INDIGENOUS LED SPIRAL

Kelli Rae Morning Bull is Blackfoot from Piikani Nation, one of four nations within the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy).

Kelli Rae is a graduate of SAIT Polytechnic’s radio, television and broadcast news program and uses her technical skills to create and share stories about her culture.

She recently completed two films, Treaty Money and Innaihtsiiyisinnii (Making Treaty), to educate the public on Indigenous issues and the importance of storytelling from an Indigenous lens.

INDIGENOUS LED SPIRAL

INDIGENOUS LED SPIRAL

Jared Tailfeathers Sikomh Kokomii (Calling Crane) is a biracial Blackfoot (Nitstitapi) and Caucasian, multidisciplinary artist, musician/sound artist (music teacher), Blackfoot/Treaty 7 art researcher/amateur historian, author and inventor. He works in various media, arts and culture groups, collectives, committees and galleries. His work is often narrative based, DIY, multimedia, with hints of traditional methods of making and interactive installations.

BLACK LED SPIRAL

Wunmi Idowu is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, choreographer, filmmaker, performer, and producer and the Founder and Director of Woezo Africa Music & Dance Theatre Inc. Since 2006, Woezo Africa has been passionately dedicated to bringing the history of African culture to the masses through traditional and modern modes of performing arts, including dance, music, theatre and storytelling. Wunmi’s accolades in the art industry span winning the 24th Annual Immigrants of Distinction Award and the Canada Vendors Entrepreneur Award in 2020, both of which were for the category of Arts and Culture. She also won an Afro-Canadian (AC) Community Leader of the Year Award in 2020. Her recent achievements include nominations for the 2021 Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award. She was a recent recipient of the Avenue Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40 list in 2021. By pushing for increased visibility of ethnically and culturally diverse artists in Alberta, Wunmi hopes that perceptions will shift around who participates in the arts. Through dynamic, cutting-edge work that captures the imagination of a range of audiences, her hope is to enhance the creative economy in Calgary, empower communities and perpetuate the movement for instilling social change.

BLACK LED SPIRAL

Priscille Bukasa is an established favorite in the spoken word scene, based in Calgary; she has been writing and performing for over 10 years. She has had the opportunity to be the supporting act and headliner at various popular events in both Calgary and Edmonton. Her versatility and talent have enabled her to perform at a variety of venues and events such as the 6 Degrees conference, churches, universities, schools, and marketing campaigns such as ATB Listen. Her distinguished work and style have truly set her apart as a one-of-a-kind artist. Priscille continues to push the envelope with her work that highlights racial injustice like 16 Shots & Seat at The Table. Priscille has expanded her skills to teaching up-and-coming young poets developing their writing techniques and stage performance. 

Priscille has her BA in Business Administration majoring in Marketing. She is currently working as a Program coordinator for the Black Arts Development Program and as a freelancer helping small businesses develop a social media marketing strategy. She is also a member of the Cultural Instigator Program, an initiative to support artists involved in building equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in their work to organize and to create artistic projects that build the community’s capacity to confront social issues through an anti-racist framework. 

BLACK LED SPIRAL

RACIALIZED LED SPIRAL

PAM TZENG (she/her) is a choreographer, performer and producer of the live and contemporary based in Mohkínstsis, colonially known as Calgary. She is co-curator of to the AWE, a recurring risk-based multi-disciplinary performance series.

Pam’s work is an evolving collection of honest and visceral reflections on the politics of the body. Led by her embodied curiosities and lens as a Canadian born Taiwanese woman, Pam graciously traverses charged thematic territories in her work. Pam’s practice and aesthetic imagination is coloured by her training in contemporary dance, mask, clown and puppetry.

Known for crafting humourous, poignant and urgent dances, her work has been presented across Canada and through the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Recent works include: By Jo-Lee, That ch*nk in y/our armour commissioned by CanAsian Dance KickStart Festival 2018 (Toronto) and Tears & Cheers: A

Journey Into Whiteness commissioned by Good Women Dance Collective. Pam is currently working on a new collection of works as Dancers’ Studio West Artist In Residence 2019-2022.

Passionate about contributing to a healthy arts ecology in Alberta, Pam also works as an arts professional and actively engages in initiatives that foster equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. She has served the local and provincial arts sector as Artistic Associate Producer and Marketing Director with Springboard

Performance (2015-2020), Dance Curator for the Ignite! Festival and has provided her services to non-profit organizations like Alberta Dance Alliance, Dancers Studio West and Three Left Feet Movement Creations. She is the Alberta Representative for the Canadian Dance Alliance and is currently completing the

Rozsa Arts Management Program.

Pam is a contributor to the 35//50 Initiative, Citizen Artists YYC, and Cultural Instigators YYC. She is co-facilitator of Dancers’ Studio West’s Talking, Thinking Dancing Body that promotes critical reflection of our body and the world it lives in through an intersectional feminist, anti-racist and anti-colonial lens.

INDIGENOUS LED SPIRAL

ᐃᐢᑵᐤ ᑯᓯᐦᐊᐟ ᒥᐢᑎᑿᓯᑿ  [drum woman] lives and works in mohkinstsis Treaty 7 territory, with family roots in Cold Lake First nations and Northern Alberta. She is an emerging artist recent graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts, and has exhibited throughout so-called Alberta. Her art practice centers nehiyaw and Métis experiences of reconnecting with culture and spirit through a sense of humour. She currently works in arts programming focused on fellow emerging artists and participating in projects that center people of marginalized identities.Passionate about contributing to a healthy arts ecology in Alberta, Pam also works as an arts professional and actively engages in initiatives that foster equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. She has served the local and provincial arts sector as Artistic Associate Producer and Marketing Director with Springboard

Performance (2015-2020), Dance Curator for the Ignite! Festival and has provided her services to non-profit organizations like Alberta Dance Alliance, Dancers Studio West and Three Left Feet Movement Creations. She is the Alberta Representative for the Canadian Dance Alliance and is currently completing the

Rozsa Arts Management Program.

Pam is a contributor to the 35//50 Initiative, Citizen Artists YYC, and Cultural Instigators YYC. She is co-facilitator of Dancers’ Studio West’s Talking, Thinking Dancing Body that promotes critical reflection of our body and the world it lives in through an intersectional feminist, anti-racist and anti-colonial lens.

BLACK LED SPIRAL

RACIALIZED LED SPIRAL

SUPPORT

An artist, writer, educator, and inclusive designer, JD Derbyshire’s background of stand-up comedy, playwriting, storytelling, interactive installation, and stage directing gives her unique tools to look at the complexity of the world.

Derbyshire holds a Masters in Inclusive Design from Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto and creates playful, inclusive, interactive, and participatory experiences that push forward ideas of diversity, belonging, and interdependent communities.

They are currently the Artistic Director of Nervous System Performance based in Vancouver and the Inclusive Designer in Residence with Calgary Arts Development.

SUPPORT

Cesar Cala is a community organizer and activist. He had worked as the Manager for the Neighbourhood Strategy at United Way of Calgary and Area. Before moving to Canada in 1996, Cesar was involved in community development in the Philippines and other parts of the world for more than 15 years on issues of human rights, democratic reform, people’s participation, grassroots development and social innovation.

 In Canada, he pursued his interest in community development, both in volunteer and professional capacities, with organizations like Oxfam-Canada, the Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre of Calgary, the Ethno Cultural Council of Calgary, the Children’s Legal and Educational Resource Centre, Calgary, he has been involved in local initiatives like Calgary Vital Signs, grassroots grantmaking, cross-cultural dialogue and community organizing. His current work involves supporting citizens lead community change and facilitating collaborative initiatives of residents, social agencies, funders and other partners.

 Cesar occasionally lectures at the University of Calgary on community development and social justice.