Are you kidding? What a perfect example of yet another white dude artist getting every benefit of every doubt, using multiple mainstream platforms to cry censorship, disappearing (at least at home — seems to have been okay at international fests) then being welcomed back, quietly, ready to fail upward forever. Anyway, any enterprising reporters are free to dig through our archives to get up to speed on this boring-but-predictable situation. Plus ça change indeed...
‘This kind of black imitation is very reminiscent of blackface minstrel shows. The only thing missing is black paint,’ said singer Moses Sumney
The musical SLĀV that premiered last week at the Montreal International Jazz Festival is billed as a “tribute to music as a tool for resilience and emancipation.”
But so far it has succeeded in highlighting art as an instrument of division, with protesters gathering outside shows, patrons entering under the protection of police and one festival performer this week cancelling his concert in protest.
SLĀV has run into trouble because it is a show based on slave songs from the American South, conceived by a white director and singer and performed by a predominantly white cast.
The American singer Moses Sumney, who is black, announced on Twitter Monday night that he was pulling out of his festival concert, which had been scheduled for Tuesday night. Instead he chose to play two discounted shows at an off-festival Montreal venue.
Sumney called SLĀV “hegemonic, appropriative and neo-imperialistic,” in a letter to festival organizers announcing his cancellation, posted to his website Tuesday.
“The point you are missing is that there is no context in which white people performing black slave songs is okay. Especially not while they are dressed like poor field workers or cotton pickers. Especially not while they are directed by a white director and in a theater charging loads of money,” he wrote.
“This kind of black imitation is very reminiscent of blackface minstrel shows. The only thing missing is black paint.”
here is an open letter against SLAV the “hit musical” comprised of slave songs sung by white folks that was just performed in Montreal’s Jazz Fest…yeah. You can sign below to support a call of accountability from Montreal’s black activist community & allies against Jazz Fest, its sponsors, and the QC media.
Whatever benefit of whatever doubt you might want to give here, the star/coproducer already claimed she doesn't see race so... yeah. That about does it.
Someone at Clickhole got fed up with all the boring Montreal travel stories. Feeling #blessed #recognized
2. Bring your carpet and have it cleaned by one of Montreal’s many carpet cleaners: There are dozens of professional carpet cleaners in Montreal, so be sure to pry up your carpet, roll it up, put it under your arm, and carry it everywhere you go in Montreal until you see one. Pet hair and food and beverage stains are no match for the quality service you’ll receive from any one of Montreal’s many, many carpet cleaners.
Walter Scott’s perennially perturbed protagonist Wendy, star of Wendy and Wendy’s Revenge, presents a guide to art grad school in The New Yorker check it out here!
‘This didn’t fall from the sky, it grew from roots.’
Vigil for the victims of the Quebec City mosque murders/rally against Islamaphobia in Montreal.
Speakers in French, English, Arabic (apologies for not crediting these quotes). All calling for the crowd to not wait for a body count. To take politicians and pundits to task for inciting hate. To accept and love citizens of every race, gender, sexual orientation, religion (and without religion).
‘If you cannot be united in your religion, be united in your humanity.’
So much of what Spry writes exemplifies the way an ally should behave. He calls out predatory men while also acknowledging his own complicity. But from studying writing at Concordia and from knowing Spry, I have to say that he not only permitted the culture of toxic masculinity that he rightly calls out, but he also helped to breed it. He was much more than a bystander rolling his eyes in the background. He was an active player who belittled and harassed women writers who only wanted to make the same career moves he benefited from. And now his career is likely to benefit from his speaking out—his name is known across the country and it infuriates me that a man who I knew to be deeply sexist has gained esteem for condemning the culture from which he directly benefited.
Julie McIsaac, ‘And Then A Man Said It’ [Site]
So much to say about #CanLitAccountable etc. (and saying some of it on the IG). Might put more here. For the moment, follow this link, check out the tag on twitter. Lots of brave people out there, coming forward, some less brave people trying to get ahead of the narrative or weighing the worth of a sudden feminist awakening in a new media landscape...
Crews were taking apart the ramp for Highway 20 West from Highway 15 North using a crane when the operator realized that one of the cables couldn't support the load. A massive piece of concrete was placed on a section of the new Turcot Interchange. No one was hurt.
It’s a Christmas Mishap, everyone!
Workers were taking apart the ramp for Highway 20 West from Highway 15 North using a crane when the operator realized one of the cables couldn't support the load, according to Transports Québec spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun.
A snapped cable could be seen Thursday morning hanging from a nearby crane.
RIP Hymie Sckolnick (according to twitter, for now). Between his passing and that of Leonard Cohen, this section of the Mile End/Plateau/MileEau is now sorely lacking in beloved older gentlemen.
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