0:00:06.950,0:00:09.169 Can you introduce yourself ? 0:00:17.747,0:00:22.275 Hello! My name is Dee. D. Mathieu Cassendo 0:00:22.275,0:00:24.677 I’m a cartoonist, an illustrator. 0:00:25.539,0:00:27.370 I create propaganda, 0:00:27.370,0:00:29.750 and soon, queer pornography. 0:00:30.401,0:00:33.911 I started drawing when I was five. 0:00:33.911,0:00:35.258 Everyone draws when they’re little. 0:00:35.261,0:00:37.621 My first “famous” drawing, 0:00:37.621,0:00:40.231 which made my career 0:00:40.231,0:00:46.251 is a pink dragon with stinging flames. 0:00:46.251,0:00:49.451 But, professionally, 0:00:49.451,0:00:52.111 I started putting my stuff online in 2011 0:00:52.181,0:00:54.671 and creating small comic strips. 0:00:54.671,0:00:56.651 My goal in life is to create a webcomic. 0:00:56.651,0:00:59.201 Things that really interest me 0:00:59.201,0:01:00.991 are the world of fantasy, 0:01:00.991,0:01:03.931 how people interact, 0:01:03.931,0:01:08.301 also within a world that is more real, 0:01:08.301,0:01:10.161 in Laval, Montreal, very Quebecois, 0:01:10.161,0:01:12.741 and definitely very Afro-Quebecois. 0:01:12.741,0:01:16.061 La Petite Suceuse is my first book, 0:01:16.061,0:01:18.681 in paperback. 0:01:18.681,0:01:20.011 It’s the story of a young 0:01:20.107,0:01:21.571 280 year-old girl. 0:01:25.140,0:01:26.820 Who lives in a universe, 0:01:26.827,0:01:29.297 in a Quebec, in 2302, 0:01:29.297,0:01:30.127 in the future. 0:01:30.127,0:01:32.547 We’re living in a leftist dictatorship. 0:01:32.547,0:01:34.177 Everyone is very ecological. 0:01:34.177,0:01:36.347 Education is free. 0:01:36.347,0:01:38.287 But, no one is happy. 0:01:38.287,0:01:42.287 No one is happy because Quebeckers 0:01:42.287,0:01:44.527 have lost their right to vote. 0:01:44.527,0:01:48.527 Because there is a world elite 0:01:48.527,0:01:54.057 that is lead by people we call the Hemagis. 0:01:54.377,0:01:58.773 And the Hemagis are people who have super-human powers 0:01:58.813,0:01:59.533 but need to feed off of human blood. 0:02:02.708,0:02:05.358 There are a lot of roles for the Hemagis. 0:02:05.952,0:02:08.022 My protagonist, who is Magdalena, 0:02:08.022,0:02:10.482 the young girl, has had enough, 0:02:10.482,0:02:14.482 has had enough of being at the service of humans. 0:02:14.624,0:02:18.364 Her role as a patroller is to walk the streets 0:02:18.364,0:02:21.624 to ensure humans are not attacking other humans 0:02:21.624,0:02:24.714 and she finds them really childish. 0:02:24.714,0:02:28.714 She decides to start her own small revolution. 0:02:30.654,0:02:33.424 There’s contempt among humans and 0:02:33.424,0:02:35.914 Hemagis and the humans have really had it, 0:02:35.914,0:02:37.814 but really had it with the Hemagis. 0:02:40.670,0:02:43.120 Mag decides that she’ll give them a reason 0:02:43.120,0:02:44.410 to really hate them. 0:02:44.410,0:02:46.640 And that’s the story in brief. 0:02:47.345,0:02:48.585 [As a person who identifies as afro-feminist and queer.] 0:02:48.585,0:02:52.295 I don’t just draw blue-eyed blonds I guess 0:02:52.295,0:02:54.355 and apparently that surprises a lot 0:02:54.355,0:02:56.815 of people. When I started to affirm myself 0:02:56.815,0:03:00.275 more in my art and all that, 0:03:00.275,0:03:02.545 there were a lot of people asking me 0:03:02.545,0:03:05.795 why I only draw black women. 0:03:05.795,0:03:08.715 And I’m like… (gestures toward herself) 0:03:09.512,0:03:12.842 Why would I draw anyone else? 0:03:12.842,0:03:15.692 You know, it’s not strictly that but 0:03:15.692,0:03:17.862 black women, the black woman is 0:03:17.879,0:03:20.299 prominent in what I do but that’s because 0:03:20.299,0:03:23.079 I’m surrounded by black women. 0:03:23.079,0:03:25.299 I grew up with two sisters, one mother, 0:03:25.299,0:03:27.089 I have a father, a brother too 0:03:27.089,0:03:28.679 but you know women have always been 0:03:28.679,0:03:29.332 really, really close. 0:03:29.332,0:03:31.065 I find that being black is glorious! 0:03:31.085,0:03:34.168 I find that women are really pretty. 0:03:34.837,0:03:37.573 It’s like, it’s obvious that I’ll include 0:03:37.573,0:03:38.863 them in the things I love, so, drawing. 0:03:39.746,0:03:41.496 Black: everyone sees that I’m black. 0:03:42.933,0:03:45.893 Woman: some still wonder. 0:03:47.539,0:03:52.869 But, more political claims are invisible. 0:03:53.968,0:03:57.108 Plus, in any case, in my case, 0:03:57.108,0:03:59.478 it’s important to say them loud and clear. 0:04:00.873,0:04:02.193 Afro-fem, yes. 0:04:02.193,0:04:04.883 I still have, not necessarily a reluctance 0:04:04.883,0:04:06.403 with the word Afro-feminist, 0:04:06.403,0:04:09.743 but it’s just that when I[br]learned what it really is, 0:04:09.743,0:04:11.303 it was in a European context 0:04:11.303,0:04:14.213 and the reality of Afropean women isn’t 0:04:14.213,0:04:16.353 the same as Afro-Americans, 0:04:16.353,0:04:18.793 Afro-Quebeckers, Afro-Canadians. 0:04:18.793,0:04:21.633 In Quebec, we need to reaffirm ourselves 0:04:21.633,0:04:24.553 in terms of the Black feminist struggle. 0:04:24.570,0:04:28.570 It’s complicated because above all, 0:04:28.570,0:04:32.570 we think “ah yea, afro struggles 0:04:32.570,0:04:35.470 in general, it happens in the U.S., with 0:04:35.470,0:04:38.710 Martin Luther King,” but it’s bigger 0:04:38.710,0:04:40.840 than that. 0:04:40.840,0:04:42.790 If I use this label, 0:04:42.790,0:04:44.210 it’s because I want to. 0:04:44.210,0:04:46.090 I respect people who refuse the label, 0:04:46.090,0:04:47.610 it’s all good. 0:04:48.949,0:04:53.479 But it’s also to, push me to learn more about it. 0:04:53.509,0:04:57.449 I think that by using labels, 0:04:59.584,0:05:03.584 it’s easier to navigate 0:05:03.584,0:05:04.759 toward where you want to go. 0:05:05.799,0:05:07.759 During the parade for St-Jean, 0:05:07.759,0:05:12.029 which is the national holiday of Quebekers, I guess 0:05:12.029,0:05:16.839 They decided to make it a green parade 0:05:16.838,0:05:19.969 so people would be pushing the floats. 0:05:21.989,0:05:22.810 On one of the floats, 0:05:22.810,0:05:25.906 there was a female singer – 0:05:25.906,0:05:29.586 I don’t know her name and don’t care to be honest 0:05:30.047,0:05:32.427 with a long blue robe, singing: 0:05:32.437,0:05:35.395 “My dear Quebec, it’s your turn!,” 0:05:35.395,0:05:40.150 with lots of people, all white people, 0:05:40.150,0:05:44.340 singing around [the float] with little fairytale motions. 0:05:46.070,0:05:47.760 And around the float 0:05:47.760,0:05:49.930 with the little white woman, 0:05:49.930,0:05:56.240 there were young racialized men pushing the float. 0:05:58.020,0:06:00.560 I don’t know what the French expression is 0:06:00.560,0:06:02.960 but in Creole we say “En ba rèdi,” 0:06:02.960,0:06:06.180 like, they were really having a hard time. 0:06:07.145,0:06:14.175 With costumes that the organizers said were parchment coloured 0:06:14.175,0:06:18.175 with verses from poems on them, 0:06:18.773,0:06:20.613 but from far, okay, 0:06:20.623,0:06:22.433 it looked like slave clothing. 0:06:23.347,0:06:25.947 You know, they still don’t realize 0:06:25.959,0:06:27.559 the image it projected. 0:06:27.559,0:06:29.709 Even after the rehearsals, to say to themselves 0:06:29.709,0:06:31.589 “you know what, this is weird.” 0:06:31.589,0:06:33.219 But no! Because they could care less. 0:06:33.219,0:06:35.559 And that’s the “bottom line” of 0:06:35.559,0:06:38.609 the diversity conversation in Quebec. 0:06:38.609,0:06:41.789 People don’t care, simply put. 0:06:41.789,0:06:45.159 And, they patted themselves on the back 0:06:45.159,0:06:48.539 saying “Oh yes, we are good for diversity, 0:06:48.539,0:06:50.169 we wanted to include the everyone.” 0:06:50.169,0:06:52.779 But for them, inclusion means having 0:06:52.779,0:06:54.629 people from an underserved neighborhood, 0:06:54.629,0:06:55.909 to have them do the shit jobs. 0:06:56.408,0:06:59.308 Basically, there was a controversy 0:06:59.804,0:07:01.874 because the image: 0:07:01.874,0:07:03.954 it got people scared.[br] 0:07:03.954,0:07:06.554 It was extremely colonial 0:07:08.484,0:07:11.374 but you could say it’s just Quebec 0:07:11.374,0:07:12.694 putting its cards on the table. 0:07:12.974,0:07:16.794 I told myself I needed to react 0:07:17.184,0:07:20.004 because we’ve had it in Quebec with negative 0:07:20.004,0:07:24.814 images when it comes black communities. 0:07:25.795,0:07:26.795 If for Quebec, 0:07:26.795,0:07:30.045 diversity is about having black people 0:07:30.045,0:07:32.945 lifting up white people, because 0:07:32.945,0:07:35.525 that’s what it was. 0:07:35.670,0:07:39.350 Then, we’ll just “switch” places. 0:07:39.776,0:07:41.996 So that's what I drew. 0:07:41.996,0:07:45.073 With black people on a kind of platform, 0:07:46.593,0:07:48.323 with pan-African flags, 0:07:48.733,0:07:50.773 hyper “swagged up” 0:07:52.103,0:07:54.353 with white people lifting them up 0:07:54.353,0:07:57.053 wearing flesh-coloured robes. 0:07:58.596,0:08:00.896 I said to myself, voila! That’s it. 0:08:01.094,0:08:02.794 I got comments that were 0:08:02.794,0:08:04.204 very much like “Ah, but you know, 0:08:04.204,0:08:05.644 we’re not all racist.” 0:08:05.644,0:08:07.394 or “Yes, but I’m not racist.” 0:08:07.785,0:08:10.265 I find it disturbing to get messages 0:08:10.265,0:08:12.275 from white people saying “Ah, yes, 0:08:12.275,0:08:15.095 I’m happy to see what you’re doing, etc… 0:08:15.095,0:08:16.555 I hope you go kill all the white people 0:08:16.555,0:08:20.555 in your stories.” But I’m like “What?” 0:08:23.175,0:08:25.015 A lot of people have a hard time 0:08:25.015,0:08:31.715 understanding the goal of my comics, 0:08:31.715,0:08:35.225 that I identify with the word Afro-Quebecker. 0:08:37.076,0:08:39.736 I don’t want to kill all the white people, 0:08:39.736,0:08:41.996 “What the fuck?” Like, seriously? 0:08:42.939,0:08:44.709 I have a big mouth and it’s bad[br] 0:08:44.709,0:08:46.859 when you’re on social media. 0:08:48.013,0:08:49.793 But, it’s fun at the same time 0:08:49.793,0:08:51.063 because it creates a community. 0:08:51.063,0:08:52.193 There are people who get interested 0:08:52.193,0:08:57.473 in your work and it creates opportunities to collaborate. 0:08:57.473,0:08:58.623 It’s fun 0:08:59.359,0:09:01.689 It's fun but not fun at the same time.