Events/Workshops
BIPOC artists and creators have faced systemic barriers that take away the freedom to create and share art freely.
To combat this, we are creating Black and Indigenous-centered spaces that will serve on two fronts: as a place for Black and Indigenous artists to seek barrier-free programming that supports them in community building and artistic growth, and as a gathering space for the collective to plan and execute our creative pursuits.
This project, “A Series of Discoveries”, comes in two streams of workshops to be held in the province of British Columbia, primarily in the greater Vancouver/Lower Mainland area, to explore issues of psychological and physical safety as a BIPOC creative. This workshop series will contribute to both objectives.
There are two streams of workshops:
The first stream of workshops takes up the psychological and philosophical questions of identity, looking at how we simultaneously are shaped by society and shape society in the everyday. This psychological safety series will explore issues of a) self-identity and the differences between who BIPOC creatives are and who we feel we need to be; b) examining both internal and external narratives that form our understandings of who we are and the spaces we occupy (or not); c) arts-based exploration of trauma experienced as an artist; ending with d) sessions on re-writing the narrative as BIPOC creatives in community.
The second series of workshops will address many of the tangible business-related topics for creatives such as grant writing, marketing, branding, contract development and financial management.
These two series are not disconnected from one another as navigating the physical and tangible aspects of being a BIPOC creative entrepreneur is intimately intertwined with the physiological safety that is necessary to thrive in this environment. Importantly, this project draws on Indigenous knowledge systems that are shared with many BIPOC communities that see well-being as something larger than one’s individual achievement. Rather, it is the relationship to one’s community and environment through cooperation and collaboration that fosters wellness and prosperity and nurtures the intergenerational bonds that bind the ancestors and future generations together.
This orientation will be explored through activities such as healing circles and the incorporation of the African philosophy of Ubuntu with its dictum, “I am because we are.”
Events
A SERIES OF DISCOVERIES: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
The BIPOC Creative Association aims to dismantle those barriers and create space and opportunity for Black and Indigenous artists to create with reduced/no barriers.
To do this, we are creating Black and Indigenous centered spaces that will serve on two fronts: as a place for Black and Indigenous artists to seek barrier-free programming that supports them in community building and artistic growth; and as a gathering space for the collective to plan and execute our creative pursuits. This workshop series will contribute to both objectives.
In these next four weeks we will be running the second stream of workshops. Our next workshop is hosted by our facilitator Lili Robinson (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist and facilitator based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Lili is passionate about centring voices at the intersections of queerness, Black diaspora, socio-economic diversity and femme identity in their work. Since graduating Studio 58 in 2018, Lili has worked and trained with an array of theatre companies including Theatre Replacement, Playwright’s Theatre Centre, Rumble Theatre, New Harlem Productions, the frank theatre, and the Arts Club. Currently, Lili is the Resident Curator at rEvolver Festival and Community Engagement Producer at Playwright’s Theatre Centre. Lili’s debut play, Mx, was the winner of the 2019 Fringe New Play Prize and the 2019 Cultchivating the Fringe Award, and was subsequently presented as a digital production in the Cultch’s 2021/2022 season. While theatre is her primary practice, poetry and spoken word are her first loves, and it is with delight that she is returning to performing poetry more regularly, including at major local events like QAF’s Queerotica and the Vancouver Writer’s Festival. Lili spends much of their free time reading, snacking, and napping, and is always investigating how Black Feminist teachings can further inform all that they do.
This is a virtual event which will be held on Zoom.