Two participants of the Agir par l’imAGinaIRe project (Carole and Frédérique), as well as the person in charge of the project (Aleksandra Zajko, SEFQ) collaborated together on an episode of the tv show Mise à jour that will be shown this week on the VOX network.  In addition to the report in question, the show has as its guests professionals from the judicial milieu who will assist the viewers in understanding the way the carceral and penal systems work in Quebec.

Show times: Monday, November 2nd at 6:30pm

Replay: Monday, November 2nd at 10:30pm and Tuesday, November 3rd at 12:00pm

Our presentation on Saturday, October 10th, 2009, was on the fight against the criminalization of poverty through artistic creation. We wished to stimulate reflection and a discussion on the vicious cycle that begins when we criminalize the poor and make them even poorer through the use of incarceration. To meet this goal, we invited Genevieve, a participant of the program Agir par l’imAGinaIRe, Paul Litherland, one of the collaborating artists, and Aleksandra Zajko, the Elizabeth Fry Society of Quebec employee responsible for the program. (Johanne Chagnon represented Engrenage Noir/LEVIER).

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Since 2008, Jessica MacCormack (long-standing collaborator on Engrenage Noir/LEVIER’ Agir par l’imAGinaIRe project) is creating a studio space to be used collectively by marginalised and criminalized women. Through her work with criminalized and marginalized women and youth at Crossing Communities Art Project in Winnipeg, Jessica became more familiar with the issues engendered by poverty and criminalization.

In September, 2009, Engrenage Noir / LEVIER joined Jessica’s initiative and offered their Studio LEVIER space and some funding to start up a community art project with former Agir par l’imAGinaIRe participants as well as interdisciplinary artist, Émilie Monnet. The new organization’s first stages commenced in October 2009 (with a prospective start date of November 2009) in the hopes that this project might be the beginning of a collectively-run centre that will initiate new long-term possibilities.

Saturday, October 10, 2009 from 4:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The fight against the criminalization of poverty through artistic creation

Engrenage Noir / LEVIER and the Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec

We wish to stimulate thought and a discussion on the vicious cycle that begins when we criminalize the poor and make them even poorer through the use of incarceration.

How can artistic creation help women in this cycle express themselves on the subject and how can the documenting and sharing of these art projects help change the way that society sees criminalized and/or marginalized people?

Presentations:

Aleksandra Zajko, Development Officer, Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec

Johanne Chagnon, Coordinator, Engrenage Noir / LEVIER

Participants (Criminalized Women and Artists) from the Agir par l’imAGinaIRe Project

Cégep du Vieux Montréal, local CVM, 8.65

*****

Sunday, October 11, 2009 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Participants of the Agir par l’imAGinaIRe project, Engrenage Noir / LEVIER and the Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec

A meeting place in which the participants (criminalized women and artists) of the Agir par l’imAGinaIRe project (community art project in the carceral milieu) join together with the public for a short creative workshop.  This is a moment in which the three parties will come together to break the pre-existing judgements towards poverty and the criminality of women.

Cégep du Vieux Montréal, local 8.82

The Indispensables is a benefit event organized by Les filles électriques to pay homage to the assistants of high-placed managers in companies in Quebec.

Les Filles électriques is an artistic vocational organization that has the mandate of creating, diffusing and archiving works of art related to poetry, the spoken word and performance. It offers a platform to original voices, emerging practices and those coming back into style, but also works to give a place to voices that are traditionally excluded such as those of homeless women.

After close collaboration with the homeless shelters L’Arrêt-Source (2006), La rue des Femmes (2007) and Passages (2008), this year The Indispensables chose to work with the Agir par l’imAGinaIRe project to document the creative process of its participants (criminalized women and artists). A book filled with texts and photographs of the works of art created in this project is underway and should be available at the beginning of 2011. The publication will be coordinated by Marie-Paule Grimaldier, a poetry and slam performance artist who has worked with young women at Passages.

On Septembre 23, 2009, at the Lion d’Or, a dinner was organized for the assistants, the organizing committee of the Indispensables, the author-artists of the book-CD Passagères (Passages, 2008), and the team of the Agir par l’imAGinaIRe project (Ruth Gagnon, Director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Quebec, Devora Neumark, Co-Director of Engrenage Noir/LEVIER and Aleksandra Zajko, in charge of the project). Three participants of the initiative held at the homeless shelter Passages and France Castel, guest of honour, shared various texts of the book Passagères with the gathering which managed to move the entire audience!

The 2^nd edition of the Quebec Social Forum - Reimagining Quebec Together - will be held October 8 - 12, 2009.

LEVIER and its partner, the Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec, will be there with double programming:

Discussion on the fight against the criminalization of poverty

We wish to stimulate reflection and discussion on the cycle that is perpetuated when we criminalize poor people and make them even poorer through incarceration.

How can artistic creation help the women caught up in this cycle express themselves on the subject and can the documentation and diffusion of these community art projets help change the way society sees criminalized and/or marginalized people?

Practical Workshop

A meeting place during which participants and artists who participated in the Agir par l’imAGinaIRe project (community art project in prisons) will join with the public in a short creativity workshop. This workshop will allow the three parties to come together to break the existing prejudices towards poverty and the criminality of women.

Other details to follow…

In its last issue, SNAP! Magazine published an article (see page 17) about the Agir par l’imAGinaIRe project as a community art initiative in the carceral milieu trying to show a different facet of criminalized women and questioning the relationship of necessity that our society has with prisons.

Last Friday’s round table had the following paragraph as its reflection:

If art reflects society, certain people will decide to use it in order to change. Can we imagine artistic mediums as efficient tools of intervention allowing us to treat problems in other ways and encourage social ties? Is art a privileged means of activism and engagement? What about the influence and impact of captivating art, community art or art of durable development? Come enrich your reflection on this subject through three accounts and images illustrating innovative artistic practices!

The table was set for three 20 minute presentations: Annie Roy of Action terroriste socialement acceptable (ATSA), Mathieu Rindeau of the Co-op Les Vivaces and us, LEVIER, represented by Devora (co-director of Engrenage Noir/LEVIER), Aleksandra (Development Agent of the Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec) and Carole (participant in two Agir par l’imAGinaIRe workshops).

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With financial support from the Status of Women Canada, the Inter-Arts Office of the Canada Council for the Arts, and other funding bodies, La Société Elizabeth Fry du Québec and  Engrenage Noir / LEVIER is in the process of coordinating a pilot project – Agir par l’imAGinaIRe - who finished in July 2010,  to be carried out in a spirit of collaboration between non-incarcerated artists and women caught up in the criminal justice system who may or may not also have artistic experience.  Workshops in the following media will be held over a two-year period in four Montreal-area institutions (Étalissement Joliette, Maison Tanguay, Philippe-Pinel, and the maison de transition Thérèse-Casgrain):  photography, video, self-portraiture, sound, spoken word, voice/song, dance and performance art. We are planning an exhibition [AGIR exhibition] of the work (that results from these workshops) and an associated round-table event, at the exhibition and arts production centre EasternBloc, from May 26 to June 16, 2011. The entire project will be documented using video and still photography as part of our efforts to deconstruct the prejudices commonly held in our society about criminalized women and poverty.

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