Part of the Skylight Concert Series

Join Toronto-based artist, writer and musician Vivek Shraya for a performance with Queer Songbook Orchestra, a 12-piece chamber pop collective of queer and allied musicians. This performance marks the launch of Shraya’s album PART-TIME WOMAN, which poses the question: What defines woman? Shraya sees the album as an offering to misgendered, made to feel not feminine enough, and those who struggled to find home in a language that resists complexity.

BIO

Vivek Shraya is a Toronto-based artist whose body of work includes several albums, films, and books. Her first book of poetry, even this page is white, is longlisted for CBC’s Canada Reads and was listed as one of the Best Books of 2016 by The Walrus. Her debut novel, She of the Mountains, was named one of The Globe and Mail’s Best Books, and her first children’s picture book, The Boy & the Bindi, was featured on the National Post Bestseller List. Vivek has read and performed inter­nationally at shows, festivals and post-secondary institutions, including sharing the stage with Tegan & Sara. She is one half of the music duo Too Attached. Vivek was a 2016 Pride Toronto Grand Marshal, a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, a 2015 Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award finalist, and a 2015 recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Prize Honour of Distinction.

Proclaimed “Sensational, a superb pop ensemble” (NOW Magazine) Queer Songbook Orchestra is a Toronto based 12-piece chamber pop collective of queer and allied musicians. Dedicated to exploring the LGBTQ narratives in popular music, the ensemble present song and story together in a way which reveals obscured histories and emphasizes a bond amongst community. Formed in 2014 the QSO have been invited to perform across Canada, earning high praise for their unique mission and original approach.