By Alison Horn

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 school children in Freetown, Sierra Leone, by Ann Johansson. Courtesy of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.

FUNDRAISER: Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) presents Pikin News: Out Loud!, a celebration of a youth-run Sierra Leone newspaper. Pikin (Children’s) News—a government agency and UNICEF-funded project—was launched in 2006 to serve as a platform for youth in Sierra Leone to discuss issues affecting them. Proceeds from tonight’s event will support the young journalists who conceived and contribute to this publication. In addition to music and a performance by a traditional Sierra Leonean dance group, the event will feature guest speakers reading articles and poetry from the newspaper, providing insight into the experiences of a generation of children who have been impacted by the country’s eleven-year civil war. Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas Street West), 8 p.m., $10.
MUSIC: As part of the events leading up to this weekend’s Caribana Festival, Clash of the Tents—the first musical event of its kind—is going down at the Great Hall tonight. Expect heckling, humour, and cunning social commentary as two rival casts of singers have it out in the calypso season’s final musical showdown, marking the end of the 2009 Calypso Tents Music Series. Tonight’s event is hosted by Marvin Ishmael, a Trinidadian-born actor, writer, and director who will share stories of his homeland—the birthplace of calypso music. Great Hall (1087 Queen Street West), 7:30 p.m., $10.
PARTY: Also as a lead-up to the Caribana Festival, the Queeribana party is happening tonight. The event, which is hosted by Fresh To Def, is a weekly party that is open to everyone, but geared towards two-spirit, transsexual, and queer individuals who are black, Indigenous, or of colour. Tonight’s Caribana-themed party will be a Vaginal Davis theme night with DJ X-Taci spinning soca, house, calypso, reggae, and “errything” else. Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West), 11 p.m., FREE.
FILM: In conjunction with its summer exhibition, Universal Code, The Power Plant presents Otolith (2003) and Otolith II (2007), the first two segments of The Otolith Group‘s in-progress video trilogy that traces the end of utopian ideals through futuristic exploration. Founded in 2000 by U.K.-based artists Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun, The Otolith Group—whose name comes from the structure in the middle ear that helps us keep our balance and move in space—uses moving image, sound, and text to explore “media archives, histories of futurity, the legacies of non-alignment, and tricontinentalism.” Tonight’s film presentation is being hosted by the South Asian Visual Arts Centre (SAVAC), in collaboration with the Images Festival. Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre (235 Queens Quay West); 7 p.m.; members $4, non-members $6.