August 8th

We talked with quarator Allisa and her sister/partner, Stephani as well as artist,Kanyika York about the exhibition to take place on August 19 at the Train Studio (964 Bathurst St). The exhibition explores the lived experiences of black women through various artistic mediums (music, photography and painting) and talks about a range of issues ranging from the beauty myths to black women in their careers. Our guests talked extensively about the impossible standards for beauty that black women are made to believe they should emulate through exposure to images and content in mainstream media. We heard a little about each of the artists- their preferred meium and mode of artistic expression.

We also talked with Megan Kynch about the activities and distructive impacts of Goldcorp’s illegal mining operation in Guatamala. She talked about local and global responses. Read more at solidarityresponse.net and barrickgold.net. She talked about the recent corperate zombie march to draw attention to this issue as well as the corporatization of Universities and the close relationships between the academy and the mining industry in Toronto.

We finally talked with Saron, a Ph.D. student at York University and a deaf alai on the forum, Audism and the Toronto Police Service. Saron talked about the need for hearing people to deny their unearned privilege and ways to make activism and our events accessible to everyone. She also touched on the discriminatory treatment received by one deaf protestor by the police during the G20 weekend.