Chosen Family Values: Examining the Creative Practices of Kiera Boult, Madelyne Beckles, Kalale Dalton-Lutale and Cason Sharpe by Delilah Rosier Submitted to OCAD University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Contemporary Art, Design and New Media Histories Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 2021. Delilah Rosier, 2021 2 Abstract This major research paper presents an autoethnographic account of the cultural production: performances, plays, video, poetry, short stories, Instagram takeovers and lived experiences of Black biracial Canadian artists Madelyne Beckles, Kalale Dalton-Lutale, Kiera Boult, and Cason Sharpe. Putting these artists in conversation with one another serves to connect and archive a creative community and moment by way of shared identities, and shared stylistic, generational, and critical vocabularies. The thread that runs throughout their works is a critical framework informed by Black thinkers and perspectives encompassing Black art and artists, feminism, queerness, pop culture, class consciousness, and intersectionality stemming from a distinctly Canadian context. As a commemoration of kinship and as a contribution to the current discourse of contemporary Canadian art, this paper makes a case for how their creative practices speak from and about a unique, intersectional perspective and make a significant contribution to the Canadian art landscape. 3 Acknowledgments Thank you to my advisors Johanna Householder and Andrea Fatona for your rigorous edits and thoughtful commentary, Rebecca Diederichs for guiding my writing spiral, Daniel Payne for your incredible bibliographic assistance, OCAD University and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for financially supporting my studies, Fraser Wrighte for your continual support and Madelyne, Kiera, Kalale and Cason for your participation and trust in me. 4 Dedication For my chosen family. 5 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 7 Literature Review ....................................................................................................................... 15 Methodology ................................................................................................................................ 20 Killjoys Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House .............................................................. 24 Collaboration and Knowledge Making Through Performance.............................................. 29 Kiera Boult .................................................................................................................................. 31 Kikiology 101 ............................................................................................................................... 35 Lorraine O ’ Grady’s Mlle Bourgeoise Noire and Camille Turner’s Miss Canadiana .......... 43 Madelyne Beckles ........................................................................................................................ 47 I’m a Bitch. I’m a Lover. ............................................................................................................ 51 After Sontag: Notes on ‘Camp’ ................................................................................................. 56 Talkin’ Body ................................................................................................................................ 58 Kalale Dalton-Lutale .................................................................................................................. 61 I'm a Child. I'm a Mother. ......................................................................................................... 62 Same City, Same Friends if You're Looking for Me ............................................................... 71 Cason Sharpe ............................................................................................................................... 74 Vivid Queer Realities .................................................................................................................. 75 I'm a Sinner. I'm a Saint. I Do Not Feel Ashamed................................................................... 79 The Makings of Sharpe’s Voice ................................................................................................. 80 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 86 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................ 91 6 List of Figures Figure 1: Allyson Mitchell and Deirdre Logue, Killjoy's Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House (2013) Exterior view………………………………………………………………………………………………26 Figure 2: Riot Ghouls Madelyne Beckles, Cason Sharpe, Kiera Boult, and Delilah Rosier in Philadelphia, (2019) behind the scenes photograph……………………………………………..29 Figure 2: Kiera Boult, The Truth Booth, (2014-2019) photograph from live performance…….32 Figure 3: Kiera Boult, The Truth Booth Presents: Art is the New Steal: Appropriating the Hamilton Landscape, (2016) digital image of printed brochure…………………………………34 Figure 4: Kiera Boult, #Teamkiki (For Institutional Use Only), (2018) video still……………..36 Figure 5: Kiera Boult, Ki True Hollywood Story, (2020) video still……………………………40 Figure 6: Kiera Boult, The Solidarity Collection, (2018) video still……………………………41 Figure 7: Lorraine O'Grady, Untitled (Mlle Bourgeoise Noire Shouts Out Her Poem) (1980- 83/2009) photograph…………………………………………………………………………...44 Figure 8: Madelyne Beckles, Womanism is a Form of Feminism Focused Especially on the Conditions and Concerns of Black Women, (2016) video still…………………………………..49 Figure 9: Madelyne Beckles, The Whole Woman, (2018) video still………………………….53 Figure 10: Jose Esteban Muñoz, The Sense of Brown, (2020) book cover……………………...55 Figure 11: Cherríe Moraga and Gloria E. Anzaldúa This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, (1981) book cover……………………………………………………59 Figure 13: Madelyne Beckles, This Bridge Called My Back, (2017) photo documentation from live performance…………………………………………………………………………………60 Figure 14: Sadie Laflamme-Snow as Snow White in Kalale Dalton-Lutale’s, i am entitled to rest (2020), online performance still………………………………………………………………….64 Figure 15: Kalale Dalton-Lutale, Crybaby, (2019) live performance documentation still…………………………………………………………………………………………….…68 Figure 16: Kalale Dalton-Lutale, Crybaby, (2019) photo documentation of live performance……………………………………………………………………………………...70 Figure 17: Cason Sharpe, Our Lady of Perpetual Realness and Other Stories, Metatron Press, (2017) book cover………………………………………………………………………………..75 Figure 18: Photograph of Cason Sharpe, (2016)………………………………………………..77 7 Introduction This major research paper presents an autoethnographic account of Black biracial Canadian artists working contemporarily in Tkaronto/Toronto, the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples, and Hamilton Ontario, situated upon the traditional territories of the Anishinaabek Nations, specifically the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Haudenosaunee Nations. The artists whose work and lived experiences inform this paper are the interdisciplinary artist and performer Madelyne Beckles, playwright, artist and performer Kalale Dalton-Lutale, artist and performer Kiera Boult, and writer and critic Cason Sharpe. As Black biracial artists, their positionality occupies a space that is often erased and/or marginalized in Canadian art histories. The decision to foreground these artists’ Black biracial identities is not to categorize them as outside the multiplicity of Black arts communities. Rather, to align them with the ongoing rejections of a Black monolithic identity imposed by a white supremacist art system of viewership and curatorship that consolidates Black experiences into a single category.1 Acknowledging these artists as ‘Black biracial’ is to recognize nuanced, intersectional identifiers and experiences that are in proximity to both Blackness and whiteness. Each artist’s identity and relationship to Blackness and whiteness as racial categories that are socially constructed relate to their lives and work, are personal, unique, complex and in flux. My 1 For a recent example, the fall 2020 “Chroma” issue of Canadian Art magazine features a portrait of M. NourbeSe Philip on its cover. Editors Yaniya Lee and Denise Ryner’s introductory essay describes Philip as “a Black thinker whose presence and work have been routinely overlooked by Canada’s cultural gatekeepers.” Outlining their reasoning behind naming the issue “Chroma” they write: “Blackness, and Black creative practice, has survived through its excesses and refusals. This is how we think about Blackness. Like chroma, it is more about difference than any singular colour. The entire issue escapes singularity.” They explain that the aim of the issue is to “avoid monolithic and overly prescriptive descriptions of “black.”” Similarly to Lee and Ryner’s aims, this work attempts to escape singularity. Denise Ryner and Yaniya Lee, “Excesses and Refusals,” Canadian Art, September 14, 2020, https://canadianart.ca/essays/chroma-an-introduction/. 8 intention with this project is not to dictate an identity category but to map the