A video installation and live DJ dance party will pay tribute to Toronto's lost queer nightlife

This Nuit Blanche, artist and scholar invites attendees into an encounter with Toronto’s vibrant, vanishing past through a multi-screen video installation and dance party commemorating the city’s once-thriving lesbian and gay nightlife scene. On Saturday, October 4, Disappearing Acts will take over all five screens in Sankofa Square at Yonge-Dundas from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., commemorating the spaces that once shaped the city’s queer history.

From iconic venues like St. Charles Tavern, Chez Moi, Boots and The Rose to lesser-known backroom bars and word-of-mouth dance floors, Disappearing Acts honours more than 100 queer spaces that helped build and sustain 2SLGBTQIA+ communities in Toronto since the 1950s. Before homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969, these establishments offered sanctuary in a society that criminalized queer existence.

“Coming out in the mid-’80s, I couldn't go out in public with a girlfriend and hold hands. We couldn't even do that in a restaurant. We couldn't walk down the street holding hands without being harassed. It was extremely risky and dangerous,” says Jeffares-Levitt, a professor of visual art at 91��ɫ’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD). “These clubs were super important in helping us create community. We would meet, hang out in a public space where it was possible to have a ‘normal’ social life outside of  our homes.”

Honouring lost spaces through sound and screen

From 7 to 11 p.m., the square will pulse with music from legendary queer DJs Denise Benson, John Caffery, Ace Dillinger and Sumation, turning the public space into a temporary dance floor. Throughout the night, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Jeffares-Levitt’s video will play on all of Sankofa’s screens, taking viewers on a journey through animated text and archival images.

Created in collaboration with animator Jesi Jordan, video editor Alison Taylor, and graphic designer Lisa Kiss, the video cycles through venue names alphabetically, beginning with women’s bars before moving on to mixed and gay spaces. Archival photos, historical footage, and tender moments of same-sex dancing are woven together with animated dissolves.

Posters listing the club names will be wrapped around columns in Sankofa Square, anchoring the installation in physical space and inviting passersby to reflect on this lost geography of queer Toronto.

Queer Toronto, then and now

Jeffares-Levitt, a photo-based artist, brings personal history and community care to the forefront in this project. A former member of Toronto’s Gay and Lesbian Patrol, she knows firsthand the role of these spaces in protecting, affirming, and shaping queer lives.

“Historically, people would have parties in their homes. But we also wanted social, public spaces. The bars and clubs provided safe places to congregate, places to meet friends, places to cruise, places to drink, places to dance,” says Jeffares-Levitt. But outside the walls of the clubs, in the streets and back alleys, members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ communities were facing harassment and physical attacks.

Jeffares-Levitt witnessed gay-bashing as well as homophobic crowds throwing eggs and bottles at drag queens, most infamously during St. Charles Tavern’s annual Halloween drag promenade. During that time, these spaces were more than bars and nightclubs; they were lifelines.

“Once we were behind closed doors, we felt safer. Our bars gave us a sense of resilience in the face of a society that feared and hated us,” says Jeffares-Levitt. While the need for exclusively queer spaces has shifted with legal protections, the advent of social media — online safe spaces and dating apps — as well as broader acceptance, she argues that something vital has been lost. The idea for this project came from conversations where Jeffares-Levitt and friends reminisced about bygone bars and clubs. She wanted to share those memories and histories with those who may have never visited or even heard of these places.

Jeffares-Levitt will be on-site and available for interviews until midnight on Oct. 4, as well as in the days leading up to the event. Photos of the installation will become available following the intervention. 

Disappearing Acts is an independent project of Nuit Blanche Toronto 2025 supported by The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archive, City of Toronto, Sankofa Square, Toronto Arts Council, ICON Digital Productions, 91��ɫ Faculty Association, and AMPD at 91��ɫ.

(AMPD) at 91��ɫ is a dynamic hub for creative experimentation and expression. With a commitment to cultivating artistic excellence, new ideas and entrepreneurial skills, AMPD students learn by doing with industry-leading professionals in career-focused activities. The Department of Cinema & Media Arts at AMPD offers exceptional hands-on and theoretical training across the evolving spectrum of cinema and media with access to top-tier facilities, including the 91��ɫ Motion Media Studio at Cinespace Studios Toronto. From idea to screenplay, camera to screen, screen to critical inquiry, AMPD students learn to think and create in the language of the moving image across all media, guided by faculty who are experts in their field.

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91��ɫ-trained auteur offers interviews around the premiere of his latest feature, a surreal docu-fiction tracing a Mexican miner’s quiet unravelling following a haunting discovery

91��ɫ proudly celebrates the North American premiere of (Cobre), the latest feature by esteemed director, screenwriter and alum Nicolás Pereda (BFA ’05, MFA ’07). Screening in the Wavelengths programme at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Cooper is “the latest subtly brilliant work of Pereda’s magical realist world,” according to In Review Online.

A Canadian-Mexican co-production, the film follows Lázaro, played by Lázaro G. Rodríguez, a long-suffering mine worker whose years of deteriorating health compel him to seek an oxygen tank. His life takes an unnerving turn when he discovers a corpse by the side of a road, setting off a surreal chain of suspicion, rumour and desire . This quietly unsettling film employs Pereda’s signature blend of narrative and documentary elements, underscored by formal restraint, humour and wit.

Having earned both his BFA and MFA in film from 91��ɫ, Pereda relocated from Mexico City at age 19 to study film in Toronto, culminating in his thesis project and first feature Where Are Their Stories? Over the next two decades, he built a rich oeuvre that has earned him over 30 retrospectives, including presentations by the Anthology Film Archives, Pacific Film Archives and the Harvard Film Archive. His films — Perpetuum Mobile, Summer of Goliath, Greatest Hits, Killing Strangers, The Absent, Minotaur, My Skin, Luminous, Fauna, Lázaro at Night — have premiered at international festivals including TIFF, Venice, Berlinale, Rotterdam, and more.

Pereda is available for interviews to discuss Cooper, as well as his consistent, inventive and deeply empathetic body of work.

Showtimes

Friday, Sept. 12 at 2:15 p.m.

TIFF Lightbox

Saturday, Sept. 13 at 12:30 p.m.

Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

Sunday, Sept. 14 at 7:10 p.m.

Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

Runtime: 78 minutes

Programme: Wavelengths, Unhidden Gems presented by Redbreast

(AMPD) at 91��ɫ is a dynamic hub for creative experimentation and expression. With a commitment to cultivating artistic excellence, new ideas and entrepreneurial skills, AMPD students learn by doing with industry-leading professionals in career-focused activities. The Department of Cinema & Media Arts at AMPD offers exceptional hands-on and theoretical training across the evolving spectrum of cinema and media with access to top-tier facilities, including the 91��ɫ Motion Media Studio at Cinespace Studios Toronto. From idea to screenplay, camera to screen, screen to critical inquiry, AMPD students learn to think and create in the language of the moving image across all media, guided by faculty who are experts in their field.

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Scholars and filmmakers offer insight on festival programming, Canada’s screen industry, TIFF: The Market, and the next wave of talent

As the 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) celebrates a milestone year, experts from 91��ɫ’s Department of Cinema & Media Arts in the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design are available to provide commentary on festival programming, industry trends, and the role of TIFF in creating pathways for emerging talent.

Award-winning director, writer, researcher, editor: Professor has worked on over 25 documentaries, a feature film, and numerous television productions. Her films have screened at ZINEBI, DOK Leipzig​​, Oberhausen, Chicago and Montreal film festivals, among others. Formerly with the Romanian National Film Board in Bucharest, the Austrian Film Board and CBC/Radio Canada, she is a Gemini award winner and contributor to Film Magazine.

Barta is available to comment on:

• International documentary filmmaking and TIFF Docs programming
• Women behind the camera in the global and Canadian context
• Eastern European cinema and its representation at TIFF
• The art of narrative filmmaking and documentary storytelling

Award-winning director, screenwriter, producer, and scholar: Professor is the writer-director and producer of Obamas and Rosalie, two fiction features that have won over 20 international awards and screened at more than 60 venues globally. He is the author of Spike Lee: Aesthetics of Subversion in Do the Right Thing and is currently writing a book on Indigenous cinema. His research focuses on Canadian Indigenous cinema, African American cinema, city symphony films, and space in cinema. He is writer, director and producer of the upcoming feature Tomorrow at Dawn, due in February.

Djigo is available to comment on:

• Indigenous filmmaking and its representation at TIFF
• Political and racial narratives in North American cinema
• The role of emerging filmmakers and alternative production models at TIFF 50

Award-winning screenwriter, director, producer: Professor is recognized for her bold, inclusive storytelling across film and television. She was the screenwriter for the queer slasher The Retreat, a Globe and Mail Critics’ Pick, and won a Directors Guild of Canada award for the short documentary I Was Here, which she directed.  As a producer, her projects premiered at TIFF, Sundance, Sitges Film Festival, AFI FEST, and Locarno. Richards is participating in The Hollywood Reporter’s inaugural Access Canada Summit at TIFF 50 as part of the Directors Guild of Canada delegation. She currently has two series in development.

Richards is available to comment on:

• TIFF’s role in developing, shaping and financing emerging talent
• The realities of funding, developing and launching new projects today
• The upcoming TIFF: The Market and its potential for Canadian creators
• How underrepresented voices are reshaping genre film and TIFF’s role in spotlighting inclusive and genre-defying Canadian content
• 2SLGBTQIA+ narratives in horror and genre cinema

Media industry expert and author: Director, MBA in Arts, Media and Entertainment, Professor teaches at the Schulich School of Business and in the Cinema & Media Arts department. He serves on the City of Toronto’s film, television and digital media advisory board and is a media policy advisor. He is the author of The Attention Complex and has published on the social and cultural impact of art, media art, and emerging media technology. His research focuses on cultural policy, media policy, and media industry studies. 

He is available to comment on:

• How TIFF supports the Canadian film and television industry
• The launch of TIFF: The Market in 2026 and its impact on the Canadian and international film industry
• The role of government funding and cultural policy in Canadian media
• How academic and industry collaborations shape the future of screen industries

Experimental film scholar, curator, critic and author: Professor is a scholar of experimental cinema, and founding co-chair of the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Experimental Film and Media Scholarly Interest Group (ExFM). He is the author of Moments of Perception: Experimental Film in Canada as well as two books on Hollis Frampton, an icon of the American avant-garde.

Zryd is available to comment on:

• Avant-garde and experimental film at TIFF 50
• How documentaries shape our worldviews, the responsibilities of filmmakers, and how powers and politics influence narrative
• U.S. populism in film and media
• American genre cinema, including sci-fi, musicals, rom-coms, and superhero films

(AMPD) at 91��ɫ is a dynamic hub for creative experimentation and expression. With a commitment to cultivating artistic excellence, new ideas and entrepreneurial skills, AMPD students learn by doing with industry-leading professionals in career-focused activities. The Department of Cinema & Media Arts at AMPD offers exceptional hands-on and theoretical training across the evolving spectrum of cinema and media with access to top-tier facilities, including the 91��ɫ Motion Media Studio at Cinespace Studios Toronto. From idea to screenplay, camera to screen, screen to critical inquiry, AMPD students learn to think and create in the language of the moving image across all media, guided by faculty who are experts in their field.

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Areas of expertise range from experimental film to documentary, sci-fi and romcoms, animals in film, and the moviegoing experience

The 49th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), running Sept. 5 through 15, features a dynamic lineup of 278 films. Programs like , dedicated to experimental and avant-garde short and feature-length films that challenge traditional cinematic forms; , featuring works from mid-career filmmakers with a strong focus on artist-driven storytelling; , which showcases genre films that push the limits of horror, fantasy, action, and the strange; and others like and combine to make TIFF a celebration of creative freedom and cinematic exploration.

For commentary on programming and films screening throughout the festival, several distinguished voices from 91��ɫ's Department of Cinema & Media Arts at the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design are available:

 (she/they) is the Dean of the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design and a professor of theatre and performance studies. She is an expert on film, theatre and new technologies, including digital media in performance which is the subject of three of her books. She has written more than 50 academic and popular essays.

Bay-Cheng is available to comment on the impact of new technologies — including AI, algorithmic discoverability and digital media — on filmmaking, the theatricalization of movies, acting, immersive performance and the impact of digital culture on audience engagement and moviegoing.

 is an associate professor and graduate program director for MFA film. He spent his career in cutting rooms “lying the truth” through film editing. He understands the importance of story but also its dangers if wielded improperly. In the late 1980s, after studying journalism and film, Becker worked with the National Film Board of Canada to co-edit the documentary  by Academy Award-winning director Peter Watkins. Becker has written, edited and directed nearly 50 documentary films. He is the author of Creating Reality in Factual Television: The Frankenbite and other Fakes (Routledge, 2022).

Becker teaches documentary production, editing, media ethics, essay film, introduction to filmmaking, production, and writing for television. He can provide commentary on documentary, editing, ethics, narrative in fact-based media, media literacy, and German film.

 is a visiting assistant professor who specializes in science fiction and environmental cinema. Thompson is currently working on a book with the University of Minnesota Press titled On Life Support: The Dystopian Environmentalism of 1970s Ecocinema, which uses 1970s science fiction ecocinema as a lens through which to view the early environmental movement.

Other areas of interest include Indigenous futurism, critical animal studies, and film philosophy. He is also available to discuss areas adjacent to his research such as genre cinema, North America in the 1960s and ’70s, animals on film (especially whales!), and AI.

 is tenured faculty and Director of the  at Cinespace. Veninger has produced 15 feature films with premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, Slamdance, Hot Docs, and the international film festivals of Rome, Whistler, Rotterdam, Locarno, Busan, and Karlovy Vary, and others. She has received retrospectives of her work at the Canadian Film Institute and FEMCine in Santiago. She is a recipient of the Women’s International Film Television Showcase (WIFTS) International Visionary Award and the Jay Scott Prize presented by the Toronto Film Critics Association.

Veninger is available to offer commentary on independent films (fiction and non-fiction), films by women, the art of screenwriting and directing, and producing.

 is a professor, researcher, critic and curator of experimental film and media. He is interested in the institutional infrastructures and ecologies of experimental film and its intersections with the academy and the art world. Zryd was a founding co-chair of the  (ExFM). He is the author of two books on icon of the American avant-garde Hollis Frampton, as well as Moments of Perception: Experimental Film in Canada.

Zryd is available to comment on programs like Wavelengths, Short Cuts, ,  and select TIFF Docs and Galas premieres. He can provide commentary on experimental cinema, documentary film theory, American genre cinema (including musicals, science fiction, romantic comedies, and the Marvel and DC cinematic universes), U.S. populism in film and media, the history of cinema and media studies as a discipline, video essays and videographic criticism.

About the School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design:

The School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) at 91��ɫ is a dynamic hub for creative experimentation and expression. With a commitment to cultivating artistic excellence, new ideas and entrepreneurial skills, AMPD students learn by doing with industry-leading professionals in career-focused activities. The Department of Cinema & Media Arts at AMPD offers exceptional theoretical and hands-on training across the evolving spectrum of cinema and media. From idea to screenplay, camera to screen, screen to critical inquiry, AMPD students learn to think and create in the language of the moving image across all media from faculty who are experts in their field.

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Australian Research Council allots over AUD $750,000 in funding for the international team to develop interactive tools to increase closeness between older and younger relatives

As more and more people choose temporary and permanent relocation to other countries for economic and other reasons, and away from their close relatives, the already existing generational gap is widening. To help such families stay connected through innovative technologies such as mixed reality interactions while making positive impacts on both groups, a team of researchers from 91��ɫ and Australia’s Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have joined forces.

They have recently received a more than AUS $750,000 grant under from the Australian Research Council (ARC) — the country’s flagship federal funding agency — to explore ways to develop technologies that provide “playful and engaging” communications between generations. The project, Designing Distanced Intergenerational Interaction with Tangible Technology, will be developed over five years.  

“We will look at creating innovative communication tools, including through immersive technology, to virtually narrow the distance between generations. Our goal is to help foster meaningful relationships between those who are geographically distanced and cannot experience the natural ways of relationship-building,” says Professor , Canadian lead on the project. “For example, between a child living with their parents in Australia and their grandparents in India or an aunt in Canada.”

The international project is led by Professor Althea Blackler, associate dean in the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice at QUT. The other Australian researchers in the project are QUT professors Bernd Ploderer and Jane Turner and lecturer Nicole Vickery; and Linda Knight, an associate professor in early childhood education at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

The project will study inter-generational communication between people in Canada and Australia through an interdisciplinary lens of Human Centred Design, Interaction Design and Vision Science, according to Desai, who is a researcher in the department of Computational Arts in the School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design. Her 91��ɫ co-researchers are Professors and , in the Faculty of Health.

Through the project, the team will aim to explore student exchange programs that will allow students in the two countries to collaborate with interdisciplinary and international teams of researchers.

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From Oct. 11 to 20, graduates will cross the stage at six different ceremonies, with an additional ceremony for the School of Continuing Studies.

Below are the honorary degree recipients in order of the Faculty ceremonies at which they will be honoured:

Itah Sadu, author, entrepreneur

Honorary doctor of laws - Thursday, Oct. 12, 10:30 a.m.

Ceremony details

Itah Sadu is an international, award-winning storyteller and bestselling children’s author. Her children’s books have been translated into various languages, and have been adopted for curriculum development and film adaptations.

She is the co-owner of the independent bookstore A Different Booklist with her husband, Miguel San Vicente. Their bookstore is a Toronto destination specializing in African and Caribbean-Canadian literature and diverse resources from around the world. She is also a founder of the Blackhurst Cultural Centre, formerly known as A Different Booklist Cultural Centre.

A dynamic entrepreneur and community builder, Sadu uses creativity, leadership and teamwork to create infrastructure and legacy in communities.

Her innovation has brought the city of Toronto the annual Walk With Excellence and the Emancipation Day Underground Freedom Train Ride in collaboration with the Toronto Transit Commission.

Wes Hall, Chair and founder of WeShall Investments, television personality

Honorary doctor of laws - Thursday, Oct. 12, 3:30 p.m.

Ceremony details

As the Chair and founder of WeShall Investments, a private equity firm with a diverse portfolio of companies predominantly supporting Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) entrepreneurs, Wes Hall comes from humble beginnings in rural Jamaica. He grew up in a plantation worker’s shack as one of several children supported by his grandmother. In 1985, Hall immigrated to Canada, where he set out to become the businessman he is today. Dressed daily in a suit, Wes started as a mail clerk at a leading law firm in Toronto. His curiosity, intelligence and ability to spot opportunities allowed him to turn a $100,000 loan from the bank to start his first business, Kingsdale Advisors, into Canada’s pre-eminent shareholder advisory firm.  

A staunch philanthropist, Hall is deeply committed to community betterment. He founded the ambitious and highly successful BlackNorth Initiative to help end systemic anti-Black racism in Canada. He has instructed the Black Entrepreneurship & Leadership course at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, a first-of-its-kind course in North America.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce named Hall the Canadian Business Leader of 2022. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of Toronto, Queen’s University, Toronto Metropolitan University, the University of Ottawa and the University of the West Indies. He also received the Medal of Distinction from Huron University in 2022. 

Other accomplishments include penning a bestselling memoir, . He launched a podcast in partnership with the Toronto Star, “Between Us with Wes Hall,” and is also on the hit CBC series “Dragons’ Den.” 

Andromache Karakatsnais, justice of the Supreme Court of Canada

Honorary doctor of laws - Friday, Oct. 13, 10:30 a.m.

Ceremony details

Justice Andromache Karakatsanis is the longest serving justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, appointed in 2011. A judge since 2002, she served first as a trial judge of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and then as a judge of the Ontario Court of Appeal.

Before her appointment to the bench, she worked in the justice system in diverse capacities over two decades: as a lawyer in private practice; as Chair and CEO of a regulatory tribunal; as secretary of Native Affairs for Ontario; and as deputy minister of justice and deputy attorney general of Ontario. She subsequently served as deputy minister to the premier and head of the Ontario Public Service, providing leadership to the deputy ministers and to 60,000 public servants.   

Throughout her career, Karakatsanis has volunteered extensively and served on the boards of many community and professional associations. She has been recognized with numerous medals and awards in her profession and community. She currently serves as Chair of the National Action Committee on Access to Justice in Civil and Family Matters.

Nnimmo Bassey, architect, poet and environmental activist

Honorary doctor of laws - Friday, Oct. 13, 3:30 p.m.

Ceremony details

Nnimmo Bassey is an architect, poet, director of the ecological think tank  (based in Nigeria) and member of the steering committee of  – a network resisting the expansion of fossil fuels extraction in the Global South.  

Bassey’s books include To Cook a Continent – Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa, Oil Politics – Echoes of Ecological War and I will Not Dance to Your Beat (poetry). 

He chaired  (2008-12) and was a co-recipient of the 2010 , also known as the “alternative Nobel Prize”. In 2012, he received the   

Bassey received Nigeria’s national honour, Member of the Federal Republic, in 2014 and became a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Architects in the same year. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of 91��ɫ, U.K., in 2019. 

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Alumni from 91��ɫ’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) have films appearing at the 46th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which runs until Sept. 17. This year, TIFF features several of AMPD's alumni sharing their talent on and off the screen. Read more in

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The D2L Innovation Award honours the leadership team for its innovative approach to promoting student-centred teaching and learning in post-secondary education

91��ɫ’s Cross Campus Capstone Course (C4) program, which bridges the gap between classroom education and hands-on problem solving through interdisciplinary experiential education, has won a major award for innovation in teaching. This is one of several awards the unique program has won in the three years since its launch.

The Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), in partnership with D2L, has announced C4’s interdisciplinary team as a recipient of the 2023 D2L Innovation Award for its innovative approach to promoting student-centered teaching and learning in post-secondary education.

“We created this program to provide upper-year undergraduate and graduate students with an opportunity to work collaboratively on real world challenges with social impact,” says dance Professor Danielle Robinson, who co-founded and co-leads C4 with engineering Professor Franz Newland.

Along with Robinson and Newland, other members of the winning team, Rachelle Campigotto, Dana Craig, Danielle Dobney, Andrea Kalmin, Alice Kim and Natasha May will be honored during the Annual STLHE Conference in Charlottetown, June 13 to 15.

“The innovation demonstrated by these exceptional teams is inspirational to all of those invested in teaching and learning in higher education. We are immensely proud and grateful of the recipients’ contributions to learning and scholarship in Canada,” says STLHE Chair Elana Cooperberg in a press release that noted the recipients are at the forefront of innovation both within their institutions and higher education more broadly.

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Grammy-winning drummer and educator to offer masterclasses, public performances and workshops geared at mentoring students who will be the future of jazz

TORONTO, Feb. 6, 2023 – Following the 65th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles where she picked up her fourth gramophone trophy, acclaimed music composer, producer and educator Terri Lyne Carrington flies to Toronto, to engage with 91��ɫ students and the public as this year’s Oscar Peterson Artist-in-Residence at the School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD), from Feb. 7-9.

Carrington, who won this year’s Best Instrumental Jazz Album for New Standards Vol.1 with Canadian composer Kris Davis and jazz guitarist Matthew Stevens, Australian jazz bassist Linda May Han Oh, and American trumpet player Nicholas Payton, is a trailblazer in many ways, including creating history in 2014 as the first woman to win a Grammy in this category.

Carrington is not only a trailblazing musician – she is an activist, advocating for gender equality. A presentation called Jazz and gender is part of the free events organized by the and open to the public. A meet-the-artist event Tuesday morning and a concert at the Thursday afternoon are also part of the lineup.

An educator at the prestigious , her alma mater, Carrington sets aside time to travel and meet young artists, to impart acquired knowledge and experience gained while performing alongside the likes of legendary Canadian jazz pianist , former 91��ɫ chancellor.

“At some point, I realized that being an educator was satisfying another part of my artistry and contributing to our musical community differently than playing shows or making records,” Carrington says, recalling how her passion to teach was shaped.

According to Carrington, breaking down gender norms is key to make the music industry accessible to all. “Music is not sports, and does not have to be treated as such. We all need to look at the possibilities of sound coming from different bodies and allow our imaginations to truly welcome a new aesthetic in jazz.” 

Carrington, who received an from 91��ɫ last year, notes that programs like the Oscar Peterson residency help to advance her profession, allowing her to enrich her own knowledge and broaden her perspective as an educator. “I think going into different regions helps educators understand common issues within different institutions.”

The Oscar Peterson residency will help Carrington create positive change and advance her vision for a better future in the jazz music industry. And it will undoubtedly help her touch the lives of music students and young artists just the way Oscar Peterson himself touched hers.   

91��ɫ is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. 91��ɫ's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91��ɫ’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contact:

Gloria Suhasini, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 647-464-4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

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