Nia Centre's January 2016 Newsletter

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January Newsletter On behalf of the entire Nia Centre team we wish you a happy 2016! We are filled with excitement as this year opens up a new chapter for our organization. With the building well into construction phase and new programs developing alongside annual programs strengthening, there is no better time for you to be engaged with Nia Centre for the Arts.

We're glad you're here with us.

This month we are hosting another informative Lunch N Learn session. Also, we're announcing the launch date for the annual EXPOSED exhibition. Read on to see what's up.

be. belong. become.

Pre-order your Nia Centre Calendar!

Be. Belong. Become. is our fundraising campaign designed to raise funds, awareness, and support for creating a facility dedicated to fostering artistic and creative opportunities and experiences from across the African Diaspora. Over the years, Nia Centre programming has worked to create spaces where artists and community members can feel like the can BE who they want, BELONG to their community and BECOME who they are destined to be.

To launch this campaign that aims to raise funds and awareness about the building of the centre, we are introducing our limited edition 2016 Calendar featuring 13 community leaders, artists, elders and participants that have supported the Centre over the past year. When you purchase a calendar you are providing Nia Centre with the tools and bricks to build this one of a kind art space!

Our 2016 Calendar features: Aisha Wickham Anique Jordan Anointing Animoodi Carl Cassell Ebti Nabag Farley Flex Gervais Nash Jalani Morgan Kareen Weir Komi Olaf Louie March Michael Chambers Michie Mee Oluseye Ogunlesi Quentin Vercetty Shantel Miller Setti Kidane

First 25 orders also receive a PURPOSE T-Shirt!

Supplies are limited, and each calendar edition will never be reproduced again, making it a truly unique and collectible piece of Be.Belong.Become. memorabilia.

Please join this movement and Be, Belong, and Become a contributor to this campaign by purchasing items from our online store. **We can only guarantee when the calendar ships and not when it is received. All orders come with standard shipping.**

Buy Now!

Exposed Save the Date

Nia Centre's fourth annual art exhibit EXPOSED is around the corner so save the date: March 17th. Be sure to follow us on social media and check in with our website as we slowly reveal more info around this great event.

In the meanwhile, we are pleased to announce this year's featured artists for 2016 EXPOSED: Danièle Dennis Esmaa Mohamoud Nadijah Robinson Desmond Miller Jah Grey Ăˆve Tagny

Marvin Luvualu Antonio Clear your calendars, you're not going to want to miss this event! Check out the video below to get a taste of last year's amazing show.

Lunch 'N' Learn Audrey Dwyer

We're kicking off the New Year right with our first Lunch 'N' Learn of the year. Actors, Dancers, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Directors, Stage Performers - this one's for you!

On Saturday, January 16th, join us as we lunch (and chat) with acclaimed artist Audrey Dwyer.

Audrey is an artist who acts, directs and writes for theatre and film. She's a graduate of Canada's National Theatre School of Canada, a Dora Award Nominee, and a recipient of the Cayle Chernin Award for Theatre.

Limited spots so register today!

AlumNia Seed Fund Nia Centre Programming

Nia Centre for the Arts' Creative Connect project presented the AlumNia Seed Fund, a micro grant to support our alumni in facilitating their arts-based workshops in various communities throughout the GTA. Participants were selected through a juried process made up of experienced Artist facilitators. We are proud to announce the following successful applicants whose workshop(s) will run between January - March 2016: Amefika Browne Queer Futures is a program that teaches deaf youth (13-29) how to silk screen on t-shirts, bandanas and more. With the intention to enable participants to create their own products with catchy phrases spelled out in ASL. Desmond Miller A Running Thread: Quilting the African Diaspora is a workshop that invites participants (20-29) to think more deeply about the connections between garments, quilting and the African Diaspora through textile-based art. Specifically, participants will be introduced to idiosyncratic, yet similar, styles of quilting and patchwork from across peoples, times and places in the African Diaspora.

Khadija Aziz Sketchbook Toronto is a new initiative that creates access to and awareness of visual arts academic studies, creative opportunities and portfolio development clinics to youth (15-29).

LolaBunz The Art of Storytelling and Be Heard teaches youth (up to 19) to express themselves through poetry, music and storytelling to recognize the impacts of using one's voice to implement change.

May Chook Vocal Play is a creative music and vocal program that uses a vocal health perspective to teaching singing. The program works to overcome barriers in access to music education to children and youth (up to 19) and to create a safe space to express one's self through music.

Shakira Rouse What Happens After High School is a workshop that helps transition youth (13-29) pursuing post-secondary education by educating them on the tips, tricks and knowledge to enable them for academic success.

Art of Facilitation Recap Video

Special thanks to Paul Ohonsi for shooting and editing this amazing video recapping the magic that was Art of Facilitation for 2016. Enjoy!

Sean Boothe Feature Alumni

I SHAUN BOOTHE'S I LIVE. YOUR. LEGACY. BLACK HISTORY MONTH PRESENTATION

O@shaunboothe

www.thebiographyseries.com

Art of Facilitation Alumni Shaun Boothe is a rising star and we at Nia Cente are proud of all he has done with his career thus far. Shaun is a an award winning hip hop artist, TEDx speaker and creator of ‘The Unauthorized Biography Series’.

The Biography Series is a celebration of greatness. As a youth speaker Shaun Boothe has created this series not just as a way to entertain and inform but as a way to awaken the greatness within us all. Book Shaun Boothe for your upcoming Black History Month event or check out his website for more info!

Black Future Month 3016 Feature Event

Save the date and spread the word that the Black Future Month 3016 4th Annual Afrofuturism and Black Sci-Fi Art Exhibition will be opening on February 3rd at 205 Richmond St. West, Graduate Gallery space at 7pm We will have food and music and a lot of inspiration and beautiful thought provoking - multidimensional art to be enjoyed by all!

The amazing Rasheedah Philips and representatives from Afrofuturist Affairs of Philadelphia will part-take in the event that focuses on 'why Afrofuturism shows that Black Lives Matter' and how contemporary art can be used as tools for decolonization and liberation.

There will also be John Jennings and Stacey Robinson of Black Kirby to do a presentation on Feb 7th!

This event is get the community to start thinking about the future of our existence - to see us existing, thriving, and blossoming exponentially in the future but at the same time to be able to see different ideas of what that could be or mean to different people.

Contact: blackfuturemonth3014@gmail.com

Events JAN 11 WRITING OURSELVES WHOLE

Writing Ourselves Whole: How Telling Our Stories Can Restore Our Lives is a six week creative writing course led by Dianah Smith exploring how writing is a vulnerable act.

Aangen Community Centre 898 Dovercourt Road Monday Evenings from Jan 11th to Feb 15th 6:30 PM - 9:00pm $325 (non-refundable)

JAN 13 A DARK AND STORMY HIP HOP COLOUR NIGHT

Colour inside the lines of Hip Hop greats as you sip on gin n juice & Listen to Flex of All Trades throw down some Hip Hop favs and remix the look of Snoop Dog (or Lion), Tupac, Ice-T, Dr.Dre and many others.

Harlem Underground 745 Queen Street West, 8:00 PM

JAN 16 SISTAH SOULJA'S CONFERENCE FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Centred around author Sister Souljah's best selling book "The Coldest Winter Ever" while using a hip hop pedagogy, the conference workshops aim to inspire thoughts and conversation that will allow students to critically analyze concepts of poverty, sexuality, stereotypes, family and community.

Register here

JAN 16 WRITING WHILE BLACK: BLACK WOMXN RESILIENCE

SpeakSudan is collaborating with writer and community leader Whitney French to present Writing While Black: Black Womxn's Resilience. This workshop is free and is open to self identifying black womxn (trans/cis inclusive).

CSI Regent Park 585 Dundas Street East 3rd Floor, Room 1 1 PM - 3 PM

JAN 16 BODY POSITIVITY + HEALING WITH AFRICAN WAIST BEADS

Signature Of A Mango By Lamoi invites you to an afternoon of energy building, soul opening conversation, and hands on creating. Topics include body positivity, self-love, self-care and the ways in which we as women heal ourselves while learning the history, function, and benefits of wearing African Waist Beads.

Knowldege Bookstore 177 Queen Street West, Brampton 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM $15

JAN 17 CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS | AN ART-BASED SERIES Amplifying Voices, Carving Spaces Join the facilitator, Hawa Mire in this FREE workshop series as she takes you through 6 sessions and mentors you in amplifying your voices as 1.5 and 2nd gen members of the African diaspora.

More Info: admin@indigenousinsightafrica.com

JAN 19 TYES x AVNU x RISE PRESENT: YOUTH ARTS TOWN HALL! This event will be an opportunity for youth artists and arts groups to learn more about the City of Toronto's arts initiatives and to discuss issues impacting the youth arts community.

City Hall 100 Queen St. W Committee Room 2 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

JAN 21 KISS OF LIFE ~ A SADE TRIBUTE April Snow & the Musicologists with special guest singers celebrate the music of sensational artist Sade.

Holy Oak 1241 Bloor Street West, 10pm

JAN 21 - 24 INTERIOR DESIGN SHOW TORONTO

During one three-day weekend each January, the Interior Design Show shapes the industry for the year to come – in North America and beyond. The 18th edition of Canada’s design fair celebrates leading brands, innovative speakers and rising local talents.

Metro Toronto Convention Centre 255 Front Street West 7PM $10-25

JAN 22 SATE @ HORSESHOE TAVERN Collective Concerts Presents: SATE XPRIME THE HONEYRUNNERS The Cool Hands Horseshoe Tavern 370 Queen Street W, 9 PM $10, 19 +

JAN 22 DISCUSSION GROUP ON FRANZ FANON'S "BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS" The purpose of this reading group is to conduct a collective and close study of Black Skin, White Masks.

The Tower 281 Cannon Street East, Hamilton, ON 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

JAN 22-23 ART + DESIGN SOCIAL JUSTICE EXCHANGE A week-long exhibition featuring work from OCAD Students, Faculty and Toronto artists and designers. Dialogue featuring some of Toronto's most progressive artists and designers for two days of workshops, performances, film Screenings, lectures, round Tables.

OCAD University 100 McCaul Street 7:00 PM

Feel free to contact us to add your event to our newsletter listings: info@niacentre.org

Copyright Š 2016 Nia Centre for the Arts, All rights reserved.