Dialogues
Essential Work, but Disposable Workers?
Saturday, May 1, 6:00-8:00PM
Long before the pandemic hit, essential workers and labour organisers were denouncing the inadequate, if not deplorable, working conditions in their sectors, stemming from a lack of funding, resources and planning, as well as social inequalities arising from systemic racism and gender disparities. A year into the COVID-19 public-health crisis, these problems have been worsened by a neoliberal response that prioritises private interests and profit over the health, safety and wellbeing of frontline workers. This panel brings together workers and organisers from the long-term care, education, temporary and migrant labour sectors to discuss the impact the pandemic has had on them.
Money Moves: 超时工作, A conversation
Thursday May 13, 7:30-9:00PM
Workers are organizing to win better conditions for themselves and their colleagues, but this can only happen if workers feel they have community support. Given the upsurge in anti-Asian racism and the importance of grocery workers in the context of COVID-19, supporting this work is increasingly important. Edward Hon-Sing Wong, the Chair of the Chinese Canadian National Council - Toronto, describes Money Moves as one such show of support; solidarity expressed through a collaborative art performance. Taking up space in grocery stores without permission from the owners, the making of Money Moves was perhaps equally subversive.
Join the makers of the film as well as members of the Chinese Canadian National Council to discuss the filmmaking process and further ways we can support new migrant grocery store workers.
Illustration by Michael DeForge. Originally commissioned by Briarpatch Magazine
Organize Amazon!
Saturday, May 15, 1:00-2:30PM
The realities are stark: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos added almost $100 billion to his net worth during the pandemic, while nearly 20,000 employees tested positive for Covid-19.
Amazon’s profits are made possible by the labour of poor and racialized warehouse workers, but also by the company’s lucrative technology contracts with police and border agencies.
How can we intervene? This conversation brings advocates for Amazon employees into conversation with cultural workers to discuss organising strategies.
“Art against precarity” (2017) by Tzazná + Queso
Looking back, looking forward: Collective organizing in the arts & culture sector
Tuesday, May 25, 6:00-7:30PM
Long before the pandemic, systemic labour issues in the creative sectors were pushing artists and activists to collectively and collaboratively organize. Installers, artists, curators, arts administrators, and other cultural workers face work precarity in the form of underpaid, unpaid, unprotected, and insecure work. This is doubly true for Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, racialized and/or low-income workers seeking job security, safety and access. As these very issues are now being compounded by the pandemic, recognizing ‘artists-as-workers’ and ‘workers-as-artists’ is as important as ever. From advocacy to community building, this panel brings together cultural workers from Toronto, Vancouver and New York City experienced in collective organizing. The panelists will share challenges brought on by the pandemic, issues relevant to their members, and reflections on the future of labour justice. Learning from each other, panelists will exchange strategies on how to shift the balance of power in the arts.
unpruned tomato vines: a conversation
Friday, May 28, 6:30-8:00PM
In the summer of 2019, Tea Base transformed what was once a pile of bricks sitting in the Chinatown Centre mall courtyard into the Anti-Displacement Garden; a place that welcomed public use and community gathering. In historically immigrant and working class neighborhoods across North America, surveillance and gentrification are happening hand-in-hand and making our cities less livable. In the face of attempts to police and price-out Black, Indigenous, racialized communities, Tea Base experiments with actions that nurture solidarity and nourish community power. Join Tea Base organizers and artists Christie Carrière, Hannia Cheng, Jason Li and Florence Yee for exchanges on art-based collective action and reflections from the Coast-to-Coast Chinatowns Against Displacement Week of Action.
Music
ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: DJ Heebiejabi
Sunday, May 9 - Saturday, May 31
Nooria Alam aka Heebiejabi is a Toronto-based Afghan DJ and organizer. She’s been spinning tunes for progressive organizations across the city for the past three years and is passionate about using music as a tool to bring people together in the name of revolutionary love. In 2020, Heebiejabi was scheduled to perform at the annual Mayworks Festival that was cancelled due to the pandemic. We encourage you to check out Heebiejabi’s artist page and enjoy her public, digital mixes until we can meet, dance, and celebrate the joys of solidarity together.
Choeur Maha
Tuesday, May 25 - Saturday, May 31
Choeur Maha is a bilingual, feminist choir based in Montreal. Established in 1991 by Kathy Kennedy, Choeur Maha promotes social justice through music and provides choral education to a community of singers. Under the artistic direction of Megan Batty, we sing a varied repertoire including folk, pop, contemporary, and experimental music, and we privilege works by female and genderqueer/non-binary artists. Choeur Maha is known for its high energy performances and a decidedly non-traditional take on choral music. The choir has been a pillar of support for women’s choral music in Montreal, and has been involved in many multi-disciplinary projects. Some of our recent concerts centred around the themes of Resistance and Revolution, and this year's repertoire explores the theme of Labour in all senses of the word.
Gosford Fire
By Lyrical Flips and Beny Esguerra
Monday, May 17 - Monday, May 31
Produced by Wheel It Studios, the video features Lyrical Flips and Beny Esguerra in a song they co-wrote called "Gosford Fire". The song was written after the terrible fire that engulfed the Driftwood community building (Jane Finch, North York) where one person died and hundreds were left homeless in November 2019.
Join the musicians to learn more about Wheel It Studios and participate in a Q&A
Thursday, May 20, 7:00PM
film
Abra (2018) By Hiba Ali
Runtime: 5 minutes
Saturday, May 1 - Monday, May 31
Ali, in their video, Abra (2018), is in conversation with Amazon’s customer-obsessed mascot, Peccy. Their discussion about working-class labor, surveillance, and bubbles (economic, social and soap filled), literally paints the video orange. They contend that orange is the contemporary color of labour and surveillance, it is racialized and classed.
Hiba Ali is a panelist at the Organize Amazon! dialogue happening on Saturday, May 15 from 1:00-2:30PM
Money Moves 超时工作 (2019)
A Mayworks Premiere
Runtime: 6.22 minutes
Saturday, May 1 - Monday, May 31
A roving performance that considers the toll of wage theft on the body. Created by artist En Lai Mah, MoneyMoves: 超时工作 makes visible what is too often unnoticed: the labour of immigrant workers who put food on our tables. Mah collaborated with elderly grocery store workers to create a performance that is inspired by their work. The resulting performance tells the story of one worker in particular, 56-year old Mr. Bao, who is fighting for compensation after being injured on the job. Subverting the repetitive routines of gruelling work, the performance draws on movement and martial arts to resist feelings of immobility in the body. Filmed in grocery stores across the city, the performance calls grocery workers to find the physical and emotional strength required to stand up to their bosses.
MoneyMoves: 超时工作, A conversation
Thursday, May 13, 7:30-9:00PM
9to5: The Story of a Movement (2019)
Runtime: 119 minutes
Presented with AMAPCEO
Sunday, May 2, Tuesday, May 4 and Saturday, May 29
The 1970s saw an explosion of women’s participation in the workforce. Many were low paid clerical workers who were typically considered the “office wives” of their male supervisors. A group of secretaries in Boston began organizing for better pay, more advancement opportunities and an end to sexual harassment. With their unconventional approach, a movement was started and 9to5 evolved into the largest membership organization of working women in the United States.
Join an intimate Moderated Q&A with 9to5 organizers on Tuesday May 4th, 7:00-8:00PM.
Sorry We Missed You (2019) by Ken Loach
Runtime: 100 minutes
Sunday, May 9 - Sunday, May 16
Ricky and his family have been fighting an uphill struggle against debt since the 2008 financial crash. An opportunity to wrestle back some independence appears with a shiny new van and the chance to run a franchise as a self employed delivery driver. It's hard work, and his wife's job as a carer is no easier. The family unit is strong but when both are pulled in different directions everything comes to breaking point.
SICKENING (2020)
by Roya DelSol
Runtime: 2.22 minutes
Monday, May 17 - Monday, May 31
Sickening is an experimental performance piece following ballroom performer & designer Ebony Knowles as she uses raw material and sheer determination to metamorphose from her natural state to otherworldly up-and-coming ballroom runway legend.
THE FUTURES OF SPACES (2021) BY HANNIA CHENG
A Mayworks Premiere
Monday, May 31
A short film documenting the love and care that goes into the Chinatown Anti Displacement Garden happenings this year. Take a peek into Tea Base and Friends of Chinatown Toronto’s (FOCT) third year of placemaking in Chinatown Centre's courtyard, how we organize, what vegetables we decide to grow, and all the unexpected stories that unfold along the way.
The Words We Can’t Speak By Lindsay McIntyre
Wednesday, May 26
The screenplay, based on the true story of the writer's grandmother, is set in 1936 Nunavut, within the labour dynamics of the Hudson Bay Company, members of an Inuit community, and the RCMP. When a seasoned Inuk translator bravely amputates a Qallunaat (white) woman’s injured leg but fails to prevent her death, she becomes unwelcome in her community. In search of acceptance and a better life, she leaves the Arctic for the white man’s world on a dangerous 1800-mile journey by dog sled with her young daughter and an over-confident RCMP Constable, who fancies her for his wife. Unprepared for their journey together or their arrival, they encounter life-threatening difficulties and a serious clash of cultures. Festival audiences are invited to join for the last two hours of the workshop to listen to a final read through, followed by a Q&A with the writer.
Visual art & encounters
unpruned tomato vines
A digital exhibition in partnership with Tea Base
Saturday, May 1 to Monday, May 31
What was once rubble barricaded by fencing in Chinatown Centre has been transformed by Tea Base and Friends of Chinatown Toronto (FOCT) into a community garden. In unpruned tomato vines artists Christie Carrière, Hannia Cheng, and Florence Yee share stories from the Chinatown Anti-Displacement Garden and trace the role of collective action and communal imagining in challenging forced displacement. Both Christie Carriere’s digital illustrations detailing the origin story of the garden and the premiere of Hannia Cheng’s short film tracing the garden’s growth will be available on VR Tea Base; an online community arts space created by Jason Li. Meanwhile, Florence Yee’s hand copied posters about the futility of rest can be found on physical street corners of Tkaronto and on the festival website.
Museum and Labour History with Brooke Downey
Tuesday, May 4 - Monday, May 31
As an emerging museum professional, Brooke quickly became interested in labour issues facing the cultural sector. Based on her own experiences in the non-profit sector, as well as union movements happening in the U.S. and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was inspired to write a series of articles on museum labour with an intersectional lens. For Mayworks Festival, she will be taking this approach to the broader cultural sector and addressing labour issues which pervade for workers in the field. As problems cultural workers in Canada face are continuously obscured and ignored, the hope is for these articles to serve as a starting point for public conversations and actions that benefit all workers.
In the Water with Maggie Flynn
Guided Collaborative Research Session
Wednesday, May 5, 7:00-8:00PM
Performance
Thursday, May 27, 7:00-8:00PM
In the Water is a research and performance project that outlines the interconnections between extractive industries and arts institutions in Canada. The space of performance offers a moment to consider the impact of extractive industries on our material world, our economy, and platforms for artistic expression in Canada.
