July 2024
Art on my Mind 2024 Workshops
hosted by Dynesti and Kibra
Art on my Mind 2024 Showcase
featuring Kibra, DJ J Rebel, King Cruff, Dynesti, plus Angelique Dancel, Brainer Nwabeke, and Taylor Dallin
Co-presented with Black Creek Community Farm
Workshops
Summer 2024, the AGYU teamed up with Black Creek Community Farm, returning with another iteration of Art on My Mind. Over July, we offered eighteen songwriting and performance workshops facilitated by hip hop powerhouse Dynesti and rising R&B star Kibra, providing twenty nine hours of enriching arts based instruction and mentorship to children and youth from Success Beyond Limits, The Neighbourhood Group, Flaunt It, Firgrove Learning and Innovation Centre, and the Black Creek Community Farm’s Youth Group. A total of 128 children and youth participated in these music education workshops, all conducted in the Farm’s outdoor pavilion space.
During the workshops, participants learned that, before beginning the writing process, they needed to be mindful and intentional about the mood they want to create and, in particular, how introductory lyrics help set the tone and tell the story. They were asked to consider and reflect upon the musical elements that lead to them liking and appreciating a song. Facilitators emphasized the importance of the chorus and the need for it to be catchy and memorable, explaining that this can achieved through lyrical repetition and rhyming. Rhythm, beat, flow, lyrics, and ad libs were all highlighted as being essential building blocks for an excellent song.
In one of the workshops, participants were invited to perform one song or poem. All performers were coached and given key feedback. They were reminded to walk onto the stage with confidence, be mindful of their posture, and to remember to project their voice and enunciate clearly. The facilitators explained that physical gestures or choreography had to be bold and dramatic enough so audience members in the very back could see. Participants learned that if you want to engage meaningfully with an audience, you need to connect and allow yourself to be vulnerable. It is also important to know your song thoroughly, to vary your pace and rhythm, to synchronize your movements with the beat, and to show your emotions and vulnerability. They learned it is critical as a performer to look into the eyes of audience members, to interact with them, and to realize that you can affect their energy and mood.
Showcase
On Saturday, July 20, we presented the Art on My Mind 2024 Showcase as part of the annual Farm Festival. The showcase featured DJ J Rebel, performances by stellar R&B singer Kibra, and unparalleled hip hop artist Dynesti along with up and coming rapper King Cruff. Three participants from our songwriting and performance workshops, Angelique Dancel, Brainer Nwabeke, and Taylor Dallin, also performed. Prior to performing, each emerging artist received individualized coaching to prepare them to take the stage. This was a crucial artistic development opportunity, which gave our program participants hands-on experience rehearsing and performing for a live audiences.
Presenting the Art on My Mind showcase in conjunction with the 12th Annual Black Creek Community Farm Festival ensured that we had a large and receptive audience, which included Jane Finch residents, food justice supporters, and members of the Farm’s seniors and youth urban harvest and community garden programs.
Toronto-based singer Kibra is quickly making a name for herself as one of the most exceptional voices in Toronto’s R&B scene. Kibra has experienced numerous career-defining milestones that have propelled her artistic development. One of these turning points was when she was asked to be an ambassador for Destination Toronto and performed for Sofar Sounds to a packed audience in Brooklyn. Representing the best of Toronto’s arts scene, Kibra gave a showstopping performance, demonstrating her vocal agility and emotionally charged lyricism. Posted online, Kibra’s performance was viewed 165,000 times. Another defining moment was when RNB Radar posted her live performance of Laydown, garnering over 1 million interactions and 28,500 likes, making it their most-liked post featuring a Canadian artist.
Toronto-born, Jamaican-Trinidadian artist and mother, Sydanie, is levelling all expectations and setting the bar for women in Toronto’s hip hop scene. Not confined to the restrictions that any genre could impose on her creativity, Sydanie is creating a diverse array of texturized, unique, synth-driven sounds while unapologetically carrying her Southside Jane neighbourhood in tow. Following features on The Fader, Vice, and being longlisted for the 2019 Polaris Prize, the self-proclaimed supernatural rapper has gone on to relaunch the MOCHA Project, her grassroots community arts project for mothers of colour.
King Cruff is currently bringing these themes to life with the music of producers like noted Toronto beat merchants Rich Kidd and Dom Dias as well as Jamaican-born producer Tesselated. Drawing on his own audio engineering background, the versatile King Cruff is thriving on experimenting with Afrobeats, dancehall and hip-hop and creating music that energizes and inspires. Constantly opening new avenues to his sound and blurring genre lines, King Cruff is poised to deliver (as his tentatively titled forthcoming EP promises) Something Punky for You.
Jamaican-raised, Toronto-based MC King Cruff was born with the talents of songwriting and performance in his blood. The Tuff Gong-signed artist sees his songs as think pieces set to ‘punky’ rhythms. Drawing on his own audio engineering background, the versatile King Cruff fuses genres across the diaspora including hip hop, Afrobeats, dancehall, and reggae into his original sound. An introspective storyteller, King Cruff explores the juxtapositions of human behaviour with energizing, innovative sounds that uplift and inspire for an ear-bending amalgam of Black musical styles.
J Rebel’s love for hip hop culture and B boying transcends the dance floor, extending to his roles as mentor, teacher, and DJ within formal institutions of education. J Rebel also holds the distinct honour of being lead writer for the hip hop curriculum called Rhymes, Rhythms & Re-Education, the first-of-its-kind resource guide for educators introducing teachers and students to a world of creativity, self-expression, and anti-oppression pedagogy. His work for the past 15 years has included implementing hip hop leadership/mentorship and educational programs for urban BIPOC youth within the Toronto District School Board. His community programs engage youth in critical thinking and artistic development by incorporating hip hop’s core elements, history, and culture, employing B boying/B girling, graffiti art, DJ-ing/production, and MC-ing to explore complex social justice issues with young people in and beyond the classroom.
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