Off Pointe Book Launch

Tett Centre for the Arts and The Isabelle Bader Theatre

This past Saturday was the launch for my dance book Off Pointe (ages 11-14). Instead of launching the book at my favourite bookstore, Novel Idea, I decided to make an appearance at the Kingston School of Dance's Open House. The dance school has just moved into the newly opened Tett Centre for the Arts, a beautiful building on Kingston's waterfront, right next to the new (and also beautiful) Isabelle Bader Theatre. If you're in town, I highly suggest you check out both buildings.

Annabelle Chacon and me

So the launch was fun. Friends came and bought books, dancers checked out the building and ate cupcakes, and lots of small people ran around one of the gorgeous new studios and played with balloons. As a surprise, my friend Annabelle drove down from Toronto.

I was able to have the launch at the dance studio not only because the Kingston School of Dance is such a warm and friendly place, but also because I've been taking a contemporary dance class for adults. Most of the time I think this is an excellent idea and I've really enjoyed moving for art and not just exercise (or narcissism). At other times I question how wise it is to start dancing again after a fifteen year hiatus. It's not only my un-flexible body, but my un-flexible mind, which struggles to remember choreography. There's also the problem that I think I'm leaping across the room, but really I'm barely making it off the floor. This is all very humbling, and makes me think I should stick to weight-lifting and yoga. And still, I go on, because it's too much fun not to.

It's been a busy writing week for me. I did four author-in-the-classroom visits this week and I'm off to Toronto on Friday to sign copies of Off Pointe at the Ontario Library Association Conference. I'm not quite sure what it will be like, but the last time I went to the conference centre I had a husband, a baby and a toddler in tow, so I'm sure this will be a different (and less encumbered) experience.

To read about Off Pointe in the local Kingston news, you can check out The Whig or The Heritage, or a short clip on CKWS.

Trans Stories

The only thing I like about flying Air Canada is the online entertainment. Not only can you watch the latest movies, Air Canada also has a documentary channel that features Canadian films. 

Last summer I stumbled upon the NFB documentary, My Prairie Home about singer/songwriter Rae Spoon, directed by Chelsea McMullan. For forty minutes, I was engaged by the story of Spoon who is from an evangelical Christian family in Alberta, and identifies as transgender. 

Spoon sings both country, electronic and Indie music and their songs form the backdrop to the documentary, forming both a musical and queer coming of age.  Although it’s easy to be confused with reading Spoon’s external appearance, which is male, and their beautiful and distinctly female voice, ultimately it’s the quality of the music that gets your attention.

The documentary lead me to Rae Spoon’s book, Gender Failure, written with Ivan E Coyote. Both Spoon and Coyote are engaging storytellers and write movingly about the gender binary that forces people to identify with a single rigid concept of gender, either male or female. For both Spoon and Coyote, whose bodies and identities don’t fit into these narrow boxes of gender, navigating the world is complicated, from gender-specific bathrooms to pronouns that don’t fit.

I’ve long been a fan of Ivan E. Coyote work. I loved their novel Bow Grip, and especially the collection of essays, One In Every Crowd. In particular I always think of Coyote’s metaphor of gender being a pair of boots in which one is too small and the other two big. Gender Failure is Coyote’s most personal work as it talks about their decision to have their breasts removed.

Gender Failure and My Prairie Home have spurred me on to read more about trans people, both fiction and non-fiction, YA and adult novels. More to come on a transgender reading list in future posts. For now, please enjoy the following links. 

 

Listen to Sheilagh Rogers interview Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon on The Next Chapter,

Watch the trailer for My Prairie Home on NFB or watch Rae Spoon's video I Will Be A Wall. For more of Rae's music, you can listen here.