ARTS | Winter Arts Festival 2012
If you're wandering by Queen and Sumach tonight, you'll definitely be asking, "What are they doing back there?" Behind the Queen Street Dominion store in a small cabaret space, some of the city's greatest poets, writers, artists, playwrights and musicians gather for the Winter Arts Festival. Kicking off tonight, this back alley event will feature music by Leonia Thames and Alfred Chow, comedy by Evelyne Russell and performances by the Socratic Theatre Collective. The festival runs all weekend for the next two weeks but you'll have to venture into the backstreets to find out just what they're up to.
Behind the Dominion (Sumach Street and Queen Street) 7:30PM $5-$10

MUSIC | A-Trak Live
The man behind the Fool's Gold Records brand, A-Trak has previously worked with the likes of Kanye and Jay-Z but has moved on to help launch the careers of acts like Simian Mobile Disco and Digitalism. Tonight, this Montreal DJ, artist and producer will spin at The Hoxton along with a secret line-up of special guests (fingers crossed for an appearance by his Duck Sauce other half Armand Van Helden). Catch one of the gods of DJing live at this rare Toronto performance. Doors open at 10PM.
The Hoxton (69 Bathurst Street) 10PM $20

MUSIC | Emma-Lee Backseat Heroine CD Release Party
Toronto's own Emma-Lee has grown up indie, making a steady career out of playing local shows and she proudly releases her second album Backseat Heroine tonight at Lee's Palace. It's been a long time coming (her first album Never Just A Dream was released in 2008) so expect her to come back with a graceful, folksy vengeance at this CD release party. Everybody loves Emma-Lee so it's pretty safe to say that you should buy your tickets in advance from Ticketmaster, Rotate This or Soundscapes for this one.
Lee's Palace (529 Bloor Street West) 8PM $12

FILM | I SPYDERS
If you're an indie filmmaker with a solid, little film, you don't wait for the theatres to come to you, you turn your local watering hole into the theatre. That's exactly what filmmakers Kyle Wilson and Billy Allinson are up to tonight. They've set up shop (theatre?) at No One Writes to the Colonel where they'll be screening their movie I SPYDERS, a short about a boy with spiders living inside his head. Join the boys for a quick screening, a drink and music to follow.
No One Writes to the Colonel (460 College Street) 8PM Free

PHOTOGRAPHY | Lunch & Learn with Photographer Allan Lissner
Allan Lissner is an award-winning photojournalist who has graciously agreed to give a multimedia presentation about his ongoing documentary photo project Someone Else's Treasure. Happening at the Spadina Avenue Centre for Social Innovation during the lunch hour today, Lissner will discuss the five-year long project he has undertaken, photographing indigenous communities that are defending themselves against industrial projects that threaten their livelihood and independence. This work has sent Lissner around the world and he will share his most recent updates from the communities he has worked with in the Philippines, Guatemala, Tanzania, and Canada.
CSI Spadina, Alterna Savings Room (215 Spadina Avenue) 12PM Free

OTHER EVENTS ON OUR RADAR:

• Night is a Shadow Cast By the World: The Launch
• Jane Jacobs, Undone
• DRAWING 2012
• MATTYFEST 2012: LADYHAWK, JULIE DOIRON, BURNING LOVE & MORE

Have an event you'd like to plug? Submit your own listing to the blogTO Toronto events calendar or contact us directly.

For Toronto movie showtimes, view our Movie Listings section.

Photo by happy d in the blogTO Flickr pool