![]() ![]() ![]() If I can love a monster, if someone can love the monster in me, then anyone is capable of loving and being loved. I love monsters because they represent the hungriest, most hidden parts of ourselves that we most often confine to exile. Asking participants to rethink their ideas of what a monster is, Monster Academy encouraged people to find the strength and beauty in difference, and to draw on it in our relationships with one another. ![]() The workshop drew on her work with Monster Academy Montreal, a radical mental health initiative for youth, of which Thom was a co-founder. With empathy, humour, and passion, she spoke about how, in maginalized communities where many of us struggle with mental health and trauma, we can have compassion for ourselves and support one another. ![]() I first encountered Thom’s work at the workshop “Monstrous Love: Mental Health and Intimate Partner Abuse,” which she and co-facilitator Kota Harbron led at Venus Envy in 2015. What does that make her, a quadruple threat? Quintuple? I lost count somewhere in there. Prolific writer, performer, social worker, and spoken word artist Kai Cheng Thom is coming to Ottawa in support of her latest book and first novel. ![]()
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