Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, musician and member of Alderville First Nation. She is the author of seven previous books, including newly released, A Short History of the Blockade, and the novel Noopiming: A Cure for White Ladies. Leanne has released four albums including her new work, the Polaris short-listed, Theory of Ice. Her latest book, co-authored with Robyn Maynard and entitled Rehearsals for Living is forthcoming in 2022.
Title: “Pinery Road & Concession 11.”
Abstract: In “Pinery Road & Concession 11”, writer, academic and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson reflects on the chapter of the same name in Dionne Brand’s A Map to the Door of No Return. By travelling to the same corner in rural Ontario that Brand’s car broke down two decades earlier, Simpson considers place, belonging, diaspora, property, and foreclosure in her own Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg homeland. Braiding repeated time lapse photography of the journey and surveillance footage of the corner with her sister Ansley Simpson’s drone like instrumental from Leanne’s track “Solidification” (Noopiming Sessions, Giizhiwe Music, 2021), “Pinery Road & Concession 11” is an honour song to Brand’s constellation of thought that has travelled the world, and back to the Burnt River, near Kinmount, Ontario.