Speak Our Story – Griots To Emcees

In Our Own Words

In this series we explore the fusion of Word and Sound. Spotlighting the voices, creativity and cultural impact of renowned artists of the Spoken Word, we embark on a journey – from the griots to the emcees, poets to playwrights, stage to screen, oral culture to Oralfutrism, and beyond.

Kardinal Offishal
Luke Reece
Shahaddah Jack
Sashoya Simpson

A lot of my work started shaping towards culture and folklore, and looking at the preservation of that culture.

Award winning Afro-Jamaican storyteller, theatre practitioner, and children’s book author, connects cultural traditions to the next generation.
Naila Kaleta Mae

Art was meant to help you live in the world, feel seen in the world, and make sense of the world.

Multidisciplinary artist and award-winning scholar of Black and Free explores the intersection of art, activism, ancestry, and her new album.

The Cypher

Featuring Special Guests

Paulina O’Keiffe

Award winning artist, curator, and arts educator pays homage to the women of Spoken Word with a powerful performance.
Eddy Da Original One

Known as the beatbox poet, the international performer gives a taste of his unique fusion of Spoken Word and beatbox.
Shahaddah Jack

Spoken word artist and Toronto Youth Poet Laureate shares words of power.
Empara

Singer, songwriter, poet, performance artist moves seamlessly between melodic flows and spoken word.
DJ Akeem

Resident DJ and multi-disciplinary artist brings the beats, rhymes and poetry to the Speak Ourstory soundscape.

Poet-to-Poet

Poet-to-Poet conversations highlighting renowned African-Canadian artists creating in the realms of Spoken Word, Dub, Slam, Hip Hop, film, theatre and multi-disciplinary oral cultural forms. These intimate conversations, where Black artists across the country reflect on their lives, history and over 50 years of Spoken Word, inspired the oral history

Lillian Allen

We are gonna transform this thing. We’re gonna create a revolution in this literary domain. And we ain’t stopping till it is part of what people think of when they think about culture, the arts, and literature in Canada.

Juno-Award winning Dub artist and Toronto Poet Laureate raps with artist Motion about Dub poetry’s foundations.
Dr. Afua Cooper

This is our culture. This is our art. This is what we have created. This is what the ancestors have given us from time immemorial.

Dub pioneer, historian and educator reflects on the connections between ancestry and Spoken Word, with Motion.
Michael St. George

The future of Dub is about remaining authentic to the time.

International songpoet traces the place of music, poetry and community in his work as a Dub poet in conversation with Motion.
Anthony “Nth Digri” Bansfield

At the root of it is this kind of honesty and courage, and will to speak your mind.

Ottawa-based rap-poet, Northern Griots Network founder and producer of the groundbreaking WordLife compilation, converses about Spoken Word’s northern roots, with multi-media writer Juanita Muwanga.
Dwayne Morgan

The magic of who we are as Black people and as creative people, is that we always find a way.

Scarborough Hall of Fame slam poet and spoken word producer speaks on art, business, and building opportunities, with Motion.
El Jones

[Poetry] gave me the opportunity to get involved in political spaces. And being involved in those spaces shaped me into an activist.

Spoken word activist and educator delves into the power of poetry and slam as a voice for change, with Motion.