Due to Covid19, our second gathering of Season 2: February celebrating Black History Month will be online.
Registration will be required to ensure the safety and best possible experience for our guests and performers. This event will be recorded.
Date: February 9, 2020
Time of Event: 7-9:00pm
What you require:
Computer, smart device or tablet with internet access and video/audio capabilities
Zoom app
Open mic:
We’re also accepting five (5) people for our open mic time slots! When you register for our event, simply check off if you want to be considered for our open mic.
For our open mics, we accept people from all backgrounds to share their writing, songs, poems or artistic work for two (2) minutes.
meet our guests:
JUSTIN “JAH’KOTA” HOLNESS
Justin “Jah’kota” Holness is a musical artist and owner/founder of TR1BE Music. He is a 2019 Indigenous Music Award Nominee for best rap hip hop album of the year for WOKE. His song WOKE also hit number one on the Indigenous Music Countdown for Aug 3-9, 2019. He made history as the first Native Hip-Hop Artist to drop a verse in the Senate 2016. He is passionate about sharing his experience with the next generations so they can learn how to navigate the music industry, overcome challenges, amplify their voices and share their stories! His company, TR1BE Music, began as a studio program to nurture the gifts and talents of young people who aspire to be artists and help them break into the music industry. It has now evolved into the first Afro-Indigenous owned, profit-sharing, music streaming platform to build Indigenomics and innovate the music industry to help increase market value for artists.
el jones
El Jones is a spoken word poet, educator, journalist, and a community activist living in African Nova Scotia. She was the fifth Poet Laureate of Halifax (2013 to 2015) and National Slam Champion at the Canadian Festival of the Spoken Word (2007 and 2008). In 2016, El was a recipient of the Burnley “Rocky” Jones human rights award for her community work and work in prison justice. She is a
co-founder of the Black Power Hour, a live radio show with incarcerated people on CKDU that creates space for people inside to share their creative work and discuss contemporary social and political issues. Along with this work, she supports women in Nova Institution in writing and sharing their voices. El served as the 15th Nancy’s Chair of Women’s Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University for the
2017-2019 term. Her book of spoken word poetry, Live from the Afrikan Resistance! was published by Roseway Press in 2014. El writes a weekly column for the Halifax Examiner, and was an Atlantic Journalism Award winner in 2018. El would like to pay tribute to the many nameless and unrecognized women whose work makes it possible for her to be here today.
TIYAHNA RIDLEY-PADMORE
Born in Montreal and currently living in Toronto, Tiyahna is a lifelong bookworm and the author of Trailblazers: The Black Pioneers Who Have Shaped Canada. She is an Equity and Inclusion Strategist who believes in the transformative power of inclusive representation and intersectional story-telling. Tiyahna has a Master's degree in Public Policy and is a member of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.
For more information on Trailblazers or to follow Tiyahna:
@tiyahna_
info@blacktrailblazers.ca
https://www.blacktrailblazers.ca/
Merryl-Royce Ndema-Moussa
Merryl-Royce is a passionate, self-taught artist living in Ottawa and the illustrator of Trailblazers. As a new father, Merryl-Royce hopes to leverage his artistic skill set to foster a more equitable world for the next generation.
@theroyceproject
Thank you to the City of Ottawa Diversity In The Arts Fund for supporting this event.
