Produced in collaboration with the Society for the Preservation of Wild Culture (SPWC — publisher of The Journal of Wild Culture).

This late-night, vaudeville-esque entertainment chooses from a wide swath of performing art forms - rigorous and frivolous, tamed and untamed. From the culinary arts to songs in other languages, from modern dance to ancient foraging techniques, Cabaret of Wild Culture finds its roots in the SPWC's mandate: which is, briefly, to find connections between and within the "wild," and the cultured.

The Cabaret was first produced in the 1980s as part of three programs undertaken by the Society for the Preservation of Wild Culture (SPWC): The Journal of Wild Culture (a print magazine); Landscape Readings (nature tours by artist), and the "The Café of Wild Culture" (the Cabaret's former name). The SPWC emerged from Whitney Smith's picking of wild foods that he sold to chefs in Toronto restaurants, including Jamie Kennedy and Michael Stadtlander.

Whitney Smith, founder of the SPWC, and Marc Glassman, Artistic Director of Pages UnBound, produced the avant-garde variety show. The Cafés in the late 80s were staged in Toronto at the Rivoli, as well as in New York and Vermont. Pages UnBound and the SPWC are very pleased to be pulling this exciting show together for Pages Unbound.

Presenters and performances in the Cabaret will include:
Tony Calzetta, David Ferry, Leon Rooke and the students of the Randolph Academy in Fabulous Fictions & Peculiar Practices, wood-walking with Bob Nasmith, StorySlide with B.W. Powe, Andrea Thompson & Marc Hallworth, Lee Maracle and mythmaking, Andrea Thompson in a spoken solo, Zoe Cormier and the Science of Hedonism, horror with Gemma Files, the music and movement of Mexico with Alec Dempster and Café Con Pan, Cathy Petch in drag, a modern dance piece by Nicole Rose Bond, cantora Portuguese with Elizabeth Bettencourt, and comedian Nigel Grinstead.

This event is destined to be an exciting, unique romp, but is sure to lead audiences into thought-provoking discussions that will continue long after the curtain has closed.

Cabaret host Marc Glassman is a veteran bookseller, film programmer, and radio and print journalist. Marc founded and ran the independent bookstore Pages Books & Magazines for 30 years until it closed in 2009, and served as the Artistic Director of TINARS, voted Toronto's Best Reading Series in 2013 and 2014, during its ten-year run. Currently, he edits the magazines POV and Montage, reviews film on Classical 96.3 FM, is the programme director of the Planet in Focus environmental film festival and an Adjunct Professor at Ryerson University.

Founder and publisher/editor of The Journal of Wild Culture, Cabaret host Whitney Smith is a multi-disciplinary artist and journalist and composer with an extensive career blending advocacy and the arts through the platforms of music, publishing, theatre, performance art and new media.

Finally, host Ian McGettigan will keep the night wild.