The Chair in Transgender Studies
Presents

Syrus Marcus Ware

“touch change: what I learned at the trans archives"

12:00 PM Pacific, Thurs., Nov. 25th, 2021

Syrus will be LIVE online, with Aaron Devor hosting in-person from the Trans Archives. JOIN US in-person, UVic, McPherson Library A003, OR on Zoom.

In this talk Dr Syrus Marcus Ware will be exploring the role of archives in community building and remembering who we deem as inherently valuable- considering the importance and need for spaces like the trans archives. Syrus will consider his project Touch Change:2068, a speculative fiction drawing and story-based exhibition held at Grunt Gallery in Vancouver based on his research in the archives.

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. Syrus uses painting, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture, and his work has been shown widely, including in a solo show at Grunt Gallery, Vancouver in 2018 (2068:Touch Change), for the 2019 Toronto Biennial of Art and the Ryerson Image Centre (Antarctica and Ancestors, Do You Read Us? (Dispatches from the Future)), for the Bentway’s Safety in Public Spaces Initiative in 2020 (Radical Love) and at the Never Apart in Montreal. His performance works have been part of festivals across Canada, including at Cripping The Stage (Harbourfront Centre, 2016, 2019), Complex Social Change (University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, 2015) and Decolonizing and Decriminalizing Trans Genres (University of Winnipeg, 2015). He is part of the Performance Disability Art Collective and a core-team member of Black Lives Matter – Toronto. His on-going curatorial work includes That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2020) and BlacknessYes!/Blockorama.