BlackFlash 40.2 Fall 2023

This issue marks a transition in BlackFlash’s 40-year publishing history. Our fall 2023 issue is the last commissioned by our former managing editor Maxine Proctor in collaboration with our editorial committee. It is also (as transitions go) the first produced in collaboration with our new managing editor, Jasmin Fookes. A turnover for a staff of one is inevitably a radical change!

The first issue that Maxine oversaw as managing editor (35.3) marked the end of BlackFlash’s 35th year of publishing. In her first editorial statement, Maxine expressed her excitement and commitment to shepherding BlackFlash to its next landmark anniversary–which she did with great success! This year marks BlackFlash’s 40th year, which, as Maxine remarked five years ago on the occasion of the magazine’s 35th, “is no small feat for any not-for-profit arts organization.” 

As a magazine dedicated to showcasing art and art writing, the behind-the-scenes work of editing, commissioning, and building relationships with writers and artists across the country (not to mention grantwriting, operations, and the logistics of print publishing, among many other tasks) is often less than visible. In the magazine’s layout, the people–one (now part-time) permanent staff member, contract editorial and design staff, a volunteer editorial committee, and a volunteer board of directors–that make BlackFlash what it is are listed on the last page. But, despite last-page billing, BlackFlash remains a people-run magazine, a reality that becomes abundantly clear in moments of transition.

As it happens, these themes–memory, care, and the political economy of the arts sector–are central to many of the texts included in this issue. In the first component of a three-part program sponsored by EQ Bank, Belinda Kwan takes up questions about digital infrastructure in the arts sector prompted by Christina Battle’s editorial published as part of the BlackFlash Expanded program that wrapped up earlier this year. Kwan offers a series of lessons learned, based on their lived experience and their work in program design at InterAccess in Toronto. Matt Kyba offers a personal reflection on their time experimenting with several different models to fund new art spaces in Toronto and Columbus, Ohio, in light of the economic (not to mention practical) realities faced by DIY art spaces in Canada and beyond. Manar Abo Touk gifts us with a critical account of how their curatorial methodology has been shaped by their lived experience, a practice informed by Rachel Dickinson’s “Engaged Decolonial Practice.” 

This issue features two artist profiles. Sarah Edo engages with Harlem-born, Toronto-based artist June Clark’s practice, spending time with Clark in their studio to reflect on Clark’s “memory work.” Aurora Wolfe considers two recent Saskatchewan exhibitions by artist Manuel Axel Strain, thinking through the ways that the artist centers land, family, and community in their work.

In an artist project, Peace Akintade shares a poem and a reflection on their time as the creative director of DO I INTIMIDATE?, a project produced in collaboration with participants from fellow members of Saskatoon’s Yoruba community around wearing traditional dress in public. We conclude this issue with two generative conversations. Geneviève Wallen speaks with Shaya Isaq about their artistic practice, discussing lineages of care, language, and the importance of having fun. Danielle St-Amour is in conversation with Hazel Meyer about their project DEEP HORSE TEXTS, an expansive publication project about the affinities humans have with horses.

As we move into BlackFlash’s next decade of publishing, we continue to work together to build a more sustainable future for the publication, all the while recognizing the people who have worked so hard to get us to this 40th year.

– BlackFlash Board of Directors, July 2023

This article is published in issue 40.2 of BlackFlash magazine. Get this issue