-Grrrl movement. It was a woman-organized and woman-run event that featured performances by bands, spoken word artists, authors, and visual artists. It also included workshops, panel discussions, and dance parties. The 2000 festival had a strong momentum, inspiring women from around the globe to organize similar festivals in their own communities.
In the last seven years Ladyfest's have taken place in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Canadian cities that have hosted Ladyfest's include: Vancouver, Guelph, Toronto, Halifax and Ottawa. Ladyfest Ottawa has been largely successful and will be celebrating their 6th birthday this Fall.
Ladyfest T.O. 2008 will be Toronto's fifth Ladyfest to date. Ladyfest Toronto 2007 included performances by Julie Doiron, Partyline, Masia One, Rae Spoon and Climbing PoeTree, workshops about sex work, fat phobia and media literacy, films by Jesika Joy, Allyson Mitchell and Christina Zeidler and much more. " http://www.ladyfesttoronto.ca/about.php)