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Toronto Pride art programming: Bambitchell

June 17, 2013 • Julia Horel

Toronto Pride is almost upon us! There are a huge number of events, programs, installations and shows throughout the city during late June and early July. One of these is That’s So Gay, an annual art exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel, curated this year by Elisha Lim. Stay tuned to Shameless for more coverage of this exhibition coming soon.

One of this year’s participants of That’s So Gay is Bambitchell, the name used by Sharlene Bamboat and Alexis Mitchell for their collaborative work. From their artist statement:

Bambitchell (Sharlene Bamboat and Alexis Mitchell) have been collaborating since 2008. In 2009, they created Inextricable, a 5-Channel film and video installation, which queered an imagining of diaspora and nationhood. In 2011, they co-created Border Sounds, examing figurative and territorial borders.

Bambitchell’s most recent collaboration is a trilogy of videos titled Citizen Kenney: A Love Letter in 3 Parts, which responds to the immigration and human rights policies of the Canadian government. Bamboat and Mitchell both have independent art practices and they are both members of the Pleasure Dome Experimental Film & Video Programming Collective.

(Bambitchell)

At That’s So Gay, Bambitchell will be screening two videos on loop: Citizen Kenney and Inextricable, a 2-part video installation that looks at queering notions of diaspora through a consideration of nation, gender, post-colonialism and affect.

(Bambitchell)

Expanding on the motivations behind these two films, Sharlene and Alexis explain:

We are interested in exposing some of the more nuanced aspects of colonialism and racism as they pertain to issues such as border patrol and immigration. It therefore becomes important for us to use camp and irony playfully, in order to allow those who engage with our work to relate these themes back to their own lives rather than scripting an experience for them. We tend towards critiques of state policies and the effects they have on actual bodies whether racialized, gendered, sexualized etc., but try to not talk about the specifics of what that looks like in hopes that those experiencing the work might draw their own conclusions based on who they are and the lives they lead.

The show will be up from June 27 to mid-August, but other parts of the That’s So Gay exhibition will have different timelines. Check out some amazing art at Pride!
Queers Who Pray: An Elisha Lim endeavour

May 21, 2013 • Nish Israni

I have had the pleasure of many run-ins with Elisha Lim at various community events, and have been totally blown away by their work. Thus, I feel compelled to promote their recent endeavour, a film called Queers Who Pray.

Elisha is a brilliant and multi-talented artist who has illustrated comics, books and anthologies, as well as exhibited portraits in international galleries and screened short films all over the world. They have also self-published beautiful and endearing pin-up calendars that celebrate the queer and trans communities that they are a part of. These calendars have revolved around butches, sissies and femmes and have been a testament to the wisdom that queer and trans bodies hold inside them.

Elisha is also passionate about making art that features people of colour, which I think is important. I feel that the stories of queer and trans people of colour are so often under-represented or misunderstood, and it’s heart-warming to see Elisha pay homage to these lives and bring them to our attention.

Their most recent endeavour is to make a film about queer folks who pray. There was a time when the words queer and religious would have been an oxymoron, and even though there have been some faiths that have opened their doors to queer and trans folks, this is still a very touchy issue. Elisha enlightens us about this paradox as a queer who loves to praise God and wants to give us a glimpse into the lives of other queers who believe in God or are religious or spiritual believers.

I think this is quite an undertaking, and much-needed for community healing and awareness, as well as to shed light on this particular aspect of queer/trans identity — but Elisha needs our help. As someone who gives so much to their community, I hope that folks can also come together and help Elisha raise funds to get this film off the ground. Elisha has a campaign on indiegogo that explains this project and where all the money will go. Please consider donating or sharing the link!
Guest Post: Woman in Niqab Asking for it?

May 3, 2013 • Guest Blogger

by Farrah Khan

A consistently held myth is that women who are sexually assaulted “ask for it” by the way we dress or act. However, government reports and community organizations have demonstrated that this doesn’t matter. A woman of any age, physical type, or dress can be assaulted. Violence is violence, and believing in the myth that women “ask for it” is harmful. Not only does it absolve the perpetrators of violence, it also serves as a red herring that pulls the focus away from support for survivors and from strengthening resources that work to eradicate gender-based violence.

N.S, a woman who alleges that she was sexually molested by her uncle and cousin as a child, has spent six years fighting for her right to testify while wearing her niqab at the criminal trial. She appealed her case to the Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Court of Appeal, and eventually the Supreme Court of Canada in December 2011. The Supreme Court’s decision focused on the protection of a defendant’s right to a fair trial and the corresponding “right” to face his accuser, in order to test the accuser’s credibility. The Court framed NS’s case as one of competing rights—the accused’s right to a fair trial and the victim’s religious freedom. According to Amna Qureshi:

…what the Supreme Court did was pit a rather benign and harmless religious freedom against the potential for wrongful convictions and maintaining public confidence in the administration of justice. This has the effect of essentially preventing lower court judges from exercising any independent analysis of the issue if the accused brings any argument whatsoever that their fair trial rights will be affected. In other words, unless an accused consents to the witness wearing her niqab, there will be little room for a judge to say she can wear it.

N.S.’s case returned to the lower courts for a new trial in April 2013. On April 24th an Ontario judge ruled (once again) that N.S. must remove her niqab to testify in a sexual assault trial. While I agree that procedural fairness is important to all people who come to court, I believe that fairness in this case must extend to the victim. The decision to order a sexual assault complainant to remove a piece of clothing in order to demonstrate that her “demeanour” is trustworthy, risks the kind of victim-blaming that feminists have fought against in other successful legal cases. Many experts have cast doubt on the assessment of demeanour as a reliable source of evidence. Further, this decision sends a message to women who wear the niqab and to the people in their lives that they will not have fair access to the Canadian justice system and therefore are rapeable.

I sat behind N.S. during the Supreme Court of Canada hearing. I wanted to touch her shoulder and say ‘thank you.’ As an abuse survivor, I never sought formal justice, just like many other women in Canada who experience sexual assault. We know that less than 10% of women who are sexually assaulted report the assault to the police. Like other survivors, I worried that the police would do little to support me, that I would bring shame onto my family and probably most importantly, that no one would believe me.

As a violence against women counselor in the Toronto area, I am deeply worried about the impact this decision will have on sexual assault survivors. Many organizations in Canada including the Women’s Legal and Education Action Fund, the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic and the South Asian Legal Clinic, support the right of N.S. to testify at the sexual assault trial while wearing a niqab. Child sexual abuse is an epidemic in Canada, where 1 in 3 girls is sexually assaulted before the age of 12. These decisions by the Ontario Courts and the Supreme Court add additional barriers to survivors of sexual assault who are seeking to report abuse to the police.

There is another prevalent myth to critique here: that Muslim women are silent and oppressed. N.S.’s unwavering efforts to speak out and seek justice substantially challenges this myth. As survivors we are often told to be quiet, by our own families, communities, media outlets, institutions, and the larger society. This silencing is equated with being “good”. However, being a “good” community member, daughter, mother, and friend includes working towards ending the cycle of violence in our lives. Instead of allowing various myths to detract from the salient issue at hand, let’s remember that N.S. is seeking justice, and let’s support her appeal process to Superior Court of Ontario. The lower court’s decision raises the chilling possibility that other women may not put their faith in the same justice system that has failed N.S.

Farrah Khan is a community based counselor, artist and advocate. She is the Coordinator of Outburst! Young Women Muslim Program at the Barbra Schlifer Clinic. You can reach her @farrah_khan
The Contemporary Urgencies of Audre Lorde’s Legacy

March 3, 2013 • Ronak Ghorbani

This coming Thursday will launch a two-week long celebration of poet and activist Audre Lorde. There are free events happening across Toronto and at both York University and The University of Toronto. Check out the list of events below.

Community Arts Practice, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University in association with Women and Gender Studies, University of Toronto Invite you to

THE CONTEMPORARY URGENCIES OF AUDRE LORDE’S LEGACY, MARCH 7-21, 2013

1) Medicines for Survival: Indigenous Knowledge and the Sacred: a lecture by M. Jacqui Alexander

DATE: Thursday March 7th

PLACE: HNES (Health, Nursing, and Environmental Studies)building room 140, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University

TIME: 6 p.m.

http://www.utoronto.ca/ethnicstudies/fac_wgsi.html

2) Litanies for our Survival: Visual and Performative Conversations with Audre Lorde and inaugural exhibition in new Community Arts Practice Space

DATE: Thursday March 7th

PLACE: HNES (Health, Nursing, and Environmental Studies)building room 283 and throughout the building, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University

TIME: 7:30 p.m.

3) Film screening, Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992 (directed by Dagmar Schultz)

Followed by panel discussion with Dagmar Schultz, Marion Kraft, Gloria Wekker, M. Jacqui Alexander, Carol Allain, Farrah Khan, Bonita Lawrence

DATE: Friday March 15th

PLACE: William Doo Auditorium, University of Toronto, 45 Willcocks Street

TIME: 6:30 p.m.

http://www.audrelorde-theberlinyears.com/emails/orgs_english_short.html

4) What’s (Homo)Sexuality got to do with it? Lecture by Gloria Wekker, with responses from Anna Agathangelou and Jin Haritaworn, chaired by Ena Dua

DATE: Tuesday March 19th,

PLACE: HNES (Health, Nursing, and Environmental Studies)building room 140, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University

TIME: 1 p.m.

5) “After the 9-5 in Audre’s Livingroom”

(An intimate, collaborative poetry marathon recite &r espond multidisciplinary hangout!)

presented by backforward collective

DATE: Thursday March 21st

PLACE: Whippersnapper Gallery, 594b Dundas St. West

TIME: 6 - 11 pm

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. PLEASE ADVERTISE WIDELY.

CHECK OUT: https://www.facebook.com/events/563445090342037/

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: #audrelordeslegacy2013

YORK UNIVERSITY SPONSORS: Community Arts Practice, Office of the Dean; ACE and the Seminar Series in Equity and Diversity at FES; Faculty of Health; Centre for Feminist Research at York University and Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies

YORK UNIVERSITY DIGITAL MAP: http://www.yorku.ca/yorkweb/maps/KeeleMap.pdf

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO SPONSORS: Women and Gender Studies; Principal’s Initiatives Fund at New College; Equity Studies; Caribbean Studies; Humanities, Social Sciences and Social Justice Education, OISE; Centre for the Study of the United States; Sexual Diversity Studies; Anti-Racism and Diversity; Status of Women; Cinema Studies; Canadian Studies

CONTACT:
anique.j.jordan@gmail.com
or
Honor Ford-Smith, PhD.
Associate Professor
Community and Environmental Arts
Faculty of Environmental Studies
280, HNES Bldg
York University
4700 Keele St,
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

phone: 416-736-2100 X22629
fax: 416-736-5679
Global outrage, Local “meh?”

February 8, 2013 • Jenna MacKay

While I home for the holidays I watched the 6 O’clock news with my mom. The local station highlighted the Indian protests against violence against women in response to the woman who was gang raped and beaten. A young protester was interviewed and stated the rates of sexual assault in India. I cannot remember the statistic, but it would have been alarming to the average viewer and was framed in sensationalized terms. My goal with this blog post is not to diminish how alarmingly the incident in India is. I think we should all be outraged and taking to the street. My goal is to show that we in Canada are not that different, that violence against women is a global crisis and we need to be outraged about the violence happening in our own communities too.

According to a CNN article a woman is raped every 22 minutes in India. The article went on to describe what is “wrong” with Indian society, and how sexual violence in India is a national crisis. In case you were unaware, violence against women is an international crisis and oppression, sexism and rape culture are alive and well in North America too.

People should be outraged and driven to action by what happened in India. However, I am angry at how this story has been taken up by North American press. Descriptions of the gang rape have been sexualized, sensationalised and framed as “Other.” Violence against women has been rationalized through a racist and colonial lens, where India is less civilized and less equitable.

Generally speaking Canadians do not recognize the violence we all perpetuate. I often wonder why we are we not rising up in support of our own women and children. Why we don’t even seem to acknowledge how widespread violence against women and children is in Canada. For instance, Bridget Takyi was stabbed and burned to death in the streets of Toronto this week and the public response (especially that outside the Ghanaian community) has been minimal. The invisibility of Bridget’s death is inseparable from classism and racism. If a woman was stabbed and burned in a middle-class white neighbourhood there would have been more public accountability.

Violence against women is not the result of the “Other.” It is not perpetrated by strangers. It is not an uncommon phenomenon. It is not the result of the mentally ill. It is not only endemic in non-western countries. According to Statistics Canada:

• Every minute a woman in Canada is sexually assaulted.
• Every 17 minutes a woman in Canada is raped.
• Every 6 days a woman in Canada is murdered by an intimate partner.

Our statistics of rape are not that different from India’s. In response to what CNN described as being “wrong” with India, Canadian society and its institutions also blames the victim and we lack full gender equity (with gender equity measures being eroded as we speak). We also do not have adequate social and institutional responses to sexual assault and the majority of assaults go unreported. When sexual assault is reported the perpetrator is rarely held accountable.

Through my anti-violence work I am aware of sexual assault trials that failed to result in a conviction despite clear evidence - where a child was accused of provoking their stepfather, where a woman severely beaten and raped was accused of participating in BDSM and where a video-taped alcohol-facilitated gang rape was dismissed because “boys will be boys.” These anecdotes are not anomalies.

Research has demonstrated that gender equity, the institutionalization feminist-informed policies and the long-gun registry are strong predictors of preventing violence against women (Johnson & Dawson, 2011). Unfortunately, our government has been doing away with gender-equity and our long-gun registry has been dismantled. While we look south and critique America’s lack of gun control, we should be mindful that our long-gun registry was quietly scrapped with little recognition or consultation from anti-violence advocates.

I encourage you to challenge depictions of violence that frames the issue as one that is a problem of other countries and/or cultures. We should question how Canadian society perpetuates, creates and maintains violence against women as the individual and structural level. Let us be outraged and organize about violence against women everywhere. Let us acknowledge gendered violence and hold perpetrators accountable.
The 5 ‘W’s and the ‘H’ of the Anti-Oppression Framework

February 4, 2013 • deb singh

The Anti-Oppression framework is a tool to see how people experience oppression in the world and a way for us to stop it. This blog will outline some of the basics of what the anti-oppression framework is, how it is used by/against people and how we can use it as a tool for supporting people in our own communities.

What is Anti-Oppression?

Anti-oppression is a way of thinking about the world as well as a tool to use to see the world. Anti-oppression is “a tool to understand and respond to the complexity of the experience of oppression” (B. Burke and P. Harrison, Communication, Relationships and Care: A Reader, 2003). Anti-oppression is a way of naming oppression that happens against certain people, based on their identities, and then a way to work toward ending that mistreatment, oppression, violence toward that particular group.

More specifically, anti-oppression identifies the experiences of people based on their race, their gender identity, sexual identity, their physical and mental ability, their choice of religion, their class background (whether growing up poor, working poor, working, middle or upper class), their physical appearance (fat or thin), and the list goes on. It also is a way to challenge the ways people are treated based on these identities. For example when a woman is treated in a sexist way or a person of colour experiences racism.

Who is affected by Oppression and Anti-Oppression?

(Anti-)oppression affects everyone. Anti-oppression includes all people, those who experience oppression, and those who experience privilege, which can be all of us at some point or another. In particular, (having) privilege means people who experience advantages in the world based on their identity. The following are some examples of oppression, identity and privilege. (more inside…)
MyMSG: We all need positive messages

January 29, 2013 • Guest Blogger

by Afi Browne

For the past 10 months I have been working with Springtide Resources, an agency committed to ending violence against women and everyone who faces oppression, such as queer and trans people, people with disabilities, Deaf people, immigrants and refugees. Along with four other youth and our project coordinator we have been creating curriculum around our own experiences of oppression and using that curriculum to encourage youth to create positive messages to counteract the racist, xenophobic, fatphobic, homo and transphobic , classist and ableist messages we receive in our lives. This is the MyMSG Project.

Teenage years are rarely easy. For me, they were intense. Apart from dealing with terrible acne and trying to keep on top of my grades and extra curriculars, I was harbouring a secret. I was—I am—queer. Let me give some more context. I was born and raised in Trinidad and come from a strict Pentecostal family - my parents are pastors, their parents were/are pastors. Being a homo is considered an abomination. I was petrified of going to hell and scared of telling my parents lest they exorcise me…again (yes you heard me, I had a pre-emptive exorcism when I was a child to rid me of the family’s gay curse) - so I told no one for a while. I did not have many friends when I was 14 and having all these feelings. I certainly did not feel safe coming out at my all-girls Christian school where there were many assemblies that were dramatically pro abstinence and highlighting of “the danger of the homosexual lifestyle.”

I was doing a good job of hiding my queerness until I met GIRLS! There was this girl at school, captain of the volleyball team, all around bad ass who introduced me to cutting class and helped me strategize around my parent’s strict rules, getting me to pool halls, bars and discos. With one smile she had undone me, I was silly putty around her. She always wanted me to brush her hair while she rested in my lap during lunch and our “free” periods. I of course was delighted! We would take naps together lying in each others’ arms. I loved her so much.

Things were going all right ‘till the rumours started. My crush quickly publicly distanced herself from any homo suspicion by limiting our naps and announcing that she had a boyfriend, who was older and drove a fast car. I was crushed. (more inside…)
That’s Rockist! A racialized experience of listening to western rock music Part I

January 28, 2013 • Raisa Bhuiyan

flash photography (http://senkrada999.tumblr.com/)

Worn out leather jackets.

Black skinny pants.

Studded accessories.

Groupies. Lots of groupies.

Cowboy boots.

Unkempt hair.

Glamourous makeup.

Despair.

Joy.

Smashing guitars in hotel rooms and getting caught in Tokyo for trying to smuggle marijuana into Japan.

These terms and phrases reflect only some of the things that have come to inform the public imagination about what makes up the image of a rock star.

its not only rock and roll! (toxicomano @ flickr: http://www.flickr.com/people/toxicomano666/)

While a careful and thoughtful analysis of pinpointing the precise social, economic and cultural factors for why rock music in the West suddenly became so pretentious deserves a completely different blog post altogether, I believe it can arguably be said that there are indeed certain elitist values, beliefs and stories that contemporary western rock music romanticizes and perpetuates.

Some of these stories include believing that western rock music is the only “pure” form of music out there since it doesn’t involve the use of manufactured, artificial, lip-synched or auto-tuned sounds like all the other music of today.

In this kind of story, there is the assumption that western rock music is far more superior in form and content because it is “more raw.” After all, the singers sing and write their own songs and heck, these artists must have toured dive bars for years, so they must be good because the people of dive bars really know good music!

Another story told about western rock music is that it is THE MUSIC of youth rebellion, despair and sadness.

You can’t really be as sad as you say you are if you haven’t listened to that infinite Cure playlist I made for you last week.

In my opinion, the most frustrating story told about western rock music is that if you don’t know and internalize everything there is to know about a particular band that you like (how they formed, what went into making each album, where they are now), then you’re not really a “good” or “true” fan. (more inside…)
The Comfort of Queer Family Wisdom

November 20, 2012 • Elisha Lim

I think that last year was one of my most humbling years. I’d become used to a certain level of respect and dignity, and when I lost it, I was kind of floored. I left my home of Toronto. Toronto - where I had been part of the majority. I was an immigrants’ kid, I was university educated, I knew lots of activist jargon and where to shop for shoes.

But last year I moved to Quebec. I also fell in with a clique of nationalist French Canadians. That complicated cultural puritanism deserves its own article. But what I experienced is a universal problem: being unwelcome. I didn’t speak enough of the language. My opinions were routinely undermined. I was told that I didn’t belong. I was ignored and overlooked. This would be stressful for anyone, and it felt even more stressful when I was usually the only person of colour in the room.

It’s a kind of isolation that lots of people face, because of racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, so many reasons. But it was new to me. I started to think - it must be true - I must be parasitic and unworthy. My self-esteem sank.

In the past I had wondered if my activism had been too cheesy. But once I moved to Montreal I realized that no activism is cheesy. If someone is really isolated, it means so much to have someone fight for you, and to document your experience.

That’s what these books, and these people, did for me: Barbara Cameron and Mitsuye Yamada talked about racism in the 1979 book This Bridge Called My Back. Richard Fung remembers challenging the white art establishment in “13 Conversations”. Punam Khosla fought for queer Asian visibility during Desh Pardesh. Rae Spoon made trans love songs on youtube.

(Elisha Lim)

I absorbed these precious books and moments like sunshine. They gave me back my strength and dignity.

Now I’ve illustrated these people and their quotes. I hope that they find their way across queer homes everywhere so that no matter where you are, you will find them, and know that you are not alone.

Buy it for yourself or for a friend from my etsy store. Spread the word. These are members of our queer family legacy, and a promise that you belong to something bigger.

(Elisha Lim)

WIth love, Elisha.
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Toronto event: TORTURE AS PUBLIC TRUTH: The Case of Omar Khadr

November 12, 2012 • Julia Horel

University of Toronto Equity Studies Students’ Union Presents…

TORTURE AS PUBLIC TRUTH: The Case of Omar Khadr
Lecture by Sherene Razack, Phd.

http://www.uoftessu.com/tortureaspublictruth

[free lecture followed by Q&A session]

In this lecture, focusing on the torture of Omar Khadr, Sherene Razack will explore how torture comes to be a public truth in democratic regimes. How is torture written on the social body?

How does a practice so extreme come to be seen as a necessary part of our everyday world, a world in which even the spanking of children is regarded as grievous harm? She suggests that torture as practiced today by liberal democratic states in the West (often aided by elites in the East) unites the West against the East, turning the globe into a militarized zone.

Torture is thus a racial practice that gives birth to white identities; identities experienced as simultaneously racial and national. As the story of the torture of Muslims circulates in the West, energizing some citizens and providing them with a heightened sense of their own racial superiority, it performs a psychic violence on those of us too easily racially identified with the tortured, reminding us of our own precarious status in the political community.

***

Thursday, November 22, 2012 6:30PM
Lash Miller, Rm 162
(80 St. George St.)

Refreshments and food will be served.
ASL interpreters are available.
Venue is wheelchair accessible.
Gender neutral washrooms are also available.

For more information, please contact ESSU at uoft.essu@gmail.com