Please join us on Saturday, July 30th from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM for Co-Creating Care: Accessibility, Safety and Wellbeing in the Arts, a Panel Discussion presented in partnership with Struts Gallery.
Moderated by Kate Lahey of Weary, Kim Edgar (Bird Feet), Ami Dang, Daniel Monkman, Adam Sturgeon (OMBIIGIZI) and Ysabelle Vautour come together in this artist-focused panel to imagine radical possibilities for change and transformation in the areas of accessibility, care, safety, collectivity, and wellbeing. Panelists share strategies, insights, dreams, and interventions on the broad themes of disability, chronic illness, mental illness, addictions, healing, and resistance from their own unique perspectives.
Location: Royal Canadian Legion, 15 Lorne Street, Sackville NB, main floor
Cost: Free - no Sappyfest or pass required
Access notes:
The venue is a community space within a bar, however, alcohol will NOT be served during the event. There are VLT’s on site, in the back corner, out of sight from the panel area. You must pass by these to enter the space.
Level cement entry, wide door, no automated button to open. Once inside, there is a second door to enter, again, no automated button to open. Washrooms on the main floor are gendered, each with a wheelchair accessible stall. A single occupancy gender neutral wheelchair accessible bathroom is located upstairs. If you need to access the second floor, there is a wheelchair accessible lift that is key operated. You must ask a legion staff member for the key. The main area is an open room with flexible seating configurations and plenty of room for wheelchairs.
This is a scent-free event. Please refrain from wearing perfumes, colognes, aftershaves, essential oils, scented sanitizer, etc.
Like all Sappyfest 17 events, masks are required unless actively eating or drinking.
Due to sensory sensitivities, if you need to eat something while attending this panel, please move away from the main audience area and have your snack quietly. Please refrain from chewing gum while at this event.
Panelists:
Kate Lahey (Weary) - Moderator
Kate Lahey lives in Holyrood, NL in a saltbox on the ocean with their partner and dog. Kate is the frontperson of Weary, who is playing at Sappy! Kate is also a course instructor at the Gender Studies department at Memorial University of Newfoundland, a PhD candidate at the Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto, a board member of Girls RockNL, and a community arts organizer. They have a permanent disability, mental illness and are in recovery/sober since February 2020.
Kim Edgar (Bird Feet) - Panelist
Kimberly Edgar (aka Bird Feet), is a visual artist and musician based on Tr’ondek Hwech’in land in so-called Dawson City, Yukon. Their work reflects on experiences of both the medical system and the ennui that comes with being sick with no end. Kim’s work envisions the sacred nature of thresholds, and how those who occupy or cross these liminal spaces, such as trans and disabled people, hold a special kind of knowledge.
Ysabelle Vautour - Panelist
Ysabelle Vautour is an interdisciplinary artist and founder of the NB Disability Art Collective. A graduate of Artslink’s Catapult Arts Accelerator Program, Ysabelle explores accessibility and ableism in a fun and playful way through visual and installation art. The legally blind artist collaborated with Theatre New Brunswick and the JRG Art Society for the Arts on Atlantic Canada’s first Disability Arts Symposium, has had several solo exhibitions, served as the artist residence at the Fredericton Arts alliance and Connexion ARC, and was awarded an Artsnb artist in residence grant to work with the NB Coalition with Persons with Disabilities.
Daniel Monkman (OMBIIGIZI, Zoon) - Panelist
Daniel Monkman (OMBIIGIZI, Zoon) is an acclaimed Anishnaabe artist whose artist moniker comes from the Ojibway word Zoongide’ewin, which means “bravery, courage, the Bear Spirit.” Daniel has spent the better part of his 28 years channeling that courage in the face of deep adversity. Daniel’s music paints a message of hope and fortitude, lessons he learned studying the Seven Grandfather teachings after experiencing the lowest point of his life.
Born and raised in Selkirk, Manitoba, a small prison town outside of Winnipeg he describes as “one of the roughest places,” Monkman has faced an uphill battle his whole life. But with the spiritual guidance he learned from 12-step therapy, Monkman entered into recovery and began to follow a passion for music he discovered from a young age growing up within the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation.
Adam Sturgeon (OMBIIGIZI, Status/Non-Status) - Panelist
Adam Sturgeon (Nme’) is an Anishinaabe artist and community worker who spent a decade carving a path through Canada’s DIY scene before leveling up with the acclaimed Status/Non-Status long player album Warrior Down (You’ve Changed Records). This album tells us about colonial injustice loudly and confronted Sturgeon’s complex family history and identity.
Adam is ‘non-status’ as defined by the Canadian government, as a result of his grandfather’s difficult decision to enfranchise and enlist in the Armed Forces to support his family. Enfranchisement was a pillar of the government’s assimilation policy and a requirement for any Indigenous person who wished to enlist. These acts of colonial violence have resulted in disconnection amongst generations of Indigenous people from their communities, languages, land, and identities. Today, voices like Adam are rising up and — through acts of reclamation via art, language, music, and community — taking back spaces that have been dominated by settler culture for so many years.
Ami Dang - Panelist
Amrita “Ami” Kaur Dang is a South Asian-American vocalist, sitarist, composer and producer from Baltimore. Her work references her hybrid identity as a first-generation South Asian-American, Sikh upbringing, musical education, as well as the chaos and spirituality of the landscapes of both Baltimore and urban India. Picking up her first sitar when she was twelve years old, Dang has studied North Indian classical music (voice and sitar) in both New Delhi and Maryland, and she also holds a degree in music technology & composition from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. Following in the footsteps of artists like Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass, she seeks to advance the sound of contemporary experimental, pop, and electronic music with the sounds of South Asia and vice versa. She aims to bring a broader sound palette to the legacy of South Asian music. These goals are a lifelong mission.
After contributing a track to the compilation Healing Together: A Compilation for Mental Health Recovery, featuring 23 ambient-electronic artists from around the world, Ami spoke publicly for the first time about her experiences with persistent depressive disorder. Ami’s track was inspired by her struggles with depression, something that was swept under the rug her entire life. Noting that as a society we have begun to more openly discuss mental health issues, Ami is empowered to speak up.
