ZOM-FAM Book Launch (Online)

Massy Arts Society and Metonymy Press are pleased to invite you to a special virtual book launch for Montreal-based Mauritian-Canadian poet Kama La Mackerel’s debut collection 𝘡𝘖𝘔-𝘍𝘈𝘔. La Mackerel will be joined by author Jillian Christmas in this Vancouver event of a cross-country tour. ⁣

Registration mandatory:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_owtgnIgQRpWv8clApIAA-Q?fbclid=IwAR2py95re2DF5irywGivXLd_gxAS6DRj-T2vTS6waajQDK4m4SISBN_cQcw
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In their debut poetry collection, Kama La Mackerel mythologizes a queer/trans narrative of and for their home island, Mauritius. Composed of expansive lyric poems, 𝘡𝘖𝘔-𝘍𝘈𝘔 (meaning “man-woman” or “transgender” in Mauritian Kreol) is a voyage into the coming of age of a gender-creative child growing up in the 80s and 90s on the plantation island, as they seek vocabularies for loving and honouring their queer/trans self amidst the legacy of colonial silences. Multiply voiced and imbued with complex storytelling, ZOM-FAM showcases a fluid narrative that summons ancestral voices, femme tongues, broken colonial languages, and a tender queer subjectivity, all of which grapple with the legacy of plantation servitude.⁣
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Striking, vivid, tender, intimate, and political, 𝘡𝘖𝘔-𝘍𝘈𝘔 is a beautifully wrought journey that articulates a contemporary decolonial poetics and offers a roadmap for colonized and displaced queer and trans voices to (re)imagine themselves into being.⁣
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𝘡𝘖𝘔-𝘍𝘈𝘔 is available for purchase through independent bookstore Massy Books, with delivery options available for across Canada and the USA. https://bit.ly/3ewF5k9⁣
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KAMA LA MACKEREL is a Montreal-based Mauritian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, educator, community-arts facilitator, and literary translator who works within and across performance, photography, installations, textiles, digital art, and literature. They have exhibited and performed their work internationally and their writing in English, French, and Kreol has appeared in publications both online and in print. They have lived in far-flung places such as Pune, India and Peterborough, Ontario. 𝘡𝘖𝘔-𝘍𝘈𝘔 is their first book.⁣
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Kama’s work has been published in the Lambda Literary Award–winning anthology 𝘎𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 & 𝘎𝘳𝘪𝘵: 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘍𝘦𝘮𝘮𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘹𝘺 (2015) and 𝘞𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺: 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 (2018). Their translation of Kai Cheng Thom’s 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘬𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢 was published in French by Éditions Dents de Lion in spring 2019 and their co-translation of Vivek Shraya’s 𝘐’𝘮 𝘈𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘦𝘯 was published in French by éditions du Remue-Ménage in winter 2020.⁣
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JILLIAN CHRISTMAS is a queer, afro-caribbean writer living on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam people (Vancouver, BC), where she works as Speaker Coordinator at Cicely Blain Consulting, Spoken word curator of the Vancouver Writers Fest, and formerly served for six years as artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. She has won numerous Grand Poetry Slam Championship titles and represented both Toronto and Vancouver at eleven national poetry events, notably breaking ground as the first Canadian to perform on the final stage of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She has presented poetry and theory in a multitude of venues including the BC Civil Liberties gala, the SFU 2018 grad conference closing keynote, and numerous panels focused on the intersections of critical race theory and contemporary art. She is the author of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 (Arsenal Pulp Press 2020).⁣
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