Thursday April 4, 2024 EDT – on Zoom
Featuring: Adrienne Huard, Arielle Twist, Lou Lou la Duchesse, and Tyler Pennock
Moderated by Therese Estacion and Tamara Faith Berger
From the event page:
“What is Indigenous erotica? Is there a relationship between erotic practice and decolonization? How can Indigenous literature and art disturb settler notions around sex, power and shame? We are curious about the Indigenous relationship to reclamation in the erotic sphere.
Explicit, technological, poetic and neo-burlesque, this online discussion hosted by Smutburger will feature four bold Indigenous thinkers on sexuality.”
PARTICIPANT BIOS:
Arielle Twist’s (b. 1994, George Gordon First Nation and Sipekne’katik First Nation, Cree) interdisciplinary practice blends poetics and visual modes of creation to explore the realities and legacy of Indigenous and Trans* life and grief. Exploring and experimenting through mediums such as textiles, painting, performance, literature and language. Recent exhibitions include Indian Theater: Native Performance, Art, and Self Determination since 1969, Hessle Museum of Art, New York; Indigenous Joys, Neutral Ground, Saskatchewan; Time As A Relative, Alternator Kelowna, British Columbia; Twist has received awards from Writers Trust of Canada, Indigenous Voices Awards, Arts Nova Scotia for her debut poetry collection Disintegrate/Dissociate (2019, Arsenal Pulp Press).
Adrienne Huard (they/them) is an Anishinaabe Two-Spirit curator, writer, Sundancer, performer, and future Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba in the Indigenous Studies department. They are a registered member of Couchiching First Nation in Treaty 3 territory, and currently reside in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Additionally, Huard is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Manitoba, researching Two-Spirit, trans, and queer Indigenous critiques, aesthetics, and visual culture.
Lou Lou la Duchesse de Rière is an internationally renowned multi award winning neo-burlesque artist hailing from Kahnawake. Quebec. She began her burlesque career in 2005 in Montreal. She has since headlined shows across North & Central America; the UK, and Europe. She has been voted into the Burlesque Top 50 by 21st Century Burlesque for seven consecutive years and is currently ranked as the number one most influential burlesque figure in the world. In September 2018 she made history by becoming the first Indigenous woman to be crowned New Orleans Queen of Burlesque. She holds titles from the 2019 Burlesque Hall of Fame, including Most Innovative and won Miss Exotic World in 2022. In addition to mentoring and performing, she also acts as the Executive Producer for Burlesque Hall of Fame.
Tyler Pennock is a two-spirit adoptee from a Cree and Metis family around the Lesser Slave Lake region of Alberta, and is a member of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. Their first Book, BONES (Brick Books), shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Indigenous Voices Award for Poetry, was released in 2020, and their second book, BLOOD was released in September 2022. Tyler was the inaugural Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Indigenous Artist-in-Residence at Carleton University in 2023, and currently teaches at the Centre for Indigenous Studies, University of Toronto.
Tyler Pennock 
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