Holy Wild

The Centre for Feminist Research Presents:
TRANS MATTERS Interdisciplinary Trans Studies Graduate Student Conference Keynote Lecture
Holy Wild
Gwen Benaway
Date: June 22, 2018
Time: 11AM-12:30PM
Location:OISE Library, 1st floor, 252 Bloor St West
Please click here for the ASL translation of the event announcement:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgYBQEo3Pr8&feature=youtu.be
Summary:
Holy Wild is a critical reflection on the embodied experience of Indigenous Queer and Trans subjects. Drawing on critical Indigenous and Trans scholarship, Holy Wild explores the contradictions, complexities, and impossibilities of being Indigenous, Trans, and Queer. I argue that mainstream Western Queerness is an extension of the colonial project, rooted in colonial thought and transmisogyny. Liberation for Indigenous and Trans subjects cannot arise from Queerness without a sustained engagement with the colonial past as well as the sexual economies of Queer desire. Using Indigenous storytelling and worldview, I interrogate the ways that Queerness does not hold Indigenous and trans experiences in their fullness. Holy Wild is a theoretical rupture of generative resistance. Unwilling to perform apology nor productiveness, this talk is intended to challenge the non-Indigenous Queer subject to a dialogue with their colonial depression.
Speaker bio:
Gwen Benaway is a trans girl poet of Anishinaabe and Métis descent. She has published two collections of poetry, Ceremonies for the Dead and Passage, and her third collection, Holy Wild, is forthcoming from BookThug in 2018. She has been described as the spiritual love child of Tomson Highway and Anne Sexton. She has received many distinctions and awards, including the Dayne Ogilvie Honour of Distinction for Emerging Queer Authors from the Writer’s Trust of Canada. Her poetry and essays have been published in national publications and anthologies, including The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s Magazine, CBC Arts, and many others.
Co-sponsors: Department of Social Justice in Education at OISE, UofT; York University CUPE 3903 Trans Caucus, Department of Politics, Department of Social Science, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Health, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Graduate Women’s Studies Student Association, Institute for Feminist Legal Studies at Osgoode, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, SexGen York, Sexuality Studies, York Accessibility Fund, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, & the Centre for Feminist Research.
This event is part of the TRANS MATTERS Interdisciplinary Trans Studies Graduate Student Conference, organized by the Centre for Feminist Research.
Accessibility & Attendance information:
Accessibility & Attendance information:
FREE EVENT.
Limited amount of tokens available. ASL interpretation provided.
Wheelchair accessible space. Accessible, universal washrooms.
Click HERE for directions: https://goo.gl/maps/sHWgWc1cL7R2
To RSVP, please email juliapyr@yorku.ca.