Making Space for Black Performance
When and Where
Description
This panel gathers together artists and scholars including Djanet Sears, Sedina Fiati, Nikola Steer and Dr. Naila Keleta-Mae to engage in a generative discussion about the work it takes to make space for Black performance.
The ongoing conditions of structural racism and Eurocentrism in the Canadian cultural landscape mean that when practicing their art, makers of Black performance in Canada frequently take on significant (and often unpaid) labour to make space for their work. This may include doing extra labour to bring Black audiences to unfamiliar (and sometimes unwelcoming) performance and gallery spaces, doing advocacy work to ensure that arts institutions are supporting Black artists, and contending with cultural gatekeepers who may be biased towards Eurocentric understandings of artistic disciplines. Many Black performance makers also centre community-based values that require more infrastructural support than many companies and institutions can provide. In considering the work of making space for Black performance, this panel joins recent artistic and scholarly discussions that illuminate the infrastructural politics of support that make art possible, while critically interrogating who is asked to provide this support.