Black Arts Committee
Paulina O’Kieffe-Anthony (Chair) is an award winning artist, curator, arts educator and creative consultant and the current Executive Director of SKETCH Working Arts. Her high level accomplishments include being featured in When Sisters Speak, co-curating Scarborough: The Backbone as part of Toronto's Year of Public Art, co-producing the Spoken Soul Festival, and representing Toronto as a 2x national team finalist in the Canadian Festival Of Spoken Word. In 2019 she was a TEDx speaker and in 2020 an excerpt of her play How Jab Jab Saved the Pretty Mas was featured as part of Piece of Mine's Black Women in Theatre Festival.
Her work and leadership in the community sector was recognized as she was the recipient of the Toronto Community Foundation Vital People Award and again when she was recognized as one of 150 Black Women Making Herstory (as featured on CBC) for her contribution to building the arts scene in Toronto.
Mark Campbell [aka DJ Grumps], founder at Northside Hip Hop Archive, is a dj, curator and scholar. As a co-founder at the Bigger than Hip Hop Show at CHRY 105.5fm, Mark has djed on and hosted the radio show from 1997-2015 and served as a Member of the Board at the Ontario Arts Council from 2015-2018. As a curator, Mark has organized several exhibitions of archival items and artistic works related to Canadian hip hop, including the T-Dot Pioneers Trilogy, Mixtapes: Hip-Hop’s Lost Archive, …Everything Remains Raw: Photographing Toronto hip hop Culture from Analogue to Digital (as part of the 2018 Contact Festival exhibition at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection) as well as the 2019 exhibition, For the Record--An Idea of the North at the TD Gallery in Toronto. As a scholar, Mark has published widely in various academic journals, his recent books include the monograph Afrosonic Life (2022) and the edited collection We Still Here: Hip Hop North of the 49th Parallel, released in 2020 by McGill-Queen's Press. Mark’s forthcoming edited collection (with Murray Forman), Hip Hop Archives: The Politics and Poetics of Knowledge Production is set for publication in late 2023.
Sedina Fiati is a Toronto born and based performer, producer, director, creator and activist for stage and screen with almost 20 years experience. Proudly of Trinidadian and Ghanaian descent and queer, Sedina is deeply invested in artistic work that explores the intersection between art and activism, either in form or structure or ideally both. Sedina is the Artist-Activist in Residence at Nightwood Theatre and worked with Generator Performance, coordinating and facilitating the Artist-Producer Training Program for 3 years. Sedina is one of founding members of the Black Pledge Collective- an initiative to dismantle anti-Black racism in live performance. Favourite and recent artistic projects: Last Dance (creator and performer, upcoming),Tokens Season 1 & 2 (performer, web series), World Goes 'Round (Nightwood Theatre, director), Peace Camp (Children’s Peace Theatre, director), Every Day She Rose (Nightwood Theatre, co-director), Switch: The Village (collective member, QTBIPOC street performance, Buddies in Bad Times 2018 & 2019), Feminist Fuck It Festival (multidisciplinary festival, co-creator and co-producer).
Onika Powell brings over 20 years of experience in the Arts as a Creative with work spanning the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, and Africa. With a degree in Public Service and Liberal studies and currently completing her Master of Education in Educational Leadership, she’s the Artistic Director of VIBE Arts; providing a professional focus on mentorship. Onika is the Co-Founder/Director of the non-profit dance company, D’LYFE and also GoLEFT Creatives, a creative service, and consultation company. Part-time Professor at Centennial College, she is also a proud member of the international non-profit organization Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Onika’s years of experience and passion for the arts provide insight within (and outside) the art sector.