Celebrating Cultures

Live at  the Kisanii Hub

June 27, 2022
David Crombie Park | The Esplanade & Princess St

In light of nationally recognized Canadian Multiculturalism Day, Jamii invited community members to engage with the rhythm and sounds of music and dance from various parts of the world. The event included dance by Ballet Creole accompanied by Carribean steel pan music by Trevor Redhead and Susette Vidale, Japanese Yosakoi dance led by Takako Segawa and performed by Kochi Yosakoi Ambassador KIZUNA International Team, Indigenous hoop dancing by Emilee Ann Pitawanakwat, and clarinet performence by Majd Sekkar. The event was wrapped up with a photo exhibit unveiling by Murphy Owusu and panel discussion with the photographer who responded to our 2022 season theme "Water is Memory" through the lens of his camera.

Credits

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Live at the Kisanii Hub Produced & Presented by Jamii

Jamii Team: Afnan Yakot, Hadeal Karrar, Iris Unlu, Isorine Marc, Maysam Abu Khreibeh,

Nadifa Daud Mohamed, Yusra Yacout

Host: TrudyLee Gayle

"Water No Get Enemy" Photo Exhibit: Murphy Owusu

Live Performer: Trevor Redhead, Suzette Vidale, Allan Ramsaran

Dancer: Ballet Creole

Japanese Yosakoi Dance: Kochi Yosakoi Ambassador KIZUNA International Team

Clarinet: Majd Sekkar

Indigenous Hoop Dance: Emilee Ann Pitawanakwat

Stage Manager: Julia Beaulieu

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Event Photographer:  Abel Tesfaldet

Event Videographer:  Recro Digital Marketing

June 27, 2021

"The Wedding" is a three-part project that invited professional artists and members of The Esplanade community to explore what a mixed-culture wedding looks like (PART I), what are the emotional triggers of wedding ceremonies (PART II) and the emotional roller-coaster of wedded life (PART III). Part I was filmed on June 27th as a celebration to Canadian Multiculturalism Day, Part II in July and Part III in October - all filmed as a one-shot, at the heart of The Esplanade community - David Crombie Park.

With Part I of this wedding you will see, we explore different ceremonial traditions, based on the artists and participants' own cultures. Amongst other traditions, we brought together a Brazilian procession, a Chinese tea ceremony, an Indigenous blanket ceremony, and an Albanian shami burning dance. Even though it is now considered normal to recognize each other’s cultural heritage, do we actually celebrate and acknowledge intercultural mixing, and if so, how? Can we bring our cultures together while retaining our cultural traditions, our sense of identity and uniqueness?

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"The Wedding" is an invitation to explore these questions, together.

Check out the full series HERE.

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Produced and presented by:

Jamii Esplanade

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A PROJECT SUPPORTED AND FUNDED BY:

Canada Council for the Arts

Canadian Heritage

Ontario Arts Council

Government of Ontario

ShowLoveTo - City of Toronto

Canadian Stage

St Lawrence Neighbourhood Association

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June 27, 2020

On June 27th 2020, the community of The Esplanade came together to celebrate Canada's Muliculturalism Day, funded by Canadian Heritage and Canada Council for the Arts, and in partnership with Canadian Stage. We treated the audience with a beautiful performance bringing to life a series of eight visual portraits that were created as part of Wind Stories.

A unique way to share and celebrate each other stories.

FEATURED ARTISTS: Ashima Suri, Jonelle Sills, Jeremiah Sparks, Michael Caldwell, Paulina O’Kieffe-Anthony, Sue Croweagle, Heidi Chan, Raha Javanfar, with hosts Ryan G. Hinds & Indrit Kasapi.

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Photos and videos: Laura Dittmann

June 27, 2019

In 2019, in the context of multicultural day, Jamii brought together three visual artists who were invited to capture the diversity of the people of the Esplanade with live portrait drawings. Accompanied with lively music and cultural stories this event was a celebration of the rich cultural fabric of our community.

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Visual artists: Alicia Herbert, Alison Garwood-Jones, and Andrew Patterson worked on capturing people through portraits encapsulating the beauty within us in their own artistic style.

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Live performances from: 

Haitian storyteller Djennie Laguerre

Indigenous storyteller Jim Adams

Québécois musician and singer Valérie Descheneaux 

Syrian violinist Iman Abdul Razzak

and Albanian theater director Indrit Kasapi 

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Visual artist Alison Garwood-Jones also wrote a blog post about our event read it HERE.

In partnership with Théâtre Français de Toronto and CORPUS.

With the support of Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage and Ontario Arts Council.

Photos by Gillian Mapp