Celebrating the joys of solidarity.
The works of the 2021 Mayworks Festival emerged in the midst of a global pandemic that has further exposed the violence of racial capitalism. From the organizing efforts of factory workers at Amazon to the hidden connections between the extractive industries and our cultural institutions, artists and organizers shared their insights and reaffirmed the possibilities of collective action.
Click the poster below to see the full 2021 Festival Archive.
Many artists in our 2021 Festival were scheduled to participate in last year’s NGHTSHFTS program, curated by former Mayworks Executive Director Farah Miranda, which was cancelled due to the pandemic. We invited those artists to re-imagine their pieces for a virtual festival, and we are grateful for their artistic resilience and creative responses. We thank Farah Miranda and Erin Howley, former Mayworks Education and Public Programming Lead, for bringing these artists into the Mayworks community. While we meet apart, we continue to strive for the power of the collective. We thank all the participating artists, as well as all of the Mayworks staff and board members who have made this year’s festival possible.
9 to 5: The Story of a Movement
Film & Dialogue 9to5: The Story of a Movement (2019) Co-presented by AMAPCEO Runtime: 119 minutes Recording of the Mayworks guided Q&A with 9to5 organizers Screening: 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 […]
ABRA
ABRA April 1- May 6, 2020, 2019 Whippersnapper Gallery 594 Dundas St W ABRA is a video installation that centres working-class labour, surveillance and socio-economic bubbles. In a storefront installation, artist Hiba Ali presents a fictional conversation with Amazon’s orange-coloured mascot, Peccy. In this scene, the colour orange represents both labor and danger. As a […]
Choeur Maha
Music 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 […]
Essential Work, but Disposable Workers?
Dialogues Essential Work, but Disposable Workers? Saturday, May 1, 6:00-7:30PM 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 […]
Gosford Fire
Music 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) […]
Heebiejabi
Music ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Heebiejabi 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 […]
IN THE WATER
IN THE WATER MAY ?? Maggie Flynn will present In The Water, a work-in-progress that connects the dots from the lands and communities where resource extraction takes place, to the profits gained by oil, gas, or mining companies, their personnel, and then on to the boards and sponsors of arts and culture organizations. This work […]
Latin@merica: Embedding Bodies and Localities
Visual Art & Encounters Latin@merica: Embedding Bodies and Localities In partnership with Sur Gallery Saturday May 1st to Saturday, May 29th, 2021 Through a series of installations at Sur Gallery and interviews available on the Mayworks website, Latin@merica: Embedding Bodies and Localities offers the possibility of rethinking how traditional place-based affiliations and notions of cultural […]
Looking back, looking forward
Dialogues Looking back, looking forward: Collective organizing in the arts & culture sector “Art against precarity” (2017) by Tzazná + Queso Tuesday, May 25, 6:00-7:30PM Register here 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 […]
Mayworks 2021 Wrap Video
Mayworks 2021 Wrap Video Edited by Rami Accoumeh with music by Naomi McCarroll-Butler, Julien Bradley-Combs, Evan Ng, Jen Lo and Leighton Harrell.
Money Moves 超时工作 (2019)
Film MoneyMoves: 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 […]
MoneyMoves: 超时工作, A conversation
Dialogues Money Moves: 超时工作, A conversation Thursday, May 13, 7:30-9:00PM ASL Interpretation and Mandarin translation is available. 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 […]
Museum and Labour History
Visual Art & Encounters Museum and Labour history with Brooke Downey 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 […]
Organize Amazon!
Dialogues 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 […]
Sickening (2020)
Film 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. Link available at mayworks.ca on Monday, […]
Sorry We Missed You (2019)
Film 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 […]
The Words We Can’t Speak
Film The Words We Can’t Speak By Lindsay McIntyre Actor Table Read Workshop The Words We Can’t Speak is a screenplay in progress by writer and filmmaker Lindsay McIntyre. 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 […]
unpruned tomato vines: A Conversation
Dialogues 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, […]
unpruned tomato vines: A Digital Exhibition
Visual art and Encounters unpruned tomato vines A digital exhibition in partnership with Tea Base 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 […]