[espace variable | placeholder] Discussion With rudi aker, Piper Curtis and Faith Paré

As a follow-up to rudi aker’s research undertaken during their “Byte-sized” sound creation residency, [espace variable | placeholder] hosts a Long Table discussion with Piper Curtis (Feminist Media Studio) and poet and performer Faith Paré.

In their residency project a bird in the hand, artist rudi aker combines practices of oral history and the counter-archival to tell a story that intersects family and community history. The discussion will attempt to answer questions such as: How can the medium of sound be used as a creative tool of the counter-archival? In what ways can oral history be subversive through decolonial praxis? What does it mean to tell history from the margins of the public and private?

FORMAT

This discussion takes inspiration from the Long Table format described by Split Britches, inviting audience participation in an open-ended, non-hierarchical way. There will be a long table with chairs at the center of the room. Those in the discussion can sit at the table, and can return to the seating around to listen. The audience is encouraged to consider the above questions and join in the discussion. The panelists will speak for 30 minutes, and then the public will be invited to join the conversation for the next hour of the discussion.

Guidelines for participation will be presented at the event, or <click here for more details>.

The discussion will be held at La Centrale, for gallery accessibility information you can visit this page: https://www.lacentrale.org/en/a-propos/accessibility/  or write to communaute@lacentrale.org.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Faith Paré is a poet and performer of Afro-Guyanese ancestry. She has performed her work at national arts centres such as the Art Gallery of York University, the Harbourfront Centre, and the Winter Garden Theatre. Faith is the curator of the Atwater Poetry Project, a community English-language reading series with a national audience founded in 2004.

Rudi Aker is a wolastoqew auntie, artist, organizer, and curator from St. Mary’s First Nation in Sitansisk (Fredericton, New Brunswick) and, for now, a guest on Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyaang (Montreal, QC). Their artistic and research practices center relationality, placehood, and visibility, with a focus on the traversal of (un)colonized spaces through conceptions of counter- cartographies and barrier-breaking.

Piper Curtis is an intermedial artist, musician, and master’s student in Media Studies at Concordia University in Tiohtia:ke/Montreal. Working under the supervision of Dr. Alessandra Renzi, their research-creation thesis explores the potential of queer Instagram memes as collaborative digital storytelling tools. They are a 2021 FRQSC research grant recipient and currently work as the Technical Coordinator for the Feminist Media Studio.