Nicola Harwood is a queer Anglo/Gaelic Canadian artist. Their background is in theatre and performance, particularly collaborative creation, feminist work and community engaged practice. Their most recent work is in painting and interactive media installation. They are also a playwright and memoirist.
Their practice is an extension of a curious, energetic and playful nature that seeks to know itself in the body and in the culture and community of its time. The trajectory of their practice has been broad, exploring several mediums, while the thematic concerns remain, after many years and many projects, surprisingly consistent.
The body and its joyful and fuckable presence permeates their work. They grapple with history, both personal and collective, with power and pleasure, with presence on the land and with the alchemy of kinship as it expresses in both loving and political relationships.
Their writing seeks to uncover the hidden histories of land, women and queers while engaging with the notion of home as contested territory. They love to write comedy and tragedy and their work often veers at breakneck speed between the two. For a complete project record see their CV here.
Nicola was born in Kelowna, BC, Canada which lies within the unceded territories of the Syilx speaking people of the Okanagan Nation. They currently live in Nelson, BC, which lies on the border of the unceded territories of the Sinixt peoples and the Ktunaxa Nation and in Vancouver, which lies within the shared ancestral and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-waututh Nations.
Nicola has taught at San Francisco State University, the University of Victoria, Selkirk College and currently teaches Creative Writing and Interdisciplinary Expressive Arts and in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange program at Kwantlen Polytechnic University on the traditional, shared and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples including the Kwantlen, Katzie, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen and Musqueam First Nations.
They have a long history of work with youth at risk and autistic youth including group home work, foster parent experience and many theatre and art making projects with youth. Their human rights practice is constantly evolving and they work to be trauma informed and decolonial. They are a proud mother, grandmother, auntie, and sister. They feel honored and privileged to work on this land.
Hay ce:p qa’. Thank you.
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