National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and the 25th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre

NO More SIOLENCE! 

Twenty-five years since the Montreal Massacre, and we still desperately need action on Violence Against Women.  I hope you can join us during the National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women,Saturday, December 6, on the Full Moon. 

What can we do? I beleive art can inspire us to action.  To counteract the silence that all too often surrounds violence, I’ve coined the neologism Siolence.  See https://pennkemp.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/siolence/ and my book, Binding Twine, up on mytown.ca/bindingtwine,

London artist Bernice Vincent’s work graces the cover of the second volume of my Poem for Peace in Many Voices and the frieze continues throughout the volume: see www,mytown.ca/poemforpeace.

In conjunction with Bernice Vincent’s mural Exhibition, “Fourteen
Women” (Montreal, December 6, 1989).  Bernice wrote:
“A frieze-like composition (4’x28’) with silhouettes of fourteen young women engaged in conversation, exchanging ideas and carrying symbolic objects that relate to engineering.  They move against a background textured with fragments of dried plants signifying the seasonal changes in the land which supports and enriches our lives. In the border of the work are fourteen circles which represent the iron rings that engineering students receive upon graduation. The circles are incomplete to signify the sudden loss of the young women’s lives and aspirations for the future.”

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If you are in London, come to the Ritual of Re-Membering
Saturday 6th December 2014, Noon, Mother St. James Auditorium, Brescia University College
Brescia University College, 1285 Western Road, London, Ontario, Canada N6G 1H2. Free Parking

“On December 6th, 1989 a young man, enraged by hatred and a misguided idea of a women’s place in the world, entered L’Ecole Polytechnique and massacred fourteen women students. It was an event that awoke many Canadians to the ongoing reality of violence against women in our society. The Ritual of Re-Membering seeks to honour the loss of their young lives, as well as all women who have lost their lives to or suffered from gender-based violence.
The Ritual of Re-Membering has been held each year since the first anniversary of this tragic event and sadly, we must continue to commemorate the ongoing acts of violence that are a daily reality for women in this city, province and country. The ritual moves us into grief and sadness and then lifts us out into hope and power for transformation and change.
We hope you will stand in solidarity with us against gender-based violence.”

Hosted by The Circle Women’s Centre for Spirituality, Activism & the Earth. For more information: circle@uwo.ca or 519-432-8353 ext. 28288

AND Vigil – National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women

Women’s Monument – Victoria Park (opposite Williams Cafe), London.
5:30 pm Candlelight Vigil
6:00 pm Reception at CUPW
Hosted by Women’s Event Committee.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1531269750446541/?pnref=story
“Deshkan Ziibi Native Women’s Association, a local of Ontario Women’s Native Association (ONWA), will be speaking and drumming at the Vigil.
It is estimated that nearly 1,200 Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing in Canada in the last 30 years. Indigenous women are far more likely than non-Indigenous women to experience violence and the violence experienced is more severe: 2014 statistics show that Indigenous women are four times more likely to be murdered than non-Indigenous women.”

NO MORE SIOLENCE!