Our Framework of Inqueery...*Inqueery - A term we use to refer to research methodologies that are rooted in marginalized queer cultures, embraces fumbling and failure, adopts adaptability (“switchiness”) and centers non-normative forms of process driven curiosity & exploration as modes of making. This is just the beginning of an ever expanding set of questions we are using to guide our work. Often these generate more questions, many unanswerable, which supports a humble queer-fumbling process.
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2021 Virtual Trans Youth Arts Residency
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When the COVID 19 pandemic transformed our social landscapes for several years we refocused on remote 1 to 1 and collective care as we all tried to navigate the extreme isolation. In the winter of 2021 we designed and ran a 10 week virtual artist residency for Trans youth in collaboration with Sketch Working Arts exploring our central questions. We assembled and delivered hampers with food, toiletries and especially arts materials to all residents, and we gathered weekly to talk about Trans creativity and resilience while isolating at home. Residency sessions revolved around critical questions, guest talks from our advisory, art & culture from Trans artists & healers across Turtle Island. Residents were mentored to develop a new body of artwork that could be exhibited digitally. We then collectively built a virtual exhibition space called "Water-Fire-Air-Earth-Magic: Trans Artist Reimaginings" using the open source Artsteps platform and hosted a well attended virtual exhibition launch and artist talk.
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2023 Trans Healers & Artists Retreat
After several years without the ability to gather in person, we decided to organize an in person two day retreat with a group of trans artists & healers at the Children’s Peace Theatre in Toronto. We co-designed, co-facilitated and co-documented a process for asking our central question through doing and making - What emerges when we center the healing and creativity of Trans people? What do we need in order to do this together in real time? We designed using deep consent & consensus building practices, prioritizing crip time and fumbling as intersectional queer ways of organizing and being. We created teams to host offerings for each other like “Unknown & Wild Arts”, “Culinary arts”, “Sacred Arts”, “Mindful Movement”, “River Singing”, “Wood chopping”, “Cacao Ceremony” and an “Abolitionist Fire-Talk”, amongst other things. We aimed to document the process of being together & making space as much as we captured arts works created or healing resources offered. This gathering created new community connections and cemented how important it is to be together as Trans folks on land regularly. We will be continuing to explore what we learned together about unique Trans methodologies for organizing and world making through ongoing auto-ethnographic research.
