Sabrina Benaim

Sabrina Benaim is an artist who has found herself on many stages since beginning her journey into poetry and spoken word in 2013. Sabrina is a two-time ensemble member of the Victoria Festival of Spoken Word, was a member of the National Championship team in 2014 at the Swiss Festival of Health Research, and most notably, her poem Explaining My Depression To My Mother on Button Poetry has over 2 million views. Sabrina’s work floats along the spectrum of love, pain, identity and Beyonce. Dig.

Bonnie Logan

Bonnie Logan has been storytelling professionally for 30 years now. She has featured on national storytelling stages in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton and Toronto and she has played concert halls, schools and libraries from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland, Uranium City to Willowbunch. These days she has storytelling residencies with Ranch Erhlo Society, Nature Saskatchewan and the Boreal Forest Learning Centre. These nights she is part of the comedy jazz trio, Too Darn Hot, where she gets to strut her sexy, naughty, okay mostly funny stuff.

“If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest, if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.” – Siberian Elder

Lindsay Knight aka Eekwol

Lindsay Knight aka Eekwol is an award­winning hip hop performing artist living in Saskatoon, originally from Muskoday First Nation, Saskatchewan. She has successfully completed her Masters Degree at University of Saskatchewan, which she has taken along with her many years of dedication to hip hop and created something unique and astounding to give back to the community.

Eekwol uses her music and words to spread messages of resistance, revolution and keeping the language, land and culture alive for the next generations. Through her original sound she displays her activist roots by living and creating as a supporter of both Hip Hop and Indigenous culture and rights. Along with music and academic work, Eekwol frequently works with young people across the country as a mentor and helper. She achieves this through performances, workshops, speaking events, conferences and programs.

LINKS

CBC Artists
http://music.cbc.ca/#/artists/Eekwol

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Eekwol

RPM Site
http://rpm.fm/artist/eekwol/

Sheri-D Wilson

Internationally recognized Spoken Word Poet Sheri-D Wilson has performed & taught in festivals in Canada, USA, England, France, Mexico, and South Africa.  She has 9 collections of poetry, her most recent—Open Letter: Woman against Violence against Women; was nominated for the 2015 Robert Kroetsch Poetry Book Award. Her collection, Re:Zoom (2005), won the 2006 Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. She has written 5 produced plays, produced 2 CDs & 5 Video-Poems and she co-created 1 ballet for Ballet BC. She edited the celebrated, The Spoken Word Workbook: inspiration from poets who teach.

Recipient of: 2015 City of Calgary Award (Artist and Activist) * 2015 Writer-In-Residence (Kwantlen University) * 2013 CBC Top 10 Poets in Canada * 2009 Ted Talk * 2005 SpoCan Poet of Honour * 2006 Woman of Vision * 5 Rosies * 2003 USA Heavyweight Title * 5 Jessie Nominations * Ace Award * & Nominated The Canadian Author Who Would Make The Best LOVER!” Featured in Arc Magazine (2015), FreeFall (2015), Chatelaine Magazine (2013), a regular on CBC, and the subject of a half-hour documentary Heart of a Poet, et cetera. Of the beat tradition, in 1989 she studied at Naropa University (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics).

A strong advocate for social change:
La Directrice Artistique—School of Thought (2016)
Founder & Director—Calgary Spoken Word Festival (2003-2014)
Founder & Director—Spoken Word Program @ Banff Centre (2005-2012)
www.sheridwilson.com

Kevin Wesaquate

Recent participation in events like Tonight Its Poetry in Saskatoon or to the Write Out Loud a spoken word collective also in Saskatoon are regular for me. I have encompassed my stage presence to include playwriting, which I have joined the Aboriginal Playwriting Circle. I am currently employed as the Aboriginal Arts Leader at SCYAP (Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming) where I have co-created a writing group called the Indigenous Poetry Society. I am also currently the Artist/Writer-in-residence at Saskatoon Polytechnic Campus for Basic Education students. I have recently finished a CARFAC Mentorship Program which has allowed me to focus and direct my artistic career. I have also worked with CARFAC on two occasions this year to bring Spoken Word Poetry and Storytelling to the young men inside the Prince Albert Correctional Institution.

Chimwemwe Undi

Chimwemwe Undi is a writer, performer and arts organizer. In 2015, she was an alumni ensemble member at the Victoria Spoken Word Festival, artist-in-residence at the Spur Festival and a featured performer at the Prairie Theatre Exchange’s Carol Shields Festival of New Work. She is the co-founder and director of Voices, Ink., the Winnipeg Youth Slam and coordinator for the Speaking Crow open mic series. Her work has appeared in Prairie Fire, CV2, Lemonhound and others. She has five too many teeth and knows all the words to most important power ballads.

Ahmed Knowmadic

Award winning poet Ahmed ‘Knowmadic’ is a Somali-born Canadian who currently resides in Treaty 6 Territory [Edmonton, Alberta]. He is a full-time poet, writer, actor, comedian, speaker and youth worker. In 2011, Ahmed became the first Somali spoken word champion at the Swiss Festival of Health Research, but shared the honor by being the first Albertan and Edmontonian as well. In 2012, Ahmed was given the RISE award for community involvement in arts and culture. In 2013, he was the Artist in Residence at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. Ahmed is one of the founders and organizers of the Breath in Poetry Collective.

Prufrock Shadowrunner

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Haling from Ottawa, Prufrock Shadowrunner has become a highly regarded figure in the world of spoken word and hip-hop, equally at home behind his turntables or standing alone in the spotlight reciting poetry. Possessing an unparalleled ability with language, his passion and vision range widely, expressing things many of us feel, but few can say.

Baltimore born Ryan Weber of The Weber Brothers began a life in music at a very young age. Picking up the bass at 11 years old along with younger brother Sam on guitar, their intense passion for 50’s and 60’s music eventually landed them at the doorstep of legendary Rockabilly front man Ronnie Hawkins. Hawkins instilled in them an education and work ethic that few could endure. Ten years, nine albums, and 1000’s of shows later, The Weber Brothers continue to tour and perform constantly.  Ryan has cultivated a style all his own both on bass and as a vocalist. “My goal is that when I hit that string and slide up the neck you can feel the Earth shake and hear the trees moan,” he says. Known far and wide for his high-energy style of performing, and awarded multiple times for his bass playing and singing, he is also a prolific and highly developed songwriter. Unafraid of baring raw, intense emotion in song, his writing reveals an honesty anyone can relate to and wishes we all share.

Meeting through mutual friend and collaborator CR Avery in October 2013, these 2 creators from vastly different backgrounds found they shared common ground in many areas neither could have foreseen. Finding a similar outlook and subject matter at the root of each of their respective work, an idea was hatched to perform a show together. Featuring much of Prufrock’s spoken word prowess interwoven with punctuation’s of Ryan’s songs and bass, “Shadows and Webs” is a showing of a depth deeper than either imagined it would be. The roller coaster of words and emotions is as thrilling as it is touching, as far reaching as it is intimate. This one of a kind union of two acclaimed artists at the very peak of their creativity has to be seen to be believed.

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Holly Painter

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A spoken word artist, public speaker, and certified teacher, Holly Painter has spoken to over twenty-five thousand students at school and community events in Ontario and performed on stages across the country. She is an Artist in Residence with the Thames Valley District School Board and the London Arts Council, a three-time Grand Slam Champion and Director of the London Poetry Slam, and testament to the fact that your biggest fear can become your greatest passion.
www.hollypainterpoetry.com
@HollyPoetry

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