The New Embassy Archives - TIFA

Silvae Mercedes

Silvae Mercedes is a Mad performer, writer and designer based in Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. Her work explores the liminal spaces between the private and cultural imagination, the corridors of memory, and the ways in which trauma writes itself upon them. She is a founding member of Other Hearts Collective (otherhearts.ca) and currently pursuing […]

Max Ferguson

Max Ferguson (He/They) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator and PhD Candidate at York University. A practicing artist since 1996, Max (formerly Sarah) received their BFA from the University of Regina in 2001. He acquired his MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Visual Art and Women’s and Gender Studies) in 2017. His artistic explorations involve queer sexualities, the […]

Jessica Watkin

Jessica Watkin is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies with research focusing on Disabled artists and how they are supported in their creation processes. Jess is a tactile, nonvisual artist who uses yarn and storytelling as method.

Tallan M.D.

Tallan Alexander is a musician, poet, actor, author and mental health advocate living in Toronto, Ontario. Tallan lives with Bipolar 1 Disorder, Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, several substance use disorders and has difficulties surrounding food. They play piano, guitar and sing, and are currently studying for their level 9 piano at the Royal Conservatory of […]

Yousef Kadoura

Yousef Kadoura, born in the midwestern United States and raised in Ottawa, is a Lebanese Canadian actor, writer, producer, as well as a right leg below knee amputee. Yousef is a graduate of the acting program at the National Theatre School of Canada. He has worked as the curator in residence at Tangled Art + […]

Jaz Fairy J

Jaz Fairy J is an inter-disciplinary artist working with choreography, movement direction, movement meditation, sound healing, performance art, collective gathering and games, and intuitive/ancestral creative healing practice. She believes that art and creation are a portal to the divine, and in that, she is in a continuous investigation around how her work can create more […]

Aisha Sasha John

A poet and choreographer, Aisha Sasha John is the author of I have to live. (McClelland & Stewart), finalist for the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize; THOU (Book*hug), finalist for the 2015 Trillium Book Award; and TO STAND AT THE PRECIPICE ALONE AND REPEAT WHAT IS WHISPERED (UDP 2021), now in its second printing. John’s first […]

Sze-Yang Ade-Lam

Sze-Yang Ade-Lam is a queer asian nonbinary dancer, choreographer, martial artist, actor, advocate and community developer. Sze-Yang shares stories for love, liberation, representation and empowerment, as an independent artist, and as part of ILL NANA/DiverseCity Dance Company. Since 2011, Sze-Yang has created more accessible affirming dance education and performance opportunities for QT2SBIPOC’s and their adjacent […]

The New Embassy

In 2022, The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA) presented The New Embassy: a digital series spotlighting a new wave of CanLit influencers. Originally released in February and April, 2022, the events were curated by Yousef Kadoura, Canisia Lubrin, Jen Sookfong Lee, Kai Cheng Thom and Syrus Marcus Ware; and featured spoken word, poetry, fiction […]

Courage Bacchus

Natasha “Courage” Bacchus is a former three-time Deaf Olympian Sprinter. She began working as an actress in 2019, and has since performed in The Black Drum, The Two Natasha’s, 21 Black Futures and season four of The Corner on Netflix. Bacchus has participated as an art collaborator with numerous theatre and film productions in Canada. […]

Dainty Smith

Dainty Smith is a Toronto-based actor, burlesque performer, playwright, producer and curator. Her performances often tell deeply vulnerable stories regarding race, religion, sexuality and challenging social boundaries. She wrote Daughters of Lilith, which was part of B Current Theatre’s Playwright Incubation 2021 season, and Blood and Memory, which is currently being workshopped and supported by […]

Aedan Corey

Two Spirit writer and artist, Aedan Corey is the author of the chapbook INUUJUNGA (Coven Editions, 2020) and short story Anaanatiaq (Nipiit Magazine, 2020). They were raised their whole life in Iqaluktuuttiaq (Cambridge Bay), Nunavut, a town of approximately 1,700 people. Aedan began writing at a young age, and their art is heavily inspired by […]

Kama La Mackerel

Kama La Mackerel is an award-winning Mauritian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, educator, writer, curator and literary translator. Kama’s work is grounded in the exploration of justice, love, healing, decoloniality, hybridity, cosmopolitanism, ancestral healing and self- and collective-empowerment. They are the author ZOM-FAM (Metonymy Press) which was named a CBC Best Poetry Book, a Globe and Mail Best […]

Kim Ninkuru

Kim Ninkuru is a multimedia artist born in Bujumbura, Burundi. In Canada since 2009, she has been living and working in Montreal and Toronto. Using video and sound performance, storytelling and installation work, she creates pieces that explore and express rage, love, desire, beauty, or pain in relation to her own body, mind and soul. […]

Janice Jo Lee

Janice Jo Lee, aka Sing Hey, is a contemporary folk artist of Korean settler ancestry. She is a soul-folk singer-songwriter, spoken word poet, clown, playwright and educator. She is a hard femme queer radical known for being disarmingly hilarious and fearlessly honest. Her work explores gender justice, antiracism, friendship, burnout, community, ancestry and the Earth. […]

Kai Cheng Thom

Kai Cheng Thom is an author, performer, queer healer and mediator based in Toronto/tkaronto. She is the author of 5 award-winning books in multiple genres, as well as the writer of the Ask Kai: Advice for the Apocalypse advice column for Xtra Magazine. Kai Cheng has been featured in Teen Vogue, the New York Times […]

Beau Dixon

Beau Dixon is a self-taught, multi award-winning actor, composer, playwright, sound designer and music director. His theatre credits include Guys ‘n’ Dolls (Stratford Festival), The Colour Purple (Neptune Theatre), Next To Normal (Tarragon Theatre), Secret Chord (Soulpepper Theatre) and As You Like It/Titus Andronicus (Canadian Stage/Shakespeare in High Park). Dixon’s writing credits include Bloom: A […]

Erica Violet Lee

Erica Violet Lee is a Cree poet, musician and artist from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Her writing is a decolonial celebration of unrepentant feeling, joy and a call for radical action in a world that tells Native girls our freedom is impossible. Erica’s writing has appeared in Brick: A Literary Journal, Contemporary Verse 2, Held Magazine, Red […]

Joy Lapps

Joy Lapps is an artist, educator, consultant and creative womanist. She holds a Masters in Music Composition and her proficiency with the tenor pan is recognized internationally. She leads The Joy Lapps Project, an ensemble exploring Afro and Latin-Caribbean Jazz. Joy has performed at festivals including Afrofest, Toronto’s TD Jazz Festival, Antigua’s Moods of Pan […]

Syrus Marcus Ware

Dr. Syrus Marcus Ware is a Vanier scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. Using painting, installation and performance, Syrus explores social justice frameworks and black activist culture. His work has been shown widely across Canada in solo and group shows, and his performance works have been included in local and international festivals. Author of picture […]

Jen Sookfong Lee

Jen Sookfong Lee was born and raised in Vancouver’s East Side and she now lives with her son in North Burnaby. Her books include The Conjoined, nominated for International Dublin Literary Award and a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; The Better Mother, a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award; The End […]

Britta Badour

Britta Badour, better known as Britta B., is an award-winning artist, public speaker, and poet living in Toronto. She is the recipient of the Breakthrough Artist Award (Toronto Arts Foundation, 2021) and Lecturer of the Year (COCA, 2021). Britta holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph and teaches spoken word performance […]

Zoey Roy

Zoey ‘Pricelys’ Roy is a Nehithaw-Dené Métis poet, creative director, educator, researcher and activist from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. She is now based in Kingston, Ontario. Zoey released her debut rap album Made Up in May 2021 and is set to release her first spoken word album in January 2022 under her stage name ‘Pricelys’. Zoey uses […]

Rodney Diverlus

Rodney Diverlus (@rodneydiverlus | He/Them) is a Haitian-Canadian movement artist who has performed internationally in dance theatre and multidisciplinary performance, and has developed his distinct movement aesthetic that brings together jazz, contemporary and Afrikanic movements. Described by the Toronto Star as “one of Toronto’s fastest rising dance talents,” Rodney is working on new world premieres […]