In May as part of our Biodiversities of Gender project, FEELed Lab Research Affiliates Michael V Smith and Erin Scott offered a writing and performance workshop called Plant Pizzazz! (from page to stage) which used plants as a springboard for gender exploration.
Participants researched and wrote plant-based monologues (“I am the pasqueflower” and “I am eggplant”, “I am peach tree” and so on) then brainstormed, rehearsed, and presented performances to embody those gendered phantasms. Playful, but deeply fruitful too (ok, pun intended…), the participants surprised and delighted with their depth of insight and humour, uncovering a gendered way of being beyond the binary, which also informed us about the life cycle of some favourite plants. What might tapping into and embodying an inner planty self do, in terms of becoming both more and less of the gender your human self carries?
We saw a dozen new poems and performances grow from the workshop. This free public event was also in partnership with Inspired Word Café, who Biodiversities of Gender project hopes to partner with for a series of workshops in 2024-2025.
Our final workshop in the 2024 Biodiversities of Gender series was a creative sound making-and-mixing workshop with Montreal-based artist Alexis O’Hara, who also graced the stage at Pony Cabaret as part of the New Leaves Festival, in June 20234.
The FEELed lab 