* * *Regresaremos en enero de 2016…Zócalo Poets will return January 2016* * *

Ghana’s Rising Star: Rocky Dawuni

Singer/songwriter Rocky Dawuni performed with his band at Harbourfront last night. All day and evening was rainy but those of us who made the trek down to Lake Ontario got swept up in the Ghanaian music artist’s “positive vibrations”. Rambunctious joy and passionate sincerity were the hallmarks of Dawuni’s personality, and for style and content the influence of Fela Kuti and – most especially – Bob Marley, made for a Best of Summer 2015 experience here in Toronto!

Flags of Canada: Métis to Lou-Ann Neel…

Métis flag, 1816

Patriote movement, Lower Canada, 19th century

Altered Red Ensign, Canada’s flag from the 1890s till 1965

Canada’s current flag, designed in 1964, adopted in 1965

Flag of the Iroquois Confederacy, 1980s

Native Pride flag from Kahnawake, 1990s

Flag of the Haida People

Nunavut, Canada’s newest territory, 1999

Mulidzas Curtis Wilson of Campbell River, B.C.: an imaginative re-design of Canada’s national flag

Lou-Ann Neel’s re-design of Canada’s national flag…

She writes:
“I originally created this design to express how I see this country we call ‘Canada’. Canada is often referred to as a ‘mosaic or tapestry of multiculturalism’, and for me, as a textile artist, I thought it would be fitting to take the idea of a tapestry and the flag of Canada, and apply my own cultural and artistic practices to it.
I transformed the iconic Maple Leaf into a Raven. I chose Raven because he is known in many of our legends as a Transformer, a Messenger and a Trickster. I thought this would be an interesting and intentional use of symbols to challenge our thinking around the body politic and its intentions.”

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“Lest We Forget…”

“Lest We Forget…”

Zócalo Poets en Toronto… ¡Un lugar – muchas voces!

 Nos vemos en julio…¡Envíanos tus poemas!

We return in July…Send us your poems!

zocalopoets@hotmail.com

May Day 2015

Every year on May 1st grassroots organizations in Toronto rally and march to mark International Worker’s Day, for migrant and workers’ rights, and in support of Indigenous peoples’ struggles. Themed around the most pressing issues of the day and committed to ending oppression and exploitation, May Day unites us in our efforts toward self-determination and liberation. We continue this tradition in 2015, rallying and marching against colonial and capitalist attacks on our communities here, and against Canadian imperialism’s plunder and attacks upon peoples across the world.

This May Day, 2015, we are focusing on:
1. Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination
2. Migrant workers’ resistance to border imperialism
3. Solidarity with working class struggle globally
4. Anti-poverty and anti-austerity organizing
5. Student strikes and academic labour battles against neoliberalization
6. Environmental Justice
7. Militant rank and file labour movements
8. Gender Justice

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http://maydaytoronto.nooneisillegal.org/
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Indigenous Movement Updates

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Poems for International Workers’ Day / May Day 2012: “We hurl the bright bomb of the sun, the moon like a hand grenade.”

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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Imaginary Portraits

Lynette Yiadom–Boakye_Knave_oil on canvas_2011

“Painting for me is the subject. The figures exist only through paint, through colour, line, tone and mark-making…..They don’t share our concerns or anxieties. They are somewhere else altogether.”

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was born in London, England, in 1977; her parents had immigrated from Ghana. Her paintings, which appear to be single or group portraits, are, in fact, made up of fictitious characters: composites from her imagination, people who don’t really exist.
Yiadom-Boakye studied at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art (1996-97), Falmouth College of Art (1997-2000), and the Royal Academy Schools (2000-2003). She has exhibited widely – in London, New York City/Harlem, Lyons and Frankfurt.

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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye_L’Ortolan_2011

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye_Further Pressure from Cannibals_oil on canvas_2010

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at the Venice Biennale in 2013_photograph by David Levene