BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH PRODID:-//Telerik Inc.//Sitefinity CMS 15.1//EN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Eastern Standard Time BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251102T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=1SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=11 TZNAME:Eastern Standard Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250301T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=2SU;BYHOUR=2;BYMINUTE=0;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:Eastern Daylight Time TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DESCRIPTION:Speeding along the Queen Elizabeth Way\, it is easy to overlook the gray\, industrial landscape along the shore of Lake Ontario. But near the airport\, off the expressway—no place really—is a small oasis\, thoug h difficult to tell from outside. In Unit #28\, the goddess\, Mariamman\, sits. How to begin the story of Her presence? Where to begin? Maybe South India\, “home” of the goddess whose powers of fertility are invoked to bri ng rains to barren fields and relief from bodily afflictions. Or perhaps B ritish Guiana\, the “new homeland” of indentured laborers who carried her across dark waters in the nineteenth century to the edge of sugarcane plan tations. Following that nation’s independence in 1966\, and the economic a nd political upheaval that ensued\, Indo-Guyanese emigrants took flight\, bringing revitalized traditions from the Caribbean to North American citie s. Traversing these generations and geographies is relevant to understandi ng how the goddess in her many forms has come to be revered in a barren in dustrial park on the outskirts of Toronto. While Brampton is known as “Flo wer City” due to the floriculture industry that once thrived there\, few t races of the flower works remain today beyond city branding. Warehouses ha ve replaced greenhouses and meters of roads suffocate most signs of life. Yet\, a vast transnational network of commodities and exchange have vitali zed Mother worship here\, even nourishing its growth. This weedy tradition is quite adept at colonizing cracks in the pavement.In this talk\, I expl ore one such place\, a busy intersection where the plot-and-plantation rev erberates (Wynter 1971). Weekly gatherings of human and more-than-human en tities—plants among them—participate in collaborative\, co-creative acts t hat make life more meaningful\, bearable\, and interesting. This is plot-l ife\, in McKittrick’s (2013) sense\, “a creative geography of alternative history practices that has no interest in rehearsing lifelessness.” But to make claims and occupy involves enacting boundaries on different terms. S weat and blood\, soot and smoke\, pounding rhythms and dancing feet\, firm ly emplace rather than merely transcend. Here\, the sovereign meets the se nsuous\, replenishing what modernity drains. \;Shannon A. Novak is a P rofessor of Anthropology at Syracuse University. Her research seeks to und erstand human bodies as living beings\, material substances\, and cultural symbols. To do so involves following tissues and traces through shifting landscapes\, embodied practices\, and historical narratives. Her fieldwork \, in turn\, takes place in multiples settings\, including ethnographic si tes\, as well as archives\, laboratories\, and archaeological excavations. Broadly trained in bioarchaeology and social anthropology\, Novak’s resea rch is especially concerned with multiple ontologies of the body and “more -than-human” assemblages. In one form or another\, her studies have engage d with ruptures that occurred across the long nineteenth-century and whose resonances are experienced in the present: from ethno-religious conflict in the Intermountain West\, to rebellious acts of abolitionists in New Yor k City. Her recent research traces the movements of indentured laborers fr om India to the Caribbean—in particular\, British Guiana. Since 2016\, she has been conducting ethnographic research with Indo-Guyanese communities in both New York and Toronto. \; \; \; DTEND:20220421T180000Z DTSTAMP:20260313T081239Z DTSTART:20220421T163000Z LOCATION: SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Plot-Life in Flower City: Transnational Ritual Ecologies in the Wak e of Plantations UID:RFCALITEM639089719591136713 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Speeding along the Queen Elizabeth Way\, it is easy to overlook the gray\, industrial landscape along the shore of La ke Ontario. But near the airport\, off the expressway—no place really—is a small oasis\, though difficult to tell from outside. In Unit #28\, the go ddess\, Mariamman\, sits. How to begin the story of Her presence? Where to begin? Maybe South India\, “home” of the goddess whose powers of fertilit y are invoked to bring rains to barren fields and relief from bodily affli ctions. Or perhaps British Guiana\, the “new homeland” of indentured labor ers who carried her across dark waters in the nineteenth century to the ed ge of sugarcane plantations. Following that nation’s independence in 1966\ , and the economic and political upheaval that ensued\, Indo-Guyanese emig rants took flight\, bringing revitalized traditions from the Caribbean to North American cities. Traversing these generations and geographies is rel evant to understanding how the goddess in her many forms has come to be re vered in a barren industrial park on the outskirts of Toronto. While Bramp ton is known as “Flower City” due to the floriculture industry that once t hrived there\, few traces of the flower works remain today beyond city bra nding. Warehouses have replaced greenhouses and meters of roads suffocate most signs of life. Yet\, a vast transnational network of commodities and exchange have vitalized Mother worship here\, even nourishing its growth. This weedy tradition is quite adept at colonizing cracks in the pavement.< br>

In this talk\, I explore one such place\, a busy intersecti on where the plot-and-plantation reverberates (Wynter 1971). Weekly gather ings of human and more-than-human entities—plants among them—participate i n collaborative\, co-creative acts that make life more meaningful\, bearab le\, and interesting. This is plot-life\, in McKittrick’s (2013) sense\, “a creative geography of alternative history practices that has no interest in rehearsing lifelessness.” But to make claims and occupy invol ves enacting boundaries on different terms. Sweat and blood\, soot and smo ke\, pounding rhythms and dancing feet\, firmly emplace rather than merely transcend. Here\, the sovereign meets the sensuous\, replenishing what mo dernity drains. \;

Shannon A. Novak is a Profes sor of Anthropology at Syracuse University. Her research seeks to understa nd human bodies as living beings\, material substances\, and cultural symb ols. To do so involves following tissues and traces through shifting lands capes\, embodied practices\, and historical narratives. Her fieldwork\, in turn\, takes place in multiples settings\, including ethnographic sites\, as well as archives\, laboratories\, and archaeological excavations. Broa dly trained in bioarchaeology and social anthropology\, Novak’s research i s especially concerned with multiple ontologies of the body and “more-than -human” assemblages. In one form or another\, her studies have engaged wit h ruptures that occurred across the long nineteenth-century and whose reso nances are experienced in the present: from ethno-religious conflict in th e Intermountain West\, to rebellious acts of abolitionists in New York Cit y. Her recent research traces the movements of indentured laborers from In dia to the Caribbean—in particular\, British Guiana. Since 2016\, she has been conducting ethnographic research with Indo-Guyanese communities in bo th New York and Toronto. \;

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