Carly Stasko
Carly Stasko is a self-titled Imagitator who agitates imagination as a Toronto-based but globally inspired artist, writer, activist, producer and holistic educator. Her most recent publication is a chapter titled "(r)Evolutionary Healing: Jamming the Culture and Shifting the Power", which has been published by Routledge in Next Wave Cultures edited by Anita Harris and which was developed out of a workshop Carly presented at the UNESCO Earth Symposium.
Carly is interested in love, healing, jamming with culture, as well as working and playing towards environmental and social justice through education and the arts. You might find her presenting workshops on media literacy and indymedia activism in high schools and universities across North America, working with communities for peace, dancing anywhere and everywhere, planting seeds in abandoned lots with other guerilla gardeners, dressed up like a white blood cell visualizing the immune system with cancer patients, leading laughter yoga sessions in shelters and community centers, experimenting with courageous vulnerability or meditating on loving compassion under a tree.
I first met Carly when I was shooting the documentary Culture Jam. She was one of the featured subjects in her role as a Media Tigress, a creative activist who transformed public advertising into political statements. Carly and I became good friends. We once traveled to Quebec city to film and participate the Anti-Globalization Protest at the Summit of the Americas in 2001. In typical Carly style she wore two bright flowers in her gas mask, a stark contrast to the overly serious black clad anarchists and the equally dour riot police.
Carly and I are still pals and she's my info source for the many fun things to do in Toronto - like subway parties, public art interventions, and all things political and spiritual. Her recent struggle with Cancer was approached in her inimitable manner with positivity, creativity, and determination. Lucky for us she made it through the other side and still here making trouble.
WEB LINKS
Carly Stasko's Official Site
VIDEO
Sneak Peak - Fierce Light Warrior - Quebec City
PUBLCATIONS INCLUDE
"Packaging Youth and Selling Tomorrow: Deconstructing the Myths of Marketalkracy" co-authored with Trevor Norris in The Corporate Assault on Youth: Commercialism, Exploitation, and the End of Innocence
"Action Grrrls in the Dream Machine" in Turbo Chicks: Talking Young Feminism
"How to Be Your Own Superhero: A Chronicle of Experimentation and Fascination" in Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks
