Black Lives Matter
Representation in the Arts
PURPOSE:
Engaging with the arts can teach us to see, to listen, to feel, and to be emotionally present to our experiences and the experiences of others. In addition to being an outlet for human expression and creativity, the Arts can illuminate multiple perspectives, question and deepen understanding, challenge our assumptions and work toward the dismantling of oppressive practices. In response to the systematic racial injustice that has been at the forefront of all of our minds, in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, and the artists and the organizations working to eradicate racism, the teachers of the Expressive Arts Department felt it essential to:
What lies herein, is a small example of the 100s of Toronto-based Black Visual, Music and Theatre artists whose work inspires people around the globe (Dance and Literary Arts are not represented).
Bushra Junaid
Bushra Junaid is a Toronto-based artist and arts administrator. Raised in St. John’s, Newfoundland, she has a Bachelor of Environmental Design and Masters of Architecture from the Technical University in Nova Scotia. Junaid explores history, memory and Black identity through mixed media collage, drawing and painting.
She recently curated What Carries Us: Newfoundland and Labrador in the Black Atlantic, an exhibition seeking to answer what it means to revisit old stories that purport to tell us who we are.Junaid illustrated Nana’s Cold Days (Groundwoods Books) and has exhibited at Painted City Gallery, Galerie Celine Allard, Spence Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto Reference Library, the NFB, Sandra Brewsters’ Open House, and elsewhere. She was also one of the Black artists included in the ROM’s Here we are Here exhibit.
She is the current Outreach and Development Manager at the Ontario Arts Council. She manages OAC’s equity funding programs with the exception of Indigenous Arts. Bushra has been instrumental in gains made at the Ontario Arts Council for Black, Indigenous, artists of colour, Deaf artists and artists with disabilities. Through her invaluable work, greater access and increased funding has been possible for BIPOC, Deaf artists and artists with disabilities in Ontario.
A sincere and heartfelt thank you to Bushra from the entire Expressive Arts team. Bushra served as a consultant on the content of this slideshow. Thank you Bushra!
Sweet Childhood (2017), Bushra Junaid.
Esmaa MOhamoud or E is an African-Canadian sculptor/installation artist working in Toronto. MOhamoud investigates the intangibility of Blackness through issues surrounding Black representation and Black body politics in contemporary spaces.
Her work was included in the Royal Ontario Museum exhibit Every.Now.Then: Reframing Nationhood at the AGO(2017) and in the ROM’s Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art (2018). Here We Are Here came a year after the ROM apologized for a racist 1989 exhibition, Into The Heart Of Africa (ITHOA).
ITHOA sparked protests resulting in violent clashes between police and demonstrators. Subsequently, the ROM pledged to support more events addressing the history of Africa and the diaspora and to grow its collection created with and curated by the African/African diaspora community. Here We Are Here was one step in attempting to right past wrongs. http://esmaamohamoud.com/
Esmaa MOhamoud. One of The Boys (2017). In collaboration w/ Qendrim Hoti, featured in Every.Now.Then: Reframing Nationhood, Art Gallery of Ontario (June 29[-December 10, 2017).
.
Esmaa MOhamoud. Glorious Bones (2019).
Wedge Curatorial Projects is a Toronto non-profit organization with a focus on Black identity in contemporary art. Wedge was established in 1997, by Kenneth Montague, an art collector and dentist. The original gallery was located in Montague’s home in Toronto, literally ‘wedged’ inside the hallway of his loft.
Wedge Curatorial Projects created space for Black artists in the mainstream art market and made Toronto’s art community more inclusive and accessible.
Montague is a celebrated cultural leader in Toronto and was recently recognized with an honorary doctorate from OCADU.
Position As Desired: Exploring African Canadian Identity | Photographs from the Wedge Collection (2017) was the first major exhibition to examine the history, movement and experiences of African Canadians through contemporary photography.
Dawit Petros, Sign, 2010. Digital print. Included in the exhibit, Position As Desired.
Toronto native Larnell Lewis is a musician, composer, producer, educator and clinician. One of Canada’s most promising drummers, Lewis has garnered international status with his most recent works with the three-time Grammy Award winning band, Snarky Puppy. Lewis attended Humber College, where he was the 2004 recipient of the Oscar Peterson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music, the highest award given by the institution.He is now a part-time music professor at Humber College, has been featured on the cover of Modern Drummer (September 2016), and has performed with such artists as Fred Hammond, Lalah Hathaway, Lisa Fischer, and Laila Biali.
In 2017 Lewis was named one of the Top 35 artists under 35 by CBC Music, and also received the award for Emerging Jazz Artist from the Ontario Arts Foundation. Lewis served as musical director for a performance during the Toronto International Film Festival's premiere of the critically acclaimed documentary Quincy, about famed producer Quincy Jones, where he led performances from the likes of Yebba Smith, Mark Ronson, and Chaka Khan.
In 2018 Lewis released his first solo album, In The Moment, on which he played bass, drums, guitar, keyboards, melodica, percussion, piano, synthesizer and vocals, in addition to writing and producing.
Larnell Lewis
Ekow Nimako
Ekow Nimako is a Toronto-based, internationally exhibiting LEGO artist who crafts futuristic and whimsical sculptures from the iconic medium. Rooted in his childhood hobby and intrinsic creativity, Nimako’s formal arts education and background as a lifelong multidisciplinary artist inform his process and signature aesthetic. His fluid building style, coupled with the Afrofuturistic themes of his work, beautifully transcend the geometric medium to embody organic and fantastical silhouettes.
His large scale public installations include the monumental Cavalier Noir (Nuit Blanche, 2018) which features a seven-foot Black rider atop a dauntless Black unicorn. Conceptualized in collaboration with Director X, the piece subverts the dominant imagination of public monuments and centres Black narratives.
Ekow Nimako, Cavalier Noir, 2018 Nuit Blanche Toronto
VICE.COM
Artist Ekow Nimako has carved out a niche for himself building sculptures out of black Lego, one of which was recently featured during Toronto's Nuit Blanche. We went to his studio to find out why he's building monuments for Black youth.
BUILDING WHILE BLACK
See what makes Ekow Nimako do what he does –the life and times of an African-Canadian Lego Artist.
Waleed Abdulhamid is a Canadian Multi-instrumentalist; Composer; Vocalist; Music and Film-maker, and is known for his striking vocals, innovative bass technique, and his speed and precision on percussion. He has been an active member of the Toronto music scene since his arrival from Sudan in 1992, and is the recipient of the Canadian New Pioneer Award; African Tama Award; Reel World Film Festival Award; Canadian Film Board of Excellence Award; DORA Award; other international awards. An exceptionally versatile musician, he has toured the world with his music. He plays 20 instruments: guitar; bass; drums; flute; harmonica; kirin; bass kirin; darabhuka; marimba; balimbo; congas; bongos; djembe; dumbek; aghera; tambour; cajon; denger; ekaa; tama. Waleed has played and recorded with artists including David Clayton Thomas of the Grammy Award winning band Blood, Sweat & Tears, and with the Motown legend, The Drifters. He is also a faculty member of the Music Degree Program at Humber College. Check out this 2015 interview about his project with faculty member John Millard.
(excerpts from City Choir and byblack.com)
Jalani Morgan
An established Toronto based photographer, and visual historian, Jalani Morgan is known nationally and internationally for his editorial, documentary and gallery collected work .
Jalani’s creative work explores visual representation within a Black Canadian context and focuses on documenting and portraying images of Black life both in Canada and internationally. As a commissioned photographer, Jalani covers the spectrum of portraiture and current events documenting the architectural, musical and cultural landscapes and diversity of Toronto.
Originally from Scarborough, Ontario, Jalani has been dedicated to giving back to his community through mentorship and community empowerment programs that have included The Remix Project, LAMP and We Are Lawrence project created in partnership with City of Toronto and Manifesto.
Jalani Morgan, The Sum of All Parts, 2017. University of Toronto Art Centre
© Jalani Morgan, Untitled (Frontline protesters at the BLMTO action that closed down Allen Road in response to the murders of Jermaine Carby and Andrew Loku), Toronto, Canada, 2015.
Jalani Morgan, Untitled (BLMTO meets with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, in front of Queen’s Park after a two week encampment at Toronto Police headquarters), Toronto, Canada, 2016.
MOLLY JOHNSON Jazz Vocalist | Songwriter | Philanthropist
“Juno Winning Jazz Vocalist Dedicated to supporting communities in need, Molly established the Kumbaya Foundation and Festival in 1992, raising awareness and funds for people living with HIV/AIDS, and continues to work with several other charitable organizations each year. Molly has been awarded the Queen’s Jubilee medal, and in 2008, was honoured with becoming an Officer of The Order Of Canada (O.C.). This rare distinction was given to Molly to recognize her philanthropic work for a variety of causes and for her international contributions to the arts. In 2016, Molly launched the Kensington Market Jazz Festival, with over 400 local Canadian musicians, performing 150+ shows over one weekend in September to more than 5000 enthusiastic music fans. Molly was the voice of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio 2 Weekend Morning program where she eased listeners into their weekend with great Canadian songs, and stories about musicians and the people of Canada, from coast to coast. She has frequently been the host of the Women’s Blues Review The Canadian music icon’s latest release, the Juno nominated, Because of Billie (2014) is a celebration of the music of Billie Holiday. Billie Holiday’s journey inspires Johnson not only as an artist, but as a model citizen. Paying homage to Holiday’s childhood struggles, Johnson donated a portion of album sales to the Boys & Girls Clubs.” (taken from mollyjohnson.com)
Molly recently re-shared this piece published in the Globe, written by Michael Adam and Marva Wisdom.
Links to her music, videos and recent projects can be found here
Wildseed
Wildseed is a space that hopes to create opportunity for Black community organizing on a deeper level—including residencies, performances and more.
On March 7, Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLM-TO) launched Wildseed: Centre for Activism and Art, a new kind of co-working space that prioritizes the city’s Black community. The centre, meant for community organizing, meeting, art making and healing, has been a dream of the organization since BLM-TO’s inception in 2014.
“For us, imagining the possibility of a future without anti-Black racism is an artistic endeavour,” says BLM-TO member Sandy Hudson. “It requires imagination and dedication to possibility that only art can bring to our lives.”
Performance was a central focus of the Wildseed space launch on March 7, 2020, in Toronto. Photo: Roya DelSol.
Sandra Brewster
Sandra Brewster is a Canadian visual artist based in Toronto. Her work has been exhibited nationally and abroad. A recipient of the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Artist Prize (2018) and the Gattuso Prize for Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival (2017), Brewster has been recognized for her community-based practice that centres a Black presence located in Canada.
“In her Blur series, Sandra Brewster explores layered experiences of identity — ones that may bridge relationships to Canada and elsewhere, as well as to the present and the past. The artist directs her subjects to move while she takes their picture. Then, using a gel medium, she transfers her image to a new surface, capturing changes in the creases and tears and empty spaces where ink does not adhere.”
Neil Price-Canadian Art: Themes of erasure and absence are prevalent among Black artists working in Canada. And yet in this exhibition you’ve kind of complicated that narrative by doing the obscuring yourself. You’re actually implicated in the process of blurring. How does that relate to conversations about erasure?
Sandra Brewster: It’s like a resistance, isn’t it? Black people have a way of holding back, keeping something to ourselves. There is power in that, in being able to conceal parts of who we are. I hope people will encounter the work and have a certain kind of relationship with it where they just know what I’m doing because they understand where I’m coming from, because they come from a similar cultural background. Like some of the artists you’re referring to, I am, in part, also bringing awareness to a rooted presence here. By obviously obscuring something, one makes it even more apparent. It’s a visual strategy.
Blur 18, 2017. Photo-based gel transfer on archival paper, Overall: 101.6 × 88.9 cm . Courtesy of the artist and Georgia Scherman Projects. © Sandra Brewster
Sandra Brewster, Part of the “Blur” series - a collage of black and white “portraits” of people out of focus and uncentered.
Sandra Brewster, Untitled (Blur), 2017-2019.
Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier Scholar, a visual artist, community activist, researcher, youth-advocate and educator. For 12 years, he was the Coordinator of the Art Gallery of Ontario Youth Program. Syrus is currently a facilitator/designer for the Cultural Leaders Lab (Toronto Arts Council & The Banff Centre). He is the inaugural artist-in-residence for Daniels Spectrum (2016/2017).
As a visual artist, Syrus works within the mediums of painting, installation and performance to challenge systemic oppression. Syrus’ work explores the spaces between and around identities; acting as provocations to our understandings of gender, sexuality and race. His work has been exhibited at the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019), the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Windsor, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), Gladstone Hotel, ASpace Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, SPIN Gallery and other galleries across Canada.
Syrus has presented at UTS during a staff PD session and is a core-team member of Black Lives Matter Toronto.
Syrus Marcus Ware
Syrus Marcus Ware, Their borders crossed us: For Eric (2015).
Syrus Marcus Ware, Portrait of Dainty Smith and Kyisha Williams (Undated).
Born in Ghana, Peter Owusu-Ansah is observant, thinker and visual artist. Peter Owusu-Ansah is hard of hearing, born in Ghana in 1979. He moved to Canada in 1994. Peter became interest in visual art at the age of 25. Peter’s work is diverse in medium, he photographs; he paint; he creates pop arts and pixel arts.
As a Deaf artist, Peter’s seeing is how he captures the joy of life. Owusu-Ansah’s work as a Deaf artist seeks to deepen audiences’ perception of visual art, and understanding of how Deaf folks navigate a hearing world. He has exhibited at Tangled Art Gallery. Peter lives and works in Toronto.
Peter Owusu-Ansah
Peter Owusu-Ansah, Untitled #3 (2015).
Is a multi-award winning Canadian Soprano who has been honoured to perform for the XIVth Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu. An Actor, and Theatre Maker, she is co-founder of Moveable Beast Performance Collective, “a Toronto-based collective of artists and musicians interested in examining through artistic means culturally diverse and hybrid identities. Current Moveable Beast projects include:
“Inspired in part by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, Bickersteth seamlessly melds song and movement to inhabit a century of women whose identities are contained within her own.”
“A radical reimagining of one of the world’s first Black operas, composed by Scott Joplin in 1911.”
Is a work in progress that explores lost personal histories at the intersection of art song and jazz in Black Paris.
( all quotations taken from the artist’s website )
Rich hosts a weekly show called New Origins on jazzcast.ca. Episode 48, streamed on June 8th, was a 2hr mixed tape "dedicated to Black culture and the artists who choose to express their rage, sadness, fear, and hope through the music; it’s an eclectic mix that amplifies the message and celebrates the invaluable contributions of our rich culture". It was compiled in response to the horrifying, anti-Black violence we’ve witnessed over the last 2 weeks.
Rich shared a copy of the full podcast with permission to share with the UTS community .
Note: download the podcast and listen to it when you can sit down and really listen!
Rich Brown - bassist | educator |composer
Rich Brown (Toronto) is one of North America’s foremost electric bassists, having toured extensively with Rudresh Mahanthappa as well as many other leading artists. Following the success of his band Rinsethealgorithm, and the release of a solo bass album on ADDO Records, “Between Heaviness & Here”, Brown has assembled an all-star cast of Canada’s best modern jazz musicians for his new project, ABENG.
Jamal Campbell is working to add some names to your list.
Jamal is a GTA artist who has created many many pages and covers for DC, Marvel and Boom Studios comics. One key feature in his portfolio is his development of Black characters.
How many Black female superheroes can you name?
Jamal is currently working on “Far Sector” with the award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer
N.K. Jemisin.
The “Far Sector” series follows Sojourner “Jo” Mullein, a new Green Lantern, on her assignment to the furthest reaches of space.
N.K. Jemisin
This sci-fi murder mystery features all the action and intrigue that you’d expect from a comic, but also addresses police brutality, racism and justice.
Jo is fired from the New York Police Department (NYPD) when she speaks out about police brutality, and this complicates her subsequent role as a Green Lantern “space cop”. As writer Jemisin explains, “[Jo] doesn’t trust organizations anymore because she’s concerned that, as with the NYPD, there was a tendency to privilege what was good for the organization over what was good for the people.”
Issue 7 comes out soon!
Black Lives Matter
"I have a dream. A dream that one day in the city where I live, at any given time of the year, I will be able to find at least one play that is filled with people who look like me, telling stories about me, my family, my friends, my community."
Djanet Sears, Toronto Playwright
Djanet Sears is an award-winning playwright and director and has several acting nominations to her credit for both stage and screen. Sears is recognized for her work in African-Canadian theatre. Sears has many credits in writing and editing highly acclaimed dramas such as Afrika Solo, the first stage play to be written by a Canadian woman of African descent. The complexities of race, and gender are central themes in her works, as well as inclusions of songs, rhythm and chorus shaped from West-African traditions.
She is also passionate about preserving Black theatre history and was involved in the creation of Obsidian Theatre and AfriCanadian Playwrights Festival. She is the recipient of the Stratford Festival’s 2004 Timothy Findley Award, as well as Canada’s highest literary honour for dramatic writing: the 1998 Governor General’s Literary Award.
Photo courtesy of Sarasvati Productions.
Djanet Sears Continued...
Her other honours include: the 1998 Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award, the Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award, the Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in the Cultural Industries, and a Phenomenal Woman of the Arts Award. Her most recent work for the stage, The Adventures Of A Black Girl In Search Of God, (Playwrights Canada Press, 2003), shortlisted for a 2004 Trillium Book Award.
Her other plays include Afrika Solo, Who Killed Katie Ross and Double Trouble. Djanet is the driving force behind the AfriCanadian Playwrights’ Festival, and a founding member of the Obsidian Theatre Company. She is also the editor of Testifyin’: Contemporary African Canadian Drama, Vols. I & II, the first anthologies of plays by playwrights of African descent in Canada (Playwrights Canada Press, 2000 & 2003). She is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto. Photo courtesy of Tarragon Theatre.
Philip Akin, Artistic Director of Obsidian Theatre
In 2000, Philip Akin was a founding member of Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading black theatre company, and has served as its Artistic Director since 2006. In this role, he has worked tirelessly to provide opportunities and guidance for emerging artists.
In 2002, he was part of the team that launched the Obsidian Mentor/Apprentice Program, a one-of-a-kind program that has helped black artists embark on careers with some of the most established Canadian performing arts companies
Philip Akin announced his retirement and step down in 2020. Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu has been appointed the new director,
Photo courtesy of NOW Magazine.
Virgilia Griffiths, Toronto Actor
Virgilia Griffith is a Toronto based theatre artist. Winner of the Meta Emerging Artist Award for Gas Girls. She was also a Dora Mavor Moore nominee for Outstanding Female in an Independent Division for her performance of Honesty directed by Jordan Tannahill.
SELECTED CREDITS: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Soulpepper Theatre), The Wedding Party (Crow’s Theatre), Other Side of the Game (Cahoots/Obsidian Theatre), The Watershed (Porte Parole), Da Kink In My Hair (Theatre Calgary/Nac), How We Are (Mikaela Davies and Polly Phokeev Productions), Up The Garden Path (Obsidian Theatre Company), Byhalia, Mississippi (Cue6), The Power of Harriet T! (Carousel Players/ Black Theatre Workshop).
Photo courtesy of My Entertainment World.
Rashaan Allwood is a musician of great versatility. As a pianist, organist and harpsichordist, he has played in a variety of settings, including performances with the Maestro Ken Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Houston Civic Symphony and the University of Toronto’s Collegium Musicum. As a soloist, he has toured across Europe, and performed at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, UK, St. Nikolai Kierke in Leipzig, Germany and St. Pierre’s Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland.
Rashaan was listed as one of CBC's 30 under 30 classical musicians and was invited to record excerpts of the Catalogue d'Oiseaux by Olivier Messiaen at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto in 2016 following his Canadian Bi-Centennial tour. The first prize winner of the Concours d'orgue de Québec in 2017 and of the Canadian National OSM Manulife competition in 2016 for the organ category, he also won second prize in the Wadden Sea International Organ Competition and the Lynnwood Farnam Organ Competition in 2017.
Rashaan is currently the director of music at St. Ansgar Lutheran Church, Toronto where he regularly premieres new works, and organized performances of works by J.S. Bach. He continues to collaborate with a variety of musicians, performing classical and contemporary music. (from the artist’s website)
Weyni Mengesha, Artistic Director
Soulpepper Theatre
Weyni Mengesha is an award winning director who was born in Vancouver to Ethiopian parents. Currently the Artistic Director of Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre Co., her credits include: Bars and Measures (The Boston Court, USA), Seven Spots on the Sun (Rattlestick Theatre, NY) the Canadian premiere of Father Comes Home from the Wars by Suzan-Lori Parks (Soulpepper), Breath Of Kings (Stratford Shakespeare Festival). Toronto Critics award-winning productions include Lungs and The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs with Tarragon Theatre. Dora Nominated shows include: Kim’s Convenience and A Raisin in the Sun (Soulpepper), blood.claat (Theatre Passe Muraille), and the acclaimed ’da Kink in My Hair (Theatre Passe Muraille, Mirvish Productions).
Photo courtesy of Volcano.
Tamyka Bullen
https://youtu.be/5aG0UvvwU4M
Tamyka Bullen is a Deaf person of colour Queer-identified womyn who started her career in theatrical world alongside her social justice advocacy work. She has volunteered and worked with youth, deaf women, immigrant and LGBTQ commmunities.
In 2015, she performed her poetry for the first time at a Toronto subway station---an experience which gave her the confidence to perform in Rare Theatre’s latest production, After the Blackout. Created by Judith Thompson, the play brings together a cast of artists who are deaf, blind or living with brain injury or lost limbs.
Sabryn Rock, Canadian Actor
Sabryn Rock is an accomplished theatre actor who has appeared on stages across Canada, including the Stratford Festival, Young People's Theatre, Acting Up Stage Company, Soulpepper Theatre, Obsidian Theatre and the Globe Theatre.
Originally from Regina, Sabryn Rock moved to Montreal in her teens to study at N.T.S, the top theatre school in the country. After graduation she packed her bags and headed for the Big Smoke, to pursue a career as an actress/theatre director.
Photo courtesy of Intermission Magazine.
Nigel Shawn Williams, Canadian Actor and Director
Widely respected and acclaimed actor and director, graduated with a BFA from the School of Dramatic Art, University of Windsor. Nigel Shawn Williams is currently based in Toronto Ontario. He has persuasively played a wide range of roles in major Canadian theatres.
He has won three Dora Mavor Moore Awards for his performances in the Canadian Stage production of Six Degrees of Separation; in Volcano Theatre’s production of Two Words for Snow; and in the Shaw/Obsidian Theatre production of Topdog/Underdog.
Photo courtesy of Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia.
Ron Nelson (Toronto) is a pioneering DJ, radio personality and concert promoter. Known as the godfather of Toronto hip hop, Nelson created one of Canada’s first hip hop shows in 1983, Fantastic Voyage, which aired on Ryerson’s own CKLN community radio.
While hosting and producing Fantastic Voyage, Ron helped to cultivate a thriving hip hop community in Toronto. He soon established Ron Nelson Productions, introducing noteworthy international artists like Run-D.M.C., Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Queen Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa to the local hip hop scene.
From 2003-2015, Ron was a professor and course director in the York University Department of Music where he taught Contemporary Black Urban Music. He is still heavily involved in the Toronto Reggae and Dancehall Sound Clash community as a leading concert promoter and proprietor of acclaimed website ReggaeMania.com (from Ryerson.ca)
Wendy “Motion” Braithwaite
MOTION is a playwright, screenwriter, poet and emcee, fusing word, sound & drama for the stage and screen. A Canadian Film Centre alumnus, she is currently a writer and Executive Story Editor on CBC’s hit drama series, Coroner (Back Alley/Muse).
Motion is the co-writer of Akilla’s Escape (Canesugar Films), a feature film with director Charles Officer, to be released in 2020, and the writer of ReelWorld Award-winning short film A Man’s Story (Bravofact) which has screened in film festivals in London, Ghana, Belgium, Zanzibar and Toronto.
Her most recent production for the stage is Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape with DJ L’Oqenz (dir. Mumbi Tindyebwa). Premiering to critical acclaim, it has been remounted at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre and Obsidian Theatre, CINARS in Montreal, and the groundbreaking Chale Wote Festival in Ghana.
She supports and develops young and emerging talents through her writing, filmmaking and performance workshop presentation series in community, creative and educational spaces: such as South Africa’s Africa Expo Symposium, the Black Futures on Eglinton Project, Regent Park Film Festival (Writing the Web Series), Tapestry Theatre, the AMY Project, Trinidad & Tobago’s Cascadoo Festival, Toronto Public Library, and the TDSB. Motion is also a writer and facilitator with the Hip Hop Curriculum Project in Rhymes to Re-Education.
SHAD IS A CANADIAN RAPPER WITH FOUR SOLO ALBUMS UNDER HIS BELT, ONE RETRO POP-ROCK SIDE PROJECT, A MASTER'S DEGREE AND NUMEROUS ACCOLADES.
In addition to three of his records being nominated on the Short List of the prestigious Polaris Music Prize, TSOL won the 2011 Rap Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards. Since then, Shad has elevated his practice by emerging as a vital broadcaster. After hosting CBC Radio’s q, he went on to host the Hip-Hop Evolution docuseries, whose 2016 season on HBO Canada earned both a Peabody Award and an International Emmy Award.
His music speaks to issues of identity, equality, and systemic injustice.
Check out his music here
Gerald Lovell
From an M3 student’s analysis of Lovell’s work:
“Gerald Lovell uses texture to engage viewers. He uses this element of design to create the illusion of form and depth. It makes the finished product look more dynamic.
Lovell’s technique is done by applying thick layers of paint to render a face, while the rest of the painting is done traditionally. The contrast between the character and the background makes the piece stand out.” - C. Lai Lai
Faith Ringgold Echoes of Harlem, 1980
Faith Ringgold is a painter, writer, mixed media sculptor who is best known for her story-telling quilts. Her early paintings in the 1960s focused on the theme of racism, which made the sales difficult. She painted her first collection in 1963, named the American People Series. It portrays racial interactions from a female perspective. She then switched from painting to textiles because she wanted to get away from the association of painting with Western traditions. She collaborated with her mother, who was a popular clothing designer and seamstress, on her first quilt project called Echoes of Harlem. Since no one at that time would publish her autobiography, she quilted her own stories for them to be heard.
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
Njideka Akunyili Crosby is a Nigerian-born visual artist who currently lives in Los Angeles, California. In her artwork she negotiates the cultural terrain between her adopted home in America versus her native Nigeria, creating collage and photo transfer-based paintings that expose the challenges of occupying both worlds.
Nwantinti, 2012.
Find resources here to keep us and your cultural institutions accountable through the measurement of our actions.