Day 3: Embodying the Intersections: Indigeneity, Race and Disability

Embodying the Intersections: Indigeneity, Race and Disability is a full day of soulful and political-embodied exploration along the intersections through the use of movement, reflexive discovery, and engaged discussion. Audiences are invited to participate and immerse themselves at self-selected entry points throughout the day’s events; some of which comprise a journey through words, a race in and out of entanglements, offerings of soulful laments, and minimal steps toward political action.

Welcome to the Shot Club

Members of "Welcome to the Shot Club" on stage at Cripping the Arts. From left to right, Aus Bahadur, CheZZa, Trace Motivate, David Soloman, and George Quarcoo. They are holding up small red shot glasses.

Vanessa Dion Fletcher, lying down while performing

Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt

A photo of Vanessa Dion Fletcher performing “Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt.” She is lying on her back wearing sparkly copper pants and a black jacket, with her eyes closed and her hands resting on her abdomen.

Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt

A photo of Vanessa performing “Finding Language.” She is kneeling in front of a chair in the front row of the audience, with one hand resting on the cover of a Lenape dictionary, and the other hand holding her phone.

Vanessa interacting with an audience member during her performance.

Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt

A photo of Vanessa performing “Finding Language.” An audience member is holding a tote bag that says “WOMEN WIMMIN WOMIN WOMYN,” and Vanessa is pointing at the words while she reads them. She is holding her phone as a camera projecting the tote bag to the wider audience.

Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt

A photo of Vanessa from behind, holding open a English-Lenape dictionary. Her finger is running down the page as she tries to find a word.

Participant notes from Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt

A photo of a note card with a number of handwritten English-Lenape translations. The note card has an image of Vanessa’s quill art on it. [I can write out every word for this if you like, when we actually put it in the catalogue] - here it would be useful to distinguish between the prompts I provided and peoples answers.

A note card with handwritten questions and answers.

Participant notes from Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt

A photo of a note card that says “Fire - tindow. - Find a word that changes [answer] life - find a word you thought was boring but is not [answer] dirt - a word that makes you feel good [answer] (puppy, blanket) - a word with so many meanings” The note card has an image of Vanessa’s quill art on it.

Minimal Action

A photo of claude wittman performing at Cripping the Arts.

Minimal Action

A wide shot of claude wittmann speaking to the crowd during his performance.

A photo of claude wittmann and Simlâ Civelek.

Minimal Action

A photo of claude wittmann and an audience member, Simlâ Civelek, holding hands.

A photo of hands holding a postcard from claud's performance.

Participant notes at Minimal Action

A photo of hands holding a postcard from claude's performance.

Archive: Live Streaming Day 3

0:34:24 - Elder's Welcome with Mona Stonefish (Bear Clan)
0:49:51 - Presentation 1: Mad Race
2:56:39 - Presentation 2: Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt
4:12:31 - Presentation 3: Welcome to the Shot Club
5:31:07 - Presentation 4: Minimal Action
6:35:02 - Closing Remarks with Dr. Dolleen Tisawii’ashii Manning

Note: This video features open captioning on a large screen beside the speakers. These videos are not captioned nor are they ASL interpreted.

Workshop 1: Mad Race

In and out of entanglements, we are always on the go, on the go, on the go. Fast heartbeats and heavy breathing in fits and starts, there is always something that needs to get done. Perpetually on the move, positioned against time, space, political malignancy, and in a race to death. A race against life itself. What am I? Mad Race is an embodied exploration of the intersections of race, Indigeneity, and Disability.

Loren O. Delaney is an Education Consultant, Artist and Program Curator, incanting and reclaiming the creative power in Mad Arts across places, people, and spaces. On their downtime, Loren can be found advocating for a multiplicity of social justice issues and communing with the wonders of life.

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. Syrus uses drawing, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture. Syrus is a core-team member of Black Lives Matter Toronto and of BlacknessYes!/ Blockorama. Syrus is a PhD candidate at York University.

kyisha williams is a Black, queer, femme artist and health promoter. Working in film and movement, kyisha works within Black/queer/trans/disabled young/racialized/criminalized communities, accurately portraying the realities of these communities on-screen. kyisha fuses art with health promotion, creating socially relevant content that discusses health and promotes healthy sexuality, and consent culture.

Workshop 2: Finding Language: A Word Scavenger Hunt

I’ve lost my words. Some of them are stuck in little boxes in my brain, in drawers that won’t open. Some of them are in the mouths of my Indigenous ancestors. This work stems from my experience of language, colonization, and disability. I have devised a Scavenger Hunt looking for words to help us tell our stories. Making note cards embroidered with porcupine quills, I invite you to hear, feel, and see some of my experiences with language and share some of your own. This event is the culminating project of my year in residence with Bodies in Translation.

Vanessa Dion Fletcher is the 2018 Bodies in Translation Artist In Residence. She uses performance and textiles to reveal the complexities of what defines a body. These themes are brought together with her Potawatomi and Lenape ancestry, and her learning disability. She graduated from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago (2016).

Workshop 3: Welcome to the Shot Cub

Welcome to the Shot Club will Crip the stage, bringing their hour-long Sunday night podcast, filled with liquid courage, soul, and unapologetic honesty, to a stage and live audience. With five 30-something Hip Hop artists, armed with drinks in hand, and invited guests sit down to have an unapologetic discussion about Black pain, Hip Hop as Mad Arts, music, and the implication for the arts and the entertainment industry in Canada.

DJ Bailong is profoundly influenced by Hip Hop and Reggae music. Bailong, which means The White Dragon, comes from his experience living overseas in China, where he set out to introduce Reggae music through DJ-ing. Now in Toronto, he continues to work on collaborative projects focused on diversity and inclusion.

Peter Owusu-Ansah is an observant thinker and visual artist. Because he is Deaf, seeing is how he captures the joy of life. He spent years observing art throughout history. He is always wondering what is next. That’s what he seeks and finds through being creative.

Shot Club group picture

GMTM, whether he’s in a three-piece suit or jeans and a custom Shot Club Versus Everybody sweatshirt, you can always count on GMTM to add a little bit of spice to the show. Or as he would say “that adobo sazon.” Host of the Welcome to the Shot Club’s on-the-spot segment The Drop, GMTM takes to the street to interview unsuspecting guests at live events, parties, and concerts.

David Solomon is a recording artist and multi-faceted entertainer. Born in Calgary, raised in Brampton, he began his music career, later adopted by Rexdale and then Weston. He has penned two poetry books; an LP, created Fly Crown Ltd. and teamed up with Welcome to the Shot Club.

CheZZa, born and raised in Northern Ontario, has experienced a life many people from his background could only imagine. That’s what drove him to take everything he has learned, experienced, and lived and put it into his music, so that you can experience everything he has gone through in his life.

M.O. Littles is a live performer whose energy is contagious, performing hundreds of shows across Canada, the U.S., South America and Europe. He most recently took the top spot in the hip hop category in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and penned the theme song for a reality show: The Fashion Hero.

George Quarcoo is a professional runner, DJ and producer, holding the 100-metre and 200-metre Canadian National record in the T12 Mens Sprints. A talented DJ, spinning records to events across Ontario with versatility and a taste for eclectic sounds, his beat-making spans multiple genres, supporting diverse Toronto artists.

Netisha Edwards-Ragguette, a Deaf Consultant, is a Graduate from Ryerson University with a BA in Disability Studies. She brings a wealth of experience and understanding, innovating advocacy, inclusion and diversity, with a deep commitment to creating communities with people of diverse abilities.

Workshop 4: Minimal Action

claude wittmann will intervene through his attention for the systemic violence enacted by our last resort social assistance system. He will invite us into a bilateral process informed by maximal self-care while aiming at a real-life response to the latest changes to social assistance as announced on November 22nd, 2018. The process will be inspired by MINIMAL ACTION which ended on October 31st, 2018, with the delivery of a package of stories/letters/ opinions by individuals with lived experience of poverty and disability, and a few allies into the hands of Minister MacLeod.

claude wittmann: transman living with what is defined as disability; bicycle wheel builder with a PhD in molecular biology; has contributed to performance art since 2006. His most recent art project states through postcards that his concepts failed his hopes. Now acting his artistic process and ethics against systemic oppression.