The 905 Road Show Recap: Black Creek Edition
Diaspora Dialogues
February 1, 2016
Thank you to everyone who came out and participated in the 905 Road Show in Black Creek, North York. We couldn’t have done it without our talented group of performers, Yorkgate Mall, the York University TD Community Engagement Centre, North York Arts, AVNU, and, of course, our audience members.
We loved bringing the Road Show to North York, and felt so welcome at Yorkgate Mall. Denise Deion, artist, songwriter, and producer, hosted the afternoon guiding audiences through a relaxed day of readings, music and more from some of North York’s very own. The show opened with a wonderful performance by The Real Sun and her extremely talented band.
Next up was the lovely Sheniz Janmohamed who gave a thought-provoking poetry reading. Sheniz has published two collections of poetry—Bleeding Light(Mawenzi House, 2011) and Firesmoke (Mawenzi House, 2014). Lalo Moreno, sound engineer and recording artist, followed Sheniz with an insightful socially conscious hip-hop performance.
Anna Yin, Mississauga’s poet laureate, gave a nod to our venue by reading some food-themed poetry, and works from her published collections. Next up was local emerging artist Kareem Bennett who gave a wonderful spoken word performance.
Audience members were treated to a dramatic reading performed by singer and actor Elle Trema and written by Masani Montague, executive director, Upfront Theatre Foundation. Elle also wowed us with an a cappella rendition of two of her hit songs, “No Regrets” and “Strong Women.” Last but certainly not least, Nathan Baya gave an inspiring spoken word performance about social media, and closed the show with a track from his upcoming album Reasons to Grind.
We thoroughly enjoyed touring around the GTA and can’t wait to do it again! To stay up-to-date on all of DD’s events, sign up for our newsletter or subscribe to our events feed.