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https://www.alternativetoronto.ca/archive/files/original/7d1ac1864060e25b41ac3fd7926e3c53.jpeg
9486c7da29f0e14f045beae2e8aefa85
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lilian Radovac Collection
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1987-1994
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lilian Radovac
Still Image
A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials.
Physical Dimensions
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8.5 x 11
Text
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<p><span>This statement provides context for a gig poster that was briefly posted in the Alternative Toronto Facebook group in the summer of 2020.</span></p>
<p><span>The poster was for a show held at the Purple Institution on October 20, 1989, which was headlined by W.Pig and also featured our band, Mourning Sickness, as one of three supporting acts on the bill. The others were Cottage Industry and Kevin Cook.</span></p>
<p><span>The poster was created and signed by the artist Urania235, and includes a stylized black and white rendering of the Aunt Jemima brand character. We did not consent to the poster design or see it before the show and hate everything it represents. As white women it is our responsibility to speak about why.</span></p>
<p><span>Mourning Sickness was a feminist music collective that was part of Toronto's industrial music scene in the late 1980s. This scene was almost exclusively white and predominantly cis-male, as it remains today. Industrial music artists sometimes used decontextualized visuals and other content drawn from racist, anti-Semitic and misogynist sources, which we discussed in <a href="https://bit.ly/2NQevtb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviews</a> </span><span>and challenged in our performances. We would like to address this poster now.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>Art historian Dr. Cheryl Thompson explains the historical lineage of the image of Aunt Jemima, and we recommend her <a href="https://bit.ly/2XQxZjl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">online essay</a> to anyone who wants to learn about this history. The image is steeped in both white supremacy and patriarchy, and the long struggle against it (see the <a href="https://bit.ly/2DZy6Sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Berkeley Revolution</a> archive for one early example) has finally resulted in its being retired as a corporate logo by Quaker Oats.</span></p>
<p><span>Toronto also has a history of white supremacy, which is an important part of the poster's context. Beginning in the late 1970s, a series of highly publicized police shootings of Black residents occurred in waves that continue to this day. Two of these shootings, of Lester Donaldson and Michael Wade Lawson, occurred the year before the Purple Institution show. A third, of Sophia Cook, happened exactly one week later.<br /><br />These shootings led to the formation of the Black Action Defense Committee (BADC) in 1988, which had been active under different names since 1978. BADC was among several Black-led organizations that organized against police brutality in Toronto, and their struggle was widely covered in the local and alternative press. Their efforts led to the Yonge Street Uprising in 1992 and are echoed in the Black Lives Matter movement today.</span></p>
<p><span>We will not comment on the artist's intent but want to confront the wider social context in which this poster was created. At the very least, its appearance reflects the deep racial segregation that existed in the city's music and art scenes, which we and other white artists benefitted from even as we opposed it. We acknowledge this history and it's why we support community archives and #BlackLivesMatter.</span></p>
<p><span>*****</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>To learn more about racism and sexism in industrial music, see the fan blog <a href="https://bit.ly/2DHywwU" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Industrial Anti-Oppression</em></a>.</span></p>
<p><span>For a discussion of how the Aunt Jemima logo was received by Black communities in the early 1990s, see Karyn Berry's essay in <a href="https://bit.ly/3aut10F" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Undefeated</em></a>.</span></p>
<p><span>To learn more about the BADC and the Yonge Street Uprising, read Chris Harris' essay in <a href="https://bit.ly/2PJ4wU3" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Upping the Anti</em></a> and watch <a href="https://bit.ly/2XRwl0K" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>It Takes A Riot: Race, Rebellion, Reform</em></a>.</span></p>
<p><span>To learn about the racial segregation of Toronto's music scenes during this period, read Ron Nelson's <a href="https://bit.ly/3h0SKA4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">oral history</a> of hip hop shows at the Concert Hall.</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>For an example of how industrial music artists have taken social context into account in their work, see the discussion of Laibach in "<a href="https://bit.ly/33PuSfh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Subversive Affirmation: On Mimesis as a Strategy of Resistance</a>."</span></p>
Context
Additional information about the item.
All day event with musical performances by Faith Nolan, Nu Black Nation, Killer Queen, The Travellers, Dirty Bird and Mourning Sickness.
Original Format
The type of object, such as paper, photo, cassette tape, Super 8, and additional data.
Paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
York Festival of Students
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
York Federation of Students
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1992-07-11
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Lilian Radovac
Description
An account of the resource
Poster for the York Federation of Students BBQ and Music festival.
Source
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Lilian Radovac collection
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Poster
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
York University, The Underground, 4700 Keele Street
1992
Dirty Bird
Faith Nolan
Killer Queen
Mourning Sickness
Nu Black Nation
The Travellers
The Underground
York University