Afternoon

Dance Artist

Dancing since 2004, Afternoon has been learning from some of the best street dancers, through classes and workshops. He’s performed and taught workshops all over the world, won over 50 competitions and judged numerous dance events all over the world. His implication with dancing doesn’t limit itself to performances and competitions: as a professional youth worker, he’s worked on various national and international projects allowing youth to grow and gain transferable skills.
Afternoon is currently focusing his energy on perfecting his craft, sharing his knowledge of dance while inspiring the youth and perhaps next generation of dancers through School breaks, a program dedicated to developing youth leadership, technical skills, creative expression and self-confidence through urban arts.

Alysha Brilla

Music Artist

Twice Juno Award-nominated singer-songwriter, producer and community organizer Alysha Brilla is a critically acclaimed Indian-Tanzanian Canadian artist who just released her third self produced album, “HUMAN”. Brillas new music draws on the influences of her unique background. An ancestral journey to her father’s homeland in 2015 delivered inspiration for Brilla to write and produce the 10 new songs on “Human”; a lyrically timely record blending Indian East African sounds with a contemporary aesthetic. The first single from this newest release, “No More Violence”, is currently charting in the top 3 of the CBC Top 20 Countdown. Born in Mississauga, Ontario to an Indo-Tanzanian immigrant father and a European-Canadian mother, Alysha Brilla grew up in a household with unique discourse around the arts and social politics. Brilla is an art educator; frequently conducting music and social justice workshops in elementary schools across Canada and internationally.
TEDx speaker and Oktoberfest Woman Of The Year Arts Culture Award recipient, Brilla has been a mentor for YWCA’s “Rock Weekend”, helping marginalized female youth develop social skills through music. A multi-racial child of the Indian diaspora, Alysha’s art aims to unite people through the Canadian cultural kaleidoscope and bring light to social inequity issues in Canada and abroad. Her music and workshops feature strong themes of cultural diversity, gender equality and inclusivity

Brian Raine

Music Artist

“I work as a freelance musician, which includes being a performer for hire, music producer, and a composer/bandleader for my own musical endeavours.
As a performer for hire, I primarily work as a guitarist. I play in a wide variety of ensembles which include funk bands, top 40 cover bands, modern jazz ensembles, chamber ensembles, metal bands, experimental free music collectives, and in pop bands. My role, no matter the musical context, is to serve the music and not myself. I play what is best for the art, for the collective, and for the projected experience given to the audience, rather than showing off my abilities for no artistic reason. This same mantra applies to working as a music producer/engineer/arranger for hire as well. From the recording sessions, to overdubs, mixing, and mastering, my priority is to collaborate with the artist and find the best possible way to communicate their musical vision. Through years of intense study, active/critical listening, and practice, I have developed an ear for the ways in which we communicate emotional values through the presentation of recorded music. I employ these techniques throughout the entire process. In my own music, the composition, performance, mixing, overdubs, etc are all blended into one seamless and continuous process where the goal is to communicate what I hear in my head directly to the ears of the audience.”

Brit Kewin

Visual Artist

Brit Kewin is a Canadian researcher and filmmaker interested in the boundaries between art and documentary film. Past projects have explored creativity, child development and the social implications of health. She holds an M.A. (Distinction) in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths, UoL, and is currently working with Hot Docs and Toronto International Film Festival.

Butta Beats

Music Artist

Butta Beats is an Argentinian beat-boxer, emcee, multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter and educator. Butta Beats was often seen and heard in countless freestyle sessions and beat-boxing encounters in concerts, on street corners and on the radio. He was part of the WEFUNK Radio with DJ Static and Professor Groove. He also collaborated with Ali Sepu on the Iron Chef Project, which allowed him to integrate his South American folkloric influences with occidental urban music. Joining Nomadic Massive gave him the perfect medium to express positive social discourse through music.

Cedar Eve Peters

Visual Artist

Cedar- Eve (Anishinaabe, Ojibwe) is an artist who grew up in Toronto, Ontario. She moved to Montreal at the age of 18, where she graduated from Studio Arts at Concordia University in 2012. She has painted murals in Peru and Alberta. She currently lives in Montreal as an independent artist and known for her brightly coloured beaded jewellery.
Her drawings and paintings are inspired by the idea of shapeshifting. Creatures bordering on human and animal intertwine with one another in a symbiotic relationship involving souls and energy. Mythologies and stories found in Indigenous cultures influence her work, along with her dreamworld.

Cheyenne Scott

Dance Artist

Cheyenne Scott is Coast Salish of the Saanich Nation and a theatre creation artist based in Toronto. Her work is an exploration and a celebration of her indigenous heritage through impactful personal expression and storytelling. She is interested in pushing the genre of theatre through multimedia and diverse representation. She strives to create positive contemporary indigenous characters. Her work is often inspired from the land; actively moving and writing from its sources.

Chris Robertson

Visual Artist

Chris Robertson first started screen printing in his bedroom at fifteen. Since then nothing has changed, beyond move out of his parents, Some art schooling from the University of Waterloo, gain the experience of printing in shops all over Montréal, co-found and print for Moniker Screen Printing & Design, to where he can be found in his new home La Presse du Chat Perdu. Still screen printing, not very capable of doing much else. This is the foundation for his artistic work. For years, as the presses went silent for the night, Chris would practice his skills in other mediums of printmaking. Woodcut came most naturally to him, for its painstaking and monotonous nature lends itself well to his skills as a screen printer. Now giant monolithic slabs of wood delineate his innermost feelings, probing his memories to find some truth or cosmic reality in our existence. Balancing spatial harmony with thematic awkwardness, the grey areas of life are treated in a monochromatic way. Dedicated to disseminating the stories of those without the voice to do so, and putting social justice over the rule of law, the streets of Montreal are Chris Robertson’s canvas and this is how he tells his story.

Christian Monias

Music Artist

“I am a Hip Hop artist, I work in song-writing, beat production and recording. I work mostly using a DAW and other needed equipments. A lot of my beats range from modern hip-hop to trap and/or even sample-based production. My song-writing abilities may vary depending on the type of I am working on, but I do write sing-song type lyrics, not just rap. I know of many unique rapping techniques such as slow flow, chopping or even the newly popular triplet rap you hear in trap music. I aim to show the youth that hip-hop production is easily accessible and the knowledge and equipment needed isn’t very hard to attain. The therapeutics behind hip-hop may even help youth escape the harsh living environments of today’s society, both mentally and physically. I am a firm believer that working in any art form is a definite step-forward into inspiring the next generation to achieve their goals. I hope to find new artists and help guide or even mentor their abilities to reach the next level. I also believe that I am perfect in opening the door for any new artist that may be interested in learning the basics of Hip Hop.”

Craig Edes

Music Artist

One half of the acclaimed Indigenous hip-hop group, Mob Bounce. Craig is a writer, actor, and performer residing in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Mob Bounce is Indigenous influenced Hip Hop with a fuse of EDM (Electronic Dance Music), with Traditional and Contemporary aspects. The group’s gripping lyricism delve into spirituality, social awareness/justice, and Mother Earth connection. Mob Bounce is a display of Hip Hop music and poetry with conviction.

Daniele Hopkins

Visual Artist

Daniele Hopkins is an intermedia artist and founder and director of Electric Perfume, a community-oriented and accessible space focusing on tech-related arts and interactivity through exhibitions, events, workshops, socials, and development/playtesting. In her personal practice, Daniele enjoys communicating perspectives and experiences through the manipulation of disparate tool sets, such as audio/video compositions, atmospheric and sculptural tech-art installations, ballpoint pen illustrations, as well as the creation and adaptation of game worlds and interfaces. She often works in the two-person collective, Hopkins Duffield, building interactive projects for galleries, events, commercial spaces, and festivals. One example is The L.E.A.P. Engine, a live-action laser avoidance game featuring a room full of eye-safe lasers going on and off on timers that players must navigate through in a limited time. This project has been featured on Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet, Make: Magazine, Arduino Blog, and others. HopDuff has created formal gallery works in the sculptural/interactive tech-arts sphere, exhibiting in spaces like Museum of Contemporary Art, NAISA, Factory Media Centre, and Interaccess. HopDuff has also worked with commercial clients like Absolut, Ubisoft, The Great Hall, and SPiN Toronto, building interactive projects to accent spaces and experiences. Most projects combine skills and interests that cross between technology, nature, sculpture, and interactivity, and the sculptural component of her works are typically based in discarded, obsolete, or found materials. Daniele’s work is always an exploration of tools, voice, aesthetic, and relationship to the viewer. She is also a lover of insects, and incorporates their majesty in her work where possible.

Dee Barsy

Visual Artist

Dee Barsy is a painter based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba. In 2013, she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Manitoba. In 2014, she graduated with an Educational Assistant Diploma from the University of Winnipeg. In 2016, she completed the Indigenous Women in Leadership course at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. From September 2017 through September 2018, Dee will be taking part in the Foundation Mentorship Program with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Dee is a Visual Arts Facilitator with over 10 years experience instructing drawing and painting workshops for children and youth. She has also worked as an Educational Assistant and as a Youth Care Worker. Through her work, Dee has had the opportunity to observe the benefits of engaging young people in visual arts programming. Dee believes that creating art nurtures the processes of self-empowerment and self-healing in children and youth through creative risk-taking and confidence-building. In 2017, Dee was commissioned to create an artwork for the INSURGENCE/RESURGENCE exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The exhibition features the work of twenty-eight emerging and established contemporary Indigenous artists from across Canada. In her work titled My Four Grandmothers, Dee reflects on her experience as a First Nations person adopted into an interracial family. My Four Grandmothers acknowledges the diverse familial relationships in her life.

Fanny Aishaa

Visual Artist

Fanny “Aïshaa” is a nomadic artist with unconditional love for colors, ecosystems, the magic found at the heart of communities and the diversity of the world. A self-taught artist, she has learned to draw and paint by observing nature, its mysteries and its symbols, and by coming in contact with different communities all across the Americas. She initiated herself to the art of painting by becoming involved in numerous community projects centered on street- and mural-art, catalyzing on transforming violence, issues into creative positive visions. The power of art in valorizing invisible histories, equality between human beings and the celebration of differences has left a deep mark on her and literally given birth to her voice as an artist. Her love of travels, her nomadic spirit, has guided her through different artistic universes in Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, SenegaL, United States, as well as numerous Canadian and First Nations’ communities. Each wall, painting or creation bearing the signature of Aïshaa, meaning “The one that lives”, seeks to thank the powers of life, diversity, nature, our ancestors and the spiritual connection between generations, and the great history of the world. As important to her as the air she breathes, art is the driving force behind Aïshaa, always pushing her in her quest to explore different communities of the world, to learn and bring voices to intercultural knowledges, way of lives that honors Mother Earth and all living things.

Francine Cunningham

Visual Artist

Francine Cunningham is an Indigenous writer, artist and educator originally from Calgary, Alberta, but who currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia. Francine is a graduate of the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing from The University of British Columbia. She also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre from UBC. Francine was a participant in the 2014 Indigenous Writing Studio at the Banff Arts Centre and placed second in the 2014 Our Story: Aboriginal Arts and Stories contest. She was also one of the 2017 Hnatyshyn Foundation’s REVEAL Indigenous Art Award winners

Hannah Doucet

Visual Artist

Hannah Doucet is a photo-based artist from Winnipeg, Canada. Through photographs, video and sculpture, she focuses on issues of representation, materiality and failure inherent in the medium of photography. Within the context of trauma extending from an experience of childhood illness, she is currently interested in considering anxiety over-representation as an extension of anxiety over the real body, and a perceived lack of control in both contexts. In an attempt to reconstruct her own body in three-dimensional form, she works with fabric images, cutting, placing and stitching my own form. Through this process of reconstruction, she wrestles with concepts of agency and anxiety within photographic representations of the body.
Hannah has received her BFA Honours from the University of Manitoba in 2015. Her work has been exhibited in alternative spaces and artist-run centers throughout the city of Winnipeg. She has exhibited nationally, at Art Mur (Montreal) and Avenue (Vancouver), Proof 23 at Gallery 44 (Toronto) and, most notably a solo exhibition I Never Recognized Her Except in Fragments at The New Gallery (Calgary) in 2016. In 2017, she completed a month-long residency as part the Banff Centre for Art and Creativity’s Visual + Digital Emerging BAiR Program. She is the co-founder and an active committee member of Flux Gallery, a gallery space for emerging artists. She facilitates art workshops throughout the city of Winnipeg, working with children and youth through Art City, with pediatric cancer patients through Cancercare Manitoba’s volunteer department, as well as with senior residents through the Misericordia Health Center’s recreation department.

Janice Jo Lee

Music Artist

“I am a folk artist. An artist of the people! A storyteller. It is my responsibility as a folk artist to affirm our contemporary stories, emotions and ideas through art and carry these stories onward.
Art is my tool to build just and joyful communities that are as free as possible from systemic oppression. My art comforts the struggling and challenges political complacency. As a writer and performing artist, I combine my literature, music and theatre background with my political activism to create art that engages through its truth, comedy, lyricism and power. Genres and artistic disciplines do not limit me when creating songs, poems, scenes and stories. On stage, it is important for me to demonstrate power in embodied performances, unrelenting honesty, rhythm and humility.
I am constantly learning and thinking critically about my position and cultural context within systems of oppression. I aim to decolonize myself and my art practice from oppressive ideas and practices. My art is subject to criticism and conversation. As an artist and role model, I listen to and am accountable to my community.”

Jess Murwin

Visual Artist

Jess Murwin is a non-binary queer artist and programmer based in Montreal, Quebec. She received formal artistic training from Notre Dame de la Tilloye (France) and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (Canada), as well as informal training on various sets, at artist centres and in workshops in Canada, Europe and India. Her work combines myth, fantasy, humor and flamboyance with social commentary.
As a programmer, she has worked for the Atlantic International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, among others. Her focus in presenting films and media art works has always been to champion stories by female, LGBTQIA + and Indigenous filmmakers. She sees this work as a critical way of reclaiming narrative spaces and as an important political and artistic act.

Jessica Canard

Visual Artist

Jessica Canard is a multi-media visual artist who is inspired by street art and murals. Born and currently based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, she has goals of traveling and making art internationally. Her roots are from Sagkeeng First Nation where she is using art to explore, reclaim, and bridge this part of her heritage with urban living. Her main focus is to use art as a tool for self-reflection/growth, to engage the public, and to build stronger communities. Accomplished at a young age, she’s been facilitating art workshops for youth since the age of 17, at 21 her work was purchased by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights thanks to a partnership that was started between the museum and the Michaelle Jean Foundation, and now she’s working towards those international goals. Jessica believes that art is about bringing people together and creating positive change.

Jimmy Baptiste

Visual Artist

Jimmy Baptiste is a youth facilitator, graphic artist, and curator, raised in Montreal, Quebec. His work is inspired by tattoos, graffiti, mangas, which helped him craft his unique aesthetic style and compelling high quality illustrations.
Over the last 10 years Jimmy as been working as a youth facilitator for the city of Montreal and various schools across the city of Montreal. He facilitated street art contemporary activities aimed at empowering and building up the sense of self worth through the arts. In 2015, Jimmy received the P. Lantz Bursary as an artist-in-residence from McGill University. There, he collaborated with local community organizations, McGill Faculty of Education students and teachers to offer free artistic workshops with an emphasis on engaging teaching in a non-formal setting. Jimmy has also been invited as a guest speaker for various art educational talks and documentaries for Under Pressure Graffiti Convention, McGill University and Save the Children/WEDAY.
As a graphic designer and artist, Jimmy as worked for international fashion companies such as Workshop Denim in New Zealand, Buffalo David Bitton, the Sid Lee \ Adidas Creative office in Montreal and the city of Montreal.

Kalkidan Assefa

Visual Artist

Kalkidan Assefa is a multi-medium Visual Artist and certified Artist-Educator specializing in figurative and iconographic mixed-media paintings and murals. He has participated in and curated group exhibitions and collaborative projects both regionally and internationally. As a Certified Artist-Educator, he facilitate interactive workshops for a diverse range of communities. Skilled in painting, drawing, ink studies, illustration, murals, collage, and live painting. Works exhibited in Canada, the United States, United Kingdom and France.

Kristen Dobbin

Visual Artist

Kristen Dobbin is an Estonian-Canadian photographer interested in culture, identity and community. She holds a B.A. in anthropology and art history from McGill University, and an M.A. in anthropology from the University of Toronto. Her master’s research on photography in Scandinavian Sápmi was published in Visual Communication Quarterly and exhibited at FotoFocus Cincinnati.

Melanie Garcia

Visual Artist

Melanie Garcia is a collage artist and costumer for film. It was during her BFA in Film Production at Concordia University that she began her work in large-format digital collage.  Inspired by Dada, Surrealism, and Poetic Cinema, her now analog mixed media collages are concerned with unconscious and liminal spaces, the distortions and aesthetics of the human body and the spaces the body occupies.  Her work has been exhibited across Canada as well as the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway.

Since 2013 Melanie has had the pleasure of working with youth in in-class workshops, and art festivals around Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal with the Cultures in the Schools Programs and ELAN, and in several Indigenous communities through the inPath programs.

Milan André

Music Artist

Milan André is here to inspire and impel towards positive change. Montréal born and raised, this Slovak, African American and Cuban artist brings linguistic and cultural diversity into a music industry set in its ways. His music is layered and complex; addressing meaningful topics ranging from self-growth, addiction, grief and the future of this world, to name a few. Milan André’s music is born out of heavy introspection in hopes to influence people to want to be aware of their actions and choices.

Saige Mukash

Visual Artist

“I am a self-taught artist, and most of my inspiration for my work comes from the Cree Culture and traditions, and Legends. I learned a lot from my mother and step-father. My mother is a painter and worked from home, and my step-father who I’ve known since I was 4 years old, is a musician. Both are also self-taught in their fields, and are both very successful in their work.”

Shanna Strauss

Visual Artist

Shanna Strauss is a Tanzanian-American artist currently living in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyaang (Montreal). She completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the California College of Arts and has exhibited her work in solo and group shows in Tanzania, the United States and Canada. Noteworthy achievements include her art being featured in the East African Biennale in 2009, a solo exhibition The Floating Homeland that opened the Vue D’Afrique 2015 Rally Expo Festival in Montreal, and a collaborative project and exhibition Re-membering: A sister Project that took place in Oakland, California in the summer of 2015. More recently, she was commissioned to create work for the Égéries Noires group exhibition at Montreal’s Place des Arts, in February 2016. She is currently working on an ongoing art project, with another Montreal based artist, Kevin Calixte, called Changemakers.
In conjunction with her art practice, Shanna has engaged in community work and organizing for the past 10 years, working with diverse youth groups in different countries. In 2014, she completed a Master of Social Work degree at McGill University with a focus on International and Community Development. Integrating arts-based programs and interventions in her community work, Shanna believes passionately in the power of art to create individual, community and social change.

Steve Haining

Visual Artist

With photography awards in multiple countries and work published globally, Steve has spent the last decade excelling in his industry. Like everyone else trying to make it on their own he started out with a simple passion for photography. At the time he didn’t know “creative photographer” was even a job title and he spent his free time traveling in bands photographing along the way.Working on weekends as a photographer taking what he could get he spent his week days as a graphics designer and a hydro-geographer for the federal government mapping the waterways for shipping vessels in Canada. Over the years he found himself taking days off from the government job to do shoots on weekdays and making up the hours on the other days. It got to the point where he had to chose between the two and going with his heart he chased photography.

Travis Hebert

Music Artist

One half of the acclaimed Indigenous hip-hop group, Mob Bounce. Travis is a musician, lyricist, writer and performer residing in Smither, British Columbia. Mob Bounce is Indigenous influenced Hip Hop with a fuse of EDM (Electronic Dance Music), with Traditional and Contemporary aspects. The group’s gripping lyricism delve into spirituality, social awareness/justice, and Mother Earth connection. Mob Bounce is a display of Hip Hop music and poetry with conviction.

Whitney French

Spoken Word Artist

Whitney French is a storyteller and a multi-disciplinary artist. She is a certified arts educator who has executed over 100 workshops in schools, community centers, prisons, group-homes and First Nations’ reserves. Her debut collection 3 Cities was self-published in April 2012. Additionally, her writing has been published in Descant Magazine and anthologized in The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry. Whitney French is also the founder and co-editor and of the nation-wide publication From the Root Zine.