Event/Accessibility Details

Facemasks are strongly recommended at all indoor events; KN95 masks & sanitizer provided. All donations are going towards venue and equipment costs and future organizing.


DONATIONS APPRECIATED!

Interac / e-transfer: toronto@wawog.com

Subject line: NAITA

Password: choose “naitafest”


Venues

It's OK* Studios. 468 Queen Street West, Ground level and bathroom are accessible. Performances will be on the first floor. There is a second story up a flight of stairs.

BAAA! (Back Alley for Art & Architecture.) 300 Campbell Avenue, Suite 114. Accessible laneway access, unfortunately no accessible washrooms - please reach out if you have any accessibility needs.

Cinecycle. 129 Spadina Avenue, entrance behind the old coach house on the east side between Richmond St W and Adelaide St W. Accessible rear entrance (parking lot at 401 Richmond building, enter on Richmond, first alley west of Peter Street, drive west on south wall of building) with 2 washrooms, 1 of which is accessible.

No arms festival 2025 poster

June

  1. FRIDAY, JUNE 13

    It's OK* Studios. 468 Queen Street West.

    6:30 PM: Doors

    7:00 PM: ONE YEAR OF NO ARMS IN THE ARTS

    Panel discussion: How do we choose targets? How do we build towards mass refusal? What purpose does counterprogramming serve? NAITA organizers discuss tactics, strategies, and the road ahead.

    8:30 PM: NO ARMS IN THE ARTS BOOK CLUB #6

    Readings and performances from Publishers for Palestine, Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, H Felix Chau Bradley, authors boycotting the Giller Prize, and others.

    9:30 PM: MUSIC: ELECTROPOETICS: SARRAH MALEK + EYEDUH

  2. SATURDAY, JUNE 14

    BAAA! (Back Alley for Art & Architecture.) 300 Campbell Avenue, Suite 114.

    1:00-2:30 PM: INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL BOYCOTT

    Panel discussion: Representatives from Strike Germany, the Art Not Genocide Alliance (Genocide Pavillion Venice Biennale boycott,) Strike Outset, and others will talk about the work required to build an international cultural front. Moderated by Ryan Ferko.

    222 Queen St West, a couple blocks away from No Arms in the Arts Festival

    2:00 PM: SCOTIABANK DAY OF ACTION

    Scotiabank is leaving the Arts, but artists are not leaving the Fight. Join the artist contingent at the Scotiabank Funds Genocide Day of Action to go directly after the institutions whose investments prop up Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine. Since Trump’s inauguration, Elbit’s stock price has been soaring steeply, now up almost 50% from last September. Canadian institutions like Scotiabank are trying to take advantage of shifting political tides across North America to cash in alongside the fascist profiteers. They are hoping the public will forget about their direct participation in a genocide but artists continue to demand: DIVEST THE REST! We will walk towards the No Arms in the Arts Festival at Cinecycle around 3:30PM.

    Cinecycle. 129 Spadina Avenue.

    4:00 PM: DIRTY LAUNDRY: ON CULTURE SECTOR FUNDING, CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP, AND NONPROFITS

    Roundtable: Do our communities need to be beholden to corporate sponsorships, private donors, and nonprofits? Zionist charities bolster Canada's complicity in the oppression of Palestinians, and the arts sector has become a potent space for donors to launder influence. How do we untangle patronage culture and build sustainable spaces by and for art workers?

    Dr. Miles Howe (Adjunct Professor of Critical Criminology at Brock University, postdoctoral fellow in Criminology at TMU), Scott Miller Berry (Workman Arts / Rendezvous With Madness, re:assemblage collective) and Sukaina Kubba (Toronto Coalition of Artists For Palestine) to present.

    7:00 PM: LITTLE PALESTINE: DIARY OF A SIEGE (2021)

    Screening: An elegy to Yarmouk, known as the capital of the Palestinian diaspora, a place that resisted atrocity with dignity, and that no longer exists today.

    The screening will be preceded by a short intro from director Abdallah Al-Khatib. Post-screening conversation with Majd Al-Shihabi.

    9:30 PM: MUSIC: NOMAD NALA, SAHRA SOUDI, NOORIA ALAM

  3. SUNDAY, JUNE 15

    Cinecycle. 129 Spadina Avenue.

    5:00 PM: PROGRAMMING PALESTINE: THE CULTURE SECTOR'S CONTAINMENT OF REVOLUTIONARY AESTHETICS

    The past year has seen a welcome influx of Palestinian programming in arts spaces and institutions. On the other hand, the culture sector plays a unique role in the capture and containment of revolutionary politics and aesthetics. What is the state of cultural organizing, and how do we avoid this trend towards memorialization and depoliticization?

    Kaleem Hawa and Muhammad Nour El-Khairy in conversation with Toleen Touq.

    7:00 PM: FILM SCREENING: Regards Palestiniens program

    Line-up TBA, introduced and programmed by Muhammad Nour El-Khairy

  4. ALL WEEKEND

    DRIVING IN PALESTINE

    Rehab Nazzal's photo project on the politics of surveillance and mobility in contemporary Palestine will be on display and available for distribution at venues throughout the weekend, for postering/wheatpasting purposes. Printing and posters provided by Ottawa's SAW Centre.