Generations of change:

A Creative Art Competition for Young South Asian Women

Brought to you by CASSA’s South Asian Women’s Action Collective

http://www.sawac.ca/

SAWAC invites you to submit your work for a competition for young writers and artists, aimed at offering South Asian women between the ages of 15-30, the opportunity to engage with issues related to gender-based violence, showcase their work, and ultimately, be part of a movement to bring about positive social change in their communities.

Selected submissions will be published in Generations of Change: Youth Art Exhibition 2012. Four entries will be selected for cash awards.  

Eligibility: Any self-identified South Asianwoman, between the ages of 15-30

 Contest Guidelines:

• Acceptable submissions include written work (poems, short stories, essays) and visual art (paintings, drawings, graphic designs)
• Word limit for written work: maximum of 1500 words
• The following information must be submitted with each entry: title of artwork, artist’s full name and contact information

Closing Date: May 31, 2012

Submit your entry to:

hadia@cassa.on.ca or

SAWAC’s Young Artists Competition

2401 Eglinton Ave E., Suite 212

M1K 2N8, Toronto, ON 

For more information, contact:

Hadia Akhtar, Youth Engagement Coordinator

No: 416-932-1359 x11

Project Background:

This competition is part of SAWAC’s Generations of Change project.

SAWAC works with women in the Scarborough-area to come up with creative strategies to end systemic and domestic violence against women. SAWAC`s first project, Generations of Change is a three-year project, funded by the City of Toronto, aimed at mobilizing young South Asian women to become leaders in the struggle against violence against women in their communities.

Deb Singh

Deb is a warrior feminist activist. As a settler on TurtleIsland and as a queer, working class, woman of colour, she believes the acts of resistance and love are all part of the rent she pays to be on the planet. deb is an artist, an amateur chef and cat lover. Her greatest achievements include being the staff coordinator of Take Back the Night, being a professional listener and supporting our various communities in various ways.

Maya Bhullar

Maya Bhullar has been a community and labour organizer for over two decades, since she first started organizing in high school and joined the fight to maintain equal opportunity scholarships at her university . Her work has involved building campaigns with labour unions, working in Africa for land rights, building political campaigns. She has a particular interest in grassroots engagement, effective representation of member interests and in helping organizations to better achieve their stated goals. Since 2004, Maya has been working with the Service Employees International Union, building global union campaigns and campaigns to organize cleaners across Canada.

Deepa Mattoo

Deepa Mattoo is currently a Staff Lawyer with South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario. She has over 12 years of experience in providing direct services to victims of violence, as well as providing public education and advocacy. Deepa has been involved with various issues related to domestic violence at the international level and has been a leading voice on the issue of forced marriages in Canada

Dilani Mohan

Dilani is a co-founder and coordinator of finances for The Miss G Project. She holds degrees in business, common law, and civil law, but her academic interests focus on nationalisms, self-determination, immigration, and human rights generally from a critical race and feminist perspective. A Tamil-Canadian, Dilani was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka but has also lived in Zambia and France. She currently lives in Berlin, Germany, where she is commencing her articles in international human rights law. Dilani also advocates for the rights of Sri Lanka’s Tamils and other displaced persons. She is fluent in both Tamil and French, has trained as a brown-belt in Shoto-kan Karate, and is also a Bharathanatya dancer.

Shaunga Tagore

Shaunga Tagore has always been a storyteller. Growing up as a young girl in Manitoba (her parents immigrated from West Bengal in the 70s) she would often write and draw her thoughts on bedroom walls and bathroom doors, make up plays with her friends to present to her neighbors and family, and she generally talked to herself a lot. Today she lives in Toronto and works with Asian Arts Freedom School (a radical Asian history and creative writing program for Asian-identified youth) and with Shameless Magazine (a feminist, anti-oppressive magazine for teen girls and trans youth). Her passions and excitement lie within writing, filmmaking, songwriting and burlesque dancing as modes of telling stories. She is also a certified astrology nerd. www.shaungatagore.com