Sinister Wisdom Volume 81

I have three poems published in Sinister Wisdom Volume 81: Blue; Je t'adore; and Mountain. We had to pair our poetry with a 'poet of yore' and I chose Elsa Gidlow's work: Of Forbidden Love (1960), Love's Acolyte (1919) and To the unknown Goddess (1918). From her lovely book SAPPHIC SONGS Seventeen to Seventy. (Thanks to C, for introducing me to her work many years ago). Elsa Gidlow's work was reprinted with the generous permission of her literary executor  Marcelina Martin. Sinister Wisdom Volume 81 features some 40 contemporary and 'poets of yore' including luminaries such as Audre Lorde, Gertrude Stein, Pat Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Muriel Rukeyser. A lovely read over the holidays.

Cover of Sinister Wisdom Vol 81

Here is Je t'adore; and a brief bio for Elsa Gidlow:
  
Je t'adore Meg Torwl

I have seen
your lips on my breast
like a worshipper
at a temple
I have felt
your tongues libations
I have known
your head fall down
with overwhelming passion
as my body rises
to meet you.

ELSA GIDLOW. 1898 – 1986
To quote Phyllis Matyi, Elsa Gidlow’s friend in a 1986 Press Release: ‘Born in Yorkshire, England in 1898, six-year-old Elsa Gidlow immigrated with her family of nine to the French Canadian village of Tetreauville. She was mainly self-educated, being allowed what she called, "the untutored space to be”. Gidlow left Montreal for New York in 1920, where she became poetry editor for Frank Harris' progressive, much censored Pearson's Magazine. Poet-philosopher Elsa Gidlow died peacefully in her mountain home retreat, "Druid Heights," near Muir Woods, Mill Valley, California on June 8, 1986’.
Many of the poems she wrote before 1923 were published that year in her book, On a Grey Thread, Will Ransom. Her other work includes: Sapphic Songs : Seventeen to Seventy, 1976, Diana Press; Makings for Meditation : A Collection of Parapoems Reverent and Irreverent, 1973, Booklegger Press; and Elsa I Come With My Songs the Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow,1985, Booklegger Press. Her work appeared in many journals and anthologies. She had many lovers, as is evident in her poetry. Including when she was a young woman with the older Tommy, - Violet Henry-Anderson, whom she met in New York in 1945, and lived with for thirteen years until Tommy’s death. In her seventies Elsa lived with Gretchen Muller who was then in her twenties. ( Sinister Wisdom Vol 81)

PrideNZ - Photography Profile

Pride NZ is featuring a profile of me in their Visual Arts section, with a portfolio of my photography! Yay!

photo of yellow frangipani flower by Meg Torwl

It is a great website with many audio programs on just about every topic you can imagine - Arts and Culture, Community Profiles, Education, Health and Wellbeing, History, Identity, Media, Organisations, Relationships, Sport and Recreation, and Youth. PrideNZ aims to present positive stories and images by and about LGBTQI community. There is lots of current stuff online, as well as history and herstory, they provide transcripts of their audio files. A recent feature is Rainbow Touchstones, 6 people from LGBTQI community talk about their mental health journey's in 5 minute videos. Gareth Watkins, Hannah Ho and Roger Smith do a great job supporting and hosting the website, creating content.

EarSighted Live Audio Description - a first in Canada!

It was the dream of Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture Artistic Director Geoff McMurchy, and Executive Director Rina Fraticelli to introduce Audio Description to theatres in Vancouver, and Canada. Which has resulted in EarSighted Live Audio Description first full season - 15 shows October 2010 - June 2011 with 6 greater Vancouver theatres.

What is Audio Description?

'Audio description brings the sets, lighting, costumes, and action of a theatre performance alive for blind and visually impaired audience members. Kickstart has trained a team of professionals who provide key action and other visual information, between the actor’s lines, through a wireless transmitter to a single earpiece worn by the recipient. Description begins 15 minutes prior to curtain, with an introduction to the overall production and design concept, and other programme notes'. Audio Describers preview the show 2-3 times and write succinct yet descriptive notes.

How it all began

Audio Description for live events has been available in the USA for 3 decades, and began in Washington DC, and San Francisco, CA. You can read a brief history at the Audio Description Coalition website. It was one of the co-founders of the coalition, Deborah Lewis who would become the trainer for EarSighted. The Audio Description Coalition provides, training and professional development, guiding principles and codes of conduct throughout the USA, and now also Canada.

In 2009 I was employed by Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture to coordinate audio description and quite a journey it has been for all of us! In the spring of 2009 we put out a call for auditions, and received over 40 applications, from this talented pool we auditioned 15 people, and chose 8 for the training. Auditions were recorded to assess for natural aptitude and feedback was taken not only from those of us conducting the interviews, but also from trainer Deborah Lewis, and a representative from locally based Access for Sight Impaired Consumer, Tamara Tedesco. Tamara and other people who are blind or sight impaired provided feedback to the audio describers throughout our training sessions also.

From the training a dedicated core of 4 Audio Describers has emerged, Khaira Ledeyo, Rick Waines, Teri Snelgrove, and Stephane Kirkland, who are all experienced in delivering live audio description in a variety of settings. At the time of the first training in Vancouver in late spring 2009, while Deborah Lewis was in the city, Kickstart took the opportunity to invite theatres to a meeting to learn more about audio description- from which may developments progressed.

The First Audio Described show in Vancouver

 Kickstart's first show was a partnership with the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind in the fall of 2009, with a performance of the early life of blind and Deaf person Helen Keller, as told in The Miracle Worker. Feedback from the audience was very positive:

‘I attended the Vancouver Playhouse's performance of The Miracle Worker. I was extremely impressed with the live AD.  Not only was the service beneficial for me as a blind patron, but it was also beneficial for my sighted companion.  Without the AD, my companion would be trying to provide the description.  This is distracting to him, since he is not able to fully focus on and enjoy the play himself, but it can also be annoying to other patrons sitting nearby.  In addition, my companion would never be able to provide as much detail about the set design, costumes, and physical attributes of the actors. Most importantly, the AD allows me the independence and choice to attend a live theatre production without having to rely on a sighted companion. I would be interested in attending more live theatre presentations that were accompanied by AD, and to pass on information to my sight impaired friends and acquaintances’  Linda Weber - BC CNIB Board Co-Chair.

Audio describer Teri Snelgrove with her script, in the technical booth, with a view of the stage at the Vancouver Playhouse. Photo courtesy of Meg Torwl, and EarSighted.        

Equipment

 Audio Description is able to use the same technology provided for hearing enhanced performances which many modern theatres already have. After some research Kickstart settled on purchasing a portable FM wireless transmitter and 20 headset and receiver system to give EarSighted the flexibility of being able to audio describe in any setting, indoors or outdoors, and with the option of adding more headsets. With funding from the City of Vancouver, and Canadian Heritage, EarSighted was under way.

Cultural Olympiad

The Cultural Olympiad of the Olympic and Paralympic games in Vancouver in the winter 2010 provided opportunities for partnerships and showcasing EarSighted Live Audio Description, with the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU Woodwards, and HIVE3. Three intriguing shows provided their own unique challenges. At the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, Robert LePage's The Blue Dragon/ Le Dragon Bleu and SPINE by Kevin Kerr, James Sanders, and Bob Frazer were both very visual shows,  making use of frequent projections, so there was a lot to describe, and much crucial to the show that would have be missed by visually impaired audience members if not for the audio description. The Madama Butterfly-like story of The Blue Dragon set in China included  scenes such as a projection of a giant hand tattooing on to the back of main character Pierre Lamontagne; the sights seen from a bicycle tour, trains; inside a revolving bar lounge; an art gallery show; and paintings of Vincent van Gogh appearing one after the other on blank canvases stacked against a warehouse wall.  With SPINE, there are 12 characters, and at least half of them play their alter egos or  avatar in a online video game.

While with HIVE3, where 12 theatres perform short scenes throughout the night, EarSighted audio described 4 shows the audio describers had prepared, including one with Touchstone Theatre which involved sitting in pairs listening to music  while the actors told stories with pieces of cooking dough on chopping boards on the audiences knees. So enthused were the team and audience we tried a couple of off the cuff shows unprepared, one of which involved been towed around the car park in a bicycle drawn 4 person cart, with actors running beside, and some of the action happening via puppets seen through a periscope in the roof. Now that was a lot of fun for all! Funding to provide audio description for these shows was generously provided by 2010 Legacies Now. You can hear a great CBC interview recorded by Jen Moss, with myself as coordinator, audio describers Rick and Khaira, and audience members, during a performance of SPINE. The interview which was broadcast August 22 on North by North West starts about 30 minutes in to the 60 minute audio file.

Audio Description for Exhibitions

Also during the Cultural Olympiad, Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture partnered with the University of British Columbia and Ryersen University to bring the groundbreaking exhibition Out from Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember, to the heart of the action, UBC Robson Square. right next to the free Zipline across the square. Audio describer Teri Snelgrove, and 2 local actors worked with the exhibition to provide pre-recorded  full audio descriptive, and plain language audio tours of the exhibit. American Sign Language, Touch Displays, and print, large print, and braille formats were also available. All formats are available online with the exhibit under Access, and offer a gold standard in exhibition accessibility. EarSighted plans to develop live and/or pre-recorded audio description tours with major local art galleries.

Training

Kickstart provided advanced training and certification for the 4 EarSighted audio describers with Deborah Lewis in the spring of 2010, and again met with theatres.  In the fall 2010 we partnered with Access for Sight Impaired Consumers to provided training to theatres on how to appropriately accommodate visually impaired audiences in a theatre setting, the training by Rob Sleath was very well received. ASIC provide on their website homepage a whole range of useful resources including 'Proper Etiquette when you meet a person who is blind or sight impaired,' and 'Proper Etiquette when you meet a guide dog team'. Also providing a consideration of other factors, such as economic - ticket pricing is as much a disability access issue as any other due to the high rate in unemployment and under-employment of people with disabilities. EarSighted has built relationships with ASIC, CNIB and other organizations serving people who are blind and visually impaired and continues outreach in these communities. 

EarSighted Live Audio Description Logo

EarSighted Season

In October 2010 EarSighted launched a full season of 15 shows with theatres in the greater Vancouver area. The three theatres who are all offering several shows launched their first shows in October, the Stanley Theatre and Vancouver Playhouse Theatre in Vancouver, and the Gateway Theatre in Richmond. In November the three theatres who are offering single shows will be launching at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver with Touchstone Theatre and Presentation House Theatre in North Vancouver. EarSighted has also partnered with the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance, offering a workshop on audio description at their fall 2009 Making a Scene conference, and currently in introducing audio description to theatre going audiences through a page on their online theatre guide. I have stepped down from the coordinating role after 2 years and a successful launch to pursue my own writing and artwork. Afuwa Granger has taken on the role of coordinator with EarSighted.

Kickstart Disbility Arts and Culture has been guiding a sister organization in Toronto, Picasso Pro through the process of introducing live audio description which they hope will be launched in 2011. It is our dream that eventually audio description will be offered in all theatres across Canada.

Trainer Deborah Lewis, members of the EarSighted Team, audience members, and staff at the Vancouver Playhouse.          Photo courtesy of Teri Snelgrove, the Vancouver Playhouse, and EarSighted

      

IQC - IDENTITY QUOTIENTS CALCULATOR in Magdalena Aotearoa October Vol 36

The second part of a  two part series I wrote about working in performance and video, published on pages  15 -16 Magdalena Aotearoa Newsletter, Issue 36 October 2010. Puts my own artistic practice in the context of the development of women working in film, and disability arts practice both in Aotearoa and Canada. Particularly the mentoring role pf women who came through Canada's Studio D, feminist film  studio;  and my inventing the IQC - Identity Quotients Calculator - a tool for the multiply marginalized! Download the Magdalena Newsletter 36 PDF here. 

Here's a sneak preview:  'Frustrated at times by a lack of understanding of my work, even within/between the various marginalized communities I belong to, I analyzed my work to discover in what context different disciplines have been presented 1999-2009. This resulted in the invention of my Identity Quotients Calculator – IQC ©. If mainstream society of the dominant culture defines ‘normal’ as male, European, middle-class, heterosexual, able-bodied, the further you are away from that, the least likely your work will be presented, commissioned, funded, reviewed in a mainstream context. This I call the Standard Deviation – how far you are away from ‘the norm’. 
 

The more I am physically present in my work, such as performance I am defined as 60% queer; or radio, audio on the web 100% disabled. In film I am 1/3 female, queer, and disabled/human rights activist. When I work in new media I am 50% disabled, 25% human rights activist, and 25% mainstream -  but neither queer nor a woman. When my poetry is published, and I’m not present I am 40% mainstream, and 20% each female, disabled, queer. Go on get out the calculator, work out your own IQC!'

The Magdalena Aotearoa Newsletter is a great read, this issue includes work from around the globe: Kahuku Empress Stiltdance month long residency and performance at the  Cairns Arts Festival in Australia;  Challen Wilson's residency at the Alaskan Indigenous Synergetic Collaboration: Winter with Cathy Rexford in USA; Madeline McNamara and Jack Trolove on critical race theory in theatre as white artists in Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand; Andrea Arial attends and perform Alfonisna with Auckland LAB Theatre Company at the 2 weeks Magdalena project event Vertice Brasil; Sandra Dempster and Sandra Sarala attend a Teatr ZAR workshop to learn the 2000 year old polyphonic Georgion songs in Brzezinka, Poland.

Magdalena Aotearoa cofounder Madeline McNamara wonders in her review of 2 day long sessions to reflect on 10 years since the Magdalena International Festival 1999, and in looking to the furture: 'If a local Magdalena event can actually exist if there is not an international or cross cultural exchange of some kind?'

PORTAL / PORTAGE media exhibition

PORTAL/PORTAGE a collaboration I am curating between four artists who are known to one another, and who are each currently exploring in our work, humans as part of nature. PORTAL/PORTAGE combines my own work in photo based video installations; Claudia Medina-Culos video installations and sound-scapes; Liliana Kleiner video work drawing on her photography, painting, and mixed media work; and Diane Tanchak abstract-realist style paintings. Each artist explores the nuance of location and the universality of story, while negotiating our bi-national, or tri-national cultural identities and/or art practices, in places we each understand as home. These are the stories we collect, create, and carry from LAN (Local Area Network – an internet term) to LAND, to LANGUAGE; or images as a language bypassing spoken language all together.

I are currently submitting the work to places we call home West Coast – Canada, New York - USA, Jerusalem -Israel/Palestine, Mexico, Aotearoa/New Zealand. This will also mean some or all of the artists will be available in each location for installation and to be present for the exhibition. This provides the option of adding components in each location, to make it a unique local experience, for example inviting local artists we know to exhibit also. In the essence of creating an eco-friendly exhibition, a primarily digital based work makes for ease of shipping and installation around the globe.

UPDATE: Our first confirmed show is for August 3 - 28, 2011, with the Sunshine Coast Arts Council, Doris Crowston Gallery, 5714 Medusa St, Sechelt, BC, Canada. Reception August 3 2011, 7pm to 9pm. Wheelchair accessible.

ART WORKS

Claudia Medina-Culos

On the Trail: Nature Inside and Out and Heron Study

A multimedia exploration of how humans connect or disconnect with the natural world through the imagery we see and create. With the participation of the local community of Powell River, BC, Canada this installation aims to create a focused space for reflection on how our senses interact with the natural world.

Liliana Kleiner

LUMINOZA INANNA is the first in a series of 8 videos, a collaboration of IMAGE and MUSIC, based on the ancient Sumerian myth of the Goddess Inanna. Luminosa Inanna is the first in the series: "The 8 Doors of Inanna" an ongoing public art piece collaboration between Liliana and Gabriela, at La Duna Ecology Center, Southern Baja California peninsula, La Paz, Mexico

Diane Tanchak

A Dream of Trees is a series of paintings in a hybrid abstract-realist style. Contrasting the darkness – night and winter in urban New York, and the light of Pacific West coast – arbutus, cedar trees, - cycle of life and rebirth each promise. 

Meg Torwl

TIARIKA; AQWAI; GOING COASTAL

Matching ambient music - featuring the sounds of water, chimes; with mind relaxing visuals – colors, water, fish, flowers; Meg Torwl's computer installations traverse the south pacific and Pacific North west shorelines and waterways.

 

ARTISTS

CLAUDIA MEDINA-CULOS

Claudia Medina-Culos, of Mexican, and Italian ancestry, grew up in the small mill town of Powell River BC, Canada. Eleven years ago Claudia Medina began her career as a filmmaker working with acclaimed Canadian director Nettie Wild on her feature documentary "A Place Called Chiapas" Since then she has worked alongside a number of respected Canadian filmmakers as an editor, production coordinator, field producer and shooter. Most recently she worked alongside director Velcrow Ripper as he was shooting his latest award winning feature documentary, "Fierce Light", filmed in several countries, including Aotearoa/New Zealand. Claudia has been the recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council of the Arts for her short dramatic films she has written, produced and directed – such as, Entre el Medio, Si Muero Lejos de Ti, and Finding Lloronna. For the past two years she has also been collaborating with artists of different disciplines to create visual projections for performances, and live vj-ing for electronic musicians throughout Canada and in Barcelona. She also develops and implements curriculum for workshops that combine community development and conflict resolution through filmmaking to diverse groups nationally and internationally. Claudia is currently living in Barcelona, where she is completing a masters in Visual Culture as well as developing a feature documentary project about alternative economics called Growing Growing Gone. She has completed the production of her latest fiction film, "Animal Blessings" in the Friuli region of Italy and a video installation series On the Trail: Nature Inside and Out.

http://www.enmedia.ca/

LILIANA KLEINER

Liliana Kleiner, of Jewish ancestry, was born and raised in Buenos Aires Argentina, completed her schooling in Israel - a B.A in Fine Art and PhD in psychology, specializing in Dream Analysis. She has been based in Canada - Montreal and the Pacific coast, for the past 30 years, on Galiano Island for the past 10 years. In Argentina she learnt the art of painting in oils in the tradition of the old European masters. She works with painting, drawing, printmaking, hand made paper from organic materials, collage, artist's books, public art, film, performance art, and dance. Works include independent short art films - "Lilith and the Tree " 1993, (16mm, - shown in festivals around the world) and "Las 8 puertas de Inanna " ( "the 8 Doors of Inanna") or Luminosa Inanna, a collaboration with musicians in La Paz, mexico. Based on the Sumerian myth of Inanna. Recent works and exhibitions include The song of Lilith, and Song of Songs. Her work seamlessly combines, photography, painting, mixed media, and video. Since 1995 she has channeled all her creativity into visual arts coming back full circle to her first love - the art of oil painting, with a focus on west coast nature – arbutus trees, rocks, seals, birds, and traditional Mexican mythology. Liliana's paintings have been shown in numerous exhibitions throughout Canada and are in private collections in Canada, Israel, Argentina and the United States.

http://www.lilianakleiner.com/begin.html

DIANE TANCHAK

Diane Tanchak of Ukranian ancestry, grew up in Buffalo, NY. Her interest in drawing and painting began in early childhood. She moved to New York City to study with artist Nell Blaine, receiving a scholarship to Southern Illinois University where she completed an MFA in drawing. She has worked as a muralist, graphic artist, illustrator, and pursued her own vision in drawing and painting urban and rural landscapes in a hybrid abstract-realist style. She has had many exhibitions in New York in group and solos shows. She is currently drawn in her work to the darkness – night and winter in urban New York, and the light of Pacific West coast – arbutus, cedar trees, - cycle of life and rebirth each promise.

http://www.dianetanchak.com/home.html

MEG TORWL

Meg Torwl, of Celtic ancestry, grew up rurally in Aoteroa/New Zealand, surrounded by the sights and sounds of the south pacific and has been residing in the Pacific Northwest for the past decade - creating work in and from both locales. Meg Torwl is an interdisciplinary artist, working in New Media, Video, Radio,Writing/Performance, and Arts Administration. Her work has been screened, broadcast, exhibited,published, and performed in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada, USA, UK. She has produced 4 new media projects; and 4 documentaries, which are distributed by Video Out. She has worked in radio, producing and presenting 50 half hour programs for Radio New Zealand National, including 16 with an arts focus. She was commissioned by Balancing Acts 09 to create and perform a solo interdisciplinary show with spoken word, poetry, new media, video, slides, and audio soundscape. Her writing and performance examine identity across communities; her documentaries consider intersecting political issues; her new media installations offer an opportunity to empty the mind. She received her training in media through VIVO media arts centre in 2000, and a BC Film associate producers internship 2002. She has also worked for the NFB and CBC. She has been a curator of visual and video art, in all her work she specializes in bringing diverse communities together.

http://integrialmedia.blogspot.com/p/meg-torwl-new-media.html