Coupland’s Self Portrait 

If you’re going to witness just one public speaking event this summer, make it OCAD’s convocation ceremony next week which will feature two incredibly prodigious and engaging minds. Douglas Coupland has called both Toronto and Japan home, and creates work that examines contemporary issues of technology, social conventions, and pop culture that are extremely accessible and incredibly cool. It can be hard to create work about the ubiquitous Marilyn Monroe and still shed some new and interesting light on the subject, but Coupland seemingly succeeds in doing so. In addition, he’s written multiple novels, among them 1991’s successful Generation X, which caused many to proclaim Coupland as the voice of his generation (insert Girls joke here). 

More Coupland

Duke Redbird is a prolific Indigenous poet, painter, broadcaster, and filmmaker, who helped to pave the way for OCAD’s very own program in Indigenous Visual Culture. He began creating work as a poet during the civil rights movements of the ’60s. To this day, his Master’s thesis We Are Métis is considered a seminal text on the history and aspirations of the Métis people. Redbird, already a PhD candidate, is just getting greedy with these degrees now. 

You can catch both of these artist speak at OCAD’s spring convocation ceremony next week. 

When: Next Thursday, June 6 at 1:30 p.m.

Where: Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St

UPDATE: Sadly, OCAD has informed us that this is a closed event.

————

Jeremy Schipper is an intern at Toronto Standard. You can follow him on Twitter at @jeromeoschipps.