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Our Village

Sydanie Nichol is a writer, performing artist, and program facilitator aiming to make an impact in her community. She uses her vast community organizational experience and artistic development to ensure the growth of her proficiency. Sydanie had her first poem published in TDSB’s Urban Voices in 2010. Since then, Sydanie continues to work closely with several community arts organizations and non profit agencies such as the D.I.V.A program, the L.O.V.E program, and UrbanArts to assist her in building artistic and social credibility. Sydanie aims to inspire the world with her talents and continue to inspire and pave the way for up and coming female artists in the city.

Najee Johnson is a grade 10 student at David and Mary Thompson Collegiate who loves to play sports and listen to hip hop. During the summer, Najee interned for Nia Centre profiling emerging Toronto artists, participating in AFRO events and meetings, and taking over all social media aspects of the organization. Not knowing a lot about Afro-daisporic art, Najee spent his summer emerging himself into the culture and learning a lot about himself in the process. In the future, Najee aspires to have a career in a field that can foster one of his two loves (sports and/or hip hop) or use his infectious personality to enter into the world of acting and performance art.

We are excited to welcome...Sydanie Nicole, Intern/ A.F.R.O.

Nyjee Johnson,Summer Intern

Our Village

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Our Documentation Team is a group of ambitious and talented young photographers and videographers who have been trained to provide quality photos and videos of your events. Our team is also known for creating vivid atmospheres through their photos. The service provided by our Documentation Team provides your organization with the tools to better tell your story to all your members, funder, supporters and future stakeholders.

For more information, email info@niacentre.org

In partnership with the City of Toronto Culture Divisionand AFIWII international, Nia Centre collaborated to create an eight week introductory course that launched on October 1st.

Exploring the intimate connectionsbetween the development of business acumen and personal artistic development, the course works closely with 12 artists to provide the nourishment and encouragement Artists need to bloom, in both a creative and an entrepreneurial way.

OurVillage

The Business of Our Art

DOC Team

Nia Centre x The LabSpace Update

The United Steelworkers and Nia Centre for the Arts are now collaborating on a satellite space! In support of our on-going partnership with the Onyx Society of OCADU (OSO), regular meeting space has been made available to Nia Centre for programs and events.

Nia Centre has teamed up with The Lab, a newly opened recording artists developmental hub and studio. The purpose is to assist Recording Artists in mapping out their career while connecting them to all the necessary supports in a holistic way. This exciting partnership creates exclusive space for Nia Centre’s aspiring recording artists.

Reach Out

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4. Unity in Diversity Gala Nia Centre’s Executive Director, Mark Campbell introducing the keynote speaker, Dr. Rinaldo Walcott at the 2nd Annual Unity in Diversity Gala held by the United Way Peel on September 29th, 2012. Dr. Walcott’s provocative and insightful talk, “Reflections on the Future of the Black Family in Canada” spoke directly to Nia Centre’s mission and invited pensive and extended discussions around holistic development for African Canadian populations.

5. Summer Institute The 5th Annual YCEC 2012 Summer Institute entitled Learning Beyond the Walls: Education Done Differently, was in partnership with The York Centre for Education and Community (YCEC), Educational Attainment West and the Toronto District School Board. This unique conference brought together teachers, educators, community organization leaders and activists, community members, artists, parents, and youth to explore how community organizations and schools can collaborate to best support student engagement and achievement. Teachers will learn about the wide range of opportunities available to schools through collaborative work with community agencies; and community agencies will learn directly from schools about their challenges, needs, and successes – all with the aim of further strengthening school/community collaborations.

6. Provincial AdvocateIn support of the United Nation’s request for additional information regarding black youth and social equity, Nia Centre collaborated with other Coalition of Youth-Led Agencies (COYLA) to listen directly to the concerns of our youth. The successful dialogue session included thoughtful and critical insights regarding mental health, youth parenting, housing, education and the justice system. These insights were translated into policy recommendations by COYLA and sent by the Provincial Advocate directly to the United Nations.

Reach Out

1. AFRO (Artists For Recreating Opportunity)AFRO is a youth artist collective working to unify and enrich the Afro-diasporic community through the Arts with culture and purpose. AFRO aims to create holistic art programs, educational experiences and professional opportunities that will serve the community by creating spaces for healing, empowerment, networking, and a greater appreciation of Afro-diaporic arts, identity and culture. If you are between the ages of 16-29 and are looking for a space to develop your leadership skills and be engaged in afro-diasporc arts, identity and culture. Email lrose@niacentre.org for more information or to join the collective.

2. Project Groundings Year two of our research project with York University featured three innovative plays, more than 15 extremely talented artists and an intense exploration of the impacts of violence on the healthy development of black youth. As part of our Arts Intensive Naila Keta-Mae and Melissa A. Dean created “Breaking News”, a complex and layered theatrical exploration of the relationships of violence found in the Canadian context.

3. Outside The LinesIn partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), members from AFRO, ONYX Society, and RISE were given the unique opportunity to attend an evening festival screening of Burn It Up Djassa on September 13th, 2012 as a part of Nia Centre’s Oustide the Line program. Set in the streets of the Ivory Coast, Burn it up Djassa used spoken word and the beat of street dance to unveil a crime drama that explored a young man’s struggle to find his way out of the ghetto. Directed Lonsome Solo, this film was one of a only hand-full of Afro-diasporic films that de-buted at the festival. Out of the 25 youth in attendance, only 2 had ever been to a Tiff screening before. Outside the Lines is a community engagement initiative that aims to provide youth with the opportunity to experience Afro-diasporic art, artists and culture in space outside of their neighbourhood.

Art of Facilitation

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Context

Participant Testimonials

The Program

Community partners and youth stakeholders have expressed a need for more artistic programming in their communities that can provide spaces for skill acquisition, development and refinement. However, a barrier to creating and providing high quality programs at Nia Centre has been ensuring that the artist instructors have the advanced facilitation skills necessary to engage our youth and expose them to the power of art. As our mandate is to work with racialized youth who may or may not be out of school or out of work, having facilitators who understand youth engagement and empowerment is critical to the success of our programs.

“Just speaking about our time there and just feeling the love, support, knowledge and seeing the beautiful people let me know that being young, black and educated isn’t a crime… its a gift!” - Sharnette “Brooklyn” Watson

“I loved it! I made great connections and friends, not to mention the fact that I developed an appreciation for the craft of workshop facilitation.” - Lancelot Bucknor

The Art of Facilitation was created as a train-the-trainer workshop series that infuses art programming and popular education with the presentation and facilitation skills needed to work with diverse youth audiences. This past September, thirty emerging photographers, actors, dancers, singers, MC’s, painters, graphic designers and spoken word artists participated in this 3-day, 6 workshop art-facilitation intensive. Artists had the opportunity to enhance and expand their facilitation skills and acquire the necessary tools to create engaging creative workshops for youth. ship, goal setting and meaningful volunteer and artistic experiences that the youth receive in order to improve their overall personal, career and/or academic success.

At the completion of this series, graduates of the programs will demonstrate their learning’s by creating and facilitating workshops for youth from our various community partners across the city. Furthermore, a dozen of successful artist participants will have the opportunity to join the Nia Centre for the Arts team as an Artist Instructor. In the upcoming months, Nia Centre is looking to tap into the unique and creative minds of these newly trained art facilitators to create more artistic experiences that will allow our youth and greater community to be immersed in Afro-diasporic art and culture.

Art of Facilitation

Contact usNia Centre for the Arts

P: 416 535 2727F: 416 907 4805 E: info@niacentre.orgwww.niacentre.org Join our facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/ group.php?v=wall&gid=73495250709

Find out what new with Nia and visit our blog www.niacentre.org/nianewsblogtweet us at www.twitter.com/NiaCentre

Contact usNia Centre for the Arts

P: 416 535 2727F: 416 907 4805 E: info@niacentre.orgwww.niacentre.org Twitter: @NiaCentre

Photography by Leilah Dhore’Nabil ShashTaejon Cupid