Performative Lecture: Moe Clark

"nikamon wecâtoskîyakan / song as spirit helper"

Keynote presentation for the Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Showcase.

Please join us for a performative lecture by Métis multidisciplinary artist Moe Clark. This event is co-presented by the Institute for Gender Sexuality and Feminist Studies and the Schulich School of Music. This is a wheelchair accessible venue, and ALS interpretation will be provided. Reception to follow.

Métis multidisciplinary artist Moe Clark is a nomadic songbird with wings woven from circle singing and spoken word. Originally from Treaty 7, she’s called Montreal home for nearly a decade. Moe fuses together vocal improvisation with multilingual lyricism to create meaning that is rooted in personal legacy and ancestral memory. Apart from performance, she facilitates creative workshops; she produces festivals and performances; and she mentors emerging artists. Recently, she launched nistamîkwan: a transformational arts organization with an emphasis on intercultural collaboration.

In collaboration with Katia Makdissi-Warren, Moe co-directs Transcestral: a musical exchange between Indigenous and Sufi musical traditions. Following themes of trance as transformation, they connect in a semi-improvised exchange of music, dance and visual projections. In 2013 she directed the 10th Annual Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Montreal, highlighting Indigenous languages and in 2014 she was nominated Poet of Honour. Together with Cheryl L’Hirondelle and Joseph Naytowhow, their nêhiyawêwin lullaby “nitahkôtân” won best music video at ImagiNative Film Festival in 2015. Moe has two albums of music, a bilingual book of poetry and multiple performance videos. Her work has been featured around the world at the Lincoln Centre (US), Queensland Poetry Festival (AU), Maelstrom Poetry Festival (BE) and Planet IndigenUs festival (CA), among others.