Arts and Activism

This thesis is a historical and intersectional investigation of the contemporary use of queer poetry as a grassroots activist tool in South Africa. The research in this thesis includes an analysis of in-depth qualitative interviews and poems by ten young queer South African women poets. Relationships with all of the participants with the exception of one were established during a research trip in South Africa that took place in July and August of 2011. The interviews for this study were obtained through two different means: phone or e-mail communications. The women in this project were between the ages of 20-32 at the time of interview and thus had come of age after the beginning of the Gay and Lesbian movement in South Africa. Some of the participants used their real names while others self selected pseudonyms. All of the poets chose the poems they wanted to be used in the project. A focus on a younger and more racially and ethnically diverse group of lesbian, bisexual and otherwise identified young women will contribute new and largely unheard voices to LGBTQ scholarship. This study could potentially contribute to a greater understanding and acceptance of queer activism and community-building transnationally. Findings may also fill a representational gap in current literature on queer activists in South Africa with diverse backgrounds.

Hong Kong’s story is difficult to tell, commented Leung Ping-kwan (1949–2013) in consideration of the city’s complicated historical configuration as well as the aesthetic reflection on the same by the writers and artists that have come to shape and promote the colonial city’s unique culture. Confronting the post-handover government’s suppression of democratic decision-making with massive street protests, the next generation of cultural producers continues to critically interrogate, contest, and subvert the official genealogy and nationalist master narrative. In response to the various factors contributing to the ongoing silencing of the city’s critical voices, many artists, directors, and writers have turned to (absent) sound as the aesthetic signifier of the sociopolitical turn from hope and reconciliation to despair. Their performative silence simultaneously protests and mourns the denunciation, suppression, and erasure of oppositional groups. In this paper, I apply a methodological cluster comprising concepts from ecocriticism, microhistorical-discourse analysis, social anthropology, and other disciplinary fields to address the ramifications of Hong Kong’s story as inscribed within protest-related literary and visual and multimedia art productions. Street art performance, handover-themed art exhibitions, Wong King Fai’s video “Umbrella Dance for Hong Kong,” and Samson Young’s sonic multimedia installations appositely illustrate the conundrum addressed.

Ante la siempre actual y urgente necesidad de otorgar visibilidad a las mujeres creadoras, este libro busca conceder un espacio para el análisis de la obra de mujeres artistas, escritoras, divulgadoras y transformadoras sociales en el contexto contemporáneo iberoamericano. Partiendo de ejemplos de mujeres cuya labor creativa ha significado la dura apertura de un camino por el que también ellas deben transitar, en este libro se añade un lugar especial para la experimentación crítica, en el que a través de la voz de las artistas es posible acceder al análisis académico, procesual y conceptual de su propia actividad de creación.

This thesis explores a pedagogical enquiry that has transformed the way I think and the way I teach. I used a variety of critical and theatre theories to frame my enquiry and for four years consecutively, visited a non-government organization (NGO) in India that uses theatre as an alternate pedagogical tool. I reflected upon the methodological differences between the theatre practices of the NGO and my practices. I then turned my enquiry inward to consider how my learning informed my teaching practices. I then created an alternate theatre project for some students in the American Midwest with Ashok, an artist from India. Ashok spent twelve days training the students in what I refer to as action theatre, while I coordinated, observed and reflected. This theatre is a form of social activism; it is designed to provide a forum for the students to express their socio-political views and raise individual and collective social awareness in the process. After the training period, the students presented a play using these theatre methods. They engaged in discussion with their audience directly after their play. After the training period, Ashok returned to India. He took on the role of mentor and informant to my ongoing enquiry. My enquiry then shifted from an introspective one to a practical one. Some of the students who wished to do so continued creating plays in this fashion. I took over the leadership of the group at their school. A new theatre troupe was created and I used the concepts learned at the NGO and from Ashok in an American suburban context. The theatre troupe created plays for three years. When I moved back to Canada, the troupe stopped its operations. Some students in the group continued activist work using art as a medium by finding other opportunities. I turned my enquiry inward once again to reflect upon how these processes have changed the way I think and the way I teach.