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Urban Planner: May 4, 2011
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 [email protected].
Image from Lucia Graca’s Sound Spaces exhibit. Photo by Lucia Graca.
Today in Toronto: a musical fundraiser for Drum Artz Canada, a photo exhibit where music venues are the star, an art-based fundraiser organized by To Japan With Love, and a play about a unique pairing exploring their lives.
FUNDRAISER: At last summer’s Samba Kidz camp, the participants worked with photographer Avital Zemer to document their experiences. The resulting photos will be on display at tonight’s Better Together, a fundraiser for Drum Artz Canada, which runs the Samba Kidz program and other workshops to make music and arts education accessible for people of all ages. Besides the exhibit, the evening will feature a raffle, crafts for sale, and a performance by funk outfit the Justin Bacchus Group. Thrush Holmes Empire (1093 Queen Street West), 5–11 p.m., $30.
ART: Most concert and theatre attendees focus their eyes on the stage during a performance, but rock photographer Lucia Graca has captured a different perspective in her debut solo exhibition, Sound Spaces, which opens tonight and runs until May 31. Part of the Scotiabank CONTACT photography festival, the exhibit captures images from music venues around the world, redirecting the focus from the stage to the venue itself. As a music photographer for almost a decade, Graca has spent a lot of time in various music settings, and this time around she has shifted the perspective on venues such as Massey Hall in Toronto and London’s Brixton Academy. Analogue Gallery (673 Queen Street West), 6–11 p.m., FREE.
FUNDRAISER: The full impact of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan is still being measured, with thousands of people still missing, and a nuclear crisis that has forced the evacuation of many from their homes. Fortunately, there are still ways you can help out here in Toronto. Tonight, non-profit organization To Japan With Love will hold a gallery show at Function13 featuring posters by notable and up-and-coming graphic designers, with all event proceeds going to the Canadian Red Cross for Japan relief. The founder of the organization, Linda Nakanishi, created posters in the wake of the disaster as a “call to action” to raise awareness. The designs have since gained recognition for their portrayal of the nation during this struggle. The show will be open to the public until May 7. Function13 (156 Augusta Avenue), 7–10 p.m., PWYC donation.
THEATRE: David Widdicombe’s The River Lady opens its week and a half–long run tonight at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. The play, featuring Arlin Dixon and Daniel Chapman-Smith, brings together two unlikely companions, a drifter and a dishwasher, at an all-night diner where they try to “make sense of their simple lives.” Reviews of the play have called it a “dazzling two-hander” and say it “…skates with razor precision over the abyss of human fear and pain.” It runs until May 14. Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace (16 Ryerson Avenue), 7:30 p.m., $15.
HOT DOCS: For complete coverage, including capsule reviews of most feature films, head over to our handy Hot Docs hub.
