Activist Love Letters

Activist Love Letters is a participatory performance & workshop with artist Syrus Marcus Ware that invites participants to think about their role in sustaining a movement and supporting their communities. If you could reach out to one person who moves you by what they do, who would it be? What would you say?

This event is presented in partnership with the U‑M Trotter Multicultural Center and the Spectrum Center LGBTQ Health & Wellness Week. Activist Love Letters will be held in the Sankofa Lounge. Refreshments will be served.

Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, community activist, researcher, youth-advocate and educator. For 12 years, he was the Coordinator of the Art Gallery of Ontario Youth Program. Syrus is currently a facilitator/​designer for the Cultural Leaders Lab (Toronto Arts Council & The Banff Centre) and is the inaugural artist-in-residence for Daniels Spectrum (2016÷2017). He is a core-team member of Black Lives Matter Toronto.

As a visual artist, Syrus works within the mediums of painting, installation and performance to challenge systemic oppression. Syrus’ work explores the spaces between and around identities; acting as provocations to our understandings of gender, sexuality and race. His work has been exhibited at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Windsor, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), Gladstone Hotel, ASpace Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, SPIN Gallery and other galleries across Canada. Syrus holds degrees in Art History, Visual Studies and a Masters in Sociology and Equity Studies, University of Toronto. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University.