Culture Brew’s IBPOC Artists Database sessions start on January 19!

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Culture Brew’s IBPOC Artists Database

These sessions are part of IBPOC Digital Strategy – Phase II: Digital Tools Professional Development Series.

Upcoming sessions: 
Presented by Anju Singh and Valerie Sing Turner, Culture Brew
Tuesday, January 19, 2021 | 12pm-4:00pm EST
Thursday, January 28, 2021 | 12pm-4:00pm EST
Friday, February 19, 2021 | 12pm-4:00pm EST
Thursday, February 25, 2021 | 12pm-4:00pm EST

Register on Eventbrite: https://digital-tools.eventbrite.ca

Session 1: An Intro to CultureBrew.Art: Artists – Your Community is Waiting!
January 19, 2020 (hands on)

CultureBrew.Art (CBA) is a digital platform that connects Indigenous and racialized artists – actors, writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, directors, designers, singers, stage managers, technicians, administrators, composers, and other performing and media arts professionals – in a central, searchable database. By joining CBA, you can search for, meet, and connect with other BIPOC artists just like you. After signing up, you create an attractive online short form “CV” profile that includes details about your artistic practice and your marketable skills, which subscribing employers – individuals and organizations – can search and view.  Subscribers are envisioned to not only include theatres, dance and opera companies, film/TV casting professionals, and directors/producers in the arts and broadcasting sectors, but also schools, post-secondary training institutions, social service agencies, government agencies, ad agencies, and more!

During this session, we will walk you through the setup of your CBA artist profile, and offer tips to not only make the most of your talents in your profile, but also to ensure that your profile will show up in the ways you want to be found in searches by subscribers as well as your fellow BIPOC artists. Please come to the session with your portfolio materials (images, video demos, audio clips), a profile photo, and a bio or artist statement.

NOTE: ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST SELF-IDENTIFY AS INDIGENOUS AND/OR RACIALIZED ARTISTS TO REGISTER FOR THIS SESSION AND TO JOIN CULTUREBREW.ART. IN ADDITION, YOUR FIRST YEAR OF MEMBERSHIP IN CBA WILL BE INCLUDED FOR FREE AS PART OF YOUR WORKSHOP REGISTRATION. 

CultureBrew.Art is an initiative of Visceral Visions.

Session 2: Artists Building Digital Tools – Sharing Our Findings
January 28, 2020 (educational/hands on)

In this session we will share tips and tools to help artists and arts organizations best prepare to build digital tools, platforms, and websites specifically with diversity, inclusion and equity in mind. The skills and expertise of artists lends nicely to the work of technical development, and we aim to empower you to use your strengths to build tools that suit artists and the arts sector to support the way that we need to work as arts practitioners. As an arts organization who has experienced multiple successes and challenges developing our CultureBrew.Art technology project, we have learned through our development process that there are better ways for artists to work when we are building technology products. This session will walk through the technology build process from project conceptualization to development and execution. Please note that this session will operate through a decolonizing lens that challenges assumptions of how tech “should” be built. We are interested in sharing healthy and radical ways to work to support the arts sector.

NOTE: ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND.

CultureBrew.Art is an initiative of Visceral Visions.

Session 3: Digital Tools for Anti-Oppression Work in the Arts: Safety, Privacy, Data Security
February 19, 2020 (educational)

As arts organizations, our resource-strapped realities can make the tech giants  – Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Mailchimp, Facebook, etc – seem like our only options. After all, they offer convenience and ease of use at generally affordable rates. However, when we work with vulnerable communities such as Indigenous and racialized artists, individuals with disabilities, and members of LGBTQ2S communities, it is critical to consider our due diligence when we collect and store sensitive personal information and – in our pandemic reality – their entire selves in video calls!

This session explores the risks and considerations of doing anti-oppression work with vulnerable communities in the virtual realm and provides alternatives for digital tools that some organizations may opt to use. In particular, we will discuss the implications of storing data on US servers, and the session facilitator – Anju Singh will share her experiences, concerns, and considerations about online safety and security when they do online work.

This session will demonstrate Canadian hosted and/or self-hosted options for digital tools that are appropriate and that may help increase safer online engagement for arts organizations that work with marginalized artists and communities, and/or wish to build their engagement with these groups.

NOTE: ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND.

CultureBrew.Art is an initiative of Visceral Visions.

Session 4: An Intro to CultureBrew.Art: Finding Indigenous & Racialized Artists
February 25, 2020 (hands on/educational)

Are you looking for Indigenous and racialized artists for your production or project?

Whether you’re an artistic director, film/TV casting professional, festival curator, student filmmaker, school teacher, social service agency, or government policymaker, CultureBrew.Art’s searchable database of BIPOC artists is the resource you’ve been waiting for! CultureBrew.Art (CBA) is a digital platform that champions Indigenous and racialized artists in the performing and media arts, everyone from actors, writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, directors, composers, and singers, to designers, stage managers, producers, cultural consultants, and other cultural workers.

As a subscriber in CBA, you can search artists by discipline, racial/ethnic identity, location, and other fields; view full artist profiles that include portfolio images, video demos, and audio clips; as well as message artists directly to share and offer opportunities.

During this session, we will walk you through the setup of your individual and organizational profile. Please come to the session prepared with a profile photo, artistic statement or bio, your organization/company logo, your mandate, and your diversity/decolonization statement, if you have one.

NOTE: EVERYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN ENGAGING AND HIRING BIPOC ARTISTS IS WELCOME TO ATTEND. 

CultureBrew.Art is an initiative of Visceral Visions.

Bios: 

Valerie Sing Turner is the founder/Artistic Producer of Visceral Visions, which incites intersectional and intercultural artistic community in Vancouver and beyond through a potent mix of storytelling, advocacy, and professional development. The company’s latest initiative is CultureBrew.Art, for which Valerie is Creative Director/Co-Executive Director as part of a shared leadership model with two other women of colour (Tri-ED). An award-winning multidisciplinary artist who performs, writes, dramaturges, and directs, her latest work in development is a 10-actor play, In the Shadow of the Mountains, for which she was artist-in-residence with National Arts Centre. A leading voice on issues of diversity/decolonization in the arts, Valerie was honoured as the 2019 recipient of UBCP/ACTRA’s International Women’s Day Award in recognition of her “outstanding contributions to the Union, the industry, and causes of social justice”. She is a member of Canadian Actors’ Equity, UBCP/ACTRA, Playwrights Guild of Canada, and Banff’s Cultural Leadership 2018-19 cohort.

Anju Singh | Technical Director | CultureBrew.Art
Anju is an active, multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in the non-profit and arts sector for over 15 years. Alongside her passion for the arts, Anju is excited about the ways in which she can apply technology in her work in arts and the non-profit sector. Anju’s degree in Philosophy from Simon Fraser University trained her for critical and analytic thinking, as well as a love for problem solving. Following her studies, her training was nicely rounded out by her experience working in arts and non-profit organizations where she developed values that prioritize people, relationships, and more equitable practices. Anju brings to CultureBrew.Art a breadth of skills including experience from the tech sector, non-profit management, human resources training, and a strong history of operations experience. As an artist and musician, Anju’s contributions and interests cross several artistic disciplines, an important element of CultureBrew.Art, and she brings extensive experience creating, producing, and showing artistic work.

Join us on Dec 10 for this great lineup of panelists!

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The Gathering Fall 2020
Exploring Anti-Black Racism in the Arts and Thinking Digitally: Integrative Strategies for IBPOC Arts Practices

December 10,  2020:

KEYNOTE SPEAKER AND PERFORMANCE:  
Dancing the Afrofuture with Thomas DeFrantz
Dec. 10 | Time: 10:15 am 

Who will, and how will we dance the Afrofuture? This presentation explores its possible contours, in the interchange among Black social dance and advancing technologies. We know we are not one thing, we who are invested in Black and African diaspora dance. We are ballet and Orisha dances, Senegal and Brazil, urban moves and postmodern stages.  We imagine forward together. Knowing how different we are from each other, and how aligned we are in this pursuit of an African diasporic understanding of social possibility and art, we imagine forward together.  Additional readings on the Keynote available here.

Thomas F. DeFrantz directs SLIPPAGE: Performance | Culture | Technology, a research group that explores emerging technology in live performance. Received 2017 Outstanding Research in Dance award, Dance Studies Association. Has been honored with an Outstanding Artist Commendation by the North Carolina Governor in 2019.   Believes in our shared capacity to do better, and to engage our creative spirit for a collective good that is anti-racist, anti-homophobic, proto-feminist, and queer affirming. Creative projects include Queer Theory! An Academic Travesty commissioned by the Theater Offensive of Boston and the Flynn Center for the Arts; fastDANCEpast, created for the Detroit Institute for the Arts; reVERSE-gesture-reVIEW commissioned by the Nasher Museum in response to the work of Kara Walker. Consultant for the Smithsonian Museum of African American Life and Culture, contributing concept and voice-over for permanent installation on Black Social Dance that opened with the museum in 2016. Books include Dancing Revelations Alvin Ailey’s Embodiment of African American Culture (2004); Black Performance Theory, with Anita Gonzalez (2014); Choreography and Corporeality: Relay in Motion; with Philipa Rothfield (2016);  Routledge Companion to African American Theater and Performance with Kathy Perkins, Sandra Richards, and Renee Alexander Craft (2018). Professor at Duke University; recent teaching  University of the Arts Mobile MFA in Dance; Lion’s Jaw Festival; Movement Research MELT; ImPulsTanz; New Waves Institute; faculty at Hampshire College, Stanford, Yale, MIT, NYU, University of Nice. In 2013, working with Takiyah Nur Amin, founded the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, a growing consortium of researchers. slippage.org.

Building Cultural Spaces Reflective of the African / Caribbean Canadian Diaspora
Dec. 10 | Time: 11:20am 

How do we build cultural spaces that are reflective of the diversity of interaction, programming and participation. In building specific spaces and in cultural spaces already built, how do we embed practices and awareness of how black persons and people of colour interact and perform/create in those spaces? What images adorn spaces that suggest historical and afro-futuristic black excellence? What are some of the challenges in owning, operating and managing black cultural spaces? This plenary brings together cultural policy thinkers and Black cultural space directors to begin to unpack a conversation on the subject.

Panelists:  

Josh Dyer  
Josh is a seasoned marketing and digital strategist who started his career as a student working in communications on electoral campaigns for Antonio Villarigosa in 2005 followed by Barack Obama in 2008. After completing his studies, Josh served in a variety of communications roles with the Canadian government developing digital and social media strategies for the likes of Elections Canada, Citizenship & Immigration Canada, and the Department of Defence. Recently his efforts have been focused on developing platforms for communities to create and share their own social and historical narratives. He is currently the Director of Marketing at Myseum of Toronto, and sits on the Board of Directors at Black Artist’s Networks in Dialogue.

Itah  Sadu 
Owner of Toronto bookstore A Different Booklist, Itah Sadu is also an author and story-teller. She’s heavily involved in North York activism, particularly in the Jane Street and Finch Avenue neighbourhood of the city. She has developed youth programs that serve as models for job placement opportunities, skills development and leaders-in-training programming to youths, plus the Walk for Excellence, in partnership with York University, to help empower graduating students from the Jane and Finch neighbourhood. She’s a founding member of the Underground Freedom Ride, which celebrates Emancipation Day. She has designed, developed and implemented programs for youths in Aboriginal and racialized communities who reside in high density neighbourhoods. She’s also a Harry Jerome Scholarship Trustee. Her books are adopted by schools into the curriculum. She’s also a founding member of MY People Literary Awards and the Black Book Affair.

Cheryll Case
Cheryll Case practices a human rights approach to community planning. As founder and Principal Urban Planner of CP Planning, Cheryll coordinates with charities, private sector industries, and communities to resource the systems necessary to secure dignified living for all peoples. This includes an acute focus on housing as a human right, supporting urban agriculture, and improving the ability for marginalized residents to access arts and culture opportunities. Her work has included leading a Toronto wide and grassroots led consultation series on housing as a human right, as well as work local to the Eglinton Avenue West neighbourhood. There, in partnership with Black Urbanism TO, she led Black Futures on Eglinton, an arts based community research project exploring the role and expression of culture in the Black community as it related to people, practice, and place.

Moderator: 

Mark V. Campbell is a creative and scholar. His research explores the relationships between Afrosonic innovations and notions of the human. As co-founder of the Bigger than Hip Hop radio show and founder at Northside Hip Hop Archive in 2010, Mark has spent more than two decades embedded in the Toronto hip hop scene as both a DJ and a Curator. He has published widely, with essays appearing in the Southern Journal of Canadian Studies, Critical Studies in Improvisation, Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society and the Journal of World Popular Music.  His recent books include the edited collection Still Here: Hip Hop North of the 49th Parallel and the exhibition catalogue, …Everything Remains Raw: Photographing Toronto Hip Hop Culture from Analogue to Digital. Mark is Assistant Professor of Music & Culture at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

IBPOC Digital Strategy – Phase II: Digital Tools Professional Development Series – Digital Accessibility in the Arts
Dec. 10 | Time: 1:00pm 

Join Tangled Art + Disability in an exploration of crip culture and disability aesthetics. Participants will have the opportunity to engage with Tangled staff members that will discuss the following topics: Disability Arts, the social vs. medical model of disability, accessible curatorial practices and digital ways of engaging access.

Panelists:

Victoria Anne Warner

Victoria Anne Warner (Research Coordinator) has been working in Disability Advocacy and Justice for over a decade. She discovered her passion for analysing, taking apart, and rebuilding access policies in the sci-fi convention world, and hasn’t stopped since. She has worked with CUPE Ontario as the first Equity Representative for Workers with Disabilities, and her research led to the creation of new courses for union members across Canada on disability and ableism. She is currently interested in how to disrupt traditional power structures, and how she can implement those values in her work while making sure that previously unheard voices are not only brought to the table but valued.

Jack Hawk

Jack Hawk is a multidisciplinary artist, astrologer, community worker and autistic, two-spirit mutt. Jack currently invests his time as the Outreach Coordinator for Tangled Art + Disability with the strength and love of the Tangled team. Previously, he worked in non-profit gallery management and held positions with George Brown College and the Griffin Centre. Originally from Utica, NY, he now lives in Toronto with his blue-tongued skink.

CPAMO GATHERING  FALL 2020 ARTIST  SHOWCASE

Nyaomi | Dec. 10 | Time: 11:10am 

Nyaomi is a Toronto based artist with experience shooting and exhibiting in Toronto and abroad. Her artistic practice can be defined as personal narratives that explore subjectivity, the body and challenging issues. She aims to bring awareness to what’s been repressed and show alternative ways of thinking. In recent years, she has worked with Maclean’s, WeWork, Sportsnet, LinkedIn, the City of  Toronto and more. Inspired by her thesis, exploring alternative perspectives on depression, she started sewing interior decor as another business venture. She is an OCAD University graduate with years of experience as a freelancer and entrepreneur, specializing in interior photography and decor. In short, Nyaomi is an artist who continues to find ways to combine her passion to create with her interests in health and wellness.  www.nyaomi.com, nyaomigoods.etsy.com

Angela Walcott | Dec. 10 | Time: 12:50pm

With the exception of a three-year intensive specialized art study program at The Art Centre where printmaking, photography, ceramics, mixed media, sculpture and painting were at the helm, Angela Walcott is a self-taught artist exploring themes of repatriation?  A recurring theme in her work is the notion of sustainability in traditional artforms as well as from an historical framework. Cultural perspectives play an integral part in her narrative as she strives to unite past and future modalities. Her work has been exhibited at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, YYZ Gallery, Project Gallery, Skylight Gallery and Fresh Paint Studio. Her writing has appeared in a series of anthologies including Black Writers Matter.

Irma Villafuerte | Dec. 10 | Time: 3:20pm 

Irma Villafuerte is a Salvadorian-Canadian dance artist in Tkaronto. Graduate of George Brown Dance; her training extends to Latin American, Caribbean and Cuban Contemporary technique. She’s performed in Rhubarb Festival, DanceWeekend Ontario, Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS and Caminos Festival, Panamania 2015 at Nathan Phillips Square, La 12 Bienal de la Habana 2015 for (IN)DISCIPLINAS, Vanguardia Dance Projects Festival, International Dance Meeting by Danza Libre in Guantanamo, Cuba, CounterPulse Performing Diaspora in San Francisco, Mayworks Festival for Working People, etc. With the honour to be part of works by Jaberi Dance Theatre, Kahawi Dance Theatre, Alejandro Ronceria, Victoria Mata, Kaeja D’dance, Derek Sangster, Arsenio Andrade, Sharon B. Moore, Jose Angel Carret. Since 2016, she has engaged in developing her choreographic practice, through residencies with Dancemakers, Toronto Dance Theatre and George Brown Dance Ensemble, where she has developed her two recent works “desconocida” and “nudoDESnudo”. She currently is on the faculty at Casa Maiz’ Semillas Latimas program for Latin American children and Randolph College for the Performing Arts.

For more information and  to register: 
The schedule is available here in pdf
The description of each session is available here in pdf

Register on Eventbrite: https://the-gathering-fall-2020.eventbrite.ca

Important: All the keynotes and panel sessions will be recorded and then made available for viewing to the public, with the exception of Small Group Discussion. Performances and virtual visual exhibitions will not be recorded and only showcased once.

Accessibility: all sessions except the Mayor’s Roundtable will be via Zoom. We will have Otter.ai live transcribed available for all panels (except the breakrooms section), ASL will be provided for some sessions which will be determined closer to the date. Please let us know if you have any questions or accessibility needs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kevin A. Ormsby,  Program Manager, CPAMO
programming@cpamo.org or (416) 899-9448

In collaboration with:

CPAMO is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, English Testing Canada, Barrett and Welsh, LeSageArts Management, and Randolph College for the Performing Arts.

The panelists for The Gathering on Dec. 9 are announced!

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 The Gathering Fall 2020
Exploring Anti-Black Racism in the Arts and Thinking Digitally: Integrative Strategies for IBPOC Arts Practices


December 9,  2020:

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:  Weaving New Legacies of Knowing 
 
Diane Roberts is an accomplished director, dramaturge, writer and cultural animator, who has collaborated with innovative theatre visionaries and interdisciplinary artists for the past 30 years. Her directorial and dramaturgical work has been seen on stages across Canada and her reputation as a mentor, teacher and community collaborator is nationally and internationally recognized. She is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a 2020 Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship award holder. Diane’s celebrated Arrivals Legacy Project www.arrivalslegacy.com has birthed new Interdisciplinary works across Canada, throughout the Americas, in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. This work has allowed her to articulate, cultivate and realise a vision for theatre that encourages Indigenous ways of knowing as a stepping stone to creative expression. 
 


Addressing Harassment, Discrimination and Erasure of Black Arts Presence 
Dec. 9 | Time: 10:30am 

We bring our histories to work with us! Black artists / Arts organizations hold a lot of the historical marginalization Where can we begin to understand a conversation rooted in a history of violence, silencing and erasure? In what ways do these still manifest itself in the Arts? What do we hope to gain from this knowledge and its impact on artists and arts organizations working in black arts practices? There have been bureaucratic barriers to sustainability and underfunding for many black arts organizations. How do we begin to galvanize solidarity, understand IBPOC based harassment and discrimination? The plenary invites three speakers to unpack the subject with a focus on shifting the erasure of black arts presence.

Panelists:  


Robert Ball
Born in Toronto, Robert Ball attended Claude Watson Arts Program and later studied part time at Humber College. Robert has traveled to and performed in over 60 countries as a featured vocalist and a headliner with Royal Caribbean International. Robert is a versatile singer songwriter with a Soulful voice and Jazz sensibilities. He has been a part of various Musical Theater readings and workshops working with Tony Winner Lillias White and Oscar and Grammy Nominee Carol Woods. Opening up for artists such as Mary Mary, Keshia Chante, Mya, Big Freeda among others. His original music has appeared in ‘Degrassi’ and has aired on radio stations in Europe, Canada & the United States. He toured his EP “Need” & single “Breathe” throughout Toronto and many PRIDE circuits including Brooklyn Pride, DC pride and Jamaica Pride. Also making appearances on TV outlets CTV, CP24, Bold TV, Rogers Nighttime & Daytime on Rogers, Headlined – Casa Loma “Soul in the City”, Friday Night Live at the ROM. Most recently joining the Stratford Festival for its 2020 season as a lead in the brand new Steven Page (formerly of Barenaked Ladies) musical ‘Here’s What It Takes’. Robert is a steering committee member of ‘BGMN’ (Black Gay Men’s Network of Ontario), a mentor and teaching artist with NIA Centre for the Arts and a ‘Council /Circle Member’ with ACT (A Coming Together – Black Actors / Artists / Employees of the Stratford Festival). His music is available on all steaming outlets. www.RobertBallMusic.com


Charmaine Headley
As Co-Founding Artistic Director of COBA, Collective of Black Artists, Charmaine Headley is a champion of Africanist dance. Through her work as an artist, choreographer, teacher and mentor she advocates for the recognition and inclusion of the contributions of ethno-cultural dance practices in Canadian dance history and culture. Headley pushes for a broadened societal appreciation of these art forms and advocates for reflexivity within curricula. Mother of one, a graduate of the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and a strong believer in the healing power of dance, Headley holds an honours diploma in Gerontology/ Activation Coordination and has created a movement-based senior’s program for her Master’s thesis at York University. Headley uses her choreographic voice to address socio-political and cultural inequity. She draws on Africanist forms, physically and metaphorically, to speak in a contemporary voice. More recently Headley utilizes her artform and creativity to address wellness. Her programming integrates movement with culturally relative resources/themes to create and develop programming that promotes mental and emotional health.


Marcel Stewart
I am my ancestors’ wildest dreams! An actor, writer, dope mc, arts educator, and organizer who LOVES vacuuming the house while listening to the soundtrack to Waiting to Exhale! I am a Black man of Jamaican heritage, born in the UK but raised in Canada. I am a product of colonialism, and am actively working every day to decolonize myself. It is my responsibility, as a Black artist, to carry those who have come before me by affirming our contemporary stories, emotions and ideas through art. It is also important for me to explore the intersections of race and gender, particularly Blackness and masculinity. Breaking down silos by bridging the gap between communities is a core value of mine as an artist. As is genuine kindness, not to be confused with softness. Communication and active listening are the pillars that hold up those core values. I often return to the questions: Who am I? How am I? How did I get here? Who have I lost? What is my purpose? 

Moderator: 

Syrus Marcus Ware 
Syrus is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. Syrus uses painting, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture, and he’s shown widely in galleries and festivals across Canada. He is a core-team member of Black Lives Matter – Toronto, a part of the Performance Disability Art Collective, and a PhD candidate at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies. His on-going curatorial work includes That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2019) and BlacknessYes!/Blockorama.
 


Exploring Documenting and Mapping Black Arts Practices / Spaces and Places
Dec. 9 | Time: 1:30pm 

Art, community, creative interactions are often tied into the spaces where black bodies converge. Those spaces are not always performing arts venues, however, there are places where black lives are performed. As part of shaping Canada’s Culture, black creative histories in performance has rarely been documented. Our stories in the creative sector are often relegated to the “one offs”. Yet, black creatives think and access the body, subject and interact with space / places differently. With demographic data and surveys indicating that Afro-Canadians interact with the Arts differently. What are some of these untold stories? The plenary will begin to unpack the ways in which Black arts practices are documented, researched and preserved for future artists and creators. 


Panelists:
 

Emilie Jabouin
Emilie Jabouin is a researcher, a contemporary and Haitian traditional dancer, and a producer completing her PhD in the joint Ryerson/York Communication and Culture program. She (or they) is committed to expressing and producing stories for personal and collective healing by merging her art and research practices. She runs her newly formed dance, research and production company, Emirj Projects, which offers research, production and artistic services to help creatives manifest their vision. Emilie is working on many projects including her own dance story and the co-production of a short science fiction film. Emilie is enriching her dance background in Ballet, jazz and contemporary, by focusing on traditional Caribbean and Central African dance forms. A communications scholar with a background in political science and gender studies, Emilie engages with the archives to share the history of Black women’s organizing, her findings on Black life, health and the arts in Canada.
 

Michèle Moss
Michèle Moss (BEd, MA) is a dancer, choreographer, researcher and community educator. She considers herself a citizen of the world; born in the UK of Jamaican and British parents, raised in Liverpool, London and Montréal, resident of Calgary for the last forty years. She is currently Associate Professor and is serving as Chair of the Dance in the School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She greatly enjoys her UCalgary teaching, research as well as civic and national choreographic commissions, international teaching and the many opportunities to conduct ethnographic research in the field, namely in NYC, and West Africa. Her teaching focus is jazz dance technique, from authentic to Afro-Futurism, global dance practices and pedagogy. Moss’s research mostly takes the form of creation projects but also includes numerous writing projects, articles and book chapters that move from page to stage and back again.  In the middle of the current pandemic the next projects include a drive-in dance spectacle with DJD (Decidedly Jazz Danceworks EST. 1984) a concert jazz dance company she cofounded. 

Paulina O’Kieffe-Anthony
Paulina O’Kieffe-Anthony is an award winning Toronto artist, producer, arts educator, cultural connector and creative consultant.
A member of the League of Poets and associate member of the PlayWriters Guild, her high level accomplishments include being featured in When Sisters Speak, co-producing the Spoken Soul Festival, and representing Toronto as a 2x national team finalist in the Canadian Festival Of Spoken Word. In 2019 she was a TEDx speaker and in 2020 an excerpt of her play How Jab Jab Saved the Pretty Mas was featured as part of Piece of Mine’s Black Women in Theatre Festival. Paulina’s work has been featured in media on Bell Fibe TV, Huffington Post Canada, AfroGlobal TV, Metro Morning and CBC Morning and published in 3 anthologies and 1 book. Paulina was recognized as one of 150 Black Women Making Herstory (as featured on CBC) for her contribution to building the arts scene in Toronto.


Moderator: 

Mercy Nabirye
Mercy Nabirye is a consultant for African Diaspora arts and through her company Kauma Arts, she works with individuals and organisations on strategic programmes to connect communities globally, raise profiles, the practice and awareness of these diverse arts. She is a fellow of the Windsor Leadership as well as The Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. She serves as a Trustee on several boards in the UK, USA and Africa. She is currently working as a consultant with OneDance UK, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Birmingham Royal Ballet and more.

Prior leadership roles include Finance Manager for Apples and Snakes a literary and performance poetry organisation; Operations Manager for Arts Council England’s – Creative Partnerships Kent schools programme; Finance/Co-Director for Future Creatives Kent – Children and young people’s creative learning; Director of the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD); Head of Dance of the African Diaspora(DAD) at One Dance UK.  Her artistic background is Performing Arts, Film/photography, writer, dance choreography, practitioner and drummer. She has recently been appointed co-chair of a newly established International committee for the USA-based International Association of Blacks in Dance (IABD), which will share understanding, concerns, education and address growth and development of the global representation of Blacks in Dance.
 


CPAMO GATHERING  FALL 2020 ARTIST  SHOWCASE

Samson Bonkeabantu Brown | Dec. 9 | Time: 11:10am 
Samson Bonkeabantu Brown is a sangoma, ngaka, inyanga, hoodoo, traditional healer, multidisciplinary artist and playwright. His primary focus is on spiritual healing, ancestral veneration, trans advocacy and the arts. He uses the arts (primarily as an actor and playwright) to create visibility for men of trans experience and to educate the general public on trans issues. He has been tasked by his ancestors to shed light on how ancestral veneration can assist with healing the self and living in our purpose.


Rhodnie Desir | Dec. 9 | Time: 3:30pm 
Désir has over 12 years of experience as a choreographer, a public speaker, and a strategist of large-scale cultural initiatives.  Creator of fifteen dance works (RD Creations), her unique choreographic-documentary and Afro-contemporary artistic signature has brought her around the world were she produced the trailblazing project BOW’T TRAIL (www.bowttrail.com) in six countries in the Americas, and participated in the Programmation Culturelle Francophone at the 2016 Olympic Games (Brazil), among others. Winner of the 2016 Grand Prix Lys de la Diversité and President of Montréal, arts interculturels, she is frequently approached by arts councils to serve on their juries (CAC, CALQ, CAM). She hopes to use her knowledge to support initiatives focussing on innovation, equity, the power of art, and citizen speech. In 2020, she breaks two glass ceilings by receiving the GRAND PRIX of the Prix de la danse de Montréal – making her the first Black person and the youngest choreographer to receive this honor for her choreographic work BOW’T TRAIL Rétropek and her BOW’T TRAIL initiative. Her company RD Créations also received the ENVOL AWARD the same year. https://ici.artv.ca/bowttrail/fr 

Esie Mensah | Dec. 9 | Time: 3:45pm
Esie is a multifaceted artist whose creative footprint extends to many genres, disciplines and regions. As a dancer, choreographer, movement director and speaker, Esie brings her mastery in storytelling to audiences as diverse as her experience. From working with megastars like Rihanna, Drake and Arcade Fire to historic brands like Coca Cola, Luminato, TIFF, ROM, Shaw Festival, Soulpepper Theatre and Raptors (to name a few), Esie shows no sign of slowing down.  Through her work in dance, Esie stepped out of her comfort zone to dive into public speaking and was a featured speaker at TEDxToronto 2019. She spoke about her experience as a dark-skinned dancer and creating her Dora nominated production Shades – a work that uncovers the process of healing from shadeism/colorism in the Black community. 

Esie is currently using her voice to bring more inclusive practices to the Canadian dance industry, and continues to touch more and more communities that surround her, worldwide!


For more information and  to register: 
The schedule is available here in pdf
The description of each session is available here in pdf

Register on Eventbrite: https://the-gathering-fall-2020.eventbrite.ca

Important: All the keynotes and panel sessions will be recorded and then made available for viewing to the public, with the exception of Small Group Discussion. Performances and virtual visual exhibitions will not be recorded and only showcased once.  

Accessibility: all sessions except the Mayor’s Roundtable will be via Zoom. We will have Otter.ai live transcribed available for all panels (except the breakrooms section), ASL will be provided for some sessions which will be determined closer to the date. Please let us know if you have any questions or accessibility needs.  

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Kevin A. Ormsby,  Program Manager, CPAMO
programming@cpamo.org or (416) 899-9448

In collaboration with:

Connect with us on
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CPAMO is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, English Testing Canada, Barrett and Welsh, LeSageArts Management, and Randolph College for the Performing Arts.