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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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

Please note that this workshop is in French only

Écosociété, Lux éditeur and Remue-ménage

What are the forms of artistic engagement of today and yesterday?  How do these new forms of art shine a light on political action and engagement in our society?  In this workshop, we propose to explore the forms of engaged art, notably through the eyes of the author, France Théorêt, by analyzing the work of filmmaker Gilles Groulx, as well as those produced by l’Action terroriste socialement acceptable (ATSA), Folie/culture and Engrenage Noir.

Presentations by:

Paul Beaucage, author of “Gilles Groulx, cinéaste résistant” (Lux éditeur)

Ève Lamoureux, author of  “Art et politique. Nouvelles formes d’engagement artistique au Québec” (Écosociété)

France Théoret, author of  “Écrits au noir” (Remue-ménage)

Cégep du Vieux Montréal, local : CVM, 9.32

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…

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

(Laea Morris, Young Parents Program Participant)

A stimulating day with hundreds of exhibitions. I took the day to explore and walk from workshop to workshop. I came across a tent packed with a mass amount of noise and people. I got closer to the stage as I realised the noise was coming from protestors, very angry protestors. They were carrying large cardboard caskets with the letters WSF (World Social Forum) across the front. Many questions arose in my mind. Why would they want to put the World Social Forum to an end? I came across several anglophones whom were just as confused as I. There was a demonstrator on stage yelling out his positive feelings towards the Forum. While the protestors expressed their anger back, with drumming, shouting & banners which drowned out his statements.

What was the reason behind the protest, was this for real or was this for entertainment purposes? Was this protest going to turn violent as they forced the protestors to evacuate? Were they part of the World Economic Forum contesting the rival assembly of the World Social Forum? Did they believe that the World Social Forum has no effect and is irrelevant? Were they upset that the World Social Forum which in part represents the “Poor” locked out the poor communities by charging a R$30 registartion fee.

In conclusion it’s only normal that negative tendancies will appear in the World Social Forum. As the singer in the Airport chanted on our depart “Change can and will only happen from within ourselves”.

In the preparations for the mobilization for the next Quebec Social Forum which will be held in the Fall of 2009, the secretarial division of the FSQ joined together with the magazine POSSIBLES in order to produce an issue with the theme of antiglobalism.  This issue is entitled Antiglobalism:  a Creative Utopia and was for sale last November in all bookstores.

This edition of POSSIBLES is an invitation to travel to the complex centre of antiglobalism to understand its richness, diversity, creative potential, and social transformation.  It means to emphasize its achievements both global and local, on new ways of thinking it creates, the debates it provokes, the practices that it renews, the world visions it promotes, the actions it generates.

This issue is comprised of four sections.  The first presents the stakes and crises that confront our societies (international institutions, food crisis, ecology, migration).  The second discusses the different facets of current redeployment of the collective action in Quebec, whether it be the mutation of the existing players (progressive groups, unions) or innovative experiments (Quebec social forum, youth camp, Montreal Popular University).  In the third section, we look at the role of politics in antiglobalism with a reflection on the political parties (interview with Françoise David) and on political projects in South America.  Finally, in the fourth section we trace the trail of the solution to concretize the antiglobalist utopia (decline, cooperativism, new political paradigms).

From this new partnership between the secretarial division of the FSQ and the magazine POSSIBLES comes an innovation:  an electronic version of this edition in PDF format, a first for this magazine that is celebrating its 32nd year in publication.  This special issue on antiglobalism is therefore available to all militants, activists, involved citizens, and those who are simply spectators in a world that isn’t working properly and who wish to make it work properly again.

To change the world, let’s begin by sharing our ideas.

Thank you to the magazine POSSIBLES for the opportunity and for this wonderful edition.  Let there be many of us, active and motivated, at the next Quebec Social Forum.

Source: Raphaël Canet, for the secretarial department of the FSQ

Possibles pdf-vol32-n3-4

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

by Johanne Chagnon

And what about the field that interesses us in particular, that of community art?  Oh boy!  The World Social Forum has allowed me to live incredibly interesting experiences, to make a first step in networks that I am just beginning to understand and that I will try to explain a little.  I will reference so that you may undertake further research.

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