On Wednesday, March 21 the University will be holding its second annual Sounds of Change – a campus celebration of music, spoken word, performance and other creative sounds challenging racism and other inequities. (Oh, did you know March 21st is the International Day for the Elimination of Racism?)

Performances at the St. George Campus will be held at five location from 11:50am to 5:10pm. You can see the complete schedule here. To experience everything from erhu to guitar to sound poetry to rap, drop by one of the following five locations on Wednesday:

- Flavelle House (Faculty of Law beside Coffee Shop)
- Hart House (Front Entrance – Rotunda)
- MedSci Cafeteria (between Terrance Donnelly and MedSci)
- Reznikoff’s Café, UC (Morrison Hall Residence)
- Robarts Library (2nd Floor Cafeteria)

Aside from the main event of musical performances on Wednesday, there are other events going on during the week, including free film screenings and a photography exhibition. For details, check event website.

When: Main event March 21, other events March 19th to 22nd.
Where: All three U of T campuses.
Details: The event page is here. Click through the links to find listing of all the events at each campus.

With weeklong activities like worm composting workshops and bike races, the folks at UTM are greening it up. Watch out Earth Day – there’s a new gunslinger in town!

This almost makes me want to shell 12 bucks for the shuttle bus to check out all the festivities. Some highlights:

- 4 km bike race around the campus with UTM BikeShare supplying bicycles for those unfortunate enough to be caught without one.
- A walking tour showcasing the natural and cultural history of the UTM campus
- Seminars from the creator of the ecological footprint concept and survival specialist Pierre Blin
- EcoJeopardy!
- A weeklong recycling raffle

Full details can be found at the environment week website. They also have a facebook group.

When: March 19 – to March 23
Where: UTM campus
How: Directions for everyone stuck downtown.

Pitch Off – Party On! Is an evening in benefit of the 2007 Ryerson University Film Festival. It’s also a chance for you to win $2500 worth of film equipment rental and to get your party on!

Kicked off at 8pm with the Pitch-Off Tournament of Creative Champions, the event will see contestants take to the stage to pitch their film idea under specific topic category as provided by our panel of judges. With each progressive round featuring prizes along the way – contestants will stutter & work their way towards the grand prize battle royale of $2500 for White’s equipment rental!

Following that, we will conclude the evening with “Party On” – a balls to the wall evening of drinking, dancing and what will no doubt be a fantastic display of slurred love and affection towards those nearest and dearest to us.

When: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 at 8:00pm
Where: Reilly’s Bar & Grill, 340 Yonge St. (Above Footlocker)
Details: $5 at the door. Facebook event page here. Those interested in being a “Pitchee” should email ruff2007@gmail.com

We have another great week in films. Two film festivals kicking off and lots of free screenings during the week! This week in film finds:
Monday:
STRANGER THAN FICTION and BORAT (free)
Tuesday
THE RULING CLASS (free)
Wednesday
SHORTBUS (free)
Thursday
CANADIAN FILMMAKERS FESTIVAL Starts (~$10 screenings)
Friday
THE NEW WORLD (free)
CINEFRANCO FILM FEST 2007 Kicks off ($7 student screenings)
Saturday
SECRET BALLOT (free)
For details, read on! (more…)

Thomas Yu is a truly exceptional artist. A recent winner of the 17th international competition for Outstanding Piano Amateurs in Paris, a competition which featured top level amateur pianists from over 30 countries, Yu is a boy wonder on paino. A graduate of University of Toronto and now a Doctor of dentistry, Yu puts his considerable talents to work on the piano in a way that can only be called masterful.

A dentist and a pianist. Wow, my hat’s off to Yu… Girls, you may want to attend and find out if he’s still single.

When: March 18, 2007 – 3:00 PM
Where: Hart House Great Hall
Details: More on the Hart House Music Website.

What do I love more than art? It’s art with heart. To that end, the good people at BIZZYBEE GALLERY are putting something wonderful together: An art show sale party with proceeds going toward St. Patrick’s Church’s Out of the Cold program. (A bit more about the Out of the Cold program here and here.)

Artists can donate a submission. All submissions will be exhibited. Art work will be sold for $30, and all proceeds will go toward the worthy cause. If you’d like to submit something or if you’d like to attend the party, read on! (more…)

The Toronto Singapore Film Festival is running tomorrow, Saturday March 17th, and it looks like a fantastic festival. For a mere $5, you can treat yourself to a full day of screenings, a majority of which are North American premiers.

The good people over at blogTO have done a great preview of the feature films. Of course, you can always visit the festival website for more details. Here’s a YouTube trailer for the festival.

When: Sat. March 17th, 2007, doors at 12:30pm. Full schedule here.
Where: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue (map here)
Details: Ticketing info here. Seems like advanced sales are over, so you can pick up your tickets the day of, at 12:30pm.