Book*hug invites you to join us for the launch party of It Begins With The Body, Hana Shafi's (a.k.a Frizz Kid) debut poetry and illustration book, edited for the press by Vivek Shraya. The night will begin with a performance by the incredible Manghoe Lassi, a queer Muslim drag queen who has been featured on CBC Arts and performed on a Toronto Pride stage. Then Hana will be reading pieces from her book, followed by a Q&A session moderated by Lauren Strapagiel of Buzzfeed. Emma Hansen will then perform a short musical set. It's going to be a wonderful night!

Come out and celebrate It Begins With The Body at Glad Day Bookshop!

Free. Everyone is welcome. Refreshments will be served.

About the book:

It Begins With The Body explores the milestones and hurdles of a brown girl coming into her own. Shafi’s poems display a raw and frank intimacy and address anxiety, unemployment, heartbreak, relationships, identity, and faith.

Accompanied by Shafi’s candid illustrations that share the same delightful mixture of grotesque and humour found in her poems, It Begins With The Body navigates the highs and lows of youth. It is about feeling like an outsider, and reconciling with pain and awkwardness. It’s about arguing with your mum about wanting to wax off your unibrow to the first time you threw up in a bar in your twenties, and everything in between. Funny and raw, personal and honest, Shafi’s exciting debut is about finding the right words you wished you had found when you needed them the most.

“Hana Shafi’s work is a sigh of relief for the queer Muslim brown kid I was, and the queer Muslim brown adult I know am. It’s the act of visibility, of being seen through the words on a page that are so life affirming. I feel grateful that I’m of a time where art like this is being made. It’s relatable, it’s a delight.”
—Fariha Róisín, co-host of Two Brown Girls, a podcast

Accessibility information: Front entrance and main floor bathroom are wheelchair accessible.

There is street parking in front of 499 Church, with room for two vehicles with an accessible parking permit just north of the designated street parking area, which is often available. There is also a Green P parking lot across from Wellesley TTC station.

The nearest TTC station that is wheelchair accessible is Bloor-Yonge.

Glad Day encourages people to be scent-free at all events. They use natural and low or no scent cleaning products whenever possible.