The Community Edition: August 2017

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 11 • AUGUST 2017

AT THE BARBERSHOP

PAGES 8-9

NEWCOMERS NEED ONTARIO WORKS

CAMBRIDGE AND THE LRT

CASSETTES ARE MAKING A COMEBACK

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PAGE 10

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AUGUST 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

IN THIS

ISSUE

VOLUME 5, ISSUE 11

AUGUST 2017

2

FEATURE

8-9 BLACK BARBERSHOPS

INSIDE 3 4 5 6 6 7 7 10 11 12 14 15 16

IN BRIEF THE CASE FOR ONTARIO WORKS THE KPL WANTS MILLENNIALS WORKING CENTRE BREAKS FRESH GROUND DEAR KITCHENER DATING WITH ANXIETY SEXPLANATIONS CAMBRIDGE AND THE LRT OPINION: THEMUSEUM AND RECONCILLIATION IF STREETS COULD TALK MARKING INTERNATIONAL SEX WORKERS DAY OONA MOON MAKING CASSETTE TAPES IN KITCHENER

COVER PHOTO BY EMI ZIBAEI

Volume 5, Issue 11 Next issue: September 1, 2017

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CONTRIBUTORS Fitsum Areguy Josh Barkman Bethany Bowles James Howe Marika Galadza Elizabeth DiCesare Stacey Jacobs Ramona Leitao Montana Mellett Sam Nabi Andreas Patsiaouros Kristen Philippi Kurtis Rideout John Roche Eva Ruckie Kaitlyn Severin Matt Smith Nick Stanley Cara Vandermey Emi Zibaei

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AUGUST 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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IN BRIEF NEWS

ARTS

URBAN

KITCHENER UPS KPL NOW LENDING WATERLOO PARK INNOVATION GAME INSTRUMENTS IMPROVEMENTS

These photos of the Kitchener Twilight Grand Prix are not related to anything else in this paper.

NICK STANLEY PHOTO

Karl Allen-Muncey is joining the City of Kitchener as its first Innovation Lab director. Allen-Muncy is recognized for his work in providing technology and new media expertise. The lab will focus on Kitchener’s public sector, particularly in areas of innovation and technology. Visit kitchener.ca/digitalkitchener for more information.

The Kitchener Public Library, in partnership with SunLife, have launched a musical instrument lending program open to anyone with a library card. From acoustic guitars, to banjos, to doumbeks, and mandolins, reserving and borrowing an instrument is free of charge. Instruments can be borrowed for three weeks, with up to two renewals allowed.

The City of Waterloo has partnered up with TD Bank to start construction on a twinned bridge to Waterloo Park. The bridge is supposed to increase safety for all users by separating cyclists from pedestrians. The TD Common Ground Project will also support a new main entrance to Central Street, which will also improve the safety standards for park users.

BIKING BOXES OF VEGGIES AROUND

BLUES FEST IS STILL PRETTY WHITE

STORM WATER UPGRADES

The Working Centre has partnered with KW Eco Courier to create a 100 per cent emissions-free delivery service of locally grown produce. The service will provide a weekly box of vegetables that members select.

Produce will be locally grown at the Hacienda Sarria Market Garden. For more information, email hacienda@theworkingcentre.org.

Kitchener’s annual Blues Fest is back in downtown Kitchener August 10-13. This year’s event features acts like Booker T. Jones and the Gospel Breakfast Band.

It’s a free event and always draws huge crowds, but let’s not ignore the fact that this festival consistantly features and celebrates mostly white artists in a genre originating in black culture.

The federal and provincial governments have pledged to provide funds to improve Waterloo’s storm water infrastructure. 50 per cent of funding will come from Ottawa as part of the Government of Canada’s Clean Water and Wastewater Fund. The provincial government has pledged to provide 25 per cent of funding. Several projects being funded will help reduce sediment build up, which is cool.

PARK ALL YOU WANT IN UPTOWN

RIVERFEST HAPPENS NEXT

WR BUS STOP IMPROVEMENTS

The City of Waterloo has announced that visitors to uptown Waterloo will be able to have longer stay paid parking, effective Sept. 1. Currently parking time was limited to two hours with no parking charge. Soon visitors will be able to buy more time in addition to their free two hours with the use of a free mobile app, Honk Mobile. The online parking rate per hour will be $2.75.

Keep up with the summer festival streak by going to Riverfest in Elora. This annual festival celebrates its community’s music as well as national and international acts. This year Riverfest will feature acts from artists MGMT, Mother Mother, Monster Truck, and KW’s Safe as Houses. Art vendors, food trucks will also be available during the weekend.

The Grand River Transit is upgrading 70 different bus stops throughout the region. Upgrades will include new bike racks, shelters, proper lighting, and sidewalk connections, as well as adding concrete bus pads and improved walkways. Most of the construction is expected to be finished by late August. Stops will stay open throughout the construction work.

HARMONY LUNCH BIPOC SPOTLIGHT FUNDRAISING RE-OPENS

CONSTRUCTION BLUES UPTOWN

After closing its doors for nine months, Harmony Lunch has officially re-opened in uptown Waterloo. The 86-year-old restaurant was temporarily closed after changing ownership. There have definitely been some updates to the menu and atmosphere, but longtime patrons will notice a lot of classic Harmony vibes are still intact.

Construction on King Street in uptown Waterloo is moving into phase 2. The goal of the project is to make King Street more accessible for all modes of transportation and pedestrians. Businesses within this area will remain open and pedestrian access along King will be available.

Construction is tough for everyone, don’t let the road closures stop you from shopping local.

A fundrasier for photographer Shawn Johnston is being hosted at THEMUSEUM Aug. 16. Johnston plans on travelling the world while creating a spotlight for BIPOC folks (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) and share their stories through his photography. The fundraiser will have live music, food and drinks, and a silent auction.

AUGUST 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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SOME NEWCOMERS NEED ONTARIO WORKS

FORGET ANY STEREOTYPICAL MISCONCEPTION YOU HAVE OF OW

MARIKA GALADZA CONTRIBUTOR Arguable, nobody wants to sit on their couch all day and not work — try doing it yourself for a week. The novelty of binge watching TV wears off pretty quickly when you have nowhere else you need to be. The “free-loading couch potato” is a negative and unfair stereotype of people receiving Ontario Works, the official title for provincial welfare — or the “dole” if you were born in 1940’s England.

The reality is that many folks on OW are raising their kids, volunteering at food banks, acting as neighbourhood watch, coaching soccer teams, managing their poverty related chronic illnesses and yes, sometimes also watching TV on their couches just like the rest of us.

Three years ago I started a masters of social work. At the time, I didn’t know what OW even stood for. My interest was working in settlement, helping newcomers, like my grandparents, settle into their new communities.

Today I realize that OW is a crucial building block, not failure, for many immigrant and refugee folks rebuilding their lives in our region.

Working in social services with newcomers for the past two years has made me re-evaluate what OW means and what it offers to people unable to enter the formal job market.

Let me tell you a true story about a recent newcomer who, for the purpose of confidentiality, I will call Bill. Bill came as a refugee from Syria a year and a half ago with his wife and kids.

He was eager to enter the job market, despite not having the opportunity to study English before coming to Canada. He was a truck driver back in Syria, but to do the same job here, he needed a Canadian Language Benchmark of four or higher. The same requirements applied for becoming a taxi driver. Bill’s English was assessed at zero when he first arrived, presenting a steep and intimidating learning curve for someone who hadn’t been in school since he was a boy.

So he opted to drive for Uber.

A totally unregulated trade, yet it

allowed him to work right away.

After three months in this precarious position, without benefits, regular working hours or any job security, he was fired. His customer ratings were too low — too many one and two stars because he couldn’t understand what customers were asking him.

He’s now on OW, and considering the pay and lack of benefits as an Uber driver, it’s a better option for him. People on OW receive a drug card to pay for medications, and some discretionary benefits through their caseworkers, something many of the working lower income community don’t get. With his OW drug card, he is able to provide basic health insurance for each of his dependants, a necessity for someone who has lived through physical and psychological trauma.

For Bill, being on OW provides more stability than his job did.

The current rate for OW is about $676 for a single individual, $966 for a parent with one dependant (not including the Canada Child Tax benefit). According to Kaylie Tiessen of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, in 2014 the poverty gap for people living on OW was 59 per cent. While there was a 1.5 per cent hike in rates in October 2016, she argues people receiving OW are living in a greater depth of poverty now than a generation ago. So why is this $676 a month stipend, that comes with a big stigmatizing label, the best option for many people in our community?

The Law Commission of Ontario estimates that nearly 25 per cent of jobs in Ontario could be characterized as precarious work with low wages, no pension and no union representation.

With more short term and casual contracts than ever before, OW starts to look more appealing for newcomer folks on the lower rungs of the job ladder.

And for those coveted full time permanent jobs out there? Forbes estimates that half of all available jobs are never advertised. People get shoulder tapped, employers browse their existing networks, or when postings are advertised, familiar names get plucked from the pile. Hiring people who fit in the “organizational culture” can become code for preserving workplace echochambers.

What does this mean for newcomers? It means that people like

Bill who have been in the country for two years or less and are building their social networks from scratch don’t stand a chance. The KW Community Foundation’s 2016 Vital Signs report states that “typical immigrants do not achieve income comparable to people born in Canada until approximately 20 years after moving here.” Until we broaden our networks, we’ll keep segregating our spheres of influence.

Opportunities for people to mingle across socio-economic divisions isn’t happening nearly enough to reduce the appalling 20-year gap in income parity.

Another insight I’ve learned is to stop looking at OW as an utter failure.

When I worked at a settlement agency during my masters, my supervisor shared stories about how she had been on OW for her first years in Canada.

Social assistance helped her to stay at home with her young son and attend full time ESL classes. Today she supervises 10 people, and is an award winning advocate for newcomers and refugees in our region.

As long as entry level jobs pay less than a living wage, and Kitchener’s childcare costs remain among the highest in the country, OW continues to provide the limited but consistent support newcomer parents need.

And she’s not the only community leader whose past involves OW. This winter I learned that an executive director of a non-profit agency in Kitchener that I highly admire was on OW in her younger years. It’s our loss when we can’t look at OW as part of the journey, rather than the end of the road.

Until we are better able to hire newcomers and immigrants, give people who have no Canadian experience a chance, and offer a living wage with benefits for entry level positions, OW will continue to be a viable option for newcomers.

Not to mention the limiting bureaucracy that disincentivizes any entrepreneurial spirit in folks coming from less formal economies. The blaming of the poor for their lot is a played out easy target. Before we judge someone new to this country for socalled “free-loading,” let’s look at the various ways we’ve made it impossible for them to enter the job market with the language levels or credentials they have.

AUGUST 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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MATT SMITH PHOTO

THE KPL REALLY WANTS TO REACH MILLENNIALS

CHAPTER ONE IS THE LIBRARY’S NEW VENTURE AIMED AT ENGAGING WITH KW’S TWENTYSOMETHINGS

BETH BOWLES CONTRIBUTOR In the February issue of the Community Edition, an article called “KPL is not your Grandpa’s library” appeared, and six months later, this is still proving to be true. The Kitchener Public Library is continuing to shed the stereotypical characteristics of the traditional library, but this time it’s with the introduction of a new awareness and engagement campaign called Chapter One. Chapter One is an umbrella for several smaller initiatives and events that are all targeted towards Kitchener-Waterloo’s millennial demographic.

“Chapter One is really a promotional or a marketing strategy to engage particularly [with] the millennial customer base in a different way than maybe our traditional marketing has done in the past,” said Mary Chevreau, CEO of the KPL. In addition, Charlotte Prong, KPL’s

social media editor, explained that the millennial demographic is the one group of people who’s needs within the library may still be unclear.

“As we look around the library, we see that we do really well with older people, we do really well with families and children and we do fairly well with teens,” she said. “We do see a fair amount of millennials in the library, but we don’t know if we’re meeting their needs. So that was kind of the jumping off point for the whole [Chapter One] campaign.”

Prong said Chapter One is essentially about engaging with a demographic that they might not have been reaching before. They plan to do this by changing the way that they engage with audiences. For instance, KPL can now be found on Instagram and Snapchat, they’re launching an E-newsletter and a new blog on Medium will showcase the stories of young library users.

“We want to make sure that we’re really connecting with millennials — in particular people who are living close to downtown, artists, designers, entrepreneurs, students, people who are in that Chapter One phase of their adulthood and make sure that we’re

connecting with them and meeting their needs and finding out what it is they want from their library,” Prong said.

In June, KPL hosted a launch event for Chapter One that those first Instagram followers and early influencers were invited to. While an invite-only event may appear to counter Chapter One’s purpose — to reach a demographic that may be unfamiliar with what KPL can offer them — Prong and Chevreau both said that all future Chapter One events will be open to anyone and that the purpose of the invite-only was to service everyone who attended.

“A lot of those people [who were invited] were already using the space, but we wanted to hear from them [about] what they wanted more from us, what kinds of events they’d like to see us have and also to showcase some of the things they might not know about. Even millennials that use the library might just come in and use it as a quiet space but not really know all of the resources it may have, so we gave tours and we announced some of those big events coming up,” Prong said.

Prong also said that the hope is that

those early influencers will reach out to their friends, who will reach out to their friends and will ultimately reach a demographic who has yet to be tapped.

Chevreau said further that the event acted as a pilot to see if they were heading in the right direction.

“We did have an invite-only launch event, just to sort of test the waters. It was very successful and we had great feedback. We sensed that based on that, we’re heading in the right direction,” Chevreau said.

While Chapter One is still in its early stages, Prong was able to talk about some upcoming events that will hopefully bring millennials into the library.

In the fall, BuzzFeed writer and author Scaachi Koul will be doing a talk at KPL. This is anticipated to happen on a Friday night and will be a licensed event. They have also planned a panel at the time of the Giller Prize, which will include local writer Anne T. Donahue, BuzzFeed’s social media editor Elamin Abdelmahmoud, CBC’s Andrea Bellemare, and writer Brian Francis.

“I think it’s really important for people who are just starting off in their careers or are just students, that they have a public space that they feel

comfortable in and that belongs to them,” Prong said. “These are people who may not have kids now or who may never have kids, but they are probably going to be life-long library users, so it’s important to have them be part of shaping what the library of the future looks like. So that’s the ultimate goal, to make sure that we’re meeting community needs.”

For Chevreau, the goal is already being achieved just by seeing more millennials walk through KPL’s doors since the launch event in June. But in the long-run, she hopes to see Chapter One develop its own unique identity.

“I would like to see the millennial community use our library for all sorts of reasons and to be prevalent community users. I think we are seeing that a little bit. Even since we launched in June, we are seeing people coming in and using the library in a different way, talk about it in a different way and share content in a different way through their own social media feeds,” Chevreau said.

“And that’s what I think would be a success — to see our community expand into this age group and to have the library as a foundational piece of their lives.”

AUGUST 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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KITCHENER IS MORE THAN ITS PAST

TAYLOR JONES’ LATEST PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT LAUNCHED WITH PANEL AT THE KPL FEATURING “KITCHENER’S FINEST” LAST MONTH

ELIZABETH DICESARE CONTRIBUTOR

The Working Centre’s newest space in downtown Kitchener is located at 256 King Street East. NICK STANLEY PHOTO

MORE THAN COFFEE

Taylor Jones, Kitchener Public Library’s (KPL) current guest librarian, has a new project for the community to participate in. It’s called Dear Kitchener, and its goal is to explore the past, present, and future of Waterloo Region through photography.

Dear Kitchener is simple enough, members of the public are invited to share their old photographs by holding up physical copies of the image in front of its original location, and snap a new photo to showcase what it looks like up against its current landscape. The idea is exactly the same as Jones’s Dear Photograph project, which has become an incredibly popular website, and bestselling book.

Participants of Dear Kitchener are invited to share their own photos, or explore KPL’s collection of local, historical images that are housed in the Grace Schmidt room at the library’s central branch.

Dear Kitchener was officially launched July 13, with a kickoff party at KPL. The event provided little explanation about the project as a whole; rather, it focused on a panel discussion with, as Jones described, “some of Kitchener’s finest.” The panelists included Lindsay

Kalbfleisch (Miss Oktoberfest 2014), Mike McCauley (tech entrepreneur), Karl Allen-Muncey (Kitchener’s Innovation Lab director), and Rych Mills (local historian).

Jones began the evening by describing the culture of innovation within Kitchener-Waterloo. Then, he moved the conversation over to the panel to discuss their thoughts and opinions on how our community has evolved over the past 100 or so years, and how it will continue to move forward in the coming decades.

Mills provided a brief history of the region, describing how it evolved from a manufacturing community to the bustling tech-hub we know today. While all the panelists agreed that KitchenerWaterloo has seemingly been open to embracing change, Kalbfleisch was quick to point out that the tech-boom hasn’t been beneficial to everyone.

While many tech-workers praise the gentrification of the downtown core, those living below the poverty line have had a difficult time adjusting to the city’s fast-paced change.

“Kitchener should remain a place where everyone can belong,” Kalbfleisch told the audience.

Kalbfleisch, McCauley, and Allen-Muncey all emphasized the multiculturalism of Waterloo Region as one of its strengths. Mills, however, talked about how to preserve the region’s “white” culture and roots.

Though Waterloo Region has long had many citizens of European descent, German culture especially being present

through our community, it is essential to accurately and honestly include colonization as part of our history discussions. Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge are on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnawbe and Haudenosaunee people. European settlers decimated Indigenous communities through conflict and disease. As well, Kitchener is presently thriving through its multicultural community. While we do not know exactly what Mills intended with his statement, we do know our roots and future are multicultural.

While Dear Kitchener does focus on exploring Waterloo Region’s past, it also encourages participants to celebrate the present and think about creating a better future. Rather than strictly preserving the past, the idea is to celebrate the innovation and evolution of the region, and include everyone — regardless of who they are or where they came from — in this community project.

Whether someone has lived in Kitchener-Waterloo for their entire life, or moved here within the past year, their story is important and should be included in this community collaboration. It will be extremely difficult to share these experiences and memories if people are too focused on the past.

The Dear Kitchener website was not live at the time of printing. Jones cancelled a scheduled interview with the Community Edition, and did not respond to further inquiries.

THE WORKING CENTRE’S NEWEST FACILITY IS BRINGING MUCH NEEDED RESOURCES AND WORK SPACE TO DOWNTOWN KITCHENER

RAMONA LEITAO CONTRIBUTOR After opening in late June, the Working Centre plans on expanding its latest space, Fresh Ground.

Located at 256 King Street East, Fresh Ground is an open community space with a combination of multiple facilities. According to the Working Centre director and co-founder Joe Mancini, the space aims to invite people “into new ways of thinking about food, local democracy, and the community.”

Currently Fresh Ground consists of a coffee bar, serving plant-based, whole grain foods and a bike pit, where volunteers and staff repair and refurbish bikes. It also houses the commons studio, a space used for filmmaking and storytelling, where local filmmakers can share their expertise and equipment amongst their peers. These facilities have been in operation since February 2017.

Housing is another aspect of Fresh Ground. The top floor of the building is now home to eight tenants who have been experiencing homelessness.

The latest installation being developed within the space is the Fresh Ground Gathering Space. According to Mancini, the space will be used for a variety of events and activities, such as workshops, markets, and overall dialogue and skill building for community members.

The Gathering Space was first used for the Working Centre’s annual Summer Institute at the end of July, where attendees participated in discussions that pertained to local democracy, personalist practices and emergent thinking. Other dialogue events such as The Daily Circus and Institutional Inversion have happened there as well. “[The] events created meaningful engagements,” Mancini said. “The ideas that tied them together were creating thoughtful exchange and learning opportunities directed towards teaching alternatives to institutional thinking.”

To learn more about Fresh Ground and the organization behind the space, visit workingcentre.com Dear Kitchener was launched with a panel at the Kitchener Public Library. NICK STANLEY PHOTO

WE CAN’T DO THIS ALONE. VOLUNTEER. INFO@COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

AUGUST 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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Dating can be stressful, even for birds. PHOTO COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

THREE TIPS FOR DEALING WITH DATING ANXIETY MENTAL MATTERS

JOHN ROCHE COLUMNIST Dating is basically like a job interview. Except it can last several years.

And either of you can just get up and leave at any time without explanation. And there’s sex involved. And unresolved childhood issues. Now that I think of it, dating is actually way more anxiety-provoking than a job interview.

Here are a few tips to make it a little easier.

1. Understand that dating isn’t supposed to make you happy. I know it flies in the face of every Taylor Swift song — and believe me when I tell you I don’t contradict Taylor lightly — but dating isn’t about finding someone to make you happy. Actually, it’s very dangerous to tie your happiness to another person.

Let’s say you do feel happier with a new person in your life. In that case, you’re likely to experience significant anxiety at the thought of losing them.

Maybe you’ll compulsively check your phone and, if you haven’t heard from them for a while, launch into catastrophic inner monologues about how no one will ever love you. This kind of anxiety can be a real downer for you — and a great way to drive away your new flame. Plus, eventually even the

shiniest and most exciting new lover fails to make us happy, so on a long enough timeline these anxious expectations tend to lead to resentment.

All that may seem depressing, but the happy implication is that your ability to be confident and happy has nothing to do with your relationship status! Regardless of whether someone stays or goes, you can still get everything you want out of life.

Awesome, right?

2. Start seeing dating as about compatibility, not competition. Rather than finding someone to make you happy, the point of dating is to find someone who inspires and supports you to be your most authentic self.

That means you don’t need to impress anyone. Instead of trying hard to be super cool, or sexy, or macho, you

can dedicate your energy to having fun and figuring out if this person is a good match for you. Nobody is compatible with everyone, so if things don’t work out, it’s nobody’s fault.

Making this shift in your thinking will do wonders for your dating confidence.

3. Expect dating to bring out your issues. You may be thinking to yourself, “That all makes sense, but thinking like that is easier said than done!”

That’s true, because dating brings out people’s unresolved issues. If you find that, even though you “know better,” you’re still looking to others to make you happy, or you still think that dating is about proving your worth to other people, then you’re bumping up against some unresolved stuff.

How do I know that? Because — and

I’m talking psychologically here, not judgmentally — it is characteristically child-like thinking to believe your well-being is dependent on an attachment figure. Or that other people’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviour are somehow a reflection of your inherent worth. Beliefs like this are pretty common, but it still might be time to find yourself a good therapist.

As long as we’re human, dating will never be completely without anxiety.

Like with anything, though, if you work at it, it can become a heck of a lot more manageable.

TELL THEM ABOUT IT SEXPLANATIONS

STACEY JACOBS COLUMNIST Today I awoke to the magical voice of Billy Joel singing… “Tell her about it, tell her everything you feel, give her every reason to accept that you’re for real… Tell her all your crazy dreams…

You’ve got to provide communication constantly…” And yes I have an old clock radio, which I love!

“Tell Her About It” is my favourite Billy Joel song. If you have never read the lyrics please do so — it could save your relationship. This song unpacks some of the secrets to a successful partnership — communication and the sharing of thoughts and feelings.

One of the biggest barriers I see preventing healthy and happy relationships is insecurity. Either one or both people in the relationship are insecure. We are all insecure at times, however, for some people, this insecurity is constant and possibly debilitating to the relationship. This insecurity may be unfounded or it may be due to the actions (or lack of action) of the partner.

Confidence is often seen as a positive quality and/or a turn on in a partner whereas low self-esteem and feelings of insecurity are often seen as a negative quality and/or a turn off. What I often see is a person’s confidence decrease within a relationship due to lack of communication, jealousy, lack of time spent with a partner, social media, unexpressed emotions, and misunderstandings. As the person’s confidence decreases their partner’s feelings for them decrease and they

become less turned on by them which decreases the person’s confidence more and a cycle begins.

How do you prevent this in your relationship? Listen to Billy Joel.

Tell them about it: talk about your day, tell your partner what you were doing when you weren’t with them, share your thoughts and concerns.

Let them know how much you care: share your feelings, be vulnerable, and if you love them, tell them.

Pay them some attention: pay attention to your partner, get off your phone and social media and be present in the moment, listen to them, enjoy the small things.

Tell them all your crazy dreams: share your goals, fears, and dreams.

Let them know how much they mean: tell them what it means to you that they are in your life, how your life is better with them in it.

Do not take your partner for granted or assume that they know how you feel about them. Tell them, tell them often. Some people think that if you share your feelings too often or tell someone you love them all the time, these words will lose their meaning.

I think that in today’s world with the amount of insecurity I see in people and within their relationships it is important to constantly remind people that they mean something to you.

Compliment them, give them a card that shares your feelings if it is hard for you to express them out loud.

Make an effort to put your phone away and enjoy the person you are with.

Have conversations. Make and enjoy a meal together. Find things you enjoy doing together and do them. Make your relationship a priority in your life and communicate about it often.

PHOTOS BY EMI ZIBAEI

THE BLACK MAN’S

SANCTUARY

FITSUM AREGUY CONTRIBUTOR I have not always considered my Blackness to be beautiful. For years my brothers and I, the only Black males at a small Lutheran school, were the subject of our peers’ callous curiosity. I have visceral memories of schoolmates who, drawing from one-dimensional caricatures of Black people in popular media, would endlessly assert that we should walk, sound, and look a certain way. That included how we styled our hair.

Armed with images of the Fresh Prince, schoolmates would beg us to grow flattop fros, only to later pluck and tousle it without our permission.

Torn between being annoyed and desperately wanting to fit in, for a time I preferred to keep my hair short and my head down. My bumpy journey of self love and affirmation was aided by family, friends, and role models. Outside of school I was encouraged, beyond a tokenistic appreciation, to take risks with my hair.

My Black friends would show off intricate designs shaved in the sides of their hi-top fades, or tapers with sharp line-ups that punctuated their presence like an exclamation point.

They all told me that I needed to see a barber to get my hair on point.

Barbershops are vital spaces for communities. To understand their importance, one might situate them within the German social critic Jürgen Habermas’ theory of the “public sphere” (or Öffentlichkeit), a democratic nexus in social life where people can come together to engage and connect with each other. The barbershop is ideally one such public sphere that is open to any person regardless of their demographic.

And so at age 12, with a hopeful bounce in my step, I strode into First Choice Haircutters at the Stanley Park Plaza, the closest barbershop within walking distance. My friends told me to ask for a line up, which is when the natural hairline is shaped into straight lines and sharp angles – a common Black hair style request and arguably the most straightforward. The silent response and bewildered expressions from the hair stylists were almost comical. Not one person there knew how to give me a line up. One patronizing, non-Black, middle-aged hair stylist told me she didn’t trust herself to cut Black hair in general.

The run-of-the-mill barbershop could be considered part of the public sphere, but as Queer theorist Michael Warner points out, the public sphere can sometimes exclude certain individuals, creating a need for “counterpublics.” The Black barbershop is a counterpublic space where Black men can get their hair cut. There are only a handful in our community. When I retrace my past, discovering all these spaces

and connecting with the wider Black community, I remember the joy of finding Diverse Barbershop first.

Inside Diverse, located near the corner of Duke and Frederick streets in downtown Kitchener, I spoke with Kourey Proctor, a young Black man who moved to Waterloo Region from Mississauga two and a half years ago.

He had an almost identical experience to me. “[I] went to First Choice for a line up one time, and they couldn’t do it.

They told me that I should go to Diverse if I wanted that,” Proctor said.

An older gentleman who overheard us chipped in and said that Proctor got some damn good advice, which drew big laughs from everyone present.

There are no appointments at Diverse, you just walk-in as early as possible and try to find a seat. Thursday and Saturday are high times, and although the wait can sometimes last up to two hours, there is no doubt that this is part of the experience.

Deep hip hop cuts blend into Afro house and jazz fusion beats. Absent minded heads bob to the rhythms, feet tap and shuffle. Others dive into lively conversations and arguments spanning every topic, like the never ending debate of who the top five are in any sport, or how rapidly our city is changing.

As a kid I was totally in awe. Sitting in that room, I used to close my eyes, absorbing the sounds and smells.

It became my oasis. It was the first time, outside of family gatherings, where I saw Black males communicate freely, and it was profoundly refreshing. As an adult I find it has remained as vibrant and important as ever.

The business was started by Keven Francis who has been cutting hair for over 23 years, and has been my main barber for over a decade. He opened the doors of Diverse in 2002 and works alongside fellow barbers Essan Howell and Dave Henry, both of whom are also held in high regard by their loyal customers.

On the issue of barbers not knowing how to cut Black hair, Francis sees it as more of an educational limitation. “It’s not in the provincial curriculum,” he said, “so many hair stylists and barbers never learn how to cut with clippers.”

To help hair professionals develop what he calls the “urban eye,” Keven has created Diverse Teach, a program designed for professionals in the industry who want to improve in the area of clippers and trimmers, filling a very important knowledge gap. To date, he estimates that he has trained more than 35 professionals on how to perform techniques that used to exist purely in Black hair shops.

The history of Black-owned barbershops in North America is tied into the history of slavery.

Many Black barbers were freed men who were given an unprecedented (albeit temporary) amount of power over white clients while they sat in their chairs. The Black middle class

was built up in racially segregated localities due to the leadership and business acumen of successful Black barbers who advocated for economic independence from whites.

In the 1880s and 1890s, after emancipation, a younger generation entered barbering to open shops in Black communities. These barbershops were described as the “Black man’s sanctuary” by civil rights figures such as Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Amiri Baraka and Richard Wright. In Canada, the first Black barbershops opened in Toronto and have since inspired hundreds of Black entrepreneurs to open their own shops across the country. Instead of forced servitude, they transformed into counterpublics where Black men could not only get a shave and a haircut, but also let down their guards and converse without fear.

In his younger days, the noted social development and human rights advocate Dr. Calvin W. Ruck quietly resisted one white-owned barbershop in Nova Scotia that would not serve his family or the Black community. As he sat in the shop waiting for service, white patrons would not come in, which affected the barber’s income. He later filed a complaint with Human Rights Commission which garnered a lot of support from all across Canada.

The relationship between clients and barbers can span several generations. Dermott Smith, a long time Diverse customer, said Francis has been his go-to for years. “I’ve been coming here since he opened. Now when I come here I bring my fiveyear-old and two-year-old with me.”

Black men put a lot of trust in their barbers to not only get the fade right or the line up perfect, but also to help guide them through the aging process. Smith rubs his head and laughs good naturedly as he reveals how important Keven has been for him personally. “He helped me transition from having hair to no hair.” It’s hard to imagine this kind of candid vulnerability and shared male intimacy occurring outside the walls of the barbershop.

In high school I searched for other places like Diverse and discovered other Black barbershops in Kitchener. However, as I grew older I also began to identify a less pleasant side of some of the places I revered.

Homophobic and transphobic comments, the objectification of women, and a posturing of hardness in some of these spaces rubbed off on me when I was younger. I thought I needed to emulate this to affirm my Blackness, and subsequently needed to unlearn this in my adulthood.

There are a lot of reasons as to why Black men project hyper-masculinity; it is a response to a repressive society, and also a racist stereotype meant to restrict Black men. Because Black barbershops are protected spaces, conversations can easily veer into problematic territory with no form of accountability. The toxic rules for being a Black male were perpetuated in some barbershops,

and it limited certain expressions of my own identity.

Even as I am more critical of these men and spaces, there is still an undeniable influence that lingers with me. Childish Gambino accurately sums up my struggle for validation and feelings of alienation in his line “culture shock in barbershops, cause I ain’t hood enough. We all look the same to the cops, ain’t that good enough?”

This is not reflective of every barbershop in the region. I’ve worked with youth in community-based settings for a decade, long enough for them to see me age and then joke about my own receding hairline.

Four years ago I picked up wind of another Black-owned barbershop that the kids were going to. This led me to Classique Cutz, located on Kingsway Drive between 3rd and 4th Avenue in Kitchener.

Winton McKenzie has been running this shop for 13 years — he grew up in Toronto and has been in Kitchener since the early 2000s. When I shared my ambivalence around certain Black barbershops, he assured me that Classique was not that kind of place. “This is a family friendly zone,” he said. “I don’t allow cursing or negative talk here.” Unlike other Black barbershops, haircuts here are strictly by appointment only. “It helps me control the overload and it keeps people happy.”

Something else that makes Classique unique is Winton’s approach to hiring and training barbers. He interacts with a lot of youth who start as customers and offers mentoring to the ones who are interested in getting into barbering. Malik Farquharson was one of these youth who started by cleaning up around the shop and is now one of Winton’s most sought after barbers. By mentoring and empowering youth, Winton carries on a positive and long tradition of Black barbershops uplifting the Black community.

Being critical of the role barbershops have played in my life has allowed me to recognize their wider impact in our region. These counterpublics for Black men are important to preserve because, unlike Toronto, there are only a handful in our community.

And it is not only Black men who need these shops. I see people of all ethnicities, with a wide range of hair types and style requests, waiting for a chop at Diverse or Classique Cutz. Everyone is always welcome, and long time customers appreciate the shops as safe spaces to air out societal and community issues that matter to them.

This month Diverse is moving from it’s location in the downtown core because the building they were in has been sold to developers. This is of course not the end, because wherever Diverse goes, their loyal customers and the Black community will most certainly follow.

AUGUST 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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CAMBRIDGE SHOULD CHANGE PROPOSED LRT ROUTE THROUGH PRESTON NEIGHBOURHOOD IF THE REGION WANTS RESIDENTS TO EMBRACE LRT, THE TRACKS CANNOT GO THROUGH A QUIET NEIGHBOURHOOD

The roads in Preston where the LRT is currently planned to go through are too narrow to accommodate tracks. JAMES HOWE PHOTO

WR AND HOWE

JAMES HOWE COLUMNIST Recent discussions about phase two of ION, its expansion into Cambridge, has been met with resistance from locals. While I initially thought the reaction of citizens in Cambridge as a NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard) response, they definitely seem to have a case. If the LRT is to be welcomed in Cambridge, it cannot be built through a quiet residential neighbourhood.

A firsthand look at where the train

is to connect with Moore Street and then turns onto Eagle Street quickly shows that the preferred route for the LRT through Preston is clearly inappropriate. The roads are narrow — too narrow to allow for the street parking other neighbourhoods value — and both sides of the streets have houses, including some heritage homes. There is not room for a single track let alone any possibility of two.

The route is not much better after it crosses King Street. While it becomes much busier, it continues to be narrow without any room for widening and mostly lined with houses until it arrives at where Speedsville Road becomes Concession Drive.

Even if expropriation made this stretch possible, it is too blunt of

an instrument to consider for the neighbourhood where the LRT is to land after crossing the Speed River.

The preferred route is a non-starter and that is why Regional Council made a good call in late June calling upon staff to identify alternatives.

When the next round of consultations occurs in the fall, it should do more than identify alternatives and in fact scrap the currently preferred route. Give Preston residents the peace of mind they need and allow them to move forward with their lives including selling their homes at market prices.

I strongly support extending the LRT to Cambridge. Having been a long time vocal supporter of the project, I hoped to see tracks to downtown Galt included in the initial

phase because, as I wrote at the time, “Doing so will help to ensure that we reflect the reality of how we already live [as one community] while making it more common to think of ourselves as one region. As we grow, we’ll become more interconnected and having the LRT in place will help knit us together by making it easier to get around.”

And a stop in Preston is strongly preferred because the LRT is about more than the end of route destinations. It is mostly about where you can go in between them.

Businesses in downtown Preston are to benefit especially when intensification occurs on under-used property.

The best option is the originally preferred route that parallels the CPR

tracks from Freeport in Kitchener into Preston along the side of Riverside Park. Regional Council was told that preference ended when CPR refused to let the Region use that corridor.

The Region of Waterloo should not take no for an answer. It needs to find a way to make that route work just as the Province of Ontario found a solution to a similar problem that threatened all day, two way Go trains between Waterloo Region and the Greater Toronto Area. This route option is good public policy. Keep working at it till a solution is found to make it possible.

AUGUST 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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“THIS IS NOT PROTEST. THIS IS EDUCATION. THIS IS INTERVENTION ART.”

AUDIENCE COMMENT, RECONCILIATION DIALOGUE

ON EXPECTING MORE THAN LIP SERVICE OPINION

MEGAN NOURSE EDITOR IN CHIEF If you walked down King Street in downtown Kitchener in the last few months, you likely noticed the giant Canadian flag hanging down the front of THEMUSEUM. Until it was taken down in late July, it was pretty hard to miss. It sparked conversation when first unveiled, and even more so on July 1st when a banner reading “150+ Years of Resistance #Unsettling 150” that was draped over it by an unknown person or group. An unidentified black substance was dripped down the front of the flag.

The banner was removed within a few hours, the black substance remained. The banner was then placed in THEMUSEUM’s current exhibit A Cause for Celebration: First Things First, a decision CEO David Marskell said was made about 20 minutes after the banner was taken down. A few weeks later, THEMUSEUM hosted a Reconciliation Dialogue, moderated by board of directors member Mike Tennant, with drew a crowd of just over 50 people.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: the banner in question outside THEMUSEUM and the black substance dripped down the front of the Canadian flag was vandalism in the legal definition; it was not a hate

crime. Most importantly, neither of those designations really matter in this conversation. That was a thought expressed many times by several different people in the audience.

“Why are we talking about vandalism? That really isn’t what is important,” said audience member Kelly Fran Davis, who identified as Haudenosaunee, in response to moderator Mike Tennant’s choice to open the dialogue with questions about whether the act was vandalism or a hate crime. No one in the audience vocalized agreement to either points and many made comments about the importance of shifting the talk away from criminal accusation.

“When I think about criminalizing the act and the assumption we’re making that it was Indigenous people that hung the banner, we are inadvertently perpetuating the over incarceration of Indigenous people and we’re normalizing that,” said Dr. Laura Mae Lindo. That statement was immediately followed by Tennant asking the audience “Is there anyone here who feels it might be a hate crime?”

“When you open a conversation around questions of legality, around the criminality of what this may or may not be, what it does, it just reinforces the settler-colonial relationships. It’s all about establishing a hierarchy and I don’t really see how we can have a productive conversation here, unless we remove that from the debate,” said one audience member.

Just over 50 people were in attendance at the dialogue. Only

one person, Linda Fabi who is on THEMUSEUM’s board of directors, expressed offense that it was a Canadian flag that had been damaged.

No one vocalized opinions that it was a hate crime, though Tennant continually brought the dialogue back to that topic.

Kevin Chalk, the deputy chief of Waterloo Region Police Services was the first invited to speak by Tennant. It wasn’t until the event was nearly done that an audience member pointed out the harm of having police be given the first chance to speak.

“In my mind, the police starting off this dialogue, meant that this dialogue wasn’t neutral anymore because of the histories of policing and its connections to colonization,” said Adam Lewis during one of the last comments of the evening.

Several audience members made comments about the contradiction of taking the protest banner off of the Canadian flag while still claiming to support Indigenous rights and reconciliation. Marskell repeatedly pointed to THEMUSEUM’s current exhibit about Canada 150, curated by three Indigenous artists and one new Canadian, as evidence of the institution supporting Indigenous rights and recognizing the issues surrounding celebration of confederacy.

“We built an entire exhibit to educate people. And how many people have been up to that exhibit?” Marskell asked the audience when questioned about why he chose to remove the banner off of the flag. “Oh, I’m impressed,” was his response when

about half of the people in the room raised their hands.

“Throughout the year already we’ve celebrated many different diverse voices in the community…We had the KW Muslim women’s art show, we had the refugee art show, we’ve got a number of other events coming up, so we couldn’t not celebrate the 150th anniversary of confederation. But at the same time, our anchor exhibit gave a voice to the Aboriginal community so they could use our stage… so that was our thinking,” Marskell said on why the flag was hung outside the building.

The issue that a few audience members raised, was that the exhibit exists in a private space that required money and time to access, while the Canadian Flag, though on private property, is hanging in public view.

In a written statement released the following day, Marskell pointed to THEMUSEUM’s need to earn revenue as one of the reason the exhibit, and now the resistance banner, have a cost of admission to view.

THEMUSEUM is non profit, not owned by the city or region and the revenue argument is valid, if the aim of the business is revenue over education. The consensus of the audience at the dialogue was that the flag never should have been hung in the first place. At least, not in such an ostentatious way, forcing its message on anyone walking by, without including an equally public display about the oppressive history associated with it.

For many, the Canadian flag is a symbol of colonialism and the British

and Canadian governments’ attempts to erase Indigenous culture. The removal of the resistance banner and placement inside THEMUSEUM further demonstrates the institution valuing nationalism and profit over engagement. The banner was a way of calling out the Canadian flag and our celebration of it as being problematic.

By putting it behind a paywall, THEMUSEUM is in turn profiting from resistance.

There are Canadian flags hanging in public all over our country, and millions of people celebrated Canada 150. THEMUSEUM hanging the flag itself is not unreasonable, however claiming to be recognizing the harsh truths that go along with our confederacy while the flag hangs is contradictory. Especially after removing the resistance banner.

You don’t deserve a pat on the back without doing the work.

“I challenge you really, take the time to read those 94 calls to action and then challenge the space that you’re a part of,” said Shawn Johnston of the University of Waterloo Aboriginal Centre, referring to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to actions.

We need to challenge our audience and community and not expect Indigenous people to do the work for us. THEMUSEUM is a highly visible organization in our community and we expect more from them.

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AUGUST 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

IF STREETS COULD TALK: BEECHWOOD

KRISTEN PHILIPPI CONTRIBUTOR Biking through Old Beechwood feels like being transported to another time. I rode through a version of the suburbs that no longer exists. Homes in the area are individual feats of architecture with spacious lawns, blooming gardens and long winding driveways. The trees are tall enough to remind you of their age, evoking thoughts of childhoods come and gone under their shady protection.

The neighbourhood is filled with long crescents and wide side streets that are just begging for someone to start a game of road hockey. The setting sun creates a magical golden light that makes me feel like I’m on a suburban movie set.

The Beechwood neighbourhood is one of the older areas of Waterloo.

One end runs alongside the University of Waterloo on Westmount Road, and the other along Erbsville.

Columbia Street and Erb Street sandwich the area on either side.

When it was first developed, it was neighbourhood at the edge of town, looking off into farmers’ fields, but there has since been rapid growth

all around. Beechwood is broken down into three sections: Beechwood proper (often referred to as Old Beechwood), Upper Beechwood and West Beechwood. There are eight active community organizations (and respective pools and tennis courts), and two elementary schools. It’s an active, family based area that has not changed much since it was developed.

(I can say so with slight authority, as my mother and I both grew up in the neighbourhood).

Beechwood began its growth in the early-mid 1970s, around the time that the University of Waterloo was solidifying its position as an educational institution. UW’s Faculty of Arts was only created in 1960, and the pioneering Math and Kinesiology faculties were both formed in 1967.

As UW grew, so did the number of professionals in the surrounding neighbourhoods. Beechwood was developed right next door and soon was drawing executives, professors, doctors, and lawyers from across the region, signalling a shift of many higher income families from Kitchener, which at the time had a more industrial vibe.

The neighbourhood represented a version of the “Canadian Dream” where couples who began to succeed in their career moved to Beechwood to settle their family into bigger homes

that reflected their achievements and aspirations. Beechwood became known for hosting well-known Waterloo families that were influential in politics, business and medicine in the region. There was certainly a level of elitism represented aptly in homes.

By the late 1990s, Upper Beechwood and West Beechwood had been developed with less grandeur but equal reputation for community, education, and higher priced living. Many children of families in Beechwood moved to the two new additions, but it also became a haven for tech executives as BlackBerry began its rapid growth in the early 2000s. Though this demographic helped kick-start the area, it gave way to a constant fluctuation as the industry ebbed and flowed. The sense of community that was so core to the early Beechwood was not carried into the Upper and West divisions as people were constantly moving in and out. I have had three sets of neighbours on either side of my childhood home in the past 20 years.

Over time, the south end of Beechwood has made way to more student and subsidized housing, posing a stark contrast to older areas.

The diversity is pulled together through ample amounts of greenery, space, and uniqueness. No matter where you look in Beechwood, the

neighbourhood seems to have escaped the mundane architectural repetition that fills the newer and nearby Laurel Wood and Clair Hills neighbourhoods.

There are many small parks, jungle gyms, community paths, and gardens lining the streets. In certain spots, if you ignore the telephone wires, you might think you are in the middle of a provincial park, rather than a mid-size city.

Returning to one’s childhood neighbourhood always comes with mixed feelings of nostalgia, discomfort, and a critical awareness of the bubble that you didn’t realize existed until you went outside it.

My last stop on my biking tour of Beechwood was to the local pool that I learned to swim in, Upper Beechwood.

There was an adult pool party happening that night, and you could see couples who had put their kids to bed walking in excitement to spend a night in their best dressed summer attire with the local community.

I was struck by the contrast between my memory of the pool, and the reality of it. I remember a welcoming community, where I spent my summers in the water, on the tennis courts and performing talent shows. I saw for the first time what I never seemed to notice as a kid: sky high shrubs shielding the pool just enough to let you see the blue

water, but not enough to see what is going on, a massive “Members Only” sign, and a thick black bar fence kept shut by a massive padlock. I know now that there is a long waiting list and fee of $650 for families outside of Beechwood trying to join the community I was lucky enough to automatically be a part of.

The future of Beechwood feels up in the air. The young families that moved into Upper and West Beechwood in the late 1990s and early 2000s have all grown up, and the old families that pioneered Beechwood Proper have retired and moved away.

There is a small amount of renewal as younger families buy houses of empty nesters that are down-sizing.

Tech executives are again beginning to move to Beechwood and there are some families escaping sky-high Toronto real estate for a closer-knit neighbourhood. But for now, the neighbourhood just feels quiet.

Biking from Amos Street, to Old Post Road to Clair Creek Blvd on a perfect summer night, I saw an active community. There were couples out for a walk, children playing basketball in driveways, a woman gardening, three men biking down the middle of the street without helmets. I saw the suburban dream for what it was; a place to let kids be kids without worry.

AUGUST 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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Beechwood seems like a nice place to grow up, but it’s definitely got some exclusivity vibes. We still recommend taking a walk or bike ride around to check it out for yourself. MATT SMITH PHOTOS

AUGUST 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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ARTS & CULTURE EVENT LISTINGS THURSDAY, AUGUST 4

FRIDAY, AUGUST 11

OLD SCHOOL GLOW WAX NIGHTCLUB

Watch out, you’re bound to glow!

Wax Nightclub is hosting the region’s largest UV glow party. This 19+ event includes booth and bottle service, no cover before 11:00pm, and is free for students. There is also a cash prize for the guest with the best glow, so get ready.

Fun • $3 after 11:00pm • 10:00pm-1:00am

Dance • $25 • 8:00pm-10:30pm

SATURDAY, AUGUST 12

STRUMMERFEST’S SUMMERFEST WATERLOO PUBLIC SQUARE

The 10th annual concert event, organized and hosted by the Joe Strummer foundation, will feature an 11-hour multi-band show at the outdoor stage. The concert will include performances from local rock, reggae. and punk musical acts.

Music • Free • 12:00pm-11:00pm

AFRICAN, CARIBBEAN AND BLACK NETWORK BBQ WATERLOO PARK The ACB Summer BBQ is an annual all-inclusive family event that celebrates the diverse cultures in Waterloo Region. This free event includes food, a DJ and events for guests of all-ages.

Culture • Free • 2:00pm-8:00pm

TUESDAY, AUGUST 15

SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 CONCERTS IN THE PARK FORBES PARK, CENTRAL PARK, MILL RACE PARK

Be sure to check out the free concerts every Sunday until the end of August at Mill Race Park in Cambridge! Bring your own lawn chair or blanket and enjoy the local musical talents of Ernie Kalwa Jazz Quartet, Sue Windover Trio, and Cambridge Concert Park.

Music • Free • 7:00pm-12:00am

THURSDAY, AUGUST 8 MEDITATE WITH THE BUTTERFLIES CAMBRIDGE BUTTERFLY CONSERVATORY

Take lessons from butterflies and transform into a calmer and more connected you. Guests will meditate in the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory, while also learning the tools for self-transformation.

Now fly away.

Community • $15-20 • 6:00pm-7:00pm

WAPIKONI: CINEMA ON WHEELS WATERLOO PUBLIC SQUARE

The travelling audiovisual and musical creation studio, Wapikoni: Cinema on Wheels, is stopping by Waterloo to present their awardwinning shorts directed by Eastern Canada’s Indigenous youth.

Culture • Free • 9:00pm-11:00pm

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9 ROCKIN’ IT AT ROCKWAY ROCKWAY CENTRE PATIO Every Wednesday throughout August, the City of Kitchener will be hosting their Rockin It at Rockway nights, where guests are invited to rock out on a patio and enjoy live music, food and drinks, and a game of horseshoes! A donation of $5 will be received from guests to support the program costs.

Music • $5 • 6:00pm-8:00pm

LUCKY STIFF ST. JACOBS COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE Recommended for guests ages 10 and up, this hilarious musical comedy is running at St. Jacobs from August 9 to August 27.

PURCHASE THE BOUND OONA MOON SERIES FROM THE AUTHOR @C.VANDERMEY ON INSTAGRAM

All you gotta do is swing! Check out this swing dance event in Cambridge where instructors will provide an hour of swing lessons for beginners, followed by social dancing right after.

BAND SHOWCASE MAXWELL’S The infamous Waterloo concert venue will be showcasing up and coming musical acts from around the region. The event is all-ages and guests can check out talented local artists such as The Magnetic Revelators, No Hustle, CounterWait, Crimson Breed and Homegrown Hero.

Music • $10 • Doors open at 6:30pm

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5

Theatre • Tickets start at $27

SWING DANCE AND SUDS NIGHT OUT QUEEN’S SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 19

OUTDOOR YOGA HURON NATURAL AREA Find your inner zen outside in the sun. This free event will be led by a yoga instructor and is for all skill levels.

Nature • Free • 7:30pm-8:45pm

MOVIE IN THE PARK - FOR THE DOGS WATERLOO PARK Ever catch your dog watching the TV? Well you can blow their mind and bring them to Waterloo Park for a special screening The Secret Life of Pets under the stars. There will also be vendors to buy your best friend some great accessories, dog focused events, and a food truck. So get ready ‘cause the movies have gone to the dogs.

Community • $5 • 6:00pm-10:00pm

THURSDAY, AUGUST 17 HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA NEIGHBOURHOOD WALK SCHNEIDER HAUS A 90-minute walk in celebration of Canada’s 150 birthday. Guests can explore what “Schniederhood” was like in 1867 and the development of the region over time.

Family • $10 • 10:30am-12:00pm

PITCH PERFECT SING-ALONG APOLLO CINEMA You better a-ca-believe that all Bellas and Treblemakers are invited to the Apollo for an evening of sing alongs and craft beer. As part of their Hers-day Thursdays, the cinema will be presenting Pitch Perfect as well as providing craft beer from Descendants Beer & Beverage Co. to celebrate Craft Beer Week.

Movie • $13.00-21.00 • 6:45pm-9:45pm

FRIDAY, AUGUST 18 RIVERFEST BISSELL PARK, ELORA ONTARIO Riverfest Elora is back for its eleventh year. Only a half-hour drive from Waterloo, the annual music festival will celebrate life, love, nature and music including artists such as MGMT, Monster Truck and Sloan. *Running until August 20 Music • $60-139

SHINRIN-YOKU GUIDED WALK HURON NATURAL AREA Explore and spend time with nature with a guided hike through Huron Natural Area’s trails! This program stems from the Japanese practice of Shinrin-Yoku (“forest bathing”) and will include a hike with healthy activities, such as stretching and mindful breathing.

Nature • Free • 9:30am-11:30am

SUNDAY, AUGUST 20 KIDSPARK VICTORIA PARK In celebration of Canada’s 150th anniversary, the City of Kitchener will be hosting a birthday party. The party will features several exhibitors from around Kitchener and will include appearances by Canadian authors and interactive art exhibits.

Guests can also celebrate on the community train from the Kitchener Wilmot Hydro Community Train Station.

Fun • Free • 11am-5pm

THURSDAY, AUGUST 24 BERNARDIN SUMMER CANNING KITCHENER FARMERS MARKET Summers almost over, and that means your favourite fruits and vegetables are about to go out of season. Not ready to leave those strawberries behind? Join canning specialist Emerie Brine for a demonstration on how to properly preserve fruits and vegetables.

Food • $5 • 5:30pm-8:00pm

SATURDAY, AUGUST 26 APPLE-ISCIOUS WEEKEND WATERLOO REGION MUSEUM Did you know that over 7,500 types of apples are grown internationally?

We sure didn’t but we googled it for this summary. So now we’re apple geniuses (no, we can’t help you with your iPad). This weekend, join staff at the Waterloo Region Museum and be educated on everything apples whether it’s how to grow your own, to what you can create with them.

How do you like them apples? *Running until August 27 Food • $0 -$11• 9:30 AM-5:00pm

SUNDAY, AUGUST 27 ANNUAL BLOCK PARTY STARLIGHT Starlight will be hosting their annual block party featuring Canadian musician Danny Michel and one of the country’s top reggae band, The Human Rights!

So get off the patio and enjoy the end of the summer (it feels like it just arrived) with some fresh and funky beats.

Music • $30 • 4:00pm

COMMUNITYEDITION.CA @THECOMMUNITYED

AUGUST 2017 // @THECOMMUNITYED

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CASSETTES ARE WINDING BACK AROUND IN KW

3 NINES COMPACT CASSETTES IS A NEW LABEL BASED IN KITCHENER, PRODUCING CASSETTE TAPES FOR LOCAL BANDS “I remember being 18 and throwing out my [old] cassettes, not knowing I was going to be in a punk band and be collecting them again,” Bravener said, echoing a regret similar to my parents’ generation over their long-gone vinyl collections.

Eventually, he wants to get into tape DJing with a couple of cassette decks, which is part of the motivation behind building up his own collection.

3 Nines has already been making a name for themselves around town, with a release party for Bruce Willis’ Job Mixtape at Becky’s Apartment and a booth at the punk rock flea market in Guelph at the end of July. Soon you’ll find their tapes at Orange Monkey in uptown Waterloo and Duke Corner

MEGAN NOURSE EDITOR IN CHIEF Dylan Francis Claire Bravener really loves cassette tapes. While playing bass in the punk band Life in Vacuum for a decade and touring all over the world, Bravener was collecting and swapping cassettes with other bands he met along the way. Since parting ways with LIV, he’s found a place in Death Party Playground, who’s single (“cassingle”) “Bright New” was 3 Nines’ first release. They’ve since released their first full tape, Bruce Willis’ Jog Mixtape.

“I wanted to be more involved in the community and kind of build a stronger music scene here,” Bravener said on why he started 3 Nines. The project officially launched July 1st, with Bravener putting about a month of hard work into it to get the first few tapes ready to go, which includes Sad Brad and the Crybabies’ Big Whiny Tunes 5 and Duff Thompson and the Full Grown Men’s self-titled tape.

Bravener has a studio setup in his basement, which looks like a graveyard of early 90s tech, except for the laptop. He’s got six cassette recorders stacked on top of each

other, a few boom boxes hanging around, and some old walkmans waiting to be refurbished — he plans to sell them at shows, so no worries if you gave yours to a thrift store in 2002. And of course there are hundreds of cassettes, some blank in a variety of colours, others newly recorded with one of the six releases 3 Nines currently has out, and a tonne in Bravener’s personal collection.

He recently snagged someone’s old collection of about 200 cassettes for $20. He keeps the ones he likes, and the rest get repurposed, stripped of the original audio to be used for

Store in downtown Kitchener.

Check out 999tapes.bandcamp.com to listen to the current releases, and follow them on Facebook to find out about upcoming shows and events.

You can find Bravener in August at the Kitchener Blues Fest, scooping ice cream with The Yeti Cafe and selling tapes all weekend.

future 3 Nines work, along with the cases. The cover art of all these are scattered across a card table, waiting to be cut up and used in a collage Bravener’s working on.

Why cassettes? For Bravener, it’s a bit of an emotional attachment. Now in his late 20s, his first introduction to music was through cassette tapes. His childhood was too late for vinyl and a little too early for CDs. “It’s more my lifetime,” he said of tapes. Sifting through his current collection, I gushed over many old favourites, like the Backstreet Boys’ self titled debut and Much Dance Mix ‘94.

GET TO THE ACTION EASILY! The Fast Way to Travel Between Uptown & Downtown Easy and convenient access to a bike, when you need it.

Join KW’s community bikeshare!

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Includes unlimited use at all 14 stations!

@CABikeshare @ 519-743-1151 ext.172

Register & view the station map at 3 NINES Compact Cassettes launched July 1st. MEGAN NOURSE PHOTOS

www.theworkingcentre.org/cab

AUGUST 2017 // COMMUNITYEDITION.CA

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INTERNATIONAL SEX WORKERS DAY MATTERS LOCAL AGENCY, SWAN, HOSTED A DEMONSTRATION TO MARK THE DAY IN JUNE AT KITCHENER CITY HALL MONTANA MELLETT CONTRIBUTOR According to the Sex Work Health Research and Community Partnership, the sex industry in Canada is often misunderstood because people tend to focus on the moral implications of sex work. Therefore, the complexities involved in sex work are overlooked and entrenched in stigma.

Some current research is rooted in a feminist framework, which seeks to empower those working in the sex industry by providing them with a venue to raise concerns about the structure of sex work, and their resulting resource needs. According to this paradigm, sex work is not the cause of harm. Rather, the harm associated with sex work is attributable to the emotional, physical, and sexual violence experienced by people working in the sex industry, which is not inherently a part of sex work itself.

June 2 marked the anniversary of the 1975 occupation of Église Saint-Nizier in Lyon, France by more than 100 sex

workers. Now, June 2 is recognized as International Sex Workers’ Day, in support of the continued fight to ensure that sex workers’ lives, bodies, and work are respected.

The day is celebratory, it’s purpose is to remember the discrimination of sex workers and learn from that history. Sex work in Canada has become a “hot topic” in part influenced by the public attention on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Bedford v. Canada, which argued that Canada’s laws governing sex work were unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Bedford. In reaction to that decision, the previous Conservative government introduced new laws framed as protecting women from exploitation. Even though many sex workers and allies alike mobilized, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Person Act (PCEPA) became law. The PCEPA criminalizes the purchase of sex while continuing to capture sex workers and third parties through criminal sanctions that limit where and how they work including criminalizing the advertisement of sexual services.

Locally, the Social Innovation Research Group of Wilfrid Laurier University conducted a needs assessment

in 2014 stating that people of colour continue to be over represented in the Canadian sex industry, especially in street-based sex work. Highlighted in this needs assessment was a sex workers’ rights group out of Gatineau, P.O.W.E.R, emphasizing that racialized sex workers are also more likely to experience harassment by police officers and service providers because of increased visibility and persistent racism.

Additionally, Indigenous women are disproportionately represented in the sex industry as a result of Canada’s history of colonization. Specifically, the social and economic marginalization of Indigenous peoples in Canada limits alternative employment options for those working in the sex industry, particularly among low income Indigenous women.

Founded in Kitchener in 2007, the Sex Workers Action Network (SWAN) seeks to reduce the stigma associated with sex work by promoting the Region of Waterloo as a community where sex workers are recognized as valuable members of society. SWAN is a non-partisan umbrella group consisting of concerned individuals, including those with lived experience, agencies, and groups committed to

assisting and supporting individuals working in the sex industry.

On the 2017 International Sex Workers’ Day, SWAN held a “diein” at Kitchener city hall. Those in attendance wore red in remembrance of sex workers who have been killed, face on-going violence, and continue to resist. At 3pm, those wearing red dropped to the ground and others placed the internationally adopted symbol of a red umbrella over the participants of the die-in. Participants held their positions for a few minutes of silence and then proceeded to carry out the event by giving out hand bills to raise awareness about the day and sex work in general.

Alongside this action, SWAN has been working on getting some initiatives up and running. One of the proposed is the Bad Date Line, an anonymous reporting tool that sex workers can use to report a bad date and SWAN will distribute reports to keep other sex workers informed.

The second being a structured discussion to allow sex workers to identify if when, where, and what might work best as a first step in organizing.

In addition, SWAN is also working on a Safe Spaces decal and training program, similar to the rainbow flag sym-

bol. This will symbolize to sex workers that the agency or business is sex worker-friendly and is able to provide safe support. To receive this decal, organizations will go through a training program that will have them recognize that people involved in sex work have the same rights as any other individual accessing our organization and commit to remaining mindful of their own preconceptions; reflecting upon stereotypes; being aware of sex worker diversity; respecting sex workers’ life choices; being vigilant about respecting confidentiality; appreciating that trust must be earned; believing and acknowledging their experiences; creating a sex worker friendly space.

If people working in the sex industry, community members with lived experience, or advocates feel they would like to contribute to any of these initiatives in Kitchener-Waterloo with SWAN, they can contact Lyndsey Butcher at director@shorecentre.ca or Amy Venner at womensprevention@ acckwa.com.

NEW TUNE REVIEW

BUSH PARTY EDM TO END SUMMER IN NEW TUNE REVIEW, WRITER SAM NABI EXPLORES MUSIC ON BANDCAMP AND SOUNDCLOUD LABELLED WITH LOCAL HASHTAGS. GIVE IT A LISTEN.

Artist: Ken Gao Album: Open Sky EP Released: July 12, 2017 Link: kengao.bandcamp.com Ken Gao’s Open Sky EP has landed perfectly in the middle of music festival season. This is bush-party EDM, music that should keep ringing in your ears while you walk home barefoot after a late night of bass-infused dance. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a nasty drop;

everything about Gao’s production is butter-smooth.

The EP revolves around themes of love, longing, adventure, and belonging. Let its deep synths and muted kick drums vibrate in your chest, pulling softly at your heartstrings. Think about your highschool crush.

A revolving door of guest vocalists add depth to each track, and Gao weaves them into the track like they’re yet another part of the

instrumentation. The lyrics come out airy and melodic, and their nondescript meaning makes it easy to see yourself in the songs, “Cover my eyes, tell me a lie / Tell me we’re chasing shadows.”

If you’re in the mood for some good, clean, teenage romance with a hint of existential tension — or a solid addition to your summer dance collection — give this album a listen.

-Sam Nabi

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