Downstream from what explores the links between art, and social justice. We interview a group of cultural creators, artists, and activists to speak about the link between art and social change. Season Two includes interviews with sound artist and educator Ben McCarthy; Educator, visual artist and musician Samantha Wehbi; Educator, multidisciplinary artist Natalie Wood; Labour and Pro Democracy activist and educator Winnie Ng; Singer-Songwriter and Activist Simone Schmidt .
The first season included interviews with Kiké Roach and Alex Bierk along with series co-creator Ken Moffatt. As with the practice of art the interviews span a great many topics and a wide variety of creative interventions.
Downstream from What is created under auspices of the Jack Layton Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University We appreciate the support of the Dean of Arts and Dean of Community Services
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or comments.
Ep. 10— Simone Schmidt(part 2): Of Course None Of Us Are Free
This is part 2 of Ken's interview with Simone Schmidt aka Fiver.
Next week Ken sit's down with photographer Samantha Wehbi.
Simone Schmidt is a musician and multidisciplinary artist who recently moved to so-called Sackville, New Brunswick for work. Schmidt grew up as a settler in Toronto during Mike Harris' Common Sense Revolution and has been involved in resisting austerity since grade school. Schmidt's musical practice involves research-based songwriting, improvisation, analog recording, and a deep fascination with form. They have performed with units like The Highest Order, One Hundred Dollars, and their solo project, Fiver. Their chapter in Displacement City (U of T Press, 2022) describes the City of Toronto's organized abandonment of housing-deprived people during the early pandemic, from their perspective as a community organizer.
Photo credit : Alexandra Stairs
This episode also includes original tracks from Simone's back catalogue including:
'Rosemary and Rue' and 'Cargo of Hollywood Stars' from Soundtrack to A More Radiant Sphere : The Joe Wallace Mixtape available here: https://fiverforreal.bandcamp.com/album/soundtrack-to-a-more-radiant-sphere-the-joe-wallace-mixtape
'Death is Only a Dream' from Fiver with the Atlantic School Of Spontaneous Composition, which you can but here: https://fiverforreal.bandcamp.com/album/fiver-with-the-atlantic-school-of-spontaneous-composition
To find out more about and to follow Simone's work, please check out the following links:
Website: https://www.fiverfiverfiver.com/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fiverfines/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/fiverfiverfiver
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UhhFiver
For updates on the pod and more, follow Ken here: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
14 Jul 2023
Ep. 09— Simone Schmidt(part 1): The Utility of Metaphor
This is part 1 of Ken's interview with Simone Schmidt aka Fiver. Please watch this channel for part two coming shortly.
Simone Schmidt is a musician and multidisciplinary artist who recently moved to so-called Sackville, New Brunswick for work. Schmidt grew up as a settler in Toronto during Mike Harris' Common Sense Revolution and has been involved in resisting austerity since grade school. Schmidt's musical practice involves research-based songwriting, improvisation, analog recording, and a deep fascination with form. They have performed with units like The Highest Order, One Hundred Dollars, and their solo project, Fiver. Their chapter in Displacement City (U of T Press, 2022) describes the City of Toronto's organized abandonment of housing-deprived people during the early pandemic, from their perspective as a community organizer.
Photo credit : Alexandra Stairs
This episode also includes original tracks from Simone's back catalogue including:
'House of Lost Words' from Audible Songs From Rockwood, which you can but here: https://ideefixerecords.bandcamp.com/album/audible-songs-from-rockwood
and 'Dayton' from Lost the Plot, which you can buy here: https://crowncrowncrown.bandcamp.com/album/lost-the-plot
To find out more about and to follow Simone's work, please check out the following links:
Website: https://www.fiverfiverfiver.com/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/fiverfines/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/fiverfiverfiver
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UhhFiver
For updates on the pod and more, follow Ken here: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
6 Jul 2023
Ep. 08 Natalie Wood: 'This Is A Wakening!'
In this episode, Ken interviews Natalie Wood.
Natalie is an award-winning Trinidadian-born, Toronto-based visual and media artist, a PhD student in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University and a tenured Professor at George Brown College (GBC) where she specializes in teaching social
innovation and social economies and is seconded to the role of Black Futures Coordinator.
She is a cofounder of the Environmental and Urban Change Black Caucus, fellow at Black Lives Matter’s Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism, founder of the Blue Devil Posse and co-founder of the GBC Social Innovation Hub. Her educational pathway includes an MA in
Art Education from the University of Toronto and studio courses at OCADU.
Her PhD is a research-creation project that explores the practice of Black Futures in Black Queer diasporic resistance in Caribbean Carnival. Her multimedia art-work cohabits the areas of popular culture, education and historical research and explores her fascination with counter-narratives, healing cultures and icons that liberate Black and Queer communities.
Selected awards include a SSHRC grant, several York University, Ontario Graduate Scholarships and Fellowships, a Canada Council creation grant 2020, a Black Leadership Award from the Black Student Success Network at GBC 2017, Community Based Research
Award of Merit, from the Centre for Urban Health Initiatives & the Wellesley Institute 2007, the New Pioneers Award for contribution to Arts and Culture 2006, and the City of York Civic Recognition Award for using the Arts to support marginalized communities 1997, a
Nourbe Se Philips Arts recognition grant and numerous grants and awards from Toronto, Ontario and Canada Arts Council. Her artwork is represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art.
For more on Natalie's work, please check out the following website:
http://iamnataliewood.com
https://socialinnovationhub.wordpress.com
http://www.paulpetro.com/artists/223-Natalie-Wood/
For updates and more, follow Ken here: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
30 Jun 2023
Ep. 07 Winnie Ng: The Struggle of Memories Against Forgetting
In this episode, Ken interviews Winnie Ng.
Winnie is a labour rights activist and scholar with a deep commitment to anti-racism, equity and worker empowerment. She is Chair emeritus Unifor National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Toronto Metropolitan University, the first and only union-endowed Chair at a Canadian university.
She began her activist work in the labour movement in 1977 as a union organizer with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union; and later on with HERE Local 75. She served as the Ontario Regional Director with the Canadian Labour Congress for 8 years before returning to the academy to complete her doctoral program at OISE/University of Toronto.
Winnie’s research focuses on reimagining the labour movement from a decolonizing and anti-racism perspective, and the physical and mental health impact of global labour market re-structuring, plant-closure and precarious employment on racialized, immigrant and migrant workers, and in particular women workers.
She is the recipient of numerous distinctions, including the Urban Alliance on Race Relations Leadership Award, the United Farm Workers’ Cesar Chavez Black Eagle Award and the YWCA Woman of
Distinction Award. She is a founding member of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance and Asian Canadian Women’s Alliance, and the former co-chair of the Good Jobs for All Coalition.
In her retirement, Winnie serves as the Co-Chair of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China and volunteers with the International Domestic Workers Federation, a global union that represents over half a million members worldwide.
For updates and more, follow Ken here: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
23 Jun 2023
Ep. 06 Samantha Wehbi: Home is a Complex Proposition
In this episode, Ken interviews artist and social worker Samantha Wehbi.
Samantha Wehbi (MSW, PhD, MFA) is a professor, author, artist, and award-winning educator. Her research and practice interests have focused on international issues and grassroots community activism and organizing in Canada and abroad including Lebanon, her country of origin. Her creative practice relies on photography to explore our relationship to the communities we inhabit. Her work has explored the complexities of urban landscapes and issues of displacement, postcolonialism, translocality and social change. Her scholarship explores interdisciplinary intersections of art, community practice, and pedagogy.
For more on Samantha's work, please check out the following website: https://samanthawehbi.com
For updates and more, follow Ken here: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
16 Jun 2023
Ep. 05— Ben McCarthy: Sound, the Demon, and the Archive
In this episode, Ken interviews Ben McCarthy, cocreator, editor and composer of Downstream from What.
Ben McCarthy’s compositional practice takes found sound as source material. Sometimes using text or audio documentary underscored by synthesizers and voice, his compositions and installations raise questions about acoustic epistemologies specifically around the social and economical conditions that produce the listening subject.
McCarthy has been recording music for 15 years as a solo artist and collaborator. He won the Dora award for Outstanding Sound Design and Composition in Independent Theatre in 2019. His work with art video game collective SpekWork has been shown at the Venice Biennale, Amaze Berlin, and Mayworks’ Nightshift. Recent digital and interactive works have been included in the Social Distancing, Vector and Cluster Festivals.
Photo credit : Alejandro Santiago
This episode also includes original tracks from Ben's back catalogue including:
'Debt' and 'illiterate composer' from little music available here: https://paleeyesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/little-music
'First as Tragedy' from Sensual Choices, which you can but here: https://paleeyesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/sensual-choices
'After Anomie (more hope)' and 'S+H Ground' from Decorative Arts available here: https://paleeyesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/decorative-arts
To find out more about and to follow Ben's work, please check out the following links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paleeyesmusic/
For updates on the pod and more, follow Ken here: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
10 May 2023
Season 2 Announcement-- Coming soon.
Announcing the launch of Season Two of Downstream From What?
The art for social justice helps us not only reimagine our world but also to rethink what means we use to reach justice. While not giving up on the ideal of justice, the concerns, means, and endpoints differ radically.
Ben McCarthy, Natalie Wood, Simone Schmidt, Samantha Wehbi and Winnie Ng offer a rich tableau by which to reimagine art and its many technologies informing justice.
9 Dec 2022
Ep. 04— Kiké Roach (part 2) An Actor In The System As Designed
This is part 2 of Ken's interview with Kiké and the last episode of season one. Please watch this channel for a second season coming up in the new year.
Roach (she/her) is the Unifor National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Toronto Metropolitan University. She has served as an Executive Member of: the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, the Women’s Coalition for Employment Equity, and Mpenzi: Black Women’s International Film and Video Festival. As a civil rights lawyer, she has advocated for accountability and reform in policing and detention for many years, representing community organizations. She was a regular commentator on current and legal affairs for CTV News and has appeared as a spokesperson on a variety of issues. She is co-author of the book Politically Speaking. Kiké has designed and led workshops for the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and the United Steel Workers among others. She has addressed audiences across Canada and in the United States on issues of anti-racism, feminism, and progressive change.
To find out more about and to follow Kiké's work, please check out the following links:
Website: https://www.torontomu.ca/socialjustice/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialjusticechair/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ChairinSocialJusticeandDemocracy/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyeSJChair
For updates and more, follow Ken here: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
2 Dec 2022
Ep. 03— Kiké Roach (part 1): Selby Street: A Social and Activist History
Kiké Roach (she/her) is the Unifor National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Toronto Metropolitan University. She has served as an Executive Member of: the National Conference of Black Lawyers, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, the Women’s Coalition for Employment Equity, and Mpenzi: Black Women’s International Film and Video Festival. As a civil rights lawyer, she has advocated for accountability and reform in policing and detention for many years, representing community organizations. She was a regular commentator on current and legal affairs for CTV News and has appeared as a spokesperson on a variety of issues. She is co-author of the book Politically Speaking. Kiké has designed and led workshops for the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, and the United Steel Workers among others. She has addressed audiences across Canada and in the United States on issues of anti-racism, feminism, and progressive change.
To find out more about and to follow Kiké's work, please check out the following links:
Website: https://www.torontomu.ca/socialjustice/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/socialjusticechair/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ChairinSocialJusticeandDemocracy/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RyeSJChair
For updates and more, follow Ken here: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
25 Nov 2022
Ep. 02— Alex Bierk: 'You Can Call Me Al...'
In this episode Ken interviews Alex Bierk. Bierk is a self-taught artist, and advocate, who lives in Peterborough, ON with his wife and three children. His career as an artist is interconnected to community work. He has a personal connection to the drug crisis and has become active in outreach work as a result of his own lived experience with addiction. He was recently elected as a City Councillor to represent the residents of downtown Peterborough at City Hall. Alex us represented by General Hardware Gallery in Toronto.
You can find and follow Alex @alexbierk on Twitter and Instagram.
Also check out @ken._moffatt_ for more on the pod.
18 Nov 2022
Ep. 01— Ken Moffatt: Art, Politics, and Activism
'Downstream from What?' explores the links between art, and social justice. We interview a series of cultural creators artists and activists to speak about the link between art and social change. The first season includes interviews with Ken Moffatt, Kiké Roach and Alex Bierk As with the practice of art, the interviews span a great many topics and a wide variety of creative interventions. Thanks for listening.
In this first episode Ben McCarthy interviews Ken Moffatt to discuss the sweep of the podcast series, some key themes and how we need art to create change
Link:
About the Jack Layton Chair at Metropolitan University: https://www.torontomu.ca/jack-layton-chair/about/
Follow Ken on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ken._moffatt_/
For event's hosted by the Jack Layton Chair:
https://www.instagram.com/jacklaytonchair/
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