Queer Artists in a Pandemic

Dainty Smith is living through a double pandemic

By Lito Howse • October 21, 2020 1:09 pm EDT

Dainty Smith is a Toronto-based actor, playwright, producer and burlesque performer. About a decade ago she started a burlesque troupe called Les Femmes Fatales for women, femmes, non-binary and trans folks of colour.

Dainty Smith — Dainty Smith Credit: Lito Howse

In the third episode of our video series, Queer Artists in a Pandemic, Smith discusses how she had to cancel the final installment of her Afro-futurism burlesque trilogy when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lockdown. Smith shares her experience creating art as a Black, queer, bisexual woman amid a global pandemic and a racial reckoning.

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Lito Howse (they/them) is a queer and trans/non-binary identified videographer, editor and producer based in Toronto. They previously worked for the CBC where they wrote TV stories, edited and control room produced for News Network. They also produced videos for CBC Radio and wrote web articles for shows like The Current and As It Happens, among other roles. They speak English.

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