PuSh International Performing Arts Festival cancels PuSh Rally; curators and producer step down
Statement reveals a backlash against the announced programming
A PuSh International Performing Arts Festival programming announcement during happier times.
DIVISIONS AROUND the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival continued today (January 15), as its PuSh Rally curators and producer resigned less than two weeks before the event was supposed to begin.
Curators Maiko Yamamoto and Marcus Youssef and producer Dani Fecko released a statement via social media and its website, explaining the programming they had planned for the rally was “hindering” attempts at the festival to resolve conflict. They said some artists had withdrawn from the Rally after programming was announced.
“While we were not involved in the big decisions that caused the ruptures at PuSh last year, we fully acknowledge that we also made mistakes, which include referring to those ruptures directly in our promotional materials and failing to communicate openly about our plans,” they wrote in a statement released on social media on January 15. “We were thinking of the Rally as bigger-picture and outward-looking and hoped it would be a platform to foster conversation, but we failed to take into account how this would affect people we care about in our local artistic community.”
The Rally had been in the works for months, overseen by the two theatre veterans with the goal of having hard discussions around diversity and race and bringing inclusivity into the organization; you can read more about their original reasoning behind the rally here.
The PuSh festival, an internationally renowned interdisciplinary event founded in 2003 by Norman Armour and Katrina Dunn, came under fire last spring. After COVID hit, it cut the jobs of two high-ranking women of Asian descent, Joyce Rosario and Janelle Wong-Moon, eliminating two strong BIPOC voices from the organization. Later, it announced its well-respected new artistic director Franco Boni was no longer employed. As widely reported, some board members resigned at that time and some artists such as Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury announced via social media that they would not be taking part in the festival. As reported here, prominent People of Colour from within the arts community have been working with PuSh on an organizational review, led by an advisory group guided by facilitator Nicki Kahnamoui, to try to save the festival and resolve the issues.
But even throughout that process there have been signs of conflict: as reported by Stir last fall, arts consultant and theatre artist Camyar Chaichian acknowledged some artists had reservations about taking part in the festival, though he encouraged them to participate. On January 7, local group Hong Kong Exile revealed that it had let PuSh know in November that it would not take part in the fest’s performance series, and larger debates have been circulating on private social-media accounts.
When PuSh Rally programming was recently announced, Yamamoto told Stir it was meant to openly discuss the issues. Its topics included an opening January 28 State of the (PuSh) Union address, in which Youssef and Yamamoto were to talk candidly about their own experiences of what’s taken place at PuSh over the last six months. There was to be a discussion that invited artists who had withdrawn from the festival last year to air their views. Carmen Aguirre and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory were to give a talk on identity and place, and American playwright Sarah Schulman was to have given a talk called Supremacy, Ideology and the Pleasure of Feeling Uncomfortable.
“There’s been a lot of questioning about transparency at PuSh,” Yamamoto told Stir before this week’s cancellation. “For us it was really important because that story about why we became involved is really critical to the context of the rally and why we put it together—and it clearly states, too, that it’s our version of what we’re doing. It is about all these perspectives coming together inside of moments like this.”
But from the official statement released on January 15, it appears that some of the rally’s topics were not received well in the community. Exactly what those grievances are is not entirely spelled out in the statement.
Maiko Yamamoto and Marcus Youssef
Here is the curators’ and producer’s official statement in full, published on its website on January 15:
“We got officially involved in the 2021 Festival as contractors in September, after a bunch of very difficult staff changes occurred internally at PuSh over the spring and summer, and a number of artists pulled out of the Festival as a result. We felt the Festival had made serious errors, and was in jeopardy. As long-time festival artists and collaborators, we wanted to help. The Rally was our attempt to do so – to have conversations with artists we admire from both here and elsewhere about conflict, art-making and difference in this time, when these are being negotiated and challenged in many different places.
“Since the release of the Rally program, however, we have received a lot of feedback from people we respect about what we planned and how we framed it. This included artists withdrawing from the Rally program. While we understand this information might be out of context for those who are not local arts workers, we have come to believe that what we programmed is actually hindering attempts to resolve conflict.
“While we were not involved in the big decisions that caused the ruptures at PuSh last year, we fully acknowledge that we also made mistakes, which include referring to those ruptures directly in our promotional materials and failing to communicate openly about our plans. We were thinking of the Rally as bigger-picture and outward-looking and hoped it would be a platform to foster conversation, but we failed to take into account how this would affect people we care about in our local artistic community.
“We have also come to believe that the perspective we offered isn’t what’s needed right now. Because of this, we are stepping down from our contracts as Rally Curators and Producer, effective immediately. At our request, PuSh has agreed not to move forward with the programming we have curated. We do this with great respect for our local community of arts workers and apologize to those our actions have hurt. We thank those who reached out to share their experiences and perspectives. We are grateful to the artists who agreed to participate in the Rally (who are still being compensated) and sincerely thank the staff and board at PuSh for their support.
“We love this community. And we love PuSh. We wish nothing but good things for the future and remain committed to both.
“With gratitude, Maiko, Marcus, and Dani”
Here is the official statement from the PuSh festival administrative team, also released January 15:
“We respect the wishes of the Rally team and stand behind their decision not to proceed with the program. We now understand that some of the previously announced programming has negatively impacted and hurt members of our community, and for this, we are deeply sorry. We also acknowledge the significant amount of work that PuSh as an organization still needs to do in an attempt to heal and rebuild its relationships within the arts community.
“Updated information is now available on the PuSh website (pushfestival.ca). Please note, the PLEO event, Board Table Disruption, will still move forward in collaboration with PuSh.
“We are grateful to Maiko, Marcus, and Dani for their commitment to PuSh. Their work on the Rally has supported important conversations within PuSh, which we are committed to continuing in the future as part of the PuSh Organizational Review process.”
The Board Table Disruption event described above, and scheduled for February 3, is described as follows on the PuSh site: “Can our broken Board models be fixed? At this time of upheaval across the sector, join us for a discussion on what’s working, and what needs to change in our non-profit governance.”
Reduced programming for the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is still going ahead as a small online and in-person series. As reported in Stir yesterday, one of its shows did have to cancel due to extended, strict pandemic measures: Théâtre la Seizième’s VIOLETTE, scheduled from January 28 to February 6, a one-person VR experience, is no longer able to take part in the series.
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