Making W@ves – The Whistlestop Project

11Mar09

I had a lovely time taking part in The Whistlestop Project when it stopped over in Montreal this week…check it out:

“This site is part of a critical and appreciative inquiry into the historically and culturally situated art practices of Canadian popular educators involved in the transnational women’s movement from the 1800s until today, in Canada and the Global South. We invite you to contribute your knowledge and understanding of the art practices of the global women’s movement from the 1800s until today, in Canada and internationally.

Naming the world in order to change it, so central to Brazilian adult educator Paulo Freire’s ideas of popular education, underpins the project of naming individual women and their groups/organizations as popular educators. Like all popular educators, activists within the women’s movement draw on diverse popular culture forms — song, dance, photography, performance, handicrafts, blogs, quilting, humour, poetry, fashion, culinary & gardening arts, zines, storytelling, and autobiography.

Feel free to name yourself and your art practice as part of the ongoing story of women’s power and empowerment.”

There will be video and photos added to the blog of our MTL-based feminist discussion about our art and art practice. Check out this post on the blog for a bit about how the MTL stop went down:

“The gallery space windows onto Boulevard Saint-Laurent, and we were taken with the idea that we were presenting a snapshot of the artists and educators of the women’s movement to passers-by — a painted canvas, a remembered song set from popular theatre, a dance for gospel women, an embroidered spiral, omni-sexual photography, stand-up (actually sit-down) comedy, and animated conversation replete with laughter and tears and (sometimes provocative) responses and questions to each other.”