By Alison Horn

Urban Planner is Torontoist’s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. 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 Untitled (Legs, from the series …and then you die) by Alex Kisilevich. Courtesy of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.

ART: Some of Canada’s most noteworthy visual arts graduates are being celebrated at the seventh annual BMO 1st Art! Exhibition launch tonight. The show, which runs through November 1, will feature photography by the national winner Alex Kisilevich, who is a recent graduate of OCAD, along with pieces from a dozen regional winners who hail from across the country. Kisilevich’s haunting photograph was selected from among more than two hundred high-calibre entries, all of which were nominated by deans and instructors from Canadian visual arts programs. Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (952 Queen Street West), 11 a.m.–6 p.m., FREE.
FUNDRAISER: The University of Guelph-Humber Art Gallery presents “Sharing a Few Words with the Type Directors Club.” Tonight’s opening gala will include drinks, food, and fonts with the unveiling of the travelling exhibition of the Type Directors Club (TDC), an international organization devoted to supporting excellence in typography. All proceeds from the event will go towards the Children’s Wish Foundation, an organization that is celebrating twenty-five years of wish-fulfilling this year. University of Guelph-Humber Art Gallery (207 Humber College Boulevard), 5:30–9 p.m., FREE.
THEATRE: Tango Co. and Peanut Butter People present The Crossing Guard, a one-act play by Daniel Karasik. The production, which runs through October 17, is directed by Anthony Furey and features Monica Dottor, Daniel Karasik, and Gary Reineke. Exploring the themes of fidelity, bereavement, and disengagement, it is a touching story of a teenager whose daily ritual involves returning to the crosswalk where his sister, who disappeared years prior, told him to wait for her after school. Visiting the crosswalk fosters the development of a relationship between the teen and a crossing guard—a relationship that continues until one day the crossing guard fails to show up, too. Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue), 8 p.m., $15 ($10 for students and arts workers). Advance tickets available online.
MUSIC: The United Steelworkers of Montreal (USWM) know the importance of strong, democratic representation on the job. They also know the importance of taking back your lunch break and enjoying blue-collar alt-country tunes—raw and gritty vocals over guitar, mandolin, banjo, accordion, and harmonica—as part of “Serenades In The Square.” This—you guessed it—Montreal collective is making a stop in Toronto in the midst of a tour of Central and Eastern Canada. Yonge-Dundas Square (2 Dundas Street East), 12:30 p.m., FREE.
WORDS: The finalists of the 2009 Toronto Book Awards will be at the newly renovated Bloor/Gladstone library for a reading and book signing event tonight. The Toronto Book Awards, which is celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary this year, honours authors who capture the essence of Toronto. This year’s nominees include Austin Clarke, Anthony De Sa, Maggie Helwig, Mark Osbaldeston, and Charles Wilkins. The winner will not be announced until the much-anticipated gala on Thursday evening at the Toronto Reference Library’s new Appel Salon. Just as the weather is turning chilly and it’s time to curl up with a good read, the library catalogue shows twenty-five to more than a hundred copies of each book—hopefully the hold list won’t be too long for these shortlisted authors. Toronto Public Library, Bloor/Gladstone Branch (1101 Bloor Street West), 7 p.m., FREE.