Le 400e: Missing History in Québec's year-long "celebrations"

by Donovan King, Optative Theatrical Laboratories Radical Dramaturgy Unit

An analysis of Quebec's 400e Celebrations from a post-colonial viewpoint, related to the subject matter of OTL's Sinking Neptune.

It can be read online in PDF format here:

http://optative.net/library/kings400eanalysis.pdf

Sinking Neptune runs tonight at 11pm at La Maison de l'amitiee, 120 Duluth East, no cover, voluntary contribution

Artivism infiltrates Montreal during the Infringement Festival!

by Maria-Hélèna Pacelli, The Talking Stick

When I sat down to write this article, I had a series of brilliant punchlines that I knew were only interesting to myself. But this article really isn’t about punchlines. It’s about how we construct and deconstruct ideas surrounding activism and art and all the intersectionalities that convergence entails.

The evening kicks off with La toune a Landriault playing in the background.

In the midst of an exhibition of political works of art entitled Non à la paix, ça ferait trop de chômeurs, the debate begins.

If art can be loosely defined as creative production and activism can be loosely understood as intentional actions that are meant to raise awareness or bring about social or political change, what happens when you combine the two? The convergence of art and activism raises a number of questions in terms of how we think about art and activism on their own.

The debate hinges on four themes, including legality/illegality, public/private spheres, sponsorship and communications. But of course, it goes on to include much more.

Some would argue that art has always had a subversive component at its heart, and though the expression artist-activism may seem redundant in this optic, it also reminds us of the radical spaces where art comes from. Indeed, there are so many definitions of art and activism surrounding the pseudo-conferences table pieced together from café tables at Le Maître Chanteur, that is becomes almost overwhelming and yet somehow exciting to navigate the different ways that activists envision the practices they share so seamlessly.

Several important questions are raised about the future of these subversive practices and about the ethics involved in building this movement. There is a looming danger of emulating the very structures that we aim to disrupt in our organized efforts to dismantle them. Power differentials remain. The inability to reach the mainstream population through traditional channels seems both challenging and yet almost undesirable. As one panelist explained, “When we don’t participate in the fight, we maintain.”

There is a necessity within activist circles, to recognize that there are fundamentally conflicting visions of the world at odds here. When working on the front of cultural resistance, we must ask ourselves, as another panelist expressed so pointedly, if our goal is create a parallel (alternative) culture, or to deconstruct what is already in place.

As most artists know, empowerment begins from within. We all have the power to change things and reappropriating this power will come from the use of many different methods and practices on a local scale and then sharing our stories and experiences on a larger scale. It’s something that we all carry and share with those around us; it can’t be forced or indoctrinated – and it’s up to us to take it back!

URGENT: Appeal to everyone in support of First Peoples' Festival

Canada Economic Development, a Federal Ministry, has decided to cut the grant annually awarded to First Peoples' Festival. There was no forewarning of this cutback, announced less than four weeks prior to the event. It will have a destabilising impact on the event's activities and is a serious blow for the continuation of the only annual event of international scope devoted to the First Nations in Quebec's major city.

As First Peoples' Festival has a proven record of excellent performance, this decision is very difficult to understand, while other events with greater access to budgets and funding have seen millions pour into their already deep pockets.

Political repression? Influence peddling? A fit of pique on minister Blackburn's part after AFNQL's testimony at the UN? We can only conjecture on the motivations lurking behind this brutal cutback. It seems obvious that the timing and approach chosen are intended to inflict the greatest possible damage on the festival's prospects for survival.

As a first step, we call upon partners and friends of First Peoples' Festival to support our appeal, demanding that the Ministry rescind this unacceptable decision.

Here is a form letter we are asking you to send to the minister concerned, Jean-Pierre Blackburn blackburn.j@parl.gc.ca, with a copy to the Prime Minister's office pm@pm.gc.ca. Feel free to add any personal statements and comments, but at this stage, please remember that the tone must remain polite.

Thank you for supporting First Peoples' Festival

André Dudemaine

Director, Land InSights