Soundtracks & Stanzas: Changing Canada’s Black Future

Britta Badour, Jillian Christmas, Tawhida Tanya Evanson, Desiree Mckenzie   and MOTION

Soundtracks & Stanzas: Changing Canada’s Black Future

Britta Badour, Jillian Christmas, Tawhida Tanya Evanson, Desiree Mckenzie   and MOTION

4:00pm

Friday, February 12

60 mins

Whether it be poetry written for the page, the silver screen, the poetry slam, or the melody, every poet plays with language to reveal the inexpressible. In this archived presentation (originally aired February 12, 2021), the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), JAYU and the Bergen International Literary Festival present a new generation of Canadian poets who are pushing the possibilities and playing with the rules. Tune in to four distinguished Canadian poets as they take you on a journey through the physical, vocal and material elements of poetry.

Featured poets: Jillian Christmas (Vancouver), Tawhida Tanya Evanson (Montreal), Desiree McKenzie (Toronto), Motion (Toronto)
Curator and emcee: Poet Britta B. (Toronto)

This event is presented as part of the 2021 Bergen International Literary Festival, a five-day festival that celebrates international and Norwegian fiction and non-fiction. The event was originally showcased during Literature Live Around the World, a collaboration project composed of 12 festivals and literature centres from every continent, that joined forces to provide a unique 12-hour literary programme. Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation presenters Siss Vik and Mona B Riise led this marathon multinational venture. Soundtracks & Stanzas: Changing Canada’s Black Future was a one-hour featured segment of this 12-hour broadcast.

TIFA is excited to join forces with JAYU, a leader in the space where the arts and human rights intersect, and Harbourfront Centre’s Kuumba (presented by TD Ready Commitment), Toronto’s largest Black Futures Month celebration, to bring you this special event.

This event is currently re-released as part of Harbourfront Centre’s 2023 KUUMBA Presented by TD Bank Group, Toronto’s largest Black Futures Month celebration. The video is available to watch for free throughout the month of February. Learn more here.

            JAYU Logo       Harbourfront centre logo     TD The Ready Commitment logo

Whether it be poetry written for the page, the silver screen, the poetry slam, or the melody, every poet plays with language to reveal the inexpressible. In this archived presentation (originally aired February 12, 2021), the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), JAYU and the Bergen International Literary Festival present a new generation of Canadian poets who are pushing the possibilities and playing with the rules. Tune in to four distinguished Canadian poets as they take you on a journey through the physical, vocal and material elements of poetry.

Featured poets: Jillian Christmas (Vancouver), Tawhida Tanya Evanson (Montreal), Desiree McKenzie (Toronto), Motion (Toronto)
Curator and emcee: Poet Britta B. (Toronto)

This event is presented as part of the 2021 Bergen International Literary Festival, a five-day festival that celebrates international and Norwegian fiction and non-fiction. The event was originally showcased during Literature Live Around the World, a collaboration project composed of 12 festivals and literature centres from every continent, that joined forces to provide a unique 12-hour literary programme. Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation presenters Siss Vik and Mona B Riise led this marathon multinational venture. Soundtracks & Stanzas: Changing Canada’s Black Future was a one-hour featured segment of this 12-hour broadcast.

TIFA is excited to join forces with JAYU, a leader in the space where the arts and human rights intersect, and Harbourfront Centre’s Kuumba (presented by TD Ready Commitment), Toronto’s largest Black Futures Month celebration, to bring you this special event.

This event is currently re-released as part of Harbourfront Centre’s 2023 KUUMBA Presented by TD Bank Group, Toronto’s largest Black Futures Month celebration. The video is available to watch for free throughout the month of February. Learn more here.

            JAYU Logo       Harbourfront centre logo     TD The Ready Commitment logo

Featured Authors

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 at Seneca College. 

Read more about Britta Badour

Jillian Christmas
Jillian Christmas is a queer, afro-caribbean writer living on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Musqueam people (Vancouver, BC). Jillian works as an artist, educator, curator and consultant, including as a speaker coordinator for Cicely Blain Consulting, long-time Spoken word curator of the Vancouver Writers Fest and former artistic director of Verses Festival of Words. She has won numerous Grand Poetry Slam Championship titles and represented both Toronto and Vancouver at 11 national poetry events, notably breaking ground as the first Canadian to perform on the final stage of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. She is the author of The Gospel of Breaking (Arsenal Pulp Press 2020). 

Read more about Jillian Christmas

Tawhida Tanya Evanson
Tawhida Tanya Evanson is an Antiguan-Québecoise poet, author and artist from Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. She has published six artist books, two poetry collections, Bothism (Ekstasis 2017) and Nouveau Griot (Frontenac 2018), and her first novel Book of Wings is forthcoming from Véhicule Press in 2021. With a 20-year practice in spoken word, she has performed at literary and arts festivals in over a dozen countries, released four studio albums and six videopoems. In 2013, she was Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and received the Golden Beret Award for her contribution to the genre. She is the program director for Banff Centre Spoken Word and sits on the Board of Directors for The Quebec Writers' Federation (QWF).

Read more about Tawhida Tanya Evanson

Desiree Mckenzie  
Desiree Mckenzie is an award-winning poet, arts educator, national poetry slam champion and voice actor from Toronto. Her poetry and voice have been featured in works for CBC’s Poetic License series, When Sisters Speak, Clearco Financial, Button Poetry, Kids Help Phone and Home Depot. She facilitates a range of community poetry programming for organizations like JAYU, VIBE Arts, Unity Charity, Poetry in Voice, and Shakespeare in Action. Her debut spoken word EP, Wet Hair, is now available on streaming platforms. In December 2022, she opened for Rupi Kaur on her world tour stop at Massey Hall.

Read more about Desiree Mckenzie  

MOTION
MOTION is a poet, playwright, screenwriter and emcee. Her works for the stage and screen have been featured across Canada, as well as in the U.S, Caribbean, Europe and Africa. She is a writer and co-producer on the TV series Coroner (CBC/CW) and co-writer of the feature Akilla’s Escape, directed by Charles Officer (2020), which premiered at TIFF 2020. She is writer of Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape (with DJ L'Oqenz), author of Motion in Poetry (Women’s Press), published in The Black Notes (Insomniac Press) and teaches her course Griots to Emcees: Spoken Word, Performance & Culture at York University. 

Read more about MOTION

4:00pm

Friday, February 12

60 mins

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