Fagdemic
Fagdemic is an ongoing digital and material art intervention by queer power sisters Jonathan Valelly and Mikiki. It is a slutty, drug-positive harm reduction resource for queer men who party. It is also a vandalism campaign, a perpetually shadow-banned Instagram account, an erstwhile stimulant fix, and a collection of late night conversations. First created in the early days of COVID-19, the project continues doing "hot work in hard times," acting as a voice of critique and defiance in the HIV sector and as a practical tool for partyfags. Book us for game changing workshops about coalition building in queer activism, trainings in harm reduction & ethical frameworks, gentle talkings-to about how to reach the PNP scene, or for your niece's' quinceañera.
Letters to Meth
Letters to Meth is a print zine that was produced in 2019 in collaboration with more than 100 queer and trans meth users who live, work, or play in Toronto's queer Village neighbourhood. It is also documentation of arts-based research that formed a key part of the first phase of the Breaking the Ice initiative at The 519. Print copies may be purchased in support of the project, or a digital PDF version is also available by request.
Traveling queer zine library
With over 1,000 zines by queer and trans creator's, it has never felt right to keep this personal zine collection private. The Travelling Queer Zine Library is growing and changing still, and has most recently popped up in the Saskattoon Central Library Gallery and the TDSB Triangle Program for queer and trans high-schoolers.
Queers crash the beat
Queers Crash the Beat is a rag-tag collective of activists, artists, lawyers, harm reduction workers, sex workers, academics and other sex-positive rabblerousers who oppose state violence against queer people and sex in public space. Formed in 2016 in response to the Toronto Police's undercover sting operation in Marie Curtis Park, beloved cruising area. We fundamentally reject the racist and homophobic institution of police, based in our central values of queer pleasure, liberation, and harm reduction.
GAY 4 PAY PRESS
Gay 4 Pay Press is a sporadic, mostly offline zine distro and publisher run by Jonathan Valelly and Eric Levitt. Founded in 2013, its catalogue focuses on queer men's sexuality and sexual health, harm reduction, queer politics, erotica, cruising, LGBTQ+ history, vanity projects, consent cultures, clones, maps, spatial histories, poppers, childhood fantasies, porn, resisting policing, party 'n' play, queer/trans families and kinship, and some other cute stuff.
Cita a ciegas
(Blind Date)
Beginning in 2018, Jonathan stewarded a partnership and exchange between the Toronto Comic Arts Festival and the Entreviñetas Festival in Bogotá, as well a the Ministry of Culture of Colombia. For Cita a ciegas/ Blind Date, a Colombian artist and a Canadian artist were paired to collaborate digitally and produce a comic together.
Clone thighs
Clone Thighs is a single shot video created in 2019. Using mirrors, belly, and camera, Jonathan expands on some of the inquiries laid out in his 2015 zine Clone Tide, which explores sexual assault, body image and doppelganger fetishism. How can one manage and nourish desire for the image of one's body, while finding the one he inhabits unknowable? How can one face himself from outside his body? Or fuck himself? Himselves?
The village ops
For World AIDS Day 2018, Queers Crash the Beat and the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society teamed up to open a pop-up overdose prevention site at Barbara Hall Park in Toronto's Queer Village. Activists distributed harm reduction kits, naloxone, and information about safe consumption. The Village OPS showed how easy it is to have a safe injection site in the Church-Wellesley Neighbourhood, calling out the hypocrisy and inaction of handsomely funded agencies like the AIDS Committee of Toronto and The 519.
