Erasures: Cultural Activism and Periodicals

Description:

The panel Erasures: Cultural Activism and Periodicals was presented on the occasion of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery’s exhibition Laiwan: Traces, Erasures, Resists. In addition to artistic projects, the exhibition highlighted Laiwan’s significant work as a cultural activist since the early 1980s, including her contribution to queer, feminist, multicultural, and visual art print publications, Angles (1983–98,) published by the Vancouver Gay Community Centre Society; and Kinesis (1971–2001) published by the Vancouver Status of Women. In 1991, Laiwan also helped initiate Zimbabwean Women in Contemporary Culture Trust, a publishing project based in Harare, Zimbabwe that celebrates women cultural workers. 

Moderated by Laiwan, Erasures: Cultural Activism and Periodicals invited her former collaborators Frederick Thomas Edwards, John Kozachenko, and Joyce Jenje Makwenda to reflect on their experience as activists and contributors to these periodicals in the 1980s and ’90s. The presentations focused on the space of commons and collaboration that fostered these publishing activities, and the economic and cultural circumstances that propelled them into their work. The conversation looked to the pathways forged by activists who were drawn to print periodicals as a space of consciousness, and who have fought against the erasure of experience from dominant discourse. The panel concluded with a question and answer period. 

Presented in partnership with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery.

Video documentation of this event is available upon request.