32nd annual Mayworks Festival opens on April 28th and features 'Art Against Precarity'

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - April 28, 2017) - The 32^nd annual Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts - Art Against Precarity - opens on Friday, April 28^th, with a multi-disciplinary program that thematically highlights the state of precarious work and workers' struggles against precarity.

"As a festival that privileges 'art with a cause', this year's programming reflects the current - and increasing - state of precarity in workplaces in Canada and beyond. At a critical juncture such as this, Mayworks feels that it is important to celebrate working peoples' arts, cultures and histories. We invite Torontonians to check out the 2017 program and we hope that Art Against Precarity informs, provokes, inspires and celebrates you!" says Amee Lê, Mayworks Festival Director.

The 2017 Festival includes: two visual exhibitions - Art & Tomatoes and Strike A Chord - which celebrate workers' rights and anti-racist migrant justice mobilizations, and bring to the fore the activist potential of art; screenings of A Day's Work, an award-winning documentary on the temporary work industry; the book launch of The Story of Albert Jackson, a children's picture book about Albert Jackson, Toronto's first black postal worker; Packingtown, a live music and video performance that tells the story of the 1986 Gainers strike in Edmonton; Writing While Black, a workshop on how grassroots art can give voice to the marginalized peoples; and Journey to Belong, a multi-art event that features the works of migrant activists in their investigation of the power of art to empower, express, and create change.

"We are honoured to work with artists that demonstrate the power of art in addressing the injustices of the world. We celebrate the work of migrant farmworkers, meat packers, caregivers and postal workers. We celebrate their struggles against precarious work, against racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia and ableism. And, we celebrate artists as both workers and as activists; they are agents of change that demonstrate and embody critical resistance to unjust burdens during these increasingly precarious times," says Meara Conway, Co-Chair of Mayworks Festival Board.

While all events at this year's Festival are free of charge, we encourage you to register to guarantee a seat at www.mayworks.eventbrite.ca.

Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts is a multi-disciplinary arts festival that celebrates working class culture. For more information, please visit www.mayworks.ca.