Cha Cha 2009 Event Details

Cha Cha 2009 in partnership with the Allende Arts Festival is excited to be running its third installment. Here are the details:

Saturday, September 19th @ 8:00pm

$10 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

The Revival - Stone Lounge

783 College Street (at Shaw)

Theme: mi cuerpo, mi casa - "my body is my home"

Featuring artists:

brescia birdthroat bloodbeard

Victoria Mata

Naila Keleta Mae

janet romero leiva

Karleen Pendelton-Jimenez

Dianah Smith

With emerging artists from the mentorship program:

Teresa Cheng

Gabriela Etcheverry

Come and celebrate the diversity of women's voices in Toronto on sexuality and homeland!

Curated and femceed by:

La Loba - mónica rosas

Event Coordinator:

Angela Britto

Photography art by Kelly A Schnurr

After party with D.J JOLA spinning R & B, Hip Hop & Soca beats!

Cha Cha and the TRCC

Cha Cha 2009 is proud to have the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre as a community partner. Please be sure to support them and the important work that they do by checking out their website: http://www.trccmwar.ca/

Cha Cha 2009 Curatorial Statement - mi cuerpo/ mi casa

my body is my home

All humans need food, water and shelter to survive.

Shelter in its best form is called a home. A home not only meets the needs of basic survival but it provides a place where things can flourish.

Our body is our first home.

It is the container of life we have each been given to survive and to flourish.

Our relationship to our body and the ability to give and share it with others is not only a healthy normal part of being human, but it can be healing and holy act.

For many women, our home has at some point been threatened or taken away from us.

We struggle to overcome a painful legacy of sexual domination, sexual colonization and the continued everyday existence of sexism.

It is time to reclaim our home.

Our body and its myriad of functions and activities root us to ground and the present moment. Our notions of sexuality informs our identity as humans, it helps us touch the ground, but also allows us to fly, to reach transcendental sates, create meaningful connections with others. Understanding the importance of what we give when we share our body with others and ourselves is paramount to building a healthy society.

Therefore, we must honour and be true to our first and primary home - our body.
CHA CHA, is an opportunity for “spring cleaning” – a time to heal, a time to challenge existing norms and most importantly to celebrate our resilience and the power we have over our bodies.

When we flourish, we provide homes for others.

mónica rosas
Literary Arts Director
Allende Arts Festival

Cha Cha and the Toronto Women's Bookstore

We are proud and grateful to have the Toronto Women's Bookstore as a generous sponsor for Cha Cha 2009. They do wonderful work for the diverse groups of women in Toronto. Please visit their website at: http://www.womensbookstore.com/

Mentorship program winners

The cha cha chicas are proud to announce the artists in its 2009 mentorship program! We thank all you wonderful writers and artists out there who responded to our open call for submissions. The pieces were inspiring and the decision was close but one had to be made. The artists joining the cha cha roster through the mentorship program are:

Teresa Cheng

Teresa is a queer Chinese/Taiwanese daughter, sister and friend. She has spent half of her life in Taiwan and the other half in Canada. She is the creator of zines Dykes & Their Hair and Upskirt: Dirty (Un)feminist Secrets. She has been published in the Asian Arts Freedom School Anthology. She also blogs for Shameless Magazine and 8asians.com.

Gabriela Etcheverry

Gabriela Etcheverry is a Chilean-Canadian writer and literary critic. She has a PhD from Laval University and two Master’s degrees from Carleton University, where she taught for many years. In 2007 she published the novel Latitudes, in which she blends her personal experiences with those of others, weaving through poetry, short fiction, and other modes the threads of time that tie the child to the adult, the province to the city and, finally, the South and the North. One of the twelve children of a dedicated treasure hunter, Gabriela draws on the tales and legends of the city of her childhood, Coquimbo (Chile), for her novel Guayacán: tesoro y lujuria (forthcoming in 2009). Currently, she is working on a new novel, Where Are You? set in Gravenhurst, her husband’s hometown in Canada.

Teresa and Gabriela will be working with the wonderful Dianah Smith and Yaya Yao who will be their mentors throughout this summer. Please come out on September 19th to see them perform their workshopped pieces.