Friday Special Blend
Friday November 7th, 2025 with Susan Johnston
A Sonic Bridge. SOUNDTRACK and ChromaQueer. Walking the Bypass. Ottawology. Ein deutsches Requiem.

Join us for a wild cultural ride, and our final show from the 2025 Funding Drive. We'll start by previewing A Sonic Bridge (taking place tonight, November 7, at the Carleton Dominion Chalmers Centre). Explore the Art of Transmission with an evening of groundbreaking radio art and performance presented by Debaser. Explore the radical potentialities of analog radio through the work of artist and author Paul Jasen and media and sound artist Florence-Delphine Roux. We'll preview some of his work; more info is here: https://cuag.ca/event/debaser-presents-a-sonic-bridge/ In our first hour, author and UBCO prof Michael V. Smith joins us to talk about his new work "Soundtrack" -- From award-winning writer Michael V. Smith comes a poetic memoir about growing up gay in the shadow of AIDS. Embodying an elusive part of queer history, these song and album-inspired poems capture the last three decades of the millennium and reveal how music has an uncanny ability to remind us not just where we were at a given moment in time but who we were. Michael V. Smith is currently a researcher of the Year at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus in Kelowna. His prizes include a Western Magazine Gold Award, Director’s Choice Award at the Cinema Diverse festival in Palm Springs, the Colin Campbell Award for Inside Out Queer Film Festival, as well as shortlists for the Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Relit Prize, and the Journey Prize. Smith will be in town for ChromaQueer's closing night event, in partnership with VERSeOttawa. According to the organizers, "Michael V. Smith brings his new show ‘Soundtrack: a karaoke + poetry party", marrying a unique performance of karaoke songs with spoken word." Tickets for Sunday night here: https://www.chromaqueer.ca/soundtrack Next, we'll hear from Regina author Ken Wilson about his new book, Walking the Bypass, which recounts his singular experience of walking alongside the decidedly pedestrian-unfriendly Regina Bypass, all while situating the highway within the ongoing history of settler colonialism in southern Saskatchewan. Ken will be in town on Wednesday November 12 for a special event at Octopus Books -- Land, Memory, Meaning: where he'll read with Sadiqa de Meijer at an event hosted by Ottawa poet D.S. Stymeist. In the second hour, Tonya K. Davidson joins us to talk about Ottawology. "Ottawa is often understood only as the seat of the federal government, marked by the neo-Gothic parliament buildings on the hill, and the many government office buildings. Lively, erudite and exciting, Ottawology offers a unique and radical approach to studying the city, injecting it with intrigue and verve, and expanding collective, narrow understandings of Canada’s capital city. Tonya Davidson takes readers on a wide-ranging journey through a city populated not only by power brokers, but also workers, students, seniors, trees, eels, turtles, skaters and rabble rousers. Davidson applies her prodigious sociological imagination to critically explore an essential, but little understood, city. " About Tonya: Tonya Davidson has spent many years living in, teaching in, and studying Ottawa. She is an associate professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, where she has taught introduction to sociology, a sociology of Ottawa course for first-year students, urban sociology, and a variety of sociology of Ottawa courses in Carleton University’s Lifelong Learning program. These experiences shaped her broad-ranging interest in the sociology of Ottawa, including its parks, schools, workplaces, bars, etc. Tonya's book launch and trivia night is sold out, but we'll have our own sneak preview here. CKCU is where people find their voice, discover music, and build skills. Please help us reach our $193,100 goal and keep independent radio strong! Donate here -- every dollar counts: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/CKCU/p2p/fundingdrive2025/page/friday-special-blend-on-ckcu