Artists In Presidents: Transmissions to Power

“How do our cells become oriented to justice?”

Dancer and activist Emily Johnson invites us to embody justice through song, dance, and vibration. “Think of the ground lifting up with you, beneath your feet … this vibratory lift. The stomp is after the sound, the impact, the land. The spaces in-between: possibility, otherwise.” Emerging from Johnson’s land and water protection efforts in Lenapehoking (New York City), her Transmission serves as a call-to-action to resist setter capitalism.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work. She is a land- and water-protector and an activist for justice, sovereignty, and well-being. A Bessie Award-winning choreographer, Guggenheim Fellow, and recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award, she is based in Lenapehoking/New York City. Johnson is of the Yup’ik Nation, and since 1998 has created work that considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her dances function as portals and care processions, they engage audienceship within and through space, time, and environment—interacting with a place's architecture, peoples, history, and role in building futures. Johnson is trying to make a world where performance is part of life; where performance is an integral connection to each other, our environment, our stories, our past, present and future.

Contributor Acknowledgments: Love to Karyn Recollet, ever collaborator; Zach Crumrine, sound engineer and support; and Eileen Myles who offered feedback.

Photo: Adam Sings in the Timber

“This body is a shelter, / of networking, of systems, / which give a complete life / and responsibilities / beyond culture, classes, and language.”

Punctuated by gasps, inhalations, whispers, and nonverbal vocalizations, performance artist Melati Suryodarmo bridges the connections between her own body and the social bodies that sustain us. In a poem that probes the boundaries of oration and performance, Suryodarmo shows how we might find empowerment within our own bodies as the basis for collective transformation.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Melati Suryodarmo (born 1969, Solo, Indonesia) graduated from the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunscheweig, Germany. Her practice is informed by Butoh, dance and history, among other things. Her work is the result of ongoing research in the movements of the body and its relationship to the self and the world. These are translated into photography, dance choreography, video, and live performances. Suryodarmo is interested in the psychological and physical agitations that may be from the self or the world but somehow result in lasting change on the individual. The body is the home for memories and the self, rather than the individual itself, and the body’s system.

Photo: Harry Hartantio.

“Never let go of your authentic self, even if it must be in hiding for now. Protect it like a lit match in the wind. Don’t let fear blow it out.”

Blending frankness and wit, Esra’a Al Shafei speaks out against state-led repression of speech and expression. She chronicles the survival mechanisms—art, spoken word, music, comedy—that she regularly uses to critique and change her circumstances. Al Shafei powerfully affirms the need to live as one’s authentic self, as a leader who lights the way for others to do the same.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Esra'a Al Shafei is a Bahraini human rights activist and founder of Majal.org, a network of digital platforms that amplify under-reported and marginalized voices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This work includes Mideast Tunes, a web and mobile application for independent musicians in the MENA who use music as a tool for social justice advocacy; Ahwaa.org, a discussion tool for Arab LGBTQ+ youth which leverages game mechanics to protect and engage its community; and Migrant-Rights.org, the primary resource on the plight of migrant workers in the Gulf region.

Illustration: Nicole Georges

“Today we see that the past is the future, and what once was will be once again.”

Stimson offers a powerful call-and-response to John F. Kennedy’s 1961 Presidential Address, using JFK’s words as a springboard to advocate for decolonization and environmental stewardship. Looking beyond the borders and bounded histories of the United States, Stimson centres Turtle Island and Mother Earth in his speech, reflecting on how generational and ancestral stories of interdependence might shape a freer and more unified future.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Adrian Stimson is a member of the Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation, Treaty 7 Territory, in southern Alberta. Stimson has a BFA with distinction from the Alberta College of Art and Design and an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan. He is an interdisciplinary artist and exhibits nationally and internationally.

Stimson received the Alumni of Influence Award in 2020 from the University of Saskatchewan, the Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts in 2018, the REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation in 2017, the Blackfoot Visual Arts Award in 2009, the Alberta Centennial Medal in 2005, and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003.

Audio credit: "Owl Dance Song" by Calvin and Mary Boy from An Historical Album of Blackfoot Indian Music, FW34001, courtesy Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. (p) (c) 1979. Used with permission.

Photo: Blaire Russell

“Only we, the people together, can inhabit the world differently. We are not united by the illusion of saving the world but defending life, binding ourselves to the territory through relationships of reciprocity.”

In a future where queer leadership holds the seat of power, Emmelhainz speculates on the structures of governance needed for a revolutionary, horizontal, Earth-centred territory. She addresses a nationless public as a reluctant leader—spearheading an exit from extractivist capitalism, and reimagining what participatory democracy can look like.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Irmgard Emmelhainz is an independent translator, writer and researcher based in Anahuac Valley (Mexico City). Her work about film, the Palestine Question, art, culture and neoliberalism has been translated to many languages and presented at an array of international venues. Her book in Spanish, The Tyranny of Common Sense: Mexico’s Neoliberal Conversion (2016), is currently being translated to English to be published by SUNY Press. She has also published the books The Sky is Incomplete: Travel Chronicles in Palestine with Taurus Mexico (2017) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Political Filmmaking with Palgrave Macmillan (2019). Also forthcoming is Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures: Feminist Lives as Resistance with Vanderbilt University Press.

Photo: Lake Verea

“Only we, the people together, can inhabit the world differently. We are not united by the illusion of saving the world but defending life, binding ourselves to the territory through relationships of reciprocity.”

In a future where queer leadership holds the seat of power, Emmelhainz speculates on the structures of governance needed for a revolutionary, horizontal, Earth-centred territory. She addresses a nationless public as a reluctant leader—spearheading an exit from extractivist capitalism, and reimagining what participatory democracy can look like.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Irmgard Emmelhainz is an independent translator, writer and researcher based in Anahuac Valley (Mexico City). Her work about film, the Palestine Question, art, culture and neoliberalism has been translated to many languages and presented at an array of international venues. Her book in Spanish, The Tyranny of Common Sense: Mexico’s Neoliberal Conversion (2016), is currently being translated to English to be published by SUNY Press. She has also published the books The Sky is Incomplete: Travel Chronicles in Palestine with Taurus Mexico (2017) and Jean-Luc Godard’s Political Filmmaking with Palgrave Macmillan (2019). Also forthcoming is Toxic Loves, Impossible Futures: Feminist Lives as Resistance with Vanderbilt University Press.

Photo: Lake Verea

“Is it my greed? Is it my greed that propels me to behave like this? How do I learn to share? Is it my fear? Is it my fear that propels me to behave like this? How do I learn to not be afraid of the unknown?”

Writing as Patriarchy Misogyny, anitafrika reflects on how this character sees his domain under threat in the face of constant resistance. In an address to the Global Village, Patriarchy Misogyny muses on how his norms have been constructed and upheld, and the contested terrain on which they rest—testifying to the inspirational progress of feminist, queer and trans, and anti-racist movements.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca. 


d’bi.young anitafrika is an African-Jamaican-Tkarontonian, London-based dub poet, theatre interventionist and decolonial scholar committed to embodying art that ritualizes acts of transformation from violence inflicted upon the people and the planet. The multi-award-winning Canadian Poet of Honour, author of twelve plays, seven albums, and four collections of poetry was recently recognized as a Global Leader in Theatre and Performance by Arts Council England. After receiving hxr Masters from the University of London, anitafrika was awarded a Dean's Scholarship by London South Bank University (LSBU) to conduct doctoral research in Black womxn’s theatre. In addition to being the Director of Curriculum Design and Pedagogy at the new Soulpepper Theatre Academy in Canada, anitafrika works at the UN's Global Initiatives Fellowship as Theatre Interventionist and lectures at LSBU. Shx continues to share hxr liberatory framework—the Anitafrika Method—with practitioners worldwide through hxr ongoing online residencies. Shx most recently worked as Director of Kaie Kellough’s Jah in the Ever-Expanding Song for Obsidian Theatre’s 21 Black Futures project and is currently completing Dubbin Theatre, an anthology of hxr plays written between 2000-2020. You can find hxr latest theatrical work in She Mama Wata— as an audio version that she wrote, directed and performed—featured in Soulpepper Theatre’s Around the World in 80 Plays.

Photo: Anthony Rock

“Do you even know what you want to want?”

Jacob takes us on a looping and circuitous path through self-care and empowerment rhetoric. “Own it!” “You know you want it.” “I’m over it—you do you.” With a text-to-speech device twisting these words to the point of their collapse, Jacob at once celebrates their capacity to inspire, and exposes their vacuity.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Based in Toronto, Luis Jacob is an artist whose work destabilizes conventions of viewing and invites collisions of meaning. Jacob has achieved an international reputation, with his work exhibited at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg (2019); Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2019); the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2018); Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2017); La Biennale de Montréal (2016); Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (2015); Taipei Biennial 2012; Generali Foundation, Vienna (2011); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); Hamburg Kunstverein, the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (both 2008); and Documenta12, Kassel (2007). In 2016 he curated the exhibition Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, with a catalogue co-published with Black Dog Press in 2020.

Photo: Miguel Jacob

“Hope has always been necessary, but I do wonder if we’ve ever really had it.”

Set against the backdrop of COVID-19 in New York, and rooted in complicated family histories, Róisín’s address advocates for hope in spite of its many obstacles. In a heartfelt letter to the listener she shares resilience and capacity for hope, amid loss and cataclysm.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Fariha Róisín is a multidisciplinary artist born in Ontario, Canada. She was raised in Sydney, Australia, and is based in Brooklyn, New York. Róisín’s work exists at the intersections of her identity as a queer, Muslim, South Asian woman interested in spirituality, race and pop culture. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and Allure. She has also pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam and queer identities. She is the author of the poetry collection How To Cure A Ghost (2019) and the novel Like A Bird (2020). Her upcoming work is a book of non-fiction entitled, Who Is Wellness For?, to be released in spring 2022.

Photo: Clémence Polès

“When I say ‘Let’s get cozy,’ I’m asking you to join me in the making of a new and better world.”

Gotkin reflects on the historical, social, and political meanings of coziness—from its origins in consumer culture, through to its contemporary usages in networks of self and community care. Rejecting political movements premised on discomfort or hustle, Gotkin shows how getting cozy should be celebrated when founding movements rooted in disability justice principles.

“Artists-in-Presidents” is initiated by Constance Hockaday, curated by Christine Shaw, and commissioned by The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga). Podcast production by Vocal Fry.

Transmissions are released every Friday from August 6–December 17, 2021. To view the portrait gallery, access ASL videos and transcripts, and for additional information about the project, visit www.artistsinpresidents.com and www.blackwoodgallery.ca.

Kevin Gotkin is an access ecologist, community organizer, and teacher. They received their PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018 and were a Visiting Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, & Communication at NYU from 2018–2021. From 2016–2019, they co-founded Disability/Arts/NYC with Simi Linton. More recently, they were an Artist-in-Residence at Het HEM in the Netherlands, lead steward of the REMOTE ACCESS nightlife series, and an inaugural cohort member of Creative Time's Think Tank.

Photo: Louise Hickman