Who We Are
FITSUM AREGUY is a writer, organizer, and researcher
based in Kitchener, ON. His writing can be found in Briarpatch Magazine, Canadian
Dimension, New Sociology, Red Noise Collective,
and Korea Exposé, among others. He is the co-founder and project
director for Textile, a community arts collective that provides mentorship,
programming, and platforms for writers and artists on the margins in Waterloo
Region. Fitsum sits on the board of directors for Multicultural Theatre Space
and ACCKWA, and in his free time he enjoys playing pick-up ball with strangers
and snacking on shawarma poutine. www.fitsum-areguy.com/
NADINE BADRAN has been working in the arts in Waterloo region
for over fifteen years. After studying Fine Arts at Concordia University,
Nadine returned to the region and began working in public programming in
galleries and museums. In 2010 Nadine helped found the KW chapter of
Cinema Politica at the University of Waterloo, a non-profit initiative that
aims to screen independent films that explore under-represented stories
and characters. She also worked with the Brain Injury Association
Waterloo-Wellington to launch Brain
Art, a website that celebrates the art created by individuals
living with brain injuries. Accessibility to the arts is of
great importance to Nadine, and alongside Sheila McMath and Michael
Ambedian, she is a founding member of Tri-City
Stopgap, an artist collective that creates
exhibition opportunities for emerging artists in transitional and marginal
spaces.
JACKIE BRADSHAW (she/her) is a neurodivergent,
multidisciplinary folk artist based on the Haldimand tract in downtown
Kitchener. Her paintings emphasize the importance of nature preservation and
rewilding with a mystical, anthropomorphic, animacy spin. They are colourful
ways of communicating important topics while trying to bring joy to those who
see them. She was part of the David Suzuki Art for Climate
Justice program and has created a prolific amount of paintings
which she travels vicariously through all over the world as she prefers to stay
close to home. You can find her at: www.jackiebradshaw.com
DEBORAH CARRUTHERS is an unconventional inter-arts composer. She is a
non-musician who creates visual scores with some narrative text instruction but no traditional
notation. Her graphic scores (e.g., “Slippages" based on a glacier core sample, and "reading
between the lines,” based on the Witness tree (stump) at Maison Saint-Gabriel in Montréal, Québec, Canada, are highly experimental and played by improvisational musicians. She sees scientists, storytellers, artists as well as both human and more-than-human communities and their environments as active collaborators in her relational practice. Her works have been performed
by ensembles large and small, including symphonies. You can find her at www.deborahcarruthers.com
SHALAKA JADHAV is based between Block 2 of the
Haldimand Tract (Kitchener, ON) and Treaty 1 (Winnipeg, MB). Trained as an
urban planner, they took the advice of an aptitude test to pursue curatorial
studies, and currently practice as an independent curator, writer, and service
designer. Shalaka curates projects for Textile, a hyperlocal project on the
Haldimand Tract, and is a Visiting Curator at the University of Manitoba’s
School of Art Gallery. They currently hold roles at OCAD University, and more
recently, at The Blackwood.
A queer settler artist and writer, SYDNEY LANCASTER (she/they) works through installation, print, audio and video work to consider the intersections of place, history, and identity. She received an MFA from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, and was the recipient of scholarship funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their MFA Research-Creation. Their work has been shown across Canada, and in the US and UK. Her most recent publication was a chapbook of poetry co-authored with Jannie Edwards, entitled Learning Their Names: Letters from the Home Place, published by Collusion Books in Kjipuktuk/Halifax NS. She lives in Esoqwatik/Mtapan/Wolfville NS in the unceded traditional lands of Mi’kmaki. www.sydneylancaster.com
ERIKA LUI (she/they) is an emerging aerialist, acrobatic
movement artist and scientist currently based within the Haldimand Tract in
Kitchener, Ontario. After completing a full-time training program at Aloft
Circus Arts in Chicago, IL from 2018-2020, Erika began exploring movement
through a lyrical yet dynamic lens by combining aerial and acrobatic arts on
aerial silks, in duo partner trapeze, and partner hand acrobatics, and on wall
trampoline. They are interested in exploring how to manipulate different aerial
apparatuses to create impactful visual effects for performative storytelling.
Recent works that informed this exploration include collaborating and
performing (aerial silks and hoop) for Lindsay Bellaire’s 2022 production of
Slipstream, a meditative contemporary circus show about creating space for
calmness and hope, and, in 2023, performing for Hercinia Arts' Chaos Project:
Part I - Childhood, a collectively created contemporary circus piece exploring
chaos and order through the lens of play on dance trapeze.
GEOFF MARTIN’s place-based and environmental essays have been nominated twice for the
Pushcart Prize and have appeared in The New Quarterly, Creative Nonfiction, Hamilton Arts &
Letters, Boulevard, and The Common, among others. He holds an M.A. from
McMaster University and is currently completing an essay collection, called Homeground
, with funding support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts
Council, and the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund. After a decade spent teaching English in
Chicago, writing in Western Massachusetts, and care-giving in San Francisco, he moved home
to the Grand River watershed and the Haldimand Tract in 2021. He now lives, writes, and edits
from Kitchener, Ontario and walks daily alongside Schneider Creek.
www.geoff-martin.com
NATALIE VUONG is a queer,
first-generation Vietnamese-Canadian graphic designer based in Kitchener,
Ontario. Originally from Toronto, Natalie wandered along the Humber River as a
child and subsequently found herself wandering through a degree in Environmental
Sciences at the University of Waterloo where her passion for ecological
research continues to influence her work. Currently, she designs for local
musicians and businesses. When she’s not demonstrating poor posture in front of
her laptop, Natalie likes to climb, read, and [poorly] identify birds.