Raging Asian Women Taiko Drummers
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Mission Statement
RAW’s mission is to empower and encourage people, especially womxn of color, to find and express their own voice and power, and to influence positive personal, group and societal development through our practice and presentation of the Taiko drum. RAW fuses ensemble Taiko drumming with contemporary movement vocabularies as creative resistance for social change, carving space for self-expression, growth and community building. Formed in 1998, Raging Asian Womxn Taiko Drummers is one of the few all-Asian, all-womxn (open to cisgender women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming performers) Taiko drumming groups in the world. Drawing on a culture and framework of anti-oppressive, queer and intersectional feminism, RAW uses Taiko performance, education, and community outreach, to engage audience members and participants in challenging systemic and internalized oppressions and celebrating our varied complex identities.
About This Cause
Founded by a feminist and queer collective of musicians, RAW has always drawn on a culture and framework of anti-oppressive, queer and intersectional feminism to engage audience members and participants in challenging oppressions and celebrating our varied identities. Taiko is at the core of this performance-based activism, and the drums create a distinct and memorable experience of art for social justice. Prior to COVID-19, annually within Ontario, RAW performed at approximately 15-20 events, including 4-6 performances in Ontario schools for May Asian Heritage Month and a highly anticipated performance at the Dyke March in Allen Gardens; taught 4-6 standalone public workshops, half of which were reserved for 2SLGBTQI+ participants; facilitated one 8-week registration-based workshop series in collaboration with Queer Asian Youth; and led 2 collegiate after-school Taiko clubs. These activities reached approximately five to ten thousand audience members and participants in the Greater Toronto Area per year. Alternating years, with breaks in-between for training new apprentices, RAW mounts 1 large-scale theatrical (From Rage Comes 2013, Crooked Lines: Stories in Between 2016, Undaunted: Into the Open 2019) or international festival project (Toronto Taiko Festival 2012, 2017, 2021). These projects reach over 1500 audience members or participants each. These events are attended by a diverse audience, but we receive the most enthusiastic responses and feedback from members of East/South-East Asian diaspora communities, racialized communities, communities of women, gender non-conforming and queer peoples. In summer 2021, RAW is launching a new studio at 1220 Dupont St. that will 1) permanently host RAW rehearsals and public Taiko presentations and programming, 2) function as Toronto Taiko Festival head office-space and programming centre, and 3) offer affordable sliding scale multi-use studio space for rent by musicians and movement artists with priority given to QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of colour) artists and performers. This project is core to RAW’s recovery strategy in the wake of COVID-19. RAW is not only recovering –– we are investing in a resilient future for racialized and queer artists and marginalized artistic practices in Toronto.