OPEN LETTER RE: PRESENTATION OF THE RUNNER AT THE PuSh INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL

Jan 10, 2024

UPDATE, JANUARY 11, 2024
PuSh HAS PULLED THE RUNNER FROM THIS YEAR’S FESTIVAL

We are writing with some powerful news. Earlier today, January 11th, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival pulled The Runner from this year's lineup. You can read their blog post announcing the news here. While we disagree with some of their framing (which we will address in forthcoming communication), and while we do not believe their statement reflects accountability, we believe they made the only possible decision.

We are in deep gratitude to all those who signed the Open Letter publicly joining us in what has become an immense community outcry regarding the profound harm that presenting this work would have produced. 376 signatures (and counting) were collected in just over 24 hours. This sent the undeniable message that Zionist narratives and the dehumanization of Palestinians have no place in our cultural sphere. Especially while we bear witness to the unrelenting horrors of Israel's genocide.

We understand that PuSh was moved to take this decision based on our community response, and ultimately the following statement written by Palestinian artist Basel Zaraa, whose installation Dear Laila is being presented at this year's festival. Zaraa wrote:

"Dear Laila is an installation I created for my young daughter, which tells the story of our family’s ongoing trauma and struggle as Palestinians exiled by Israel, starting with the massacre in our village of Tantura in Palestine, in 1948. As Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues, I cannot agree for Dear Laila to be shown alongside The Runner, a play which reinforces dehumanising narratives about Palestinians.

Palestinians appear in The Runner almost exclusively as perpetrators of violence. While the Israeli characters are vividly portrayed, the Palestinian characters don't even have names, and barely speak. The fundamental context of Israel’s occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people is not given.

This is not a war between two sides, but a decades-long effort by Israel to control and erase our people. While many voices are welcome, artistic endeavors on this subject have a responsibility to reflect the reality that there is an occupier and an occupied.

I am grateful to PuSh for their commitment to showing my work, and am looking forward to presenting Dear Laila at the festival."

We recognize that incredible and painful labour was forced upon Zaraa, as a Palestinian artist, to have to defend the space to present his work without being used as a smokescreen for PuSh’s inability to take a moral position in the curation of their festival. We are thrilled to know that his work will now get to stand alone, in its power, impact and merit.

Our efforts are not done, and we will keep you all informed about our next steps.

We continue to invite signatories to add their names to the Open Letter to demonstrate the widespread support for removing the play, and as we continue to build a broad base of artists, cultural workers, arts and culture organisations, activists, scholars, and concerned community members who are ready to make public commitment and take public action to support Palestinian Liberation and to fight anti-Arab racism.

Sign the letter

With our love and respect,
The Open Letter Co-Authors

OPEN LETTER RE: PRESENTATION OF THE RUNNER AT THE PuSh INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL

Dear PuSh Festival Board and Staff,

We write as artists, cultural workers, arts and culture organisations, activists, scholars and other concerned members of Vancouver’s multiracial communities led by Palestinians, Jews, Indigenous peoples and allies.

We are writing to voice our unequivocal opposition to PuSh presenting Human Cargo’s, The Runner, as part of this year’s festival. This letter answers what is now becoming a national call to pull this production from presentation, the precedent of which resides in the Belfry Theatre’s recent decision to remove the play from their season. Some of the content of this letter is in fact borrowed, with consent, from the work of our cultural and political comrades in Victoria whose thoughtful and diligent labour resulted in the Belfy’s decision.

ON COLONIZATION AND RIGHT RELATIONSHIP

On your website, you acknowledge that PuSh works on the “traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ nations.” You speak of the “duty to establish right relations with the people on whose stolen territories we live and work, and to the land itself.” PuSh prides itself for opening festival launches, its Industry Series, and Staff and Board retreats with the “appropriate protocols.”

The Palestinian people are Indigenous to Palestine. They live under brutal repression, on territories that have been occupied for more than 7 decades. We begin in this crucial linkage between the ongoing colonial occupation of the territories upon which PuSh operates, and on the territories that sit at the centre of The Runner, to underscore that following Protocols is not a performative action. With protocols come responsibilities. Land recognitions and commitments to Truth and Reconciliation are rendered hollow if not backed up by concrete actions that have a positive, not detrimental, impact on the lives of Indigenous peoples, across Turtle Island, to Palestine. There can be no double standard.

A WAR OF NARRATIVE

Public imagination is shaped and reshaped by the narratives that are provided platform, including those presented by international festivals like PuSh. In the west, Israel’s unrelenting genocidal bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, which has to date resulted in the murder of more than 30,000 people, is at its core, a war of narrative, that has largely been controlled by Israel. This strategy of narrative control is a project Israel calls hasbara. The foundational Zionist narrative architecture collapses world Jewry, and all elements of Jewish life, including culture and safety, with Israel. This dangerously frames legitimate criticism of Israel or any speech in support of Palestinian liberation as anti-Semitism.

Following this, while we are witnessing the genocide in Gaza in real time, we are concurrently experiencing a virulent chilling of public discourse on Palestine, and erasure of the catastrophic facts on the ground from public record. The impacts are obvious biases towards the Israeli-US narrative in mainstream media; the strategic and intentional cutting-off of telecommunications services to Gaza by Israel; the targeting of Palestinian journalists and artists in Gaza and the West Bank; Israel’s refusal to allow international journalists to enter Gaza unless they travel embedded with Israeli forces and the requirement that their resulting coverage be vetted by the Israeli military before release; the social media shadow banning of pro-Palestine content, and on. Countless educators and artists around the world and here on Turtle Island are being reprimanded and/or removed from their positions for voicing criticism and concern. Numerous cultural and educational events in support of Palestine have been cancelled due to venues and presenters fearing and receiving backlash.

This is a war of narrative

This chilling, has dehistoricized events by starting time on October 7^th with the incursion into Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance forces, rather than within the continuum of Israel's 75 year brutal and violent occupation of Palestine.

This is a war of narrative.

This is why PuSh, as an institution working in the realm of public imagination at a juncture where the war of narratives has never been more dangerous, has a responsibility to work within context, and to find its place at this specific historical moment with respect to the inevitable harm of presenting this particular work.

WHAT’S THE DEAL ABOUT THIS PLAY?

Christopher Morris, the playwright of The Runner, says his play is an invitation “into a nuanced exploration of our shared humanity and the value of kindness.” We spent a great deal of time engaging with the work directly, from a thorough reading of the script to extensive conversations. We have concluded unanimously that rather than being an invitation to explore “our shared humanity”, the work serves to corroborate the deeply racist, reductive, colonial ideology that sits at the very centre of Israel’s self-identity.

We trust that PuSh is already familiar with critiques of historical tropes and representations of Arabs and Muslims in fiction and theatre as ‘savages’ and ‘terrorists’. Painfully the play again and again reinforces these tropes, so it is here we start. The first scene in the play describes a stabbed Israeli soldier lying near a nameless wounded “Arab girl”. “Arab girl” is a catalyst for the play’s premise, yet remains “Arab girl” throughout. Indeed, all of the Palestinians in the play are nameless. The play’s protagonist, a ZAKA volunteer, wrestles with the “moral and political” fallout of his decision to save the Arab girl throughout the remaining pages.

While Morris thanks the ZAKA in his acknowledgments, he neither explains the nature of the organisation nor its role in Israeli settler society. He instead presents its mission, if not its execution, as doubtlessly noble. ZAKA’s central role in the play is actually what most binds this play to current events and Israel’s genocide in Gaza based on ZAKA’s central role in propagating post-October-7 disinformation - from the falsified claims of beheadings of Israeli children to sensationalistic and unproven allegations of sexual violence by Palestinian fighters. These false and unproven claims have played a huge part in war of narrative, stoking fires of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism globally, both manufacturing consent within the state of Israel, and helping further frame Israel’s genocide as “self-defense”.

It comes as no surprise that the Palestinian characters in the work exist only in the context of acts of terrorism or its aftermath. The words ‘dirty’, ‘blood’, and ‘contamination’ appear repeatedly in conjunction with these characters. In the script, the word ‘Arab’ appears 40 times, and the word ‘terrorist’ 9 times. The word ‘Palestinian’ appears once, when the protagonist briefly wrestles with whether or not Palestinians exist. His decision at that point to stick with ‘Arab’ is the play’s ultimate revelation: Palestinians can exist only as generic Arabs. Palestinians do not otherwise exist.

The majority of the violent acts committed by the ‘Arab’ characters are described in detail, while those committed by settlers are narrated at a remove, which makes them seem somehow less shocking, and less visceral. There are no descriptions of Israeli violence that describe the facts of the military: no mentions of missile strikes, chemical weapons, indefinite imprisonment or the use of torture against Palestinian prisoners and civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. Settler violence instead is framed as individual acts of self-defense against "annihilation,” parroting the narrative actively being used to justify Israel’s genocide in Gaza right now.

In these seemingly sporadic, random acts of one-on-one violence, at best, both sides appear equally guilty. The context of a brutal decades-long occupation is completely left out of the narrative. We are left with the tropes of the good, guilt-ridden, Jewish settler, the bad angry Jewish settler who does not perform any act of violence in the play, and the “knife-wielding Arab girl” who lives above a butcher shop infested with flies and has a "full, wet mouth." Again and again the work is rife with astonishing Orientalization, sexualization and othering of Palestinians.

When "the Arab girl" is released from an Israeli prison, the protagonist is questioned for saving her life. His only justification is "we swore an oath to do no harm." It is notable that her life is framed in this way, and not because of any inherent value she may have as a human being. Again and again, The Runner shrugs at any opportunity to afford the smallest humanization to Palestinians.

Towards the end, the play effortlessly chronicles the historical collective suffering and genocide of Jews during the holocaust. In contrast, there is no mention of the brutal events which enabled the founding of the state of Israel, and here we mean the Nakba: the Catastrophe. There is no mention of 10,000 Palestinians who were killed in 1948, nor the 750,000 Palestinians who were expelled and subsequently denied their right of return. There is no mention of the destruction of 500 Palestinian villages across historic Palestine. Crucial details which expose the crushing parallels to the genocide being conduced today. The trauma that shapes the modern Palestinian psyche is functionally erased in The Runner, while Palestinian death within the work is denied the weight of collective tragedy.

The Palestinian characters in The Runner are given no redeeming qualities, no rich cultural heritage, and no deep connection to the land for the audience to empathise with. This is with the exception of one scene where the nameless ‘Arab girl’ criminal shows kindness to the protagonist, placing her hand on him as he helplessly weeps. She finally speaks in this scene, the only 8 words spoken by a Palestinian in this, a supposedly compassionate “complex” work. Even at this moment when presented with the opportunity to do more, Morris centres the narrative on Jewish victimhood rather than exploring the humanity of the Palestinian girl, who in reality, lives amidst 700,000 well-armed Israeli settlers, and whose movements are subject to 180 Israeli military checkpoints scattered throughout the West Bank.

This work is being produced in the context of a war of narrative, one which has direct political application here, in so-called Canada. Consider this: 2.2 million Palestinians live in Gaza, 1.9 million of whom have been internally displaced in the last 95 days. The Canadian government has set a limit of 1,000 temporary family reunification visas for of those fleeing the genocide, all of whom must have extended family residing in Canada, and all of whom will receive no financial aid from the Canadian government. In stark contrast, no limits have been set on the temporary visas being provided to those fleeing the Ukraine, 600,000 of whom have already arrived in Canada. These Ukrainians have received financial aid from the Canadian government and do not have to demonstrate preexisting family ties within Canada.

This disparity is seen as justifiable within Canada because our public imagination is shaped and reshaped by racist tropes which instil and reify deep seated beliefs about whose bodies hold actual human value; including through the production of works like this.

WHY PuSh’s DEFENCE IS NO DEFENCE

To suggest that this play has no direct ties to Israel, as PuSh did in a recent email to one of the signees below, is to misrepresent the facts of this play’s creation and to sidestep responsibility for the decision to present The Runner.
The script and numerous interviews with the playwright describe the play as a collaboration between Morris/Human Cargo and Israel’s Nephesh Theatre. Morris spent 9 years, on and off, in Israel, during which he developed deep relationships with ZAKA members. Nephesh Theatre is funded by the Israeli Ministry of Culture and as such, is subject to Israel’s “"Nakba Law" - Amendment No. 40 to the Budgets Foundations Law, which states that any institution that receives financial support from the state and engages in activities, be it academic, political, intellectual, cultural, or artistic, that deny Israel's definition as a Jewish and democratic state or observe Palestinian Nakba Day as a day of mourning, could have their funding reduced or cut.” (Adalah)
A cultural production developed in clearly delineated political circumstances cannot be benign nor neutral. Art produced under conditions of censorship which silence critique of the state of Israel cannot create a platform that enables critical engagement with world events, nor discourse that can be helpful at this particular time in history.
PuSh Festival in a recent blog on its commitment to Truth and Reconciliation wrote: “We will continue the work of self-educating as a staff and pursue additional opportunities for learning with Indigenous communities…Our staff and board commit to educating ourselves not only about the history of Indigenous peoples on this land, but also about Indigenous wisdoms and ways of knowing so that we can be ready for the difficult conversations that need to be had. We do this by learning more about Indigenous artists and thinkers, engaging Elders to share their wisdom, reading and listening to works by Indigenous people.”
This is what learning in real-time looks like. You have an opportunity to act now before irreparable damage is done. Indigenous people on this land stand with Indigenous peoples everywhere fighting illegal occupation. PuSh’s stated commitment to learning is completely misaligned with its intention to show The Runner despite hearing from members of the community that it champions anti-Palestinian propaganda. Pawning this play off as “art” when it is anti-Indigenous contradicts your stated pursuit of Truth and Reconciliation.
Engaging artists in the “spirit of right relations” is only meaningful if you understand that right relations seek to balance power. Imagine for a moment: Next September 30th, PuSh presents a production where the central character is a residential school priest. Imagine claiming you are unpacking the nuances of the Canadian government and Catholic church’s colonial agenda even as the theoretical playwright only refers to the young Indigenous character as ‘the Indian’, giving no back story to how she arrived to be a hostage at the ‘Residential school’, and providing no context for her family, culture, language or spiritual background. Most importantly, no context of the land upon which these events unfold is given. It is preposterous to even entertain such bigotry, surely?
How is it, then, that as we bear witness in real time to an ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing, does PuSh not only entertain but insist on programming such a narrative about another Indigenous peoples? Colonialism is not a metaphor. It is a violent and ongoing worldwide project. And it most certainly does not need championing within Vancouver’s arts community - a community settled on stolen land.
One of PuSh’s promotional techniques justifying programming of The Runner is programming an art installation by a Palestinian/UK artist. PuSh bills this as critical engagement or “conversation” between the Israeli play and the Palestinian performance piece. It is as if the realities of Israel and Palestine exist on a level playing field. The juxtaposition of the two ironically does reflect a certain reality. Dear Laila reproduces the home of a family in Yarmouk Camp, Syria, and three stories are told in a 15-min podcast. It’s an intimate work in a tiny venue. The Runner is a 60-min play that will be shown three days in a row in a 350-seat theatre at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, which deserves our condemnation too. The ways in which this parallels the resources being poured into the war of narrative that is taking place, is not lost on us. To pitch Dear Laila as a counterbalance to this work is nothing more than a smokescreen.
We note the deep contradiction that a festival committed to presenting, “works that help us face challenging truths with empathy and embodiment, and works that facilitate essential conversation,” has disabled comments on their social media platform in response to community dissent to the decision to present The Runner. Over 100 comments were made in two days.
And perhaps most importantly, we invite PuSh to reflect on whose expense this “discourse” is taking place, to imagine the harm and impact on the people who are not humanised or given names or identity in this play. Here we mean our Palestinian kin and colleagues.

WHAT IS THE BEST WE CAN BE?

To quote the playwright of The Runner Christopher Morris: “I’m interested in what happens to us when we are pushed to our spiritual, moral, and emotional limits because it’s at these times that we see the best, and worst, of what we are.”

What can we say about PuSh Festival’s “best”, as it doubles down on programming this play? What can we say about PuSh as it dismisses the concerns of many community members in this city who have already conveyed their concerns about the grievous harm The Runner’s inspiration, premise, and message will do?

And what will PuSh do now knowing that the play was conceived precisely to not critique Israel’s military actions? What will PuSh do knowing that the play’s very intentionality is to join a body of works created to refute Israeli culpability for apartheid, genocide and ethnic cleansing?

And what will PuSh now do after being informed of the colonial harm their action will do? Given you have been informed of this by Coast Salish peoples from many Coast Salish nations on Instagram and in this letter, what now? How will you embody Truth and Reconciliation?

IN CONCLUSION, WE CALL PuSh TO:

Cancel the presentation of The Runner at the PuSh Festival 2024 and not program it at any future PuSh events and festivals;

Make efforts to meet with and acknowledge harm done to members of the community whose feedback you have arbitrarily dismissed.
Make a public apology for harm caused including a statement expressing clear learnings and next steps.

We do not believe this curatorial choice was made with malice or contempt. However, our trust in PuSh, as cultural workers and your audiences, is broken. If you, as staff and board, are sincere about decolonization work, if you are sincere about your land acknowledgements, you will be able to recognize what is happening in the occupied territories of Palestine, as genocide. You will understand that we do not produce work outside of history, and that your audiences are not outside of history either. That we are witnesses of history. Such witnessing is a core component of Indigenous governance, upheld with utmost honour, and it invests us with the deepest responsibility to act.

We hope that PuSh will take a decision in accordance with this responsibility.

Sign this letter

Signed,

1. Jada-Gabrielle Pape, Coast Salish Mixed Media Artist, Filmmaker, Facilitator and Consultant
2. Alexa Mardon, Vancouver-based Dance Artist and Choreographer
3. Fatima Jaffer, Photojournalist
4. mia susan amir, Israeli-born, Transdisciplinary Artist & Cultural Organizer
5. Whess Harman (Carrier Wit'at), grunt gallery, Curator & Artist
6. Laurel Albina, Poet
7. Leila Toledo, former PuSh Staff
8. Rawan Ramini
9. Mercedes Eng, Poet
10. Monica Ogden, Performing Artist and Producer, and Producer, Rage Sweater Theatre Productions
11. Claire Love Wilson, Theatre-maker, Interdisciplinary Artist
12. Aisha Sasha John, Choreographer, Performer and Poet
13. Rita Wong, Writer
14. Hari Alluri, Poet
15. Heather Lamoureux, Artistic Director, Vines Art Society
16. Sasha Kleinplatz, Choreographer and Curator of Performance
17. Adonis King, Inter-Disciplinary Artist, Theatre Creator, Writer, and Mentor, Co-Producer of Rage Sweater Theatre Productions
18. Emmalena Fredriksson, Dance Artist
19. Pedro Augusto Meza, Interdisciplinary Artist
20. Elisa Ferrari
21. jaye simpson, Two Spirit Artist
22. Lexi Vajda, Dance Artist/Educator
23. Cecily Nicholson, Writer
24. Harsha Walia, Author
25. Salia Joseph, Public Art Consultant, Squamish Nation member
26. Benjamin Kamino, Dancer
27. Thiseni Kristhorubadu, Visual Artist
28. Baraka Rahmani / Union Performer
29. Jae Woo Kang, Filmmaker, Animator and Costume Designer
30. Rianne Svelnis, Dance Artist
31. Mazin Al-Nahawi, Community TV Producer/Host (Indigenous Voice)
32. Peter D’Souza, Dance Artist
33. Jenie Gao, Public and Social Practice Artist
34. Iman Baobeid, Artist
35. steph cyr, Freelance Dance Artist
36. Jordan S, Actor and Digital Designer
37. Lauren Vandervoort, Producer
38. Sarah Wong, Interdisciplinary Artist
39. Katrina Reynolds, Freelance Actor/Writer/Director
40. Jamila Douhaibi
41. John Brennan
42. AJ Simmons, Interdisciplinary Flamenco Artist
43. Mariah St. Jean, Dancer, Actor, Musician
44. Sarah Murphy, Artistic Director, Salty Broad Productions
45. Jae Lew, Arts Educator and Multidisciplinary Artist
46. Mieke de Vries, Writer and Editor
47. Shane "Sukhi" Gill, Head of Opposition
48. Avery-Jean Brennan
49. Katie Findlay, Actor
50. Afsana Nitol, Former Cultural Journalist
51. Hiba Hamze, Caravana Cafe
52. Charlie Prince , Choreographer & Performer
53. Kim Villagante/Kimmortal
54. bailey macabre, Interdisciplinary Artist
55. Quill Christie-Peters, Artist
56. Rawan Hassan, Artist
57. Sally Zori, Multi-Disciplinary Artist, Musician, Theatre Performer
58. Stephen Collis, Poet
59. Adam Kinner, Artist
60. Olivia Hutt - Actor
61. jess wilkie, Dance Artist
62. Diane Wong, Curato
63. Daisy Thompson, Dance Artist
64. Izzy Cenedese, Musician
65. Emily Best, Musician, Journalist
66. Nikko Whitworth, Musician
67. Ingrid Moore
68. Emilee Nimetz, Actor, Playwright, Poet
69. Nancy Lee, Interdisciplinary Media Artist & Curator
70. Emma Ghanem, Lebanese-Canadian Community Member
71. Ruby Singh, Interdisciplinary Artist
72. Saige Patti, Musician
73. Anas Al Salah
74. Avery-Jean Brennan
75. Mai Salem
76. Sabreena Meerasahib
77. MacKenzie Schmidt
78. Sami Muntaser
79. Arella Kamp
80. Ibrahim Shedid
81. Erin Hill
82. Katrina Orlowski, Arts Administrator
83. Kat Dodds, Artist, Writer, Filmmaker
84. Yani Kong, Critic, Writer
85. Pia Yona Massie
86. Rupert Common, Poet, Singer-Songwriter, Street-Dancer
87. Jeremy O’Neill, Composer/Performing Artist
88. Sarah Shamash, Artist, Educator
89. Desirée Dawson, Musician
90. Morgan Skinner
91. Kelly McInnes, Dance Artist
92. Rhyan McCorkindale, Theatre Performer
93. Earle Peach, Musician
94. Jayce Salloum, Artist, From the River to the Sea
95. Diane Lake, Photographer
96. David Morin, Métis Singer Songwriter, Producer
97. Rowen Lobo, South Asian Artist and Writer
98. Sophia Mai Wolfe, Organizational Director, Recorded Movement Society
99. Debora Gordon, Arts Manager
100. nazanin oghanian, Artist Illustrator
101. Chaitanyaa Sachdeva, Visual Artist and Writer
102. Laurren Jacobellis, Registered Clinical Counsellor and Dramaturg
103. Sydney Tran, Freelance Cosmetologist & MUA
104. Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator, Samidoun
105. Margarita Iniguez, Visual Artist
106. Vines Art Society
107. Aurora Quinlan, Freelance Artist and Screenprinter
108. Justin Ducharme, Writer & Filmmaker
109. Prabha Khosla, Researcher and Writer
110. Dina Al-Kassim, Professor
111. Nada Salama, Graphic Designer
112. Teagan Campbell, Tattoo Artist
113. Clay Sismondo, Tattoo Artist
114. Amir Alrishan, Classical guitarist
115. Parker Johnson
116. Mona Lee, Performing Artist
117. Malivia Khondaker, Artist. Writer and Cultural worker
118. Coin Sluzalek
119. Kevin Jury
120. Sameen Ahmed, Digital Strategist & Designer
121. Gizel Gedik, Activist and Care Worker
122. Veronica Martisius, Mohawk (Six Nations of the Grand River), Lawyer
123. Sambriddhi Nepal
124. Emma Owens, Dance Studio Coordinator
125. Jess Goldman, Yiddishist, grad student of MFA’s Creative Writing Program
126. Rehab Nazzal, Artist, Concordia University
127. Aurel Matte, Bachelor of the Arts in Drama Studies, Singer, Actor and Playwright
128. danielle wensley, Artist
129. Cornelius Talmadge, Playwright
130. Kristine McLellan, Writer
131. Mickey Vescera, Ceramicist
132. Katie Wertz, Dance Artist based in Unceded Wet’suwet’en Territory
133. aly de la cruz yip, Multi-Disciplinary Artist
134. Horeen Hassan, Organizer
135. Joshua Starr
136. Romane Laurent
137. Lee Su-Feh, Dance Artist
138. Gala Munoz-Carrier
139. Bipoc Creative Collective
140. Madeleine Humeny, Performer
141. Rylee Taje, Painter
142. Sarah McCarthy
143. Reem Fraser, Project manager
144. Zandi Dandizette, The James Black Gallery
145. Justine A. Chambers - Dance Artist
146. Jesse Frank, Writer, Activist, Member of IATSE 891 & 118
147. Talha Khandwani, ACWU member
148. Amina Chergui, Museum educator
149. Megan Milton, Playwright and Comedian, MTPromises Productions Producer/Performer
150. Sophie Reiner, Student
151. Drew Carlson, Performer
152. Penny Goldsmith, Publisher, Lazara Press
153. Shoak Alhussami, Folklore Dancer and Choreographer
154. Sophia Basanta
155. Khaled Shawwash
156. Stephanie Skourtes, Documentarian, Writer and Scholar
157. Morgan Charles, Writer
158. Erika Mitsuhashi
159. Alexandra Schulze
160. valerie cotic, Artist
161. Maj Britt Jensen, Visual Artist
162. Marlon, Community Support Worker
163. Abby Potter
164. lara a. abadir, DTES Rehab Assistant & Multi-Disciplinary Artist
165. Jason DesRoches, Accountant
166. Nazanin Moghadami, Registered Clinical Counsellor
167. Sabrina Pollitt, Indigenous Burlesque Artist
168. Dvorah Silverman
169. Monica Cheema, Filmmaker & Researcher
170. Q Lawrence, Community Educator-Organizer, Death Worker, Writer, Fiber Artist
171. Huda Shawwash
172. Jordan Grandfield, Independant Artist
173. Sylvia Guerra, Artist
174. River Whittle, Independent Indigenous Artist
175. Belle Tower, Musician and Organizer
176. Matt Froese, Illustrator
177. Fatima Aziz, SFU Grad student
178. Marina Levit, Painter
179. Jake Duncan Visual Artist
180. Alexa Fraser, Independent Theatre Artist and Designer
181. Patricia Massy, Nêhiyaw & Métis, Owner of Massy Books, Founder & Director of Massy Arts Society
182. Becky Stewart
183. Nazli Akhtari, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Waterloo
184. Barbara Reid, Public and Academic Library Worker
185. Shion Iwamoto
186. Alyssa Amarshi , Dance/ Interdisciplinary Artist, Her Tribal Roots / Earthen Bodies
187. Bean Lewney
188. Sara Abdalla
189. Dania Barakat, IATSE 118 Member and FOH Supervisor
190. iris yakymyshyn, PLEASEBENiCE
191. Amber Davis, Metis Artist
192. Rachel Ruecker, Actor, Writer and Comedian
193. Mariah Gillis, CUPE 3338 Member
194. Corina Fischer, Theatre Maker
195. Alexander Reid, Teacher’s assistant, Young Communist League
196. Hanna Kawas, Canada Palestine Association - Vancouver
197. Tara Hill, Dancer
198. Sidonie Adamson, Performing Artist
199. Jess Amy Shead, Actor, Playwright
200. Alder Mauria Orest Graye, Dance Artist
201. Kassy bailey
202. Silvia Samira Iskenderov bonilla
203. Rachelle Ferrer
204. Tea Sheppard, Mixed Indigenous Artist
205. Sunkosi Galay-Tamang - Performing Artist, Clown, Hide Tanner
206. Julie Eckert
207. Kiran Bhumber, Media Artist
208. Lo Bil, Fine Artist
209. Corrado Backie, ILWU 502
210. Jolene McGill
211. Iana Khoudak, Burlesque Performer
212. Renée Benoit
213. Emily Guerrero, Arts Archivist and Writer
214. Ramona Chu
215. Caitlin Croteau, Theatre Artist
216. Hannah Jackson, Interdisciplinary Artist and Dance Dramaturge
217. Hannah Carracedo Writer, Singer, Page
218. sof pickstone
219. Ashley Whitehead, Physical Theatre Performance Artist
220. Dr. Danielle Kaardal, MD
221. Em Lud
222. Katia Asomaning, Event Producer, Grant Writer, Project-based Artist Support
223. Yeonoo Park
224. Nicole Spencer
225. Stephanie Janyk
226. Hiba S, Interior Designer
227. Calise Salter
228. Mariel Olaguer, Street Dancer, Board Member of Vancouver Street Dance Festival
229. Adrián Avendaño, Improvising Musician and Sound Artist
230. Jenna Reid Textile Artist
231. Calla Evans, Arts Facilitator
232. Sierra Megas, Artist and Arts Worker
233. Mattea Lorenzo, Architecture and Design
234. Jennifer Reddy
235. Voor Urban Labs
236. Jesse Inocalla, Actor, Casting Director, Acting Coach
237. Rachel Tetrault
238. Jaymyn La Vallee
239. Elly Stern, Animator, Artist
240. Erin Pam, Theater Artist, Singer, Activist
241. Sarah Ferguson, Actor
242. Jaime McLaughlin, Independent Writer and Artist
243. Harley Munsie, Artist
244. Ash Boan, Artist
245. nola mcphail, Mixed Media Artist
246. Modeste Zankpe, Indigenous Artist & Model, VNIAS
247. Xaroush Jamsheed, Artist
248. Andre Bessette, Dancer
249. Elena Kellis, Actor
250. Eris Fitz-James, Artist
251. Xyleen Haban
252. Eryn Lougheed, Painter
253. Natalie Sokol-Snyder, Painter and Educator
254. Laurie Buckley, Burlesque and Drag Artist, Virago Nation Indigenous Arts Society
255. Shaista Latif
256. Michael Peters Artist
257. Phay Moores, Intimacy Director
258. Andrew Williamson, Producer
259. Susan Ruzic
260. dee saunders
261. Amber Dawn, Author
262. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Writer
263. Robbyn Scott
264. Kinar Saragih
265. Jordan Hermiston, Social Worker
266. Katarina Nesic, Student
267. Eve Belle Wilensky
268. Erin Doyle, Bookseller/Activist
269. Victoria Haynes, Cultural Worker, Artist, Facilitator, Convening Member of Virago Nation Indigenous Arts Society
270. Virago Nation Indigenous Arts Society
271. Dana Qaddah, Artist
272. Anais West, Actor, Writer and Producer
273. Valerie Christiansen, Theatre Director and Performer
274. the frank theatre company
275. Naisha Khan, Digital Artist
276. Rahat Saini, Actor
277. Carolina Jimenez
278. Melody Malakooti, Patron
279. Caitlin Hill, Multidisciplinary Artist
280. danielle Mackenzie Long, Freelance Interdisciplinary Artist
281. Sarah Cottrell
282. Mischa Shadloo, Theatre Maker
283. Aryo Khakpour, Multidisciplinary Actor, Dramaturg and Director
284. Ziyian Kwan, Dance Artist
285. Carmen Papalia, Nonvisual Social Practice Artist, Disability Advocate
286. Jackson Tse, Artist and Consultant
287. Ariane Anindita Anantaputri, Actor and Comedian
288. Daniela Guerrero Rodriguez, Social Practice Artist
289. Nora Vision, Playwright, Drag Artist, Producer
290. Sujit N
291. Ashley Bate, Arts Worker
292. kaya joan, Independent Multi-Cisciplinary Artist and Educator
293. A Jamali Rad
294. Jean Paul Langlois, Painter
295. D. W. Kamish, School of Communication, SFU
296. Tahnee Juryn
297. Carli Leppard / Kenni Leppard, Songwriter
298. Charlie Hodges, Performer, Visual Artist, Dancer
299. MJ Laing, Musician & Improviser
300. Ian Robertson
301. M.Arch
302. Mily Mumford, Writer/director/designer
303. Shannon Bundock
304. Rachelle Younie, Writer/Director
305. Lynn Fisher, Hairstylist
306. Luna Aixin, Artist, GaGiNang Productions
307. Meghan Hunter, Simon Fraser University / TSSU
308. Dane Brown, IATSE Local 891 Member, Film & Television Lighting Technician
309. Alysha Seriani, Artist
310. Nicki Carbonneau
311. Sho Ritco, Illustrator
312. Sunera Thobani, Professor
313. Rosalind Goodwin, Rose Gold Productions
314. Jamuna Galay-Tamang, Writer & Documentary Filmmaker
315. Chandler Rose
316. Nick Yacyshyn, Musician
317. Lee Keple, Artist, Educator, Activist
318. Jonathan Rodermond, Provincial Gov Employee
319. Sid Shniad, Founding Member, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
320. Sydney Marino, Writer
321. Andre Lagace, Artist
322. Carolina Bergonzoni, SFU
323. Cassandra Podor, Dancer/Performer
324. Clare Yow, Visual Artist
325. E. Kage, Taiko Artist
326. Rebecca Peters
327. Mayara Guimarães Magalhães, Sound Artist
328. Jessica Adamson, Artist
329. Jonathan Orr
330. Souzan Rezai, Pre-Licensed Therapist, Dancer
331. Emi Baeza Martíne, Jewler and Interdisciplinary Artist
332. Janice Mar Wong, Visual Artist
333. Emily Smiciklas
334. Howard Dai, Actor & Theatre Artist
335. Santi Henderson, Filmmaker and Performance Artist
336. Corrina Keeling, Multidisciplinary Artist
337. Santi Henderson, Filmmaker and Performance Artist
338. Zoë Fuhr, Artist
339. Amanda Rositch
340. Nneka Croal, Artist
341. Brynne Harper, Performer
342. Melicia Zaini, Costume Designer & Multidisciplinary Artist
343. Mathew Arthur, Session Instructor, Simon Fraser University
344. Stephen Elgar, Scenographer and Theatre Artist
345. Joelle Briere
346. Simone Miller, Geography Student at University of British Columbia
347. Lilian Salloum
348. Tanya Boteju, Writer
349. Deanna Peters/Mutable Subject, Indie Dance Artist
350. Jessica Wadsworth, Arts Manager, Filmmaker
351. Agnes Fan, Visual Artist
352. Leigh Righton
353. Nicola Atkinson, Theatre Creator
354. liyana Al Yaseen, Oil Painter
355. Kaitlyn Ramsden
356. Sarah Jo
357. Lo Bil, Artist
358. Rosie Choo Pidcock, Actor and Filmmaker
359. Mento Productions Inc
360. Bronwyn Schuster, Visual Artist
361. Elfrune Caya, Silversmith
362. Katrina Robinson, Actor
363. Jacqueline Love Wilson
364. Lianne Payne
365. Natasha Cadieux, Nanny
363. Trisha Gill
364. Asheya Kassner, Birth Worker, Singer/Songwriter
365. Aleksandra Bajic
366. Dacia Douhaibi
367. Jessica Johnson, Filmmaker
368. Carmen Ostrander, Narrative and Expressive Arts Therapist
369. Jillian Christmas, Artist | Educator | Curator
370. Anika Vervecken, former PuSh Staff
371. Phoebe Say
372. Elisa Thorn, Musician
373. Karter Masuhara, Writer
374. Victor Vân Tran, Street Dance Artist
375. Justin Calvadores, Freelance Contemporary Dance Artist on MST Territories
376. Hayley Gawthrop, Dancer
377. Veronika Gorlova, Poet/Writer
378. Keisha McRae
379. Shiraz Ramji
380. Sadie Berlin, Artist
381. Andy Marie, Writer, Performer
382. Luz Rosas, Photographer
383. Daniel Alwell, Independant Dance Artist
384. Karin Saari, Director
385. R. Magaly San Martin, Professor
386. Sam Filipenko
387. Jotika Samant, ExAT, RSW , Community Organizer and Interdisciplinary Artist
388. Aisha SyedRabbi
389. David Mivasair
390. mehr chahine, actor
391. Nadia Revelo
392. Reed Jackson, Interdisciplinary Artist
393. Lisa Mariko Gelley
394. Jesse Del Fierro, Performer, Dramaturg
395. Moroti George, Director/Curator, Gallery Gachet
396. Eli Morris, Filmmaker, Arts Administrator
397. Liz Jackman, Theatre Artist