Tipi Confessions
Tipi Confessions is not only sexy. Our audiences are reminded that sex is always also political. The Tipi Confessions enterprise also serves as a “research-creation laboratory” at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Native Studies. Our sexy performance laboratory is a space of creative experimentation and action research, both informed by and furthering existing research and teaching in decolonial and critical sexualities.
Upcoming Shows
POSTPONED
Bloom Community hosts Critical Poly Q’s/Cues with Professor TallBear
Critical Poly Qs and Cues with Professor TallBear
Bloom Community is coming together with the Canada-based, Indigenous woman-produced sexy storytelling show, Tipi Confessions, to host a special online event, Critical Poly Q’s/Cues with Professor TallBear.
Professor Kim TallBear, better known for her work on the politics of “Native American DNA,” also studies Indigenous sexualities and is a founder and co-producer of Tipi Confessions. A professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta, she is also known as The Critical Polyamorist. In her blog by the same name, she reflects on her polyamory journey as not only a personal, but a political project.
Confessions & Questions
Where our performers are the soul of the show, your confessions are the heart.
Normally for our in-person shows, audience members have the opportunity to anonymously confess their stories on our confession cards, which are then read aloud on stage between performances. Confessions range from sexy to funny to poignant and moving.
For this event, we are collecting your confessions anonymously online. You have the opportunity to submit your confessions and questions to Professor TallBear before and during the event here.
More Background on Professor TallBear and “Critical Polyamory”
Professor TallBear writes about ethical non-monogamy (ENM) as a strategy for challenging settler colonialism. Monogamy has not been a choice for most of us, Indigenous and not. It is a deeply-held norm, and challenging it is to challenge the imposition of what scholars call “settler sexuality,” family, and concepts of private property. The central role of monogamy in colonialism in the US and Canada surprises many people, but it was established in the 19th century as a mark of civilization and good citizenship. It has been imposed onto everyone, not only Indigenous peoples.
Professor TallBear writes, gives lectures at both academic and polyamory conferences, and speaks regularly to North American and European media about the joy, community, and decolonization to be found in what she calls “critical polyamory,” that is, non-monogamy aimed not only at personal liberation but at liberating our relationships from oppressive colonial norms. Dr. TallBear receives correspondence from people all over North America who want to practice ENM in ways that are not only about personal autonomy and freedom, but that are also mindful of building community in ways that oppose settler-colonial norms and institutions.
While you are waiting, download the Bloom app to connect, match and chat with fellow sex positive people, and check out who on Bloom is streaming Tipi Confessions Turned On… Line.
Tipi Confessions has partnered with the Toronto Queer Film Festival and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochtones to bring you:
Tipi Confessions Turned On… Line
On demand streaming access begins Friday, February 25 6PM MST / 8PM EST and runs through until March 25.
Tipi Confession is a storytelling event curated with performances and stories that expose the vulnerability, humour, confusion, and sexy details of sex and sexuality. Our performers are the soul of our show and your confessions are the heart.
Through this partnership, we’ve curated a line-up of stories and performances centering Indigenous women, two-spirit, and queer storytelling and experiences featuring Taté Walker, e.macias, JD Pet Wussy, Juniper Whispers, Tai Amy Grauman, Miss Odemiin Surprise!, and members from the Edmonton Indigenous Poets Society: K’alii Luuyaltkw, Chasidy Gray, and Sage Giroux.
And our host and MC Tracy Bear reveals the details of your anonymously submitted confessions in between the performances.
We’re grateful for your support and that you choose to spend your time with us.
Watch the show here until March 25, 2022.
We are proud to partner with the Toronto Queer Film Festival and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochtones for this event.
Stay tuned for the upcoming Toronto Queer Film Festival, March 31 – April 3, 2022, and the TQFF Symposium, April 22 – 24, 2022.
You can also find more details about ICCA programming on their website.
This project is funded by Canadian Heritage.
About us
The Toronto Queer Film Festival is a collectively-run, artist-centered, not-for-profit festival that showcases contemporary, innovative, queer and trans film and video art. We are especially interested in supporting formally experimental films and/or social justice-themed projects that center the experiences of Indigenous people, people of color, people with disabilities, transgender people, sex workers, porn makers, and other communities often marginalized in contemporary LGBT cultural programming and spaces.
The Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (ICCA) is an Indigenous run and led non-profit organization that aims to support and connect fellow Indigenous curators, artists, writers, academics, and professionals through various methods of gathering. The ICCA engages in critical discourses, increases professional opportunities for our members, develops programming, and most importantly works to build reciprocal relationships with Indigenous curators, artists, communities and the institutions we engage with.
Tipi Confessions is produced by three Indigenous women: University of Alberta professor Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate), McMaster University professor Tracy Bear (Nehiyaw’iskwew from Montreal Lake Cree Nation), and University of Alberta PhD student, Kirsten Lindquist (Cree-Métis). We are an offshoot of the popular Austin, Texas show, Bedpost ConfessionsTM, founded in 2010. For more information, visit tipiconfessions.com.
Past Shows
Unsettle the Future
Tipi Confessions, Unsettle the Future: Re-Story, Research & Reclaim Indigenous Sexualities & Relations, the creative performance extension of the RELAB research-creation symposium of the same name featured a range of dance, spoken word, storytelling, [...]
Tipi Confessions in Bed with…
Tipi Confessions got into bed with the Toronto Queer Film Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective/ Collectif des commissaires autochtones, FADO Performance Art Centre, OPIRG Toronto, and the Bonham Centre [...]
Decolonize your Valentine
During the deep chill of the 2019 polar vortex, Tipi Confessions cranked the heat in La Cité Francophone theatre space to Decolonize Valentine’s Day with special guest Janet Marie Rogers. We also featured performances [...]
Sex at the End of the World
Many of the world’s greatest thinkers are worried that we humans are having wrenching effects on our environment, that ecosystems and social systems in turn are collapsing around us. In popular culture--in films, novels, [...]
Seasoned Sex
Seasoned Sex. Cooler summer mornings shifting into longer fall evenings. Inspired by how our bodies respond to the changing seasons, we recognize that our favourite fleshy fruits, like different types of berries ripen and [...]
Sexy Science Confessions
One evening in July 2017 in Tucson, Arizona, the Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics (SING) faculty were socializing at the end of a long day of teaching participants about genetic science and [...]