Research Statement
My art practice is grounded in what I call grassroots cultural practices: approaches and methods of cultural and knowledge production that do not come out of art or academic institutions, but rather emerge from the lived experiences of marginalized communities as a form of resistance and/or healing and/or self-representation. As a practising artist who did not have access to formal arts education (I did not go to art school, I lack the BFA and the MFA), my creativity and artistic inclinations came out of survival: art as a need, not a luxury. My skills were largely learnt through self-teaching, trial-and-error, and the benevolence of QTPOC (queer, trans, people of color) community members who skill-shared their knowledge of everything from screen-printing to knitting to body-based work. My art practice emerged from the DIY cultures of zine-making, spoken-word nights in humid basements, Youtube tutorials and cheap wig drag.
My art and my creativity also emerged from my elders and the generations of women of colour in my family whom I saw get-by on a daily basis, finding ways to take care of their families despite not knowing how to read and write, but whose wealth of knowledge about the world was deep, intelligent, and premised on their own lived experiences. These are the women who came out of servitude and learnt to navigate patriarchy and colonialism on plantation islands.
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There is a common understanding of “real” and “valuable” knowledge-production, intellectual labour and research as that which occurs in academic settings, in libraries and research centres (“The Ivory Tower”). My work is located in “grassroots” knowledge and cultural production: I believe that marginalized communities are “experts” of their own lived experience and that they have a tremendous amount of resources, skills and knowledge that they generate individually and collectively, and that they pass on from generation to generation as a form of survival, community resistance and celebration. These are the pedagogical skills and tools that structure my art practice, and that allow me to honour the tenacious self-determination and resilience of the queer, trans, radicalized and migrant communities to which I belong.
Within the context of the P. Lantz Initiative Artist in Residence Program, my approach will be centred around creating conversations between the institution and community-based knowledge, McGill University and tio’ia:ke/Montreal grassroots arts, academia and non-academic sites of knowledge production. I will do so by engaging the students and Faculty of the Department of Integrated Studies in Education with the following projects: “Thinking Through Power: arts-based approaches to anti-oppression“ (Fall 2016), “FREEZE! micro-aggression ahead!” (Fall 2016), “From Thick Skin to Femme Armour” (Winter 2017), “Self-Love Week“ (Winter 2017), and “My Body Is the Ocean” (Winter 2017), and other ad-hoc short-term projects. Each of these projects engages with my practice as a performer, poet, visual and studio artist, and each acts as clusters around which I will be facilitating workshops, giving artist presentations, writing critical pieces and hosting exhibits and performances. I will also be available to intervene (through workshops, presentations etc.) in classroom settings to generate dialogue between these projects and specific course content.
Thinking Through Power: arts-based approaches to anti-oppression
“Thinking Through Power: arts-based approached to anti-oppression” is a series of 3 workshops that I have researched and designed in the first month of my artist residency at the Department of Integrated Studies at McGill University. Each of the workshop seeks to engage with power through explorations of testimonies, solo body-work, collective body-work, meditation and story-telling. I am grateful to Dr. Mindy Carter and Dr. Claudia Mitchell who gave me the opportunity to explore these themes within the context of their courses.
The first workshop I designed and facilitated was in a 300-level class called “Curriculum and Instruction in Drama Education” (EDEA 342-001). The workshop, “Telling Stories & Embodying Identities,” explored the relationship between the body, story-telling, and the stories that can be told and cannot be told. Through discussions, physical exercises, meditation and body-work, I facilitated a space for the 35 participants to perform solo and group work, to critically reflect and self-reflect on how we each carry stories of dis/empowerment within our bodies.
The second workshop I facilitated was in a 200-level class called “Communication in Education” (EDEC 203-003). The workshop, “Identity & Power: thinking about anti-oppression through the arts” sought to equip the 30 participants with basic tools to think and communicate about identity and power. We first unpacked understandings of identity, oppression and power as they relate to each of the participant’s lived experiences. We also applied different pedagogical tools to unpack and comprehend the articulation of power at systemic, collective, cultural, socio-political and inter-personal levels. We used techniques of testimony, story-telling and body-work to understand the multiple ways in which we embody power and oppression through our multiple identities. The workshop allowed the participants (who were all so keen and generous with their insights) to meaningfully engage with nuanced articulations of power and how these dynamics specifically play out for them in the classroom as future teachers.
The third workshop I developed and facilitated was in a 600-level class called “Advanced Applied Methods: Teaching Secondary English Language Arts” (EDTL 630). The workshop, “The Stories Only We Can Tell: on truth, poetry & empowerment,” sought to engage with story-telling as an aesthetic, social, cultural and political practice. Focussing on story-telling practices from the margins, the workshop developed and articulated an understanding of story-telling (through the use of words, bodies, sounds, rhythms, music etc.) as an emancipatory narrative tool for marginalized communities. I walked the 15 participants through the relationships between story-telling, identity and power, and the multiple ways in which story-telling is imbricated with power (whose story is being told, who is allowed to narrate stories, which narrative is definitive etc.). We also discussed Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s talk, “The Danger of a Single Story,” and we put into conversation Lily Myers’ piece “Shrinking Women” with my own piece, “Zom Fam.” The participants were deeply engaged and connected the material concretely to their own situations as individuals and as teachers.
On the whole, the responses to these workshops have been excellent. The students engaged with the material with an honesty and openness that allowed us to work through challenging questions together. Through the use of arts-based practices, we unravelled systemic and personal understandings of power, we explored our own positions of power/privilege in different contexts, and we garnered an understanding of intersectionality. I believe these workshops have initiated hard and much-needed conversations that will not only impact the students in their learning at McGill, but also in their roles as teachers and educators.
SPEAK B(L)ACK
A Black History Month spoken word show
SPEAK B(L)ACK is an evening of spoken word, where we open the stage for self-identifying Black folks to rhyme, to spit, to lash out, to rant, to rap, to let their voice boom across winter skies, to breathe in, to breathe out, to cry, to laugh, to make us laugh…
The featured artists will open the show, which will be followed by an open mic! Any self-identifying Black person may perform any form of spoken word (slam, story-telling, oration, rap etc.), and trans, gender non-conforming, femme, queer, neuro-diverse and disabled Black folks are particularly encouraged to take the mic!
SPEAK B(L)ACK is an opportunity to speak black and to speak back. SPEAK B(L)ACK is also a response to Michèle Lalonde’s nationalist poem “Speak White.”
Co-presented by Kama La Mackerel, Artist in Residence, P. Lantz Initiative for Excellence in Education and the Arts, the Social Equity and Diversity Office (SEDE), the Black Students’ Network (BSN), and MASS (McGill African Studies Association).
The Self-Love Cabaret
“The Self-Love Cabaret: l’amour se conjugue à la première personne,” now in its 5th year, is an anti-Valentine’s artistic manifesto that seeks to challenge consumerist, capitalist, normative & nationalist aspects of Valentine’s Day in an attempt to celebrate oneself and the love for oneself, as opposed to the celebration of coupledom.
Join these (mostly queer and trans) artists of colour for an evening of explicitly feminist, queer, anti-racist and anti-colonial performances! There will be poetry, music, dance, interactive pieces and a few surprises. The evening will be hosted by Kama La Mackerel.