From labour to rage to rest: How can rest be mobilized as a liberatory practice?

Kat Charles (she/they) is a queer Haitian artist, mental health counsellor, creative arts therapist, somatic practitioner, dance movement therapist in training and community organizer based in Tio'tia:ke (Montreal).

Their facilitation is heavily rooted in a commitment to collective liberation. They exercise this by fostering safer spaces for marginalized folks to experience re-indigenized therapeutic spaces individually and in community through embodiment and sacred creativity. In their practice Kat enjoys emphasizing imaginative playfulness as a form of embodied emancipation, joy and resistance, using techniques such as role play, storytelling, improv, somatic awareness and creative movement.

Katsitsanoron (Kat) Dumoulin-Bush (they/them) is Onkwehonwe/French Canadian from Oshahrhè:’on (Châteauguay), Quebec. They received their BA in Linguistics from Concordia University in 2017. Kat has taught mathematics, science, music, special education, and kindergarten in Indigenous communities across Quebec. A “non-disciplinary” artist and curator, Katsitsanoron uses experiential learning to make work and exhibitions that pose and respond to questions about sexual, racial, and interpersonal identity. They completed residencies at Artexte (2023), daphne art centre (2023), and The Banff Centre (2024). Recently, their work has revolved around the cultural mediation of Indigenous art exhibitions at the MACM, MOMENTA, and at the MBAM as the Indigenous art and design intern. Kat is currently a guest curator for the inaugural exhibition at the new MACM at Place des Arts and sits on the boards of CACPA (Collectif pour les arts et les cultures des Peuples autochtones) and MOMENTA.

Prakash Krishnan (he/him) is an artist-researcher and cultural worker exploring questions around accessibility, contemporary art, and education. He is the Public Programs and Education Coordinator at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery and previously worked in art education at PHI and at Centre CLARK. He holds an MA in Media Studies and a Graduate Diploma in Communication Studies, both from Concordia University. He has published widely on feminist archives, contemporary art, and 2SLBGTQ+ organizing in the form of articles, essays, book chapters, reviews, interviews, and zines. His writing appears in PUBLIC, Plot(s) Journal of Design Studies, Canadian Journal of Communication, Design and Political Dissent: Spaces Visuals Materiality, and Cigale among others.