Panel: Performance and Futurity

Moderator / Animé par: Signy Lynch
Location: Golden Room, Atlas Hotel

• John Mũkonzi Mũsyoki, “Black and Indigenous Dialogue at the Dis/Junctions of Relational Possibilities”

A critical Black agency question and negotiation arises at the dis/junction between Black and Indigenous people. The notion of ritual archive (pro)posed by Toyin Falola, a Nigerian historian and professor of African Studies, provides a possible dis/junction for discussing Black and Indigenous dialogue on critical, creative, spiritual, and relational levels. Falola defines ritual archives as the practice where we nurture, transmit, and “store most of our Indigenous production, memories, legacies, and even the histories of our lives and ancestors” (474). Using the Arrivals Legacy Project (ALP) curated and led by Diane Roberts in collaboration with a team of sixteen (predominantly IBPoC) co-facilitators, this paper examines the activation of the ritual archive as a relational framework for broadening and grounding Black and Indigenous agency through a dramaturgical and interdisciplinary exploration of the ancestral connection among theatre and performance artists. Which conditions pro/offer a chance for intervention through solidarities, alliances, and cross-cultural collaborations? And, what contributing factors (foundational, innovative, and decolonial) shape how the intervention empowers, liberates, and nurtures Black and Indigenous agency in the Canadian theatre and performance landscape? ALP explores methodological foundations, orientations, and negotiations with the intent to model one’s rootedness and avenues of relationality (through artistic exploration) as a crucial ingredient for gesturing healthier futures.

• Isaiah Phillip Smith, “Theatre for Development and Climate Change Awareness In South Africa”

Theatre for Development and Climate Change Awareness in South Africa This paper forms part my ongoing doctoral research exploring Theatre for Development (TfD) and climate change awareness in the Mosuthu community of Reservoir Hills, Durban, South Africa. This study will explore how TfD can be strategically employed to engage the Mosuthu community in extensive discussions on climate change, focusing on enhancing their understanding and active participation in addressing environmental challenges. This research will probe into the lived experiences and perceptions of the community to evaluate their awareness of climate issues, their perspectives on the role of TfD, and their involvement in climate action initiatives. Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy theory will anchor the study. The study adopts a qualitative research design that prioritises dialogical learning and participatory approaches. The study incorporates interviews, focus groups, and drama performances, drawing on Freire’s concepts of dialogue, conscientization, problem posing, empowerment, and community theatre. Through the development and performance of theatre pieces, participants will articulate their individual and collective experiences with climate change, thus representing Freire’s theories in meaningful and impactful ways. The study will not only utilise TfD as a methodological tool for gathering data but also as a medium to enhance critical awareness and facilitate meaningful dialogue within the marginalised Mosuthu community. The theatrical performances will play a pivotal role, functioning as both a research tool and a medium for transformative engagement, prompting discussion, reflection, and action on climate-related issues.

• Manvendra Singh Thakur, “Fluid Objects, Fluid Bodies, Fluid Homes: Queer Narratives through Performance Art”

In the realm of performance art, the body serves as both canvas and conduit, challenging societal norms and reshaping narratives of identity, particularly within the context of queerness, homes, and the performative realm. This proposed paper explores the intersection of queer identity and domesticity through my performance, Let’s Make A Home, which disrupts traditional notions of inheritance and domesticity. The piece interrogates how queer individuals negotiate space and belonging, both within the home and in public contexts, offering a nuanced perspective on how these spaces are staged and embodied. By inviting participants to exchange objects that symbolize home, the performance addresses heteronormative constructions, providing insight into alternative queer modes of sharing, connection, and belonging. This intimate act becomes a radical gesture of reimagining familial bonds and communal spaces, highlighting the fluidity of home-making practices that defy societal and geographical boundaries. The performative body, in this context, becomes a site of resistance—redefining its relationship with space, memory, and identity in a dynamic tension with both interior and exterior worlds. By inviting participants to exchange objects that symbolize home, the performance addresses heteronormative constructions, providing insight into alternative queer modes of sharing, connection, and belonging. This intimate act becomes a radical gesture of reimagining familial bonds and communal spaces, highlighting the fluidity of home-making practices that defy societal and geographical boundaries. The performative body, in this context, becomes a site of resistance—redefining its relationship with space, memory, and identity in a dynamic tension with both interior and exterior worlds. Drawing on my personal research and artistic practice, this paper will delve into how performance art can serve as an inquiry into queer identities, particularly in the liminal spaces between the home and the outside. Through this examination, I aim to explore the transformative potential of performance in challenging and reimagining notions of queerness, belonging, and home in the contemporary Indian context specifically New Delhi, while also considering how these concepts can inform and complicate understandings in the Canadian setting.

• Hurmat Ul Ain, “Performance of Hospitality: Mouth as a Liminal Border”

In my research I explore the site of mouth as the tongue’s resting place, turning to the metonymy of tongue and its performative and linguistic meanings to address issues of cultural identity: performance through speech, taste, and sexuality. In this paper, I draw on performance theorist Peggy Phelan’s insight that, “In performance, the body is metonymic of self, of character, of voice, of ‘presence’” (150). The tongue metonymy, I argue, helps to focus discussions of hospitality around the migrant’s body, politics of identity, and place in a globalized world. I further examine definitions of hospitable spaces, using the mouth as example: it is where introductions of foreign objects take place. The image of the open mouth with tongue on display troubles ideas of intimacy and disgust or raw interiority against a polished exterior. The liminal and transient framing of the mouth as a site of negitiation of power and the encounter of possible (in)hospitality between the local/insider and the foreigner/outsider is a central setting in my project. To illustrate these connections, I analyze the work of contemporary artist, Mithu Sen who contributes to the discourse on hospitality and its limitations through a wide body of work on the subject. She repeatedly returns to the image of the mouth, its interiority, and visceral drawings/sculptures of tongue in her seminal works, To have and to hold (2002) and Border unseen (2014). In my paper, I read Sen’s performance works as troubling binaries of East/West, host/guest, public/private and colonizer/colonized.

Biographies

John Mũkonzi Mũsyoki

Mũkonzi is a theatre scholar, writer, director, and dramaturg. He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Alberta in Theatre and Performance Studies. He has worked with different theatres in Canada, Kenya, and Uganda.

Isaiah Phillip Smith

Isaiah Phillip Smith, a PhD student at Durban University of Technology, explores theatre for development and climate change awareness in South Africa. With a bachelor’s from Olabisi Onabanjo University and a master’s from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, his interdisciplinary research leverages visual and performing arts to address societal and global challenges.

Manvendra Singh Thakur

Manvendra is a researcher, performance artist, and filmmaker with an expansive background in Performance Studies. Their work explores the intersections of performance, identity, and social inquiry, with a particular emphasis on the concepts of home and belonging. Passionate about digital and everyday performances, Manvendra creates both virtual and real-time performance art pieces that serve as platforms for imagining an alternative.

Hurmat Ul Ain

Hurmat Ul Ain is a Pakistani born interdisciplinary artist and art educator. She is a PhD Candidate with the Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies program at York University. She holds an MFA in Performance Art from School of Art Institute of Chicago where she was studying as a Fulbright Scholar.