All in Guest Writer series

Who Speaks

Who Speaks

Gavin John
Inspiring Stories, Guest Writer series, Artist Perspectives

July 25th, 2022, was a historic day. When Chief Wilton Littlechild placed a headdress onto the head of Pope Francis following the pontiff long awaited apology for the Residential School system, the response was immediate. A cacophony of cheers and applause radiated from the thousands in attendance at Ermineskin Cree Nation. Yet almost immediately, a single voice would rise to challenge the act. A Cree woman from Winnipeg by the name of Si Pi Kho, with tears in her eyes and a song on her lips, marched forward to confront the Pope.

Who’s the Audience Anyway?

Who’s the Audience Anyway?

Rukhsar Ali
Artist Perspectives, Guest Writer series

What does performance mean to you? Is a live performance for everyone? Or does the nature of live shift depending on who is in the audience?

Rukhsar Ali is an arts journalist who is fascinated with how perceptions of race and culture intersect with popular media. In this piece, she shares how cultural factors impact the relationship between creator and audience.

Falling in Love with a City

Falling in Love with a City

Lia Pereira
Artist Perspectives, Guest Writer series

Almost every immigrant has a "love at first sight story" with Canada. I'm not one of those.

When I landed here for the first time it was on one of those -30 degree weeks, cloudy, with dirt and snow-covered roads. For over a week the sky would stand white, the wind cutting through my flesh straight to the bones and all the layers of clothing gave me were rashes and muscle pain.

Why do people live here? That was all I could think.

The Audacity of Consciousness - Existing within a void of social and cultural awareness

The Audacity of Consciousness - Existing within a void of social and cultural awareness

Lisa La Touche
Artist Perspectives, Behind the Scenes, Guest Writer series, Inspiring Stories

Tap Dance is my trade. It gives me great joy, a sense of purpose and belonging as Black woman in North America. It has brought me to the jazz bandstand, the Cotton Club and even to Broadway all while extending me the privilege of accessing depths of a culture’s history. It is an African-American art form, born through the oppression of slavery, yet miraculously thrives worldwide today. Let’s be clear, I started recreationally in the suburbs of Calgary, like most do here, and Tap Dance is often still a punch line for those who ask, “So, what is that you do for living?” I’ve learned, now, that the best way to respond is to ask the following, “When you think of Tap Dance, what is it that you think about?”

Clearing the smoke when the smoke doesn’t rise: Revisiting the Performance of Blackness with JustMoe

Clearing the smoke when the smoke doesn’t rise: Revisiting the Performance of Blackness with JustMoe

Sue-shane Tsomondo
Artist Perspectives, Guest Writer series, Inspiring Stories

In my piece How Can I Be Myself when Strangers are Watching? Performing Blackness and Black Joy, I spoke of how a white audience by its very presence transforms performance art by black artists, turning an expression into an exhibition – an execution. It’s a crime for which I have convicted Canadian born and or raised Black artists. But I don’t know what it’s like to grow-up in a place as a minority. So, I asked my friend if I could walk a mile in his shoes.

A Rose for Remembrance

A Rose for Remembrance

Claudia Chagoya
Artist Perspectives, Guest Writer series, Visual and Media Arts

Unveiling her exhibition A Rose for Remembrance / Una Rosa Para Recordar in the Ledge Gallery at Arts Commons this month, Claudia Chagoya is deeply interested in gender dynamics and how they impact culture and belonging. In her piece, she examines how ingrained, misogynistic assumptions is the root to much of the violence against women, and shares her hope that we can strive for a safer, more inclusive tomorrow.

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