All of Me: Exploring LGBTQ2S+ Asian Canadian Identities through Performance & Discussion

Friday, May 28, 2021 – 10:30am-12:00pm ET

Event objectives:

• To acknowledge and celebrate LGBTQ2S+ Asian Canadian identities through performance
• To explore topics of discrimination, visibility, exclusion, intersectionality and inspiration through reflection and discussion
• To deepen the exploration of intersectional activism and understand the role of post-secondary environments in transforming anti-Asian racism advocacy.

This event is jointly hosted by the University of Toronto’s Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Office (ARCDO), the Sexual and Gender Diversity Office (SGDO), the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office (EDIO) at UTM, the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office (EDIO) at UTSC, and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Office.

With performances by

Mahfam Nikoo (she/her)
Poet/Writer

Mahfam Nikoo is a writer and works as a Student Life Facilitator at Humber College. She is passionate about creating spaces for LGBTQ2S+ people to connect, create, and find community. She released her first poetry book, The First Nameless Colour, in 2016 and her second book, To Just Be Here in 2019. Mahfam writes about growing up, love, letting go, letting in, and the small moments that make up a life. Mahfam loves painting, dancing, laughing with the people she loves, daydreaming in the grocery store, and buying fresh flowers on the way home. Her next book is a work in progress.

Chase Lo (they/them)
Actor/Playwright/Interdisciplinary Artist

Chase Lo (they/them) is a queer, nonbinary Chinese-Canadian emerging interdisciplinary artist, actor, and playwright based in Toronto. They have worked as a performer in film and theatre in Toronto, Montreal, and Taipei. For a year, Chase was mentored by Andrea Nann of Dreamwalker Dance Company (DDC), which was funded by the Ontario Arts Council – Access and Career Development Grant (2012). From 2015-2016, Chase was a participant in Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s Emerging Creators Unit (ECU), which was directed by Sunny Drake, where they devised and performed Al/Lex—a 25-minute solo interdisciplinary performance at the 37th Rhubarb festival. In 2021, they were selected for the Next Generation Showcase —“New Faces” Program sponsored by the Stratford Festival.

Recent theatre performances include The Dragonflies (Transformation Theatre), Sky Dance – COVID Commissions Gallery (Convergence Theatre), and Flight 109 (Taipei Shorts II Festival). Presently, Chase is developing a play called Ruby—about Asian and migrant transfeminine and gender non-conforming sex workers who act as vigilantes to seek justice and impact laws governing sex work—with support from OAC theatre recommender grants (Nightwood Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto Fringe Festival, and Theatre Passe Muraille) and as a recipient of the Promising Pen Prize (Cahoots Theatre).

Ms. Nookie Galore (he/she/they)
Drag Artist

Having been raised to fear everything, Ms. Nookie Galore has an un/comfortable relationship with stories that haunt us. Ms. Galore is a FilipinX, non-binary, hairy Asian, trauma-informed, community-grounded, horror-storytelling, Drag Queen. Ish. They have been spotlighted in CBC Arts, the documentary “No Fats, No Femmes, No Asians,” and showcased at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum. Their Drag Horror Cooking Show, Sarap, about migrant workers, has been featured in multiple festivals and published in the book “Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginiaries.” Ms. Galore is the founder of the longest-standing queer and trans youth of colour storytelling program in Canada, and maybe the universe, The Drag Musical. Lastly, he is THE Queen of the Asian love party, New Ho Queen and her new show “Scary Stories People of Colour Tell in the Dark” premiered at the Rhubarb Festival 2020. BOO!