The Stolen People

Co-curated by Syrus Marcus Ware & Melisse Watson

This government issued workstation is one of many that occupy the futures decimated landscape. Covered with socialist-style pro-government propaganda and non-rebel iconography, at first glance seems a mechanical open air purgatory of a lost place. People clock in for their shifts and work tirelessly during the days to filter water, grow food hydroponically, attempt to make communication with “the others” and take their daily dose of life, a serum that protects citizens from the high levels of pollutants in the air and water.

At night the space is converted into an activist meeting place by The Stolen People, rebels who are resisting the system and have created a life-giving serum of their own. As such, the rebels live outside of the system. Letters, objects, memorabilia and archives are all left from their movement. The Stolen People leave these messages to communicate with loved ones, to learn of times before, to keep up with current organizing plans and strategies. The Stolen People are part of a vast underground movement that came out of the Black Power Movement, Black Lives Matter Movement and the Last Stand era, which ended abruptly in 2067 when the water became too polluted to consume. They are Black people—people who would not be eradicated.

Syrus Marcus Ware & Melisse Watson have collaborated on large scale durational performances for FADO’s performance series, Monomyths (Toronto, 2016) and for The Theatre Centre in Toronto. Their projects invoke the spirit of collaborative work, collective struggle, and make visible the invisibilized labour of women & trans people within activist movements. They have explored futurism, black mysticism and draw on their solo practices which explore black radical tradition, black & Indigenous solidarity & nature-inspired practices for social change.