Tidalectics Panel Discussion

The Art Museum at the University of Toronto is a dynamic interdisciplinary arts hub that offers new encounters with diverse artistic and cultural perspectives.The Art Museum comprises the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Hart House) and the University of Toronto Art Centre (University College). Located just a few steps apart, the two galleries were federated in 2014 and began operating under a new visual identity as the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, one of the largest gallery spaces for visual art exhibitions and programming in Toronto.Building on the two galleries’ distinguished histories, the Art Museum organizes and presents an intensive year-round program of exhibitions and events that foster — at a local, regional, and international level — innovative research, interdisciplinary scholarship, and knowledge of art and its histories befitting Canada’s leading university and the country’s largest city.

Art Museum at the University of Toronto

A group of artists, scholars, and educators reflect on Carnival in Caribbean art practices and expand its discussion into museum culture.

Paul Cadario Conference Centre, University College

Together, this multidisciplinary group considers ideas of freedom, liberation and resistance represented by Blue Devil and traditional masquerade; maroonage and queer maroonage; tidalectics and diasporic breathwork; ecoaesthetics and architectonics.Featuring: Dr Ronald Cummings, English and Cultural Studies scholar; Michael Lee Poy, artist, architect, and educator; Geneviève Wallen, independent curator, writer and researcher; and Natalie Wood, artist, scholar and educator; with moderated by Rhoma Spencer.This event is part of <a href="https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/program/carnival-blues/" title="https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/program/carnival-blues/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Carnival Blues</a>, a celebration of Caribbean Carnival through art, movement, and community. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition <a href="https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/exhibition/land-sea-sugar-salt/" title="https://artmuseum.utoronto.ca/exhibition/land-sea-sugar-salt/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt.: Terrestrial and Aquatic Contemplations of the Caribbean</a> on view at the Art Museum through August 1, 2026.—Ronald Cummings is Professor of Caribbean Literature and Black Diaspora Studies at McMaster University, Canada. He has co-edited significant volumes including The Routledge Handbook of Caribbean Studies (with Pat Noxolo and Kevon Rhiney), The Fire That Time: Transnational Black Radicalism and The Sir George Williams University Occupation ( with Nalini Mohabir) and Caribbean Literature in Transition 1970-2020 (with Alison Donnell). He is also the editor of Make The World New: The Poetry of Lillian Allen. Ronald is a senior editor at the Journal of West Indian literature (JWIL) and an editor of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.Michael Lee Poy is an Afro-Caribbean designer, artist, activist, and registered architect in Trinidad and Tobago whose work explores post-colonial Caribbean design and traditions of festival arts, especially Carnival. Born in Montreal, he brings an interdisciplinary approach shaped by training at Pratt Institute (B.Arch.) and the Yale School of Architecture (M.E.D.), advancing design as a collaborative, culturally rooted practice. Since 2015, he has led Moko Jumbie Mascamp workshops for youth in Trinidad, Cleveland, and Toronto, using the mas camp as a laboratory for experimentation, pedagogy, and community building. He is an Assistant Professor at OCAD University, a Sustainability Fellow (GCCA) and an OAC grant recipient.Geneviève Wallen is an award-winning independent curator, writer, researcher, workshop facilitator, and mentor. Wallen’s practice is rooted in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang (Montréal) and Tkaronto (Toronto). Intersectional feminism, intergenerational dialogues, and alternatives to neo-liberal definitions of care inform her curatorial practice, administrative ethics and pedagogy. Wallen is the creator and animator of the podcast The Conversations that Carry Us/ Ces conversations qui nous soutiennent, a member of YTB (Younger Than Beyoncé) Gallery collective; the co-initiator of the dinner series Souped Up, with Marsya Maharani; an advisory board member for the Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora at OCAD University, and sits on Vie des arts’ board.Natalie Wood is an award-winning Trinidadian-born, Tkaronto-based visual and media artist. Her multimedia artwork cohabits the areas of popular culture, education, and historical research. Her practice includes painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and performance, and extends into her work as a curator, educator, and community-based Black queer activist. She is presently completing a PhD at York University, focused on Black Queer Resistance in the performance of Blue Devil mas.In the past several years she has exhibited her art in both solo and group shows at national and international venues such as A Space Gallery, the AGO, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, The Plumb, and Aird Gallery; at Art Fairs such as Montreal’s Plural, Toronto International Art Fair, Art Basel Miami; and her videos at Images Festival, Zong! Global, Inside Out, In Your Pocket, Caribbean Tales Film Festival, and Trinidad Film Festival.Wood is a founder of the Blue Devil Posse, co-conspirator in the Blue Sea Devil Moko Jumbie Mas Camp, co-founder of the Environmental and Urban Change Black Caucus at York University, an inaugural fellow at Black Lives Matter’s Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism, and, as a GBC Professor she is one of the visionaries of the newly launched Black Futures Initiatives.Rhoma Spencer—actor, playcreator, director, and comedian—is a veteran theatre practitioner active in Toronto since 2001. A graduate of York University with an MFA in Directing, she founded Theatre Archipelago (TA) in 2005. Under her Artistic Direction, the company produced Mad Miss /Just Jazz in 2005, Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine (2006), Twilight Café (2007), I Marcus Garvey (2009) Obeah Opera (2012). She is co-creator of the award-winning Caribbean play, Jean and Dinah, featured in Testifyin': Contemporary African Canadian Drama, Vol. 2, edited by Djanet Sears, and co-writer of Carnival Medea - A Bacchanal, Queen of the Road - The Calypso Rose Musical, and Danse Macabre, which won the Toronto Fringe Festival New Play contest for 2026 and played to rave reviews at this year's Fringe Festival.—From left to right: Michael Lee Poy, courtesy of Michael Lee Poy. Ronald Cummings, courtesy of Ronald Cummings. Genevieve Wallen, photo by: Adriana Garcia Cruz. Natalie Wood, photo by: Nila Gupta.

Tidalectics Panel Discussion

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