Photo by Mée Rose

Alex Cafarelli is a genderqueer femme Jewish Witch based in Toronto. A lifetime writer and performer, Alex has performed with Sins Invalid, The Brockton Writers Series, Body Heat Femme Tour, Heels on Wheels Roadshow, and Naked Heart: The LGBTQ Festival of Words. She co-founded the Minneapolis-based performance group the Psycick Slutz in 1993 and performed with the group until 2006. Her work has been featured at theatres, conferences and universities across North America on themes of sexuality, chronic illness, survivorship, anti-oppression, ancestor work and queer femme identity.

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Martial Artist

Alex trained in martial arts from 1992 to 2019. She began studying Gao style Baguazhang in the Yizong lineage with Maija Soderholm in Oakland, California in 2006 and she holds a brown belt in Wu Chien Pai (a blend of Gung Fu, Tai Chi, Judo, and Jujitsu) under Sifu/Sensei Kore Grate. Alex began teaching the Five Fingers Self Defense System for women in 1995 and has since broadened her student population to include teens and LGBTQ communities.

Photo by Mée Rose

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Writer

Alex is an Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) Affiliate, certified to lead workshops in the AWA method as described in Writing Alone & With Others by Pat Schneider, Oxford University Press. Alex has been facilitating creative writing workshops since 2010. She has led writing workshops for trauma survivors, houseless women, queer and trans folks ages 11 and up, martial artists, witches, activists, and Jews whose politics, identities and spiritualities challenge the beliefs and practices of mainstream Jewish organizations.

Alex has self-published two chapbooks, Survivor and Ador(n)ed and she is published in the Lambda award winning anthology, Glitter & Grit: Queer Performance from the Heels on Wheels Femme Galaxy.

In addition to martial arts and creative writing, Alex works seasonally as a professional gardener. She specializes in public gardens, native plants, pollinators, succulents and edible landscapes.