The Young Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario’s little-known free section, was the site of the jam-packed, January 20 opening of NOW, a collaborative installation by Sean Martindale and Pascal Paquette—part of the AGO’s Toronto Now Series. Both artists are typically known for their street art—Martindale, for his urban interventions (such as pocket planters made [...]

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In the past, Torontoist has ventured to the geographic centre of the centre of the universe, explored the unseen city, and even pedalled through its sewer system. It was high time for a high-altitude hike. We’re not talking the CN Tower EdgeWalk, either. We trekked to the city’s highest natural point of elevation and, in [...]

When we first heard an Occupy Toronto protest was set to coalesce downtown, we imagined fists pumping and flags flying in the middle of the banking district, its towering walls and plate-glass windows rattling furiously. In our mind’s eye: tents everywhere, blanketing the brutalist, antiseptic space; we imagined the beating heart of corporate Canada transformed, [...]

There are two major problems with Take Care, the second official studio album from Torontonian rap mega-star Drake. First, and most prominently, is Drake’s weird tendency for sitting on the fence between pop star and MC. On one hand, Drizzy loves making pop music. The sad, forlorn, puppy-dog eyed version of Aubrey Graham that appears [...]

If there’s one word that describes Torontonian rapper D-Sisive, it’s prolific. Since returning to rap in 2008 after a seven-year hiatus, the man occasionally known as Derek Christoff has averaged roughly two albums annually. His latest effort, Run with the Creeps, is his sixth release in three years. Like pretty much every D-Sisive album, Creeps [...]

Book reviews in Canada are becoming an increasingly rare art form. And yet Jessica Duffin Wolfe is leaping on board, albeit in a way that embraces new media. The Toronto Review of Books will launch on September 20 as a quarterly, online-only journal. Don’t be misled by its name, though–founder Duffin Wolfe is hot to [...]

We Live Here unlocks the stories behind some of Toronto’s most unique, quirky, and all-out weird homes, the people who live in them, and the people who live with them. In many cultures, elephants represent longevity, prosperity, intelligence, and good luck. And who wouldn’t want as much of all that as possible? So, why not? [...]

Up until the morning of July 31, 2010, Catherine Frid's Homegrown was just another one of the 42 plays produced by The SummerWorks Theatre Festival that year. But mere days before the show was to open, it was thrust into the media's spotlight under the headline "Sympathy for the Devil." Suddenly, Homegrown was no longer just a developing piece about a woman's relationship with an accused terrorist associated with the Toronto 18—it became the city's symbol for the battle between artists and Conservative politics. This past Friday, almost a year later, an event to recuperate the losses of SummerWorks's unanticipated denial of government funding (commonly believed to be in direct response to the play itself), made Homegrown all of Canada's.

On Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., on the northeast corner of Yonge and Wellesley, I lost my virginity. It was hot, it was rowdy, it was public, and there was much shouting and joyous screaming. And it was wet. Very wet. Was it enjoyable? Yes. Was it painful? Actually yeah, a bit. Was it exactly how I imagined? No. It never is when something is so hyped, so notorious, and so mythicized as the annual Toronto Pride Parade.

Artists aren't ones to shy away from a controversy, and being one of the biggest congregations of theatre-makers and supporters in Toronto, controversy is never far from the Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Last year was rife with it, as critics and nominees debated over the value of the awards themselves. This year, however, there wasn't a trace of antagonism towards the annual awards show (besides the fact that it stood in the way of the attendees and the street after-party). This year, the theatre community had bigger threats to worry about.