By Colleen Hale-Hodgson

Urban Planner is Torontoist’s daily guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every morning. If you have an event you’d like considered, email all of its details—as well as images, if you’ve got any—to events@torontoist.com.

Photo of Shane Koyczan performing by Foxtongue.

WORDS: Shane Koyczan is a Canadian-born spoken-word poet who’s made a huge impression both on the world stage and at home. His poem “We Are More” was commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission for Canada Day in 2007, and his book, Visiting Hours, was named among the best books of the year by The Guardian and the Globe and Mail. With all this in mind, Koyczan will be performing tonight in the group Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long. Expect a mix of folksy, lyrical music and brazen, edifying spoken word. The Drake Hotel, Underground (1150 Queen Street West), 7:30–10:30 p.m., $10.
MUSIC: Barnaby Marshall has returned to the Drake (where he used to work as a programmer) and he’s brought his massive collection of live-music videos with him. Every other Tuesday night till the end of August, Barnaby will be screening a selection of the best live music performances caught on video for a little thing he likes to call Rock Peaks. Rock Peaks evolved from the Drake’s Video Jukebox, which Marshall used to curate. He now keeps his collection online—a much more reliable source than YouTube for rare and lesser-known performances. Some of the acts you can expect to see on any given night at Rock Peaks include Grizzly Bear, Neil Young, Arcade Fire, Nick Cave, and many others. The Drake Hotel, Free Lounge (1150 Queen Street West), 9 p.m., FREE.
THEATRE: d’bi.young founded anitAFRICA! dub theatre last summer in hopes of creating a space where emerging Canadian playwrights can develop their craft and launch their work to the world. Today you can see some of the fruit of this labour as word! sound! powah! dubtheatre festival kicks off with performances by the five graduating resident artists. Tonight’s performers are Jamilah Malika and Bahia Watson. The festival lasts until Friday, and will include music and poetry from Sketch, Amlakawi Beteseb, Abstract Random, and d’bi.young herself. anitAFRICA! dub theatre (62 Fraser Avenue), doors at 7 p.m., $10.
THEATRE: Smile is one of the lesser-known works of composer Marvin Hamlisch (A Chorus Line, Sophie’s Choice, The Way We Were), and lyricist Howard Ashman (Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid), but is nevertheless an interesting bit of musical-theatre history. Tonight, the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts is kicking off their five-day run of Smile at the Bathurst Street Theatre. The show is a comedic send-up of typical beauty pageant antics—the jealousy, the insecurity, the crushing realization that you are no longer as young and beautiful as you used to be—set in the summer of 1985. The show will be performed by two different casts on alternating nights: team Ashman and team Hamlisch, which is performing tonight. Bathurst Street Theatre (736 Bathurst Street), 8 p.m., $22 (available through Ticketmaster).