Thursday December 15 2022 – 12:00pm to 1:00pm MT
Our last event of 2022 is inspired by our curator and moderator, Althea Cunningham. We’ll unpack the complex intersections of gatekeeping and colonialism in our cultural sector, and explore how this directly affects the work of IBPOC artists + creatives within the colonial boundary known as Alberta.
This event is specifically for artists + creatives who self-identify as Indigenous, Black and People of Colour (IBPOC), and is a safe and open space to discuss this important topic.
PANELISTS
Christine Frederick | Executive Director, Dreamspeakers Festival Society
Christine Sokaymoh Frederick is an urban Cree-Métis with decades of experience in multiple artistic disciplines. She is Executive Director and producer of the Dreamspeakers International Film Festival and the Rubaboo Arts Festival. She was the first Indigenous Associate Artist of the Citadel Theatre and first Indigenous board member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the first Indigenous Chair of Edmonton Arts Council, former Vice Chair of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and has sat on the executive of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance. She’s attended the University of Alberta, the Banff Centre for Arts, and the University for Peace (Costa Rica). She served on the committees for the ᐄᓃᐤ (ÎNÎW) River Lot 11∞ one of the first Indigenous Public Art Parks. She recently performed in the Rez Sisters at the Stratford Festival and in Bears at the Citadel Theatre, produced/performed in a dance theatre double-bill national tour of Bears by Matt MacKenzie and her own play Minosis Gathers Hope. In 2021 on behalf of the National Arts Centre, she produced the global Indigenous showcase for the 2020 Dubai World Expo. She currently serves on the Advisory committee for the City of Edmonton Indigenous Artist in Residence program and recently joined the national advisory committee for the National Arts Centre’s Creation Fund. She is the recipient of the 2007 Esquao Award in Arts, and the 2016 Mayor’s award for Excellence in Artistic Leadership and the 2022 Queen’s Platinum Jubilee medal.
Kijo Eunice Gatama | Performer, Actor, Clown & Dancer
Kijo Eunice Gatama is an Edmonton-based theatre performer, actor, clown, dancer, and emerging artistic director. Co-curator and producer of Fear The Festival, a horror film festival centring around elevating explorations by self-identifying members of IBPOC artists, as well as co-founder of Shakespeare’s Hunnies, an emerging artist blog. As a playwright, Gatama strives to create theatre that explores family dynamics, comedy, and Queer Afro-Canadian experiences.
Wunmi Idowu | Multidisciplinary Artist, Choreographer, Filmmaker, Performer & Producer
Wunmi Idowu is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, filmmaker, performer, and producer and the Founder and Director of Woezo Africa Music & Dance Theatre Inc. For the past 16 years, the arts organization has been passionately dedicated to bringing the history of African culture to the masses through traditional and modern modes of performing arts, including dance, music, theatre and storytelling. By pushing for increased visibility of ethnically and culturally diverse artists in Alberta, Wunmi hopes that perceptions will shift around who participates in the arts. Through dynamic, cutting-edge work that captures the imagination of a range of audiences, she curates programs, events and productions to enhance the creative economy in Alberta, empower communities and perpetuate the movement for instilling social change for African, Caribbean and Black artists.
Mboya Nicholson | Jazz Pianist
Edmonton jazz pianist Mboya Nicholson believes in the timelessness and beauty of swing and the blues; and how it can express the different dynamics of living.
Mboya spent his childhood taking classical lessons and also trying (with futility) to figure out jazz piano. The family record collection included everything from Paul Robeson to South African singers, to Nigerian drumming; and from Bob Marley to Andre Watts’ 1963 recording of Liszt and Chopin. “All these things were fodder for my imagination as a child. Nobody told me I shouldn’t be able to understand any of it because I was small. I listened and, wondering how and why things sounded the way they did, I listened some more, of my own accord. But jazz resonated with me, and defined me more than anything.” At a young age he was listening to Duke Ellington, Erroll Garner Thelonious Monk and more. “I distinctly remember, all of a sudden, Thelonious Monk died when I was eight. I remember being conscious of that. We had all those records in the house, so I was aware of who he was prior to that happening.”
After high school, Mboya studied at Grant MacEwan Community College (now MacEwan University), studying with celebrated Alberta jazz pianist Charlie Austin, who showed Mboya the intricacies of jazz piano, and also helped him identify some things he had taught himself, and how to expand on them.
In the 1990’s Mboya was a fixture on the local jazz scene, performing for the Jazz City Festival, as well as producing concerts including tributes featuring the music of Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and a centennial tribute to Paul Robeson. In the late 1990’s, the Francis Winsepar Centre for Music asked him to perform a jazz concert for young children during their grand opening festivities. And in 1998, the Edmonton Jazz Society asked Mboya to play a post-show reception for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s first performance in Edmonton.
In 1999, Mboya moved to New Orleans, soaking up as much of the music and the culture as he could. While there, he studied at the University of New Orleans, (UNO) where he obtained his bachelor and masters degrees in music. During the years in New Orleans, Mboya studied with jazz legends, Ellis Marsalis and Harold Battiste.
In 2005, Mboya moved to Toronto, and was writing string arrangements and a commission, for ArsMusica, directed by Colin Mendez Morris. In 2016, he returned to Edmonton, where he performs solo and with a trio, and currently teaches at MacEwan University.
Tololwa Mollel | Author
Tololwa Mollel is an author of over 20 internationally published children’s books, in English and in Swahili, the national language of his native country Tanzania. Among his books are the award-winning The Orphan Boy, My Rows and Piles of Coinsand Big Boy. Tololwa’s writings have been translated into various African, European and Asian languages. He is also author of several plays, writer of stories for performances, and a performer of stories, in solo storytelling/story performance, or with co-performers.
In 2017, Tololwa edited HOME: Stories Connecting Us All , a freely available eBook in honor of Canada 150. It consists of 124 multicultural personal and community stories. From that experience, he learned much about the need and potential for diversity in writing in Canada. Between 2015 and 2017 bi-weekly, Tololwa shared on an Edmonton-based Swahili radio program, stories he created for Swahili-speaking listeners in North America and beyond. Tololwa has been a member of various theatrical and literary organizations such as the Editors Canada, Alberta Playwrights Network, Theatre Alberta, Playwrights Guild of Canada; Young Alberta Book Society where he served on the board, the Writers Union of Canada, and the Writers Guild of Alberta, where he served as president. He is also a writing instructor for youngsters for YouthWrite since the organization was founded in 1996.
Outside his professional artistic practice, Tololwa has worked on community arts projects and work at: Africa Centre; Action for Healthy communities; and Rising Sun, a barrier-free theatre group for adults with developmental and other disabilities.
Althea Cunningham | Musician, Multidisciplinary Artist, Writer, Actor, Arts Educator & Producer
Althea Cunningham, is an award winning Canadian musician. A multidisciplinary artist: writer, actor, arts educator and producer. On The Verge, her Neo-Soul EP was independently released in 2010, to critical acclaim and has had international airplay and featured artists spots. Her original music has been heard on: Black Souls Rhythms Radio, Time Trippin Radio, Bowl of Soul Radio and The Key of A (CBC) to name a few. As an Arts Educator she has influenced minds for fifteen years mostly across Western Canada.
Favorite theatre roles include: Ensemble; Working directed by Kate Ryan for Plain Jane Theatre, Bird Girl; in Seussical for Western Canada Theatre directed by Samantha Macdonald. Muse; for The National Ice Theatre of Canada directed by Allison Maclean, Azizi; for The Francis Winspear Centre For Music directed by David Hoyt and Elizabeth; The Vibrator Play directed by Amy DeFelice for Trunk Theatre.
Producing credits include: live music events across Canada (2007- 2017) and On The Verge CD. Co-producing include: Sunkiss To Death (2023) it will be her first exploration of producing theatre. She graduated with honors from Grant MacEwan University Theatre Arts Program.
Dabbling in television and film she hopes to increase her presence on screen. In film, she has played the leading role in The Invincible Jayson Garvey (2020) written and directed by Melanee Murray-Hunt, an afrofuturist story about current issues. This talent can be seen on screen in The Invincible Jayson Garvey playing at Film festivals globally.