COMMUNITY ONE BLOG

From Bigotry to Bollywood: 2SLGBTQ+ Stories in Motion: 2022 Rainbow Grants Recipient

Over the coming weeks we’re sharing the 39 stories of our 2022 Rainbow Grants recipients! All of these deserving projects are receiving critical grant funding as a result of your generous donations to Community One Foundation. Read more and support these projects where you can! If you’d like to see more work like this supported in our community, please consider donating to Community One!

FOUNDATION GRANT (available for up to $7,500 and are open to registered charities or groups trusteed by a registered charity)

From Bigotry to Bollywood: 2SLGBTQ+ Stories in Motion is an initiative put together by monstrARTity Creative Community. Five South Asian 2SLGBTQ+ artists will work with fifteen 2SLGBTQ+ seniors to create five original dances that tell stories of their lived experiences. These pieces will be then be performed at #BollywoodMonster Mashup, the largest South Asian festival in Canada.

Fifteen 2SLGBTQ+ seniors of colour will be guided to work through traumas from their youth by participating in art-based therapy sessions. During the process, they’ll collaborate with younger South Asian 2SLGBTQ+ artists to create original dance pieces based on their stories; this will help them form intergenerational connections.

The five South Asian 2SLGBTQ+ artists will then perform the pieces at #BollywoodMonster Mashup, the largest South Asian festival in Canada. This will help them gain exposure to new audiences. It will also validate their work by including and showcasing them on a large platform to a community where they haven’t historically always been welcomed. 

Born in 2011, monstrARTity is a Mississauga-based incorporated not-for-profit organization filling systemic cultural and economic gaps in underserved diverse communities via festivals, interactive workshops for youth & seniors, artist mentorship and youth employment programs.