Slide 5: Liberation for All pinnie safety pinned to a member of the Artists for Liberation. They are wearing a puffy black winter jacket and hold up a peace sign with their hand.

Slide 6: We are disappointed in Bryan Paterson for exiting the building, knowing we were going to ask for him to take accountability for his inaction. We are disappointed in the City for inviting the Police to a peaceful demonstration they knew every detail about. This gross overreaction proves that art that aligns with the personal comfort of City Stakeholders is priority. We affirm that art is a powerful vehicle for social justice, both on a local and global level. We dream of an arts community that is centred around decolonial, queer, anti-racist, and liberatory art-making practices. No one is free while others are oppressed.

Slide 7: Call for Action: Join us in addressing Mayor Bryan Paterson and demanding that he call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Mayor of Kingston - Bryan Paterson, Email: mayor@cityofkingston.ca, Phone: 613-546-4291 ext. 1400, Social media: @mayorpaterson

Read our statement about our peaceful demonstration at the Mayor's Arts Awards @cityofkingston.bsky.social January 27th, 2025

🍉PART 2🍉

Slide 1: Red screenprinted banner that reads Liberation for All, with an olive branch within a Palestine sunbird. At the bottom on a olive green band in white text it reads Artists for Liberation, recap of January 27 demonstration

Slide 2: LAST NIGHT - JANUARY 27, 2025. The City of Kingston knew that a small group of local artists were planning a peaceful demonstration at the Mayor's Arts Awards at City Hall. The City knew some of these artists very well, in fact, and had worked with them in the past. Their response? Increased security, 2 police vans, and an RCMP vehicle at an event attended by members of multiple marginalized communities.

Slide 3: Artists for Liberation is a group of local artists and community members who gathered together with a collective ambition to address the ongoing genocide taking place in Palestine. Because Mayor Bryan Paterson and City stakeholders would be present at this year's Mayor's Arts Awards, we knew this would be an impactful platform to share our direct message. It was our intention to both celebrate the achievements of the artists receiving the awards as well as demand that Paterson make actionable steps to call for a permanent ceasefire. Celebrating the local arts community and fighting for rights of others are not mutually exclusive to one another.

Slide 4: On Sunday January 26, we were informed that our demonstration plans had been compromised: that the Mayor's Arts Awards team and City staff had seen our plans and knew exactly what we intended to do for our peaceful demonstration; we would rise from the crowd, stand along the walls of the room, and recite a speech. In a phone call with an Artists for Liberation member, an MAA organizer claimed, after speaking to the MAA Recipients about our plans, that our demonstration would make the marginalized MAA Recipients and attendees feel targeted, and that MAA recipients already felt "uncomfortable" and "wary of attending". Through our own connections, we know that this was not true, as the Recipients either did not know about our demonstration at all, or were already in support of our demonstration plan. The MAA team member advised us they would internally assess the risk to Recipients, which ultimately resulted in more security and police presence at the event. We now ask: how does bringing the police - an institution that historically and continuously harms marginalized communities - make the MAA Recipients and attendees feel more safe?

Read our statement about our peaceful demonstration at the Mayor's Arts Awards @cityofkingston.bsky.social January 27th, 2025

🍉PART 1 🍉