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2024 Mayworks Festival

Welcome to the 39th Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts.

This year we feature twenty artists, each of whom engages, with compassion, in the spirit of collective power.

From responses to inaccessible health care in Ontario to a fight for dignity among migrant workers in Quebec; from capturing the alienation of injured workers in Toronto to classist land grabbing in Pakistan; from an analysis of radical protests against resource exploitation in the Caribbean to clarifying the long-lasting impacts of French colonialism, and to witnessing, now, the endurance of Palestinian political prisoners; the artworks narrate our joint struggles.

The exhibitions include multi-channel video, sculpture, textile art, installation, video, website creation and virtual landscapes. We also present live music, performing shadow puppets and curated film screenings.

There are participatory workshops, informed panel discussions and intimate artist talks.

Please join us.

May 26

Riots, Rebellions and Anti-Colonial Formations

Film screenings and moderated discussion

May 26

What Is A Body Worth? Artist Talk, Shadow Puppetry and Song

With Kristine White and Jesse Corrigan

May 25

A Garden and a Library: Planting Workshop

With Atanas Bozdarov and Disability Justice Network ON

May 22 - May 31

A Garden and a Library

Installation by Atanas Bozdarov with prose by Shulamit Sappire

May 18

Mending Workshop (Hamilton)

With Camila Salcedo, a part of Labour Pains curated by Emma Steen

May 18

Study Circle & Artist Talk with Julianna A.S.

Hosted by Caribbean Solidarity Network

May 16

Let Me Get You An Orange! Evening Salon

With Sean Lee, jes sachse and Parkdale Community Legal Services, a part of Labour Pains curated by Emma Steen

May 12

Mending Workshop (Toronto)

With Camila Salcedo, a part of Labour Pains curated by Emma Steen

May 11

Trans-Pakistan Zindabad (Long Live Trans-Pakistan)

Performance-panel with Umber Majeed, Hiba Ali, and Asad Alvi

May 10 - July 27

Labour Pains

Group exhibition with Camila Salcedo, Peter Morin, Sean Lee, Birdie Gerhl, curated by Emma Steen

May 10

Labour Pains Opening reception & Dialogue

With Peter Morin, Isaac King and Emma Steen

May 9

Who’s Afraid of Labour Justice?

Poetry workshop with Furqan Mohamed

May 8

Law at Work: The Coercion and Co-option of the Working Class

Book launch with Harry Glasbeek

May 5 - July 26

What Is A Body Worth?

Exhibition by Kristine White with Nazanin Zarepour

May 4 - July 26

Banging the drum

Research project by Julianna A.S. with exhibition essay by Tamara Jones, a part of When Did You Wake Up And Realize It’s All A Game?

May 4 - May 31

When Did You Wake Up And Realize It’s All A Game?

Installation by Julianna A.S. with exhibition by Tamara Jones

May 3

Healthcare as a Workers Right

Panel, celebration and performances

May 1 - May 31

Dil Dil Trans-Pakistan (Heart, Heart Trans-Pakistan)

Virtual Exhibition by Umber Majeed

May 1

Richelieu (2023) directed by Pier-Philippe Chevigny

Film screening and discussion

May 1 - May 31

Threaded Together

Poster by Cleopatra Peterson