Artists-in-Presidents: Transmissions to Power
Artists-in-Presidents: Transmissions to Power is a polyvocal art project initiated by Constance Hockaday that takes up and subverts the model of the Presidential Address or Transmission to the Nation. The Blackwood (University of Toronto Mississauga) has commissioned 21 artists, thinkers, performers, and writers to create audio addresses that perform power in new and different ways, and together compose a rousing collection of imaginative proposals for the leadership we need in this moment of global crisis and possibility. Inspired by Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Depression-era radio broadcasts called the “Fireside Chats” as a framework for speaking frankly and directly to the people, Artists-in-Presidents replaces the one-man hero story that plagues our histories and governing bodies around the globe, and complicates calls for unity by asking, “What messages do we need to broadcast to our nation(s) and relations now?”
Featuring: Esra’a Al Shafei, d’bi.young anitafrika, Raji Aujla, Roy Dib, Irmgard Emmelhainz, Macarena Gómez-Barris, Kevin Gotkin, Luis Jacob, Emily Johnson, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Ramin Mazhar, Mkomose (Dr. Andrew Judge), Raqs Media Collective, Fariha Róisín, Desi Small-Rodriguez, Adrian Stimson, Melati Suryodarmo, Paulo Tavares, Françoise Vergès, R A Walden, Ravyn Wngz
Curated by Christine Shaw
When? Where?
6 August - 17 December 2021
Released every Friday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Soundcloud