Team Transitions: Keshia Palm

It’s a season of big staff transitions! Generator is launching into a new era as many of the staff who have stewarded it for the past several years move on to different opportunities and priorities (you can read a note from Sedina on transitioning out of their role here). The staff have all been so flexible and generous in supporting the needs of the organization in this time of immense transition, and have helped bring Generator into its next phase with care and deep consideration.

We know it’s not goodbye, just a transition into a different form of engagement with Generator—and we’re so excited to see the many ways our paths will all continue to intersect.

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A note from Keshia

After over three beautiful years creating and producing content for ArtistProducerResource.com, I will be taking a small step back from my role to make space for other things (hello, Paprika Festival!).

Like a friend that babysits on the weekend, I’ll still be around to support ArtistProducerResource.com until the next incredible human steps in to bring all their ideas and expertise to the program, and I will join in the celebration of birthdays and other milestones.

Shifting into this new relationship with Generator and ArtistProducerResource.com, I am struck with an overwhelming sense of gratitude – for you who believe in the website so much you have dedicated a portion of your income towards supporting it; for the many artist producers who have contributed to the website writing pages, editing and reviewing content, adding alt text, captioning videos, creating videos and infographics; and for Generator Generations – the smart and insightful and brave and challenging and bold artist producers that have inspired and fed me over the years (and who have probably also edited the website and/or subscribed to Patreon at some point or another). 

The expansion and growth of ArtistProducerResource.com was guided by these conversations and relationships. A collaboration with Sage from Deaf Spectrum on Infographics for ASL and Spoken-language Interpretation in 2019 blossomed out of the Woke 2.0 d/Deaf Jam Workshop in 2018, leading us to produce a 3-part ASL vLog series together a few months later. Carlisle, the graphic designer, created an graphic celebrating ArtistProducerResource.com the following year. Many Artist Producer Training folks have become core editors and reviewers for the website, and Resident Companies and Company Collaborators have generously shared their expertise. It really does take a village.

When I first started at Generator in 2018, I was working 5 hours a week. Over the years, I worked my way up to 12 hours a week, always feeling like it was never enough time to really dig in, but also feeling incredibly proud of what Kristina, Annie, Sedina and I were able to accomplish with limited resources.

Our first photo together as a four-person staff team - left to right: Annie Clarke, Kristina Lemieux, Sedina Fiati, Keshia Palm (October 2018)

Keshia collaborating with Tsholo Khalema to produce a series of videos for Generator’s YouTube channel (April 2019)

There are some changes that I am particularly proud of. Reviewing the list of new pages year over year and the values they exude makes me glow. They reflect not only Generator’s priorities, but also a response to the moment – like a time capsule of what was happening in our sector. 

There are also places where I wish we had grown deeper faster, like shifting Harassment to better encapsulate other forms of discrimination, and increasing the amount of non-text-based resources across the board. We’ve struggled to upload images and get those dang download links to work. Pages have haunted my and Kristina’s to-do lists for years – like Front of House, Insurance, and Volunteers (if you are dying to write about these topics, please email us!). New content for pages like COVID-19 Health and Safety for Artists becomes out-of-date before we even update them. The call to expand national resources to support artist producers outside of Ontario, and to make the website platform itself more accessible, grows ever stronger.

These changes will come. They are coming! We’re in the midst of a process of collecting feedback from the community that will help shape our decisions and priorities about where to take ArtistProducerResource.com next, and I can’t wait to be on the other side, discovering small but significant changes as a user. 

Keshia transcribing notes for ArtistProducerResource.com from the Woke 2.0 d/Deaf Jam (June 2018)

Kristina and Keshia at the on the MOVE conference for dance artists (February 2019)

The number of folks using ArtistProducerResource.com has increased 337% from 2017/18 to 2020/21. Over 20,000 folks a year are searching for answers, and our small but mighty team has done our best to provide timely, accurate, and quality information to the community within Generator’s current operational model. Much of this is thanks to you.  

I want to leave you with a little look back at ArtistProducerResource.com over the years. Imagine Vitamin C’s Graduation playing in the background. Thank you for reading, supporting, and sharing. Please join me in celebrating all that we accomplished together in the last few years, and dreaming of what’s to come. The future is bright!

New ArtistProducerResource.com things in 2021:

• Rights and Copyright

• Royalties

• Childcare (brand new and beautiful; please read)

• Community Partnerships

• Expansion and creation of 11 topic-specific Playlists on YouTube

• Learning Pathways – a series of blogs and companion resources to inspire self-guided learning on various producing topics

New in 2020:

• Accountability Processes

• Social Justice Solidarity

• Food Security & Nutrition

• ASL Interpretation

• Artist Statements

• National Awards

• Live Streaming

• COVID-19 Health and Safety for Artists

• Intimacy Direction

New in 2019:

• CADAC

• Talkbacks

• Final Reports

• Cash Flow

• Board of Directors

• Self-care for Artists

Not represented: the innumerable copy edits, major page revamps, broken-link-fixes, templates added, social media campaigns, and accessibility changes year over year. 

Keshia + Annie filing the Social Media Playlist (photo by Steph Raposo - January 2020)

Keshia nesting at the Trinity St. Paul’s office (September 2019)

Most joyful projects over the years:

• Producing Social Media Playlist with co-conspirator and fellow comms nerd Annie Clarke 🤓

• The genesis of the Generator Instagram grid 🙌

• Witnessing Sedina facilitate the Woke 2.0 Workshop series (I was there to take notes on the content, and literally was taking notes on how they held those spaces) 🤩

• Designing, renovating, and nesting in the new office at Trinity St. Pauls with Kristina (have you seen those before and after photos?!) 👷

• Moving day with Annie and the plantmobile 🌱

• Coordinating Generator Generations staff parties and creating fun and creative ways to raise money for organizations we care about 💸

• Collaborating with so so so many brilliant artists and learning from them in the process ❤️

Keshia + Annie moving the office’s most prized possessions: the plants (September 2019)

The December 2018 Generator Generations Holiday Gathering - back row, left to right: Keshia Palm, Sabah Haque, Deanna Galati, Annie Clarke, Sedina Fiati; front row: Kristina Lemieux, Lisa Alves, Faline Park

“I have had the honor of knowing Keshia in many capacities: first as a program participant, and before long as a collaborator, co-worker, leader, artist, and friend. I can think of few folks who are as deeply invested and passionate about making things better for people—whether that is through working conditions, access to knowledge, or projects that introduce new ways of thinking about art. Keshia’s cleverness and determination have led to so much information being made accessible and spread joyously across the country (and beyond). I have learned so much from their tenacity to stick with what matters to her, and to be in connection with those we know—as well as those we have yet to meet. ”

— Kristina Lemieux

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About Keshia

Keshia Palm (she/her and they/them) is a queer, Toronto-based Filipinx-Canadian settler from Treaty 6 Territory who seeks to expose, challenge and dismantle systems of oppression by creating thoughtful and inclusive art/spaces. Her creative practice includes dramaturgy, direction, producing and performance.

Keshia wants to re-imagine theatre: what it is, who it’s for, and how we do it. She has developed, workshopped and performed new works with theatre companies across Canada and is the dramaturge for a number of works in development by IBPOC, queer, women and trans artists.

Favourite projects include: Shadow Girls (co-created with Claren Grosz) — a bisexual love story featuring a team of queer women in all its iterations; coordinating the Reading the 49 monthly play-reading series for fu-GEN, performing in The Cherry Orchard (Modern Times) and FEARLESS (fu-GEN). Her latest project Make Me An Alleycat invites people to connect over stories and destinations while social distancing by going for a bike ride. Keshia is a playwright in the 2020/2021 Hot House Lab at Cahoots Theatre.

Keshia stumbled into Generator’s Artist Producer Training Program in 2017 and managed to stay despite all odds. She has been tinkering away at ArtistProducerResource.com since 2018.

Photos of Keshia Palm (top and bottom of page) by Haley Garnett

ArtistProducerResource.com Survey

[Survey closed December 10, 2021]

Calling All Artist Producers!

Whether you have ArtistProducerResource.com bookmarked, or this is your first time hearing about it, Generator wants your feedback! We’re asking artists and producers across Canada to take our 15-minute survey between now and December 10.

As a thank you, you’ll be entered in a draw to win one of five $50 CASH PRIZES!

ArtistProducerResource.com is Generator’s free, searchable online encyclopedia of information, resources, tools, and templates for producing independent performance work in Canada. Survey responses will help us understand how the site is currently used and inform our priorities moving forward.

For more ways to respond to the survey, including the option to schedule a time to complete it over the phone or Zoom, please email info@generatorTO.com.

Spread Queer Joy: A Conversation with Generator's 2020/21 Artist Producer Training Cohort

The unstoppable 2020/2021 Artist Producer Training cohort—Makram Ayache, Avery Jean Brennan, Rochelle, Olivia Shortt, and brawk ward—finished up their self-guided programs this past summer.

In June, they came together on Zoom to talk about their producing values, what they've learned about their artistic practices, and the importance of rest and joy.

In a time that has so radically the shifted the ground for artists, that has left so many questioning whether they are artists, what makes them so, and what kind of artists they want to be in this world we’re rebuilding, we are so delighted to share this conversation with you. It is deeply reflective, genuinely inspiring, and absolutely hilarious.

As you listen, we invite you to take the opportunity to reflect on your own artistic practice—how are you taking care of yourself within it? How are you setting boundaries that serve you and that affirm your self-worth? How are you making time for rest, and for joy?

There is so much wisdom in here from these five wonderful folks—you can learn more about each of them here. We hope you enjoy Spread Queer Joy: A Conversation with Generator's 2020/21 Artist Producer Training Cohort!

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Our 20/21 Artist Producer Training program followed a self-guided model, and was supported by Generator’s outgoing Lead Producer Kristina Lemieux and Training Consultant Sedina Fiati. You can learn more about the program here.

2019/20 Annual Report

Generator has published our 2019/20 Annual Report! Our 2019/20 Fiscal Year was September 1, 2019-August 31, 2020. Here are some highlights:

• We moved our office from CSI Bathurst to Trinity St. Paul’s Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts…and then shut our doors when Covid-19 hit in March 2020

• Our financial blog posts offered guidance to artists in a rapidly changing economic landscape as pandemic lockdowns began, and were viewed 4200+ times in the first four weeks

• Five incredible Artist Producers graduated from our training program, successfully navigating a transition to digital learning and digital practicums in the spring

• Even in a year that saw producing grind to a (temporary) halt, 2019/20 was our biggest ever for ArtistProducerResource.com—more than 8,100 users visited the site, a 35% increase over 2018/19

• We completed our Transform Dance project, looking at Transformative Justice approaches to workplace harassment in the Toronto dance community—our final project report was shared in March 2021

• We began accountability work with consultant Zainab Amadahy, who produced an Equity and Justice and Organizational Review that was published in March 2021

To learn more about our programming plans as we began our 2020/21 year in September, read our Fall Organizational Update here.

Thank you for being a part of our 2019/20 year.

Transform Dance: Final Report

After sharing a draft version of our Transform Dance report in June 2020 and wrapping up work on the project in August, we are now releasing our final report, prepared by Project Coordinator Meg Saxby.

Transform Dance was a pilot project about finding ways into healing and transformation—both at the individual and at the collective level—within the dance sector in Toronto. In particular, we were interested in addressing harassment (sexual, gender-based and otherwise) and transforming the culture of the dance sector.

Transform Dance was designed to support three Transformative Justice (TJ) processes for individuals or groups of individuals who had experienced workplace harassment within the Toronto dance community.

In the end, the project supported two processes around past harms, as well as a third process that took the form of a multi-part workshop series, designed to build the capacities of men who are emerging and established leaders within the dance community.

Transformative Justice is a non-punitive approach to justice and healing that grows out of the experience, wisdom and practice of communities of colour who seek to resolve harm without resorting to policing structures and the judicial/legal system.

TJ processes seek to create opportunities for people who have been harmed to heal, for those who do harm to learn, change, and grow, and for repair and transformation of the relationship to occur if/when possible and desired. For an introduction to Transformative Justice, read our 2019 blog post here.

We believe this report shows that the TJ approach has considerable merit as a means of providing healing and transformation for the dance sector as a whole, as well as other parts of our culture.

Our report highlights learnings from the Transform Dance project and makes some recommendations for how this work could grow and serve the arts sector. We are optimistic and hopeful that all participants in the arts sector, including funders, governments, arts organizations, and artists themselves will see the value in this approach and continue to invest in it.

The Transform Dance Podcast

Transform Dance was about learning, experimenting, and trying new things. As Transformative Justice is a community-based framework that centres accessibility, we thought documenting our experiences as a conversation would be a valuable way to reflect the project, and to deliver our insights in an accessible way.

We made a podcast where you can hear different people who were connected with the project talk about their experiences.

You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, Stitcher, or Apple Podcasts, or find the transcripts here: Episode 1—Our Advisory Board; Episode 2—Conversation with a Participant; Episode 3—Facilitator Roundtable. The Transform Dance podcast was produced by Katie Jensen of VocalFry.

Report Contents

Introduction
Appropriation and Accountability Statement
The Framework: Transformative Justice
The Problems: What Were We Trying to Address?
The Process: What Steps Did We Take?
The Cases: What Processes Emerged?
The Money: What Did It Cost?
Ideas for the Future: Where Could We Go Next?
Closing the Circle: Thoughts on Accountability for the Future
More Insights: the Transform Dance Podcast
Thank You
Appendices

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Acknowledgments

The Transform Dance project came out of a summer 2018 conversation discussing what service organizations could do for harassment in dance in the wake of #MeToo. This project was supported through Toronto Arts Council Strategic Funding (Open Door), and was also supported through Generator’s core funding from Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts.

Resources

A list of resources related to gender-based harassment and violence, including mental health and healing services, was created for this project in July 2019 and can be accessed here.

We also invite you to visit resources on the Harassment and Mental Health pages on ArtistProducerResource.com.