10x10

Group Exhibition: Art Gallery of Mississauga Toronto, Canada
July 12 – August 28, 2022

SCROLL DOWN FOR AUTHOR READINGS

“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it” —Oscar Wilde.

We dedicate this project to Marie Claire Blais who died in 2022.

The 10X10 Photography Project is an annual event and publication that celebrates queer Canadians in the arts. Portraits of 100 LGBTQI Canadians in the arts by 10 queer Canadian photographers. in 2019, Public Studio created portraits of ten queer women writers. As a result of the COVID pandemic, the exhibition was postponed until July 2022.

Lesbian and Feminist history often disappears almost as quickly as it is made. The women portrayed here are some of the most significant queer feminist writers of the last several generations. Their writing, in both content and form, broke barriers, weaving beautiful tapestries that make up our intricate feminist world; these women were and continue to be deeply courageous.

The portraits are collages composed of each author's writings, interviews we conducted and portraits taken by other photographers over the years. We are deeply grateful to the original photographers of select portraits and we honour our history that includes, butches, femmes, cross dressers, passing women, and those who are trans, two spirited and same-gender-loving. 

We would like to thank the authors for their trust in us and Lynne Fernie for her archival knowledge and deep lesbian rootedness.

Please see below for audio interviews and readings of their work.

BETH BRANT poet/writer/essayist/ • (1941–2015) was a poet of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation. Her fiction embraces themes of racism, colonialism, abuse, love, community, and what it means to be Native, lesbian and mixed blood heritage from a Mohawk father and a Scottish-Irish mother. Her book, A Gathering of Spirit (1988), was the first collection of Native American women’s writing. Original photo by Firebrand Books

JANE RULE novelist • (1931–2007) wrote her first novel, Desert of the Heart, in 1964, when gay activity was still a criminal offence. It was the inspiration for the now cult-classic lesbian film Desert Hearts (1985). She wrote 11 more novels, essays and short stories and was an outspoken advocate of free speech and gay rights. She received the Order of Canada.

MARIE CLAIRE BLAIS novelist/poet/playwright • (1939–2022) was born in Quebec and published her first novel La Belle Bête in 1959, when she was just 20. Her difficult characters and impressionistic, stream-of-consciousness style have led literary critic Jade Colbert to describe her as “the 21st century Virginia Woolf” while Michel Tremblay called her “one of our greatest national treasures”. She was a fourtime recipient of the Governor General’s literary prize and a member of the Order of Canada. Original photo by Pierre Obendrauf

MAKEDA SILVERA novelist/editor/activist • Jamaican born Silvera co-founded Sister Vision Press (1985– 2001), dedicated to publishing work by women of colour. Piece of My Heart (1991), her anthology of literature by lesbians of colour was described as “a landmark.” Her novels explore immigrant experience and Afro Caribbean worlds. She still lives in Dewson House, a haven for queers of colour and their kids in the 80’s.

NICOLE BROSSARD poet/novelist/essayist • Born in Montréal in 1943, Brossard has published more than forty books and is known for her exploration of feminist and lesbian themes, and challenging masculine-oriented language. A leader of Quebec Formalist poetry, her work has been influential on a generation of poets and feminists. She received the Governor General Award for poetry twice, and the 2019 Griffin Lifetime Recognition Award. Original Photo by Valerian Mazataud

NALO HOPKINSON novelist/editor • A Jamaican-born Canadian science fiction and fantasy writer, Hopkinson’s work explores themes of Caribbean folklore, Afro-Caribbean culture, feminism and sexuality. Her first novel, Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), was the inspiration for the film Brown Girl Begins (2018). She has won numerous awards including being named the 37th Damon Knight Grand Master. She is professor of creative writing at UBC. Original photo by Tania Anderson

NOREEN STEVENS catoonist • The Chosen Family was a lesbian comic strip created by Stevens in 1987 and syndicated in LGBTQ+ newspapers and magazines. Amongst only a handful of queer “strippers,” it used social and political satire to highlight late 20th century queer experience through Stevens’ lens as lesbian feminist. In 2003, Stevens and her partner were the first same-sex couple in Manitoba to jointly adopt two children they had fostered since birth. Original photo by Noreen Stevens

SUSAN COLE writer/editor/activist • Active in the early Lesbian Organization of Toronto, Cole was the Entertainment Editor at NOW Magazine for over 20 years. She released two books on sexual violence and wrote A Fertile Imagination (1991), a play about two lesbians trying to have a baby. She was a founding member of the Broadside feminist magazine collective and a member of Mama Quilla II, an allwomen’s band in the 70’s.

TRISH SALAH poet/activist/academic • Born in Halifax, Salah is the author of the Lambda award winning Wanting in Arabic (2002) and of Lyric Sexology Vol. 1 (2014). Through a careful and often edgy, rich poetic construction, she addresses transgender and transsexual politics and experience, diasporic Arab identity and culture, anti-racism, queer politics and economic and social justice. She is an associate professor of Gender Studies at Queen’s University.

SHANI MOOTOO novelist/poet/visual artist • Novelist//poet/visual artist Mootoo was born in Trinidad and moved to Canada at the age of 19. Much of her personal and literary life has been focused on political activism. Her novels meld the visual and linguistic often in a Caribbean landscape, exploring gender, sexuality, and displacement. She has been shortlisted numerous times for the Giller Prize and lives with her partner in Southern Ontario.