No Borders Art Festival

01/26/2026

01/26/2026

01/26/2026

🎨 The Circle of Art is back 🎨

We are so excited to announce the return of the Circle of Art, hosted by our Indigenous Relations Coordinator, Carmel Whittle.

Through Echoes from This Land, these workshops offer a collaborative and welcoming space to create, reflect, and engage with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action. Artists, creators, and community members from Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds are all welcome to come together, learn, and share.

🗓 Starts: Tuesday, January 27th, 2026 | 6:00–8:00 PM
📍 OPIRG Office, Jock Turcotte Building, Room 215D

💛 Limited spots available.
👉 Sign up now via the link in our bio or QR code
📢 Share this post to help spread the word

Let’s gather, create, and listen together. 🎨🌿
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✨ Le Cercle de l’art est de retour ✨

Nous sommes ravis d’annoncer le retour du Cercle de l’art, animé par notre coordonnatrice des relations autochtones, Carmel Whittle.

À travers Échos de cette terre, ces ateliers créent un espace de partage, de création et de réflexion collective autour des 94 appels à l’action de la Commission de vérité et réconciliation. Artistes, créateur·rice·s et membres de la communauté autochtones et non autochtones sont invités à se rassembler, apprendre et dialoguer ensemble.

🗓 Début : mardi 27 janvier 2026 | 18 h – 20 h
📍 bureau de GRIPO, Jock Turcotte, salle 215D

💛 Les places sont limitées.
👉 Inscrivez-vous dès maintenant via le lien dans notes bio ou le code QR
📢 Partagez cette publication pour faire circuler l’invitation

Ensemble, faisons résonner les voix, les histoires et l’art. 💚

12/21/2025

https://www.horizonottawa.ca/winter_plan_phone_zap

Dear friends and No Borders Community,

Our City is in CRITICAL NEED of all hands on deck for the support of THOSE AT RISK this winter season.

❄️ Winter is deadly when you have nowhere to go.❄️

As temperatures drop, people experiencing homelessness in Ottawa are facing life-threatening conditions. Cold exposure, frostbite, and hypothermia are not accidents — they are preventable outcomes of policy failure.

We are all requesting through our mutual aid initiative we’ve been supporting unhoused community members directly. In doing so, we have encountered multiple barriers when trying to access homelessness services in Ottawa— from limited hours to restrictive eligibility and a lack of truly low-barrier options. These gaps leave people out in the cold, literally.

We are taking a moment to coordinate our public engagement efforts to increase pressure on the City of Ottawa to act with urgency and humanity.

🛑 What we are demanding:
• Immediate opening of low-barrier, 24/7 warming centres
• Spaces that are accessible, dignified, and safe for all
• A winter response that prioritizes lives over bureaucracy

📣 **How you can help right now:**
➡️ Email your city councillor
➡️ Call city officials
➡️ Share this message
➡️ Demand immediate action

No one should freeze to death in a city with resources. Mutual aid saves lives — but it cannot replace municipal responsibility.

Join us. Speak up. Pressure the City of Ottawa to act now.

🤍❄️

With the cold weather hitting Ottawa early this year, concerned residents are raising the alarm about the City's abandonment of unhoused residents. The city has responded to the freezing temperatures by pointing to their existing policies and claiming it is enough. But these same policies left unhou...

12/01/2025

“Communities are inclusive. That means drug users are included. That means Indigenous people are included. That means s*x workers are included in our communities.”

Women and gender diverse people who use drugs may experience high rates of gender-based violence, and VAW shelters are a critical service for people who are escaping violent situations. However, many VAW shelters still engage in abstinence-based, colonial practices that make their services inaccessible to people who use drugs.

To learn about practices your organization can use to make your services more accessible to women with intersecting identities, check out “Towards Access for All: Best and Promising Practices from Low-Barrier, Harm Reduction Shelters in Canada”.

09/09/2025

03/30/2025

A huge thank you and congratulations to Possible Worlds amazing event this weekend and a wonderful collaboration with Possible Worlds, thanks Melanie and Jason and all the volunteers who made the event extraordinary!! Thank you to all those who came to check out the Echoes From This Land print exhibit and workshop. Look forward to seeing you all at the No Borders Art Festival later in 2025!

02/13/2025

In honour of Black History Month, this was our friend Clifford “Andre” Munroe, from No Borders Art Festival 2023, sharing his original work at In Our Tongues this past Tuesday night. In Our Tongues Reading & Arts Series

02/07/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19s7hLPJqB/?mibextid=wwXIfr

On February 7, hear artist Carey Newman share insights into his powerful work, the Witness Blanket. Inspired by a woven blanket, it brings together reclaimed items from residential schools, churches, cultural sites and communities across Canada to evoke the painful legacy of the Indian residential school system in Canada.

🎟 Reserve your free tickets for the opening event of the Witness Blanket exhibition by February 4 ➡ https://bit.ly/4hAaFNa

📷 Aaron Cohen, Canadian Museum for Human Rights

02/05/2025

https://youtu.be/A76KPZhAP8c

In 2023, it was a huge honour to take on this amazing project to pay tribute to this huge voice and the heart of this woman who has embodied so much of what we need in this time and season again.

We need unity, love, hope and community to move forward not just for one but for all.

Thank you again to my dearest friends Patricia, Carmel and the Levine Family for this beautiful honour of sharing this love with you all.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odetta

Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008),[1][2] known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement".[3] Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she influenced many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin. In 2011 Time magazine included her recording of "Take This Hammer" on its list of the 100 Greatest Popular Songs, stating that "Rosa Parkswas her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music."[4]

Odetta Holmes (December 31, 1930 – December 2, 2008),[1][2] known as Odetta, was an American singer, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement".[3] Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American f...