NOW Magazine
Queens of business: How drag became a career
With the bars and clubs closed, drag queens like Tynomi Banks are tapping new audiences (and big brands) to make money By Julia Mastroianni
Tynomi Banks went from backup dancing to starring in a Super Bowl commercial.
Just under 100 million viewers watched Tynomi Banks glammed up and dressed in gold and white. Playing Medusa in a 15-second Wealthsimple commercial, the Toronto drag queen joined the exclusive group of drag performers to appear in a Super Bowl spot (RuPaul has starred in two).
The job was completely unexpected, Banks says. She had recently written an article for Wealthsimple about her expenses as a drag queen, and she suspects she was “freshly on their mind.”
Toronto tenants evicted from “unsafe” building with 24 hours notice
City inspectors say the residential units were constructed without a permit By Julia Mastroianni
Aaron Sousa/Unsplash
A group of Toronto tenants say they were evicted with just 24 hours’ notice after a carbon monoxide detector in one unit went off and caused city inspectors to deem their building unsafe last week.
The carbon monoxide detector installed by a resident at the four-unit apartment building above an auto repair shop at 1407-1409 Bloor West, went off around 1:30 am on March 10. Toronto Fire Services responded to a call for assistance along with city inspectors. Tenants returned to their units, thinking that the carbon monoxide issue had been resolved.
NOW Magazine
Outdoor art installations to light up Queen East
The eight light installations are part of the month-long outdoor art exhibition Luminosity By Julia Mastroianni
Courtesy of The Beach Village BIA
Beacon Silo, one of eight installations included in the exhibition, acts as both a lighthouse and disco ball.
Queen East will be home to eight new light installations as part of the Luminosity outdoor art exhibition opening on Saturday, March 13.
The installations are spread out along a three-kilometre stretch of Queen East between Neville Park and Coxwell. The artworks will be lit up nightly until April 11, and the exhibition is completely outdoors and spaced out, allowing for COVID-safe physical distancing.
NOW Magazine
Leslieville cocktail spot rebranding as a retro queer bar
Yard Sale Bar will get an upgrade this spring when it reopens as an LGBTQ bar called Lavender Menace By Julia Mastroianni
Courtesy of Yard Sale Bar
Yard Sale Bar is being rebranded into Lavender Menace, a retro bar with an LGBTQ focus.
Owners of 1970s-themed Leslieville cocktail spot Yard Sale Bar are rebranding their Gerrard East location as queer, retro bar with a lesbian-focused name – Lavender Menace.
Co-owners Vivian Lynch and Agnes Lee said that while Yard Sale had always been LGBTQ-friendly, it wasn’t core to the identity of the bar.
Tenants face “wave of evictions” as stay-at-home order lifts in Toronto
Eviction enforcement resumes in Toronto now that a freeze during the second wave has ended By Julia Mastroianni
Daniel Thomas/Unsplash
A “freeze” on evictions enacted province-wide for the stay-at-home order and state of emergency has ended in Toronto, Peel and North Bay.
The freeze came into effect on January 13 after the provincial government implemented a regulation that said that the sheriff, or Court Enforcement Office, cannot enforce a Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) eviction order until the stay-at-home order ends.
The freeze on evictions was lifted in different Ontario regions throughout February, but it ended in Toronto, Peel and North Bay on March 8 after the three regions re-entered the colour-coded COVID-19 response framework.