First mounted in Eglinton Gilbert Parkette, in the community of Eglinton West, in October of 2021, for the Year of Public Art, in A TORONTO MANS REFLECTION VOL I: LOKEY CARE BOOTH, The Lokey Care booth, is a collaborative creation of The Good Guise, that features the photography of Logan Marrast (aka @lokeyshots).

SKETCH partners with ArtworxTO in this 2022 initiative to extend the life public art in local neighbourhoods to celebrate local artists across Toronto through its network of Public Libraries.

The Maria A. Shchuka Library, 1745 Eglinton Avenue West

Born and raised in the Dufferin Street and Eglinton Avenue area, Logan Marrast (aka @lokeyshots) reimagines a phone booth as a mental health check-in that centres care, support, and healing for racialized men. Black/brown men are taught to suppress their emotions and to neglect vulnerable self-expression. This brand of masculinity has adverse consequences for men who look like him.

The images presented in the phone booth display staples in Logan’s community and possible models for care: men who are leaders within their own right, who took the time to listen, who did not judge, but more importantly, who lent a helping hand and modelled vulnerability and care. The phone booth is a symbol of the CARE all racialized men need. It demonstrates the differences that can bring us together and showcases our ability to express ourselves and not feel alone. The Lokey care booth provides a space for Black/brown men to be listened to, to seek help, and not be shunned or shamed.

Confronted by multiple, simultaneous pandemics of COVID, Anti Black Racism, and Gender Based Violence, Good Guise artists looked through their personal and community histories for inspiration and solace.

Pods have played a key role in transformative justice processes as a way to walk alongside people who have caused or received harm. The Good Guise propose an exploration into how these pods can be formed, and sustained, with a focus on racialized men becoming Future Ancestors.

Drawing inspiration from the self-organized care pods activated in the 80’s to cope with the AIDS epidemic, this iterative installation engages racialized men as organizers of intimate and supportive spaces – living-room style – redesigned in pods of care and vulnerability in which no one is disposable, to cope and respond to the many pandemics we face today.

Learn more about Creating Pods of Care in this edition. Stay tuned for a remix of the Guide for younger audiences.

We began at Eglinton West with the recognition that to become Future Ancestors, we would have to first learn to care for ourselves, our survival, and that of our communities. Our second installation brought you an immersive audiovisual experience that wove together poetry and photo/videography by Jah Grey, Mosheh I – Tree Herdsman, Bidemi Oloyede and Mobólúwajídìde (Bo) Joseph with contributions from other members of The Good Guise.

We have been harmed, we ourselves also have harmed. What does it then mean to be accountable to ourselves and to others in this dual reality? This installation invited participants to immerse themselves in our reflections as we approached this question from a position of self and communal care. We asked what it means to love and practice loving accountability as future ancestors rooted in community. While we don’t yet have the answers, we hoped this could be a starting point for others asking similar questions.

Learn more about loving accountability in the latest Guise Guide.