Multidisciplinary Canadian artist, author, and University of Calgary professor Vivek Shraya has quite the week lined up for Vancouver audiences.

The writer, visual artist, performer, and musician will participate in a literary discussion tonight before launching a solo visual art show (her first in Vancouver) later this week.

Shraya is the author of The Subtweet: A Novel and I’m Afraid of Men, and a six-time Lambda Literary Award finalist.

Tonight, she’ll be speaking with author Joshua Whitehead, whose novel Jonny Appleseed won the 2021 Canada Reads annual debate about what is the one book that all Canadians need to read.

Whitehead is a two-spirit Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation and a Ph.D. candidate, lecturer, and Killam scholar at the University of Calgary. Jonny Appleseed follows a two-spirit Indigiqueer man who faces his past after heading home for his stepfather’s funeral.

The novel is also the pick for SFU Library’s One Book One SFU.

At 7 p.m. tonight (March 30), Whitehead will discuss the book with Shraya at a free online SFU event. More information and registration is available at the event webpage.

After that, Shraya’s photo series Trauma Clown will open on Thursday (April 1) at SUM Gallery (425–268 Keefer Street), and continues until July 1.

With elements of suffering and satire, this solo visual art show (which is part of the 2021 Capture Photography Festival) will explore issues of entertainment, spectacle, and trauma through the life of a trans woman of colour experiencing success at the price of performing pain for audiences.

More information is available at the gallery website, which also has online booking available for visits.

Demand for the opening reception on April 1 was so great that after attendance for that event sold out, a second reception has been scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday (April 2)

Shraya will participate in an online talk about the exhibition at 3 p.m. on Saturday (April 3). To RSVP for the talk, visit the event webpage.