My art career often feels less like an art career and more like a career in educating, usually by using my body.
I worry about what Trump will inspire in Canada, especially given incidents that have already occurred here since the election.
I especially worry about the ways Canadians can be glib about our supposed difference from the US in our "acceptance" of "diversity."
I am more likely to get paid for my art if it's presented alongside a white artist, so the questions around value and agency arise: What choices should I make, or do I have to make, if I want to be compensated for my work? Why isn't my art valued on its own?
If anything, I have witnessed the ways my art travels, or is rendered more accessible, when sanctioned by or connected to white artists.
I always work with text orally in the writing process, saying passages aloud to measure flow.
My interest in language is steadfast, but I think each project and its accompanying intentions dictate how language must be used.
Writing about racism requires a directness that writing a love story does not.
I don't yet know what style will be required for my next novel, but my sense is that each book will involve a new relationship to language.
I tend to focus less on genre as a starting point and more on idea or intention and let the idea dictate genre.
I am always hesitant to call myself an activist, mostly out of respect for the activists who are using their bodies and voices to protest or activists online who are constantly engaging and educating others.
As much as I believe in the capacity for art to create change, and as much as being an artist is physically and emotionally challenging, there is ultimately something a bit comfortable about making art in the comfort of your own home.
Generally, I start by observing the existing and popular narratives in my social spheres and media, and the pressures I face in my own life experiences. As someone who is "newly" trans, I am constantly thinking about what the dominant narratives are around transness, how my work can push against these narratives, and how it already falls into these traps.
I didn't want to give the white reader an opportunity to think of racism as imaginary - a sentiment that is already a central barrier in addressing the problem.
I continue to explore poetry.
As a general rule, I tend to collaborate with artists whose work I admire.
Art can sometimes be separate from the artist.
I used singing as a safety measure. I would pay attention to what songs the popular girls liked, learn those songs from the radio or library cassettes, and then "accidentally" sing or hum these songs in class. This would impress the girls, who would then defend me from the boys.
Music is my first love, where my artistic journey began.
