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| Femme Supreme Pic © Kama La Mackerel |
The Humanities department would like to invite you to this years Tait-Chattopadhyay Memorial Humanities Lecture will take place on Tuesday the 27th of October at 6:30 pm at Centennial Theatre. The lecture, titled From Thick Skin to Femme Armour: On Femme of Colour, Art, Organizing and Resistance, will be given by Kama La Mackerel a Tio’tia:ke/Montreal-based community organizer, movement builder, writer, poet, story-teller, curator and multi-disciplinary conceptual artist.
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| Pic © Kama La Mackerel |
Kama La Mackerel work focusses on narration and cultural production as modes of anti-colonial resistance. The medium of Kama’s work ranges from performance to textiles, from story-telling to print, from poetry to photography and film. Kama is the co-founder of The Qouleur Festival, an annual arts festival and healing space that celebrates the art and lives of queer and trans people of colour in Montreal, and is also the founder and hostess of GENDER B(L)ENDER, Montreal’s unique monthly queer open stage. A femme supreme who is haunted by the ocean, Kama is very actively involved in different grassroots social justice movements and organizing around anti-racism, migrant justice, gender justice and trans mobilization. Kama was born in Mauritius and first migrated to India as a young adult before moving to Tio’tia:ke/Montreal in September 2011.
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| Pic © Kama La Mackerel |
On Tuesday the 27th of October at 18:30pm at the Centennial Theatre, Kama La Mackerel will be talking about the legacies of femme of color resilience and resistance by asking the following questions: given the historical violence enacted on the lives and bodies of trans women of colour, given the disproportionate number of trans women of colour who are incarcerated, homeless, barred from employment and access to health-care, given the high number of trans women of colour who are murdered every year; how do we, as trans femmes and trans women of color, honour our history and legacy of resistance? How do we build thick skins and fierce femme armours in order to thrive? How do we come together and birth a future for the generations of children yet to come? In this talk, Kama La Mackerel grapples with these questions, and also talks about art, love, healing, femme sisterhood and building a bright future for the coming generations of legendary children.
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| Centennial Theatre - Bishop's University Photo © Bionjour Quebec |
The Tait-Chattopadhyay Memorial Humanities Lecture is an annual event that has been organized for more than two decades by the Humanities Department of the Lennoxville Campus of Champlain Regional College. The purpose of the event is to encourage students and members of the community to reflect critically on intellectual, social and cultural issues in contemporary society. Champlain-Lennoxville is a public institution with a student population of approximately 1200 students. With excellent classroom, laboratory, residence and athletic facilities, Champlain offers its students a variety of pre-university and technical programs leading to a college diploma (DEC).
Contact:Shaun Weadick, Humanities Professor 819-564-3666, ext. 256 Champlain College-Lennoxville 2580 College Street Sherbrooke, Quebec
J1M 0C8 for more information.
Suggested Reading Material
Branlandingham, Bevin. (2015). Half the Self Hate: Kama La Mackerel is Deconstructing Embodied Colonialism through Self Love and QTPOC Community. QueerFatFemme.com.
La Mackerel, Kama. (2015). Whose in/visibility? Feelings of a TWOC on #TDOV. Tumblr.com
La Mackerel, Kama. (2015). Love for Trans Women of Colour - script of my speech at the trans march (eng/fr). Tumblr.com.
La Mackerel, Kama. (2015). What’s love got to do with our politics? Tumblr.com.
Mock, Janet. (2014). Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More. Atria Books.
Talusan, Meredith. (2015). What Dangerous Men Taught Me About Becoming A Woman. BuzzFeed LGBT.
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