Hannah S. Palmer is an American writer and artist from the Southside of Atlanta.
Through her essays, lectures, and collaborative projects, Palmer reconsiders urban rivers, neglected spaces, public swimming pools, environmental justice, and the forms of nature that persist within urban environments. Among these projects is Finding the Flint, an investigation into the headwaters of the river flowing underneath Atlanta’s mega-airport. In 2024, she published The Pool Is Closed: Segregation, Summertime, and the Search for a Place to Swim, which examines the social, racial, and political dimensions of access to water in the United States.
Her work is distinguished by its attention to the stories embedded within urban landscapes and by a nuanced reflection on the ways infrastructure, water, memory, and the living world shape our everyday experience of the city.
POOLBODY is a new multi-site performance series unfolding across Toronto from August 6–9. Pools are complex spaces—sites of leisure and competition, public gathering and private escape, play and surveillance, intimacy, memory, access, exclusion, and joy.
POOLBODY brings together performances, conversations, workshops, and site-responsive projects that move through these tensions. Featuring Aisha Sasha John, Aysia Tse & (H)annah Kryworuchko, Hannah Palmer, Mikiki, Nyda Kwasowsky, Ranganathan Rajan, and Tess Martens. PLUS, a Seniors Movement Workshop with Roxy Menzies, and a Kids Pool Art Exhibit & watercolour workshop with Richa Baghel.
This series is made possible with support from Toronto Arts Council | Toronto Arts Foundation – Arts in the Parks, FADO Performance Art Centre and Dancemakers Curators in Community Fund.
PROGRAM – all events are FREE and OPEN to all
THURSDAY, AUGUST 6 (1) FADO Performance Art Centre, The Commons, 401 Richmond St. W. (MAP)
6:00 PM: Performance Lecture & Opening Reception Pool Maintenance by Hannah S. Palmer
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7 (2) Flagstaff Park, 42 Mercury Rd, Rexdale (ACCESS INFO & MAP)
12:30–1:30 PM: Kids’ Pool Art Exhibition & Kid’s Watercolour Workshop with Richa Baghel 1:00–2:00 PM: Seniors’ Movement Workshop led by Roxy Menzies
2:30–4:00 PM: Performances Lifelines (a pilgrimage with, to and for the waters) by Nyda Kwasowsky Phantasmagoria by Ranganathan Rajan PAPER. BAG. SAG. DOLL… by Tess Martens
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8 (3) Hart House Pool, University of Toronto, 7 Hart House Circle (ACCESS INFO & MAP)
6:30–8:30 PM: Performances pool notes and (mis)alignments by Aysia Tse & (H)annah Kryworuchko SPLASH PAD by Mikiki
SUNDAY, AUGUST 9 (4) Private Pool (Baby Point Road)
6:00 PM: Performance my astonishing wealth by Aisha Sasha John
ACCESS INFORMATION
(1) The Commons @ 401 has a barrier-free entrance on the northeast side of the building, with an automatic door. The Commons is on the fourth floor and can be reached by elevator. Accessible washrooms are available on the first and fourth floors.
(2) Flagstaff Park and pool deck is wheelchair accessible. Some activities will take place on grass, which may be uneven or difficult to navigate with a mobility device. The pool washroom has one step at the entrance and is not fully wheelchair accessible. ASL interpretation will be available for the seniors’ movement workshop and the pool performances.
(3) Hart House Aquatic Centre has barrier-free entrances and an elevator that serves all floors. The pool is on the lower level. A universal washroom is available on the basement level, near the Arbor Room. On weekends, visitors using the barrier-free entrance should enter from Tower Road. ASL interpretation will be available for the performance.
(4) Baby Point Road location is a private home and backyard pool. Unfortunately, the venue is not wheelchair accessible.
For access questions or to request additional accommodations, please contact Shalon at shalonwh@gmail.com
This fragrance opens us to the question, has the show started? It's winter, the theatre is colder than the street and the room is filled with people and all their winter smells: wet faux leather, down, too much shampoo, and beer breath. The atmosphere is a trickster. Am I late, am I early?
