LULU v.6 // all the fucks i never gave

denise benson

DJ

DJ, music journalist and author denise benson has long mixed beats, words and ideas. a party-rocker with an ear for the underground, denise has created notable queer events including dyke nite at boom boom room, bent at catch 22 and cherry bomb, the 10-year strong monthly for queer women and friends co-produced with fellow DJ cozmic cat. denise is also the author of then & now: toronto nightlife history (three o’clock press). she loves bass and melody.

IG: @cherrybombtoronto
soundcloud: @denisebenson

dre ngozi

DJ

a nomad spirit, with roots scattered wide like sound waves, dre ngozi has always been moved by the music of this world. with multiple influences including hip-hop, soca, r&b, pop, and house, her versatile style is fueled by a mash-up of sounds that are highlighted every time she spins.

currently, she is a resident dj for manifesto festival’s monthly high power party, where she combines everything from classic hip-hop, to sweet island riddims, to afrobeat, to house vibes –  a true reflection of the many sides of herself.

IG: @drengozi
soundcloud: @drengozi

karim olen ash

DJ

karim olen ash is a toronto based dj who has been steadily developing into a regular face at underground and upscales venues in toronto. his diverse and up beat music selection has been picked up by venues such as soho house, eastroom, and  the libertine to name a few.  he has also been a staple on the fashion scene booking events with h+m, cavalli, and lacoste.

karim’s playing style focuses on music that makes you move regardless of the style or genre. from house, vogue, techno and disco, to hip hop, r&b and oldschool, karim knows how to create the the perfect blend to keep the crowd vibing.

IG: @olenonly
soundcloud: @karimolenash

helen yung

curator

helen makes installations, interactions & interventions. she designs environments and practices marginalia which is a research-y kind of way of doing art she made up about 5 years ago . she has been presented / programmed / invited to speak / invited to research and create in montreal, new york, syros, buenos aires, banff, charleville-mezières, marnay-sur-seine, sydney and in the bush of new south wales, australia. she doesn’t run much anymore. the tumblr things are still a secret. she threw away her spider plant after she read ted’s bio.

IG: @helenyung

lauren gillis

curator

lauren makes perverse and indulgent oddities under the guise of theatre performance, creation and direction. her major interests include ambiguity, unrecognizable dancing, an uncomfortable sense of tragi-comic teetering, horse-themed items, and the spacetime two degrees away from explicitly erotic.

lauren is the co-artistic director of lester trips (theatre), which appears to make quasi-devised, neurotically-dramaturged physical theatre featuring bouffonesque characters and a visceral foundation stemming from butoh dance.

lauren is also an artistic associate at the red light district, where she has been performing in, directing, and playing relentless dramaturgical whack-a-mole with contemporary deformations of classic texts since 2008.

ted witzel

curator

(taedon witztl doesn’t live here anymore). ######## ted makes plays. usually they’re by dead people. not always. ######## this play he is making in toronto. he has also made some in berlin, paris, london, milan, stuttgart, vancouver, montreal, stratford, ottawa, ingolstadt, baden-baden, and bad hersfeld, which is a small town with a lot of sheep in it. well, near it. ######## he has a company where he makes plays with friends, called the red light district. those plays are usually about sex & ethics & sexual ethics. that’s what you get with a name like that. ######## ted has a so-called spider-plant on his desk that is taking an awfully long time to make spiders.

ek chan

tattoos

e.k. chan is a gender-whatever tattoo artist and general scalawag. they studied evolutionary biology because they liked touching old bones and admiring the infinite ways nature has devised to torment its subjects. they would like to impart some of this admiration through their work as they are drawn to the weird, the ancient, and the deathly in nature – and they enjoy laying lines on clients who feel the same pull.

IG: @ek.tattoos

lee d'angelo

tattoos

lee d’angelo is a multidisciplinary visual artist working off the grid in toronto as tattoo artist. lee’s practice is informed by feminist and queer politics, which through this lens interrogates contemporary notions of the body.

IG: @rat666tat

michelle tracey

styling

michelle tracey is a designer and theatre maker based in toronto, ontario. she earned her bfa from york university and completed a metcalf foundation internship in design with tarragon theatre (2013-2014). michelle is continuing her training as a designer with the 2016-2018 soulpepper academy.

she has  designed for such companies as soulpepper theatre, canadian stage, tarragon theatre, tapestry opera, theatre 20, u of t opera division, theatre smith-gilmour, binocular theatre, the red light district, lester trips theatre, and convergence theatre. www.michelletraceydesign.com

IG: @michtracey

oz weaver

lighting

oz is a toronto based lighting designer, production manager and producer, select credits include: freedom singer (project humanity/crows theatre); key change(globe theatre); the importance of being earnest, don’t dress for dinner & blythe spirit (thousand island playhouse); hamlet & all’s well that ends well (canadian stage); mamma mia! (drayton entertainment); lungs & soliciting temptation (tarragon theatre, co-LD w/ kim purtell); kitly bender, passage & idiom (kemi contemporary dance projects); glenn gould prize jury gala (the sony centre for the performing arts); and mozart’s don giovanni (koerner hall, co-LD w/ kim purtell). he has been nominated for a brickenden award, and has won two dish awards for his designs of into the woods & phantom of the opera. oz is currently the executive director & producer for the dietrich group with artistic director DA hoskins. www.ozweaver.ca