As anti-trans rhetoric gets normalized across Canada, activists stand up to the hatred. This episode highlights the work and activism of Celeste Trianon, a trans-feminine jurist and activist. On the legal front, she helps people in Quebec with name and gender marker changes. Across Canada, she has been involved in activism, resisting hatred directed towards the 2SLGBTQIA community, specifically trans, two-spirit and non-binary people.
This episode features a conversation with singer-songwriter Carol Hodge. She is a versatile musician living in Yorkshire, UK, who has been performing styles as diverse as the punk sounds of CRASS, which she has been touring with Steve Ignorant since 2011, to introspective pop songs full of intelligence, wit and poignancy delivered with a “cynical optimism.”
This episode spotlights harm reduction services provided by Positive Living Niagara. Talia Storm, Director of StreetWorks Services, discusses supervised consumption, safer supply and other services that have saved lives during the toxic drug crisis. As Storm says, the staff at StreetWorks are just the passengers, and the individuals accessing the services are driving the car because harm reduction is an aspect of the treatment continuum that aims to empower and respect a person’s right to self-determination.
There were 36,442 apparent opioid toxicity deaths in Canada between January 2016 and December 2022.
A total of 7,328 apparent opioid toxicity deaths occurred in 2022. This is an average of 20 deaths per day. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the average number of deaths per day was 10. The average number of deaths per day peaked at 22 in 2021. However, based on current national data, analyses show no significant decrease in trend, and rates remain high.
Since May, a group of concerned citizens known as the Drag Storytime Guardians have supported Drag Story Time and Pride events throughout Southwestern Ontario. At the heart of the guardians is a 70-year-old biker, Sista Patricia, who has been putting what she has learned, marching for the rights of women and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, into action to protect families and drag queens from far-right fanatics who show up at libraries to protest Drag Story Time.
In this episode, Sista Patricia discusses how she came to be involved with the Guardians, the work they are doing and her thoughts on why the protesters are feeling bold enough to show their hate without regard for how they are perceived in this era.
In a related theme to the main focus of this episode, Woodstein Media also wishes respect and love to the Minneapolis, Minnesota music scene based around the 2SLGBTQIA+ friendly punk music venue Nudieland. Sadly, on August 11, the house venue was the scene of a mass shooting that injured six people and killed one beloved member of the scene, August Golden.
The friendships that pulled the Yeastie Girlz together in the 1980s have stood the test of time. Although Cammie Toloui, Joyce Jimenez, Jane Guskin, and Kate (Rosenberger) Razo now live in four cities, making it tough to pull together gatherings in person, recent events brought them together online regularly.
The Yeastie Girlz have accomplished much in their life experiences over the past 35 years. In this episode, they talk about the group’s legacy – how the songs and ideas have aged, connecting to new fans via social media and old-fashioned postal mail, books, bookshops, bands, and the possibility of new raps.
Many bands were formed from friendships at the Gilman Street Project in Berkeley, California. The Yeastie Girlz was one of them that stood out from the crowd. Performing what they called vaginacore a cappella rap.
Most bands in the Gilman scene were made up of young men, with a smattering of women. So, although one of the club’s stated missions was to combat sexism, there was still much of it. During some shows, there were pits of aggressive males shoving and circling in front of the stage, and many women found themselves in the back of the club, excluded from the fun of the mosh pit due to overly aggressive behaviour.
In this episode, all four Yeastie Girlz speak about the impetus for getting up on the Gilman stage to start rapping, the elation and the terror of performing, and standing up to the violent misogyny of bands like The Mentors.
“We come together with this common caring of respect for animals and our planet,” states Sue Spahr, one of the founders of the Wishbone Animal Rights Lab in Toronto, which opened its doors at the end of March.
This episode features a conversation with Spahr about the lab’s role as a hub for animal rights activists, a lending library of equipment and information and a studio for making animal-positive podcasts and videos.
This episode features a conversation with Kristin Crane, director of Social Research & Planning for United Way Perth Huron, about the living wage, which leapt over $3 from $17. 55 to $20.70 when the most recent calculation was announced in November 2022. The numbers used in this discussion are from the area in which this podcast is produced: Perth and Huron County.
On episode 14, Garth Mullins, host of the award-winning Crackdown podcast, drew on his experience as a drug user and activist to discuss harm reduction and the overdose crisis, the challenge of distributing a safe unadulterated drug supply, defunding the police, the positives and negatives of British Columbia’s decriminalization pilot, starting a grassroots drug user activist group, and his new band Low Dead Space.
On episode 11, ex-Chumbawamba member Dunstan Bruce speaks about the contemplation of his place in this world through his contemporary art, whether it’s singing with his new band Interrobang‽, treading theatre stages in his one-person show, Am I Invisible Yet? or scrutinizing his place in the Chumbawamba legacy in the film, I Get Knocked Down. (All images copyright Dunstan Bruce)
Wood-stein.ca Media 