It's a busy, busy week! TJFest, the Transformative Justice Collective's biennal abolitionist festival, opens on Thursday night. Every two years, all our working groups come together to plan a series of events—in the form of workshops, open mics, talks/speeches, collective art-making, etc.—to present to the public. The idea is to create a space for learning, conversation and reimagining the sort of communities and societies we want to live in.
In line with the emerging pattern of TJC events being sabo-ed by the authorities, we've had to change our festival's venue at the last minute. Here's TJC's message:
On Friday, 11 July, TJC received a message from IMDA through our Eventbrite page asking for details of our programme for TJFest, and stating that we would require an Arts Entertainment License (“AEL”).
We informed IMDA that our opening event and closing event would contain a couple of performances per event – in particular, our opening event had a line-up of speeches, and we had planned to conclude the evening with just one song.
On receipt of our reply, TJC received a phone call from IMDA on Monday, 14 July. Off the bat, we were “advised” that we would first require permission from URA to hold our event at the original venue, before the AEL could be discussed.
When further pressed on whether an event with only one live song would be subject to licensing, IMDA confirmed that the AEL is required “regardless of duration” of the performances.
This left us scrambling – 4 days before TJFest starts!
Publicity for TJFest had gone up a full month ago, and IMDA could surely have reached out earlier…now, even if the URA issue could be resolved and in time, it seems quite impossible at this point to work out an AEL by 17 July.
According to the IMDA website, we would ordinarily have needed to apply 36 working days ago.
The existing regulatory regime around the arts creates hurdles to artistic, social and political expression – ultimately diminishing society.
We decry this bureaucratic labyrinth intended to censor and control creative life.
Having made the relevant adjustments to our venue and programming, we look forward to welcoming everyone at The Projector @ Golden Mile.
We are grateful for venue partners past and present who have been most supportive given the circumstances.
Still, we press on!
I'm involved in two events for TJFest, both taking place on 19 July. The first, 'Voices from Death Row', will draw out patterns and common themes that we've observed over many years of working with and supporting death row prisoners and their families. The second is a lecture on the War on Drugs—its origins, its underlying motivations, its impact on people and communities, its harms and alternatives that are open to us once we shake off this 'wartime' lens that we've all been forced to adopt.
Everyone at TJC is working hard to prep for our events, and we look forward to seeing you at them! It doesn't matter if you feel like you don't know much about abolitionism, transformative justice, drug policy, policing or the death penalty. It doesn't matter if you haven't made up your mind on a variety of issues yet. TJFest is a space for you to bring your questions, your doubts, your reflections. Let's talk and learn and play together!