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  • An illustration of two wooden shelves filled with a colourful assortment of books. A black cat sits on the lower shelf and a wooden ladder is propped up in front of the shelves. The wall behind everything is forest green.

    How independent publishers are fending off the monopolization of the industry

    Literary
    Mar 4

    5 min read

    Online retailers make it cheap and easy for consumers to ship books right to their doors, so how is the Toronto book market surviving?

WHAT’S NEW

  • Where is home when you’re in Toronto?
    Arts

    Where is home when you’re in Toronto?

    Mar 3
  • Tied by knots of resilience: Still by Joanna Cockerline
    Literary

    Tied by knots of resilience: Still by Joanna Cockerline

    Feb 6
  • A glimpse into The Walrus’ fall book party
    Literary

    A glimpse into The Walrus’ fall book party

    Feb 1
  • At Rooms Coffee, Tuesday nights are for anime enjoyers
    Film

    At Rooms Coffee, Tuesday nights are for anime enjoyers

    Jan 27

arts
  • Where is home when you’re in Toronto?
    March 3, 2026
    Where is home when you’re in Toronto?

    A Market Gallery exhibit explores how the meaning of home transforms across time and communities

  • UNSANCTIONED: Showcasing Indigenous resilience through art
    November 7, 2025
    UNSANCTIONED: Showcasing Indigenous resilience through art

    Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction blends activism and creativity to raise awareness for ongoing injustices

  • TPFF 2025: ‘The Stones Know Our Names’ explores generational selfhood
    November 1, 2025
    TPFF 2025: ‘The Stones Know Our Names’ explores generational selfhood

    A walkthrough of Jude Abu Zaineh’s opening reception at the Toronto Palestine Film Festival


FASHION
  • The Indigenous artists opening Fashion Art Toronto F/W 2025
    December 2, 2025
    The Indigenous artists opening Fashion Art Toronto F/W 2025

    Amber-Dawn Bear Robe curates Fashion Art Toronto’s Thursday night show with three Indigenous designers

  • Fashion Art Toronto F/W 25 behind the scenes lookbook
    December 1, 2025
    Fashion Art Toronto F/W 25 behind the scenes lookbook

    An inside look at the raw energy-defining the moments leading up to the runway

  • Seven otherworldly looks from ‘The Genesis Paradox’ at Fashion Art Toronto F/W 2025 
    November 28, 2025
    Seven otherworldly looks from ‘The Genesis Paradox’ at Fashion Art Toronto F/W 2025 

    Fashion Art Toronto’s 20th anniversary delivered boundary pushing design and “The Genesis Paradox” raised the bar


FEATUREs
  • Art, cosplay and competition at Valorant Masters Toronto
    July 18, 2025
    Art, cosplay and competition at Valorant Masters Toronto

    The biannual Esports tournament brought together an inclusive gaming community to the downtown core

  • Pen for Justice: Rectifying the judicial system
    May 28, 2025
    Pen for Justice: Rectifying the judicial system

    The women-led initiative reviews potential wrongful incarceration trials and builds a strong case of innocence for attorneys to pursue exoneration

  • Bridging cultures through music: Multicultural choral concert hits a high note
    March 9, 2025
    Bridging cultures through music: Multicultural choral concert hits a high note

    The Yangtze River Performing Arts’ concert in Toronto united voices from Chinese, Italian, Ukrainian and Latin American communities


FILM
  • At Rooms Coffee, Tuesday nights are for anime enjoyers
    January 27, 2026
    At Rooms Coffee, Tuesday nights are for anime enjoyers

    A peak into how the cozy café transforms into an intimate movie theatre every week

  • TPFF 2025: ‘Familiar Phantoms’ and ‘The Diary of a Sky’ — subverting the documentary format
    November 5, 2025
    TPFF 2025: ‘Familiar Phantoms’ and ‘The Diary of a Sky’ — subverting the documentary format

    Explorations of ancestral history and psychological terror in new and innovative ways

  • Scary movies for scaredy cats — seven horror-ish films featuring Canadian actors and directors
    October 31, 2025
    Scary movies for scaredy cats — seven horror-ish films featuring Canadian actors and directors

    For film-lovers who want a cinematic thrill and a peaceful night’s sleep this Halloween


FOOD
  • Toronto gets a taste of Ukraine
    January 14, 2026
    Toronto gets a taste of Ukraine

    Tanya Matkivska’s homemade cuisine emerged from a need for connection and community care

  • Fighting food insecurity in Parkdale
    December 11, 2025
    Fighting food insecurity in Parkdale

    How the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre and Parkdale Community Food Bank are giving back to their community in the cold weather

  • Please & Thank You x Broken Rickshaw: Bringing crafty South Asian cocktails to innovative food
    November 30, 2025
    Please & Thank You x Broken Rickshaw: Bringing crafty South Asian cocktails to innovative food

    A collaboration all about the love for food, culture and resilience


LITERARY
  • How independent publishers are fending off the monopolization of the industry
    March 4, 2026
    How independent publishers are fending off the monopolization of the industry

    Online retailers make it cheap and easy for consumers to ship books right to their doors, so how is the Toronto book market surviving?

  • Tied by knots of resilience: Still by Joanna Cockerline
    February 6, 2026
    Tied by knots of resilience: Still by Joanna Cockerline

    Canadian author and CBC Literary Award winner explores the realities of sex work, street life and survival

  • A glimpse into The Walrus’ fall book party
    February 1, 2026
    A glimpse into The Walrus’ fall book party

    A look back at an evening of readings and performances celebrating magazines and literature


multimedia
  • ‘Spooky Sapphics’ take centre stage
    November 15, 2025
    ‘Spooky Sapphics’ take centre stage

    Toronto sapphics celebrate the Halloween season with a haunting drag extravaganza 

  • Fluffin’ around
    April 10, 2025
    Fluffin’ around

    Furnal Equinox is Canada’s largest furry convention and a showcase of some of the most creative costume designers and artists in the furry community

  • CanCulture Bingo: 2025 Oscars edition
    March 1, 2025
    CanCulture Bingo: 2025 Oscars edition

    The ultimate Oscar night challenge to track all your goops and gags


MUSIC
  • Masthead Un-Wrapped
    December 17, 2025
    Masthead Un-Wrapped

    The CanCulture masthead shares their top songs of the year!

  • Jakob Boon is your new ‘Final Fantasy’
    November 25, 2025
    Jakob Boon is your new ‘Final Fantasy’

    This Toronto-based electronic indie artist’s new singles channel longing and nostalgia ahead of his upcoming EP

  • TPFF 2025: A night of flow and feeling with DAM
    October 28, 2025
    TPFF 2025: A night of flow and feeling with DAM

    The Palestinian hip-hop group transformed Lee’s Palace into a living, breathing reminder of music’s power to connect across borders


Podcast
  • March 28, 2024
    How a Story Gets Made: CanCulture’s editors talk about everything CanCulture! #CandidCulture

    Welcome back to Candid Culture! CanCulture’s very own audio take on anything arts in Canada! This week, host Anna-Giselle Funes-Eng is joined by masthead editors Grace Henkle, Arts Editor, Sarah Grishpul,…


  • January 8, 2024
    CanCulture’s night out at the Hot Docs Podcast Fest! Q with Tom Power in conversation with Kevin Drew #CandidCulture

    This October, CanCulture Multimedia Editor Anna-Giselle Funes-Eng watched a live taping of CBC’s Q with Tom Power at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival. His conversation with Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew…


  • January 2, 2024
    All about CanCulture at Toronto International Film Festival, part two #TIFF2023

    CanCulture’s executive team, Caelan Monkman, John Vo and Mariana Schuetze, continue their discussion of their favourite films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. In the second part of this special…




Mixed media art exhibit “At Home in Toronto” explo
Mixed media art exhibit “At Home in Toronto” explored the ever-changing interpretations of home across time. There were rare artifacts on display from the city’s collection as well as items made by local artists.

Join veteran contributor Liana Yadav (@liana_yadav) on a walkthrough of the exhibit. Tying in historical context with our present day realities, Liana writes about the conditions and movements that inspired the pieces in the collection.

Head to the link in our bio to see what was on display! 🖼🛶


Looking for your next riveting read? We have just
Looking for your next riveting read? We have just the retrospective story for you! Renown Canadian publication The Walrus (@thewalrus) hosted their annual fall book party in November. In its third iteration, the evening celebrated autumn, literature, writers and their published & unpublished works. 

Reminiscing on the event, writer Shreya Basu (@shreyaabasu) takes us through the excerpts read by Sara Peters, Greta Rainbow (@gertsofficial), Michael LaPointe, Adam Nayman and Souvankham Thammavongsa (@souvankhamthammavongsa) and tells us where we can read more.

Head to the link in our bio for the complete recap! 📚🎤

Photo by Shreya Basu


A melange of her own experiences, those of her fri
A melange of her own experiences, those of her friends and all of the people she’s met, Joanna Cockerline’s (@joanna.e.cockerline) ‘Still’ has the tight-knit communities of Kelowna, B.C woven at the heart of it. The novel follows the life of a young unhoused sex worker reckoning with a traumatic past, in a fight for survival.

In conversation with the author, contributor Ra’eesa Baksh unravels the making of ‘Still.’ Cockerline speaks about her many inspirations and the care that went behind her homage to the Indigenous stewards of the Okanagan Nation in the book. 

Read the full review at the link in our bio! 💛


Out come the folding chairs, popcorn cups and tran
Out come the folding chairs, popcorn cups and tranquil lights every Tuesday as Rooms Coffee (@915dupont) and its patrons gear up to unwind in front of a projector screen. Before the cafe morphs into a cocktail bar for the evening, it functions as a miniature theatre.

At their screening of anime cult-classic ‘Mind Game,’ writer Shreya Basu (@shreyaabasu) closely follows their set-up and cinema-to-bar takedown process. Showing both mainstream and obscure anime picks, Shreya writes about how Rooms’ programming is a reflection of the community space the cafe seeks to harbour.

Read the full article at the link in our bio! 🍿📽

Photos by Shreya Basu


Food editor, Sorousheh Salman (@sorousheh_salman)
Food editor, Sorousheh Salman (@sorousheh_salman) spoke with Tanya Matkivska, the founder of HOYRA Gastrobar (@eathoyra) on her journey to opening HOYRA and curating a menu that honoured her Ukrainian heritage. 

For Matkivska, HOYRA has become a way to strengthen community bonds and bring joy to Ukrainians in Toronto.

"Families who arrived with nothing began, slowly, to rebuild their lives. Inside the restaurant, that healing took on a warmer, more intimate shape." — Sorousheh Salman 

Photos by Tristan Forde & Sorousheh Salman

Read more at the link in our bio 🇺🇦

#HOYRA #ukrainianfood #StandWithUkraine #torontorestaurant #CanCulture


From the soundtracks that carry memories of cathar
From the soundtracks that carry memories of cathartic club dances past 3 a.m., of weeping on your kitchen floor, or biking through a city thousands of miles from home, we want to give you a glimpse into the hearts and minds of our masthead. 

To read more about our top songs, check out the link in our bio. 🎸🎶

#cancon #canadianmusic #CanCulture


“Due to ongoing food insecurity, Toronto’s Parkdal
“Due to ongoing food insecurity, Toronto’s Parkdale Community Food Bank (@parkdalefoodbank) and the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre (@parctoronto) look to provide support to the greater community.” 

Writer, Eunice Soriano (@eunicevsorianomedia), covers how the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre and Parkdale Community Food Bank are giving back to their community in the cold weather. 

Read it at the link in our bio. 🥕

#parkdale #parkdalecommunityfoodbank #torontofoodbank #communitycare #CanCulture

Photos by Eunice Soriano


This past November Zine Dump (@zinedump.fyi), a ne
This past November Zine Dump (@zinedump.fyi), a new Toronto zine fair, hosted their inaugural event at the Cecil Community Centre. 

Managing Editor, Ella Miller (@ellermilla) recaps the event and shows off her favourite zines from the fair (in no particular order). 

To see the rest of Ella's favourites head to the link in our bio. 📚

#zinedump #torontozines #zinesters #cancon #toronto #CanCulture



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