Step into a space where every voice is honored and every story cherished. Our featured poet, Jotika, brings her unique perspective as a Queer, Disabled, cis, Femme artist and expressive arts therapist. Discover the power of art to heal and connect.
Don't miss out on this empowering platform to laugh, cry, and share in a supportive community. Reserve your spot now to celebrate our diverse voices and stories!
When registering, be sure to let us know of your accessibility requirements and needs.
Accessibility Information
- Masks required
- Wheelchair accessible
- ASL interpretation provided
COVID-19 SAFETY
Masks are required for this event (N95 masks are recommended as they offer the best protection) and will be provided for anyone who does not bring one. The host and feature poet will rapid test before the event and we encourage attendees to rapid test before coming as well. We ask that you stay home if you are showing symptoms or had a recent exposure.
Venue
The Gathering place theatre is located on the ground floor. There is a double door opening and no steps into the theatre. An accessible bathroom is located in the theatre as well.
If you have any questions regarding access, please send an email to monday@kickstartdisability.ca OR info@kickstartdisablity.ca
Meet Jotika, our featured poet:
Jotika is a Queer, Disabled, cis, Femme. Her people come from Northern India by way of Indentureship to Fiji. She identifies as a settler on the lands she lives, the unceded, un-surrendered, stolen lands of the Musqueaum, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Indigenous people.
She is an Interdisciplinary Artist, a Community Organizer, and an Expressive Arts Therapist. She is deeply passionate about the arts as a profound and powerful tool to support a coming back into our bodies. Creating and witnessing others’ art have helped her cope with the effects of trauma, nourished & helped her survive some of the hardest times of her life. Through her Expressive Arts Therapy workshops she supports folks to tell their stories and connect into their bodies using poetry, visual art, movement, voice & more! She loves to support Queer, Trans, BIPoC and Sick and Disabled folks to tap into intergenerational wisdom and meet the pace of our powerful and exhausted bodies. Her story telling uses various arts mediums that she weave collaging, painting, singing and poetry into one another tapping into themes of intergenerational trauma, her experiences as a disabled brown femme and what healing feels like in the body.
Jotika is a lover of cats, of all things glittery & iridescent. She is reconnecting to her hot pink era which means she is spending a lot of time with her 8 year old self! See more about her and her work www.jotikahealingarts.com on IG @Jotikart
Get to know Under the Table Poetry:
Under the Table is an open mic series centering disabled and/or queer poets. This series was dreamed up out of a desire to share work, experience art, and connect with community in a covid safer, more accessible, and anti-oppressive space. Partnering with Massy Voices, Under the Table Open Mic Series will be on the first Tuesday of each month with some events in person at Massy Arts Society and others virtually on zoom.
Under the Table is a space where the richness that is queer and disabled life and art flourishes and finds a home. It’s a space to share work that’s asking to be told, but might not be welcomed in other spaces, if you are able to access those spaces at all. It’s a space where being queer and/or disabled (whether or not those specific words resonate for you) makes your work a brilliant fit, regardless of how queer or disabled you think the poetry you wish to share is, how connected you are to disabled and/or queer community, and whether you feel disabled and/or queer “enough” to participate. It’s a space to witness and engage with the work of incredible artists, anywhere on their path of sharing their work–from the person who has never shared in front of an audience, to artists who have read or performed work many times. It’s a space where there’s room to be scared, and choose to be in community, share, and engage with others’ work anyways. It’s a space where we don’t claim to know all the answers, but are willing to be in the messy, nuanced space of learning together. Come to Under the Table to laugh, cry, celebrate, sit in discomfort, feel understood, and be together."
Under The Table Poetry Collective
An open-mic series featuring disabled and/or queer poets. Find us on Instagram @underthetablepoetry.
To learn more about ACCESSFest and other free events visit: www.kickstartdisability.ca/accessfest
