A tour of activist resistance culture organized by Jean Smith of the band Mecca Normal, which set out to "spread the word of how to combine poetry, music and politics and have a fun time doing it."
The Black Wedge was an anti-authoritarian response to Britain's earlier Red Wedge, and began on the West Coast in 1986 before continuing across Canada in 1987. The performers included Vancouver's Mecca Normal, San Francisco's Peter Plate, Montreal's Rhythm Activism and Toronto artists Bryan James and Mourning Sickness.
To learn more, read this excerpt from Smith's essay "The Black Wedge Tours: Take Something You Care About and Make it Your Life," in Sounding Off — Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, eds. Ron Sakolsky and Fred Ho, (New York: Autonomedia, 1996).
Hardcore ran as part of the 1990 Toronto Fringe Festival and featured excerpts from Gwendolyn's films Prowling by Night and Out of the Blue.
Cover drawing by Mary Anne.
This show was one of a series of benefits for ACT for Disarmament and took place after a demonstration to protest the 1991 Gulf War.
Nicole Tanguay is a Two-Spirit poet, playwright, musician and advocate for Indigenous rights. Their work has appeared in the anthologies The Colour of Resistance: A Contemporary Collection of Writing by Aboriginal Women (Toronto: Sister Vision Press, 1993), Miscegenation Blues: Voices of Mixed Race Women, ed. Carol Camper (Toronto: Sister Vision Press, 1994) and Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer, eds. John Lorinc, Jane Farrow, Stephanie Chambers et al. (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2017).
A studio recording of "By Any Means Necessary" appears on the unreleased Mourning Sickness CD Nihil Obstat and is included here. The full album is available on the band's Soundcloud page.
This show was one of a series of benefits for ACT for Disarmament and took place after a demonstration to protest the 1991 Gulf War.
"Cells" is a poem by the Seneca writer Mary Bennett, which appeared in Sinister Wisdom: A Gathering of Spirit 22/23, ed. Beth Brant (Iowa City: Iowa City Women's Press, 1983). It was later reprinted in the anthology A Gathering of Spirit: A Collection by North American Indian Women, eds. Michelle Cliff and Adrienne Rich (Ithica NY: Firebrand Books, 1988).
Mourning Sickness was invited to do a musical interpretation of the piece for the Queeradio special feature "Cells and My Girlfriend," which was produced by labour and prisoners' justice activist Gay Bell and broadcast on CKLN in 1990. The handbill for the program is included here.
This show was one of a series of benefits for ACT for Disarmament and took place after a demonstration to protest the 1991 Gulf War.
"The Rubber Rap" was originally written by The Fuckheads (aka Michael Smith, Tracey Tief, Kenn Quayle and other residents of the queer punk house Kathedral B) and was performed by Mourning Sickness in Smith's play Person Livid with AIDS. Here, they are joined by members of the band Steal This Book.
Lyric page, with performance notes, from the zine Coming On (Fall 1988).
The Black Wedge tour was an anti-authoritarian response to Britain's earlier Red Wedge, and began on the West Coast in 1986 before continuing across Canada in 1987. The performers included Vancouver's Mecca Normal, San Francisco's Peter Plate, Montreal's Rhythm Activism and Toronto artists Bryan James and Mourning Sickness.
To learn more, read this excerpt from Smith's essay "The Black Wedge Tours: Take Something You Care About and Make it Your Life," in Sounding Off — Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, eds. Ron Sakolsky and Fred Ho, (New York: Autonomedia, 1996).
]]>Mecca Normal, Mourning Sickness and Bryan James show at the Rivoli. This was a partial reunion of the Black Wedge tour lineup from the previous year.
The Black Wedge tour was an anti-authoritarian response to Britain's earlier Red Wedge, and began on the West Coast in 1986 before continuing across Canada in 1987. The performers included Vancouver's Mecca Normal, San Francisco's Peter Plate, Montreal's Rhythm Activism and Toronto artists Bryan James and Mourning Sickness.
To learn more, read this excerpt from Smith's essay "The Black Wedge Tours: Take Something You Care About and Make it Your Life," in Sounding Off — Music as Resistance / Rebellion / Revolution, eds. Ron Sakolsky and Fred Ho, (New York: Autonomedia, 1996).