If I was ever curious as to what happens
when you collide a bike repair shop, a campus newspaper, a public interest
group, some local talent and really, really cheap beer, that void in the life
would have been fulfilled last Thursday night at the I Heart Alt Media Fundraiser . The jam of energized young
do-gooders and $3 bottles of import-quality brews made this one-of-a-kind event
something its organizers should be proud of. I, for one, arrived armed with a
camera and tad bit of ‘I’m with the band’ snobbery, blissfully unaware of the
fact that after a smooth serenade from the oober clever (and sexy) duo Houses for Birds my face was
going to melt off by the proverbial heat generated by edgy pop-cult smashing
politically driven rhyme generators Lee
Reed and Test their Logik.
 |
| Lee Reed blowing people's minds on Thursday night. |
A musical performance at Bike
Pirates......Makes sense, right? Actually, amidst the shelves of wheel hubs and
greasy tools a perfect stage was set to kick off the ‘Rebuilding Bridges’
conference held conjunctively by the York University and Toronto chapters of
the Ontario Public Interest Group
(OPIRG). The conference has set its intent on creating connections between dynamic
and change-activating groups from across Toronto and Canada for the purpose of
‘rebuilding’ the shape and impact of social movements. Certainly the mix of
support at Friday’s event is indicative of its all-encompassing mammoth-sized reach.
Another organization involved in the organizing of the evening was the York University Free Press, an
alternative newspaper originating from the student body at (you guessed it)
York University. The YU Free Press is now in its eighth year of challenging
mainstream media and offering new and interesting information that transcends the
corporate model. Ashley Grover, Layout Editor and key organizer at the Free Press,
commented that “The editorial collective at the Free Press was extremely
grateful for the turnout at the event and all the effort that OPIRG Toronto and
OPIRG at York put into it. We believe that the university is a sphere that
should reaffirm the student voice while taking care to include complex
discourses on social justice and alternative thinking. We also love lolcats a
little too much and hope after this event we’ve got all of you asking “I can
has Free Press?”
Don’t
worry, Ashley.....I’m on it.
I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t the only
person who had a good time at the I Healt
Alt Media Fundraiser and that Toronto needs more opportunities that allow
people to learn about how media can be a force for social change. Events like
this are crucial to the survival and scaling out of media that matters;
information that is mediated by real
people and not Fox News. Because as a blogger and writer, I know it’s not
always about what you read but who wrote what you read.
Safe Travels,
Aaron Turpin
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