2010 PROGRAM CALENDAR
| Saturday April 24 | Sunday April 25 | Monday April 26 | Tuesday April 27 |
| Wednesday April 28 | Thursday April 29 | Friday April 30 |
| Saturday May 1 | Sunday May 2 | on-going |
Saturday April 24
Homage to the Heart and Scouring City, Brushing Sky
Saturday April 24 - Thursday April 29, Free
Opening Reception: Saturday April 24, 2 pm
Q&A: Saturday April 24, 3 pm
Beaver Hall Artists Gallery, 29 McCaul Street
Brenda Joy Lem’s grandfather opened the first hand laundry in Oshawa around 100 years ago. This physically grueling, relentless work during the time of the depression and the years of the Chinese Exclusion Act made family life at the Ontario Laundry far from ideal. Meditating on themes of memory, class, family history and the enduring heart, Homage to the Heart was developed from oral histories, told to her by her father and her aunt. Four prints, focusing on the lives of the women in the family, were selected for this exhibition.
Scouring City, Brushing Sky is a community arts project of Red Tree and c3 collective with community partner Working Women Community Centre and union partner Service Employees International Union. The project expresses the important social contribution, hopes and dreams of women who work as cleaners in Toronto, part of the invisible workforce. Project participants including Liliana Chavez, Jamesha Durrant, Alba Mondragon, Patricia Quiroga, Maria Teves, Beatriz Salazar, Noemi Valle, along with former participants Griseldina Camilo, Luz Vazquez and Sandra Gonzales came as immigrants and refugees in search of safety and a new life for themselves and their families. Many women who work in cleaning are non-unionized, racialised and low-income, and often cannot negotiate good working conditions or living wages.
Red Tree and c3 collective would like to thank the Canada Council Inter-Arts Office and Ontario Arts Council’s Community Arts Office Artists in the Community/Workplace Program for their support of Scouring City, Brushing Sky project. Co-presented with Beaver Hall Artists Gallery.
Many Years Later and WARCHESTRA
Saturday April 24 - Saturday May 22, Free
Opening Reception: Saturday April 24, 4 pm
Artist Talks: Saturday April 24, 5 pm
Toronto Free Gallery, 1277 Bloor Street West
Many Years Later is a visual project composed of two intertwined events captured by photographer Marcos Arriaga. The first project is a series of black and white photographs taken between 1986 and 1987 in Lima, Peru where Arriaga worked as a photojournalist for the weekly magazine Amauta. These documentary-style photographs present a social and political record of protests by union workers and popular organizations. The second part of the exhibit is a video installation chronicling the Days of Action by union and community members in Ontario against the conservative government of Mike Harris from 1995 to 1996. While recently reviewing this video footage, Arriaga observed a compelling thematic continuation to the images that he captured in Lima more than two decades ago.
WARCHESTRA is a multimedia series about war and culture, of visual and sonic components. Initiated as a painting series aimed to combat the stereotypical image of Arabs in the western media, the project has evolved into an act of empowerment through culture, highlighting the cultural heritage of the Arab peoples. Sundus Abdul Hadi’s position as a cultural producer of Iraqi origin has informed the work’s desire to highlight culture amongst the backdrop of war. Pianist Stefan Christoff (Montreal), trumpeter Jason “Blackbird” Selman of Kalmunity Vibe Collective (Montreal), lyricist The Narcicyst (Montreal), poet Suheir Hammad (Palestine-USA) and spoken word artist Ahmed Habib (Toronto) are amongst a hand full of artists that provide a soundscape to Abdul Hadi’s collaged paintings.
Sundus Abdul Hadi would like to thank the Conseil des arts et des lettres, Québec for its support of the WARCHESTRA series. Marcos Arriaga would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for its support of Many Years Later. Co-presented with Toronto Free Gallery.
Sunday April 25
Family Fun Day!
Sunday April 25, 10 am-12 pm, Free
Fixt Point Studio, 1550 Queen Street West
This year, Family Fun Day serves up entertaining storytelling and raucous noisemaking! We are joined by Cammy Lee, who was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario. In writing children’s stories, Cammy draws from her own experience growing up as a very visible minority in a small southern Ontario town. She hopes that her stories and accompanying illustrations will entertain and delight young readers from all walks of life. Clare Nobbs loves telling stories to listeners of any and all ages. She is equally comfortable sharing songs and finger play in a room filled with 6 year-olds as with presenting storytelling and communication workshops to groups of adults. To round out the morning, Drum Artz Canada will provide Family Fun Day participants with boom whackers, egg shakers, plastic buckets, tambourines, bells and other small instruments to create percussive harmony! Drum Artz Canada is committed to making music and arts programming accessible to all people, with a focus on children.
Voices From the Crisis
Saturday April 24 – Sunday May 16
Opening Reception: Sunday April 25, 2-4 pm
The Raging Spoon, 761 Queen Street West
The work of artists is one of the ways we as workers share our history, our struggles and our victories. Since the beginning of time art and culture have sustained our sense of dignity, equity and respect. They have given us another way to dream something better and they fostered a spirit of understanding and resistance. Ultimately the arts help define a working class culture to showcase our lives and our concerns as workers, community members and union members. Voices From the Crisis showcases the work of a diverse set of workers form the Canadian Auto Workers, as they struggle with the crisis in manufacturing and the economy.
Co-organized and co-presented by the Canadian Auto Workers.
Monday April 26
24 Days in Brooks
Monday April 26, 7 pm, $5 suggested
Gallery 1313, 1313A Queen Street West
At Lakeside Packers, one of the world’s largest slaughterhouses, former Congolese diplomat Sa-Eva Katusevanako spends his workday picking bits of bone and fat from meat. He is one of hundreds of foreigners in tiny Brooks, Alberta that within a decade has been transformed from a once homogenous white town, into one of the most diverse places in Canada. Directed by Dana Inkster, 24 Days in Brooks centres on the 24 days of the first-ever strike at Lakeside Packers, and shows a nuanced portrait of people working together and adapting to change.
Co-presented with the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, Night at the Indies and Gallery 1313.
Tuesday April 27
So The Story Goes
By Swell
Tuesday April 27, 8 pm, $12-$20 s/s
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street
Advance Tickets: Toronto Women’s Bookstore, 73 Harbord Street
SweLL is the (re)iteration of Taste This, notorious Vancouver-based queer performance troupe that co-authored Boys Like Her: Transfictions. With over a decade of artistic experience and numerous books, CDs, performance, video and radio works to their individual credit, “cultural agitator and fab femme (NOW)” Anna Camilleri “natural-born storyteller (Globe and Mail)” Ivan E. Coyote and “musical genius (Xtra)” Lyndell Montgomery initiated SweLL to create So The Story Goes, for which they are joined by visual artist Leslie Peters whose work has been described as “abstract colour-field paintings (Globe and Mail).”
A lot has changed since Taste This exploded onto the cultural scene, but the issues that the early collective inhabited continue to be relevant – questions of gender, sexuality, desire, culture and class, rural and city life and kinship. Home stories. Queer tales. True, except when they’re not. Stories that swell and implode the spaces between cultural institutions and queer landscapes; between female and male; between tightly produced performance and kitchen table talk.
Organized and co-presented by Red Dress Productions. Co-sponsored by CAW Ontario Queer Caucus, CUPE Ontario Pink Triangle Committee, OPSEU Rainbow Alliance and Steel Pride, Local 1998. Red Dress Productions gratefully acknowledges production support for SweLL through the Ontario Arts Council Multi-Arts Program.
Wednesday April 28
Day of Mourning Ceremony
Wednesday April 28, 12 noon, Free
Nathan Phillips Square, City Hall, 100 Queen Street West
A centrepiece of festival programming is cultural presentations at work sites and union conferences across Toronto. On April 28 Truth Is will perform a specially commissioned work for Toronto’s annual Day of Mourning, a ceremony to remember workers who have been killed or injured on the job and at the city’s worksites over the last year.
Co-sponsored by the Toronto and York Region Labour Council and the Workers Health and Safety Centre.
Pink Ink Zine Launch
Wednesday April 28, 7:30 pm, Free for youth, $5-$10 s/s for adults
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West
Come celebrate Pink Ink’s annual zine launch with writing and ranting by talented queer and trans youth! Hosted by Karine Silverwoman and Joseph Soobram. Pink Ink is a weekly creative writing drop-in facilitated by queer community artist and activist Karine Silverwoman. Pink Ink is a program of Supporting Our Youth and Sherbourne Health Centre and is sponsored by the Toronto Arts Council.
Stick around for Elle Niño, co-founder and DJ of queer hip hop jam Yes Yes Y’all, spinning hip hop, R&B, reggae, electro and 90’s classics. This is an all ages event – everyone’s invited!
Organized and co-presented by Pink Ink.
Thursday April 29
Dynamite Writing Workshops!
With Ami Mattison, Anna Camilleri and Ivan E. Coyote
Thursday April 29, 6:30-9 pm, $10
The 519 Church Street Community Centre, 519 Church Street
Registration required: call 416-599-9096 or email registration@mayworks.ca
Performing as part of the festival, this year Mayworks is pleased to bring together this powerhouse trio of writers to offer three different writing workshops. If you’ve ever wanted to fine-tune your writing, feel shy about performing it or have something to say but don’t know where to start, these introductory workshops will provide a supportive and fun environment to start.
Participants will choose from one of the following three workshops: 1) memoir writing with Ivan E. Coyote; 2) entering writing with curiosity and creative license with Anna Camilleri; 3) performing your poetry with Ami Mattison. At the end of the night, participants from all three workshops will gather together to share, feedback and debrief their workshops.
This is an opportunity to meet and work with three accomplished, highly prolific artists all under one roof in a dynamic and inclusive environment.
All are welcome, but space is limited, so sign up soon!
Mayworks thanks the Canada Council for the Arts, Visiting Foreign Artist Program, for making Ami Mattison’s presence possible. Mayworks also thanks the 519 Church Street Community Centre.
Friday April 30
From Margin to Centre
Friday April 30, 7:30 pm, $5-$15 s/s
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street
Adopted, queer, female, sex worker, of colour, missing, HIV positive, poor – all of these ‘marginal’ identities and experiences take centre stage in tonight’s program.
Jewish, queer community artists and activists Karine Silverwoman and Alexis Mitchell dedicate their piece Fifty Plus Women to the missing women in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. Fifty Plus Women is a collaborative performance that incorporates song, poetry and landscape to capture the eeriness of the women’s murder and the outrage of the women’s disappearance from public consciousness. This piece is an intimate and sensual expression of personal experience and an exploration of vulnerability and resilience. Spoken word artist, musician and comedian Zena Lord will share an excerpt from her one-woman show Soooooo White. It is a humorous and sometimes painful glimpse into her childhood experiences as a black child growing up in the early sixties, in a white foster home, in a small white town outside of Montreal. She searches to find a place and purpose in a world where she wants to be invisible. This piece is an intimate portrait of identity that artfully weaves spoken word, stand-up comedy and music to unfold a story of self-acceptance. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, aka Belladonna, is a prolific word slinger, working in the arts as a playwright, director, vocalist and performer. Belladonna will be performing works from her repertoire and a reading from Oh Sudanah, a new play in development that examines patterns of HIV infection in small communities. Visiting artist Ami Mattison, from Michigan, is described as “a spoken word force to be reckoned with” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) and “Defiant, poignant and straightforward, Mattison’s work hits you where you live and cuts to the very core with a razor sharp edge of rage at the policies of exclusion, apathy and greed that permeate our society… Mattison tackles the issues of poverty, homophobia, gender issues and civil rights with an unparalleled ferocity that challenges even the most stalwart of opposition (Out and About).” Come and hear what all the fuss is about!
Mayworks thanks the Canada Council for the Arts Visiting Foreign Artist Program, for making Ami Mattison’s presence possible.
Saturday May 1
It Will Work!
Saturday May 1, $10-$15 s/s
Doors: 7:30 pm | Show: 8:30 pm
The Garrison, 1197 Dundas Street West
Mayworks invites everyone to the closing night of the festival to celebrate 25 years with an unforgettable May 1st extravaganza! This year, we mark a historic day by shining the spotlight on the struggles, successes and strength of working class peoples, migrants, undocumented and temporary workers, by joining No One Is Illegal-Toronto and the Canadian Labour Congress Ontario Region in presenting musicians, dancers and artists who will ignite the stage with dance, words and music to provoke thinking as well as dancing and laughter! It will work!
Our line-up begins with Jamaican-born activist, art educator and spoken word artist/dub poet Deidre “DLishus” Walton who is known for her passionate and humorous performances that are delivered with unique rhythmic finesse. Joining us again is MataDanZe, an independent Toronto based interpretative dance group that will perform No One’s Con. Next up will be Mama D, whose powerful tenor voice will narrate stories to tunes that challenge all the rules of songwriting and work. Also presented will be the energetic vibes of LAL, a collective of musicians that describe their truly distinctive sound as a fusion of international folk and electronic protest music. Joined by acclaimed bassist Brandy Disterheft , the celebrated acoustic duo Marinda and Solari will showcase their unique sound that can be described as a blend of world-folk with jazz. From there, Red Slam Collective (Spoken Lyricism which Arranges Meaning) will present a multi-disciplinary set, made up of poetic song-stories infused with hip hop, rez blues, powwow reggae and drum talk. Appearances can be deceiving, and Toronto based artist Humble The Poet has used every misconception and assumption about him to amplify his message to the masses. We will also be joined by Amai Kuda, a singer/songwriter whose name means ‘mother to the will of the creator’ in the southern African Shona language. Our MC will be Deena Ladd of the Workers Action Centre, and we will close out the night with a local DJ!
Co-organized and co-presented by No One Is Illegal-Toronto and Canadian Labour Congress Ontario Region. This celebration follows the May 1, No One Is Illegal! National Day of Action. For more information on No One Is Illegal’s Day of Action, check out toronto.nooneisillegal.org/MayDay. Also, to find out more about G8/G20 organizing visit peoplessummit2010.ca.
Sunday May 2
Future Folk
By Sulong Theatre Collective
Sunday May 2, 2 pm, $5-$10 s/s
Fixt Point Studio, 1550 Queen Street West
Over the course of 45 minutes, the play Future Folk will allow the audience to live through the 24 months of service required by Filipino ‘nannies’ under Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP).
Dedicated to the development of the Filipino-Canadian artistic community, Sulong Theatre Collective, consisting of Karen Ancheta, Aura Carcueva, Romeo Candido, and Catherine Hernandez, has created a jaw-dropping, heart-breaking play about the strength and dignity of female caregivers under the notorious LCP. Using traditional Filipino folk elements such as dance and music, the lives of these remarkable women come alive with every foot stomp and every chant. All it takes are three malong (traditional, hand-woven skirt), four of the most talented Filipino artists in the city and thousands of years of tradition.
The play will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Martha Ocampo, founding member of Caregiver Connections Education and Support Organization and with panelists Filipina Aldaba from the Independent Workers Association, Pura Velsco, a former domestic worker and organizer with the Caregiver Action Centre and Nancy Prieto of Migrante.
Sponsored by Caregivers Action Centre.
ON-GOING
Bookends: We Move the City
Saturday April 24 - Saturday May 8, Free
Bookends is an annual Mayworks exhibit that displays visual art in the storefront windows of two independent bookstores, Another Story Bookshop and Toronto Women’s Bookstore. The curatorial theme, We Move the City, summons work that responds to the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) recent 25¢ fare increase. Effectively requiring TTC riders to pay $3 per ticket is challenging for many TTC riders to bear the expense of using public transportation, particularly poor and working people. The works exhibited for Bookends speak to the importance of public transit for communities, workers, families and the city’s countless residents who rely on it to meet their everyday needs and its role in helping combat the isolation and alienation common to a big city such as Toronto.
The Flying Streetcar: A Symbol of the Campaign for Employer-Subsidized Metropasses
Ann Clifford with UNITE/HERE Local 75 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local
113 Another Story Bookshop Window, 315 Roncesvalles Avenue
As commutes to and from work grow longer and more expensive, Ann Clifford along with members of UNITE/HERE Local 75 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 believe that employees and their families should not have to pay the price. In a joint effort to fight for employer subsidized VIP (Volume Incentive Plan) Metropasses, these Locals have already convinced 14 Toronto-area hotels to make safe and green transportation more affordable for their workers. The symbol of their campaign, The Flying Streetcar, aims to encourage employers throughout the city to continue to support the struggle for affordable, accessible and green public transit.
Co-presented with Another Story Bookshop.
Picture Dis: A Look Through the Eyes of the Young Women of Lawrence Heights
Alicia Alexander, Farhia Hirad, Ladan Omar and Hanan Osman
Toronto Women’s Bookstore Window, 73 Harbord Street
Lawrence Heights, like many of Toronto’s low-income neighborhoods, is notoriously difficult to navigate. Therefore the issue of movement was an obvious topic of reflection for Alicia Alexander, Farhia Hirad, Ladan Omar and Hanan Osman who live, work, and play in the neighborhood. Facilitated by Debra Friedman and Ashley McFarlane, the four young women of Caribbean and African descent showcase a collection of photographs under the title Picture Dis. The display ultimately provides a welcome alternative to popular media’s image of a “priority neighborhood” as viewers get a visual glimpse into the personal and everyday experiences of residents who have a strong sense of community brimming with vibrant youth.
Co-presented with Toronto Women’s Bookstore.
