FESTIVAL PRE-LAUNCH EVENT

FESTIVAL PRE-LAUNCH EVENT

Marketing graphic with white squares and main text reads "Public Speaking Workshop". Two male presenting people stand on stage in front of TED X sign.
  • Saturday October 15, 2-5 PM

TD Commons Green Space, 945 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario

MALPENSANDO / 2022 / English / Canada / 120 minutes

These students impressed in their Level 1 Grad Show and are now back for more! Come and witness 6 weeks of hard work and dedication boiled down to one amazing comedy night! These students will speak from the heart and (hope to) make you laugh till you drop!

Originally from Costa Rica and Colombia, Stephan Dyer and Juan Cajiao are bilingual corporate leadership and communication trainers who also happen to be award-winning comedians and improv experts. 

Leaving their executive positions in the banking world in 2017 to pursue their professional careers in stand up comedy, they have successfully founded MalPensando, a bilingual (English, Spanish) comedy and public speaking school.

CREATIVE TEAM
Juan Cajiao
Stephan Dyer
This program was made possible by the generous support of The Slaight Family Foundation in partnership with North York Arts.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Loud sounds
Swearing / Mature language
Sexual Content
Keywords: BIPOC Experience | Community | Depression | LGBTQ2S+ | Racism
#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion
COMMUNITY PARTNER

CHAINS & CROWNS

CHAINS & CROWNS

A photograph of the back of a head with bantu knots.

CHAINS & CROWNS
Stéphane Alexis

Chains & Crowns, is a photo-based series of artworks inspired and dedicated to the artist’s mother. This large-scale print depicts the history, politics, science and psychology of Black Hairstyles. The typological series displayed in a grid format encourages the viewer to cross-reference hairstyles and allows the Black and broader communities the opportunity to draw from their personal experiences, whether that be through their own stories or through their community members. The work also comes with information on styles that derive from an array of time periods, cultures and movements ranging from Ancient Egypt (2700 BC – 343 BC) to The Natural Hair Movement (1960 – present). This gives way for the audience to further solidify their understanding through historical text and to question the multi-faceted ways these styles have been utilized and evolved in impact over time.

Stéphane Alexis is an artist based in Ottawa, Canada. His work stems from personal experiences, research, community collaborations and visual expression, all fostering a strong desire to bring a level of understanding to the often overlooked communities. Stéphane’s work seeks to give insight into these communities in which he belongs to.

Artist website:  stephanealexis.com

Keywords: Activism | Community | Depression | Resilience | Trauma

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

This year, the exhibition in the Rendezvous With Madness Festival will be presented in-person throughout the festival from October 27 to November 6.

VENUE:

The exhibition is held at Workman Arts Offsite Gallery, Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street, Unit 302, Toronto. 

 

DATES:

October 27 to November 6, 12 – 6 PM.

 

EXHIBITION OPENING & ARTISTS TALK

October 29, 1-4 PM, Talk at 2:30 PM

After the opening reception, engage with the artists of kind renderings as they delve into their work and  practice.

TOURS

Please join us for a guided tour on Thursday, November 3 at 5 PM 

ACCESSIBILITY

If in-person access is a barrier, please contact Raine Laurent-Eugene at raine_lauenteguene@workmanarts.com.

 

Visit the Accessibility page for further festival information and wayfinding.

MULTITUDE OF FISH - ASCENSION TALES

MULTITUDE OF FISH - ASCENSION TALES

Black and white line drawings of multiple linked fish swimming above waves of black lines.

MULTITUDE OF FISH – ASCENSION TALES
Jenny Chen

Multitude of Fish – Ascension Tales is an animation that tells the story of fish ascending into the heavens, symbolizing spirits being uplifted. This animation was created by hand drawing each frame. The images were derived from the artist’s mental wellness journey, specifically the healing of past trauma and depression.

For the past few years, Jenny Chen has worked with the recurring image of water and fish to symbolize the flow of energy. This larger body of work titled, Multitude of Fish, exists in mediums such as drawing, painting, clay sculptures, installation and animation. The fish moves organically through its surrounding space, leading the viewer on different journeys. These spaces are reminiscent of the inner realm while taking inspiration from outer landscapes.

Jenny Chen is a visual artist living in Toronto. She makes art to process the world around her while raising questions about existentialism and spirituality. Her work uses symbols to create mystical environments inspiring viewers to wonder about life beyond the material world. She graduated from OCAD University with a major in Drawing and Painting and a minor in Illustration. Since then, Jenny has worked mainly in watercolour, pen and clay. Her exhibition history includes the Small Arms Inspections Building, Toronto Media Arts Centre and Living Arts Centre. She has received grants for her work from the Ontario Arts Council.

Artist website:  jennychen.me

Keywords: Anxiety | BIPOC Experience | Community| Trauma

#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

This year, the exhibition in the Rendezvous With Madness Festival will be presented in-person throughout the festival from October 27 to November 6.

VENUE:

The exhibition is held at Workman Arts Offsite Gallery, Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street, Unit 302, Toronto. 

 

DATES:

October 27 to November 6, 12 – 6 PM.

 

EXHIBITION OPENING & ARTISTS TALK

October 29, 1-4 PM, Talk at 2:30 PM

After the opening reception, engage with the artists of kind renderings as they delve into their work and  practice.

TOURS

Please join us for a guided tour on Thursday, November 3 at 5 PM 

ACCESSIBILITY

If in-person access is a barrier, please contact Raine Laurent-Eugene at raine_lauenteguene@workmanarts.com.

 

Visit the Accessibility page for further festival information and wayfinding.

A Voice Through the Melt

A Voice Through the Melt

  • Wednesday November 2, 7 PM

CAMH Auditorium, 1025 Queen Street W
Toronto, Ontario

Anda Zeng & Natalie Wee / 2022 / English / Canada / 15 minutes

A Voice Through The Melt, a multi-disciplinary piece incorporating spoken word and music, is a collaboration between musician Anda Zeng and writer Natalie Wee. In this performance piece spanning 11 to 12 minutes, the collaborating artists open new pathways for entering belonging, mental health, selfhood, and grief. 

Individually, Anda’s cinematic songwriting allows for an embodied engagement with feeling, whereas Natalie’s written words create a cerebral experience guided by the reader’s input. In this crossover collaboration, Anda’s voice and harp create a sonic resonance with excerpts from Natalie’s new poetry collection, Beast at Every Threshold, performed in spoken word style. This creative call and response not only allows audiences to engage the work in a new way but also explores new interdisciplinary possibilities.

Natalie Wee (she/her) is a queer creator whose work explores themes of race, gender, queerness and nationhood. She is deeply informed by grassroots communities. She has written two poetry collections: Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines (San Press, 2021) and Beast At Every Threshold (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022). Born in Singapore to Malaysian parents, Natalie is currently a settler in Tkaronto.

Learn more at natalieweewrites.com

Anda Zeng (she/her) writes cinematic night songs for the daydreamer. Her years of creating impressionistic blends of harp, piano, dreamy vocals, and visceral lyrics culminated in the release of her debut EP, Night Dress, produced by Jonathan Wu. At once soothing and wounding, Night Dress lures listeners through the small hours into dawn, through the thicket of our illusory selves into our vulnerable human core. Anda is also a vocalist, harpist, and songwriter for the band Tiger Balme.

www.andazeng.com

CREATIVE TEAM
Natalie Wee: Spoken Word Artist
Anda Zeng: Singer and Musician
Keywords: Anxiety | BIPOC experience | Community | Depression | Grief
#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion

PUBLIC SPEAKING THROUGH COMEDY

PUBLIC SPEAKING THROUGH COMEDY

Marketing graphic with white squares and main text reads "Public Speaking Workshop". Two male presenting people stand on stage in front of TED X sign.
  • Sunday October 30, 7 PM

Comedy Bar, 945 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario

MALPENSANDO / 2022 / English / Canada / 120 minutes

These students impressed in their Level 1 Grad Show and are now back for more! Come and witness 6 weeks of hard work and dedication boiled down to one amazing comedy night! These students will speak from the heart and (hope to) make you laugh till you drop!

Originally from Costa Rica and Colombia, Stephan Dyer and Juan Cajiao are bilingual corporate leadership and communication trainers who also happen to be award-winning comedians and improv experts. 

Leaving their executive positions in the banking world in 2017 to pursue their professional careers in stand up comedy, they have successfully founded MalPensando, a bilingual (English, Spanish) comedy and public speaking school.

CREATIVE TEAM
Juan Cajiao
Stephan Dyer
This program was made possible by the generous support of The Slaight Family Foundation in partnership with North York Arts.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Loud sounds
Swearing / Mature language
Sexual Content
Keywords: BIPOC Experience | Community | Depression | LGBTQ2S+ | Racism
#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion
COMMUNITY PARTNER

2021 Member Holiday Virtual Gathering

2021 Member Holiday Virtual Gathering

GENRE: MUSICAL, PERFORMANCE ART, VISUAL ART

TOPIC: COMMUNITY, EDUCATION, MUSIC

TYPE: PERFORMANCE, WORKSHOP

Put Thursday, December 16 in your calendar –The Workman Arts staff would love to invite all members to our year-end Holiday Gathering on Thursday, Dec 16th at 6-8PM to celebrate the year 2021 and welcome a new year filled with infinite possibilities and opportunities. 

The night will consist of hands-on zine-making activity, some musical performances, a possible carolling sing-along, and the night will end with a raffle, click the RSVP button to register and receive the link to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Creative Zine-making Workshop
Wanna make a zine?
Join Raymond Helkio for this 30-minute workshop where we’ll each create our own zine. You don’t need any special skills – or even an idea for your zine (but if you have one that’s great!) just show up and we’ll have a great time making something as a group!

Materials: Sheet of paper (any size as long as it’s a rectangular shape), scissors, black marker or pen/pencil.

 

This event is FREE and everyone is welcome. We hope you can join us to enjoy this showcase from home – wherever that may be!

*Please come in your best holiday sweater

  • December 16, 2021 6-8 PM

FREE

BROWSE CURRENT EVENTS

GREEN GAZING

GREEN GAZING

A laptop in the centre, open to a complicated program. In the foreground there are medical monitors connected to a plant. There is another plant on the right and more in the background. In the far back there is a projection of indiscernible plants.

GREEN GAZING
Ashley Bowa & Lesley Marshall

Green Gazing is an immersive multimedia installation that includes interactivity, sound, image and biofeedback. In a room of plants, the audience/participants will experience guided movement amidst ambient sound and video rooted in ecological elements. Surround sound and multi walled projections are altered through live manipulation and using bio data gathered  from the plants in the room. The ambient electronic sound and videoscape becomes a co-creation between plant, participant and artist.

Funded by the Ontario Arts Council for research and creation in 2018-2019

Ashley Bowa is an emerging filmmaker, media artist, and arts educator based in Toronto. She is also trained as a yoga, pilates, and outdoor education instructor.

Lesley Marshall / LES666 is an award-winning filmmaker and intermedia artist. Projection art by Lesley has been exhibited at the National Art Centre, Montreal Jazz Fest, and Centre PHI.

 

Keywords: Anxiety | Community

VIRTUAL PATICIPATORY PERFORMANCE
Sun, Nov 7, 2 PM ET
CLOSING DAY

Experience a Green Gazing “Virtual Performance” where the public are invited to engage in a movement class over a virtual meeting space led by Ashley Bowa. Participants can move and see the video response the plants have to the “class”. For this presentation, please create a comfortable space to enjoy the meditation: a comfy chair or a mat on the floor. We invite you to bring nature into your space in whatever way speaks to you (e.g. a houseplant, fallen leaves, a handful of dirt, a bowl of water, etc). You will just need yourself and, if you feel like joining the movements, some space to stretch. A Q&A will follow afterword.

A “Virtual Field Guide” will be available for download to learn more about Green Gazing, investigate indigenous plants of the Toronto area, write down your ecological anxieties, and explore our changing environmental landscape.

Please RSVP below in order to participate in this performance:

Accessibility

If you require ASL interpretation, please reach out to Raine Laurent-Eugene at raine_laurenteugene@workmanarts.com, at least 48 hours before the performance in order for us to ensure that we are able to accommodate. Open captioning will be available.

SZEPTY/WHISPERS: DIALOGUE

SZEPTY/WHISPERS: DIALOGUE

Collage of a graph, lung drawing, portrait with flowers for a head

SZEPTY/WHISPERS: DIALOGUE

Through the voices of various artists, this web-based experience explores the relationship between mental health, language, and lineage. Many awareness campaigns urge us to “break the silence”. But the question of whether – or how – to speak is complicated. Mental health discourses are shaped by particular histories, which reverberate in the present. By juxtaposing multiple perspectives, Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue aims to expand the possibilities for how we communicate about madness, trauma, and neurodivergence. The content is offered in the form of audio files, transcripts, and ASL videos.

The process for Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue began when artist Veronique West invited seven collaborators to make audio recordings in response to open-ended questions about mental health, language and lineage. The collaborators were: mia susan amir, Kagan Goh, Maya Jones, Constantin Lozitsky, Jivesh Parasram, Kendra Place, and Manuel Axel Strain. A digital platform was developed to host the recordings, through collaboration between the Cultch Digital Storytelling Team, Sound Designer David Mesiha, Inclusive Designer JD Derbyshire, Dramaturg Kathleen Flaherty, Deaf Interpreter Ladan Sahraei, Production Coordinator Brian Postalian and Veronique West. Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue was first presented at the 2021 rEvolver Festival.

Consultants: Amy Amantea, June Fukumura, Simran Gill, and MariFer Rios.

For a full list of the Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue team’s biographies, please follow the link below:

CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
Keywords: 2SLGBTQIA+ | BIPOC Experience | Community | Disability | Family

COLLABORATOR ARTISTS TALK
Recording available online Oct 28 – Nov 7

Accessibility

For Artist Talk:
ASL and Closed Captions

For work in exhibition:
ASL, Transcripts, Audio Playback

Content Warnings

Brief references to colonization, war, genocide, child abuse, suicide, and psychiatric hospitalization. Detailed description of ableism, depression, mania, trauma, and a parent’s incarceration. The content does not play automatically and can be paused or skipped.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Digital Platform Realization by: The Cultch Digital Storytelling Team

Developed at Playwrights Theatre Centre as part of the Associates program.

The project has also been supported by:
Upintheair Theatre’s rEvolver Festival
The National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart initiative

The parallel in-person performance has been supported by:
the Canada Council for the Arts
the BC Arts Council
the Province of British Columbia
Playwrights Theatre Centre
Rumble Theatre
Progress Lab 1422
Chimerik似不像 Collective
Boca del Lupo and Rice & Beans Theatre’s DBLSPK series
Mentorship with Boca del Lupo’s Artistic Director Sherry J. Yoon
Universal Limited’s Horizontal Help program
The Arts Club Theatre Company’s LEAP Playwriting Intensive

The Cultch Digital Storytelling Team would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts

UNBREAKABLE

UNBREAKABLE

Woman in red in front of wall of graffiti

UNBREAKABLE
Amplify Collective

Amplify Collective loudly and proudly presents the performance experience
UNBREAKABLE.

People in positions of power and their systems of oppression exert intense pressure on historically oppressed individuals and communities. Still we rise! We will not crumble in the face of this Intergenerational Trauma. Instead we continuously challenge racism, sexism, poverty and injustice. United we push back against these oppressive systems, the patriarchy and inequity. The strength that exists within our communities and the weight of injustice is woven within this performance through the use of symbols, body movement, music, distressed textiles and elaborate, wearable sculptures. Individually we endure, but collectively we are UNBREAKABLE.

Together we continue to heal!

Performances by Kayla Ross-Jackson, Caitlin Marzali, KJ McKnight, Matt Eldracher, Sebastian Marzali, Chy Ryan Spain, Scarlet Black, Sze-Yang Ade-Lam, Aryana Malekzadeh, Jaz Fairy J & more!

CREDITS
Curation & Costuming: Allie Amplify
Lighting Designer: Sebastian Marzali
Set Assistant: Jack Comerford
Makeup: Elene Seepe
Hair: Dmitry Komendant

Amplify Collective is a Toronto-based wearable art, performance and advocacy company. They create one-of-a-kind wearable art pieces, as well as host community classes and live experiences. Founder Allie Amplify has an extensive background in fashion, marketing and events. Her designs have lit up the stages of Fashion Art Toronto, the MMVA’s, PRIDE, the ROM and more!

Amplify Collective is a community of individuals with lived mental health and addiction experiences. Despite these challenges they have prevailed and hope to share a message of resilience and growth.

Turn up the volume with Amplify!

 

Keywords: 2SLGBTQIA+ | Activism | BIPOC Experience | Community

OPENING NIGHT & RECEPTION
Reception + The Meaning of Empathy (with panel) + UNBREAKABLE
Starting at 5 PM at CAMH Auditorium

IN PERSON PERFORMANCE
Thurs, Oct 28, 9:30 PM
CAMH Auditorium, 1025 Queen St W

VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE
The recorded live streamed performance is available to view in the In(site) virtual exhibition:

Content Warnings

Loud sounds
Nudity

CO-PRESENTER
The Dance Current Logo
"Performance on opening night."

Spring 2021 Virtual Open House

Spring 2021 Virtual Open House

A grid of images: top left - a choir top right - a group of portraits hanging on a wall; bottom left - a fashion show; bottom right - an audience member clapping.

GENRE: DANCE, INTERACTIVE, MEDIA ART, MUSICAL, PERFORMANCE ART, POETRY, SHORT FILM, THEATRE, VISUAL ART

TOPIC: COMMUNITY, EDUCATION, MUSIC

Put Friday, June 25 in your calendar – we’ll be doing an end of term virtual open house to showcase the work that Workman Artists have been doing throughout the spring term. If you’d like to see what we’ve been up to, click the RSVP button to register and receive the link to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Schedule

5:00-5:10 Land Acknowledgement/Welcome
5:10-5:15 Performance Art Salon
5:15-5:35 Improv
5:35-5:50 First Person Documentary
5:50-6:10 Find your Voice
6:10- 6:20 The Exploration & Expression of Body/Space
6:20- 6:30 Bruised Years Choir – performance by Julie Crann & Ethelrida Zabala-Laxa
6:30- 7:00 Reclaiming Our Mother Tongues & Write Out of Your Comfort Zone
7:00- 8:00 Self Stories Theatre

 

This event is FREE and everyone is welcome. We hope you can join us to enjoy this showcase from home – wherever that may be! In case the Zoom event reaches capacity, we will also live stream this event on the Workman Arts Facebook page.

We also have a virtual Gallery on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/193283975@N06/galleries/72157719479293760/

  • June 25, 2021 5-8:45 PM

Event on Zoom

FREE

BROWSE CURRENT EVENTS