Tonight, tying in nicely to Freedom to Read Week, the truth and a nice glass of red will set your mind free. Well, that's part of the open-minded participation Eden Herzog and Johan Hultqvist, the West End-based, organizers of the Free Speech reading series, encourage: come check out the hood's talents, they advise. And you don't have to drink red wine just 'cause it's the most commonly associated namesake of the venue, a progressive cafe on Roncesvalles showcasing arts activism through a Latin culture lens; a mix of grassroots art and photo installations, music, magazines and literary events along with yummy, local-organic-focused edibles. Tinto, which as their Web site explains refers to coffee in Colombia's case (not vino), reflects that country's "rich
social and cultural tapestry" here in Toronto -- the cafe also offers fair-trade varieties of the joe, natch. (More details after the jump.)

Before Hultqvist became Mr. Something Something's inimitable frontman (never mind a Torontonian) he had a short career as a freelance journalist in Sweden. Of course, with The Somethings' Juno-nominated disc The Edge and other projects, Hultqvist continues to write songs and poems, and along with Herzog now puts together "intimate evening[s] of west-end writers" via the reading series. Tonight's local lights: fiction writer, journo and Bookninja reviewer Christine Fischer Guy, playwright/actors Justin Conley and Marcia Johnson and the one and only indie-offbeat-artist-since-before-it-had-a-name Bob Wiseman on accordion, guitar ... and film? If anyone can create whatever art they want and make it interesting in this setting, it's him. (More bios here.) This free speech event, as you might expect, won't cost you a cent at the door.

Free Speech Reading Series
At Tinto, 89 Roncesvalles Ave, (416) 530-5885
7 PM, February 27, 2007