Decolonization Series

2020 10 14 - Events, News

We invite you to Cana­di­an New Music Net­work’s series of knowl­edge-shar­ing online events for the cre­ative music and sound com­mu­ni­ty around decol­o­niza­tion. These six con­ver­sa­tions address inequal­i­ties and oppres­sion in our prac­tice, to sup­port a more gen­er­ous and inclu­sive cul­ture that is deeply under­stood with­in our communities.

New music is under­go­ing a fun­da­men­tal reex­am­i­na­tion of its prac­tices, his­to­ry and com­mu­ni­ty. Until recent­ly, “new music” was under­stood among its prac­ti­tion­ers as a non-com­mer­cial art form whose roots were anchored in the West­ern Euro­pean tra­di­tion —which like­wise shaped most music edu­ca­tion and pro­duc­tion. With­in a colo­nial, and white suprema­cist mod­el of cul­tur­al pol­i­cy and fund­ing, “new music” was val­orized and there­by prof­it­ed from the same sys­tems which restrict­ed and/or crim­i­nal­ized oth­er tra­di­tions of cre­at­ing and lis­ten­ing.

As a com­mu­ni­ty, we need to divest from the exclu­sion, sup­pres­sion and under­es­ti­ma­tion of dif­fer­ence and estab­lish respect­ful prac­tices, frame­works and rela­tions. Decol­o­niza­tion and the essen­tial struc­tur­al upheaval it requires on a per­son­al, com­mu­ni­ty and insti­tu­tion­al lev­el present enor­mous chal­lenges, but guide us towards more equi­table, rep­re­sen­ta­tive, and mean­ing­ful sound mak­ing. Join us!

April 22 @ 7 pm EST – Decolo­nial­i­ty & Diver­si­ty: New music cre­ators’ per­spec­tives
Cura­tor:  Gabriel Dhar­moo
Guests: Daniel Añez, An-Lau­rence Hig­gins, Corie Rose Soumah, Rouzbeh Shapdey
Fran­coph­o­ne panel

Five artists share their crit­i­cal per­spec­tive on var­i­ous issues relat­ed to decolo­nial­i­ty and diver­si­ty, encour­ag­ing a process of self-reflec­tion and trans­for­ma­tion of the new music scene in Que­bec. Dis­cus­sion will focus on the dis­tinct cul­tur­al con­text in Que­bec, address­ing sev­er­al top­ics such as lan­guage, iden­ti­ty, dif­fer­ence (cul­tur­al, racial and/or gen­er­a­tional), as well as the artis­tic strate­gies they use to have their prac­tice relate with their polit­i­cal and social convictions.

March 11 @ 7 pm EST – Songs we’ve always known
Cura­tor: Cur­tis Left­hand
Guests: Matthew Car­di­nal, Black Belt Eagle Scout,Wyatt C. Louis, Han­nah Owl Child

Jan­u­ary 14 @ 7 pm EST — We can’t play their game, their way
Cura­tor: Remy Siu
Guests: Gabriel Dhar­moo, Melody McK­iv­er, Nan­cy Tam & Leslie Ting

Decem­ber 3 @ 7 pm EST — Process vs. Prod­uct
Cura­tor: Olivia Shortt
Guests: Olivia C. Davies, Kim Sen­klip Har­vey, Mar­i­on New­man & Tyler J. Sloane

Novem­ber 12 @ 7 pm EST — Can West­ern art music ever be equi­table in prac­tice and in per­cep­tion?
Cura­tor: Parmela Attari­wala
Guests: Pat Carrabré, Ian Cus­son, Lise Vau­geois, Dinuk Wijer­atne

Octo­ber 22 @ 7 pm EST — Decolo­nial Imag­in­ings
An event in sup­port of of-the-now’s Decolo­nial Imag­in­ings project around Dylan Robin­son’s new book Hun­gry Lis­ten­ing.

Cura­tors: Dylan Robin­son & Mitch Renaud
Set­tler com­posers: jake moore, Joce­lyn Mor­lock, Juli­et Palmer, Luke Nick­el, Kel­ly Ryan
Respon­dents: Tina Pear­son, Tama­ra Levitz

CNMN presents this series in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Cana­di­an League of Com­posers and the Cana­di­an Music Centre.