Gay men dancing

After participating in a theatre project that dealt with the concept of internalized homophobia, choreographer David Flewelling retreated into nature with a dozen others to talk about growing up gay. Using theatre exercises, they explored how personal experiences affected self-perception. This was one of the starting points for his work Intima. The duet features Flewelling and Ricardo Olivares using contact improvisation as a base to explore the conflict between cultural concepts of masculinity and sensuality and intimacy. The work is part of Tangente's annual series Moment'Homme: Danses Gaies, which runs until May 23 at their venue (840 Cherrier).

Nikolas Dixon, a former dancer with the Royal Ballet, similarly explores roles of masculinity and sexual hierarchy in his a piece Appliance of Man. Then a team of New York artists take over; first Venezuelan-born choreographer Luis Lara Malvacias presents There Is No Such Thing, seeking insights into the theme of hiding. Lastly, a trio by Jeremy Nelson, Bridge of Fools, investigates fragility and force. » Marites Carino

Pleasure island

"There's no guarantee with kids," says Juliet Waters of her experience last summer trucking around town doing research for her new book, Around Montreal With Kids ($17, Fodor's). "I brought my son to the Papillions en liberté exhibition and he totally loved it. We went back this year and 30 seconds later a butterfly lands on his arm - now he's terrified of them."

Guarantees or not, Waters, long-time writer and book reviewer for the Mirror, has made exploring the city with kids in tow a whole lot easier with her guidebook, featuring 68 different spots from the Old Port to the top of the mountain. Among her favourites are the Canadian Centre for Architecture ("They play with blocks in this beautiful Golden Mile mansion for hours and then somebody comes and puts them away.") and the Botanical Gardens ("The nature really settles them down - it's not too overstimulating."). There's been ample stimulus for well-cultured son Ben anyway, "Now he wakes up and right away he says things like, ‘I wanna go see animals.'" Book launch on Thursday, May 27, 6–8 p.m., at the Double Hook (1235A Greene). » Matthew Woodley

Superheroine fix

Effervescent Kiss Machine editor Emily Pohl-Weary is back on the Perpetual Motion Roadshow tour with Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks. Pohl-Weary has stitched together an wide-ranging anthology of stories, comics, essays and artwork inspired by the latest resurgence of women fantasy heroes. "Liberated women are not always super bitches with hard-ons for violence," Pohl-Weary allows. "However, while I long for more cool characters, I still love the tough girls taking over pop culture these days - they sure beat the She-Ra Princess of Power and Smurfettes of my childhood."

The launch this Saturday at Zeke's Gallery (3955 St-Laurent) features ventriloquist Daniel Heath Justice, media tigress Carly Stasko, alter-ego sketcher Sherwin Tjia and monster hunter Sophie Levy. It's on Saturday, May 22, at 7:30 p.m., $4. » Vincent Tinguely

Oboms away

One of my favourite cartoonists is once again flexing her artistic muscle, this time in the form of 16 new paintings. Diane Obomsawin's new series of acrylic and torn paper pieces opens this Saturday, May 22, 5 p.m., at Usine C (1345 Lalonde). Eight of the pieces contain her cartoon figures, but in the other eight the figures left the surface leaving their coloured backgrounds behind. Obamsawin sums up these new abstracts, titled "Courage mon amour! #1 to #8," as an artistic voyage that was more difficult than she imagined.

Obomsawin, who describes her usual cast of comic characters as "bonhommes" or "microbes," was the artist-in-residence at the NFB from 1998–2001 and is the creator of the films Elbow Room (2002), The Coat (2000) and The Worm (2000). She's currently working on a new 10-minute animation extrapolated from an autobiographical strip published in the Cyclops anthology in 2002. Her exhibition runs until June 21. » Christine Redfern

Is it Art?

BOWL BARRIER: Too short to squat, there's little protecting innocent young'uns from the microbial jungle that thrives on many a public toilet seat. Enter Zeets disposable potty covers. Coming in lots of fun colours, Zeets fold up like a cardboard box and fit snugly to any size toilet bowl. To really get the kids interested, packages come with a short story about a little girl named Devon and a magical Zeet left behind by a space alien, which, say the makers, "will entertain and incorporate valuable lessons about growing up, getting along, staying safe and other important topics." It will also make kids believe that aliens come all the way to Earth just to drop off disposable toilet seat covers. $12.99 (U.S.) for a five-pack, 1-866-GO-ZEETS to order.

ArtsHole

ROAD BLOCK: The Bookmobile Art Auction is back with over 30 pieces of art and craft on the auction block at the Long Hall (454 Beaumont W.) this Friday, May 21, at 7 p.m. Hosted this year by celebrity auctioneers Seth W. Owen and Mark Slutsky, the annual event raises money for the zine trailer's travels throughout Canada and the U.S., exposing tons of people to locally-produced indie media as well as hosting workshops, artist talks and more. • OUT OF THE BOX: To celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of Quebec's most popular boîtes à chansons, les Deux Pierrots, a big bash is being held Sunday, May 23 (104 St-Paul W.) with Yelo Molo, Karl Milette and many more exciting guests. Proceeds from the evening go to the Centre des femmes de Montréal.

ARTISTAT: Number of males in the cast of Karma Productions' Macbeth, directed by Alison Rockbrand and running at Cheney Hall (3407 du Musée), 8 p.m., until May 22, $10: 0

>> Arts Listings