Finding agency through the lens

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

An interview with Sandrine Colard — curator of The Way She Looks photography exhibition, organized by the Ryerson Image Centre. Colard is an art historian, writer and curator based in New York, United States, and Brussels, Belgium.

"The reading of being black is very different growing up in Europe — in contrast to my experience living in New York today; or when I travel to the Congo," said art curator and professor Sandrine Colard. She gave AfroToronto those insights during a recent discussion where we discussed her dual heritage. 

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Dwayne Morgan discusses the inaugural Toronto Spoken Soul Fest

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

The inaugural 3-day Toronto Spoken Soul Fest is taking place from August 16-18, 2019 at the 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education in Toronto. Created by the SpokenSoulTO Collective, comprised of multifaceted Toronto artists Dwayne Morgan, Paulina O'Kieffe-Anthony and Randelll Adjei, the festival aims to provide an annual platform for talented black poets, storytellers, musicians, and signers.

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Bringing Nuit Blanche to Scarborough

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

Few people I've come across have mastered the art of the side hustle like Toronto-based creative director and art curator, Ashley McKenzie-Barnes. In fact, she's been so successful at simultaneously managing her established corporate career within Toronto's vibrant advertising agency world and her numerous passion projects — spanning well-known community initiatives such as The Remix Project, Manifesto and Honey Jam — that it's hard to see where the side hustle starts and ends.

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Mary Poppins with a twist: An interview with Thom Allison

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

Young People's Theatre's holidays production of the Mary Poppins musical, based on the stories penned by P.L. Travers and the 1964 Disney film, has broken all YPT sales records in the its 53-year history since it hit the company's main stage in early November. The show, featuring 14 cast members and 90 costumes, can still be seen until January 6.

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Djanet Sears on "for colored girls"

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

Over the past weekend, we learned the sad news of the passing of pioneering playwright, poet and novelist Ntozake Shange. Her landmark choreopoem, “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf,” has profoundly touched, and spoken to, generations of black women.

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Creating a platform for traditional black dance

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

"Were there is music, dance always is. It becomes part of the storytelling," said Toronto-based multidimensional performing artist Nicole Brooks, while speaking to AfroToronto.com about the long tradition of Caribbean and African dance. Brooks is the creator of Obeah Opera -- a musical retelling of the legendary Salem witch trials from the fascinating perspective of Caribbean slave women. It was recently featured as part of the Fall for Dance North festival, one of Canada's leading international dance showcases. Obeah Opera had also been on the international spotlight for its world premiere at PANAMANIA, held in Toronto back in 2015.

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Standing in an Afrofuturistic B-girl stance

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape -- an Obsidian Theatre production, presented in partnership with Soulpepper Theatre -- written and performed by multidisciplinarian spoken word artist Motion, and infused by enthralling musical soundscapes of DJ L’Oqenz, is currently running at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts (50 Tank House Lane) until October 20, 2018.

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Unearthing the traumas of shadeism

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

Shadeism, sometimes also called colourism, is an insidious form of discrimination based on skin tone. In the black community it's the cause and result of generational trauma, even within families, creating situations where lighter-skinned and darker-skinned people of colour are treated differently. In her deeply personal original dance/theatre piece, Shades, currently running until September 30 at Factory Theatre, Ghanaian-Canadian dancer, choreographer and playwright Esie Mensah examines this multi-layered dynamic.

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Honouring our theatrical classics

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

An interview with Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, the director of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom at Soulpepper Theatre

Soulpepper Theatre's currently running production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom has been receiving great reviews and, by popular demand, was extended to Saturday, June 9th, 2018. AfroToronto caught up with the show's director, Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, to discuss the significance and timeliness of remounting this play, set in 1920's Chicago, for the first time in Canada since Ma Rainey's role was performed by Canadian jazz legend Jackie Richardson back in the mid-1980s -- shortly after the play premiered on Broadway in 1984.

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Young, queer, black and free in foreign

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Category: Arts

Written by Meres J. Weche

An interview with emerging artist daniel jelani ellis about his show speaking of sneaking

One of the central characteristics of the immigrant experience is the need to define one's place in a new land, and new culture, while finding the best way of incorporating, or not, one's own cultural roots into a new narrative. In his play speaking of sneaking, Jamaican-born and raised emerging artist daniel jelani ellis, who has immigrated to Canada in 2004, explores those themes -- also incorporating his queer identity. Playing at the Theatre Centre until May 11, as part Why Not Theatre's The RISER Project 2018, speaking of sneaking investigates the complex relationship between immigration and displacement, yard and foreign, home and abroad. The play is directed by d’bi.young anitafrika and choreographed by Brian Solomon.

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