Above: I Feel Therefore I Can Be Free, a legacy procession for Audre Lorde by Heather Hermant and Danielle Smith (backforward collective) with Emma Letki, Drae Walsh, Anique Jordan, Rinchen Lama, T* Felbert and Mika Lior.

Above: After the 9 to 5 in Audre’s Livingroom by Heather Hermant and Danielle Smith (backforward collective) featuring Alvis Parsley’s Falling In Love With Audre Lorde walking tour and Melina Young’s Chinese Lesbian Haircuts Pop-Up Hair Salon Academy.

The Contemporary Urgencies of Audre Lorde’s Legacy was a month-long series of events celebrating the legacy of Audre Lorde, co-presented by York University and the University of Toronto. I co-produced these events through my teaching position at York University’s Community Arts Practice Certificate. I co-created a student multidisciplinary processional performance and series of site-specific actions entitled I Feel Therefore I Can Be Free on York University campus with Danielle Smith. Also with Danielle, I co-created After the 9 to 5 in Audre’s Livingroom, a performance installation and poetry marathon in Whippersnapper Gallery that also featured a walking tour by Alvis Parsley and The Chinese Lesbian Haircuts Pop-up Hair Salon Academy by Melina Young.

See a review of these events by M. Jacqui Alexander on page 4 here.

With thanks to Danielle Smith, M. Jacqui Alexander, Honor Ford-Smith, Gloria Wekker, Alissa Trotz, Jin Haritaworn, Anna Agathangelou, Enakshi Dua, Alvis Choi, Melina Young, Maggie Flynn, Alex Majerus, Saikhou Saho, Akhaji Zakiya, Nik Redman, Natalie Wood, Janina Kowalski, students of the Community Arts Practice practicum class, and many others for contributing to and seeing these events realized.