Hope y'all are doing well! I wanted to drop a quick post off to let you guys know about some of the awesome events I'll be taking part in this spring/summer! If you're in the Toronto/NY area and looking for some dope events to hit up, I got you! TEASE Fridays at Saviari
Are you single in Toronto? Do you want to meet cool folks in the city without the pomp and circumstance (and screwfacing) that many events here are known for? Starting on March 22nd, I'll be hosting TEASE Fridays at Saviari Tea & Cocktail Lounge, where you can do just that! TEASE will be a happy hour mixer where you can come in, enjoy some amazing drinks and tea-infused foods, and mix and mingle with some of Toronto's flyest. I'll be there to help facilitate conversations and to maintain the flirty atmosphere of TEASE - and to ensure that you aren't sitting nose-deep in a corner on your phone. This will be the first event in a while where we DON'T want you to tweet, Instagram, or Facebook promote - we want you to *gasp* actually talk to people! If you can handle that, then TEASE is the spot for you!
Rolling along with the hosting duties, I'll be the hostess with the mostest at The Mystic Effect - an amazing art show that covers mediums like fashion, film, visual art, music, and dance. The brainchild of Stacy-Ann Buchanan Productions, this show will be on April 28th at Revival Bar, and I can't wait! If you're a fan of art in all its various forms, you'll want to grab your ticket for The Mystic Effect ASAP! Even better? You'll be contributing to charity. Part proceeds will support Urban Arts, a non-profit charitable youth organization that offers multi-arts based programs that serve to develop youth as artists and leaders. Do some good and whet your artistic appetite at the same damn time!
R Flavour presents Dead Wit Laugh ft. Donnell Rawlings
All of the events I'm involved with are special to me, but this one is on another level. I've talked about the Dead Wit Laugh comedy shows that had been held at Dazzling Lounge in Toronto last year, but this one is bigger and better - and it's the creation of myself and my husband! Really and truly, it was his idea to put together a major comedy show - teamwork makes the dream work, so him and I have been toiling (along with the help of some great friends) to make this show a success. The hilarious Donnell Rawlings (of Chappelle's Show, The Guy Code, and The Wire) will be headlining the show on June 16th, and guest acts include comedians Nick Reynoldson, Dave Merheje, and Trixx, and spoken word artist Dwayne Morgan. Jay Martin will be our wonderful host, so we have the Toronto talent on lock! The NXNE Festival (Canada's partner to SXSW) is on board as a partner, so our Dead Wit Laugh show will be the headlining comedy show of the festival week! Early bird tickets are available on Ticketmaster, so I'd better see my local (and international, if you're making the trip up!) folks there to support!
Blogging While Brown Conference
Whew. As if I wasn't feeling excited and anxious about everything I've written about so far, I have this news to add: I'll be a featured speaker at this summer's Blogging While Brown Conference in NYC! After attending for the first time last year, I took a leap and submitted a speaker's proposal...and just when I thought I wasn't going to be selected, I got the celebratory phone call to say I was in! I'll be doing a talk tentatively called 'Cross-Border Conundrums' which will touch on various aspects of being an international Black blogger and how to maximize our connections across borders and overseas. The world of being a blogger of colour is so much wider in the US, and many people I met at BWB gave me the "There's BLACK people in Canada?!" question - so I want to do my part to add a bit of diversity to the conference. If you'll be at BWB this year, lemme know! I need a hotel buddy!
Like I said, a ton of things are on the go, and a lot of hard work is going into each and every one of these events!
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So, there you have it. There are a couple of other things in the works, but as you can see from this post, I'll be keeping REALLY busy over the next few months! If you've got any questions about any of the events I mentioned, let a sista know!