ABOUT
Founded in 1986, Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts is a community-based festival which annually presents new works by a diverse and broad range of artists, who are both workers and activists. Our programming presents bold, insightful, responses to pressing issues at the intersection of art, social justice and labour.
Mayworks prioritizes the representation and participation of artists and audiences from communities facing systemic discrimination. We encourage works rooted in the reality of working people’s lives that advance the struggle for improved working and living conditions. Mayworks operates within an anti-oppression framework. We are actively engaged in a social dialogue that challenges the logics of capitalism, and seeks to reimagine and represent a just future.
*Donations can also be made via e-transfer to festival@mayworks.ca
Mayworks is situated upon the traditional territories of the Wendat, Anishinabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. We recognize the enduring presence of Indigenous peoples on this land. Toronto is located on the Dish With One Spoon territory, a covenant created between the Haudenosaunee and the Anishinabeg nations, designed to both share and replenish the resources of this land.
Acknowledging this covenant asks us to consider our collective responsibility past, present and future, and to take seriously the teachings of the Indigenous peoples of this land as we move forward. We support the right to self determination of Indigenous people around the world.