Dalla Lana School of Public Health

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Toronto/Montreal musician and author Rae Spoon will speak about their health journey as a Disabled, queer, trans, non-binary patient who received treatment for cancer and the resulting complications. They will explore issues of human rights violations, systemic oppression, Disability, consent, trauma informed care, institutionalization, gender, sexuality and diverse family structures in health care. Materials will be based on writing from Rae’s upcoming book, Cancer Person (Arsenal Pulp Press in Spring 2026).

Their lecture will be followed by a live musical performance at Glad Day Bookshop, including music from their 2023 album Not Dead Yet, written about their lived experience of cancer diagnosis, treatment, and complications.

Both the in-person lecture and performance are mask-mandatory events.
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Rae Spoon is a musician, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and author. They have released twelve solo albums (Coax Records) spanning folk, country, indie rock, and electronic genres and published three books (Arsenal Pulp Press). Rae has been nominated for two Polaris Prizes, and a Western Canadian Music Award. They have toured internationally (Canada, Europe, the USA, Australia, China). Rae is a non-binary, trans artist who lives with multiple disabilities.

They have published three books with Arsenal Pulp Press and a humorous booklet called How to (Hide) Be(hind) Your Songs (2017). Their first book, First Spring Grass Fire (2012), was nominated for a Lambda Literary award and the co-write Gender Failure (2014) was on the Over the Rainbow Project book list was published in German. Rae’s first novel, Green Glass Ghosts (2021), was illustrated by Gem Hall and reviewed by Quill & Quire, CBC and the Globe and Mail. In 2013 Rae was awarded a Dayne Ogilvie Prize Honour of Distinction by the Writers’ Trust of Canada and has been nominated for two Polaris Prizes and a Western Canadian Music Award.

Rae Spoon is an uninvited guest and settler with European ancestry on stolen land. They were born and grew up on Treaty 7 territory in Mohkínsstsisi/Calgary (the traditional and ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy: Kainai, Piikani and Siksika as well as the Tsuu T’ina Nation and Stoney Nakoda First Nation). Rae currently lives between Tkoronto/Toronto (the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples) and Tiohtià:ke/Montréal (the unceded Indigenous lands of the Kanien’kehá:ka/Mohawk Nation).

www.raespoon.com