TMU Reads
Welcome to TMU Reads!
TMU Reads is a bi-annual common reading program for students, faculty and staff. It is an opportunity for the community to listen to voices and stories vital to our campus growth. TMU community members are invited to meaningfully read and reflect together during the academic year through events and programming. You will receive a free copy of this year’s selection by opting into the program. This year TMU Reads is a collaboration between Consent Comes First and the Faculty of Arts.
TMU Reads 2023 Selection: I'm Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya.
“My history has taught me that I can’t fully rely upon other women for sisterhood…”
TMU Reads 2023 Programming
- Tea and Chat Instagram Live bi-weekly Book Club (Instagram @consentcomesfirst (external link) )
- Reading Guide (external link, opens in new window) for departments, teams and clubs to explore the themes in the book in your community.
- Monthly Digital Package with writing reflections, playlists, and self-care resources.
I’m Afraid of Men Writing Workshop with Vivek Shraya. March 2nd, 2022, 12 - 1:30 pm ET.
Join award-winning author, artist, and performer Vivek Shraya for this writing workshop centred around the themes of fear and misogyny explored in the best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men. Vivek welcomes new, emerging and established writers to join us; all you need is openness to try.
This workshop is designed as an individual experience in the company of peers. It’s a space for you that is hopefully thought-provoking, encouraging and comforting.
March 15, 2022, TMU Gender Justice Lecture: I’m Afraid of Men with author Vivek Shraya. POD 250 2 - 3:30 pm ET.
Join award-winning author, artist and performer Vivek Shraya to explore the themes from the critically acclaimed, best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men. She is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Vanity Fair heralded I’m Afraid of Men as “cultural rocket fuel.” The event will include a reading and Q & A.
The Gender Justice Lecture is an annual event for the TMU community to explore how to actively address patriarchy, transphobia, and homophobia to create a world free from misogyny. The lecture is grounded in the understanding that gender oppression is interconnected with all forms of oppression; to end one, we must end them all.
About I'm Afraid of Men
Named a Best Book by The Globe and Mail, Indigo, Out Magazine, Audible, CBC, Apple, Quill & Quire, Kirkus Reviews, Brooklyn Public Library, Writers’ Trust of Canada, Autostraddle, Bitch, and BookRiot. Finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award, Transgender Nonfiction
Nominated for the 2019 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award
Winner of the 2018 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design – Prose Non-Fiction
A trans artist explores how masculinity was imposed on her as a boy and continues to haunt her as a girl--and how we might reimagine gender for the twenty-first century.
Vivek Shraya has reason to be afraid. Throughout her life, she's endured acts of cruelty and aggression for being too feminine as a boy and not feminine enough as a girl. To survive childhood, she had to learn to perform masculinity convincingly. As an adult, she makes daily compromises to steel herself against everything from verbal attacks to heartbreak.
Now, with raw honesty, Shraya delivers an essential record of the cumulative damage caused by misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia, releasing trauma from a body that has consistently refused to assimilate. I'm Afraid of Men is a journey from camouflage to a riot of colour and a blueprint for how we might cherish all that makes us different and conquer all that makes us afraid.
Photo credit Zachary Ayotte
About Vivek Shraya
Vivek Shraya is an artist whose body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, and film. Her album Part-Time Woman was nominated for the Polaris Music Prize, her music was featured on the acclaimed HBO Max show Sort Of, and her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel.” She is also the founder of the award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books, which supports emerging BIPOC writers.
A seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, Vivek has been a brand ambassador for MAC Cosmetics and Pantene. She is a director on the Tegan and Sara Foundation board and is currently adapting her debut play, How to Fail as a Popstar, for television with CBC.