Join CPAMO in a discussion with contributors of its recently released publication entitled An Anthology of Visioning Canadian Cultural Transformation: Thoughts from Artists / Arts Workers / Organizations in the Canadian Arts Ecology on how one continues a creative legacy, decenter practices and shape new paths and directions. Realizing that there were not many publications dedicated to documenting the work of primarily IBPOC artists,CPAMO sought in the publication to amplify the work of person’s within the Arts sector nationally. The book becomes a platform centering the voice of IBPOC visionaries for the Arts sector’s future.

View the Table of Contents here.

When and Where: Nov. 30, 1pm – 3pm via Zoom

Accessibility: Otter closed captioning will be provided.

Tickets: General admission $12 | Accessibility pricing $5 | Click here to register! 

Meet our panelists:

Nova Bhattacharya is an award-winning dancer, choreographer and cultural leader based in Tkaronto. Bhattacharya crafts vivid images that invite the viewer on a journey of heart and mind. Integrating improvised movement and gesture, she invents a language that needs no translation. Dancing solos that are intimate and intense, creating mesmerizing ensemble works with dancers from a diversity of techniques, she reinterprets traditions through a diaspora lens to tell new stories with movement. In 2008 she founded Nova Dance, a space for celebrating the essential nature of art in our lives.

Award winning Amah Harris B.A., B.Ed, M.Ed is known as a cultural and social activist whose work promotes positive imaging of Caribbean and African Peoples towards the Harmonious co-existence of Peoples. Hamilton Spectator: “Amah is a pioneer in the field of Black Theatre in Canada” – quote by Evelyn Myrie, then Co-Chair of The John Holland Awards, one of a list of awards won by Amah Harris. Documented in the book, 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women (2018), Amah’s productions and experiential workshops have been experienced by literally hundreds of thousands across Canada, U.S., Caribbean and as far south as South Africa.

Ilene Sova identifies as a Mixed Race person who lives with a disability. Ilene’s art practice focuses on equity and diversity with a feminist focus on creating a dialogue around anti-oppression. She holds an Honours MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Windsor. With extensive exhibitions in Canada and abroad, Sova’s work has most notably been shown at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and Mutuo Centro de Arte in Barcelona. Outside of the studio, Sova is the founder of the Feminist Art Collective and Blank Canvases and is the Chair of Drawing and Painting at OCAD University.

Thandiwe McCarthy is a writer, spoken word poet, and 7th generation Black Canadian. As a writer, Thandiwe has published several essays featuring New Brunswick Black artists in The Maritime EDIT Magzaine. His writing can also be found in Africanthology, a best selling collection of essays and poetry from Black Canadian poets.

Thandiwe has performed his poetry at UNB’s 2020 Art Centre exhibit: ‘Rediscovering the Roots of Black New Brunswickers’. As a community advocate, he has co-founded and is president of the New Brunswick Black Artists Alliance, helped republish the history book titled ‘The Blacks of New Brunswick’, and organized The New Brunswick Emancipation Celebration event. Thandiwe McCarthy lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick and his memoir titled Social Oblivion: Raised Black in Canada is now available.