Tuesday February 21 2023 – 12:00pm to 1:00pm MT
Every day is a day to acknowledge Black Excellence, and Creatives Empowered is celebrating Black History Month with a powerful event that will explore how we can empower Black artists + creatives and their work in Alberta.
PANELISTS
Jenny Steele | Producer, Director, On-Air Talent and Dancer / Choreographer
Jenny Steele is a quadruple threat: Producer, Director, On-Air Talent and Dancer/Choreographer. Her media career started in front of the camera, hosting entertainment programs that brought her face to face with countless celebrities, including George Clooney, The Rock, and Sarah Jessica Parker. Soon Jenny was producing and co-creating her own programs, leading production teams that took programs from concept to completion. Her work has been broadcast on almost every Canadian network, including E!, CTV, CityTV, CBC, OMNI, The Biography Channel and Sportsnet.
Over the past two years she has concentrated on Impact Documentary production, developing projects that are entertaining, thought provoking, and empowering. She still balances her producing career with her work as a Television Personality, Host, Actor and Voice Artist. She’s appeared in numerous commercials, the TV shows, Heartland and Jann, the theatrical feature film, Left Behind and she landed principal roles in the movies, From Italy with Amore and Key To Love. Jenny is thrilled to continue her passion for storytelling and to help bring important and impactful stories to life.
Nauzanin Knight | Writer, Director and Producer
Nauzanin Knight is a Canadian woman of Caribbean and Middle Eastern descent. Her nuanced stories reflect the uniqueness of her heritage as well as her international life. She strives with every project she undertakes, whether fictional or factual, to draw attention to pressing social issues and influence the current discourses of society.
Nauzanin completed her MSc at University College London, in the UK, and began her career in creative writing, publishing her non-fiction book “State Terrorism in Iran: understanding the case of the Iranian Bahá’í Community”, before directing her attention to film projects.
She went on to write, direct and produce films like #SHADESOFWORTH (2021), an exploration of self-worth and beauty in Black women; My Lyric I Never Knew, about a young singer who decides to debut a song i that will expose her turbulent past and forced adoption of her child (CBC Canadian Reflections, American Indian Film Festival 2019, National Screen Institute Film Festival 2019); Precarity, a short documentary about the lived experience of Temporary Foreign Workers in Alberta (TELUS Optik, On-Demand); ColorBlind (2022) a Romantic Comedy on the theme of the paramount importance of the elimination of racial prejudice; and, is in the process of directing “White Sands” (development phase) with the National Film Board of Canada, on the origins of White Supremacy in the first Black Slave Society in Barbados. Outside of her own projects, she held the position of Story Editor on CityTV’s Hudson & Rex Season IV (2021-22).
Nauzanin is a Women in the Director’s Chair (WIDC; 2020), Whistler Film Festival Doc Lab (2019), BANFF Spark Accelerator for Women in the Business of Media (2020), and Rogers Sports & Media/ReelWorld Level-Up Writer’s Program (2021) Alumna. She is currently participating in the CinFam LIMITLESS program, for select BIPOC women creators with a feature or series in development.
An ardent believer in contributing to the vibrance of her community at the grassroots, Nauzanin serves as a board member and EDI chair of Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA). She also facilitated the digital storytelling workshop series Empowering Black Girls (EBG) organized by Action for Healthy Communities in Edmonton, Alberta, designed to empower Black youth to share their stories through filmmaking.
Contributing to the societal discourses around diversity and inclusion in the film & television industry is of utmost important to Nauzanin. She designed, led, and published“Building Inclusive Networks in the Film and Television Industry” (2022) to further this aim.
Nauzanin is Executive Producer of 1844 Studios, a film production company which is dedicated to fostering international artistic collaborations and exposing striking stories which tell us about the universality of human emotion despite diversity of human experience.
Donna Knorren | Photographer
Donna Knorren is an aspiring cinematographer with an adventurous spirit, and a freelance photographer, who is passionate about capturing people of colour and showcasing them in their best light.
Ado Nkemka | Musician and Writer
A.N. is a musician with a distinct dark timbre and in-your-face vocals. Based out of Calgary, AB, her sound is inspired by late 90’s and early 00’s pop, rock and R&B.
In 2020, she released a short DIY EP titled Forbidden Fruit. Two years later, she participated in SOCAN’s Equity X Production Mentorship Program and made her festival debut at Sled Island 2022!
With the support of Calgary Arts Development, she’s currently working with Toronto-based producer James Bunton on a guitar-driven pop-rock record (fall 2023) that explores life as a first-generation Canadian, love/lust/connection, grounded fearlessness, and stepping into your power. She is currently working on a coming-of-age play inspired by this record, as a part of Chromatic Theatre’s 2022-2023 Playwright’s Unit cohort.
As a part of the 2022-2024 Artist as Changemaker Residency cohort, she’ll also be spending time working in collaboration with The Alcove Centre for the Arts (through Mount Royal University’s Trico Changemakers Studio), in order to increase the capacity of local artists to showcase, learn and explore their art.
Toyin Oladele | Artist, Arts Professional and Project Manager
Toyin is a motivated, creative, and results-focused arts professional, and project manager with over a decade of experience working in the arts, culture, & heritage sector. In various roles, Toyin oversees the development, delivery, and evaluation of a range of programs, projects, and partnerships focused on elevating the cultural landscape and supporting artists and culture workers from all backgrounds.
Toyin is an advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion especially in the arts, and is passionate about mentoring numerous newcomers from diverse countries and professional backgrounds. Toyin founded the Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation (ICAI) in 2019. ICAI is a nonprofit society that aims to remove barriers for newcomers and immigrants who are seeking to continue careers in the arts in Alberta. Toyin consults for cultural and arts organizations across Canada and the United States of America including the City of Calgary. She is a member of the Community Working Group on Equity Diversity, Inclusion and Access for Calgary Arts Developments and currently serves on the board of Calgary Young People’s Theatre (CYPT), Contemporary Calgary, Chromatic Theatre and CARFAC Alberta.