Following the Shisha Ban which came into effect on April 1st, 2016 and has since forced nearly
70 predominantly Black and Brown migrant-owned businesses to close and/or restructure their
livelihoods, the owner of Kennedy Road’s Very Own Habibiz Shisha Lounge asks, “Where else
is there for us in this city?”
HABIBIZ is a group exhibit by Way Past Kennedy Road taking up Toronto’s Shisha Ban to consider what it means to illegalize already hypersurveilled spaces and extending a conversation on radical traditions of placemaking across the GTA.
Habibiz is curated by Jessica Kirk and Mitra Fakhrashrafi of Way Past Kennedy Road, and features work by:
Amani Bin Shikhan with Sisterhood Media
Mahdi Chowdhury
Idil Djafer
N. Fatima
Noor Khan
Maymuna Mohamed
Tania Peralta
ABOUT WPKR
Way Past Kennedy Road is a collective of multidisciplinary emerging artists based in Scarborough and other rejected but resilient corners of the GTA. We build spaces for ourselves both online and offline, and use art as a means of resisting the borders, boundaries, and (un)belongings that define each of our lives and our work in distinct ways.
Opening Reception
February 7th, 2019 from 7-10pm
Exhibition Dates
February 8th – February 23rd
Gallery Hours
Wednesday to Friday from 12-7pm
Saturdays from 12-5pm
Curator’s Talk + Free Button Making
February 14th from 4pm - 7pm
“The Feeling of Being Watched” Screening
February 15th from 6pm - 9pm
Digital Justice Lab Workshop
Saturday February 23rd from 2pm - 5pm
To guests with scent sensitivities or asthmatic symptoms: there will be tobacco smoke in Margin of Eras Gallery for the later part of Habibiz opening reception, on February 7th between 8pm - 10pm.