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.
Alleah Erica Clarke is a Business Strategist and Development Coach who founded AJ Cultured, a rapidly growing organisation that provides a wide range of services for small business owners. She is a business developer that holds a portfolio of companies including Culturnique, a full-service and digital design firm, and Alcreance, a bookkeeping and accounting firm. Having been a solopreneur herself, she understands the responsibilities and struggles of solopreneurs that strive to see their visions through. AJ Cultured and its sister companies allow Alleah Erica to guide solopreneurs to where they want to be, help propel their organisations to higher heights and newer sights, hold businesses accountable for their growth, and ultimately influence change. Alleah intends to create a powerhouse of small business development assets and organisations, becoming a facilitator and agent of change in business, culture, art, and community.
As artistic director of Citadel + Compagnie for nearly two decades, Laurence Lemieux has established herself as a leader within Toronto’s dance community. Her multi-faceted experience as a dancer, choreographer, teacher and presenter has guided the company’s mandate of community outreach and engagement and given rise to C+C’s distinctive artistic voice. (Photo by Aleksandar Antonijevic) 
Neena Jayarajan is an independent dance theatre artist with extensive experience in Bharatanatyam and Odissi dance techniques. Her primary training was under the tutelage of Dr. Menaka Thakkar, and Sujatha Mohapatra. She served as the Assistant Artistic Director of Menaka Thakkar Dance Company for 7 years, as well as assistant teacher at nrtyakala for 20 years. She currently is an Associate Artist at Nova Dance involved in both creative and organizational roles. Neena completed her MA in Dance from York University and was a 2016 recipient of the Chalmers Arts Fellowship Grant. She made her theatrical debut in Theatre Smith’s Gilmour’s Metamorphosis. Neena currently sits on the board of CADA west and The Dance Current Magazine and is currently on her own choreographic journey of exploration using her classical roots to fuel a contemporary outlook. 
April Britski is the Executive Director of CARFAC, Canada’s national association for visual artists. She has worked and volunteered as an arts administrator since 1998, and joined the staff of CARFAC National in 2005. She is a co-founder of Artists’ Legal Services Ottawa and the Visual Arts Alliance, and she has served on several boards of cultural policy and artist-run organizations. April’s primary responsibility at CARFAC is the development and implementation of organizational policies and strategies related to artists’ legal and economic rights. She is actively involved in all of CARFAC’s advocacy efforts, including CARFAC’s Artist’s Resale Right campaign, as well as building Imprimo, a new digital platform for visual artists. She assists with negotiating collective agreements for visual and media artists under the Status of the Artist Act, as well as other national voluntary agreements with presenters. Originally from Saskatchewan, April currently resides on the traditional unceded territories of the Coast Salish Nations including the Kwikwetlem, Musqueam, Skxwú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples.
Kevin A. Ormsby, Program Manager, CPAMO 
Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Movement Ontario (CPAMO) 
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