It’s finally here!!! The 2009 edition of Manifesto officially takes over T.Dot in the next few days, but that’s not just the beginning. In fact, Manifesto’s One City Series has been going on since August 29th, promoting and highlighting some of the city’s illest promoters, artists and community initiatives..

“There’s so much amazing stuff happening in the City, that we couldn’t properly represent it all in just one weekend.  We got everyone in the Toronto, as well as nationally and internationally, doing things we love and respect together and made it a month long event,” says Che Kothari, self-titled community instigator and ring leader of the Manifesto team. “We also wanted to create broader opportunities for artists that aren’t part of the festival weekend to still be a part of the movement”, he adds.  Next year the festival will hold town hall meetings to get feedback from the community around what types of things they would like to see in the festival and open up a submission process so that all members of the community and scene have  a chance to represent with their own events and mandates.  

Manifesto Community Projects was borne out of the earwacks.com family and a collective of artists, photographers and advocates for community arts and culture.  The team has quickly grown to produce 3 annual festivals, one Micheal Jackson Tribute at Dundas Square and numerous affiliations with community organizations and projects aimed at empowering and developing the skills of youth, and creating opportunities for artists of various mediums.  With hundreds of partners, the Manifesto team can honestly say they have a hand in hundreds of projects that span from community arts events, to advocacy, to raising the bar of design and photography.

Picture Perfect Events

As part of an ongoing need to keep track of the the work young people, artists and community developers are doing, as well as the various contributions that are being made to the urban scene, Manifesto has committed to documenting everything that’s going on.  Each event has photographers and videographers capturing every moment of history being made.  “Manifesto has been working on a documentary revolving around the urban scene, but the footage has been so hard to find that we decided to make sure we document as much of the good work that is going on as we can.  It’s really important for us to leave a legacy and share that with future generations coming up”, says Che.  

Check out pictures from recent One City events and the festival itself being updated daily here. 

For a full listing of all Manifesto events starting this Wednesday, September 16th, or to download the 2009 Manifesto Guidebook and Magazine presented in conjunction with EYE Weekly: www.manifesto.ca.

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