Part of a global initiative across 50 cities, Night of Ideas: Being Alive was an evening of free lectures, performances, and screenings presented in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Canada and Hart House.

The event brought together a dynamic mix of international artists, writers, philosophers, performers, and activists to explore what it means to be alive in the multiplicities of the body and the entanglements of identity.

Speakers included: writer, philosopher, curator, and trans activist Paul B. Preciado; queer crip fashion activist and scholar Dr. Ben Barry; genderqueer drag queen, storyteller, and creator Patrick Salvani/Ms. Nookie Galore; and disabled, gender non-conforming/nonbinary trans performer and visual artist Wit López.

Film screenings featured works by Dr. Loree Erickson and Kent Monkman, performances by RARE Theatre, and a workshop and performance by the Legendary House Mother Snoopy of the Kiki House of Disney and dancers from the Toronto Kiki Ballroom Alliance.

BIT co-presented a video program, curated by Tracy Tidgwell:

• Fluid by Dev Ramsawakh
• Watershed by Jake Pyne
• A Poem to Everyone in My Life Who Misgenders Me (And Thinks It’s No Big Deal) by Devin Gaine
• Butch Coyolxauhqui by Karleen Jimenez

The event took place on January 25, 2020 at 7:00 p.m., at the Great Hall, Hart House, University of Toronto.