T.L. Cowan (she/they) is an Associate Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Arts Culture and Media (UTSC) and the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, as well as a cabaret and video artist. Her creative-research practice moves between page, stage, and screen.
An Open Love Letter in Trinity Formation For A Revolutionary Movement Of Activist Performance Based On The Premise That Social Justice Is Fabulous
It was less than a month into the self-isolation, stay-at-home COVID19 pandemic protocols had been in place in most of Canada when I saw the Facebook event invitation to “Passoverboard! A live-Zoom coronabaret of music + drag” hosted, curated and produced by Peaches LePoz (aka Peaches LePox, aka Jordan Arseneault) and Douch La Douche (aka Laura Boo).
Because I am interested in what I have been thinking about for many years now as “transmedial drag”-- or the method of moving materials, performances, ideas, bodies, feelings from one media, one body, to another, I was paying attention to what worked and what didn’t work in these online live shows.
The cabaret as we understand and practice it here at the Cabaret Commons is, loosely, a live show made up from a variety of short acts, often featuring different performers in each act, and composed of many different forms, thematics and styles of performance or presentation.