Programs & Events Schedule

June 2021

THURSDAY, JUNE 10 - 7:00PM
Aaron Francis Artist talk in conversation with Ivan Jurakic

Presented in Partnership with University of Waterloo Art Gallery
Register

  • Join Aaron Francis, founder and curator of Vintage Black Canada and University of Waterloo Art Gallery Director, Ivan Jurakic for an artist talk and conversation surrounding Francis’ recent photographic installation Tamarack Drive and the subject of Black portraiture as well as the role art can play in (in)forming transnational identity.

  • Aaron T. Francis is a doctoral student at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, a multidisciplinary artist, and a curator. The former chair of the City of Kitchener’s Arts and culture advisory committee, Aaron has exhibited works from his Vintage Black Canada™ initiative at the BAND Gallery Toronto, the Gladstone Hotel, the Contact Photography Festival, the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) as well as with Ryerson University’s Fashion and Race Database.

TUESDAY, JUNE 15 - 7:00PM
CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition Discussion Group:
Angela Pelster-Wiebe,
White Artists Need to Start Addressing White Supremacy in Their Work
Facilitated by Mélika Hashemi, an Artist-Researcher based in Kitchener, Ontario.
Register SOLD OUT
Note: CAFKA Summer Reading Series events are limited to 20-25 participants
Article

THURSDAY, JUNE 17 - 7:00PM
Artist talk with Catherine Mellinger and Adam Harendorf:
Post-Part and Perinatal Mental Health
Presented in partnership with curatorial partner Longernin Collective
Register

CAFKA and the City of Kitchener, Arts and Creative Industries, invite you to join us in conversation with lead artist Catherine Mellinger and collaborator Adam Harendorf as they discuss Post-Part, an inter-arts exhibition in multiple spaces across downtown Kitchener.

Sponsored by Schneider Haus National Historic Site and City of Kitchener.

SATURDAY, JUNE 19 - 11:00AM
Khadija Baker, Performing Community Garden hybrid participatory performance.
Please visit artist page for more information.
Email csutherland@cafka.org to register.

  • Note: Preference given to Kitchener-Waterloo Residents for this in person hybrid performative experience via limited timed entry to facilitate public health regulations. KW participants will receive a plant to care for. Limited additional spots available for out-of-town virtual participation.

TUESDAY, JUNE 22 - 7:00PM
CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition Book Club:
Aruna D’Souza,
Whitewalling: Art Race and Protest in 3 Acts
Facilitated by writer and editor Jayne Wilkinson, former editor-in-chief at Canadian Art.
Register
Note: CAFKA Summer Reading Series events are limited to 20-25 participants

To learn more about the CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition, click here.

  • New York-based author Aruna D’Souza’s takes up three controversial case studies of artworks and exhibitions in New York, articulating how white supremacy is ingrained into the structure of museums and the wider art world.

THURSDAY, JUNE 24 - 7:00PM
BIG IDEAS in Art and Culture Lecture Series featuring
Aruna D’Souza:
An Art of Opacity
Presented in Partnership with Musagetes
Register

  • Informed by Édouard Glissant’s notion of “the right of opacity” for the colonial subject—a right stripped by the colonizer, who surveils every aspect of that subject’s experience, and denies the existence of what he cannot see—a number of artists, including Jennifer Packer, Simone Leigh, Dawoud Bey, and Rose-Janan Uddoh have explored the power of withdrawing from view as a central aspect in their work.

  • Aruna D'Souza writes about modern and contemporary art; intersectional feminisms and other forms of politics; and how museums shape our views of each other and the world. Her work appears regularly in 4Columns.org, where she is a member of the editorial advisory board, and is a contributor toThe New York Times. Her writing has also appeared inThe Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Art News, Garage, Bookforum, Momus, Art in America, and Art Practical, among other places. Her most recent book, Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts (Badlands Unlimited), was named one of the best art books of 2018 by the New York Times. She is editing a forthcoming volume for Thames and Hudson, Making It Modern: A Linda Nochlin Reader. She is also editor of Lorraine O’Grady’s Writing in Space 1973-2018 (Duke University Press, 2020), and is co-curator of the retrospective of O’Grady’s work, Both/And, which opened in March 2021 at the Brooklyn Museum

Tuesday, JUNE 29 - 12:00PM
Khadija Baker, Performing Community Garden
Screening followed by Artist Talk
Register
Please visit artist page for more information.

July 2021

TUESDAY, JULY 1 - Postponed
Screening of It’s not your fault followed by a discussion with Raven Davis and Denise Pictou Maloney.
Register
ASL interpretation to be provided.

The performance screening of It’s Not Your Fault will be followed by a conversation between Raven Davis and Denise Pictou Maloney. Davis and Pictou Maloney both have lived experience with gendered violence as individuals, and as family members with a legacy of gendered violence. The conversation will focus on MMIWC2S awareness, the legacy and lateral violence suffered by Annie Mae Pictou Aquash, Pictou Maloney’s mother, her ongoing advocacy, and the recent mancamp/land resource extraction projects that will have a devastating effect on the environment, women and 2 Spirit people.

Please see the artist page for a full description of the performance.

TUESDAY, JULY 6 - 7:00 pm
CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition Discussion Group:
Natasha Stovall,
Whiteness on the couch
Register
Note: CAFKA Summer Reading Series events are limited to 20-25 participants
Article

TUESDAY, JULY 13 - 7:00 pm
CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition Book Club:
Kathy Hogarth and Wendy L. Fletcher,
A Space for Race: Decoding Racism, Multiculturalism, and Post-Colonialism in the Quest for Belonging in Canada and Beyond
Register
Facilitated by Fitsum Areguy (he/him), a Kitchener-based writer, journalist, and community advocate.
Note: CAFKA Summer Reading Series events are limited to 20-25 participants

  • From scholars and local University of Waterloo Professors Kathy Hogarth and Wendy L. Fletcher, this book critically examines and explores ongoing tensions, challenges, and inconsistencies around race relations embedded within policy and practice in Canada, and engages with history in a way that challenges the historical records that has informed our imaginings of belonging.

THURSDAY, JULY 15 - 7:00 pm
BIG IDEAS in Art and Culture Lecture Series featuring Kathy Hogarth:
What's race got to do with it? Race representation and appropriation in arts.
Register
Presented in Partnership with Musagetes

  • This Big Ideas in Art and Culture lecture explores how race is represented and often misrepresented through various forms of arts and questions the role of arts and culture in advancing race relations in todays society and context.

  • Dr. Kathy Hogarth is the Special Advisor on Antiracism and Inclusivity and an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Waterloo. Much of her work is focused on race, racism and related social policy. She is an avid advocate for change related to race equity and anti-racism. Dr. Hogarth is the author of the book “A Space for Race: Decoding Racism, Multiculturalism and Post-Colonialism in the Quest for Belonging in Canada and Beyond”

TUESDAY, JULY 20 - 7:00 pm
CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition Discussion Group:
Claudia Rankine,
I Wanted to Know What White Men Thought About Their Privilege. So I Asked.
Register
Note: CAFKA Summer Reading Series events are limited to 20-25 participants
Article

Monday, July 26 7:00 pm
Artist Talk with Shary Boyle on the commissioned sculpture
White Elephant
Register
Please visit the artist page for more information.

TUESDAY, JULY 27 - 7:00 pm
CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition Discussion Group:
chapter from Chelsea Vowel’s
Indigenous Writes
Register
Note: CAFKA Summer Reading Series events are limited to 20-25 participants
Chapter will be distributed to participants post registration

August 2021

WEDNESDAY August 4, 11, 18, 25 - 7:00PM
CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition Book Club/Discussion Group:
Layla Saad,
Me and White Supremacy Workbook
Postponed

Note: It is suggested interested individuals participate in all four consecutive sessions of this discussion group. Workbook must be purchased, and advance preparation is required for this text and accompanying journal prompts. CAFKA Summer Reading Series events are limited to 20-25 participants

To learn more about the CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition,
click here.

  • Me and White Supremacy: A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor leads readers through a journey of understanding their white privilege and participation in white supremacy, so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on black, indigenous and people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too. The book goes beyond the original workbook by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and includes expanded definitions, examples, and further resources.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5 – 7:00 pm
Ernest Daetwyler
The Boat Project/everythingwillbefine

Virtual opening reception with performance by Guelph based artist/harpist, Leslie Shapiro

Register here.

Presented by curatorial partner Cambridge Sculpture Gardens

Please see the artist page for a full description of the performance.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 10 - 12:00 pm
Women Performing ARTS + SPORTS Femmes en performance

Screening followed by artist talk and panel discussion with Caroline St-Laurent, Liliane Moussa and KW sport club participants
Register

  • Caroline and Liliane perform feminist sports related actions that question the position of women and gender minorities in the sports environment. The performance is inspired by the testimonies and discussions undertaken with athletes of different fields such as synchronized swimming, badminton, fitness, gymnastics, cycling and rugby.

Please see the artist page for a full description of the performance.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 12 - 7:00 pm
Women Performing ARTS + SPORTS Femmes en performance

Screening followed by artist talk and panel discussion with Caroline St-Laurent, Liliane Moussa and KW sport club participants
Register

  • Caroline and Liliane perform feminist sports related actions that question the position of women and gender minorities in the sports environment. The performance is inspired by the testimonies and discussions undertaken with athletes of different fields such as synchronized swimming, badminton, fitness, gymnastics, cycling and rugby.

Please see the artist page for a full description of the performance.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 17 - 7:00 pm
CAFKA Summer Reading Series, White Elephant Edition Discussion Group:
Susan Hill,
The Clay We Are Made Of
Register

Note: CAFKA Summer Reading Series events are limited to 20-25 participants

  • In The Clay We Are Made Of, Susan M. Hill presents a revolutionary retelling of the history of the Grand River Haudenosaunee from their Creation Story, through European contact, to contemporary land claims negotiations. She incorporates Indigenous theory, Fourth world post-colonialism, and Amerindian auto history, along with Haudenosaunee languages, oral records, and wampum strings to provide a comprehensive account of the Haudenosaunee relationship to their land.

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