About

What's an Artivist?

Art is a way of expressing one's self. It's a way of showing others what we see in ourselves, in community, and in the world. It's a way of sharing a vision.
Activism is a way of affecting personal and/or social change through some way or another. Some see it mostly as being a way of making a lot of noise and being angry about something. But activism isn't always about anger. Sometimes it's about healing. Sometimes it's about beauty.
Artivism brings art and activism together. Artivism allows the person creating the art to be changed - to find healing, to give voice to their experience, to make room for beauty and all those wonderful things - while simultaneously possibly even challenging and encouraging societal change.

My name is Maude Stephany. I'm a gender-fluid, pansexual and polyamorous academic, author, artist, and performer.

The project came about because of my family. You see, we're all queer here. My wife is trans. My son is trans.
Many of our friends are trans. Some are intersex, some are AMAB, some are FTM, some are agender, others are non-binary. We're all under the transgender umbrella in some way.
I had been reading a lot about trans health, especially mental health - and my experience in body-centred therapy, combined with my love of many forms of art, led me to create a program which combines art with community and therapy.

This program aims to support trans folk wherever we are on our journey of self-discovery and self-knowledge.

To situate ourselves in our experience.
To express our experiences, using art forms that allow us the greatest freedom of expression.
To share our experiences with others, just like us.
To feel okay about feeling the way we do.
To see we're not alone.
To cry together.
To laugh together.
To celebrate our successes.
To feel validated.
To build community.
To tell our stories.
So no one else can tell them for us.

It is also my hope that this program will help spark dialog with our wider community - That our stories will impact others, and help them see us as we are - and help our community create safer spaces for us both online in real life.