Unpacking Development

My day started with a very cool Event which happened right in my living room! I watched people from over 124 countries participate by giving their voice to fight HIV/AIDS with Starbucks. Singing “All you need is love” and submitting a video to the Starbucks Love website. Starbucks (Red) Campaign is contributing money to the [...]

WORLD AIDS DAY 2009 EVENTS: BENEFIT: Voices Of Hope (Casey House) World AIDS Day concert with Dr Draw, Julie Michaels and others. 7 pm. Free (donations appreciated). Metropolitan United Church, Queen and Church. caseyhouse.com. LECTURE: Climate Change And Food Security Panel discussion on how climate change will undermine global food production. 7 pm. Free. OISE, [...]

FEATURED EVENT OF THE WEEK: EVENT: Empower: Youth, Arts And Activism World AIDS Day launch of an HIV/AIDS activism manual for youth with drag shows, visual art and more. Thursday, November 26. 6:00-9:00 pm. Free. William Doo Auditorium, 5 Willcocks. cuhi.admin@utoronto.ca. CONFERENCE: Ivey Global Health Innovation Conference Tuesday, November 24, 2009. 7:30 am -5:00 pm. [...]

Before Hot Docs came to an end last week, I was able to squeeze in one final film about global issues.  This one featured a Dutch artist travelling to the Democratic Republic of Congo and trying to convince impoverished people that they should, as the name of the film suggests, Enjoy Poverty.  Martens’ main point [...]

Three hot docs so far: Fig Trees, Sergio and Reporter.  All three take on global issues, HIV/AIDS, humanitarianism, and compassion fatigue, respectively.  It turns out that they don’t really focus on these issues, but rather on 4 individuals that are trying to do something about them: two activists, a humanitarian and a New York Times [...]

The other day I had the chance to catch a sneak peak of the upcoming exhibit What Has Architecture Done for You Lately?, curated by my good friend Zahra Ebrahim and archiTEXT.  The exhibit, opening on April 15, is trying to break down the conventional wisdom that architecture is for architects.  Instead, it suggests that [...]

It’s the 2009 LG Fashion Week this week and it goes without saying that fashionistas, publicists, industry representatives and observers have flocked to Toronto to catch a look at the glitter and glam that is strutting the runways. This years theme was Show Love. What I’m more interested in is what is happening off the [...]

I’m not very deep. When I go to art exhibits, I need to read the explanations. So last week, when I headed to the Canadian Art Reel Artists Film Festival screening of Art AIDS and the Fin de Siecle, I was very excited when it began to uncover the world of so-called “AIDS Artists.” The [...]

This week’s a busy week with lots of diverse events, including some dealing with technology and volunteerism, media for social change, art and AIDS, just to name a few. Volunteer Toronto is hosting a film evening on Thursday with a new British film that asks questions about how Web 2.0 technology can change democracy and [...]

My top picks for Toronto’s charity events this week are targeting two specific demographics: geeks and singles. On Thursday, a world-wide Twestival for Charity: Water will take place at Toronto’s Circa nightclub. The party will be facilitated by Twitter, a micro-blogging site that allows you to post status updates like you would on Facebook. According [...]