ARTISTS/TRAINERS
2009 INSTRUCTORS
d'bi young is an award-winning dub poet, writer and theatre practitioner. She has performed, published and lectured internationally, has produced five dub poetry albums and is the author of two dub poetry collections: art on black and rivers and other blackness between us. She is also the playwright of the double Dora Award-winning show blood.claat, which recently completed a national Canadian tour. d'bi recently launched a new arts initiative, anitAFRIKA! dub theatre – a radical arts centre founded on 7 principles of dub poetry & dub theatre as mediums of social change through storytelling. This movement provides communities with creative resources that facilitate and promote the ideas of accountability and responsibility between the storyteller and the people.
Dwayne Morgan began his career as a spoken word artist in 1993. He is the founder of Up From The Roots entertainment, which promotes the positive artistic contributions of African-Canadian and urban influenced artists. He is the recipient of the African Canadian Achievement Award, the Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in the Arts, and three Canadian Urban Music Awards. Dwayne has shared the stage with top Canadian artists such as Kardinal Offishall, Jully Black, K-OS, Nelly Furtado, Saukrates and Raine Maida, and has opened for international artists Alicia Keys and Mutabaruka. Dwayne has published three books, most recently, The Making of a Man, which followed The Man Behind The Mic, and Long Overdue. He is an active and highly recognized artist in Toronto’s urban music community, as well as the North American and global spoken word scenes.
Rose Kazi (far left) is one of the primary foot soldiers in Toronto’s underground electronic music scene and the lead singer of the band LAL. She has been instrumental in the growth of many of the city’s female artists, providing venues and forums for their musical expression. More importantly, she has managed to add an air of consciousness and political awareness to many of those events, and this awareness is the most distinctive factor of her music. She grew up in the Bangladeshi community where politics and art went hand in hand, where she sang and danced traditional Bengali folk music and went on to play in choirs and bands up until high school. She moved to Toronto to attend University and worked part-time at a record store, where she discovered the courage to pursue music. She now works part-time at the Toronto Women’s’ bookstore and she has been working with the activist and music community to bridge the gap between art and politics. She also does music workshops with youth on behalf of the RCM and other organizations across Toronto.
Joel Gordon is a graduate of York University’s theatre program and has been acting professionally for 14 years. He has appeared in over 40 principal and lead roles in film and television including Maya Angelou's Down in the Delta, Robert Townsend's The Natalie Cole Story, and This is My Father with James Caan. His Theatre credits include the world premiere of George F. Walker's Heaven at Canadian Stage. He is the founder of V-Formation Productions, which has produced the award-winning feature film, SUPERBOB, and the CBC documentary on Olympian wrestler, Daniel Igali. Joel was also guest actor in This is Wonderland and has acted in the movie Max Payne.
