EventsConversation
Poetry Reading and Conversation with Kama La Mackerel
November 25, 2020
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Book cover design by Kai Yun Ching and Aun Li. Author photo by Laurence Philomene.
Striking, vivid, tender, intimate and political, "ZOM-FAM" is a beautifully wrought journey.
Please join CUAG and Venus Envy for a virtual reading and conversation with Kama La Mackerel, in celebration of the publication of their debut poetry collection, ZOM-FAM.
We’ll convene on Zoom; you can register here.
ZOM-FAM emerges from a creative process in spoken word and live performance, mythologizing a queer/trans narrative of and for Kama La Mackerel’s home island, Mauritius.
Composed of expansive lyric poems, ZOM-FAM (meaning “man-woman” or “transgender” in Mauritian Kreol) is a voyage into the coming of age of a gender-creative child growing up in the 80s and 90s on the plantation island, as they seek vocabularies for loving and honouring their queer/trans self amidst the legacy of colonial silences.
Anna Shah Hoque will introduce the event, La Mackerel will read from ZOM-FAM and Cara Tierney will moderate a Q&A.
This event is co-presented with Venus Envy, where you can purchase ZOM-FAM. It can also be purchased through Metonymy Press.
Participants
Kama La Mackerel (they/them) is a Montreal-based Mauritian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, educator, community-arts facilitator and literary translator who works within and across performance, photography, installations, textiles, digital art and literature. They have exhibited and performed their work internationally and their writing in English, French, and Kreol has appeared in publications both online and in print.
Anna Shah Hoque (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa. She is the co-curator of To be Continued: Troubling the Queer Archive at CUAG.
Cara Tierney (they/them) is an artist, a PhD candidate in the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Arts, and Culture at Carleton University and a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa. They are the co-curator of To be Continued: Troubling the Queer Archive at CUAG.
