DARC: Creative Drag & Gender Performance Workshop with Sheesha Yadil and Prince Deep

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Creative Drag & Gender Performance Workshop with Sheesha Yadil and Prince Deep

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Saturday, April 5, 2009
1 - 5pm

Rm 2011, Sherbourne Health Centre
(333 Sherbourne Street)
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THIS WORKSHOP IS FREE AND ONLY OPEN TO INDIGENOUS INDIVIDUALS AND PEOPLE OF COLOUR.

Ever wanted to dress up and perform on stage? Interested in exploring with your gender identity? This workshop will introduce you to the art of drag outside of the more mainstream depictions of drag you may see on your popular TV or at a Club. Workshop artists Prince Deep and Sheesha Yadil will be bringing in a variety of alternative gender performance tools than the typical drag queen lip-sync. The purpose of this workshop is to provide resources to people of colour and Indigenous folks who have been interested in gender performance but may not know where to start. In this queer and trans-positive space, we will go through the technical aspect of preparing and getting ready: from covering the clothes and materials drag artists use for getting dressed to the methods of make-up and facial hair. Participants will also have to opportunity to play with their creative side as we try out different styles of presentation on stage. We will also get a chance to view some video clips on the different genres of gender performance and have a discussion on some issues that can emerge from drag shows, namely, cultural appropriation and passing. At the end of the workshop, we hope participants will feel more comfortable with the style of gender performance they wish to explore and we will end with ideas of spaces and events where that can happen.

Sherbourne Health Centre is a fully accessible location.

Registration is required. Interested participants are asked to email their name to ywc@riseup.net to register.

Any questions, inquiries and/or concerns please contact Cristina at 416 736 2100 ex. 33484 or at ywc@riseup.net.

TTC tokens will be available for participants, and refreshments and a light lunch will be provided.

This workshop is brought to you by Centre for Women and Trans People at York and OPIRG York
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About the Facilitators:/

Prince Deep is a budding young artist and uses gender art on stage to express and share emotions, identity, creativity and personal stories. Prince Deep often teams up with other drag artists to do group numbers on stage using dance, acting, and culture.

Sheesha has been performing since childhood and has years of experience on a number of stages in Toronto, Halifax and Peterborough. Realizing her style is different from other types of drag and gender performers, she expresses even more variety in her art, inspired by a lifetime of music, dance and Bollywood.

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Amardeep Kaur
Volunteer Coordinator
OPIRG York

Rm. 449, The Student Centre
4700 Keele St. York University

Phone: 416-736-5724
amardeep@opirgyork.ca
www.opirgyork.ca

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About DARC

Decolonization and Anti-Racism Circle (DARC) is an organization made up of Peterborough community members that work with the goal of building solidarity across differences for social change. We use a broad range of tactics including public education, social support, advocacy, and direct action to address historical and ongoing injustices that affect racialized and Indigenous peoples. We recognize that structures of oppression including patriarchy, ecocide, capitalism, imperialism, colonialism and racism are interconnected, mutually reinforcing and embodied in institutions. We believe decolonization 'at home' is an integral part of the struggle for global justice and self-determination. Decolonization is only effective by taking action through consensual efforts and building solidarity across intersecting identities and communities that are affected by structures of oppression.

DARC can be reached by email at darcpeterborough@riseup.net

Basis of Unity

As people who identify as Indigenous, as people of colour and/or as mixed-race persons, we come together with the recognition that there is a need for a network of support and advocacy in order to address covert, everyday racism and the climate of exclusion that does exists within Peterborough. By aligning ourselves with other social justice organizations we are better able to address intersecting concerns such as gender, culture, poverty, immigration, sexual identity, status, difability ('differently' abled), age, and life experiences (e.g., class, HIV serostatus, physical and mental health status etc.). By maintaining an organizing unit comprised of people who identify as Indigenous, as people of colour and/or as mixed-race persons we hope to encourage leadership among racialized and Indigenous people and to help nurture the mental space necessary to be able to recognize, criticize and address experiences of racism. In these ways we can work towards community wellness, anti-racism and decolonization!

Guiding Principles

By using a non-hierarchical structure and consensus decision making practices, DARC strives to serve racialized and Indigenous communities by first addressing their lived experiences rather than focusing on White guilt and White privilege. DARC will do this by:

- Recognizing the need to unite and actively fight for mutual self-determination through a movement led by racialized and Indigenous peoples.
- Understanding that services and effort to organize are most successful when they involve the communities served, DARC seeks to support and promote the active participation, leadership and experiential knowledge of racialized and Indigenous peoples throughout its structure and work.
- Understanding and addressing everyday covert racism, and how it creates a climate of exclusion.
-Fostering a deeper analysis of the ways in which colonialism, imperialism, ecocide, patriarchy and other structures of oppression continue to impact the lives of racialized and Indigenous people in different ways.
- Appreciating the collective histories of struggle against racial and ethnic discrimination as well as other forms of oppression that we work to resist through organizing, supporting and advocating for our diverse communities.
- Acknowledge the importance of uniting Indigenous and racialized people in common struggles while recognizing our different communities, histories, and experiences of oppression and resistance.
- Work in solidarity across differences by collaborating with other community based organizations to address intersecting identities and oppressions.
- Recognizing that Canada is on stolen Indigenous land, and working in solidarity to challenge and confront a colonial system based on dispossession, genocide, racist laws and illegal borders!