Refusing Gentrification: Community Arts & Practice(s)

Part of the Community Arts Space: What we long for
Transformative Justice Project
Co-presented with The 519, Salon Noir, and YYZ Artists Outlet

This panel will take place in Room 100 at the 519.

FREE REGISTRATION

In partnership with The 519 and as part of Intimate Encounters ~ Animate Histories, this event features activist-scholar-artist Yusra Khogali in conversation with local artists and residents of Regent Park, the community in which she also lives, to consider the relationships between its massive re-gentrification and creative cultural practices. Khogali will begin the session by offering up a particular theoretical lens in which to understand gentrification as something that is ‘atomospheric,’ drawing on the notion put forward by scholar Christina Sharpe’s in her book In the Wake (2016). Engaging with broader discussions of community-based and Black radical trans*national approaches, the panel will explore individual perspectives on the re-gentrification of Regent Park and more broadly across the city.

Select shorts from Animazing!, a free stop-motion animation art camp for LGBTQ2S Teens and Youth presented by The 519 and the Toronto Animated Image Society, will be screened during the panel’s intermission, and later taken up in conversation.

About Intimate Encounters ~ Animate Histories

Inspired by the ‘cruising’ histories of nearby Queen’s Park, Intimate Encounters ~ Animate Histories considers the diverse ways in which culturally-specific experiences of desire, physical expression, and social connection take up space across Toronto, and how this is complicated by an increasingly gentrified urban landscape. Led by artist Abdi Osman and curator Ellyn Walker, this project makes visible the dignity, love, and generative practices embedded in local Black, Trans, and Queer histories through community art-making workshops, programs, and a cumulative exhibition. Learn more

About Community Arts Space: What we long for

Grounded in the ability of clay to transform, the Community Arts Space is a platform for experimentation and socially-engaged art. Established in 2016, the project connects artists, makers, organizers, and residents through the creation of public projects that inspire social action. This year, the Gardiner is showcasing four public projects inspired by the theme “What we long for.” Learn more

The 519 is committed to the health, happiness, and full participation of the LGBTQ2S community. A City of Toronto agency and a registered charity with an innovative model of Service, Space and Leadership, The 519 strives to make a real difference in people’s lives while working to promote inclusion, understanding, and respect.

Photo: Yasin Osman, Regent Park, 2019.