Stories of the City Night

Our University of the Streets Café public conversations are much like any you’d have with friends or family around a dinner table, except with more people, more points of view, and slightly more structure. Conversations are hosted by a volunteer moderator who is there to welcome everyone and keep things on track. To get things started, there’s a guest, or sometimes two, who get the ball rolling by sharing their ideas, experiences and questions. After that, it's all up to the participants.

If the nation is an epic then the city is a novel. If that is the case, then whose stories are told in the novel of our life? This end-of-season storytelling café considers cities as complex overlay of intertwining narratives. This evening celebrates the stories of our active investment in the urban landscape - stories of epic and humble proportion, celebrations of our loves, failures, our shames, tribulations and transformations. In our stories, how do contribute to the evolving narrative of the City Night?

Guests:
Tolulope Ilesanmi is drawn to what he calls "the other side of cleaning". Tolulope chose to become a Cleaner straight from business school at McGill after years in banking in Nigeria. Through his company Zenith Cleaning, Tolulope seeks to redefine cleaning and present it as a deep practice, metaphor and framework for individual, organizational and societal transformation. Tolulope speaks regularly at conferences and universities within and outside Canada.

Maya Khamala is a freelance writer. She writes poetry, press releases, and everything in between. She co-founded the solidarity group Justice for Missing and Murdered Native Women (Missing Justice) in 2009, and integrated the collective's organizing into her work at the Centre for Gender Advocacy, where she worked for 6 years. She is passionate about women’s sexual health in particular and storytelling in general.

Moderator:
Miriam Fahmy is passionate about public affairs, particularly issues of social justice and democracy, which she delves into in her writing and lecturing. She worked for 10 years at the Institut du Nouveau Monde, has edited over 20 books and hosted dozens of public debates, deliberations and conversations. She writes a weekly column for the Métro newspaper.

Accessibility info: Café l’Artère is on the ground floor and can be accessed by a ramp. There are two gender-neutral washrooms equipped with grab bars.