Upcoming events
2025 Black History Month Celebration
black history month 2025
with in our tongues
It has been a minute, but we are back and ready for action! Join us as we return to the stage this February with a stellar lineup of musicians, poets, and comedians! Let’s join as a community and enjoy art that can bring us together, heal our souls, and put a smile on our faces. In Our Tongues brings you artists Nonso Morah, Grey Brisson, Darby Minott Bradford, and Dawn Xanklin to the stage!
Event Details:
Date: February 11th, 2025
Time: 7 - 9 PM EST
Cost: Free or Pay-What-You-Can (via Donation Link below)
Attend In-Person at SAW Art Gallery (67 Nicholas St, Ottawa, ON K1N 7B9)
or Attend Virtually (via YouTube link provided to you via email closer to the event date)
Register now with the form at the bottom of the page!
introducing the Artists
Nonso Morah
Nonso Morah is a spoken-word poet and community advocate originally from Edmonton, Alberta, and currently based in Ottawa. She was the 2022 champion of Ottawa's Spoken In The City Poetry Slam and a finalist in the 2023 OG-500 Poetry Slam. Nonso has performed nationally for organizations such as the National Gallery of Canada and RogersTV, and her work is published in Common House Magazine and Unbound: An Anthology of New Nigerian Poets Under 40.
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Nonso Morah est une poète de la parole et une militante communautaire originaire d'Edmonton, en Alberta, et actuellement basée à Ottawa. Elle a été championne en 2022 du Spoken In The City Poetry Slam d'Ottawa et finaliste du OG-500 Poetry Slam en 2023. Nonso s'est produite à l'échelle nationale pour des organisations telles que le Musée des beaux-arts du Canada et RogersTV, et ses œuvres ont été publiées dans Common House Magazine et Unbound : An Anthology of New Nigerian Poets Under 40 (Anthologie des nouveaux poètes nigérians de moins de 40 ans).
Follow them / Suivez-les
@nonsomorahh
www.nonsomorah.ca
Grey Brisson
Grey Brisson is a 20 year old award-winning, multi-instrumentalist, and performing artist, experimenting with genres such as R & B, rock and ambience. He has opened for notable artists such as Sting, Emeli Sandé, Aly & AJ, Justin Nozuka, and Alexander Stewart. Grey won the award for Solo Artist of The Year at the 2024 Capital Music Awards.
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Grey Brisson est un multi-instrumentiste de 20 ans, primé et artiste de scène, qui expérimente des genres tels que le R & B, le rock et l'ambiance. Il a fait la première partie d'artistes de renom tels que Sting, Emeli Sandé, Aly & AJ, Justin Nozuka et Alexander Stewart. Grey a remporté le prix de l'artiste solo de l'année aux 2024 Capital Music Awards.
Follow them / Suivez-les
@greybrisson
Spotify
Apple Music
Youtube Channel
Comedian Dawn Xanklin
Stand-up comedian Dawn Xanklin has been making audiences laugh since 2017. Based in Ottawa, Dawn’s comedy draws from her experiences as a wife, mom, and proud Black nerd (or “Blerd”). She loves connecting with people through her clever observations and authentic humor.
In 2019, Dawn earned a nomination in CBC Comedy’s Next Up competition. This solidified her status as a rising comedic talent. From 2020 to 2022, she showcased her storytelling chops as the host and co-host of Ottawa StoryTellers’ popular (un)told series, which featured true stories from various voices. Recognized for her standout performances, Dawn was named Ottawa’s Best Comedian in the 2021 FACES Magazine Awards. She was a finalist the following year.
Dawn’s creativity doesn’t stop at the mic. Her first play, Blurred Life, debuted with a staged reading at San Antonio’s Overtime Theatre in 2022. In 2024, she was selected for the Ottawa Fringe Festival’s “under development” residency program, a prestigious opportunity given to fewer than ten projects that year. That same summer, she was awarded an ARTicipate 2024 project grant to support a stand-up comedy showcase she is producing in Spring 2025.
Dawn Xanklin’s journey is a testament to her passion for storytelling and audience connection. Whether she’s cracking jokes, sharing heartfelt stories, or breaking new creative ground, Dawn is always finding fresh ways to inspire laughter and bring people together.
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L'humoriste Dawn Xanklin fait rire le public depuis 2017. Basée à Ottawa, la comédie de Dawn s'inspire de ses expériences en tant qu'épouse, mère et fière intello noire (ou « Blerd »). Elle adore établir des liens avec les gens grâce à ses observations intelligentes et à son humour authentique.
En 2019, Dawn a été nommée au concours Next Up de CBC Comedy. Cela a consolidé son statut de talent comique en devenir. De 2020 à 2022, elle a fait valoir ses talents de conteuse en tant qu'animatrice et co-animatrice de la populaire série (un)told d'Ottawa StoryTellers, qui mettait en vedette des histoires vraies racontées par diverses voix. Reconnue pour ses performances exceptionnelles, Dawn a été nommée meilleure humoriste d'Ottawa lors de la remise des prix du magazine FACES en 2021. Elle a été finaliste l'année suivante.
La créativité de Dawn ne s'arrête pas au micro. Sa première pièce, Blurred Life, a fait l'objet d'une lecture théâtrale à l'Overtime Theatre de San Antonio en 2022. En 2024, elle a été sélectionnée pour le programme de résidence « en développement » du Festival Fringe d'Ottawa, une opportunité prestigieuse offerte à moins de dix projets cette année-là. Le même été, elle a reçu une bourse de projet ARTicipez 2024 pour soutenir un spectacle de stand-up comedy qu'elle produira au printemps 2025.
Le parcours de Dawn Xanklin témoigne de sa passion pour la narration et le contact avec le public. Qu'elle fasse des blagues, qu'elle partage des histoires sincères ou qu'elle innove sur le plan créatif, Dawn trouve toujours de nouveaux moyens d'inspirer le rire et de rassembler les gens.
Follow them / Suivez-les
@dawnxanklincomedy
www.dawnxanklincomedy.com
Youtube Channel
TikTok @dawn.xanklin.comedy
Darby Minott Bradford
Darby Minott Bradford is a poet and translator. They hold a BA from Concordia University and an MFA from the University of Guelph. With on focus on research-creative approaches and hybrid approaches, Bradford’s work emerges from mediations of historically dominant narratives and personal interventions in the archive. They are the author of Dream of No One but Myself (Brick Books, 2021), an interdisciplinary memoir that explores the versioning aspects of Bradford and their family’s histories with abuse and trauma. The collection won the A.M. Klein QWF Prize for Poetry, was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize, Governor General Literary Award and Gerard Lampert Memorial Award, and was longlisted for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal.
Bradford's first translation, House Within a House by Nicholas Dawson (Brick Books, 2023), received the VMI Betsy Warland Between Genres Award and John Glassco Translation Prize, and was shortlisted for the Governor General Literary Awards for French-to-English translation.
Their most recent hybrid collection, Bottom Rail on Top (Brick Books, 2023), works to complicate prevailing conceptions of Blackness by staging one personal present alongside American histories of antebellum Black life. A Raymond Souster Award finalist, the book is a treasure hunt of sorts, employing "a poetics of vestige," as Katherine McKittrick has described it, where "Black worlds are, all at once, refuted and made visible, emptied out and sharply populated." Bradford lives and works in Tio'tia:ke (Montreal) on the unceded territory of the Kanienʼkehá:ka nation.
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Darby Minott Bradford est poète et traducteurice. Iel détient un baccalauréat en arts (profil création littéraire) de l'Université Concordia et une maîtrise en beaux-arts en création littéraire de l'Université de Guelph. Dream of No One but Myself, leur premier recueil, paru chez Brick Books en 2021, a été lauréat du A.M. Klein Prize pour meilleur recueil de poésie du Quebec Writers Federation, finaliste du Griffin Poetry Prize, aux Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général et du Gerard Lampert Memorial Award, et une sélection du jury du Grand prix du livre de Montréal.
Leur première traduction, House Within a House de Nicholas Dawson (Brick Books, 2023), a reçu le prix John-Glassco et le Betsy Warland Between Genres Award décerné pas le Vancouver Manuscript Intensive, et a été finaliste au Prix du gouverneur général.
Bottom Rail on Top, leur deuxième œuvre hybride, cherche à compliquer les ontologies Noires par le portrait d’une vie Noire contemporaine en dialogue avec les historicisations de la vie Noire d’avant la guerre de Sécession. Finaliste au Raymond Souster Award et au A.M. Klein Prize, le recueil prend la forme d’une chasse au trésor qui déploie ce que Katherine McKittrick appelle une « poétique du vestige », où « les mondes Noires sont à la fois réfutés et rendus visibles, vidés et vivement populés ». Bradford vit et travaille à Tio'tia:ke (Montréal) sur le territoire non-cédé de la nation Kanienʼkehá:ka.
Follow them / Suivez-les
@newportmanteau
Poetry in Voice Interview
Brick Books - Poetry’s Home
Registration form
NOTICE to all Attendees (As of 11-Feb-2025 @ 12:55PM EST):
Registered after 1PM today? You may not get an event details reminder but no worries- your names on the list, just show up and there’ll be someone to greet and sign you in!
An email including Event Details was sent out to all those who registered for the event before 1PM EST today!
Check your Inbox for an email from “inourtongues@139174933.mailchimpapp.com” (Mailchimp is our current Emailing Platform)
Email inourtongues@gmail.com should you have any issues or concerns (or message us on Socials)
You may register at the event as well- come by and we’ll do our best to squeeze you in! Please note that most seating is provided on a first-come-first-serve basis but we’ll try our best to accommodate and ensure a comfortable and good experience for everyone.
For Online Viewers, incase of technical difficulties here is an additional link to the YouTube Live Stream: https://www.youtube.com/live/LBrh3XTtl4k
The event will be streamed from our YouTube Channel, @Inourtongues
Donation form
Help us continue to do what we can to dedicate this organization towards advancing, nurturing, and showcasing Black, Indigenous and racialized artists, including those across the gender spectrum, and from both English and French-speaking communities.
