uthdaze

A little preview of the very talented face painting done by artist Christopher Pinheiro.  Be sure not to miss him at the All Day Experience on May 26th from 12:30-2:30!

VOLUNTEER CALL OUT!

Do you want to get involved in Toronto’s arts community? Are you keen on gaining experience in event planning? Do you want to participate in a fun-filled weekend while giving back to the community? Volunteer with U^th Daze!

We need YOU and your help to make this event a success!We currently have the following roles which need to be filled:

Social Media Coordinator: In this position, you would work alongside the Uth Daze team and play an integral role in brainstorming and implementing our promotion strategy. This role involves helping create a social media strategy, sourcing and planning content for the Uth Daze Festival blog, facebook and twitter communities, and responding to conversations across those channels. You will also the lead the live-tweeting during the event.

Grassroots Promotion Assistant: In this position, you would work along side the Uth Daze Team and Grassroots promoter and will spend most your time out in the community, spreading the word about the festival by putting up posters, handing out flyers and creating excitement about the festival with families. This role requires an energetic, self-motivated, vibrant personality who thrives on taking action and engaging with the community!

Festival Photographer (2): Are you an aspiring event photographer? We need a fantastic team to capture the excitement of the festival to share with the community through our websites and blog!

Uth Daze Festival Assistant: This is probably the most important role of all, since we can use all the help we can get on the weekend of the actual festival! Duties would include greeting and guiding festival visitors, assisting artist performers and facilitators, food and drink prep, and venue set-up and clean-up. Dates would be May 25th and 26th, with more volunteers needed on the 26th

Qualifications:
-excitement about artistic community projects
-willingness to mobilize and engage youth in collaborative community projects
-Available to volunteer at least one shift on May 25th, May 26th, and/or at promotional events leading up to the Festival.

If you want to get involved, send Laura an email at uthdaze.coordinator@gmail.com. Include which role you are interested in, and a little about yourself and what you would like to get out of your volunteer experience!

We look forward to hearing from you!

reConnexion’s Uth Daze!

Submit to the reConnexion Collective’s third annual Uth Daze mini arts youth festival (May 25 & 26 2013).

Calling …
– Individual/groups of Youth Artists (teens and 20s)
– Professional Emerging Artists (16-early 30s)
– Community Artists (of all ages)

To…
Perform, present/create an installation, or lead a workshop in any kind of art!
Including: Dance, Theatre, Visual & Graffiti Art, Media Arts, Crafts, Spoken Word, Song, Rhyme, or Food activities aimed at youth & children 13 and under (as well as their families).

Honourarium provided.

Submit…
a) A brief write-up (or even just a paragraph) saying who you are,
and how/why you want to participate in the festival.
b) A bio or resume.
c) A description of the project/idea you would like to do [max: 5
pages].
d) Any other support material (max: 2 pieces): short audio/video
clips, website link, art work samples, any press or published
material on you and your work, etc.
e) Your email address and phone number.

Submit by Monday, March 4 2013

via email: uthdaze.curator@gmail.com
*or mail to …

reConnexion’s Uth Daze festival
@ b current Performing Arts
Artscape Wychwood Barns #3
601 Christie St, Studio 251
Toronto, ON, M6G 4C7

*If you would like any part of your mailed submission returned to you, please specify what part(s) and include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

The reConnexion Collective, started in 2009, is led by four young, emerging artists. We create programming for children and youth that connect and inspire them to be part of the performing arts community, namely our Uth Daze and Uth Connexions projects.
Check us out on b current’s website (under our artists, our community): bcurrent.ca.

Hello everyone and…welcome to Uth Daze 2013!

The reConnexion Collective is so excited to be back this year with another mini arts festival for youth! You must be wondering when it is…here are the details:

Uth Daze Mini Arts Festival for Youth: Saturday, May 25 and Sunday, May 26, 2013!

In just a few months, you’ll be able to immerse yourself in tons of artistic events, workshops and pop-up performances around Artscape Wychwood Barns and other specified areas. Wondering where all the events will take place? Who the artists are? Well you’ve come to the right place. Just follow us here on this blog over the next few months and we’ll update you with all of the exciting information as soon as it arrives!

Soon, I’ll introduce you to our wonderful Uth Daze Curator, Kanika Ambrose! For now, I’m Tamara Weisz and I am your Uth Daze Coordinator…for a little while longer as I am moving out of the country soon! I will introduce you to our new Coordinator in a few weeks as well. You’re in great hands for a fun-filled, art-filled festival!

For now, here’s my art inspired picture of the week:

Welcome to U^th Daze Festival weekend! The weather forecast is beautiful, and the weekend is shaping up to be a great one. We hope you can join us for some of the fun!

The Junior Juke Joint on Saturday, May 5 will showcase emerging young artists of different art forms. Artists will perform live improvisations in pairs during the Stop’s Farmer’s Market. Come on down between 10am-noon to check out this exciting event!

The main event of our festival is the All Day Celebration on Sunday, May 6! Last year’s one-day festival (U^th: A Day Experience) was a huge success, and drew over 300 kids, youth and families. This year’s festivities will be similar to last year’s, with events going from 11am-7pm. Don’t miss this amazing celebration- fun will include graffiti workshops, mask-making, spoken word, puppetry, dance and theatre performances, face-painting, and more!

We will have a Welcome Tent set up outside Wychwood Barns on the Christie Street side, where you can find information about what’s going on when. Volunteers and staff will also be onsite, so feel free to ask questions once you get to the barns!

Artscape Wychwood Barns is located at 601 Christie St, just south of St Clair Avenue West. The TTC has several routes that reach the Barns, but the St Clair street car is generally the most reliable. We will have maps of the venue available at the Welcome Tent, so don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with the various studios and spaces on site.

Hope to see you all this weekend!

As the final installment in our Artist Profile series, here is multi-media artist Douglas Hurst! Douglas will be doing tote-bag painting and decorating from Noon to 1:30pm on Sunday, May 6. Tote-bags are free, and open to all ages!

Douglas Hurst has a passion for inspiring creativity in children and families.  He loves exploring various materials and textures that enrich the senses beyond touch. Douglas teaches drama and visual arts to children from pre-school to grade school age.  Awesome organizations Douglas work with include Art Starts, YMCA, and the Toronto Public Library, just to name a few. Visit www.kidscreaturefactory.com to check out some of his past workshop programs. 

Douglas also loves monsters, making monsters and puppets. 

Up next in our Artist Profile series is José-Gabriel, who will be doing two different activities at the U^th Daze All-Day Celebration on May 6: a chalk mural on the sidewalk in the morning, and a graffiti workshop in the late afternoon. Come to the Barns on Sunday to check out his awesome talent!

José-Gabriel is a painter, designer, curator, creator and a well known graffiti writer. As a participant in Toronto’s graffiti culture since the age of 15, José-Gabriel has been involved in many art movements and creative endeavors. In January of 2009, José-Gabriel, along with Members of his life long crew, The Faceless Few Collective, opened up Funktion Gallery on Bloor Street just east of Lansdowne, in the city’s west end Bloordale neighborhood. For more than a year, Funktion hosted numerous art exhibitions, giving several local artists the opportunity to showcase their work to a new demographic. The Gallery crew provided musical and visual entertainment at countless public and private events throughout Ontario in the form of live painting, disc jockeying and visual design.

Through Funktion Gallery, José-Gabriel curated many commissioned murals for businesses, schools and local community associations, as well as taught mural classes, hosted workshops and delivered seminars on youth arts and culture.  In providing these services and holding these events, José-Gabriel has had a positive impact in a community building capacity in Toronto and beyond. Since the closing of Funktion’s storefront location in March of 2010, José-Gabriel decided to continue in the pursuit of creative opportunity, expansion and experience. To carry on the spirit of positive creation on a more personal level working with groups such as UNITY to educate future generation.

Let me introduce b current’s own Lorenzo Pagnotta, who will be leading games during the U^th Daze All-Day Celebration! Based on Augusto Boal’s “Games for Actors and Non-Actors,” Lorenzo’s activity will leave your senses ignited and your imagination inspired. The games will begin at 1pm on Sunday, May 6 on the south side lawn of Wychwood Barns.

Lorenzo has taught drama workshops to both seniors and youth in community centers throughout Montreal, and also enjoys performing. He aspires to continue growing as a performer, facilitator, and researcher; harmoniously combing his skills in both doing theatre and analyzing it.

His latest projects include performing the title role in a comical adaptation of Hamlet which toured throughout southern Italy (Teatromania); playing a variety of characters in classroom settings as an actor simulator (Ryerson’s Interpersonal Skills Training Centre); and working as a production assistant for Like an Old Tale (Jumblies Theatre) and Obeah Opera (b current).  Lorenzo recently completed an MA in Italian Studies at McGill University, specializing in contemporary Italian theatre, and holds a BA in Drama and Italian Studies from the University of AB.

We’re so excited to present our next artist profile on the talented women that make up the Stemmatics Collective! They’ll be performing a play about the interactions between neighbours and strangers, and how growth can change a community. Come out to the Christie Studio at Wychwood Barns on Sunday, May 6 to see their performance! Showtime will be at 3pm.

Director/ Performer:

Copper Brown is a Toronto born writer, theatre performer and aspiring director. Copper currently works as the AMY (Artist Mentoring Youth) Graduate Program Assistant Co-ordinator. Some of her performances include:  Face Value (AMY Project), Step Right Up (AMY Project), Ways to Get Ahead  (House of Jazz). Directing credits include: Combat (Summerworks , Assistant Director to Claire Calnan and Allison Cummings) Ways to Go Home (House of Jazz, Director), Kim’s Convenience (Soulpepper, Assistant Director to Weyni Mengesha), Derailed (AMY Project, Assistant Director to Lisa Codrington and Megan Watson), and Ways to Get Ahead (House of Jazz, Director). Copper believes that this is all just a start to her journey of creating, learning, and giving back to those who have helped her along the way and those who continue to help her evolve as a person. As Copper would say “challenge yourself!”

Assistant Director/Performer:

Abhi Yogasegaran has always been drawn to storytelling through movement. Her interest first began at age 7 when she began her training in Bharathatya (classical Indian ballet). It was through this art of storytelling, she gained an interest in speech writing and acting and often performed during her school career. She was given the opportunity to perform with dancer Pedro Salazar in an Afro-Cuban contemporary piece which was performed at the Luminato Festival. Since being a part of The A.M.Y Project, Abhi has grown a passion for creatively collaborating and performing with other women. She is eager and joyful to be working with familiar and new artists in this collective. Abhi carries a B.A in Humanities from York University.

Performer & Script Co-ordinator:

Amber Williams-King Expressing herself through a variety of mediums, Amber Williams-King is a 22 year old aspiring artist trying to find the balance between success, love and passion. Whether as a writer, photographer or illustrator, she is continuously examining the world and the people in it, painting portraits of pain, love and truth that question and challenge the meanings of beauty and what it is to be normal in an ever evolving world. With a flow that is slick and melodic, she strives to connect the spaces between her Antiguan roots and her Toronto branches. In 2010, she participated in the AMY Project (Artists’ Mentoring Youth) and helped create the theatrical collaboration Step Right Up which received 3 / 4 stars from NOW magazine and went on to be featured at the Summerworks festival and the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. By the next year, she had written her own play Love and its Dialects (directed by Shamelia Joseph) which ran as a part of Paprika Festival at Tarragon Theatre in March 2011. In 2010, she received first-honourable mention for her poem Dub Insomnia in the Scarborough Arts Council’s Writer’s Month literary competition and more of her poetry can now be seen in the anthology Holla! A Collection of Womenz Wordz. She is also a graduate of the Remix Project’s Creative Arts program and was a participant in Obsidian Theatre’s Shards program for aspiring playwrights in 2011.

Performers:

Anique Jordan is a creator. She is a social entrepreneur, a documentary film maker, an actress and a community activist with bold visions.  As a self-proclaimed nomad Anique has travelled, researched and lived in many countries in Latin America and throughout the Caribbean. Her research has focused on cultural programming and creative economics for marginalized communities in the Americas.  With a focus on using storytelling to transform spaces, Anique’s work looks specifically at Afro-descendent communities. In addition to a commitment to our global village, Anique has over 10 years as an educator, activist and mentor working directly with young people in Toronto. More recently Anique’s work led her to represent Canada at the first World Afro-descendent Youth Summit held in Costa Rica. Anique has worked as a researcher, project manager and education assistant with transnational organizations such as Poverty Eradication, Human Rights and Population Growth Project, Taking IT Global and Pinelands Creative Workshops. In 2007, Anique co-innovated Toronto’s first for youth by youth social enterprise, KEYS, through which she worked with over 100 young entrepreneurs. Recently Anique founded a creative production company, Content Creators, which is currently working with Office of Provincial Advocacy for Children and Youth to produce a documentary. More than an innovator and an artist, Anique’s aspirations know no limits. She envisions a world where young people are taught to own their stories, women’s voices are never still and differing cultures are celebrated boundlessly.

Ruta Mekonnen Theatre was introduced to Ruta early in her high school career. There she was able to explore the realm of theatre and with the support of her friends and family, she began to pursue it more passionately. Over time, she was given the opportunity to meet incredible people and be a part of wonderful festivals. She attributes her education of theatre to the Soulpepper Theatre company, the Selam Youth Festival, Paprika Festival, and Factory Theatre. She hopes that she is able to pursue theatre in a school setting some day, but is very aware the experience and invaluable knowledge she continues to gain from these festivals are, if not more, limitless than a standard education.

Chiamaka Ugwu is an actor, writer, poet, singer, recovering hoarder, exercise junkie, weave-obsessed African Queen and wannabe chef. She is currently entering her third year of Theatre and Drama Studies in University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College’s joint theatre program, also minoring in Diaspora and Transnational Studies – a fascinating relevant course that no one’s ever heard of. In her spare time Chiamaka loves talking to herself and singing aloud in public places, thinking of new recipes and hairstyles, dreaming, and pretending not to be single. She has been successful in all but the latter-most activity, but she still tries…desperately. In her future, Chiamaka wants to continue being active in the theatre/performance/entertainment “industry” as a writer, actor, director, coach, educator, dramaturge, producer, and front-of-house-extraordinaire. She hopes that one day our world will become a completely loving and inclusive space, that going to theatre will be as common as going to the movies, that people pronounce her first AND last name properly, and that you ENJOY THE SHOW! Cheers!

Script Co-ordinator:

Virgilia Griffith is a graduate from the acting program at Ryerson Theatre School. Throughout her training, Virgilia has explored storytelling, directing, singing, writing and creation as a whole. Recent credits include: Give It Up (Buzz Festival and SpringWorks festival), The Innocent ( Tango Co. and The Innocents Collective) ,4our Women( Obisdian Theatre Company – The Development Series)  Mrs. Muller in Doubt( The Village Playhouse) .Strange Things Done (The Empty Room);Floating (written and performed by Virgilia Griffith), Combat (Summerworks Festival); Mariner (Risk the Void); Under Milk Wood (The Empty Room); The Woods, FRAGment, The Breeding of Guns (New Voices),Sleep Country (Rock Paper Sistahz Festival); The Hairy Bird (bcurrent directing project) and Richard III, Crimes of the Heart, School for Scandal, Unity 1918, Attempts on her Life (RTS).  Directing credits: “I” written by Cassandra Walker and Ways to Say Goodbye written by Emily Nixon.