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C Mag

Workshop

Tracing Lineage: Explorations in Body & Breath

2pm - 3pm

Event Details

Date

30 Jan 2021

January 30, 2021, 2pm-3pm (via Zoom)

*Video documentation of the workshop is available
here*

We begin 2021 by countering the common resolution to achieve a normative idealized body in service of capitalism and white supremacy. Instead, by prioritizing the ways movement can make us feel, Renelyn Quinicot will lead us through practices of listening to the body and the wisdom it holds. We’ll explore how our bodies are able to care for us rather than the other way around.

This virtual movement and meditation offering, conceived of and led by Renelyn, is in response to Su-Ying Lee’s article “Reading Images Against Racism“ for C Magazine’s “Gather” (Autumn 2020) issue. The objective of this session is to offer racialized folks a form of pleasure, embodied respite, and rejuvenation. Core ideas explored include the body as a carrier of ancestral lineage and story, and joy as an act of resilience.

On decolonizing wellness, Renelyn says that we must be aware of the aesthetic framing of white-centred wellness industries as mechanisms that perpetuate the idea that our own wellness resides outside of us, as something that can only be bought or sculpted. To decolonize wellness is to remember, respect, and acknowledge that the body is home to the teachings in sadness and grief, as much as in the “bliss” that is marketed to us.

Designed to deepen a practice of release and remember the body’s own language of discernment, participants will explore curious mindful and strengthening techniques inspired by dance, and informed by Pilates, aerobic exercise, and kundalini yoga. Participants will be encouraged to consider play as reclamation and the breath as a site of inquiry. Modifications will be offered, as will room for intuitive exploration.

An optional package of related readings will be provided prior to the event. Readings are for interest only and will not be needed for participation.

Please contact us at info@cmagazine.com with any accessibility requests.

Racialized participants only.
*Register for the Zoom event
here.*
—-

Background: This session was initiated by Su-Ying Lee and Heather Rigg, who were invited to lead a workshop on embodied reading for BIPOC participants related to a conversation that formed part of Su-Ying’s article. The two instead asked that the resources for the workshop be used to provide pleasure and respite for racialized folks. Feeling that the objective of the originally requested workshop was to build additional tools for resilience against white supremacy, expecting racialized people to find ways to continue to endure the problem, Su-Ying suggested another approach. She asks that white folks seek resources to help hold themselves and one another accountable for white supremacy, such as Showing Up for Racial Justice.

C Magazine is grateful for the dialogues that led to the creation of this program.

Renelyn Quinicot is queer filipinx artist trained as a movement and meditation facilitator. Her work is interested in the curious self-study of the body as a carrier of lineage and story. She extends her studies in relational art, arts curation, and practices of wellness to hold communal gatherings for storytelling and care.
Renelynquinicot.com
Instagram: @renelynquin

Su-Ying Lee is an independent curator who has worked across Canada and abroad.
www.su-yinglee.com

Heather Rigg is a curator and writer based in Toronto. She is a cofounder of ma ma, a curatorial collective and roving art space, and is the Curatorial Resident of Gallery TPW. Recent writing includes “I am the colour of burnt pineapple, mango, lemon”: An Interview with Stephanie Comilang” in C Magazine Issue 142.