Photo Credit: Henry Chan

“Switching Queen(s) is about communion as a transformative tool. In the midst of multiple raging pandemics, and as our planet continues to ail, The Switch Collective co-creates momentary shifts. Gestures transform spaces. There is possibility in that. There has to be.”
– From Queer scholar Natasha Bissonauth’s Switching Queen(s) review

The Switch Collective returns to this year’s Festival to revisit the resonant themes, politics and content from their memorable 2022 production of Switching Queen(s) and to co-create an artful “after-care” project with collaborators from the Parkdale Women’s Leadership Group & the Parkdale People’s Economy.

This reprise will host a healing arts gathering to re-engage with the themes, community, rituals and art that was so significant to the Switching Queen(s) team in 2022, and continue the personal and community work that was foundational to the project. This will centre healing arts, visual arts & spoken word that aims to offer after care for frontline workers who live and organize in their own communities. Artworks generated will be shared in a public-facing screening and feast in Parkdale in fall 2023. Themes will include QTBIPOC and Mad/disabled resistance, radical liberatory futures, histories of displaced people, love, resilience, seed sowing and caring for those frontline organizers hustling behind the scenes for our collective liberation.

Collective members — Naty Tremblay, Sedina Fiati, Lexi Sproule

Collaborators — Sha Ally, Jaideep Goray, Ko Hosoya, Beryl-Ann Mark, Bernie Rilloraza, Opal Sparks