 Good afternoon everybody. Welcome. I'm going to just encourage all you like cool kids at the back who are just standing if you'd like to take a seat to please actually take a seat. All the Toronto folks are straggling in at the back. That's nice. Good afternoon everybody. Whoa, this is a shaky laptop stand. My name is Roxanne Duncan. I'm the Managing Director here at the Push Festival. Thanks. I enjoyed as well. Acknowledge that we are gathered here today on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish people, including the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Slavic East nations. We always think this is a really important thing to do at Push, but I think we can all agree that in this year in particular when Canada celebrates a national anniversary that it's crucial for us to recognize the Indigenous communities who historically have been the custodians and steward of this land. With that in mind, we're really thrilled to have you all here with us today. We're very thrilled to have Jess Tom with us here for the keynote who's like a truly outstanding show backstage in Biscuitland. It's here at the Push Festival. Yay! Such a great show. Tonight it has its last performance of the roundhouse. If you haven't seen it, get there, see it, try to make it happen. I honestly, I don't remember the last time I enjoyed myself so much of this year. No offense to everyone else in the room. I enjoy myself a lot always, obviously. Backstage in Biscuitland is here as part of a series of work that we're presenting from the UK in partnership with Caravan New English Performance. There's a whole little blurb in it and the program guide. Please check it out. This really great partnership receives support from the British Council, who also supported our lunch this afternoon. So great thank you to the British Council, as well as Arts Council England. And I'm going to invite my dear sweet colleague Norman Armour to the stage. I can't see anything. There we go. To say a few words. Great. Also very quickly to acknowledge a couple of other supporters because I know they're in the room and it's important the festival wouldn't be here today if I didn't say that that we're extremely grateful for the support from the department of Canadian Heritage. Certainly the people locally. I know Head Office seems to be the place of influence and wealth and resources but the local people here, Rita Donovan and her team are extraordinary and Rita's here and Randy Miller as well from Ottawa. So please a big round of applause. Also the city of Vancouver Cultural Services, the BC Arts Council, the province of BC and of course the Canada Council for the Arts, which of course is going through major, major transformation and I think hopefully also broke. I will be very brief. This is a partnership. I'm probably even venture to say it's a collaboration in terms of how we discussed how it might happen and that you know the notion of collaboration is if the idea has not fundamentally changed in some way from the beginning and the end then for all intents and purposes it's not a true collaboration. Robert Rocheberg gave that a sort of a definition and he came out of that whole error with Merce Cunningham and others and it was really about fundamental radical, radical thinking about how they might create work together and the kind of work that they might create. Working with caravan and part of the Maltese has been a sort of a additive thing over the years. This is the second time I think seriously working together. Previously we were talking briefly earlier, a few of us, about a couple years ago when we had three groups from England come over. Really, really I think, I think of it as Forest Fringe and Debra Pearson is here from the Forest Fringe and we had Debra here as well and everything. So this is built on a history that we're extremely proud of and excited by. It's certainly built on financial resources and bringing things to the table and I think with the changes that the Canada Council, the real serious change that will happen internationally now for us as Canadian producers and artists and creators is we are going to bring money to the table for the first time in 10 years and that's significant. Most of you know Gavin, if you don't you should. He's one of my dearest friends and colleagues. I stayed at his house and I don't stay at everybody's house or everybody doesn't invite me anymore. I went for dinner down the street with him and his wife. He is really one of my closest and most trusted colleagues. We won't sleep in the same room anymore after I snore pretty loud so in Edinburgh we billeted together once and he'll never do it again. But it's a pleasure and it's an honor to have him here. We were talking about what he should cover versus what I should cover so we don't repeat each other and I said to Gavin talk about the why. I mentioned those books in airports. Be here now. You don't have to buy the book just read the title and write that down. You're okay. There is a book out there in airports that says the why and I said people are always interested in the why. Why do this partnership? Why is caravan here? Why will caravan be in Shanghai within the next year? What is the reason you're working with Porsche? What is the reason that Jess is here today to do this keynote speech? What is the reason that the shows that we've chosen together? Why did point blank poets come all the way to Vancouver as this collective to work with us in our youth assembly and such? Answer the why and we're in a good place. So to answer the why Gavin's right. I apologize at the beginning. Part of you have no idea what I'm going to say. He had notes. Okay so I've never done this before. I mean I've done these things before but I've never done this before. Yeah okay so we're going to start with a song. It feels like we should sing and you've got to join in and everyone will know this song and when you start singing it you'll work out why you're singing the song. It feels like it's a particular political act. I don't know if it's going to work but trust me will you go with me on this and the last three words of this song are where the fun is and it's one of those songs which you have to dance to on the last three words. Okay so as soon as I start to sing because I'm not a very good singer as soon as you work out what the song is will you join in with me. It's a bit like happy birthday. I've never done thank you Jess. Damn I shouldn't have said that. So it goes like this. It's for Nellie the elephant. So can we go one two three Nellie the elephant packed her drunk and went off to the circus off she went with a trumpeting trump. Trump Trump Trump. Good I want to reclaim the word really. I think we should accept that really Trump is the word that an elephant makes when it goes off to join the circus. Thank you. So that's the start. Okay so why are we here? We're here because well first of all whilst I accept the sentiment I'm not really very interested in partnerships or collaborations. In my experience they're mostly people putting aside their differences to get money and I'm so not up for that anymore. I just I just want to fight with people and work with people who might become my friends and who it matters more to me that they achieve the things they want to do than that I achieve the things that I want to do and so I'm not going to do collaborations or partnerships and I hope and Norman's right he did stay with us and that's kind of a demonstration of what's come out of a relationship that's been going on for six seven years now is it now matters to me more that push is successful in the things that he wants to achieve than we are in terms of the things that we want and of course reciprocally I know he cares enormously that we achieve the things that we want to do and that's great isn't it and it feels like the world is being divided up at the moment and I belong to a group of people that think we need to unite and we need to find collaborative relationships with people who share our values wherever they are in the world and so that's the why is that only by promoting generosity and promoting a sort of counter view to the dominant view of the world that is being led by someone who has all the appearance of a fascist without any of the ideology to support it and it scares me enormously that we should be saying let's find other models let's find ways that we might work together to make common sense of the world because we know that it's in all our interests that we do not allow people to divide us so caravan is exactly based on that premise and I'm really really chuffed with all of the artists that have come here for this last three weeks but they are people who have a curiosity and something to say about the world in which we live no better exemplified than by Jess who's going to speak to you in a moment so the other thing to say is despite what you might think you've read in the papers about the UK we are absolutely adamant that we want to I think there's an opportunity in it all for us to re-find and re-express our place in the world in a post Brexit model I don't welcome it but there's a chance for us to walk into the dark with a torch and that excites me so thank you for listening to me rattle on I really told you at the beginning I had no idea where this sentence would end and here it is thank you great so as I mentioned and this partnership was received a great deal of support from the British Council who's been very generous in their support of push over the last couple of years I hope hearing that a ramble about partnerships and what it may or may not mean has an impact to that at all but I'm very pleased to invite Maria to the stage who is the country director for the British Council right thank you so much for that and thank you so much for those words Gavin I couldn't agree more with what you had to say that this is such an important time for us to connect and to be able to work with people around the world to bring arts and people's lives and use arts as a tool in a way to help people connect and I think that's precisely the reason why British Council is a part of such an amazing festival such as push and I will say right off the bat I want to thank push and caravan for being some the best partners we could work with we've been working with push for quite some time and it's always been amazing and I'm so pleased that this year round with the support of arts council of England we were able to bring four incredible UK organizations to participate in this festival and I hope that a lot of you have had a chance to see the numerous performances that have been taking place I'm looking forward to seeing one tonight because yes unfortunately I won't be here for a day but I'm glad I could be a part of this the reason why British Council does this and partners with organizations like push and caravan and so many other organizations around the world is because we are UK's cultural leading cultural relations organization arts is very important to us as is education society English we work across the world in over 200 we have over 200 offices in over 110 countries worldwide and we deliver different cultural programs and the programs objectives and aims are often to bring amazing people like yourselves on similar platforms so that we can have important conversations so that we can connect and talk about things that are so important for our shared future so it is a it's truly a delight for us to be here today and I really would like to say thank you to push and caravan all the other partners that we worked with and I really hope you engage with the rest of the program I plan to and I look forward to the rest of the day thank you great thank you so much Maria um so now the 2017 push festival keynote address features the English writer performer and artist Jess Tom backstage in brisketland uh Tom has Tourette syndrome and co-founded Tourette's hero as a creative response to her experience of living with the condition Tom debuted the piece at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has performed at such festivals as Glastonbury and Shambhala Tom collaborates with communities to create accessible works that explore wide-ranging experiences and I just couldn't be more thrilled welcome to the stage right now it's muted right now in my blue and white superhero costume brisket I also have Tourette syndrome brisket a neurological condition brisket that means I make movements and noises brisket I can't control called tix brisket having Tourette's brisket makes me neurologically incapable brisket of staying on message fuck it brisket brisket so a lot of what I'm about to say will be a surprise to everyone brisket including me brisket on the plus side it does mean I only ever have to write half a talk brisket ketchup brisket ketchup and awkward silences aren't something I worry about either brisket brisket before I begin brisket I'd like to thank push festival for inviting me to speak with you this afternoon brisket there are three things you need to know brisket straight away brisket firstly brisket you're going to hear the words brisket and hedgehog a lot in the next half an hour brisket and brisket and just so nothing gets lost in translation brisket when you hear brisket I'd like you to think cookie brisket hedgehog brisket brisket secondly brisket if I say something funny brisket you're absolutely allowed to laugh brisket in fact it'll be a bit odd if you don't brisket finally brisket several times a day brisket my tics intensify and I completely lose control of my body and speech brisket these episodes which I call ticking bits look seizure like and need similar management brisket if this happens while I'm speaking brisket my support worker will help me brisket and brisket um brisket I'm hoping that rock sand will take over brisket or Norman will take over brisket Gavin and normal will do a dance about sheep brisket I hope you prepared that brisket brisket hedgehog um I'm going to give a brief description of myself for anyone who might find that useful brisket brisket I'm a 30-something white woman of average build with curly brown hair and a very cool wheelchair brisket having Tourette's gives me a very wiggly body that's constantly on the moon brisket my most frequent tip involves punching my chest brisket this happening now and now and now brisket cares but don't worry I'm wearing padded gloves to stop my knuckles getting sore brisket all the slides I'll be showing brisket brisket brisket with the exception of one photo brisket that I'll describe in more detail are colorful hand drawn cards with the title of each section on them I'll read each of these out loud in turn brisket brisket creativity visibility and opportunity a call to action brisket I'm going to share with you five ideas that I think are useful for building truly inclusive creative spaces brisket first though I'd like to tell you more about my journey from sufferer to superhero brisket and why celebrating difference matters brisket in 2010 I co-founded Tourette's hero after a conversation that radically changed the way I viewed my condition brisket my friend Matthew brisket described Tourette's as a crazy language generating machine brisket and told me not doing something creative with it brisket would be wasteful brisket this idea took root and was how I came to see my tics as my power brisket and not my problem brisket my life was changed by a single sentence brisket and it taught me that every conversation has the power to create change brisket at Tourette's hero brisket we increase understanding by sharing the humour and creativity of an often misunderstood condition brisket and by campaigning for social justice brisket I believe we all share the power and responsibility for inclusivity brisket legislation resources and knowledge have important roles to play but to build sustainable inclusive communities we need to think talk and take action together brisket brisket our report from 2014 on public attitudes to disability in the UK by Charity Scope found that 67 percent of British people felt uncomfortable talking to a disabled person statistics like this have no place in open and engaged societies brisket as professionals working within the art sector you're perfectly placed to make a significant contribution to catalyzing much needed social change brisket brisket I want to share with you a personal experience from my work at a children's play project in south London brisket one weekend brisket I was lucky enough to witness a moment that was both unremarkable brisket and at the same time almost too beautiful for words brisket it was a busy Saturday and I just come in through the gate at the adventure playground brisket all children of all children of all ages were playing everywhere brisket amidst the general buzz brisket brisket of that and there was a sudden flurry of activity on the soccer pitch which caught my attention brisket two teenage boys greeted each other brisket enthusiastically throwing their arms brisket and grinning brisket brisket one of the boys was holding a soccer ball and the other was saying okay then brisket a quick penalty shoot out before lunch they threw down the ball and along with some other young people brisket began to play this was of course a very ordinary scene brisket it could have happened anywhere brisket but it's this very ordinariness that made it so special brisket one of the young men has an intellectual disability and the other doesn't brisket they go to different schools brisket and probably wouldn't have met if it wasn't for the inclusion project at the playground brisket this moment had seemed insignificant until i heard actor idris elba addressing mps in uk parliament brisket about the lack of diversity in film and tv a few days later he said brisket there was a disconnect between the real world and the tv world and he went on to say the people in the tv world are often not the same people as those in the real world that ordinary moment in the playground is what my real world looks like it's what the world looks like for many children and young people across the world brisket but all too often it's not reflected in our cultural spaces brisket idris's speech was particularly powerful brisket because it didn't just focus on one area brisket he explains diversity in the modern world is more than just skin color it's about gender age disability sexual orientation social background and most importantly of all diversity of thought he said talent is everywhere but opportunity isn't brisket and this gets right to the heart of the issue brisket if you're not white male or non-disabled you're likely to face barriers within the creative sector barriers that exist and are replicated within wider society unchecked this lack of diversity becomes a self fulfilling the self perpetuating if you don't see yourself represented on stage you're much less likely to think that performing is a possibility for you brisket if drama schools are financially inaccessible and policymakers continue to strip support from poor or disabled students it's your mother she'd like to go on a date it's probably not sorry brisket head should pass brisket um brisket brisket brisket brisket hedgehog brisket brisket if brisket our institutions won't ever be inclusive and if non-disabled actors directors writers producers and programmers don't experience difference at the start of their careers how can they be expected brisket to consider it within their practice later on it also leads to non-disabled actors playing disabled roles and being praised for how closely they mimic disability or clip up brisket while i believe that positive steps have been taken to change this in recent years now is not a time to be complacent there are still too many people who don't see themselves reflected on stage screen or in our cultural spaces brisket this is bad for the industry and it's bad for us all brisket hedgehog a wealth of talents and and creativity is going to waste and seeing the same stories told by the same people over and over again gets boring brisket this represents a financial as well as a social and moral risk for the sector brisket brisket it's time for us to recognize the opportunities we're missing when we fail to embrace diversity brisket considering the broad the potential of broader stories and finding ways to connect talents brisket with opportunity will lead to a dynamic brisket creative sector i want the children and young people i work with and those in your communities to know that all possibilities are open to them i want them to see people who look sound or move like they do being successful was getting all sorts of roles brisket the two boys on the soccer pitch could easily never have met and their experiences remained invisible to each other it's only through increased visibility of difference in our cultural life and in our communities that discrimination and assumptions can be broken down and equality of opportunity made achievable brisket and in a moment in our history when so much is under threat this is more important than ever brisket i'd now like to share brisket with you five ideas that have made a big difference to how i think about disability my creative practice and my identity brisket first up i'm not disabled by my body brisket i'd like to start by talking about the models we use to conceptualize disability brisket for a long time the consensus was that we followed a medical or charity model these see a person as being disabled brisket because their body or mind is impaired in some way and they are in need of pity or cure brisket both focus on what's wrong with the person and not on what the person needs brisket by contrast the social model says disability is caused by how society is organized brisket for example if i can't get into a building because it's surrounded by steps brisket brisket brisket beans the middle brisket the medical model says the problem is my wobbly legs brisket the charity model will probably ask you for money to help make me walk or something like that brisket brisket in contrast the social model identifies the steps as the disabling barrier brisket people are often nervous about calling me disabled because they view the term negatively brisket i don't see it that way at all brisket for me saying i'm disabled acknowledges the barriers i face because of our collective failure to consider difference only if these barriers are acknowledged can they be changed brisket the social model may already be familiar to you but i wanted to mention it because of how pervasive the medical and charity models that are across the world brisket understanding disability using the social model has raised my confidence and has been instrumental in how i've come to think about my body and my experiences it's the beans brisket don't headbutt the mic brisket hetra brisket it's the reason i say i'm a disabled person rather than a person with disabilities brisket disability isn't something i carry around with me and it's not a permanent unchanging state i am more or less disabled in different contexts the exciting thing about this is that by working together we can create less disabling spaces systems and attitudes brisket brisket the next idea that's been important to me is adjustable environments brisket permission to adjust my surroundings to meet my brisket needs is both essential and transformative brisket when i first started having ticking fits being able to leave my apartment safely suddenly seemed impossible brisket but as soon as i realized i could change brisket my environment as and when i were necessary i felt much more manageable i've commandeered lobbies rearranged office furniture and on one occasion made use of a fire station floor carefully covered with blankets my increased confidence in adjusting my surroundings has made the difference between me being independent and included rather than isolated and restricted brisket three years ago Tourette's hero collaborated with Tate galleries on we forgot the lots brisket brisket here's a photo from the event brisket brisket which shows a boy in a green jacket reaching out for a walkie-talkie from a wooden structure in a gallery full of paintings and other people brisket brisket children from up and down the country brisket brisket brisket brisket up and down the uk brisket with and without Tourette's we're invited to take over Tate Britain 300 participants worked with 11 artists to reinvent the new newly renovated building we've set them a simple task go into the galleries get involved with the artists and help Tate transform to make sure nothing gets forgotten brisket permission to change space to meet individual need was the concept underpinning the whole event and it worked i'd like to share with you a quote from a parent who bought bought her family that day brisket it's nice that when my son dives into a whole load of stuff in the corner and wiggles about in it i don't need to worry in fact all that happened was that other kids came and laid down in the fluffy stuff and had a wiggle with him the social model has raised my confidence and has been instrumental in how i've come to think about my body in just five years unlimited has radically changed conversations about disability arts in the uk brisket where previously worked by disabled artists may have been viewed as therapeutic community-based or niche brisket there's now an increased enthusiasm around disability culture which is enriching the whole sector last week this car who i've first seen at liberty a decade ago presented her a limited commission show assisted suicide the musical on the main stage of the royal festival hall in london brisket for me being part of a scene of disabled and non-disabled people making new work together has been incredibly important brisket traveling internationally i've seen how brisket how hard it is for disabled artists in other countries to connect with each other and with presenters despite you because of geographical economic economic or attitudinal barriers surely as an industry of creative thinkers these are challenges we are well placed to address brisket strong and representative sector is essential to invest in inclusivity for audiences for artists and for industry leaders disability isn't a niche issue statistics from from the world bank estimate that one fifth of the global population is disabled so there's a strong business case as well as a social imperative for investing in access recent research by in the uk by attitudes everything perfectly demonstrates this they worked with a hundred live music venues to improve their accessibility and in just one year this led to an increase and to a 26 increase in attendance by disabled people at live music events this is brisket the estimate the estimated additional income associated with this is is believed to be worth seven million pounds brisket access is an asset making disability culture centre to establish creative spaces will make them richer creatively socially and financially brisket visibility matters because art culture and humor are great at shifting thinking and creating a deeper brisket understanding of difference but only if this is led by people with lived experience brisket hedgehog change isn't always a battle brisket is to think that attitude change was a long drawn-out process brisket brisket Tourette's heroes taught me brisket that it can happen very quickly brisket i first realized this on a train journey with my sister brisket we were on our way to a friend's hen party the train was busy brisket and i was curious about how other passengers were reacting to my tics a brief search on twitter revealed that at least one woman had noticed me brisket on a train with genuine Tourette person in the same carriage brisket here's the edited highlights brisket i'm a baby don't be an affliction brisket i responded by saying that it was also a gift and pointed her in the direction of our website and a video by two performance artists which brought my tics to life and next tweet was a very different tone brisket this is amazing not affliction creativity she then asked if she could use the video in an installation about identity she was presenting that day my feeling is incredible attitude change persuasive and silly if we get people to engage we can get them to change brisket so my challenge