Queer Performance Camp 2022

◗ 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the MAI gallery
◗ Free – register here >

Join us for the opening vernissage of les liens with Thierry Huard and Nate Yaffe! The exhibition/installation/intervention will run from February 3rd to 26th, and is free to access from Tuesday to Saturday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Facebook event >

◗ 5 to 6 p.m., ONLINE
◗ Included in the QPC pass >
◗ In English, Te Reo Maori, nêhiyawêwin + whatever languages the spirits want to speak. – French translation via chat

cosmic conduits + freakee devotees 
we assemble at 5:00
prayer begins as light descends (5:08pm)

mythical beings conjured at the in-between 
in tastawayihk-iyiniwak we believe
takatāpui winds animate
their magical voices we receive

somatic sensing commencing
we trance softly and gently
requesting permission from 
celestial, terrestrial + subterranean guardians
to align sacred frequencies

we enchant, incant, body wiggle, spirit squiggle
in a great conjuring of aroha – sakihitowin
we praise intimate kin

What to bring: dress to impress the spirits + bring a small personal towel. No cellphones, come as you would to a ceremony.

ABOUT TEMPLE FOR QUEERS [read more]

Temple for Queers is an offering of frames or conduits for participants to pass through as individuals, and through being together in space.

The invited artists are encouraged to weave their own practices, reflections, and curiosities into the fabric of a facilitated spiritual experience, centering their personal interests, desires, pleasures, and joys, however queer or traditional they may be. 

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ACCESSIBILITY [read more]

Low-key participation is invited, with an invitation to witness, to engage in gentle movements and interact with hanging ice prayer ties. Activating voice is also invited, with space for group voicing and personal expression.

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BIO [read more]

Victoria Hunt and Moe Clark come together to form Weather Beings. As 2Spirit Indigenous artists, we assert our position to reclaim, restore and re/matriate feminine and queer knowledge into our cultural and creative practices. Akin to call & response, we call backwards into the future from our present position in a reciprocal imagining. Using body weather (BW) practice, movement + vocal improvisation, and têwêhikan (drum) song, we examine intersections of our cosmologies and whakapapa/ wahkohtowin (kinships) in Te Reo Maori and nêhiyawêwin (Plains Cree) languages.  

We learn and embody protocols in order to question and transform the binaries they often impose. We reinstate our bodies as agents for change in creative ceremonies that ritualize remembering. Our 2S/ Indigiqueer futures live in our ability to wake up from forced-amnesia through resurgent practices of embodied transmission.

âpihtawikosisâniskwêw (Métis / Nêhiyaw / Norwegian / French / British) multidisciplinary artist Moe Clark is a 2Spirit singing thunderbird. She fuses together vocal improvisation with multilingual lyricism to create meaning that is rooted in personal legacy, ancestral memory and embodied knowledge. Award-winning artist, her last solo album “Within” toured internationally and her video poem “nitahkôtan” won best Indigenous language music video at the ImagiNative film festival. Her work has appeared the world over, including the Lincoln Centre (US), UBUD Writers & Readers Festival (ID) and Origins Festival in London (UK). www.moeclark.ca

Victoria Hunt (ia/she/they)
Iwi/Tribes: Ohomairangi, Te Arawa, Rongowhaakata, Kahungunu, Irish, English, Finnish. 
Born on uncededYugambeh Country, Surfers Paradise, Australia
Victoria traverses the visual and performing arts as a dancer, choreographer, director, photographer and filmmaker. Her work is liminal and reinstates the power of Indigenous creativity within the politics of Rematriation – inserting the body into frameworks of power, for future ancestors. Central to this is Whakapapa (kinship/genealogies), Mana Atua Wahine  (feminine/tapu/energy), Body Weather and IndigiQueer revitalization within creation practices. Her work is a gradual binding of intimate collaboration between artists, elders and communities. She is a founding member of De Quincey Co., Australia’s leading Body Weather dance company. Her award-winning works have toured nationally and internationally to critical acclaim. 

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◗ 7 to 9 p.m., ONLINE
◗ Included in the QPC pass >
◗ In English – French translation via chat

This interactive knowledge sharing session centres around two spirit and the expression of word through writing prompts with participants, as well as some teachings and understandings of two spirit.

“Two spirit has always been a sacred community and spiritual role within Indigenous communities to Turtle Island – as in-betweens, we offer the world a unique view, we bend time and space as the keepers of balance. Our stories, lived experiences and artistic outputs are vital to the healing of Indigenous and queer and gender diverse communities. From poetry, speculative fiction, documentaries, satirical playwriting, erotic paintings, beaded BDSM hoods and evocative dance, we currate and create the unimaginable, the unbelieveable and the impossible, birthing new realities and new ways of exsisting.” – Gabe Calderón

BIO [read more]

Gabe Calderón (they/them, kiin/wiin) is nij-manidowag, ayakwew, puion & îhkwew (two spirit/trans), queer and Mi’kmaq/L’nu, Algonquin/Omamiwinini, Scottish and French Canadian thriving with disAbilities and neurodivergence. They currently live in Treaty 6 territory’s Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton) as an author,  poet, mixed media artist, activist and educator. Gabe has achieved several literary and poetry awards, namely a Lambda Literary Award 2021, an Indigenous Arts and Stories from the Governor General’s Awards in 2019 and 2nd place at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Work 2019. Gabe’s debut novel: Màgòdiz will be released October 2022, the first three chapters are found in “Andwànikàdjigan” in the anthology: Love After the End published by Arsenal Pulp Press. You can find Gabe on Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok: @nishingabe or on their website: www.mokinanconsulting.com.

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◗ 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., ONLINE
◗ Included in the QPC pass >
◗ In English – French translation via chat

Elders hold an important role in the fabric of Queer community. Meeting each other for the first time through this online gathering, this intergenerational duo will exchange and reflect on what came before, what’s happening now, and what’s coming next. 

Participants are welcome to ask questions and join in on the conversation – or listen in, à la podcast!

BIO [read more]

Lenore Claire Herrem is a multi-disciplinary artist from Saskatoon based in Tio’Tia:Ke/Montreal. She has training in theatre performance from the University of Saskatchewan, and currently works in a variety of digital formats including animation, webseries, portraiture, and graphic design. Precious Puppies is a current focus in particular, encompassing an animated series, clothing brand, zines, stickers, and other hand-crafted merchandise. The series began as experimental mini episodes in 2018, and the second full season of the show is currently in production. The Sandy Bridges Show is another multi-faceted project of Lenore’s, produced as both a web series and live event. Sandy Bridges has been an alter-ego of hers since 2009- emcee, stand up comedienne, lifestyle coach, and more. Lenore is also a community events organizer, and co-founded Taking What We Need in 2015, which is a grassroots fundraising and community organization for Montreal’s low-income transfeminine community. Most recently, Lenore was production dramaturg and played “Katie” in the original work “Fruitcake” in Saskatoon with 25th St Theatre.

Lois Weaver is an artist, activist, facilitator, and Professor of Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London. Lois is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow and a Wellcome Trust Engaging Science Fellow for 2016-19. She was awarded the WOW Women in Creative Industries ‘Fighting the Good Fight’ award in 2018. In 2019 she was awarded an International Chair at Artec Paris 8 University at the National Institute for the History of Art, Paris, and the Queen Mary Centre for Public Engagement Hawking Award for Developed Understanding of Public Engagement.
Her work hinges on visibility, challenging convention, and public engagement. http://www.split-britches.com/lois

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◗ 1 to 2 p.m., ONLINE
◗ Included in the QPC pass >
◗ In English – French translation via chat

In short, revitalizing holy spaces using movement, mindfulness and magic will serve as a safe(r) space for participants to excavate below the surface feelings and energy in motion (emotions) through the use of ancient and ancestral practices that can include but are not limited to movement, mindfulness and good ole magic.

ABOUT TEMPLE FOR QUEERS [read more]

Temple for Queers is an offering of frames or conduits for participants to pass through as individuals, and through being together in space.

The invited artists are encouraged to weave their own practices, reflections, and curiosities into the fabric of a facilitated spiritual experience, centring their personal interests, desires, pleasures, and joys, however queer or traditional they may be. 

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ACCESSIBILITY [read more]

Details coming soon – in the meantime, contact us with any questions or concerns.

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BIO [read more]

​​Toni-Anne Fowler (she/they) is a Youth and Cosmique Care Practitioner based in Tiohtià:ke (Montréal). Toni aka Tea co-creates sacred safer-spaces for youth and adults to connect, release and receive care that is intentional, transformative and liberating.

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◗ 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Mon. – Fri.)
◗ Open to artists of all disciplines
◗ Language of instruction: English (Questions can also be asked in  French)
◗ Registration and details here >

DAY RAVE is a collaborative creation process that looks towards rave culture in order to find tools for making choreography together. Inspired by both the collectivity and autonomy of raving during these unprecedented times where particular ways of gathering have been caught up in the fraught frameworks of il/legality, it feels important to consider this space, this culture, as a site of generative possibility. In this workshop, we will spend much of our time dancing alone, or together, cultivating movement practices that stem and originate from our own unique desires, against the desires of those around us. What we make of it, what we do with it, is up for grabs. RAVE CULTURE SHOWS US THE WAY.

◗ 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
◗ Open to artists of all disciplines
◗ Language of instruction: French (Questions can also be asked in  English)
◗ Registration and details here >

Vocal exploration and improvisation session for artists of all disciplines, guided by Gabriel Dharmoo, musician and drag artist who is presenting his show Bijuriya at MAI from March 17-19, 2022.

◗ 3 showings at MAI 
◗ Box office now open > 
◗ Discount offered to anyone who attends a Queer Performance Camp gathering or workshop! 

Gabriel is a music composer and experimental vocalist. Bijuriya is a drag artist engaging with South Asian culture. Gabriel values innovation and risk taking as he navigates Eurocentric artistic scenes. On social media, Bijuriya lip-syncs her way into the hearts of brown queers. Both of them have marginal practices but they have very different audiences. Gabriel and Bijuriya are one person; it’s time to bring them together on one stage. Code-switching between drag, critical discourse and sound singing, this piece celebrates the artist’s brownness through an array of unexpected talents. A quirky yet vulnerable exploration of their inadequacy to fully represent the subcultures they seek to embrace.

◗ Enjoy a QPC edition of #Lachapellelit instead >

Illuminating, raw, honest and hopeful, this debut theatrical work chronicles Vivek’s journey to “not quite” pop music superstardom. A reflection on the power of pop culture, dreams, disappointments, and self-determination, this astonishing performance is a triumph in finding one’s authentic voice.