2025 Presenters
Toronto-based artists Althea Balmes and Jo SiMalaya Alcampo founded the Kwentong Bayan Collective (KBC) in 2012. In the Filipino language, “kwentong bayan” is the literal translation of “community stories.” KBC’s artistic mandate is to explore a critical and intersectional approach…
Anne Bourne is a sound artist/director. Anne imparts the listening and toning scores of Pauline Oliveros for collective creative expression and environmental attunement. Anne composes for improvised acoustic cello, and applies field recordings of the sound of listening to the…
Báyò Akómoláfé is a poet, philosopher, and teacher deeply rooted in Yoruba traditions. His renowned expression “the times are urgent, let us slow down” synthesizes his quest for ways of responding to crises that break from colonial logics. Bayo is the…
Drew Hayden Taylor is an award-winning playwright, novelist, filmmaker, and journalist. Born and raised on the Curve Lake First Nation, he has done everything from performing stand-up comedy to serving as Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Indigenous theatre company, Native…
germaine liu (Hong Kong born, Cantonese-Chinese-Canadian) works and plays in multi-modalities. As a sound artist, percussionist, improvisor, and explorer of found objects, her work indulges in the permeability between touch/movement/sound, and their relationship to topography and circumstance.
With backgrounds in osteopathy, movement and voice, Lesley bridges osteopathic philosophy with functional movement principles to support integrated physical expression. Lesley’s writing is included in The Anthology of Essays on Deep Listening published in 2012 and in Resistance and Support: Contact…
Every once in a while, an artist appears who is destined to break the mold, and Juno nominated LU KALA is one of them. With a gift for writing striking pop tracks, the fiery voiced songstress—with signature vibrant orange hair…
Melissa Shaginoff is part of the Udzisyu (caribou) and Cui Ui Ticutta (fish-eater) clans from Nay’dini’aa Na Kayax (Chickaloon Village, Alaska). She is of Ahtna and Paiute descent. An interdisciplinary artist and museum specialist, she is currently working on Dena’ina…
Miguel Hilari (1985, Aymara/German) studied cinema in La Paz, Santiago de Chile and Barcelona. His films “El corral y el viento” (2014), “Compañía” (2019), “Bocamina” (2019), Cerro Saturno (2022), and “After a fire” (2023) deal with migration, colonial history, and…
ROSINA is a collaborative project bringing together electronic music producer Nicholas Murray, drag performer and multidisciplinary artist Franny Galore-Wingz, and producer, vocalist and poet Rosina Kazi, in a blend of Techno, House, Hip Hop, and global rhythms inspired by Toronto’s…
Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Iñupiaq/Athabascan) is a mixed-media visual artist whose work focuses on the changing North and our relationship to nature and each other. Through visual art, community engagement, curation and advocacy, Sonya works to create opportunities to feature Indigenous voices and…
sophia bartholomew is a queer, non-binary person and interdisciplinary artist, descended from Norwegian immigrants on Treaty 3 territory west of Thunder Bay, and English and Irish settlers living on the shores of Lake Ontario. Working outwards from the ruins and…
Stephen James Smith, born in Dublin, is an Irish poet, writer, performer, playwright, and educator. His short poetry films have captivated millions, earning them the opportunity to perform alongside notable names like Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Patti Smith, Shane MacGowan,…
Taqralik Partridge is an artist, writer and curator originally from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik. Partridge has held positions as Editor-at-Large for the Inuit Art Quarterly, Director of the Nordic Lab at SAW, Adjunct Curator at the Art Gallery of Guelph, and Associate Curator…
Vanessa Andreotti is the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She previously held the Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities, and Global Change, as well as the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education.…
Yola Mamani is an Aymara activist, broadcaster, radio producer, and YouTuber. After moving from her rural community to the city of La Paz, she began working as a domestic worker in her childhood. Eventually, she joined the domestic workers’ union.…