WORK MANIFESTO
WORK MANIFESTO
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WORK MANIFESTO 〰️
STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY AGAINST GENOCIDE
Before diving into this lengthy work manifesto, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge my stand with Palestine, Congo, Tigray, and Sudan for the end of war, imperialist and settler colonialist occupation, exploitation of peoples and land resources, ecocide, genocide, and the eternal debilitation of peoples in these nations. I am against any western global north and European colonial intervention and participation in these on going atrocities and resist in solidarity with these peoples all over the world. We must continue to resist again and again, for we cannot be free until the people in Palestine, Congo, Sudan and Tigray, and the rest of the world in which sophisticated VIOLENT liberal, capitalist and so called democratic values based tactics keep killing, imprisoning, violating, exploiting, and oppressing black, brown, indigenous, poor, trans, queer, womxn, disabled, bodies. We must continue to react and speak up of the daily constant murdering, mass destruction, erasure of cultures, displacement of peoples, land theft, and the brutal violence enacted by the Israeli state with the support of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, and the Danish state too among others.
FREE PALESTINE ✊🏿
FREE CONGO ✊🏿
FREE TIGRAY ✊🏿
FREE SUDAN ✊🏿
@discoarab x @savoirflair IG
WORK MANIFESTO
I have crafted these guidelines for you (institution, colleague, collaborator, conspirator) so that you can become familiar with the ways I work and what I require from our potential work relationship in terms of conditions. I am open to entering conversations regarding some of these conditions to be negotiated (regarding financial aspects for instance) yet not all of them. Please read these care-fully and have in mind that these guidelines are not fixated but will continually grow/shift according to needs.
These guidelines came from conversations with friends, venting, work relation heartbreaks, frustration, yet also growth and courage, and it took a reflective space that invites more care in the work/creative space I have entered in the past, and hope to achieve in the future. I also need to credit and honor my friend and conspirator Fazle Shairmahomed for their beautiful personal work manifesto here.
My work and practices don’t fit everywhere /everyone, and that is okay. This information is supposed to help you. I like to make myself open to new opportunities to collaborate and experiment together. However, I want to be sure my practices, voice, work, being, fits your offer, so, please be intentional with what you are proposing as I would be honouring it by saying yes.
I also invite curiosity and questions if you have something that needs to clarified. Send me a mail.
BASICS
If you are thinking of approaching me for some kind of work inquiry or invitation, please do so via email: salllamtoro@salllamtoro.com and include some information about how/when you have encountered my work and why you would be interested in collaborating, and how you would see this potential collaboration unfold. I also appreciate some information about yourself/institution you are part of and how you work, and some initial expectations for the work. I am interested in a dialogue as well about this last part but some initial reflections/thoughts about this would be useful.
Please present a timeline, budget regarding fee, production budget (materials, preparation, etc), assistance with travel and accommodation (if I am required to travel) with a contract later after the initial agreement to collaborate.
Regarding timeline, please contact me at least two months in advance prior to the deadline of the completion of the work. So that I have enough time to plan my life and other work commitments around your offer and dedicate my energy properly avoiding high stress. The earlier, the better!
I am presenting some fee options which can be negotiated according to the type of work offered/needed.
RESTAGING OLD WORK
Fee 5000 DKK // 670€ for restaging old work as a minimum, NOT included materials, rehearsals, other colleagues involved within a piece’s fee, equipment rental, nor travel/accommodation expenses without taxes
COMMISSIONING NEW WORK
Fee 10.000 DKK // 1350€ for new work as a minimum, NOT included materials, rehearsals, other colleagues involved within a piece’s fee, equipment, nor travel/accommodation expenses without taxes
BEING PART OF SOMEONE ELSE’S WORK
3500 DKK /465€ for performing (daily rate)
500 DKK /65€ hourly rate for rehearsal work / preparation
500 DKK /65€ per hour
500 DKK /65€ hourly preparation
FACILITATING WORKSHOPS
Starting from 3500 DKK/ 470€ yet to be negotiated according to what is needed
An hourly rate could also be applied if the work needs support framework (with meetings, revising materials, outsider eye supervision-like work)
Have to credit our process during Co.Opulence with xiri tara noir during our residency at ArtHub Copenhagen and Lím Platform for introducing me to artistic caretaking. This role entails supporting artists/curators, or others with providing care work within an artistic context from giving feedback, participating in a workshop/ session, to listening to rants, read/watch material, witnessing a particular process from the outside, ask questions, organize planning within process, support conflicts between collaborators, and many more.
I have developed a methodology to support artist in mapping out and planning care and and social structures to develop their practice within. I focus specifically on providing support to artists that have a visual and/or performance based practices/project working across personal/political demanding topics and would benefit from mentorship to develop framing material, dramaturgy, audience, workshopping ideas, politics of the work and its resonance, points of conflict. Through the artistic care-taking sessions, we look critically at the productivity and care aspect of the work in terms of its needs and the artist, what needs to shift in the process and futurity.
We can create a detailed plan for what you need.
Attention: this is not the same as being a personal assistant but it is specific to care work related to the ongoing process and the needs of those involved.
ARTISTIC CARETAKING
3.000 DKK /400€ between between 1500 to 3500 words
WRITING PIECES
I am not interested in being included in poor diversity gimmicks, nor the optics of diversity and inclusivity, nor in being the only person of color, gender and/or sexually diverse person involved in your work.
Please be transparent about how many people of color specifically black and indigenous, trans femmes, trans women, and/or nonbinary/gender nonconforming people are involved in whatever work setting you are creating or, if you are an institution (festivals, exhibitions, event, panel, etc), and also share about how are you reaching out to audiences where these bodies/communities are included as well (if applicable).
I am specially not interested in being part of your event last minute because it did not occur to you earlier in the organising process to reach out to racialised/queer folk.
⛔ TOKENISM / DIVERSITY INCLUSION 🚫
DISABILITY JUSTICE LENS IN THE WAYS WE APPROACH RELATIONS
We all have different bodily, mental, emotional and spiritual capacities and needs at different stages of our lives so with that said, I invite you to be mindful of this regarding having high productive expectations for my work/involvement to materialize.
As a black, trans, queer, immigrant, (proud)-crip, neurospicy body experiencing different types of intersected oppressive systems and marginalised experiences in this world, (obviously) my body does not function ‘well’ under racist, ableist, heteronormative and heteropatriarchal capitalism (who does eh?). The consequences of that is that I have periods where I experience c-ptsd and other chronic illnesses high flare-ups, and burn out in this body, and therefore, it is important for me to be upfront (mostly for myself) about this and establish certain boundaries with you. Which means that during such periods, I’ll need to adjust my health to my workload and might need to slow down.
Do not expect me to be 24/7 available especially on weekends via e-mail, online or in-person.
I tend to be a nocturnal being doing work during the night time, so do not expect me to be available during early morning hours (it’s just not my rhythm).
Do not expect me to be highly responsive to emails, calls or sms/messages all the time. Make it part of a collaborative practice if we are to engage in work together to have check-ins in terms of energy, capacity and boundaries (read about spoon theory to help you understand more deeply).
The performing arts (and art field) in general is quite elitist, precarious and hustle-driven, so we have to actively dismantle and refuse the lack of care it imposes onto us culture makers and workers.
I recommend the read “Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha as it has highly influenced this work manifesto.
This is something that I have encountered while working with ARIEL Feminisms in Copenhagen where they implemented a care rider for us artists to be able to express and ask to have our accessibility needs met which could be while installing works, rehearsals, setting up, performing, giving a talk, communication exchange etc. I invite you to get inspired by this especially if you represent an institution as it makes life and work much easier for us artists and ensures a different type of trust and care between us.
CARE RIDER
Matters of accessibility are important for me as a black queer trans practicing artist and being working in the culture and arts field. I want you to think about involving visibly racialized and specially black, queer, trans, gender nonconforming, femmes, crip, neurodistinct audiences when curating/producing work that engages my own, and making spaces accessible to them. That also means reflecting about language usage and cultural references.
Make sure that your institution/space is wheelchair accessible. Think further: neutral soap dispenses, wheelchair accessible bathrooms (not only entrances and exits), ASL language + transcripts.
AUDIENCE ACCESSIBILITY
I work best in environments in which my work is fully engaged with specially if you wish to curate, or produce one of my works, or commission me to make new work under your curation. I stress full engagement, not only supporting it economically, or technically, yet also bringing a level of intimacy towards my practice and work. This allows the work to flow differently and makes it easier to support me. Which also demands some level of positioning and reciprocity from your side.
Do your research, ask questions, involve yourself fully as a person towards another. I prefer direct communication between us, and I want to hear what you think. That creates an environment of trust, ease and reciprocity, specially if conflicts arise.
Conflicts are natural, and I prefer to address whatever it’s not being said in the room that needs to be said and reflected upon. The same can be applied to collaborations of any sort. Please do not hide under an illusive sense comfort (also saying this to myself here).