Fuck the Police

Monday, January 1, 2019 | 12am EST
Canada

Liberal discourses of “tolerance” in support of visible police presence have been mobilized to silence multiply marginalized queer and trans people and to whitewash and gentrify the history of queer liberation, despite the long and continuing history of police suppression of queer people and communities—including recent park raids in Toronto, as well as lackadaisical police response to violence against members of queer and trans communities. Hey, Pig is a static trapeze performance that rejects the superficial veneer of tolerance and engages with the historical and ongoing presence of police at pride, flamboyantly performed to Nine Inch Nails’ “Piggy,” positioning cops as worthy neither of our respect or admiration, while affirming an ethos of radical queer/trans direct action as central not just to the history of queer liberation, but also our present and our necessary future. Montreal 1969: Black and Queer Archives Revisited critically assesses two recent productions by Montreal’s Tableau D’Hôte Theatre and their intersections with 50th anniversary of the Sir George Williams University Student Occupation to urge a reconsideration of the temporal narratives surrounding Canadian homonationalisms. From BLMTO to Marci Ien: The Misrepresention of Police Violence Against Black Women will explore news coverage and social media reporting on police violence against Black women in Toronto.

Presenter
Jordana Greenblatt

is an academic and circus performer. Their academic work explores non-normative sexuality across a range of media and institutions, including an edited collection, Querying Consent (Rutgers UP, 2018).

Presenter
Ronald Cummings

teaches queer and postcolonial literatures at Brock University. His work focuses on queer Caribbean writing and culture.

Presenter
Cheryl Thompson

is an Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Industries at Ryerson University. She is author of Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture (2019). Her next book, Uncle: Race, Nostalgia and the Politics of Loyalty (Coach House Books) will be published in 2020.

min Canada

2019