Header

C Mag

Erica N. Cardwell

Erica N. Cardwell is a writer, critic, and educator currently based in Toronto. She is the recipient of a 2021 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant. Her writing has appeared in ARTS.BLACK, Art in America, Frieze, BOMB, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, C Magazine, Studio Magazine, and other publications. She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Toronto Scarborough and a Terra Foundation Research Fellow for Threewalls, a Chicago-based arts organization. Her book, Wrong Is Not My Name: Notes on (Black) Art will be published by The Feminist Press in March 2024.

Feature

Issue 157

Sinister Pleasure: Interview with Ja'Tovia Gary

byErica N. Cardwell

Erica N. Cardwell interviews filmmaker Ja’Tovia Gary about her 2023 film Quiet As It’s Kept. Their conversation explores the film as a cinematic response to the dual tensions of racial trauma and colonial pleasure in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (1970), and how these tensions are mediated in contemporary images and archetypes of Black womanhood.

RaceMass media

Review

Issue 155

“Unearthing Unicorns” — Simone Elizabeth Saunders

byErica N. Cardwell

“Unearthing Unicorns” ran from 17 March to 13 May, 2023 at Claire Oliver Gallery, New York.

Review

“BLACK(Cite)” — Karina Griffith, Abdi Osman, Racquel Rowe, Wayne Salmon

byErica N. Cardwell

“BLACK(Cite)” includes work by Karina Griffith, Abdi Osman, Racquel Rowe and Wayne Salmon and runs at Gallery TPW, Toronto, from 21 April to 24 June 2023. The exhibition is part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Feature

Issue 149

Wildseed: A Fellowship Model by and for Black Creatives

byErica N. Cardwell

Erica Cardwell writes about The Wildseed Black Arts Fellowship, an interdisciplinary, 20-month long journey spearheaded by Black Lives Matter – Toronto. Having spoken with a number of the program’s participants and administrators, she unearths its intentions and impacts—inspiring ideas about how to design more thoughtful, holistic frameworks.

ResidenciesActivism