thedutymyth

Persona: the Face/Mask and the Nude Male Ass (Week 2 of the Facebook Fagcott)

2011-12-19T19:53:00.001-05:00

It's already Day 8 of my planned 40-day hiatus from Facebook, dubbed my "Face-Lent" by my darling friend and food justice/art-maker Jessie Barr. In the last week, another exquisite nude male ass crossed my path, which I am all too happy to show you here.

For Valerie Simmons' elegant and textured upcoming show at Galerie Dentaire, one of my personal heroes of Montréal's contemporary dance élite gets frozen in time, over and over again. Known for his show-stopping performances at the Agora de la danse and Flexx, José Navas is an innate mover, strong, anti-balletic, and ageless. Simmons says her Personae ("masks" in Greek) and Trois Battements ("three beats") series are meant to show how

human behaviour “is impacted by its surroundings; when speaking of the surroundings, I am referring to human environment as well as human attire. That which encompasses us has agency over the roles we play,”

she writes eloquently in her artist's statement.In an age where our surroundings and our relationship to them are reduced to “Liking” and posting on peoples' “Walls”, it is a relief to see a photographer taking a path that diverges from the rule of immediate comprehensibility, and strives to express something more poetic.

Works like Simmons' have weight and silent power, but also an erotic frisson from the presence of Navas in various nude or semi-nude poses. Images like “Ave Maria” (above) of the nude male buttocks can get you “reported” on Facebook, as happened to yours truly on December 10th after I giddily posted an image by French neo-mannerist photographer Vincent Malléa (Pain Capital, see previous post).

It led me to wonder how we have come to so police and diminish our visual and social worlds that one or more of my own contacts chose to report me to the site's censors rather than discuss the merits or challenges of nude male butts in artwork with me directly.

It was a maddening experience to then be temporarily banned from the Book of the Face (for over a day), which led me to the decision of taking a 40-day hiatus which I now call my Face Lent.

As I write this I am on day 8, and already, I find I have more original ideas, an expanded vocabulary, and I had a three-hour long hang-out with a close friend I hadn't spent sustained time with in over four months. I also find myself less concerned with where I am supposed to be, and more concerned with where I am.

With the Harper Government pushing through Parliament its notorious Omnibus Crime Bill C-10, which will impose mandatory minimum sentences for minor drug and non-violent crimes, and broadly expand the prison sentences for any sexual behaviour at or around minors, the issue of nudity in visual culture is poised to become hyper-relevant once again. If Bill C-10 is passed by the Senate unamended, many readers of LGBT and art publications could be charged with exposing sexually explicit material to minors, for merely displaying (or holding a copy of) some of the artistic images in galleries or publications that happen to contain nudity when people under 16 are present. The devious and Puritanical nature of Bill C-10's sweeping new sentencing guidelines are none other than a reflection of who supports the current Government and why: social control in a punishment-based society functions on suspicion, judgement, and an irrational equation of nudity with porn, drugs with violence, and criminality with mere irresponsibility.

It is well known that poverty and discrimination are the real reasons that crime exists. Who's reporting on that?- Jordan Arseneault

Image: “Ave Maria” by Valerie Simmons with José NavasExhibit: Jan 6-25th, 2012.Vernissage January 7th, 2012. Galerie Dentaire 1239 rue Amherst, Montreal
Photos by Valerie Simmons, Danser and model: José Navas - (Compagnie Flak) www.galeriedentaire.com

Jordan Arseneault's Facebook boycott: day 1

2011-12-11T03:47:00.001-05:00

Hi and thanks for taking the time to read something other than your friends' status updates. I know Facebook (or the Book of the Face as I was once fond of calling it) is an effective, yet addictive medium that many have bemoaned in recent years. Against our better judgement, most of us born after 1970 in the high-speed internet zones of the industrialized world have become entranced by its efficacy for transmitting undeveloped thoughts, emotional blurbs, and, most effectively of all, digital photographs and event promotion details.Notwithstanding my utter enthralment with this "social" network website, a recent incident of reporting/censorship has alerted me to the need to step back from it, and remember that, like ALL successful profit-based tools, its primary function/purpose is threefold:

1) To make its users/buyers feel is it is a necessity__________; 2) To promote related or unrelated products and services we do not need ______________________________________________; 3) To perpetuate ITSELF.

As a profit-based tool, the Facebook is also, always, at all times a reflection of the socio-political mores of its makers, and of their historical context. It is entirely a tool of its time in that it may be used to transmit valid or valuable ideas or information - but that is not and will never be its main purpose. Try as we might to use FB to, for instance, raise political awareness about issues, promote benefit parties, or share news stories about natural disasters, wars, and bad/good/OMG things happening to our fellow human beings, the content of Facebook will always be muted by its function: and its function is to give us the illusion of connection, and to ensure constant, ever-increasing profit for its makers/owners.Much has been said (by Wipeout Homopbobia on Facebook, for example) and many status updates made on the issue of Facebook's user-based "reporting", which is but one example of Facebook's amoral, entirely contemporary nature. Facebook's abject refusal to allow for nudity or the depiction of illicit drug use, or other "offensive" material (which, to its credit, supposedly includes racist saying/images) says more about what my generation's superego wants to show about itself than about who we are and what we think about the people and world around us. When one of my one thousand, three hundred and ninety-eight "friends" reported (in a two-step mouse-click process) Vincent Malléa's Pain Capital

late Friday night, (early Dec 10th, 2011, mere minutes after I posted to my "wall") it was the second time such a "report" had been made on my profile, and the second time that it involved that oh-so-unequivocally sexualizable photographic representation of a nude male buttocks. I will refrain, for the time being, from discussing why I think one of my Facebook contacts might have chosen to report this particular image, and concentrate instead on the all-too-obvious notions that underlie it:

1) Porn is everywhere, and available everywhere online, but a significant consumer population disapproves of nudity and equates it with porn_____;2) Facebook must at all costs maintain its "all ages", "child-friendly" PG13 status in order to ensure constant and immediate access to teenage and child users who will become as addicted to it as I was ___________________________________________;3) One of my own contacts believes that it is within his or her right (or obligation!) to control what I show to my other 1397 contacts, when and how.

All of which leads me to one conclusion: I have to get off the Book of the Face before I lose touch with reality and with the inherently profit-based and malignant nature of such a website's underlying structures. There was a time before the Facebook, before Myspace, and before Friendster, and there will be a time when even Facebook will become obsolete. This is why I am NOT boycotting Facebook by deleting my profile. Sadly, many, many of my contacts have been made solely through its interface, and it remains one of the three main ways groups of people to which I belong communicate valid, usable information. I am not "going off-Book" because I am scared of its impact on my "privacy", whatever that is. Nor do I decry its flattening of social interaction: frankly, there are a lot of people whom I was all too glad to have only limited, superficial contact with, such as the people obsessed with cat videos and "I/ my-boyfriend" statements, whose stories I have been "hiding" since that blessed function was introduced. I am boycotting Facebook for two succinct reasons:

1) One of my contacts believes in censorship and in profit-based control of society. I decry their motives and challenge them to criticize my posting of partial non-frontal male nudity to my FACE, to my actual fucking FACE, you bastard! THEN we'll having a meaningful conversation, you coward (whoever you are)!

2) I need to prove to myself that I can function effectively off its all-engrossing, White Eurocentric capitalist American-made system of manipulation. If the medium is the message, Facebook's message is "profit is more important than nude male ass," and my message is: "blog and write and share images using less intrusive web interfaces now, while the Internet is still affordable - at least in most parts of Canada and the industrialized West."

And fuck you forever you homophobic art-hating censorship-loving piece of shit who reported Vincent Malléa's Pain Capital image post. I will be making weekly updates on the progress of my albeit half-assed boycott via this blogspot, which, thank you very much, you can fucking report if you fucking want to: I know Wordpress now!

It Could Get Worse - Don't Let it! Stop Harper's Bill C10

2011-11-16T23:26:00.001-05:00

It Could Get Worse is an awareness and action project that seeks to call attention, using video and online means, to the dangerous, wasteful, and unnecessary Omnibus Crime Bill C10 being proposed this session by the Conservative Party under the delusion that it will make this country "safer". In fact, the bill's proposals involve creating a massively funded prison-building splurge, hiring excessive numbers of guards, and increasing sentences and prison times when ALL respected research has proven that these measures make for sicker, weaker, poorer and more miserable societies. On Nov. 1st, Québec's Justice Minister stated that the Québec Government would not pay into the fiscally irresponsible projects that would ensue from this draconian bill should it become law. Shortly after, Newfoundland and Ontario joined the countrywide chorus of voices that strongly oppose this brutal Bill.We are urging Canadians, especially those who reside in Conservative-led ridings, to call or e-mail their Member of Parliament and tell them that this bill is unCanadian, outdated, and that its fiscal and social costs are too high; that it is based on bogus knee-jerk unresearched ideas, and that, more profoundly, Bill C10 is completely out of touch with criminological research and anti-oppressive learnings. Longer sentences, bigger prisons, and more punishable offenses is NOT the way to build a safer, stronger, more economically viable country!Join us in supporting massive petition efforts by www.leadnow.ca and AVAAZ http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_harpers_cruel_crime_bill/?vl to prevent this cruel bill from becoming a legislative reality.For the Toronto Star's excellent summary of why we must oppose this delusional and punishment-obsessed bill, check out this article: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1086785--10-reasons-to-oppose-bill-c-10#.TsNNheRxXnh.twitterTo find out who your MP is, and get their Ottawa phone number and official e-mail address, click here:http://www.parl.gc.ca/ParlInfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx

Homelessness and police intervention hot topics in the village

2011-09-29T15:11:00.001-04:00

Supposedly representing a group of some 2,000 residents (or is it passersby? it’s hard to say), the petition from two village merchants was geared at increasing police presence in the Village, a stunning about-face from a community that for so long was itself the subject of police oppression. "The Village has become an open air needle site,” one of the petitioners told Mayor Tremblay before going on to ask “What are you going to do to ensure shop owners and their customers aren't confronted by a person lying in the street with a needle in their arm every morning?" The merchants were compelled to start the petition after one of them was attacked and beaten in front of his bar this past summer. In a press release from media campaigner William Raillant-Clark, the campaigners stated that “the heightened problems this year proved to be the proverbial straw on the camel's back,” even though there was at least an attempt made at acknowledging that the real source of the homelessness problem is the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and lack of resources for their care.
“The first line of defence for a merchant is police presence. But fundamentally what matters is the collective will of everyone in the area to find ways to help people who really need it,” said La Piazzetta’s Mathieu Riendeau. Fresh from their Pink Balls street closure success, Société de développement communautaire (SDC) du Village director Bernard Plante also weighed in, telling Être’s Thibaut Temmerman that “the gay community is tolerant, but they’ve reached their limit.” “We really want to have sympathy for these people who have serious problems, but the neighbourhood and the people working and living in it can’t put up with everything,” echoed the manager of the Java U beside Beaudry Métro. All of the merchants Temmerman interviewed also addressed a growing concern over the presence of “street gangs,” by which we presume they mean drug dealers and their ilk, who, everyone knows, have long flocked to the east end of downtown due to customer demand and lighter police presence.

So, when you cut through the various statements and counter-statements, the petitioners’ argument looks a little like this: since the police crack-down on gay bars and homeless people leading up to the 1976 Olympics, the Village has benefited from less police surveillance, allowing us to go on doing the gay things we do. Since then— Sex Garage and other police raids, constant police harassment of homeless people during the 2006 OutGames aside—the business owners of the Village corridor suddenly felt stirred to ask for greater police presence because now the tide has turned: the homeless and injection users and dealers have gotten scary and are impacting their business. Everyone seems well aware that it would be politically incorrect, given LGBT history, to simply ask the Police to boot out the homeless people and drug users so our neighbourhood can continue on its path to gentrification. Clearly, anyone who has been attacked on the street where they live or do business will certainly feel vulnerable and want to ask for greater support. But the underlying question remains: to whom this area known as the Village belong and why?
Looking at the many fascinating articles that fill this image-packed Fall issue, from recruitment entrepreneur Eric Sicotte to the AIDS-fundraiser-cum-Circuit-party Black & Blue, the dichotomy of what it is to be in the business of gay (or to be a gay in business) becomes clear: we are part of a community with our own history of oppression, who have come to the point where we now have the money and influence to start defending our livelihoods like any other citizen in the demographic mosaic. But how to do this without alienating other marginalized groups, or groups who are far more marginalized now than our own?

The answer can only come from the discussions and community initiatives we will definitely be covering in forthcoming issues. But for now, we might ask, what if the strategies for LGBT civil rights were applied to the homeless and injection drug-user population, rather than simply resorting to a punitive herding of these people using the SPVM, who are known to kill homeless people and minorities without cause, and without consequence for members of their “brotherhood”?

More info soon on the demo planned for Oct 7th to bring more attention to this issue.

Meow Mix pour Projet 10 le 7 août, August 7 Meow Mix for Project 10

2011-07-25T00:35:00.000-04:00

The Meow Mix for Project 10 will be a lady-queer-cabaret event to remember! Hosted by Boston’s Heywood Wakefield, and featuring Brooklyn queer performance artist Damien Luxe, the night is gonna shake up the Mix and leave you wanting to break out your inner queer performer. Musical innovators Edges Blast and No Homo round out the programme of diva-led shenanigans by internationally renowned performer 2Fik,and local alt-dragster Peaches Lepage.
HEADLINER: RAE SPOON, followed by DJ Like the Wolf
Sala Rosa, 4848 St-Laurent Sunday, August 7, doors 9pm, show at 9:30pm. $10 PWYC
To celebrate Montréal’s favorite alt-pride event Pervers/cité, the Meow Mix for Project 10 brings together an awesome line-up of lady-loved artists including headliner Rae Spooon and Boston’s drag king extraordinaire Heywood Wakefield. This unmissable event is brought to you by MIM Productions and thedutymyth, with most proceeds going to Project 10, a Montréal org that works to promote the personal, social, sexual and mental well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, intersexed and questioning youth and adults 14-25.

www.perverscite.org / www.p10.qc.ca / www.mimproductions.org www.truthserum.org/heywoodwakefield / www.axondluxe.com www.2fikornot2fik.com / www.raespoon.com

Le Meow Mix pour Projet 10 met à l'affiche Heywood Wakefield, drag king extraordinaire de Boston, en compagnie de Damien Luxe, superbe artiste queer de Brooklyn, en compagnie des bands Edges Blast et No Homo, avec prestations drag de la star internationale 2Fik et la diva de l’underground Peaches Lepage! Programme fantastiquement alterno avec dance-party lesbienne et queer à partir de 23h30 avec DJ Like The Wolf!
TÊTE D’AFFICHE : RAE SPOON
Sala Rosa, 4848 St-Laurent
Dimanche, le 7 août, portes 21h, show à 21h30. $10 contribution volontaire
Pour l’occasion de Pervers/cité, festival LGBT des marges de la fierté, thedutymyth et Meow Mix présentent la soirée Meow Mix pour Projet 10! Mettant à l’affiche l’incontournable interprète et musicien queer de renom Rae Spoon, animé par le rigolo Heywood Wakefield de Boston, ce cabaret hors-bornes est un événement à ne pas manquer pour les membres de la communauté lesbienne et queer qui souhaitent fêter la fierté autrement, avec tous les éléments du célèbre Meow Mix de MIM Productions.
La grande portion des recettes ira à Projet 10, organisme montréalais qui travaille à promouvoir le bien-être personnel, social, sexuel et mental des jeunes et adultes lesbiennes, gais, bisexuel(le)s, transgenres, transsexuel(le)s, bispirituel(le)s, intersexués et en questionnement âgé(e)s entre 14 et 25 ans.

Success for Let Alvaro Stay! Campaign

2011-05-30T13:54:00.002-04:00

As of 7pm today, Alvaro's Humanitarian and Compassionate appeal has been accepted and he will no longer be deported.

The LGBT community and refugee solidarity groups are rallying in person and online this week to prevent the deportation of Toronto-based queer artist Alvaro Orozco. Orozco was arrested May 13 and is threatened with immediate deportation, even though his application for refugee status on humanitarian grounds is still in process.

“An accomplished artist and dedicated advocate for queer and newcomer youth, Alvaro’s love for art and commitment to community has captured the appreciation and respect of thousands of people in Toronto,” said campaign organizers Edward Lee and Suhail Abualsameed in a press release. Orozco’s photo work was recently featured in the exhibit Migration Expressions Montréal’s Ste-Émilie Skillshare.

In 2010, Orozco received a Toronto Youth Cabinet Impact Award for his community involvement, and the immanent deportation scare has resulted In a wave of support from across the country. “Alvaro has been in Canada since 2004, and is an integral member of Toronto’s queer community,” says Suhail Abualsameed, Coordinator, Newcomer/Immigrant Youth Program at Sherbourne Health Centre, where Alvaro works with queer newcomer youth.

Alvaro first rose to national prominence in 2007 when his refugee claim was denied on the basis that he did not look “gay enough” for the adjudicator hearing his case via video -conferencing in Calgary. This story was picked up by the largest newspapers in Nicaragua, effectively “outing” him to the entire country he left at age 12 due to severe physical abuse by a father who threatened to “kill any child of his that was homosexual”. “I’m an artist, a youth worker, and a volunteer in Toronto,” Alvaro Orozco said from the detention centre yesterday. “I’ve got a strong Humanitarian and Compassionate Application case and am hoping that I can get back to the life I’ve built in the city for the past 7 years.”

The Let Alvaro Stay campaign urgently requests his release from detention and a stay on his deportation proceedings until his Humanitarian and Compassionate application has been heard. Amongst the many supporters of the campaign, MP Olivia Chow, EGALE Canada’s Helen Kennedy, and renowned AIDS activist Tim McCaskell have voiced their support.

You can view one of dozens of supportive youtube videos here:

And sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/let-alvaro-stay-in-canada

The Let Alvaro Stay Campaign is a highly organized group, with reps in Montréal and Toronto, and they handily provide the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the new Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney, urging supporters to call, text, or Twitter-blitz him.

Jason Kenney at 403-225-3480 or e-mail at Kenney.J@parl.gc.ca or Twitter: @kenneyjason

Call or text Vic Toews at 204-326-9889 or e-mail at Toews.V@parl.gc.ca

The campaigners also urge petitioners to cc their local MP:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/parlinfo/compilations/houseofcommons/memberbypostalcode.aspx?menu=hoc

And to mention the following points to the Minister and your MP:

* Alvaro has established ties in Canada and specifically in Toronto and this has been his home all of his adult life

* That Alvaro has a pending Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds Permit (H&C) application that shows his commitment to the queer community, the arts community and Toronto in general and that he had close personal ties here in Toronto

* Alvaro’s deportation date of June 2nd should be deferred until his H & C application is decided

* We want Alvaro’s H&C application to be looked at as soon as possible or for the Minister himself to intervene in this case.

Join the many activists, journalists, and community members in signing the petition to Let Alvaro Stay:

http://www.change.org/petitions/let-alvaro-stay-in-canada

For Mile Enders, cc Thomas Mulclair mulcat@parl.gc.ca and for Plateau people, cc helenelaverdiere@npd.ca -- Here's a sample text of what you can write to Jason Kenney:

Dear Minister Kenney,

I am writing to you as a resident of the Outremont riding in Montreal, to ask you please intervene to stay the deportation of artist and community member Alvaro Orozco, who has resided in Toronto for many years.

Alvaro's deportation to Nicaragua would put him in danger of physical violence or death, as he was outed there in 2007 as a person belonging to the LGBT community, a particularly vulnerable group in that country.

Mr. Orozco has established ties in Canada and specifically in Toronto and this has been his home all of his adult life

Mr. Orozco has a pending Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds Permit (H&C) application that shows his commitment to the queer community, the arts community and Toronto in general and that he had close personal ties here in Toronto

Therefore, I believe strongly that Alvaro Orozco’s deportation date of June 2nd should be deferred until his H & C application is decided.

I join over 9,000 other Canadians in urging you as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to halt this deportation until a decision is made on Alvaro Orozco's application for residency permit on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

With sincere thanks for considering this request,

Your name, address, riding.

How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence Performance schedule

2011-01-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

Dear friends and participants,

This is a reminder that tomorrow night's Convergence culminates in a performance evening with engaging work by Heather Ács, Silas Howard, Laura Boo MacDonald and Damien Luxe. Entrance is $10, but we have 10 half price spots available for those who contact us in advance!

There will be a Q&A after the performances (around 10:30pm) hosted by Jordan Arseneault.

9pm:
Heather Ács’ piece “what the brain forgets and the heart denies, the body remembers…” explores illness, death, grieving and loss refracted through working class Appalachian and Mexican cultural imagery, creating a nonlinear world layered with movement, gesture, storytelling, soundscape, video, and installation. In this multi-media solo performance piece, time and testimonies loop, break apart, burrow, reemerge, and cross over. Breath taking, glass breaking, gifts are bestowed. Sparrows descend, tortillas and tears sizzle on the comal, a river flows with dirt and glitter. Lesley Gore croons cotton candy lyrics laced with razor blades while dust gathers in an empty house. Stitch it all together with string theory and skeleton keys, stuff into a mason jar, shake until your heart might break, check your pulse, make a wish, and see what rises to the surface.

Silas Howard's “Thank you for Being Urgent” is a textured tale of a transman coming up in the queer punk world of San Francisco and spilling into the crappy and exalted glitter of Hollywood. Silas Howard searches for true tales of fierce outsiders and re-imagines the mainstream, never loosening his grip on the underground. Our hero begs sanity from mystery man Mr. Hollywood through playful and plaintive letters, ruminating on desire, shame, and the infinite loopholes in the American Dream. Traversing serendipitous heights and punishing ironies, Thank you for Being Urgent chronicles burlesque dancers with dementia, tranny jazzmen and film executives, using archival photos, monologues and charm.

Intermission (9:45-10)

Laura Boo MacDonald (aka Douche La Douche)'s "Throw Myself" is a full body memory of a childhood spent taking vicious tantrums. Tantrums (and the children who take them) are seen as shaming themselves and their parents with their ill behaviour that does not conform to socially accepted norms for emotional expression. As an adult who has learned that one is expected to deal with stress, trauma, loss, anger, sadness, panic and grief while remaining outwardly composed and unaffected, memories of childhood tantrums become a dream of release and relief. This performance raises questions about self-care practices, mental health and the tragedy of adulthood while simultaneously testing the boundaries between public and private.

Damien Luxe is presenting the Hot Pink Mass, a performative church service for freaks, perverts, weirdos and magical creatures. Drawing from five different religious traditions, the piece combines humor, acknowledgement of desire and a vision of social justice to inspire. Honoring feminine hero/ines and instigating our individual and collective power to manifest change, the Mass asks participants: what do you deserve, and how can you make it happen?

10:30pm: Q&A
Stick around for a round table Q&A with all four artists. Hosted by Jordan Arseneault (aka Peaches Lepage, Tooloose Letrick, Aïda Cökenbalz)

How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence

2011-01-02T11:34:00.001-05:00

How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence

When: Saturday Jan 8, 2011 -- Workshops [Free] 12noon-6pm, Performance [$10] 9-11p

Where: Mise au Jeu, 90 de la Gauchetière Est. Montrèal

Who: Damien Luxe and Heather Ács [New York], Silas Howard [Los Angeles], Jordan Arseneault and Laura Boo [Montréal]

12noon: Heather Ács: Creative Strategies for Resistance:
Exploring Educational Theatre Techniques
Educational Theatre practitioners use theatre as a tool to explore issues, incite dialogue, and practice strategies in classrooms and communities of all kinds. In this workshop, participants will get on their feet as the facilitator guides them through a series of exercises that include movement, improvisation, writing, image theatre, and performance composition. Educators, community organizers, artists, and students interested in leadership will all find relevant material in this workshop and walk away with a practical set of tools and techniques they can use in a variety of educational and creative settings.

2-4pm: Silas Howard: Reality in Flight: A DIY story workshop focusing on using personal stories and metaphor to tell stories.
This workshop/practicum examines the relationships between voice, style and language along with issues of memory and identity. Through hands-on scene study, writing activities, and examining model films, participants will come away with story telling strategies for approaching the different phases of film and other narrative forms. In particular, the workshop will explore the representation of outsider stories, new voices, and transgressive narratives in stories and film. Participants of all levels are encouraged to attend, but no previous experience is necessary.

2-4pm: Laura Boo: DIY event technical skillshare:
When tiny budgets and unconventional performance spaces combine with a great desire to get on stage and do something amazing, something has got to give. Often, it is personal ingenuity and craftiness that can make the difference between a show that takes place without sound and in the dark and a great event where the tech is smooth enough to be invisible. This workshop / skillshare will be an opportunity for those involved in performance and various types of event production to learn some of the basic skills required tech your own shows. From the basics of understanding what each piece of equipment does and how it interacts with other equipment to troubleshooting tech nightmares, this session will de-mystify the technical side of event production. We'll be talking about amps, mixers, mics, speakers, subs, lights, cables, computers, video projectors and all the ways to get them to work together.

4-6pm: Damien Luxe: Building the Gay Bomb: Open Source media skillshare for performance.
The goal of this presentation is to up the multimedia skills of live performers; we'll do this by providing performers with an overview some of the open-source software currently available for audio and web production, and to relay vital, “how-to” media and tech strategies for people with medium/moderate computer and internet experience and zero to moderate capital. We will focus on utilizing shareware and freeware to ensure that access to programs is as economically obstacle-free as possible. All participants will leave the presentation with a knowledge bank and insight of how to utilize free software to add to the multimedia of their performances

4-6pm: Jordan Arseneault: Fear Drag: Wear other participants' fears in a role-play workshop to discover what yours are, and open your performance heart. Workshop participants will write down the obstacles, ideas, and worries that make them afraid in real life. We switch and act them out. In the second part, we write down our performance-related fears, switch, and act them out as well. See your peers enact your fears, help ourselves move beyond them. Beginners very welcome.

The How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence is a full-day Performance Art extravaganza in which 5 artists from activist, literary, video, theatre and multimedia backgrounds will present free, empowering, knowledge-sharing workshops on their practices with the Montreal community, followed by an evening of queer performance-based art work.

How To Build A Fire is a performance and teaching artist group from the US who travel queer landscapes to create legacies while telling tales of desire and survival. Through freak church services for magical creatures, fragmented memory, movement and costuming, and unraveling narratives, these escape artists trespass loopholes in the American dream. Queer Sans Fin is the moniker for Laura Boo MacDonald's Cabaret Faux Pas, who along with Jordan Arseneault will represent Montreal's queer underbelly spectacular in free workshops. Silas Howard, Heather Àcs, and Damien Luxe are the visiting artists presenting workshops and performances.

The Convergence brings together queer artists from across Canada and the US; from across gender lines and languages; from across performance disciplines and backgrounds, responding to the growing need for community building approaches to the performance art medium so often relegated to brief exposures in bars, cabarets, and professionalized art spaces.

We invite you to join the convergence, the conversation, and the events with us on January 8, 2011.

Co-Sponsors: Concordia's Fine Art Student Association, The Chair in Human Sexuality at Concordia, The Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University, Queer Concordia, The Boxcutter Collective, The Teaching Artist Tour, The Duty Myth and Le Coeur est une Pompe.

Site: www.teachingartisttour.com

Facebook: "How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence"

Brunching with Big Freedia – Monday, October 4th, 2010

2010-12-24T14:49:00.000-05:00

Brunching with Big Freedia – At Last, the Article from the Magical Lost Interview

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the Bounce Hip-Hop phenomenon was already alive and well in the Big Easy. Bounce emerged from a particular set of beats and claps in which NOLA hip-hop deejays were defining their own sound centered in an ass-shaking beat and fierce emceeing. In the aftermath of the catastrophe, the first club to open up on the West Bank of the flood-ravaged city became meeting place for one of Bounce music's emerging starlets, Big Freedia and her now collaborators DJ Rusty Lazer and Altercation, Big Freedia's dance enthusiast stage partner. Big Freedia has been put on the Montreal map and on the North American and European musical maps, both by infectious danceability and breathtaking lyrics, and by recent associations with Montreal's own Lesbians on Ecstasy, who were the trio's hostesses for this year's Pop Montreal Festival, which programmed both a Bounce dance workshop and late-night loft party show at Espace Réunion on Oct. 3rd.

An unexpected and unforgettable third venue for their 36-hour stop was a brunch appearance at the home of yours truly. Lured by promises of bacon, low-maintenance interview questions— and somewhere to while away the four hours between their checkout and flight times— Big Freedia and her collaborators shared breakfast, pink champagne and a whole lot of themselves with myself and Hochelaga Goddamn collaborator CeeTee Horné. For reasons I shall spare the reader, we do not have a transcript of the profound sharing that took place that day, and instead will try and tell you as much as we can about Freedia the performer, Freedia the poet, Freedia the queer person: Freedia the Big.

“Do you eat meat?” Rusty, Big Freedia's DJ and roadie pal asked me in reply to my breakfast invitation at the Bounce workshop; “Hell Yeah!” I said, promising more bacon than he'd know what to do with. The scruffy, wiry, cutie with the smiling eyes immediately brightened up saying that they would try and make it, especially given how rare it was to be offered a home-cooked meal on the road. Hours later, bathed in the melancholic undulations of Scout Niblett, I found myself too tired to make it to Big Freedia's 2am show, and was tersely warned by a Pop Montreal veteran that there was no chance of them accepting my brunch invitation if I failed to attend this much anticipated Bounce event. At 11:45am the next morning, a voice only slightly less groggy than my own was asking me if the breakfast invitation was still on the table. With CeeTee Horné on speed-dial and pink champagne shoved in the freezer, the bacon was frying and the danishes and cantaloupe lain out when the weary trio were deposited in my front yard by an ebullient Lynne T and the always charming Bernie, from Lezzies on X. As my guests gradually woke up, I received a short but valuable lesson on the importance of a person's chosen name sometimes being the same as their stage name, as is the case for Altercation, Big Freedia's dance partner and spiritual sister. A radiant blonde with wing tattoos on her sternum and an inspiring body/consciousness, Altercation was the undiscovered treasure of the day, as she shared ever-richer parts of her story, as the wing-woman to the reigning queen of New Orleans Bounce.

Regal and soft-spoken, Big Freedia took her time perking up with her new Montreal fans and shared gradually and humbly the reality of living as an artist in a city defined by disaster, violence and race history. Her presence was like visiting royalty to me and C T Horné, who hung on every velvet word, and relished every smile. For his part, Rusty, whose stomach was the way to my heart, told us the story of meeting Big Freedia, whose work he respected and who he ran after on one of NOLA's impromptu Bounce Days, when the Belle of Bounce was the centerpiece of a street party— no dress and crown, thank you very much— seated atop an open convertible, being driven through throngs of ass-shaking, ecstatic fans. Bounce music is such a prevalent part of NOLA culture, in an anecdote of Big Freedia's, that you'll see two people arguing on the street, and a car will come by playing bounce music, and the two will get down and start dancing until the car drives away, only to see the argument resumed. Bounce music's fan-base is 80% female according to Big Freedia, and unlike most popular hip-hop traditions, is resolutely and fabulously queer. The epithet “Sissy” was ascribed to the Bounce stars who happen to be openly gay, but is not an adjective that they use themselves.

A florist and interior designer in her beloved hometown, Big Freedia's LaDiva Creations is her mainstay but by no means just her bread and butter: it's what she loves to do. It just so happens that what queers, music lovers and all of New Orleans love to see her do most is take the mike, pop the P (as in pussy) and sing in a way that makes you dance like you've never danced before, from a place of reclaiming your space, your worth, and your ass. “The red chakra is the seat and basic chakra, and represents the verb 'to have'”, explained Altercation in the bounce workshop earlier the day before. By dancing with your ass and reclaiming your body and your space, you are reclaiming your right to feel the way you feel in your body, and to have the space you have, and ultimately, to communicate your desires, your needs and your reality. Raised by missionaries with early-twenties aspirations of being a 'nutritionary', Altercation addressed both in the workshop and over brunch the beautiful and profoundly thought-out notion of cultural reciprocation that imbues her work and art. “If someone gives you potholders, it doesn't mean you have to give them potholders in return,” by which she means the gift of Bounce music which sprung from Black-American New Orleans culture is one that has changed her life, and for which she expresses gratitude in a variety of ways, from dance classes, to food security work, to anti-poverty activism in her chosen hometown.

The questions I asked Big Freedia were about her spoken word art, which she uses with Nina-Simonesque brilliance in tracks like “I Got the Power” and “Sittin’ Home”; and she greeted them with the humility and subjectivity of a poet. “It's what I'm thinking about in the moment, what matters to me in the moment, what I feel I need to say.” Lost to the caprices of my room-mate's Sony Dictaphone are the depth and realness of what Freedia really said that afternoon. She spoke of hardship, friendship, the love of music and community. Her voice and heart were music to my ears, reaching something like holiness. She is a sound-uttering mystic of words and ass, and a real diva. She knows how good she is, but she never forgets, not for a second, where she's from and what the stakes are. She spoke of her lover for her boyfriend, and the upcoming funeral she had to attend back home. The misery of post-Katrina NOLA was met with pained eyes and a deep-breathing wisdom that it is her role as artist and queen to show help her hometown grow, by making Bounce music better know everywhere. Ass, everywhere, yes, but heart and wisdom too. I am left thinking it is a testament to what an innate poet Freedia is that I found it to hard to quote her exactly when I tried to write this article. Respect.

Big Freedia came to Montreal as an anomaly in the Pop Montreal programme, which had very little spoken word and even less of anything hip-hop related. Having met Lezzies on X at SXSW in 2009, and now having made two visits in 2010, we can only hope to make it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras to experience her power and fame in their birthplace. If the devotional ass-shaking and musical influences on LoX's new single is any indication, we should all have the privilege of hearing and feeling this artist's love of community and heartfelt creativity in our private and not-so-private places sometime soon. Check out www.myspace.com/bigfreedia for upcoming shows and to purchase the album.

Alice In Wonderland ~ Dawn Of An Empire Ball

2010-10-26T03:00:00.000-04:00

Alice In Wonderland ~ Dawn Of An Empire Ball
12 November at 16:00 - 13 November at 00:00
Location SPACE 128
454 W. 128th St (128th & Amsterdam)
New York, NY
Created by:
The Opulent Haus of PUCCI
More info
The Haus of Pucci Presents: Alice In Wonderland, The Dawn of an Empire Fridayn, November 12, 2010 Doors Open 4pm, LSS 6pm

I. OTA Foot & Eye "The White Rabbit" $100 Tastefully done with creative frame AND shoe, 3 Trophies, 1 cash)

II. Mini Grand OTA Switch "The Blue Caterpillar" $50 Youre known for 1 category, then switch to another, biggest gag wins! (part 2 later)
...
III. FF Performance "Alice" $150 Bring it like alice, soft, feminine, and dainty (1 trophy, 1 cash)

IV. Mini Grand 2: BQ Face "The Wicked Jabberwocky" $150 Wicked Beauty (1 trophy, 1 cash)

V. The Opulent Haus of Pucci Grand March

NYC

2010-10-26T02:56:00.002-04:00

Going to NYC for Mix Festival. So excited to renew my passport!

FundingDriveCKUT

2010-10-26T02:48:00.003-04:00

Check out this interview on Queer Corps with hosts and former hosts of CKUT 90.3's Queer Corps, myself included ;-) We also play Margaret Cho's new song "My Pussy"

https://secure.ckut.ca//cgi-bin/ckut-grid.pl?show=1%252C18%253A00&action=showaudio

For more info on the crucial and prize-loaded funding drive, go to:
http://www.ckut.ca/fd2010home.php

CulturalAppropriationWorkshop

2010-09-20T17:10:00.001-04:00

Workshop discussion with activist Jessica Yee:
24 September · 14:00 - 17:00 Shatner Building, McG

Cultural Appropriation: The term “cultural appropriation” is sometimes used to describe the act of borrowing or stealing aspects of another culture. For many people, the concept of cultural appropriation is a very charged issue, and passionate debates about cultural appropriation can be found scattered across the Internet and in many politicized spaces. in radical and activist movements and organizations Cultural Appropriation h...as become a very hot issue, with many activists and radicals personally and politically very involved in the debate.

Registration: Limited to 15 people, so please RSVP promptly. Email: qpirg@ssmu.mcgill.ca to register. We'll be contacting you with some reading a few days before.

Priority will be given to those who request to participate on behalf of a group or organization with whom they can share the learnings and doings of the workshop, not necessarily first come, first served.

24 September · 14:00 - 17:00
Shatner Building, McGill University, (3480 McTavish), Lev Bukhman, 2nd floor

***FREE***

Brought to you by QPIRG McGill and thedutymyth

BIO:

JESSICA YEE is a self-described Indigenous feminist reproductive justice freedom fighter. 24 years old and Two-Spirited from the Mohawk Nation, Jessica is the founder and Executive Director of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, a CanAmerica wide organization by youth and for youth. She has spent more than half her life mobilizing individuals, families, and communities alike to reclaim their ancestral rights to self-determine decisions over their own bodies and spaces.

Ms. Yee's workshop will be open to 13 people from the community, to discuss and broaden our understanding of this very charged issue. Debates about cultural appropriation can be found scattered across the Internet and in many politicized spaces, and in radical and activist movements and organizations. Cultural Appropriation has become a very hot issue, with many activists and radicals personally and politically very involved in the debate. We would like to ensure that this debate is given space and allowed to empower and improve everyone's understand of being a better ally, in the context of community-based anti-oppressive work.

If you are unable to attend this workshop (which is also being given by OPIRG in Ottawa on the 20th, but it is full already), please note that some notes and discussion materials will be made available through QPIRG McGill at a later date.See more

2Fik and Alexis O'Hara on Queer Corps

2010-09-06T21:55:00.003-04:00

Check out "queer corps" from the drop-down menu and choose the September 6th episode for sparkling interviews with SPARK artists 2Fik and Alexis O'Hara, co-hosted by me and John Custodio.
More info on Studio 303's Spark Cabaret:

www.studio303.ca/en/events/spark/

Bisous,
Jordan

CAKE + DANCING: the Dirté Thirté Birthdé

2010-08-31T00:26:00.002-04:00

CAKE + DANCING: the Dirté Thirté Birthdé

Where: My house, Quarante-Huit-Soixante-Trois Jeanne-Mance (functioning dishwasher!)
When: 9:30pm, Friday Sept. 3rd
How: Handlebars, shoulderpads, and dancin' shoes
After: Dancing at Up Yours, 5656 ave du Parc (11:30pm-3am)
Why: I'll only be Thirté for the rest of my gay life and I am so happy you're in it with me!
MTI (Musical Track Inspiration): "Met Some New Colours" (Pop Winds) / Memories (Kid Cudi / David Guetta Haircut)

http://www.ckut.ca/cgi-bin/ckut-grid.pl

Kingston Queers Bash Back on CFRC fm

2010-08-26T02:27:00.002-04:00

OMG this interview with Bash Back Kingston was so cute and fun!

cfrc.ca/blog/programming/archive

Choose 25 August 2010, 18h and the interview starts at around the 19th
minute. PCP, PolitQ, CKUT, "We Become our own Wolves" and, natch,
Pervers/cité all get plugs. Go community radio!

Love on the airwaves,
Jordan

Peaches Lepage @ Cabaret Spark! Sala Rosa Sept 10

2010-08-24T08:57:00.001-04:00

SPARK Cabaret – September 10

Artists: Alexis O’Hara, 2boys.tv, Nathalie Claude, Dario Milard, Clara Furey, Peter James, Bob Loblaw, Marcelle Hudon, Susanna Hood, Peaches Lepage, Sasha Kleinplatz, Andréane Leclerc
Discipline: Interdisciplinary
Dates: September 10th, doors at 9:30 p.m., show+party at 10 p.m.
Venue: Sala Rossa
Cost: $12 pre-sale, students, RQD, RAIQ / $15 regular

A highly entertaining evening featuring a dozen eclectic acts by the crème de la crème of Montreal’s cabaret scene. Hosted by Alexis O’Hara.

Presented as part of SPARK.

Animation par Guizo LaNuit
Guizo LaNuit is an international playboy, part time arms dealer and has a number one hit song in the republic of Georgia. He is also Alexis O’Hara’s alter ego. He will be hosting the cabaret and will regale us with a trilingual rendition of the classic song, Quizas, Quizas.

Lapine-Moi by Nathalie Claude  
Welcome to my fairytale-dream-nightmare. Come deep into my mind to excavate and confront the worst enemy of all : MYSELF.

First World Problems by Peaches Lepage
Peaches Lepage has made 2 prior appearances in Montréal on their intergalactic meta-world tour, which has been generously funded by thedutymyth. Previous invocations at the Death Church Benefit for Will Munro and the Laura Boo MacDonald-curated Cabaret Faux Pas at Café Cléopâtre have been met with consternation, fear, guilt, and adoration.

The Greatest (excerpt) by Sasha Kleinplatz
The Greatest, named for boxing legend Mohammed Ali. The physical language of machismo and male coolness embodied in pop-cultural images of boxers, hip hop artists and mafioso, is re-set on 6 female dancers. The dancers use an aggressive muscularity and tempered cool to claim their turf and assert their status in the group. The performers are an all-girl fight club loitering, threatening, wrestlestly stalking the stage, and battling for supremacy.

FauxPas

2010-08-02T16:13:00.003-04:00

Cabaret Faux Pas! // Opening Party for Pervers/Cite 2010

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location Café Cleopatra
1230 St. Laurent
Montreal, QC

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Created by: Pervers/cité, Jordan Arseneault

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More info Montreal’s underground cabaret phenomenon breaks the surface for one night only in a queer performance art extravaganza at the historic Cafe Cleopatra!

Hosted by the new glam rock bitch about town, Peaches Lepage, the lineup features local burlesque and drag heroes Glam Gam Productions, Connie Lingua, Douche La Douche, musical musings by Joseph Gabereau and Jef Barbara, indescribable actions by Sarah Laser and Marie...-Vierge, Vancouver’s contemporary dance executor, Mutya Macatumpag and the sensational vogue troupe from Toronto, the Kiki House of Pink Lady. The stage will glitter with the bizarre, the gaudy and the gay and then turn into a dance floor all night, care of DJ B’UGO.

www.bugo.dj
www.perverscite.org

Doors @ 8pm
Show @ 9pm
Cover is sliding scale $5 to $15

*************

Le phénomène de cabaret avant-gardiste queer sort de la maison pour un rendez-vous de performances débridées sur les coulisses du Café Cléopâtre.

Maîtrisée par la nouvelle hôtesse glam rock de la scène, Tooloose Le Trick, la liste des interprètes est éblouissante: les héros de la relève burlesque Glam Gam Productions, la fabuleuse Connie Lingua, Douche La Douche, des passages musicaux de Joseph Gabereau et Jef Barbara, des interventions performatives de Sarah Laser et Marie-Vierge, sans compter la diva de la danse contemporaine de Vancouver, Mutya Macatumpag, le tout surplombé par la formidable Kiki House of Pink Lady, troupe de bal vogue de Toronto. La scène, étincelante de gaïté, devient piste de danse à 1h grâce au génie du célèbre DJ B’UGO.

Portes 20h00
Show 21h00
$5 - $15

Torauma

2010-06-29T10:12:00.001-04:00

Dear Toraumatized lady-friends,

So sorry to hear about all the evil police brutality in your city last weekend.
But never fear, Aïda is here! I'm feeling like a little police-themed Deutschekunt/kunst-hassen-sex-sang is in order for my first ever visit during Toronto Pride! Yippee!

On the agenda:
Arriving Thurs pm, dinner w/ Moh and dessert at LAB
Friday: visit to PWA and Will Munro party at night
Sat: Trans march and Cyndi Lauper at night
Sun: something less gay
Mon 9am: au revoir!

I am still c/hell-phoneless, so the more hang-outs I can arrange in the advance the better! For the occasion, my special wing-(wo)man will be the illustriously queer Marlo Turner Ritchie, on whose c/swell-phone I may be s/textable upon request (zat ok mit zu, Mar?).

I'll be staying in Roncesvalles thurs-fri, middtown on sat, and back to Roncey for Sun night with dearest Jessums Barr. Goals this weekend include:

G etting cheap food
A ssembling en masse for a collective cry to "True Colors"
Y our hugs
S taying sober
H omophilia
I nsider parties
T aking back the Dyke

With love from bucolic Montréal,
Jord/Aïd/an

Follow me on CKUT: Queer Corps!

2010-06-14T19:55:00.001-04:00

I'm co-hosting the weekly Queer Corps CKUT 90.3fm, Mondays 6pm-7pm:

http://www.ckut.ca/cgi-bin/ckut-grid.pl

new affiliations

2010-06-14T14:47:00.006-04:00

www.queersagainstapartheid.org
www.perverscite.org

Not that I think the word is "apartheid" is so precious that it could not be replaced with something less shocking to the immoral majority, but I support sanctions against the State of Israel for their treatment of Palestinians. I also support all those who strive to prove that Pride is political, that voices of dialogue and resistance matter in the defense of social justice, and that we must stand on the side of the oppressed.
See in Toronto, queers!

Live video performance: Wed. May 26th, 6pm at the SAT

2010-05-21T14:08:00.005-04:00

UNFORTUNATELY THIS PERF HAS BEEN POSTPONED INDEFINITELY DUE TO INSURMOUNTABLE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. WE'LL TRY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN IN OCTOBER. J
As part of my friend Audrey Samson's residency at Agence TOPO, I will be part of a live direct video performance in and around the SAT and the Quartier des Spectacles on. Come one come all: FREE!

Lancement du site internet Géoweb et performance télématique Aether9

le mercredi 26 mai 2010, 18 h 00
à la Société des arts technologiques (SAT)
1195 boul. Saint-Laurent, Montréal

Géoweb - Une exploration du web géographique
www.AgenceTOPO.qc.ca/geoweb

Le mercredi 26 mai 2010, à la Société des arts technologiques, l'Agence TOPO lance quatre projets d'art web qui explorent la thématique du web géographique. La popularité d'outils de cartographie et de visualisation terrestre se fait grandement sentir dans l'expérience du web. L'emploi de systèmes de géolocalisation se généralise et infiltre l'univers numérique. À l'aide de ces technologies, des artistes explorent la volonté de « situer ». Les ¦uvres qui en résultent questionnent cette nouvelle conscience géographique issue des pratiques en réseau.
Réunis par la commissaire Sylvie Parent, les artistes Matthew Biederman (Montréal), Grégory Chatonsky (Montréal), Zahra Poonawala (Strasbourg, France) et Cheryl Sourkes (Toronto) ont bénéficié de résidences et de soutien à la production de l'Agence TOPO pour la réalisation de leurs projets. Avec Spectrum Survey, Biederman prend la mesure des ondes électromagnétiques qui nous entourent. Dans Circulation, Chatonsky fait du trafic urbain le moteur d'un dialogue entre un homme et une femme. Poonawala nous fait découvrir le monde par la voix des haut-parleurs, dans Public Address System, et Sourkes propose GeoTag, une version web du jeu Géographie.
Ont travaillé à ce projet, en 2009 et 2010, les réalisateurs multimédias Vincent Archambault et Guy Asselin, ainsi que les stagiaires Keshia Nau-Dominique et Alex St-Gelais. Un texte de la commissaire accompagne le projet en ligne.

Aether9 - Performance télématique
www.aether9.org

Aussi au programme de la soirée figure une performance télématique avec des artistes du Québec, de Suisse, de la Colombie, de Belgique, de l'Australie et de la Finlande. Le collectif Aether9 rassemble des participants nomades et délocalisés qui utilisent l'internet comme lieu de rencontre. Aether9 est une plate-forme ouverte qui explore les possibilités de mise en scène audio/vidéo sur le web ainsi que la notion de communauté en ligne et les relations qu'entretiennent les individus qui en font partie. L'équipe de Montréal comprend Audrey Samson, accueillie ce printemps en résidence à l'Agence TOPO dans le cadre du programme Sortir de l'écran, accompagnée de Jordan Arseneault et Christiaan Cruz.

www.AgenceTOPO.qc.ca
Agence TOPO est un centre d'artistes en nouveaux médias dont le mandat est de produire, de diffuser et de distribuer des ¦uvres multimédias qui explorent les nouvelles narrativités et les croisements interdisciplinaires et interculturels.

Le MUST de la saison vidéo 2010

2010-04-12T14:31:00.001-04:00

L'exposition "Legacy" de Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay est le fun de l'art vidéo de la saison. Faut le voir avant le 15 mai!
J

My first time on TETU.COM

2010-03-09T12:02:00.001-05:00

I know the photo looks like we're some kind of queer debate club, but I have to admit I'm tinkled to be on tetu for the first time. Clothed, but definitely there.

STALLE: soirée perfo queer March 11th, 2010

2010-03-09T11:58:00.001-05:00

The next project:
STALLE
Soirée Perfo-Queer

Jeudi le 11 mars, 2010

90 de la Gauchetière Est, 1 étage (Mise au jeu)
Métro Place d’Armes / St-Laurent
Doors 8:30pm, show at 9pm.

Jordan A.
John Custodio
Esther Splett
2Fik & Jef Barbara
Vincent Chevalier
Nikki MacMillan
Maxime Delisle

Stalle : Soirée Perfo-Queer is a round-up of some of the new, the personal, the social, the achingly dream-like, and the fun aspects of what queer performance can be. From classic video interaction, to self-satire, movement, and sound art, these queers will shave the hairy backside of what you expect from performance art and show us the wet, palpable, dark third eye of radical queer representation.

Stalle : la Soirée Perfo-queer est une présentation de certains poulains de l’écurie de la nouvelle performance queer. Le personnel, le social, l’onirique, et le marrant se réussissent sur scène nous montrant des créations d’interaction vidéo, de satire, de mouvement et de l’intervention sonore. Venez regarder par son troisième oeil humide le coeur palpitant de la représentation radicale queer d’aujourd’hui.

Facebook : Radical Queer Semaine 2010

First Real Live Radio Hosting: Mon Dec 28th

2009-12-29T14:48:00.003-05:00

Hi thanks to Courtney and Dave and the absence of the real Dykes on Mics I had the opportunity to hots my first live radio broadcast on CKUT. Our songlist is below. We did a queer year in review with a couple of highlights from each of us and a couple of shout-outs to Pervescité, Radical Queer Semain, Axon D'Luxe and Rae Spoon. Check out the drop-down list under Dykes on Mykes for Monday, Dec. 28th-- it starts about 6 minutes in.

As I recall, we started the year on a wave of optimism from the defeat of the Bush régime south of the border and the beginning of what I like to call the Obamarama, right? He was going to stop all the wars, signal the beginning of the end of endemic racism, democratize healthcare and defend human rights for women and gays. He didn’t get it all done, but I do have to hand it to him, on a theme that has recurred several times in the media this year, Mr. Obama delivered a coup against HIV discrimination when in October he repealed the 22 year-old U.S. travel entry ban for HIV positive people. It was one of those funny executive order things where the U.S. president just signs and it’s gone. As of January 2010, for the first time since the AIDS crisis, it is no longer illegal for foreign HIV positive people to step foot on American soil. Countries that still have the ban in effect include long-time human rights favorites China and Saudi Arabia.
Oh yeah and they passed that health insurance bill in Congress on Christmas Eve, but that’s for a whole other show!

There was a new kid on the block in the queer calendar this year, one that gave me a new chosen family and somewhere to be on Sunday nights for 3 months, and that was Radical Queer Semaine! A week of actions, workshops, demos, performances and music that made a little beating heart of anti-capitalist underground queerness beat a little faster last year. Everyone’s major highlights were the openning address by Michael Hendricks on his ACT-UP Montreal years and lifetime of activism, an impromptu workshop by BDSM sexpert Anrea Zanin, a marathon performance art night, a legendary party that transformed the social economy loft building we had rented for the week, and a wonderful Folk as Queers night that brought Rae Spoon and Sarah Mangle to us and showed us the best of St-Henri improv with the Inapprpriate Hymns and Hers.
Our friends from the newly formed group PolitiQ have made it their mission to keep RQS alive again this year. If you’re interested in getting involved this year, leaving your mark or having a mark left on you, contact them at radical.queer.semaine@gmail.com and on Facebook through the PolitiQ group page.

"Homo Christmas" Pansy Division from *The Essential Pansy Division*
"Do I Belong?" Hidden Cameras from *Origin, Orphan*
"Butterflies" Nicki Click from *I'm on my Cellphone*
"Gay Bomb" Axon D'Luxe from *Axon D'Luxe*
"Hot Lips" Pacific! from *Reveries*
"Chica de Metal" Kumbia Queers *Kumbia Nena*
"Come on Forest Fire Burn the Disco Down"
*Superioryouareinferior* l
"Breakdance Hunx" Kids On TV from *Mixing Business With Pleasure*

interesting

2009-12-06T15:45:00.002-05:00

A very powerful statement of the level of anti-government and anti-fascist activism in Greece. What is the midpoint, one wonders, between the complacent/complicit bourgeois obedience to S. Harper's régime of ignorance and backward-thinking conservatism which we live with in Canada, and these anarchist acts of violence?
Is it time for mass civil disobedience? Must investigate history of CD in Canada and get back to you.
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/11/23/mass-civil-disobedience-in-australia-and-canada/

Woot.
J

Where are the new "walkers"?

2009-11-18T12:22:00.001-05:00

There should be "walkers" to take people to get boring administrative things done: smiling discreet gay boys with bus tickets, magazines, and bureaucratic savoir-faire. N'est-ce pas? I will be their Jordanager

some things for fall

2009-11-10T11:16:00.001-05:00

So, this time in keeping with the blog as public diary, we note a few of my upcoming performance dates:

Nov. 28th-29th: www.vihsion.com : a festival and conference of films by and about HIV + film and video. I will made some openning remarks, and host a theatre of the oppressed workshop on the 29th.
Dec. 19th: The Takes One to Know One Salon, an afternoon perfart atelier with 3 other artists, workshop première of *Jordan/Émilienne*, interactive video performance at Interstice, 242 Young St, Mtl.
Dec. 31st, 2009- Jan. 1st, 2010: SWEDING *Key Largo*, a live action no-budget dramatic read-through of the 1948 John Huston b&w film classic with inverted gender roles and little to no rehearsal.

Please feel free to contact me with your comments and questions!
xo, J

Sleeping Crash-tual

2009-10-27T10:43:00.000-04:00

The (getting to) sleep phenomenon.
This past month. I went through a phase of contact-lenses-in post-porn-machine laundry-nest crashing after I quit my recent NGO job. Last night (glasses on, thank Dog), I decided to sleep on the couch. It makes me feel like "Busy Daddy".
I guess the WAY we "fall asleep" has a lot to do with how we want to imagine ourselves in waking, we ask ourselves, however briefly and subconsciously, "How do I want to awaken?"-- sometimes I feel it's important to wake up naked, other times (like last night), I needed to feel like Busy Daddy and wake up fully clothed and ready to smoke-drink-coffee and make a list of things I was looking forward to and not looking forward to in the day.
One thing that my dear friend and ex-boss found was really helpful and important in her sleeping ritual (NEVER in a totalizing way, but rather as a tool, as a technique, as a MODE of sleep-preparation), was to get into her bed-ware (flanel nightgown probably) and get into bed and WRITE IN A JOURNAL. Rather than ending your day/evening by EXPOSING yourself to more information and images, why not take the time to let out some of your feelings and thoughts onto a page, in ink, (I know you are a calligrapher, Sensei). The cursive is an imitation of the winding roads of the mind itself, the page will be there, adorned by your words and doodles when you awaken, eyeballs unfettered by contacts (if you decided to remove them), body clad (or not) with materials (or lack thereof) of your choosing.
The fact that your crash-tual (crash ritual) has become a moment worthy of reconsideration is also significant. It represents self-care in the liminal state between waking and dreaming: it is the closest we get to freedom and slavery as resolved dualities within us. It is involuntary self-care.
Bisou,
J

Reconciliation Circle / Restorative Justice

2009-10-26T23:27:00.000-04:00

1 - Reconciliation circle will focus on main and most objective harms that have occurred.
2 - Overarching moral/ethical concerns AND interpersonal issues need not take precedence or be discussed
3 - The issue of violence will have to be addressed either in a different context of point #1
4 - In the circle, for the dialogue and justice-seeking to occur, we need at least 2 pillars (i.e. "elders" in the Native/First Nations and Quaker sense) to be present to witness the circle.
5 - All must agree that dialogue and justice are desired by all for the health of the community. Uh-huh. Yep. ALL.
6 - Each party should bring a facilitator/friend, who, without being impartial, is at least not emotionally involved, i.e. has not been harmed or accused of whatever bad thing did or didn't occur. The facilitator is there to help the parties TALK, they are also there because they understand the process and also have a vested interest in the health of the community.
7 - In some models, you have a moderator or moderating tribunal (3 moderators) to help the whole thing happen. In the absence of this element, the presence of pillars and facilitators is supposed to be enough to allow for equal and open dialogue in the interests of justice, forward-looking intentions, transparency, and communal reconciliation.
8 - The Circle is not punitive. End results can be action items, but not necessarily. Broken trust and hurt feelings can be discussed, but the purpose is truly for there to be a communal recognition of what has occurred and genuine desire to move on to be voiced and felt. This will not always occur, but it is at least :
i) Harm reductive
ii) Non-conflictual
iii) Non-punitive
iv) Dialogue-based
v) Egalitarian

Which is more than you can say for many processes.
One key word I forgot to mention was Restorative Justice, that is the praxis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restorative_justice

Check it out!

Takes One to Know One Salon Nov. 21st 1-4pm

2009-10-24T15:15:00.000-04:00

Hi peeps,
It's Jordan with some organizational brio calling.
Saturday, Nov 21st, my buddy Borden has offered his windowless loft near Clark and J-T for our Takes One to Know One Salon, an afternoon atelier of new DIY video and perf.
Here is the game plan:

Get back to me by Nov. 2nd if you are interested!
We will be having a "craft night" meet and greet at my house 4863 Jeanne-Mance, on Nov 7th to make the flier and plan the Facefucking/tech needs.
There will be a door charge but it will mainly serve to pay for people's cabs and/or tech needs. Borden is not greedy about the daytime loft usage.

My idea for this salon is to première new works that we have not had the space or wherewithal to show yet, to show something to a small and appreciative audience that we may want to workshop or dialogue about in the future, to give an opportunity to break the interactive video ice. I will be showing a new, non-cabaret, non-comedic, work called jordan/émilienne about family trauma: yay! It does not matter how short or long or rehearsed or not your piece is: *Takes One to Know One* is about vanquishing panic and paranoia and moving on healing action/performance/memory-making. The only theme is "interactive video". I would invite you to forward this, but I have chosen you special few because I feel you know what I am talking about, and we only have the long from 12-4:45 in total, so we have a max of 2hours for the perf'in.

Please let me know if you are interested. I will post this info on thedutymyth.blogspot.com where I will also post all the updates on this proposal. I want this salon to be as inclusive and boundary-breaking as possible for everyone involved, and I hope you are stoked.
xo,

Remember this? Thanks to Amber to Nightwood for featuring me in my pre-blog epoch

2009-10-15T12:11:00.000-04:00

http://nightwoodband.com/2009/05/07/dressed-in-black-jordan-arsenault

New semiannual manifesto.

2009-10-15T00:02:00.000-04:00

OK Fuck it. The Harper Government is coming down. I'm starting a new chapter of ACT-UP, and I accept my flaws as part of life's unbearable magic. See you in the Spring, with a new minority in parliament, less serophobia, and another manifesto. Bye.

Yes blogging beats Facefuck

2009-10-10T01:21:00.000-04:00

Facefuck is definitely an inferior web tool. My "status update" from earlier today somehow didn't save. This has made me feel like I lost part of my subjective narrative, that my own understanding of time and the world is somehow destabilized. Where did it go? Was it witty or cryptic? Did it capture a merely experiential moment or something more like a realization? Who was I then?
You can never, as someone said, put your hand in the same Jordan twice. Ahem. Back to watching Last Chance Harvey and wondering what I lost, and what to snack on so that I will forget about, you know...

2009-10-08T22:45:00.000-04:00

Just in anticipation of the Facefuck invite and flier, here is the
line-up and basic info for τριάντα εγκράτεια:

A c t s :
3 : 3 0 M a p l e F a l l s (Mtl)
4 : 3 0 Z s o f i a Z a m b o (Mtl)
5 : 1 5 : C a y l i e S t a p l e s (TO)
6 : 0 0 N i k k i M a c M i l l a n (Outremont)
6 : 4 5 G a m b l e t r o n (Mile End)

7 : 3 0 : S p e c i a l G u e sts

8 : 1 5 A ï d e n C ö k e n b a l z (Bare-lean, DE)

P r o j e c t i o n s :
9 p m : * D e u x d e u x * b y A r a B a l l
9 : 1 0 * n o t h i n g e v e r h a p p e n e d * by J e s s M a c
9 : 2 0 : S c r e e n i n g o f * T h e G a r d e n o f t
h e F i n z i - C o n t i n i s* by V i t t o r i o d e S i c a .

O t h e r i n f o :
Sat.17.Oct.2009
C l e a ' s 3 0 t h ! J o r d a n ' s 1 s t !
4 8 6 3 J e a n n e - M a n c e (+ St-Joseph Ouest)
3 p m - 1 1 p m
I n v i t e o n l y , i n a g o o d w a y . $ 4 c o v e
r w i t h a m o j i t o .
k i t t y k n o w s b e s t @ g m a i l . c o m

You can of course start inviting people, but anyone you want to invite
should also be sent fliers or facefuck invites so we know they are
real friends/fun-lovers and not interlopers! (By that I mean,
un-vouched for interlopers). Hot, respectful, vouched-for and friendly
interlopers will be welcome the day of, for sure :-)

J

Hunting and Fishing

2009-10-07T16:14:00.001-04:00

ARRRRRGGGGGGG
That feels better. J

hola / âllo / hello

2009-10-05T15:50:00.000-04:00

Caros lectores: bienvenido a mi nuevo blog.
Chers lecteurs: merci de consulter mon nouveau blogue.
Dear readers: welcome to my new blog.

Most of my posts will be in Canadian English, sin embargo, les invito a hacer notas en castellano; veuillez me laisser des notes en langue française si vous voulez.

Things I have loved this month:
- Traniwreck with Aliza Shapiro www.truthserum.org at the Middle East on Sept. 23rd.
- Meeting Camryn from Big Moves (finally!)
- the lady of colour at the *Start Laundry* in Mission Hill, Boston, who told me to "Stay out of trouble"
- Dontà Cheyenne Simmons
- Watching the last 45 minutes of John Hustonès Key Largo on a balmy night in Cape Cod.
- Legal Sea Foods;
- Zobriety;
- Frère Geoffrey at www.ssje.org
- Jess Mac, Stikki MacMillan, Heather Influenza, C.T. Horné and Jessums Barr.
- Jerusalem in My Heart.

Things I have raged against this month:
- Keeping in touch with toxic friends from your past;
- Middle-aged German émigré interlopers putting up Obama posters with Sharpied-on HITLER 'staches (Bonaventure métro, Montréal, 3 Oct. 2009, 11am)
- Passive aggression;
- War, patriarchy, hate, and its discontents.
- Narcissism without self-awareness;
- Bad self-esteem gay bitchiness.

Please post photos and videos of me at your leisure. This is an open-dialogue blog, but the rules of good argument will be imposed: good intentions, non-violence, hate-free and socially inclusive. Gracias / Merci /Thank you!