Various weekdays in July 2025
Art on my Mind 2025 Workshops
hosted by Kadiatu Barrie and featuring New Tradition Music, Kibra, Sydanie, and DJ Cur8
Co-presented with Jane Street Speaks
Saturday, July 19, 2025, from 4 to 6 pm
Art on my Mind 2025 Showcase
hosted by Kadiatu Barrie and featuring New Tradition Music, Kibra, Sydanie, and DJ Cur8
Co-presented with Jane Street Speaks
Off-site at Black Creek Community Farm
4929 Jane Street, Toronto ON
Art on My Mind 2025 is a songwriting, performance, and dance program designed and facilitated by Jane Finch hip hop artist and Director of Jane Street Speaks Nathan Baya in partnership with The Joan and Martin
Goldfarb Gallery of York University. Baya brings extensive experience facilitating music workshops for emerging musicians to this program, which will include more than 20 hours of workshops.
Participants will learn the building blocks of song writing, practice rhyming, and have opportunities to participate in cyphers to gain experience in improvisatory freestyling. The curriculum will focus on the art of performance, including developing stage presence, captivating audiences through emotional connection, and how to integrate movement and choreography. Participants will workshop one song, gaining feedback on lyrics and, after performing the song, supportive and constructive feedback to strengthen future performances. Baya will also offer two introductory hip hop dance sessions, open to the public.
A select number of workshop participants will be invited to perform in the Art on My Mind Showcase, presented in collaboration with Jane Street Speaks and BCCF’s Farm Festival. This is a paid opportunity for workshop participants, showcasing their new songs to an audience and gaining valuable hands-on experience in live performance. The Showcase will be hosted by Jane Finch resident Kadiatu Barrie and feature performances by New Tradition Music, Jane Finch R&B singer Kibra, and hip hop powerhouse Sydanie. The event will be DJ’d by Jane Finch hip hop dancer and educator DJ CUR8.
A select number of workshop participants will be invited to perform in the Art on My Mind Showcase, presented in collaboration with Jane Street Speaks and BCCF’s Farm Festival. This is a paid opportunity for workshop participants, showcasing their new songs to an audience and gaining valuable hands-on experience in live performance. The Showcase will be hosted by Jane Finch resident Kadiatu Barrie and feature performances by New Tradition Music, Jane Finch R&B singer Kibra, and hip hop powerhouse Sydanie. The event will be DJ’d by Jane Finch hip hop dancer and educator DJ CUR8.
Nathan Baya is an artist, songwriter, and performer born and raised in Toronto. Known for his electrifying performances, Baya has taken the stage at over 100 venues including for the Toronto Raptors, Afrofest, Nuit Blanche, Rise Edutainment, and the Toronto Biennial of Art.
Beny Esguerra of New Tradition Music arrived in Tkaronto as a child with his political-refugee parents. Fusing spoken word and hip hop with Colombian Afro-Indigenous música de gaita, two-time JUNO-nominated multi-instrumentalist and lyricist Esguerra uses his music to deliver urgent calls for justice, environmental healing, and respect for ancestors.
Kadiatu Barrie is a community resource engagement worker and part of the New Narrative Team at YAAACE, offering various supports to Jane Finch youth. She is also host and program coordinator for Street Voices’ Media training workshops, where she uplifts and centers overlooked narratives and underrepresented voices.
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.
Kibra is quickly making a name for herself as one of the most exceptional voices in Toronto’s R&B and soul music scene. Her live performance of Laydown garnered her over a million interactions. Highlights include Kibra acting as an ambassador for Destination Toronto and performing for Sofar Sounds in Brooklyn to a packed audience.
Joseph H, more commonly known as DJ CUR8 within the hip hop community, has been B-Boying since the age of 14. He is a member of the top Canadian break-dancing crew the Supernaturalz. CUR8’s love for hip hop culture and B-Boying transcends the dance floor, extending to his roles as mentor, teacher, and DJ.
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