In this week's episode, Mare Liberum member and filmmaker Sunita Prasad introduces two conversations with artists working at the confluence of history, identity, water, storytelling, speculative futures, and care. DRR host Dylan Gauthier interviews Nico Taylor & Queen Kukoyi (of Oddside Arts @oddsidearts) and Jay Havens. The guests reflect on their recently commissioned works produced for Waterfront Toronto's public art program, and on what we can learn from encounters with elemental forces.
Call in intro this week by Freddie Ratkovsky!

Guest Bios

Jay Havens (he/him/they) is a multi-media 2Spirit artist, educator, and collaborator of Kanien’keha’ka and Scottish Canadian ancestry. Havens was born on Haudenosaunee Territory know as the Haldimand Tract and raised on Unceded Sto:lo and Musqueam lands close to Vancouver, Canada. He has created a wide array of projects working in collaboration with institutions, professional companies and educators from grade school to university level. He has facilitated workshops ranging from 5 to 500 participants geared to learners of all different ages. They have a history of producing large scale collaborative artworks and interdisciplinary projects throughout Turtle Island designing for site-specific installations, murals, projections and sculptural artworks for galleries and public spaces or he can also be found designing sets and costumes for professional stage companies. Over their 18year career project highlights include projection mapping animations on Stratford City Hall, a floating artwork in the Toronto harbour called The Peacemaker’s Canoe and a mural on the windows of the Vancouver Opera house. Several of Jays sculptural weavings can be found in the collections at the New York State Museum and most recently he and a team were shortlisted to propose two public artworks to Waterfront Toronto on the West Don Lands.

Queen Kukoyi (they/she) is a Black Bajan of Igbo and Lokono Ancestry, Queer, Femme presenting, Mother, Author, Educator, Activist, Curator, Award Winning Scholar and International Artist. Queen is currently one of the Neighborhood Arts Network/TAF Community Arts Award finalist; as well as the Executive Director of Operations for BSAM Canada.
As a creative, and her work explores spoken word poetry, digital collage, and animations along with installation work that touch on concepts surrounding the Afrofuturistic meditative space. Queen uses the lens of Afrofuturism 2.0 in her visual arts, mindfulness, and storytelling to facilitate discourse that decolonizes the Black identity and affirms all intersections of Blackness. She practices Afrofuturism 2.0 as an exploration and reclaiming of various black identities through multiple dimensions.Her work is a Meta-analytical Afrofuturistic convergence of meditation, music, art, and Noetic sciences through spoken word poetry, digital collage, animations, and installation work as performed and lived through intersectional Blackness. Her work allows her to speak about all intersections and amplify the voices of those who share similar experiences.

Nicole “Nico” Taylor is the Executive Director of Governance & Communications for the BSAM Canada Institute. Nicole is a writer, scholar, dancer, cosplayer and activist who uses feminism and critical race theory to dissect social constructions surrounding race and representation, especially as they pertain to how we make sense of the images that surround us. As a trained performer in Afro-Caribbean folk dance, Nicole has participated in many events showcasing the beauty and vibrancy of Caribbean culture, which included performing in the Opening Ceremony for the Pan Am Games Toronto in 2015. As a scholar, her interest in pop culture and designation as a proud blerd spurred the pursuit of