Friday Special Blend
Friday February 20th, 2026 with Susan Johnston. Gianluca Petti. Micah Petti.
Happy Fri-yay! Stephanie Roberts. Arthritis Kid.

Happy Fri-yay! Join Susan, Micah, and Gianluca for a morning of new music, poetry by Stephanie Roberts and a chat with Arthritis Kid. Stephanie Roberts is the author of UNMET (Biblioasis, 2025) -- and includes a poem set at the Museum of Nature. Publisher's description: "Leaning deliberately on the imagined while scrutinizing reality and hoping for the as-yet-unseen, UNMET explores frustration, justice, and thwarted rescue from a perspective that is Black-Latinx, Canadian, immigrant, and female. Drawing on a wide range of poetics, from Wallace Stevens to Diane Seuss, roberts’s musically-driven narrative surrealism confronts such timely issues as police brutality, respectability politics, intimate partner violence, and ecological crisis, and considers the might-have-been alongside the what-could-be, negotiating with the past without losing hope for the future." Arthritis x Kid event notes -- Arthritis Kid @ The Avant Garde Bar tonight -- Arthritis Kid is back, back, back again putting on a show to celebrate the release of her third EP “You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me.” You don’t want to miss this stacked bill featuring drag artists Mx. Caligula and Miss Diagnosis, Montréal scream queen VOIDXWITCH, and DJs Mona Monet and JovialJon. Doors open at 8:30pm, show starts at 9pm. Please wear a mask (N95 preferred, limited quantity at door). ARTHRITIS KID -- Arthritis Kid is an Ottawa-based pop artist that stepped into the music scene mid-2020. With the influences of Coco & Clair Clair, Ashnikko, and Charli XCX, Arthritis Kid took time to cultivate her “real pop girly” image through catchy synths and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. After the release of a handful of singles and an EP in 2022, Arthritis Kid was ready to paint the town in pink glitter with her 2023 EP “Tear My Heart Out.” In 2023 and 2024, Arthritis Kid has performed with Debaser, CRIP RAVE, SpectraSonic, and opening for My Son The Hurricane, pushing her into the spotlight as Ottawa’s new pop sensation. Having opened for Alice Longyu Gao on their Debut Trilogy Tour and with the release of a new AK single "Party Girl (But I'm In Bed By 10)" in May 2025, you know she's always ready to serve up something sweet (and maybe a little sour). VOIDXWITCH -- VOIDXWITCH is hard-hitting dark pop and electronic dance music of the extremely weird and intense variety. The songs are anthems and ecstatic dances of spiteful survival and brokenhearted revenge, all loaded with grinding synths, emotional extremes, and unhinged eroticism. Their performances are audio-visual experiences, complete with projections and Hex's charismatic, over-the-top stage energy that invites the audience to dance the demons out. JOVIALJON -- He may be jovial, but Jon takes his music seriously. Making hips shake and floors vibrate since 2021, JovialJon is DJ and cofounder of CORE Collective. He mixes sounds from the electronic music spectrum and beyond. While house music stays close to his heart, he has lately been incorporating breaks, electro, techno and downtempo to his rolling sets. Over the past few years he has had the chance to mix in Ottawa and Montreal most sought-after venues, such as SAW Gallery, GRIDWRKS and City at Night. He showcased his deep and always evolving music collection at festivals, block parties, and radio shows. No matter the setting, Jon is always eager to make you move.