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# Marvellous Grounds

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://marvellousgrounds.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Writings](https://marvellousgrounds.com/writings/)
- [Palimpsests: Queer Asian Toronto, Then and Now](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/palimpsests-queer-asian-toronto-then-and-now/) - By Tracey Yu For this project, I created a series of linocut prints re-imagining key historical queer Asian spaces in Toronto, as described in the Marvellous Grounds project. Through the reduction print method, I juxtaposed these spaces as they exist in people’s memories and what they have become, decades later. Many sites of QTBIPOC placemaking
- [Illustrating Safety Without the State: a conversation between two queer of colour artists on arts-based activism during COVID-19](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/illustrating-safety-without-the-state/) - Illustrating Safety Without the State: a conversation between two queer of colour artists on arts-based activism during COVID-19 Interested in contributing to the Marvellous Grounds blog? Download the Submission Guidelines here.
- [A conversation with El-Farouk Khaki - imam, human rights lawyer, and social justice advocate](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/a-conversation-with-el-farouk-khaki/) - A conversation with El-Farouk Khaki - imam, human rights lawyer, and social justice advocate By Sabat Ismail I sat down with El-Farouk Khaki in his home in the Church-Wellesley Village to discuss his work and activism as a refugee and immigration lawyer and long-time human rights and LGBTQ+ activist. El-Farouk is a beloved community member,
- [Resisting Erasure: Forging Our Own Space & Histories (2021)](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/resisting-erasure/) - Title:Resisting Erasure: Forging Our Own Space & Histories Synopsis:Resisting Erasure: Forging Our Own Space & Histories is an exploratory film that investigates racially divided queer landscapes and the erasure of queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and many more people of colour (QTBIPOC) from gay villages, such as the Church-Wellesley Village in the City of Toronto. This
- [Archiving QTBIPOC spaces through sound: 187 Augusta](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/187-augusta/) - In a city where queer of colour DIY arts spaces are disappearing, this soundscape piece produced by Joanna Delos Reyes aims to archive and honour 187 Augusta as a space for QTBIPOC creation, art, community and healing. 187 Augusta is a queer of colour-led arts space founded in 2017 and directed as a lively arts
- [#NoGoingBack: Queer Leaps at the Intersection of Protest and Covid-19](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/nogoingback/) - Online talk and discussion with Jin Haritaworn: #NotGoingBack #NobodyLeftBehind: Leaping into Marvellous Grounds June 29th, 2020 @xartsplitta-online The current conjuncture of quarantine and protest has highlighted the trappings of a modernist realism whose conservative solutions to social problems go back to a paucity of methods, genres and dreams. The wins that the uprisings against anti-Black
- [The Sweetness of Our Badass Selves: Learning Abolition from Moka Dawkins](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/the-sweetness-of-our-badass-selves/) - The Sweetness of Our Badass Selves: Learning Abolition from Moka Dawkins Snjezana Pruginic The time of abolition is both yet to come and it is already here. (Eric A. Stanley, from his introduction to Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, p. 8) I would sit in that tiny room behind the guard’s
- [No Cop Zone - Fighting for Abolition in Schools: An Interview with LeRoi Newbold](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/no-cop-zone/) - by Julia Robertson and Rio Rodriguez In this intimate interview, LeRoi Newbold speaks to collaborative organizing in removing police officers from schools, strategies that failed, and co-founding Black Lives Matter Freedom School, a three week long summer program for children aged 4-10, which was a response to a lack of humanizing, self-affirming, queer-positive schooling and
- [Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/undocumented-the-architecture-of-migrant-detention/) - “Spaces of incarceration are both nowhere and everywhere, blended into our landscapes. But their invisibility is no coincidence. We hide the things we don’t want to see or that we don’t want to be seen.” - Tings Chak Tings Chak’s zine is part of a larger published book “Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention”. Chak
- ["Bell Let's Talk" Campaign - A Podcast](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/bell-lets-talk-campaign-a-podcast/) - This podcast was produced as coursework for a class on prisoners’ justice led by Profs Jin Haritaworn and Syrus Marcus Ware at York University, and field supervised by Sena Hussein, Communications and Resource Development Coordinator at PASAN and Lead Editor at Cell Count. It discusses barriers to phone access in prisons and institutions in Canada,
- [Counter-Archiving the Prison-Industrial Complex in Toronto](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/counter-archiving-the-prison-industrial-complex-in-toronto/) - Counter-Archiving the Prison-Industrial Complex in TorontoKenley Ku Ferris Queer and trans Black, Indigenous and people of colour (QTBIPOC) in and around Toronto have made countless important contributions organizing against the carceral logics, apparatuses, mechanics, cycles of harm, violence, and exploitation that we often refer to as the prison industrial complex (PIC). As illustrated by social
- [Feature on Syrus Marcus Ware](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/feature-on-syrus-marcus-ware/) - by Bridget Liang “We need to challenge the systemic racism and ableism that the PIC [Prison Industrial Complex] is fueled on in order to understand what is happening within carceral spaces. We need to recognize the violences of psychiatric detention, and support what psychiatric survivors have been advocating for decades, an end to forced confinement.”
- [“Abolition has to do with love”: A roundtable on queer organizing against the prison industrial complex in Toronto](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/abolition-has-to-do-with-love/) - “If you actually believe in abolition, do something about it. Go visit people in prisons. Write them a letter; support bail funds. There are a lot of other things we could be doing with our time that will get people out of prison and get people out of pipelines to prison.” - Aanya Wood The
- [Toronto/Tkaronto Mutual Aid Panel](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/toronto-mutual-aid/) - “The idea of mutual aid is being co-opted - I’ve seen that the city is now trying to support people in some way by creat[ing] neighbourhood pods and engag[ing] in mutual aid. At the same time as they’re evicting people from their homes and from encampments and ramping up policing and more.”- Gita Madan, co-founder
- [Abolition After Crisis](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/abolition-after-crisis/) - “Abolition is not a slogan.” - Dr. Vanessa Thompson Activist scholars, Kafia and Laura, host a podcast called Abolition After Crisis, where they discuss the past, present and future of the prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition. Kafia reflects on her involvement in the roundtable with Moka Dawkins, and the two discuss their growing understanding of
- [#JusticeForMoka: A Conversation about Prison Abolition, Transformative Justice and Mutual Aid](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/justiceformoka/) - "How could you seek transformative justice in a colonistic state? It's never going to happen." Moka Dawkins Our new series of publications focuses on QTBIPOC-led abolitionist organizing against the prison industrial complex in Tkaronto. The series is kicked off by this incredible, tender and honest interview with Black, Indigenous, trans abolitionist activist, Moka Dawkins in
- [“I fight for me, I fight for us” (Moka Dawkins, 2018)](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/i-fight-for-me-i-fight-for-us/) - “I fight for you, for us, because too many of our community members have taken their lives because they weren’t free to be who they felt on the inside, and other countless reasons. It’s time for the world to recognize not what we are, but who we are. Not where we come from, but who
- [Performance As Its Own Country: An Interview with Camille Turner](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/performance-as-its-own-country/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Co-authors: Alvis Choi and Camille Turner This interview took place on March 16, 2016 at Crossroads, York University, Toronto. I (Alvis) conducted the interview as part of a research for my Master’s studies at the Faculty of Environmental Studies. My final
- [Issue #2 – Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/issue-2-qtbipoc-art-and-performance-introduction/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Introduction Alvis Choi Queer and/or trans Black, Indigenous and people of colour (QTBIPOC) spaces in Toronto are filled with stories that are often erased in mainstream maps and archives, both of the heteronormative and the homonormative (white, queer, North American) variety.
- [Original poems by Kai Cheng Thom](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/original-poems-by-kai-cheng-thom/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Kai Cheng Thom Content Note: This work contains descriptions of physical and emotional violence. ***** my boyfriend plays white guy music your body kept the score what the queer community should have told us ***** 1 my boyfriend plays
- [My being is not your colonial hotel: Performance as a ceremony of reflection and reclamation from a QPOC theatre maker by nisha ahuja](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/my-being-is-not-your-colonial-hotel/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: nisha ahuja As artists we are often subject to others, from reviewers to academics, writing about our work, either by consensual choice or not. So, I felt some hesitation when I was offered this rare opportunity to contextualize the art that
- [Round Dance Square: community. art. parties.](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/round-dance-square-community-art-parties/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto A Roundtable Discussion with Cherish Violet Blood, Ange Loft, and Jada Reynolds Tabobondung Initiated and facilitated by Amandeep Kaur Panag This roundtable was held on February 12, 2017 at the Centre for Social Innovation on Spadina Ave in Toronto. Amandeep Kaur
- [Bois d’Ébène by Kama La Mackerel](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/bois-debene/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Kama La Mackerel Bois d’Ébène was performed by tio’tia:ke/Montréal-based, Kama La Mackerel, at Fondering Darling in August 2017, in the context of the series La Place Publique. first grieve then sink into the silences claw your fingers at history demand accountability
- [Spring's Promise by Shaunga Tagore](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/springs-promise/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Shaunga Tagore too many times have I left community for a break-up break-down break-out break-open when commitment trust promise left me packed up moved out houses friendships activist dreams chasing you running from me too many departures family intimacy heart
- ["Katutubong Binhi (Native Seeds) Offering" by Kapwa Collective](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/katutubong-binhi-native-seeds-offering/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Kapwa Collective In this zine, you would learn about Kapwa Collective's guiding principles and how they facilitate the Kapwa Playshop: "Katutubong Binhi (Native Seeds) Offering" - How to make Plantable Paper as an Offering to the Land. This zine was created as part of
- [Defending Uncritical Art has Consequences by Rahim Thawer](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/defending-uncritical-art-has-consequences/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Rahim Thawer I grew up in Etobicoke and went to a racialized-majority middle school and then a white-majority high school. My undergraduate education spanned a few institutions, and in each one, I found enclaves of people of colour with whom
- [Unapologetic Burlesque: queer. consensual. anti-racist. not your average burlesque by Shaunga Tagore and kumari giles](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/unapologetic-burlesque/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Shaunga Tagore (aka Scorpio Rising) and kumari giles (aka vena kava) Unapologetic Burlesque is a showcase series, movement, and dream to highlight burlesque performances by emerging, first-time, and seasoned performers who are people of colour, Indigenous, queer, genderqueer, trans, people of
- [The Drag Musical: Let Us Sit On You by Patrick Salvani](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/the-drag-musical/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Patrick Salvani Sometimes reality fuckin’ sucks and we don't get a chance to dream. But tonight, people who you've never seen on a stage before - some are those wallflowers you never hear speak, some who never got a chance to
- [Dreaming With Our Ancestors: The Asian Arts Freedom School, 2004-2007 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/dreaming-with-our-ancestors-the-asian-arts-freedom-school/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha Note: Above is an Asian Arts Freedom School poster from 2007, created with inspiration from Young Asians With Power (YAWP!) in Chicago, to call for participants. The following excerpt titled “Why "Freedom School"?” is from an original call
- [On These Grounds by Lisa Myers](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/on-these-grounds/) - Part of Special Issue #2 - Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto Author: Lisa Myers The writing for this issue of Marvellous Grounds reflects performance and art practices that express and assert the perspectives of QTBIPOC (queer and trans, Black, Indigenous and people of colour). Although Marvellous Grounds emphasizes written word in an effort
- [Interview with Syrus Marcus Ware on Church Street Mural project (audio & transcript)](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/interview-with-syrus-marcus-ware-on-church-street-mural-project-audio/) - Image courtesy: Church Street Mural project Part of Special Issue #1 – QTBIPOC Space – Remapping Belonging in Toronto Syrus Marcus Ware, is a visual artist, community mobilizer, educator and researcher pursuing his PhD studies at York University. He shares with us his story of co-facilitating a large-scale Church Street Mural Project in the Gay
- [Interview with Amber Sandy about First Story App](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/interview-with-amber-sandy/) - Part of Special Issue #1 - QTBIPOC Space - Remapping Belonging in Toronto Relearning Toronto’s First Stories An interview with Amber Sandy, former Project Coordinator of the First Story Project This interview was conducted in July 2016. It was hosted, transcribed and edited jointly by Amandeep Kaur Panag and Rio Rodriguez. Audio excerpt #1 on
- [Issue #1 - QTBIPOC Space - Remapping Belonging in Toronto](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/special-issue-1-qtbipoc-space/) - Image courtesy: Fatin Chowdhury Part of Special Issue #1 – QTBIPOC Space – Remapping Belonging in Toronto Introduction Amandeep Kaur Panag and Rio Rodriguez In the queer and trans Black, Indigenous and people of colour (QTBIPOC) communities that raised us, “space” is a common part of our collective language. We sometimes refer to people as “taking up
- [Archiving the Unarchivable](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/art/) - Image courtesy: Fatin Chowdhury Part of Special Issue #1 – QTBIPOC Space – Remapping Belonging in Toronto Marvellous Grounds is a mapping and an archiving project that considers the intimate links between space and time: between who gets to be here and who gets remembered. Visual artists are often at the forefront of documenting the tenacious
- [300 HOURS: What I learned about Black Queer and Trans Liberation at BLMTO Tent City by Gloria Swain](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/300-hours/) - Image courtesy: Fatin Chowdhury Part of Special Issue #1 – QTBIPOC Space – Remapping Belonging in Toronto Author: Gloria Swain I am an elder Black woman who is cisgender - meaning I identify with the gender I was assigned at birth. I am also a performer, an artist, and a mother. At the time of writing,
- [Mapping Collective History by Rio Rodriguez](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/mapping-collective-history/) - Part of Special Issue #1 - QTBIPOC Space - Remapping Belonging in Toronto The following is an extract from the Master’s Research Portfolio by Rio Rodriguez, in the Master of Environmental Studies program at York University. In order to resist the historical erasure of QTBIPOC people, I like to use maps. This QTBIPOC map feature
- [Queer of Colour Story Mapping & Travel Through Performance](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/queer-of-colour-story-mapping-travel-through-performance/) - Marvellous Grounds presents QUEER OF COLOUR STORY MAPPING & TRAVEL THROUGH PERFORMANCE Sunday, July 17th, 2016 Time: 2pm-4:30pm Location: 519 Community Center FREE EVENT ASL interpretation available. Wheelchair accessible. There will be snacks. Tokens are available for those who need it. This space prioritizes QTBIPOC. Performance is open to all. Join us for an afternoon
- [Maple Syrup Fest - audio clip transcript](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/maple-syrup-fest-audio-clip-transcript/) - Amber: One of my favourite memories actually of working at the Native Canadian Centre was helping with their march break camp one year for kids. And we decided to take them to this maple festival. We took the bus there and we get there and are there are different stations where you learn about making
- [Toronto Islands - audio clip transcript](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/toronto-islands-audio-clip-transcript/) - The Toronto islands is actually one of my favourite spots to talk about history because it is so significant. And, I find it fascinating because when you actually do research on the Toronto islands you come up with obviously a lot of white history, you come up with like “The Diving Horse”! It's such a
- [Toronto's First Native Centre - audio clip transcript](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/torontos-first-native-centre-audio-clip-transcript/) - There are many spaces that First Nation’s occupied. The first place that the Native Canadian Centre ever was, was on Church Street, just up from the main area. It was the space that we could afford. And that was the first community hub that we ever had in Toronto. They weren’t there for that long,
- [Story: Allan Gardens Children's Conservatory / 2013](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/story-allan-gardens-childrens-conservatory-2013/) - Jin | 2013 | QTBIPOC Grief / Rage | Allan Gardens Children's Conservatory I was new to Toronto and about to get my induction into Toronto Pride racism. Coming from Europe and starved of queer of colour energy, I was excited to see a famous queer Asian drumming collective perform in Allan Gardens, and also apprehensive

## Pages

- [Issue #3 | Special Focus on Prison Abolition (2021)](https://marvellousgrounds.com/) - This is a series of new pieces on abolition, transformative justice, criminalization, and incarceration from Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour organizing and activism in Tkaronto/Toronto. The special issue includes articles, videos, roundtable discussions, interviews, podcasts, multimedia pieces and sound art from local and international organizers, along with artists and students of Dr.
- [Issue #2 | Bodies as Archives: QTBIPOC Art and Performance in Toronto (2018)](https://marvellousgrounds.com/issue-2-qtbipoc-art-and-performance/) - New pieces on QTBIPOC oral histories and spaces are being considered, such as this. Check out the Submission Guidelines here. MANN-I-FEST (2014-), co-created by nisha ahuja and MeLisa Moore. Image courtesy of the artists. Introduction Alvis Choi On These GroundsLisa Myers Round Dance Square: community. art. parties. A Roundtable Discussion with Cherish Violet Blood, Ange Loft,
- [Contributors](https://marvellousgrounds.com/contributors/) - Editors from the Marvellous Grounds Team: Alvis Choi a.k.a. Alvis Parsley, born and raised in Hong Kong, is a queer nonbinary artist whose artistic traces could be seen in Toronto, Montreal, Faroe Islands, Berlin, Cardiff, Seoul, and Hong Kong. Alvis holds a Master of Environmental Studies from York University, with an area of concentration in Performance as Pedagogy
- [QTBIPOC Interactive Story Map](https://marvellousgrounds.com/map/) - Our personal stories about community life, movements, and the cultures we build as QTBIPOC people in this city are often tied to a particular place. A venue. A park. An organization. Or an intersection. This map tells place-based stories about QTBIPOC existence. Please contribute to it! Despite being regularly erased and displaced from white cis queer
- [Issue #1 | QTBIPOC Space - Remapping Belonging in Toronto (2016)](https://marvellousgrounds.com/take-space-qtbipoc-reclaiming-the-city/) - Image courtesy: Fatin Chowdhury IntroductionAmandeep Kaur Panag and Rio Rodriguez Relearning Toronto's First Stories:Interview with Amber Sandy about First Story AppInterviewers: Amandeep Kaur Panag and Rio Rodriguez 300 HOURS: What I learned about Black Queer and Trans Liberation at BLMTO Tent CityGloria Swain Interview with Syrus Marcus Ware on Church Street Mural project (audio & transcript)Interviewers: Amandeep Kaur Panag
- [QTBIPOC Spaces in Toronto](https://marvellousgrounds.com/map-3/) - Filter byAll Others QTBIPOC Grief / Rage QTBIPOC Joy QTBIPOC Meeting Places QTBIPOC Spaces from the Past Add your own marker Marker Title Marker Address or GPS Location Or right-click on the map and drag to add a marker Marker Description Marker CategoryAll Others QTBIPOC Grief / Rage QTBIPOC Joy QTBIPOC Meeting Places QTBIPOC Spaces from the Past Please tick this box to prove you
- [Books](https://marvellousgrounds.com/books/) - Toronto/Three Fires Territory has long been a place that people move to in order to join queer and trans Black, Indigenous and people of colour (QTBIPOC) communities. Yet the city’s rich history of antiracist and anti-colonial queer and trans activism remains largely unwritten and unarchived. While QTBIPOC have a long and visible presence in the
- [Resisting Erasure: Forging Our Own Space & Histories (2021)](https://marvellousgrounds.com/resisting-erasure/) - Title: Resisting Erasure: Forging Our Own Space & Histories Synopsis: Resisting Erasure: Forging Our Own Space & Histories is an exploratory film that investigates racially divided queer landscapes and the erasure of queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and many more people of colour (QTBIPOC) from gay villages, such as the Church-Wellesley Village in the City of
- [Marvellous Grounds Short Film (2016)](https://marvellousgrounds.com/short-film/) - Performance: Ill Nana/DiverseCity Dance Company Music: "Destroy Each Other" by LAL Interviewees: Monica Forrester, Richard Fung, Aemilius Ramirez, Rebeka Tabobondung Director: Min Sook Lee Cinematographer: Hayley Wong Editor: Jordan Kawai Year: 2016 A note from ILL NANA/DiverseCity Dance Company: As a Queer/Trans positive multiracial collective, we support and create media and art that focuses on
- [Acknowledgement](https://marvellousgrounds.com/acknowledgement/) - Acknowledgements for Blog Issue #2 The Marvellous Grounds collective would like to thank Alvis Choi’s dedicated work as lead editor of this second issue, which became much larger and more labour intensive than originally anticipated. Alvis worked with great sensitivity and went above and beyond in collaborating with the contributors to bring their pieces to
- [Submission Guidelines](https://marvellousgrounds.com/guidelines/) - Guidelines for Authors and Guest Editors (download PDF) Proposal Guidelines for Guest Editors (download PDF)
- [About](https://marvellousgrounds.com/about/) - Marvellous Grounds is a book and web-based project that seeks to document and create space to vision the ways that QTBIPOC (queer and trans Black, Indigenous and people of colour) create communities, innovate projects and foster connections within Toronto/Three Fires Territories and beyond. This collection brings together art, writing and research that engages with space

## Categories

- [Interactive Story Map](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/category/interactive-story-map/)
- [Special Issue #1](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/category/special-issue-1/)
- [Interview Transcript](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/category/interview-transcript/)
- [Event](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/category/event/)
- [Special Issue #2](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/category/special-issue-2/)
- [Special Focus on Prison Abolition](https://marvellousgrounds.com/blog/category/special-focus-on-prison-abolition/)