Here’s what’s happening online and around Toronto this week.
The Leslieville Flea Virtual Market: Holiday Edition
The Leslieville Flea is going virtual for the holiday season! Every Sunday through Wednesday until December 9th, vendors will take over the Leslieville Flea’s Instagram stories to showcase their goods.
Akin Virtual Holiday Market
Support your neighborhood artists through the Akin Virtual Holiday Market! From now through December 20th, local arts programming organization Akin Projects will be showcasing a group of artists who make unique, handmade works including fine art, jewelry, textile work, ceramics, and custom pieces ready to sell.
The Eco Lifestyle Market: Holiday Virtual Market
Add more green in with the red this holiday season! From now through December 21st, the Eco Lifestyle Market will share Toronto’s most noteworthy small businesses, makers, crafters, and artists that you can shop from online.
Holiday Night of Lights
The people behind the sold-out Halloween Nights of Lights are bringing another socially-distanced drive-thru experience for the holiday season! Holiday Night of Lights is an immersive display featuring more than 1,000,000 LED lights animated and synchronized to everyone’s favorite holiday tunes. It runs from 5:40-10:30 p.m. daily until January 7th at Revel Park (80 Interchange Way, Vaughan). Tickets start at $25 per car.
The Junction’s Window Wonderland
From now until January 31, 2021 the Junction BIA will be showcasing local businesses and artists through 10 interactive painted windows accessed through the AR app, Augle. Window Wonderland is Toronto’s first large-scale display of AR and offers an accessible, expressive, and immersive artistic experience for locals and visitors.
Flamingo Market
Flamingo Market, Toronto’s only independent bi-monthly market for LGBTQ2SIA+ entrepreneurs and makers, is now virtual! Shop the diverse small business and artisan talent that the LGBTQ2SIA+ community has to offer at their online marketplace, featuring clothing, home decor, eco-friendly goods, skincare, zines, services, and lots more.
MOCA’s Shift Key
In an effort to continue connecting people through art and experimentation, the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto has created an online platform called Shift Key featuring video and new media works by artists. This week’s feature is “Still” by Erin Shirreff, who knits together a series of tableaus of graphite-colored, poured plaster forms into a seamless, unending scroll.
Virtual Paradise Theatre
Paradise may be closed, but they’re still bringing you movies! The theatre has teamed up with some of their favourite boutique film distributors to stream movies through their affiliate links, with proceeds going to both the distributors and Paradise. The films include Kedi, Caro Diario, and Whose Streets?
An Evening of Winter Songs with The O’Pears
Toronto folk trio The O’Pears perform music from their winter album Stay Warm + many other tunes and some carols this Thursday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20, with a portion of the funds going towards Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction.
’80s Trivia Hour with DJ Lazarus
DJ Lazarus hosts a fun and interactive hour of trivia and music Thursday at 8 p.m. on Mixcloud. Test your knowledge of ’80s music, pop culture, movies, and more – then stick around as he plays your song requests.
Home Alone at the Drive-In
The Ontario Place Drive-In (955 Lake Shore Blvd W.) presents a screening of the holiday classic Home Alone this Friday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person.
Nyssa at Lee’s Palace
Toronto art rocker Nyssa celebrates the release of her debut LP Girls Like Me with a virtual live concert at Lee’s Palace. The one-hour show starts Friday at 8 p.m. and will be accessible to ticket purchasers for the following 48 hours. Tickets are $15.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered with DJ DangerCat
Join DJ DangerCat this Friday at 9 p.m. on Mixcloud for a brand new dance party streaming live from Toronto! Motown, soul, disco, and R&R tunes all night.
Club Quarantine
Club Quarantine is a virtual queer dance party happening Friday on Zoom. The party was started by four Toronto-based artists – Mingus New, Casey MQ, Andres Sierra, and Brad Allen – and has featured both local and international DJs.
The Muppet Christmas Carol at the Drive-In
Catch the Muppets’ re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” at the Ontario Place Drive-In (955 Lake Shore Blvd W.) this Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person.
Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce…Pandemic!
2020 Ibsen Award winner and MacArthur Fellow Taylor Mac, TO Live, and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre invite you to celebrate the holidays in all of their dysfunction. Holiday Sauce…Pandemic! is Christmas as calamity, reimagining the songs you love—and the holidays you hate. The show kicks off Saturday at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a live-streamed afterparty. Tickets are PWYC, starting at $10.
Retro “Guilty” Pleasures Dance Party
DJ Lazarus hosts an unabashed night of huge retro hits and one-hit wonders of the ’80s and ’90s. These are the songs you don’t want your friends to know you sing in the car and shower. The best of the worst. Hear and see popular artists like Madonna, Prince, Wham, Culture Club, Cher, Spice Girls, Ace of Base, Van Halen, Huey Lewis, Britney Spears, Milli Vanilli, Cyndi Lauper, Backstreet Boys, Pat Benetar, and lots more. The party kicks off Saturday at 9 p.m. on Mixcloud.
The Polar Express at the Drive-In
The Ontario Place Drive-In (955 Lake Shore Blvd W.) presents a screening of animated holiday film The Polar Express this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person.
![In the mood for an incredible piece of theatre? Our Place is now playing at @beyondwallstpm and tackles a subject rarely seen on stage: the life of undocumented immigrants. “They don’t have legal status. They have to keep under the radar of immigration,” says playwright @kanikaambrose Kanika, explaining the backstory of her protagonists Andrea and Niesha, played by Virgilia Griffith and Sophia Walker. The pair work under the table at Scarborough’s Jerk Pork Castle restaurant, a community hot spot where drama unfolds.
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The scene of Our Place is inspired by the many beloved Caribbean restaurants that line Kingston Road, places that Ambrose frequented regularly in her childhood and youth. “There are about 11 Caribbean restaurants within a couple of blocks. They are very much a staple in the community,” she says, adding that the constant flow of people coming in and out make it a great place for action, or the ideal setting for a play, but Ambrose was careful to fictionalize details to protect her community. “People don’t talk about it [undocumented immigrants] because people don’t want to out themselves, or anybody. I fictionalized islands, fictionalized dialects, and music so as not to identify any one country doing this.”
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For Ambrose, writing about life in Scarborough has always been a priority. “When I started writing as a teenager, it was very much my mission to write stories that painted varying views of what Scarborough is. Not all of them are positive—this one is complex—but it does show the resilience of people in Scarborough and the varying levels of existence in the area. Representation of Scarborough has always been an important part of my creative contribution and my intention.”
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Our Place is playing at @beyondwallstpm until Dec 3. Make time to go see this powerful play. Link in bio to read full interview.
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#theatre #toronto #caribbean #undocumentedworkers #immigrantstories #playwright](https://shedoesthecity-1bfc6.kxcdn.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)