The following blog post is a sum up of thoughts and feelings after three-day Engrenage Noir / LEVIER-sponsored event entitled How Many Slaves do You Own? Art and the Economies of Exploitation, Past and Present.

The entire How Many Slaves? weekend was a jumble of breakthroughs and new learnings for me. I saw, heard, and experienced so much in those three days in March that sometimes I thought I might explode. There was a tremendous amount of thought, compassion and reflection present in the room at all times and I found that it was so powerful for me to be around. I left the weekend feeling optimistic and hopeful, despite the fact that we had spent three days exploring really difficult issues.

I walked out the doors of the MAI on Sunday late afternoon with more questions then I did when I walked in. One of the central questions inside me was, and still is, “How many slaves do I own? How do I fit in to this system of oppression? And furthermore, how do I go on knowingly perpetuating things I do not like or agree with while at the same time wanting to live my life, be happy and fulfilled and make inner and outer change?” These are challenging questions that I have definitely not finished answering completely - nor do I think that I ever will be, however, being apart of this weekend event definitely pushed me in certain directions, as well as helped me to re-affirm certain things.

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In the following blog post I discuss how the three-day Engrenage Noir / LEVIER-sponsored event entitled How Many Slaves do You Own? Art and the Economies of Exploitation, Past and Present helped me to deal with feelings of anger. I explore how art and anger can be intertwined and how I have dealt with this in the past.

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ART THREAT Culture + Politics is an internet platform dedicated exclusively to information about art and culture from a political angle. Its volunteer team of writers discuss and disseminate art that challenges and influences our society. The link to the ART THREAT Culture + Politics official website can now be found on our resources page. We invite you to explore and enjoy the work of this team by clicking here.

On June 21, 2010, we lauched a contest to create the logo that will promote the Montreal Urban Aboriginal Community Strategy NETWORK, a contest that targets submissions from the Aboriginal artist and culture community in Quebec.

The artist or graphic artist will win a prize of $500.00 offered by the NETWORK.

For more information, clic here.

You have UNTIL AUGUST 13, 2010 to participate at the Montreal Urban Aboriginal Community Strategy NETWORK LOGO CONTEST.

Can you please, send this information about the NETWORK logo contest extension to all your contacts and on your web site… and if it’s possible can you please, invite more specifically artists and graphists that you know.

Good luck and may the inspiration be with you!

This past week has been very interesting, especially speaking with the indigenous people from the Tembé tribe who I met a second time away from the hustle and bustle of the IDEA Congress. It was a great honour to be talking so directly with the Tembé Chief – I got to hear firsthand of his community’s struggles such as the poor health of many of his community members: people are dying of malaria and are not getting enough medical attention. During this second meeting – which lasted about one hour (in the presence of other Tembé community members as well as Moe Clark, Émilie Monnet, Martha Steigman and Devora Neumark) – the Chief talked about the importance of the connection with the land; that is the way that his people have survived. I shared with him how our community’s customs are linked to the land also and I spoke of how the Canadian and Quebec governments have been trying for years to break that connection.

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Belém, Para

Where do I start?

When I arrived in Brazil, the fly in was very beautiful… seeing the Amazon Forest, the green, all the nature from above… seeing the body of water and the different routes that it takes into the land… I just looked at it as being very rich in forest. Entering Belém was totally different… it got a little noisy and the smell of the city wasn’t very pleasant – it is a smell I dislike.

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It has already been several days since we were in Belem but the congress didn’t really begin until 2 days ago. It was hot - a little like Montreal during the last heat wave. The congress was held in different places in the city: at the university, in the casa de Linguagem downtown, in different theatres… The locations were separated. We had two choices - take expensive taxis or take the local bus. Two participants were pickpocketed.

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From July 17 to October 2, 2010, the streets of Buenos Aires will be filled with puppet shows, produced by 18 different theater companies from Argentina, Russia, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Colombia. The festival is an initiative of a community group theater - Grupo de Teatro Catalinas Sur - and results mostly from volonteer work. This event focuses on bringing theatre in the neighbourhoods and streets of children who are marginalized from cultural activity.

For more information about Titeres al Sur:

Official Website

Article in the Buenos Aires Herald

Document de présentation (français)

Presentation Document (English)

Documento de presentaciòn (español)

For any information about the contest, please click here.