Liz Solo (Lizband, the Black Bags, Live Girlz) is a St. John’s based musician, performer and activist. She has been working on the independent music scene, both as a musician and promotor/organizer, for almost 25 years. Co-founder of the Independent Artists Cooperative (an artist-run resource center), Rock Can Roll Media Collective (an artist’s collective/record label) Liz has lots of information to share on the evolution of the East Coast music scene, it’s successes and ongoing challenges. Liz is also co-creator of the skills-sharing program Rock School for Girls (with Cherie Pyne and Rhiannon Thomas).

event info

Workshop on Postering
Background: In the 1998 Liz and other members of the St. John’s arts and business community took on the City of St. John’s’ Postering By-Law – a law that prohibited any postering or passing of information by paper within the city limits. Through first protest and then by involving all the stakeholders in a problem solving process St. John’s formulated a solution to the issue and now has an effective postering program in place.

The success in St. John’s was partly due to the efforts of a Peterborough Ontario man , Ken Ramsden. When he was fined $500 each for two posters he erected in his city, Mr. Ramsden contested the issue all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada where the ruling was in his favor. In 1993 the Supreme Court ruled against the City of Peterborough, pointing to a section of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights 2b) which states that everyone has “the right to freedom of thought and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communications”.
Many postering by-laws are actually unconstitutional and therefore illegal, as the right to freedom of expression if protected. Posters are viewed by many as a traditional form of communication, an historical practice and a means of communication accessible to those who may not otherwise have a forum or resources to promote their ideas.

Each community dealing with this issue will have to assess the sensitivities of their area to formulate a unique plan to identify and approach stakeholders, to generate a working process and to create a viable solution. Though the times have changed a great deal since the late nineties, postering is still a protected right by law and so this is a great starting point towards creating solutions. Liz will describe the process undertaken in St. John’s and then speak about solutions other communities have adopted. Through group discussion the workshop will help identify potential plans of action for dealing with this and other issues related to the Kelowna independent music scene.

Liz will also touch on her work with Rock School for Girls and community based programs in St. John’s related to artists workspace (jamspace), scene evolution and the importance of archiving.
www.lizsolo.com
www.iamcoop.blogspot.com
www.rockcanrollrecords.com