Programming

Hors-la-loi is a poetic suite about the trauma and injustice of violence against women, people who identify with femininity, and people who are socialized or perceived as women. In a way, these poems are testimonies to events experienced by me, my loved ones and so many others. Fear, shame, hatred, rage, discouragement, numbness, acceptance, resilience, hope and love are all states of being and emotions that have guided my writing of this suite. Writing in secret can be both liberating and a source of isolation, deep introspection or withdrawal. The process can be painful, inscribing itself in the secret pain provoked by gendered violence as an extension, a logical continuation, just as it can be relieving; writing like sitting naked in front of a mirror and saying I love you to the scars. To break away from the violence of intimacy, you need to have the space to expose the vulnerability of your survival, so that it meets and resonates with that of others. That's why I'm sharing this poetry with you, what it denounces and what it cherishes, so that it can be felt right on the street by those who live it, ignore it or perpetuate it.

Mathilde Senécal

Born in 1994 in Tio'tià:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal, Mathilde Senécal has been active in poetry since 2018. Her poems have been published in literary magazines and collective collections, disseminated at festivals, performed at events and displayed in public spaces. A member of the La poésie partout cultural organization team since 2019, she has participated in the design, coordination and facilitation of several poetry events and projects in Quebec. A doctoral student and lecturer in educational sciences at Université de Montréal, her research focuses on the role of ethico-administrative systems in regulating the academic freedom of researchers.