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C Mag

Launch

Between You and Me

9 pm EDT

Event Details

Date

29 Oct 2020

C Magazine, in partnership with the Alberta Association of Artist-Run Centres (AAARC), invites you to gather.cmagazine.com on Thursday, October 29th (6pm PDT, 7pm MDT, 9pm EDT, 10pm ADT) for an online gathering to mark the launch of our Autumn 2020 issue, “Gather.” The evening event includes readings from contributors Mackenzie Ground and Rob Jackson, Henry HeavyShield, and Jenna Swift in concert with musical performances by Matthew Cardinal and Tracey Kayy.

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“I think we have a great opportunity to really pay attention to the space that we’re occupying, especially the space between us. Like our Old People say, there are a million deities that we can’t even see between you and me.”
—Jo-Ann Saddleback, in a conversation with Jerry Saddleback and Dawn Saunders Dahl, C Magazine, Issue 147 “Gather”

In light of the paradox of so urgently, vitally, needing to participate in the many movements of social progress during a time with unparalleled restrictions on gathering, we wanted to better understand what the word “gather” means at its core. Not only for us humans, but all of “us”—stones, gravestones, Prairie grass, comets, seeds, travelling envelopes, berries, buried jugs of water, frozen pixels, bees—who comprise the many concentric circles of our shared world. The Saddlebacks’ fulsome examination of the amorphous, universal, and specific experience of sharing space with others (excerpted above) sets the stage for many more contributions that query the profoundly complex, political, sensuous, and shimmering nature of gathering, within and exceeding the particularities and impossibilities imposed by our current pandemic-engendered life. The issue includes contributions from Kelsey Adams, Lauren Crazybull, L. Sasha Gora, Faye HeavyShield, Su-Ying Lee, Christiana Myers, Jerry Saddleback and Jo-Ann Saddleback, Cason Sharpe, Safia Siad, Emma Steen, Aislinn Thomas, Mercedes Webb, and many others.

Read the editorial note, written by Jaclyn Bruneau, Ginger Carlson, and Natasha Chaykowski here.

Matthew Cardinal is an Indigenous musician and sound designer based in amiskwaciy (Edmonton, AB). He uses a variety of synthesizers and samplers to create melodic and delicate music that shifts from drones and lullabies to sparkling beats and walls of sound.

Mackenzie Ground is a nehiyawiskwew and a writer from Enoch Cree Nation and Edmonton, AB, Treaty 6, but currently lives, works, and studies on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), and kwikwəƛ ̓əm (Kwikwetlem). She is a member of the Writing Revolution in Place research collective.

Rob Jackson is a white settler, educator, and researcher based in Edmonton, AB. He is a member of the Writing Revolution in Place research collective and the curator of the Louise Michel Library Project.

Tracey Kayy is a multidisciplinary musician based in Toronto who has performed at over a hundred events within the last year alone. She is a singer, song-writer, producer, rapper, and spoken-word artist. Her creative creations mostly shed light on the difficulties and traumas within our society. Realities which are often ignored are brought to light by her musical compositions. Tracey Kayy is a radiant light, and a messenger who raises awareness by being a voice for multiple communities across the globe. Her soul’s purpose is to heal people from all walks of life through her writings and musical creations.

Henry HeavyShield is a Blackfoot (kainaiwa) writer who is currently based in Lac La Biche, AB. He has studied English and Indigenous literatures at the University of Lethbridge and University of British Columbia.

Jenna Swift is an independent writer and artist based on the Canadian Prairies.