Thugs Need Love Too: Community Art Showcase 2026
About this Event
Thugs Need Love Too is a free community art showcase bringing together Black artists, community, food, music, resources and love in the heart of Heatherington.
Now in its second year, Thugs Need Love Too began with a simple question: what if our communities got the love they deserved?
What would our communities look like if love meant food, housing, safety, art, rest, safe spaces, space and time to grieve, celebration, community, being seen, and being able to imagine a future beyond simply making it through the day?
Our communities are incredibly resilient, but we shouldn't have to be this resilient. So this year, we're dreaming really, really hard.
On October 17, we're transforming the Albion Heatherington Community Centre gym into an art and gathering space featuring visual art, live performances, music and storytelling from Black artists across our communities and the city.
There will be free food, community organizations sharing resources, and our community ancestral altar: a space to honour and remember the people we have loved and lost.
More than anything, Thugs Need Love Too is about possibility. Our neighbourhoods deserve art. Our kids deserve art. They deserve spaces that remind them they are loved, they are seen, and that what they have experienced does not determine the limits of what they can become.
Come see some art. Come eat. Come connect. Come celebrate. Come grieve. Come dream with us.
Thugs can do and be anything. We are limitless. Thugs deserve everything, love especially.
Thugs Need Love Too 2026 is made possible with the support of the City of Ottawa's Equity and Inclusion in the Arts Fund.
Click the link below to watch a recap of last year's showcase.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
CAD 0.00
