Manitoba Live Music Event

About

QPOC Winnipeg presents: QTPOC Drop the Mic #8!
Celebrating Black, Queer and Trans artists/writers/performers during Black History Month

$10 (/no one turned away)

Featuring: Kama La Mackerel!

Kama La Mackerel is a tio’tia:ke/Montreal-based performer, writer, poet, story-teller, curator and multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores aesthetic practices as forms of resistance and/or healing for marginalized communities. Using photography, ​poetry​, textiles, performance and digital arts, Kama's work is both deeply personal and political, articulating an anti-colonial praxis through cultural production. Kama is the co-founder of Qouleur, an annual arts festival and healing space by and for queer and trans artists of colour, and the founder & hostess of GENDER B(L)ENDER, Montréal’s monthly queer open stage. Kama was born in Mauritius, immigrated to India as a young adult, and has been living in tio’tia:ke/Montréal since 2012. Kama recently launched Our Bodies, Our Stories, an arts and performance training and mentorship program for queer and trans youth of colour aged 16-24, and she is also working on her new one-woman spoken-word show, Zom-Fam.

Stay for the QTPOC Black History Month Dance Party to follow at the same venue!

Thank you to the University of Manitoba's: Department of English, Theatre, Film & Media; Institute for the Humanities; Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culturefor supporting this event!

Participation: 
Queer, trans, and two-spirit self identified Black people are welcome to sign up on the spot for a 5 minute slot to share storytelling, poetry, spoken word, comedy, music, dancing, instrumentals, and more. There will also be a guitar available for use. 
We encourage people of all levels of experience and all kinds of talent to participate. 
Please consider whether it might be helpful to provide a Trigger Warning/Content Warning before your performance. Msg us if you have q's! 
We will have a photographer at the event. If you don't want your picture on social media please let us know.

Accessibility: 
The venue is wheelchair accessible.
There are single-stall gender-inclusive washrooms. 
The venue is 18+ and there is alcohol sold at the venue.
Unfortunately we were unable to secure ASL for this event.

Safer Space: 
We want to create a positive, open environment, free from oppressive comments and behaviour. Please be respectful of those who attend and perform. We will not tolerate any sexism, racism, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, fatphobia, ableism, or sexual harrassment on stage, from our guests, or from venue staff. 

Please report any problematic behaviour Uzoma Chioma or Serenity Joo let us know what we can do to create a more welcoming environment @ qpoc204@gmail.com or Joo.cc@umanitoba.ca

What we mean by “QT-”
“Queer” and “trans” encompass a wide range of identities including but not limited to: queer, trans, two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, asexual, genderqueer, non-binary, gender-variant, genderfluid, and genderless.

Why QTPOC?
Drop the Mic happens twice a year, often coinciding with Black History Month, Genderfest Winnipeg and Winnipeg Pride. The event involves a fabulous lineup of performers as well as open slots for signing up!

Drop the Mic serves as an opportunity for queer and trans Black, Indigenous and People of Colour to take up space, be heard, and share parts of themselves. Recognizing the marginalization QTPOC face for their multiple oppressions (namely race, sexuality and/or gender), this is a celebration of identity and a resistance to oppression. 

We view structural inequality as not only abstractly caused by higher levels of power, but also as upheld and perpetuated by our very own POC, feminist, womanist and queer(/LGBT) circles everyday. Let us be conscious of how a decolonizing antiracist intersectional womanist lens can broaden our perspectives, allow us to learn from each other, care for each other, listen, and build solidarity. Let us fill the room with power, resistance, vulnerability, generosity, and mutual respect.