One day, they came in to find that someone had pissed in their toolbox. In one story, they talk about being one of only two people in a trades class that wasn’t a cis guy, and the harassment they faced. Most of their stories come out of a rural setting, often up north, and they combine that often harsh environment with a kindness and generosity that underlies all their words. I love Ivan Coyote’s writing because it’s both easy to read and deeply moving. Throughout the book, between essays, are diagrams, including a disassembled stand mixer, knot-tying, and pastry-making. I love the cover, and there are lots of small details that really add to the design, including the back cover edge being usable as a ruler. I am in love with this book, as I am in love with Ivan Coyote’s writing in general.įirst of all, this is a beautiful book just as an object. – Michael Cunningham, A Home at the Edge of the World, epigraph to Tomboy Survival Guide There were so many different ways to be beautiful.” Blending story, lyric, music, soundscape, memory and maybe even the odd elementary-school photograph, Tomboy Survival Guide is a live stage experience that defies gender and genre boxes with the same compassionate defiance and fearless and tender truth-telling that Ivan Coyote has been bringing to their work for nearly two decades of publishing and performing.įollow the Tomboy Survival Guide project on twitter or facebook or youtube.“I was not ladylike, nor was I manly. These four fast friends and fellow tomboys have been locking themselves in a small dim room once a week all winter to craft this world premier of their full-length show. Tomboy Survival Guide is the music and story-driven collaboration of award winning writer and storyteller Ivan Coyote, the hummingbird high-energied drummer and percussionist Sally Zori, the mellifluous basslines of Pebbles Willekes, and the subtle and graceful tinkerings of trumpet player Alison Gorman.

Writer and storyteller Ivan Coyote and an all-tomboy band invite the audience to join them as they navigate the narrow halls of public washrooms, skirt the treachery of growing up under the threat of being picked to be a flower girl at their aunt’s wedding, triumph over tying a double Windsor knot, and discover the beauty in realizing they were handsome, not pretty, all along. Tomboy Survival Guide is part anthem, part campfire story, and part instructions for the dismantling of the gender stories w e tell ourselves and each other. There will be ASL interpreters.īuy tickets for Tomboy Survival Guide (Selling fast)

** Special guests on the night include Kinnie Starr and Veda Hille. Join us April 29th 8pm for Tomboy Survival Guide.

Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan E. Coyote