As the pandemic continues to unfold, it is clear that vulnerable communities have disproportionality felt the impact of COVID-19. Not only does this dispel the myth of this pandemic as the ‘great equalizer’, but it emphasizes the relationship between parallel shadow pandemics of racial discrimination, anti-Asian xenophobia, housing precarity and homelessness. As a result, marginalized communities often encounter intensified experiences of hypervisibility in public space, directly impacting perceptions of personal safety.
Join us for a discussion highlighting the work and contributions of community leaders and creative project partners featured in the Safe in Public Space initiative. Contributors will reflect on their works’ exploration of the concept of visibility and hypervisibility in public space, the importance of documenting and displaying the lived experiences of BIPOC individuals, and how the notion of ‘proof’ is relevant to validating and legitimizing experiences in public spaces.
Panelists include: Immony Mèn (Artist, Receipts), Syrus Marcus Ware (Artist, Radical Love), Justine Abigail Yu (Founder & Editor and Chief, Living Hyphen) and Ravyn Wngz (Activist).
Moderated by: Kenya-Jade Pinto
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Immony Mèn
Immony Mèn (he/him) is an artist, educator, and community-based researcher. He is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Design at OCAD University and the co-director of the Public Visualization Lab (OCADU, York University, and Ryerson University). As an artist, he has exhibited nationally and internationally and has been awarded municipal, provincial, and federal arts council grants to support his work. Men’s practice takes the form of interactive installations, interdisciplinary performances, social artworks, and community-based research projects. Works include Shadows!, Cite, Chthulucene, Everything in Place, Passing through the Heart, and Receipts.
Justine Abigail Yu
Justine Abigail Yu (she/her) is a communications and marketing strategist who has worked with organizations operating in North America, Central America, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Her expertise lies in growing enterprises from the ground up through strategic digital marketing, compelling storytelling, and genuine community engagement through a lens of anti-oppression.
She is also the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Living Hyphen, an emerging magazine that explores the experiences of hyphenated Canadians – that is, individuals who call Canada home but who have roots in often faraway places. She is an award-winning writing workshop facilitator whose work with Living Hyphen has been featured on national and local media outlets including CTV National News, CBC Metro Morning, Radio-Canada International, CBC Ontario Morning, CityTV’s Breakfast Television, and City News.
Justine Abigail is a fierce advocate for equity and anti-oppression. Her mission is to stir the conscience and spur social change. Learn more at www.justineabigail.com and www.livinghyphen.ca.
You can find Justine across all social media platforms at @justineabigail and/or Living Hyphen at @livinghyphen.
Syrus Marcus Ware
Syrus Marcus Ware (he/him) is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Arts, McMaster University. He is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. Syrus uses painting, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture, and he’s shown widely in galleries and festivals across Canada. He is a core-team member of Black Lives Matter – Toronto, co-founder of Black Lives Matter – Canada, a part of the Performance Disability Art Collective, and an ABD PhD candidate at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. His ongoing curatorial work includes That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2019) and BlacknessYes!/Blockorama. He is the co-editor of the best-selling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (URP, 2020).
Ravyn Wngz
Ravyn Wngz is an African, Bermudian, Mohawk, 2Spirit, queer and transcendent individual. Ravyn works to change all hierarchical mainstream arts and dance spaces by centering disability justice and advocating for representations of marginalized LGBTTIQQ2S communities. Ravyn is a co-founder of ILL NANA/DiverseCity Dance Company - a queer multiracial dance company that provides affirming accessible dance education to all LGBTTIQQ2S communities. Ravyn is the Artistic Director of OVA - Outrageous Victorious Africans Collective a Dance/Theatre collective that share the contemporary voices of African/Black and Queer/Self Identified storytellers. Ravyn is committed to eradicating all forms of anti-Black racism, supporting Black healing and liberating Black communities through their work.
Kenya-Jade Pinto
Kenya-Jade Pinto is an Indo-Kenyan-Canadian documentary photographer, filmmaker, and lawyer based out of Toronto. She grew up chasing crabs on the Kenyan coast, before moving to Alberta’s foothills as a teen. Kenya-Jade’s hyphenated worldview and experience informs her work and she dedicates herself to projects that are focused on uncovering injustice, fostering equity, and unpacking identity. Currently, Kenya-Jade is currently an Associate Producer on SCARBOROUGH, a fiction feature based on the award-winning book by Catherine Hernandez. She was recently named Filmmaker-in-Residence at the Refugee Law Lab at York University and is working on a long-term project investigating technology in migratory spaces. Kenya-Jade is a member of Women Photograph, the Visual Researchers’ Society of Canada, the Law Society of Ontario, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations as well as a Juris Doctor (cum laude) with a specialization in international law.