Fan the Flames: Queers on Fire

The AGO gets Queered for the July First Thursday event in celebration of WorldPride 2014 and the Gallery’s new exhibition Fan the Flames: Queer Positions in Photography. Designer and artist Jeremy Laing is guest-curating the event, which features the New York-based cult-pop sensation SSION as the night’s musical headliner, plus installations, performances, and interactive projects by some of Toronto’s most compelling and provocative artists.

Videofag, the performance and media art storefront gallery in Kensington Market, presents #queerdeathdrive, “a video-based revelling in the liminal, fucked up, failing, glitching and degenerate,” featuring the work of Jennifer Chan, Chris Crocker, Adrienne Crossman, Sarah D'Angelo, Funky Dineva, Lorna Mills, Coral Short, Liz Rosenfeld, the Social Abjects Unite Facebook group and Cale Weir.

Legendary Toronto provocateur Keith Cole hosts The Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired Queer Soap Box Keith Cole Experience dot com backslash 9/11 Princess Diana was Murdered forward slash Inside Job, providing an open-mic platform for voices rarely heard at the AGO, including First Thursdays attendees.

The Feminist Art Gallery (FAG) fags forward an invitation to participate in First Thursday to Ginger Brooks Takahashi and Dana Bishop-Root, who, inspired by activists Reina Gosset and Dean Spade, shout out loud with the project No One is Disposable. "No One is Disposable is a practice of Queering Queer," say the artists. "Infusing the tradition of Queering with the explicit politics of Intersectionality through demonstration and invitation, we make this proposition for a Queering of Queer."

The West Side Stitches Couture Club, initiated by the late artist and community organizer Will Munro in collaboration with Laing, John Caffrey of Kids on TV and artist Luis Jacob, among others, will reunite for one night in partnership with SOY (Supporting our Youth). Pick up a needle and thread and join in on the production line to make your very own queer corsage.

DJs Cozmic Cat and Denise Benson of Cherry Bomb, Toronto’s hottest monthly party for queer woman and their friends, will spin in Walker Court. And queer DJ collective YES YES Y’ALL will get things sweaty in Galleria Italia, spinning hip hop, R&B and dancehall all night long.

Plus, the event will feature pop up talks from Fan the Flames curator Sophie Hackett, Oakville Galleries assistant curator Jon Davies and our monthly one-night-only Out of the Vaults exhibition featuring highlights from the AGO’s collection of works on paper. And it wouldn’t be a First Thursday without delicious food and drinks served throughout the galleries. Don’t miss it!

Follow the #AGO1st hashtag on Twitter for updates on AGO First Thursdays, RSVP and invite your friends to this event on Facebook.