VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB WITH KIONA LIGTVOET & SANAA HUMAYUN
AMY FUNG’S BEFORE I WAS A CRITIC I WAS A HUMAN BEING
ONGOING SLACK DISCUSSION BOARD
WEDNESDAY ZOOM MEETINGS
June 24, July 1, July 8 & July 15 at 5PM MST
We are excited to host our newest iteration of our virtual book club with local artist Kiona Ligtvoet, and Latitude 53’s Digital Program Coordinator, Sanaa Humayun, on Amy Fung’s Before I was a Critic I Was a Human Being. The book club will take place through a Slack discussion board and four Zoom meetings on four Wednesday evenings: June 24, July 1, July 8, and July 15, 5 pm MST.
Copies of Before I Was a Critic I was a Human Being are available for purchase through our friends at Glass Bookshop.
Before I Was a Critic I was a Human Being is a series of essays through which Fung takes a closer look at Canada’s mythologies of multiculturalism, settler colonialism, and identity through the lens of a national art critic. Following the tangents of a foreign-born perspective and the complexities and complexities inherent in participating in ongoing acts of colonial violence, the book as a whole takes the form of a very long land acknowledgement. Taken individually, each piece roots itself in the learning and unlearning process of a first generation settler immigrant as she unfurls each region’s sense of place and identity.
Kiona Ligtvoet (she/her), is a Cree-Métis artist from Michel First Nation, currently practicing in Amiskwaciwâskahikan (or so-called Edmonton). She primarily works in painting and printmaking, exploring narratives of grief, loss, and tenderness. Ligtvoet received her diploma in Fine Art from MacEwan University in 2017, then completed her BFA at the University of Alberta. Most recently, she has shown in the exhibitions Kiona Ligtvoet at Parallel Space, and Incidental Folds. She has also been working alongside other artists in initiatives of community care, including Latitude 53 and Mitchell Art Gallery’s project, Writing From Here. Ligtvoet is currently interested in exploring a non-linear telling of memories through narrative work, drawing from feelings of displacement within her own indigenous identity.
Sanaa Humayun is the Digital Program Coordinator at Latitude 53, and an emerging visual artist residing in so-called Edmonton, Alberta, trying to make art and make space for BIPOC. She is currently doing her BFA at the Alberta University of the Arts. She is involved in socially aware projects, such as Latitude 53 & the Mitchell Art Gallery’s project Writing From Here. Her art explores themes surrounding her identity as a queer, fat, woman of colour, and her right to take up space without facing violence. She is a first generation Canadian attempting to navigate the complicated politics of existing between two worlds, and trying to understand a Canadian identity as a woman of colour. She is passionate about being an activist in treaty 6 territory and fostering community, through means of art and conversation.