Thread that Tangles but doesn’t KnotCommunity Kite Flying Event and Workshops
About the Program
On the final weekend of the festival, in an open performance in Toronto, Egyptian-Canadian Yasmeen Nematt Alla will invite the public to come together in a one-time kite flying event. Through this community event, in which red kites may fail or soar, Yasmeen will ask: “What does it mean to be a kite that never takes flight? What does it mean to materialize a kite that will never fly, despite an undeniable abundance of wanting, of reaching, of hoping?
Guided by Yasmeen, participants are also invited to participate in optional drop-in workshops where they will receive the various components needed to piece together and design a kite that speaks uniquely to them.
Yasmeen NemattAlla is an Egyptian immigrant and settler living in Tkaronto, Turtle Island. She has a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Waterloo and is an MFA candidate and a Gilbert Fellow at Cranbrook Academy of Arts. She has most recently exhibited at the Bronx River Art Centre in Bronx NY, Heaven Gallery in Chicago IL, and Xpace Cultural Centre in Toronto ON. She has previously been an artist resident at Haystack, Banff Art Centre, ACRE, STEPs Public Art, UKAI Projects, La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse, and HXOUSE Creative Think Tank. As an artist worker, she supports art organizations in creating accessible and anti-racist modes of communications in their day-to-day operations.
East End Arts is a non-profit community arts organization that serves the East End of Toronto. They provide inclusive arts programming, events and services to local communities, and provide professional development opportunities to both emerging and established artists and arts organizations.
The Toronto Public Library works to provide free and equitable access to services which meet the changing needs of Torontonians. The Library preserves and promotes universal access to a broad range of human knowledge, experience, information, and ideas in a welcoming and supportive, publicly accessed environment. Today, they are one of the busiest urban library systems in the world, and in 2018 had 17.8 million visits to their 100 branches.
401 Richmond is a heritage-designated industrial building turned arts and culture hub. The building was originally constructed in several phases between 1899 and 1923 for the Macdonald Manufacturing Company. The building operated as a tin factory best known for its lithographic work. That artistic lineage is still seen today with a community of nearly 150 artists, cultural producers, nonprofits and microenterprises.
