(Catching up on weeks we had failed to post about:)
Our June 25 speaker was Michael Dorman, about alternative families, including gay families. Michael was one of the founders of Gay Fathers of Toronto, almost 30 years ago, an organization that is still going strong!
(Catching up on weeks we had failed to post about:)
June 18 our fascinating speaker was Richard Zemel, talking about Artificial Intelligence, including ethical issues about it.
RICHARD ZEMEL is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, and the Research Director at the new Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Prior to that he was on the faculty at the University of Arizona, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Salk Institute and at CMU. He received the B.Sc. in History & Science from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto. His awards and honours include a Young Investigator Award from the ONR and a US Presidential Scholar award. He is a Senior Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, an NVIDIA Pioneer of AI, and a member of the NIPS Advisory Board. His recent research interests include learning with weak labels, models of images and text, and fairness.
Toronto Oasis is a community that meets regularly to create a place to celebrate the human experience. Each week we gather to discuss a wide variety of issues and interests. Launched in February 2016, Toronto Oasis welcomes all people who want to be part of a community exploring life through reason.
Every week we gather to be inspired, entertained, motivated and build our secular community in Downtown Toronto. This week’s speaker is Yitzi Gal. to speak about how improv theatre helped him overcome social anxiety.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Koffler House
569 Spadina Ave, Toronto, Toronto, ON (Map)
Featured Speaker this week:
YITZI GAL is a faculty member at The Second City Training Centre in Toronto. He is currently attaining his masters degree in Drama Therapy at Concordia University in Montreal. He has also studied Drama Therapy at NYU in New York City. Yitzi teaches improvisation for anxiety classes at Second City as well as other venues around Toronto. Yitzi began taking improv classes nearly ten years ago in order to cope with his own anxiety, and has since graduated from several improvisational theatre programs and has performed in various venues in Toronto, New York, and Montreal.
Featured Musical Guest:
KATHRYN MERRIAM and CASSIE NORTON
Snacks & Goodies
Thank you to everyone who contributed to last week’s refreshments! What a delicious tradition for our post-gathering socializing.
As always, your contributions are very welcome this week and will never go to waste; extras go to feeding the homeless.
Sunday, May 21, 2017
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Koffler House
569 Spadina Ave, Toronto, Toronto, ON
Every week we gather to be inspired, entertained, motivated and build our secular community in Downtown Toronto. This week we are excited to have our very own Dan Cooperstock present for us.
Don’t Throw the Baby out with the Bath Water!
Dan will talk about what secular non-religious folks and communities can learn from the helpful practices and specific values learned in liberal religions, most particularly from his experience as a liberal (and non-theist) Quaker. Among other aspects of his talk, he will talk about the Quaker business process, and give examples of how Quaker values have applied to his business.
Dan Cooperstock discovered liberal Quakerism in University in England in 1979, and has been a member of and very active participant in the Toronto Quaker Meeting and the Canada-wide Quaker organization, including many leadership positions, since 1981. Professionally, Dan is a computer programmer. For the 10 last years he has been an entrepreneur, writing and selling software for small to mid-sized churches and charities. Outside of work, Dan is an avid movie-goer, group ride leader with the Toronto Moto Scooter Club, participant in a song circle, and dancer with the LGBTQ square dancing club the Toronto Triangle Squares.
Here’s what’s happening this week at Oasis!
Featured Speaker:
LAWRENCE ALVAREZ is co-founder of the Toronto Tool Library and The Sharing Depot, and President of their parent non-profit, the Institute for a Resource-Based Economy. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and he has lived in Botswana, Canada, South Africa and Argentina. His passion lies in travel, exploring human relationships and our shared experience, and finding the connections between us.
Snacks & Goodies
Thank you to everyone who contributed to last week’s refreshments! What a delicious tradition for our post-gathering socializing.
As always, your contributions are very welcome this week and will never go to waste; extras go to feeding the homeless.
Want the conversation to continue? Join fellow Oasis members in gathering for lunch! We’ll convene after the gathering and choose a nearby spot, so bring your suggestions!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to last week’s refreshments! What a delicious tradition for our post-gathering socializing.
As always, your contributions are very welcome this week and will never go to waste; extras go to feeding the homeless.
They have the weather right, that’s for sure. The day was blustery and cold. But they also have everything else right, too, and for a magazine article about a topic as nuanced as religion and the secular, that is an amazing feat.
Thank you to Managing Editor Jaren Kerr and journalist Tom Yun for a great article exploring what Toronto Oasis is all about and why most people think of it as being Outside the Circle.
“February 12, 2017 was a Sunday. The roads were treacherous and the sidewalk was slippery. There was a snowstorm; the kind that encourages most people to stay in their homes, but that didn’t stop over 100 people from visiting U of T to talk about anything other than God.
“The first gathering — service, meeting, it’s still not decided what to call it — of the Toronto chapter of the Oasis network was held in the Koffler House Multi-Faith Centre. The Oasis network, established in the US, provides a community similar to that of a church or a mosque for the non-religious, the secular, the skeptical, and the curious.
Here’s what’s happening this week at Oasis!
Featured Speaker:
You! This week we are switching things up, so come join us for thought-provoking conversation and brainstorming on community building. With a community of such amazing individuals, it’s no surprise you want to interact with each other more; We heard your feedback and are excited to facilitate more connection and exchange this week. As always, we’ll have snacks and music to enjoy in between!
Stay Connected!
Featured Musical Guest:
ROBERTA HUNT
With her personal and exuberant approach, Roberta adds her own voice to the jazz and blues repertoire. The over 15 years spent as rhythm pianist with the legendary New Orleans Jazz band ‘Kid Bastien’s Happy Pals’ (Grossman’s Tavern, Toronto) nurtured her love of New Orleans music which she now takes to the next level with Red Hot Ramble!
With a rootsy and bluesy style, Roberta was described by one music writer as “Mix big piano with beautiful voice, add some attitude and a lot of charisma. With a penchant for those you-done-me-wrong songs and her musical roots in the jazz and spirituals of New Orleans: a picture of Roberta Hunt starts to emerge…”
In addition to time spent songwriting and solo vocal/piano performances, Roberta stays active in the Toronto/Southern Ontario music scene with Red Hot Ramble, Bertie and the Gents and sit-ins with various ensembles. Roberta has also participated in the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans; Davos Sounds Good Festival, Davos; Rapperswil Jazz Festival, Switzerland; Jazz in Mortigliano, Italy as well as Southern Ontario jazz festivals over her career.
Snacks & Goodies
Thank you to everyone who contributed to last week’s refreshments! What a delicious tradition for our post-gathering socializing.
As always, your contributions are very welcome this week and will never go to waste; extras go to feeding the homeless.
Featured Speaker:
AVRUM NADIGEL has been a therapist for over 20 years in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto. His approach combines Family Systems, Psychodynamic and Mindfulness perspectives and his background includes a Masters of Social Work from McGill University, a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) from Concordia University, and post-graduate training in Bowen Theory from The Western Pensylvania Family Center.
He is the author of Learning to Commit: The best time to work on your marriage is when you’re single and co-author of the upcoming Love Starts Here (Workbook): Becoming your best self to find your best match.
Avrum co-produces the “It’s the anxiety, stupid!” podcast and blogs about commitment at the Huffington Post. He also composed the music for the award winning NFB documentary: Exiles from Lotusland.
He lives in Toronto with his wife, who is a psychiatrist at Women’s College Hospital, his three sons and nine fish.
Featured Musical Guest:
MATT ELWOOD performed at our launch and we’re thrilled to have him return! He is one of Canada’s most accomplished bluegrass musicians having fallen in love with the banjo and its unique flavours after years of musical training. He has toured with bluegrass bands and set the standard for this extraordinary musical genre here at home. His combination of the smoother sounds of the modern banjo with the raw energy of the first generation masters quickly caught the ear of many well respected Ontario bluegrass bands. Matt has played banjo, mandolin, and guitar in many of Toronto’s bluegrass bands including: The Unseen Strangers, The Sudden Valley Boys, Houndstooth, Crazy Strings, and the Hamstrung String Band.
Snacks & Goodies
Thank you to everyone who contributed to last week’s refreshments! What a delicious tradition for our post-gathering socializing.
As always, your contributions are very welcome this week and will never go to waste; extras go to feeding the homeless.
Off to an historic start, Toronto Oasis is fully launched!
Christopher DiCarlo is a pain in the ass…
… and he wants you to be one, too.
Long before “outside-the-box” thinking became fashionable (is it yet?), Dr. Christopher DiCarlo was putting down roots in territory many still fear to tread. With reason as his weapon of choice and the Socratic method his favourite strategy for doing battle, Chris can eviscerate the most erudite of foes often before they even recognize what’s happening. This Sunday, he’ll share his passion for tracking down truth no matter whose words it’s hiding behind.
Chris is a philosopher, educator, and author. He currently teaches in the faculties of Human Biology and Philosophy at the University of Toronto. His book, How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass: A Critical Thinker’s Guide to Asking the Right Questions, is an international bestseller and, of course, the reason we call him a pain in the ass. We know he’ll consider it a compliment.
Join us for this second week at Toronto Oasis. We begin at 11 Sunday morning, gather for about 90 minutes, and then enjoy refreshments and conversation afterward. You’ll find us on the second floor of the Multifaith Centre at U of T, 569 Spadina Avenue, just south of Harbord. Parking in the area is free until 1 p.m.
Thanks to one of our Toronto Oasis organizers, Agah Bahari, we were able to schedule Robert L. Pepper of Pas Musique for a gig while he is up from Boston to do some recording.
Robert usually experiments with creating ambient music and has invited Agah to play with him this weekend at Toronto Oasis.
An extra treat!
How about those cookies, tarts, veggie trays, and cakes last week! You were AMAZING! In addition to sweetening up our coffee time, each week, we’ll share the extras with students, the homeless and local shelters.
So BRING IT ON!!
Last week’s extras went to feed the homeless.
We recorded an introduction to Toronto Oasis video from this meeting:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EdqGWs7uhqpZ2Su2ifpleaZqesZoygS-/view?usp=sharing
