The Word On The Street Rocks Pride!

I live on the corner of Mutual and Gerrard, in a very nice house with a close friend of mine who happens to be one of the stars of Degrassi the Next Generation. I pretty much live in the village, which means when Pride starts I get to party every night. My street gets noisy. There are people everywhere. And there is a real sense of joy and celebration and Toronto all of a sudden feels like the best place on earth (we know that most of the time it isn't).

My Pride experience last year was pretty great. I remember standing and watching the Pride Parade while eating an ice cream cone and thinking “this is quite fun, I think that I can handle this.” And then someone shot me in the eye with a water gun and I actually got kind of mad.

Perhaps I’ve grown a little square in my old age? I’m not even old. But I feel old. I’m 26. And that’s kind of old.

Yes. I’m old.

The Word On The Street is going to be at Pride. We’ll be there on Saturday, June 28th and Sunday, June 29th, starting at 3pm at James Canning Park. We are partnering with Pride to showcase our Proud Voices program and I encourage you to come and join us for an afternoon of readings from some of the best and boldest talents in the queer literary scene. Ivan E. Coyote, Shani Mootoo, Emma Donoghue, Neil Smith and Nalo Hopkinson are just some of the authors participating.

The staff of The Word On The Street will also be there. Please come and say hi. Oh, and please make a donation because we love that kind of grassroots support. We'll also be blogging during Pride Week, bringing you the highs, lows, and outstanding good times we’ll be having, celebrating one of the best and most dynamic events the city has to offer.

Check back here for more updates, for fun anecdotes, celebrity sightings and more. If I’m shot in the eye with a water gun, you’ll be the first to know!

For more info on PRIDE, please visit their website at www.pridetoronto.com

J

08/09

The Factory Theatre announced its 08/09 season and it looks pretty promising, with new work from Andrew Moodie, Florence Gibson and Marjorie Chan (for more info check out their website at: www.factorytheatre.ca)

The play that I’m looking forward to the most is "Scratch," written by a former classmate of mine at the National Theatre School named Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman. Here’s the synopsis:

Anna has lice. Her mother has cancer. Her Aunt buys her a pair of Gap jeans and worries she’s on drugs while Anna lusts after the Poet who looks after her mom. Still, she can’t stop scratching. She can’t get rid of the lice and she can’t face the inevitable.

I remember reading one of the first incarnations of this play. She was in first year. I was in third year. I thought that I was the man, the way most graduating students think they’re the man. I was dating a wonderful girl. I was going to Banff after graduation. I had a show being read at the Factory. Yup. I was the man. I asked if I could read one of her plays just to get a sense of what the young ones were writing. She gave me the play (then called "Lice") and apologized because she had written it when she was 16 and wasn’t sure how good it was.

I read it. And man. It was great. Not just great, but damn great. Some of it was like lava, coming from a place within her that I could never understand. I read it at home. I read it again in the park. I would read it over the phone to my girlfriend to tell her that it was brilliant. I would e-mail excerpts of it to friends and tell them to watch for this play, just watch for it because it was special, the writing was special, Charlotte was special.

See it.

J

Dap That

The mainstream media is all abuzz with footage of Barack Obama giving his wife "dap," or a fist bump before his big speech announcing his victory in the Democratic Primary. "If the nomination of the first African-American candidate for president is itself a historic moment, that little gesture, for many, punctuated the occasion with ethnic style and inherent coolness."

It's funny watching the mainstream media try and make sense of the gesture, and some of their descriptions for it are gold: "it's a knuckle to knuckle kiss," or a "pound of the fist of some sorts," or "possibly a message to Al-Quida?"

It took guts to do it, especially considering how quickly the media can turn anything it doesn't understand into a toxic cesspool of despair. Case in point: when Obama "brushed the dirt off his shoulders" Jay-Z style in response to criticism of his "bitter" comments, the LA Times reported that he had stuck his middle finger up at Hillary Clinton. It was idiotic. But lo and behold, Fox News picked it up, and it was in heavy rotation for a full-day.

"Dap" is all over hip-hop culture, which pretty much means it's part of youth culture, which pretty much means it's part of the culture of right now. Obama is trying very hard to demonstrate that his understanding of the world isn't rooted in the cold war mentality of the dinosaurs in Washington, but of the here and now, the grassroots, the streets, people of every color walking hand in hand through the south side of Chicago fighting them fat-cats in Washington. Obama is a man of the world. Not of Washington. Them dinosaurs toast scotch glasses and smoke cigars. Barack and Michelle "dap."

When Barack and MIchelle did it, it was an ecstatic, non-verbal way of showing respect, dignity, honor and pride. The very concept of the "dap" goes all the way back to slavery. "Though it was born in the black community, some say during the 1960s black power movement, most people - of any color - who haven't made it too far past their 40s have probably given, taken or at least borne witness to some friendly dap."

The gesture spoke to a larger idea. An idea that we gotta celebrate: politics is turning cool. It's turning inspirational. Yup. It's true. We got a hip hop presidency waiting in the wings.

Ain't nothin better than that.

J

PS
Though I think the media could have focused more on what happened after the "dap." He slapped her butt as she walked away. Take that Christian Conservatives!

Wow...

It’s hard to find inspiration in politics.

But sometimes, something wonderful happens that reminds us of how far we’ve come as a people, and how much farther we can go together. Last night Barack Obama made history by becoming the first black man to lead a national ticket for the presidency of the United States. He ran a grassroots, high ideal campaign based on hope and inspiration, and the idea that "we are the change that we've been waiting for." Here at The Word On The Street we celebrate the vibrancy of words and ideas.

Doesn't get much better than this :).

J

BARACK OBAMA
In our country, I have found that this cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all the labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington, Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes. And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again.

So it was for that band of patriots who declared in a Philadelphia hall the formation of a more perfect union; and for all those who gave on the fields of Gettysburg and Antietam their last full measure of devotion to save that same union.

So it was for the greatest generation that conquered fear itself, and liberated a continent from tyranny and made this country home to untold opportunity and prosperity.

So it was for the workers who stood out on the picket lines; the women who shattered glass ceilings; the children who braved a Selma bridge for freedom's cause.

So it has been for every generation that faced down the greatest challenges and the most improbable odds to leave their children a world that's better, and kinder, and more just.

And so it must be for us.

America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.