Collision Courses 5: Syrus Marcus Ware
All Activism is Speculative Fiction: On Dreaming Future Worlds As a Way of Making Change
McMaster University’s Centre for Networked Media and Performance (CNMAP), together with the School of the Arts and the graduate program in Gender Studies and Feminist Research, is pleased to invite all to attend the next Collision Courses event: an online play screening and Q+A, featuring Syrus Marcus Ware, and entitled “All Activism is Speculative Fiction: On Dreaming Future Worlds As a Way of Making Change.” We hope you will join us on Friday April 16th, from 3 - 4:30 PM EDT on Zoom! Free registration for the Zoom event is required.
The event starts with a collective viewing of Syrus Marcus Ware’s short monodrama Emmett (10 mins, director: Tanisha Taitt, performer: Prince Amponsah, Watch on CBC gem). Emmett follows a character named Medgar as they remember lost love on the future shores of the Great Ontario Sea, in a world transformed by virus and climate change. Following the viewing, Q+A will be facilitated by Theresa N. Kenney (PhD candidate, English and Cultural Studies / Gender Studies and Feminist Research) and Jessica Sage Rauchberg (PhD student, Communication, New Media, and Cultural Studies / Gender Studies and Feminist Research). The event will be recorded for potential archival and sharing purposes.
Biography — Syrus Marcus Ware: Syrus is a CLA Assistant Professor at the School of the Arts, McMaster University. He is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. Syrus uses drawing, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture, and he’s shown widely in galleries and festivals across Canada. He is a core-team member of Black Lives Matter – Toronto, a part of the Performance Disability Art Collective, and an ABD PhD candidate at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. His on-going curatorial work includes That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2019) and BlacknessYes!/Blockorama. He is the co-editor or the best-selling Until We Are Free: Reflections on Black Lives Matter in Canada (URP, 2020).