STAY-AT-HOME ACTIVITIES | FAMILY: Being Together #4

To counteract a lack of visibility, Sarah Chouinard-Poirier asked 100 people to each suggest a favourite book written by a female, trans, non-binary or queer author. She then turned Studio XX into a radio studio, broadcasting readings from the books every day for over two weeks. During that time Sarah also taught DIY radio and wiki editing workshops, giving people the tools to promote their favorite authors. The more different people contribute to radio programs, to wikis, and to other community spaces, the more they represent the interests and viewpoints of everyone using them. Make your own contributions with the ideas below!

1.
Do you listen to the radio at home? Do other family members? What types of programs do you (or they) listen to? Ask a member of your family to describe a memory of listening to the radio when they were younger.

2.
What is one of your favorite books by a trans, non-binary, female or queer author? Why? What would you like to know about this book? Maybe you want to learn more about the author, the geography of the book, or the histories that inspired it. Do an internet search and read about it!

3.

A wiki is a website where the content is contributed by a community of users. Wikis often take the form of encyclopedias. You can be part of writing history! Go to Vikidia and look up the book you chose in the previous question. Does an article about it exist?

If yes, add to it! Read the article and decide what is missing. Click “Edit”, find a place in the article where the information makes sense, and type it in. Then click “Save changes”. 

If no, create one! What should everyone know about this book? When you’ve decided, go to this link and write your article. You can explore the menu options at the top of the box to find out how to format your text or insert a picture. Click “Show preview” to see how the page will appear once published. When it’s ready, proofread one last time and click “Save page”.

Learn more about gender and racial equality in wiki editing from Art+Feminism.

4.
Record yourself reading a poem, a part of a book, or the lyrics of a song you love, and send it to someone who might like it too (try Voice Memos, Google Keep, Evernote, etc). Tell them about the author, and why you wanted to share this piece of writing with them. Ask them to send you something in return!

 

Meet the artist !

 

Hear more from the artist Sarah Chouinard-Poirier in this interview with the XX Files.

 

More from our files!

See photos from Books on Air!, Sarah Chouinard-Poirier and collaborator Julia Dyck’s Vikidia and radio workshop for kids.

FROM OUR FILES

Each week, explore projects from our archives through two series of conversation starters and DIY experiments. Our series for families introduces projects which help us imagine new ways of being together and being at home during this period of physical distancing, with activities to try and questions to ask each other. Our series for the general public brings together projects from our archives which have explored various kinds of intimate ecologies, and prompts reflection and conversation to nourish our collective imagination.