Jennifer Cooke

Over the past 18 years of her professional career Jennifer has worked in the cultural and non profit sector as both artist and program director.Her theatre experience as a set and costume designer gave her an inside look at how an artist creates and develops, allowing her the compassion and empathy necessary to work with other professional artists. It also allowed her to learn the subtleties of working with a team of people creating an artistic vision as an ensemble. As the Director of a award winning and innovative social cultural organisation in the Laurentians she has developed an approach which allows her to lead a group of diverse and talented individuals into numerous projects and engagements with notable successes. Teaching and learning has always been a passion. Arts education has been an extraordinary adventure for her because of the possibilities it offers to its participants in personal growth and it’s effectiveness within the pedagogical learning curve. Her arts based learning initiatives are presently flourishing and creating interest from many different sectors. Presently the organisation she directs is in the process of converting a 12000 square foot building into a multidisciplinary art space for youth.

Bob Ezrin

As a record producer Ezrin first attained fame in the 1970s, producing classic albums for Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and Kiss.  He is a noted innovator and technical groundbreaker having been one of the earliest adopters of multi-machine recording and computer sequencing, sampling and editing.  In 1993, he co-founded a computer software company called 7th Level, which developed and published educational and entertainment CD-ROMs including a highly popular and grounbreaking seies of Monty Python games.  In 1999 he co-founded Enigma Digital, an internet radio provider.  It was eventually sold to Clear Channel, where he became vice chairman of Clear Channel Interactive.  Ezrin co-produce the documentary film Fade to Black, starring Jay-Z, which was released in November 2004.  Ezrin is currently represented as a producer by Global Positioning Services in Los Angeles and works with @radicalmedia in New York on film, televisin and theatrical productions.  Ezrin was inducted into the Canadian Music Halll of Fame during the Juno Awards in April 2004 and into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in March 2006.

Cass Elliott 

With half of his brain taken up by rap music and the other half taken up with youth empowerment work Cass decided that he needed to do both. The idea to make his two worlds collide brought 'Get Your Vote On' to life, since then he's split his time between co-founding a Canadian independent  record label (and making every single business mistake along the way) and working with youth arts organizations in Vancouver, Montreal and most recently in Toronto. As the Administrative Director at 4UNITY Youth Media Productions he's committed to creating opportunities for young people to gain skill sets that are marketable in todays music industry.

Sol Guy

As a founding member of the legendary RASCALZ crew from Vancouver, BC, Sol has been an influential contributor to the rise of Canadian Urban Music over the last 11 years. His combined experience of running an independent label, artist management, consulting, and full-time employment at major record labels has provided him with a well- rounded view of the music industry. As cofounder of Figure IV Entertainment, he worked closely with and developed the careers of RASCALZ, k-os, and Kardinal Offishall. From the ground level, Sol worked with these artists facilitating their development and enabling them to sign worldwide record deals with multinational corporations. Sol's major label experience is also noteworthy, as he has worked both in Canada, Europe, and the United States. As International Director for Arista Records, he was also able to observe how the music industry operates on a global level.  Over the years, he has worked in marketing, A&R, and international development for BMG Canada, Arista Records, Motown, LaFace, Bad Boy, Columbia Records, Universal Music, BMG Global, RCA Records, J Records, Interscope, MCA, Geffen Records, Loud Records, SRC, and Sony/Columbia. This has allowed him to work closely with some of the highest profile black music artists of our time such as India Arie, The Roots, Outkast, Dead Prez, Puff Daddy, B.I.G., and Wu-Tang Clan. The list goes on and on and most recently includes his position as an A&R and Project Manager for Grammy Award Winner Lauryn Hill.  Sol has a long-standing history of community service and youth empowerment. He has worked with kids in schools, jails and communities around the world. In 2001 he was invited to Sierra Leone, West Africa, by Warchild Canada as a featured guest in the award-winning documentary Musicians In The War Zone. Sol was able to witness the tragedy of war first hand and see potential for artists to raise awareness on global social issues. Most recently he was invited to Rishikesh, India to participate in The World Youth Leadership Jam, a conference that brought together 30 dynamic young leaders from 25 countries to learn about issues, share skills and offer tangible solutions.

Sally Han

Sally is the Acting Senior Arts Consultant for the Cultural Spaces Canada program in the Ontario Region. She has previously worked as a radio and television producer, and for 15 years as a theatre professional. Her work with youth includes many productions at Young Peoples Theatre, a youth theatre project with the Tarragon Theatre, a youth theatre project at the Classic Theatre Cobalt in Northern Ontario, and directing and teaching students at the highschool and post-secondary school level.

K'NAAN

At age 9, K'NAAN was doing what most American kids were doing. He was hanging out on his neighborhood street corner, MC'ing for his friends, dropping Nas and Rakim verses, dreaming of a day when he would posses the lyrical skills and the rhythmic flow of his Hip Hop hero's. K'NAAN, however was very different from those American kids. In fact, he wasn't even an American kid at all, he was an African; and he wasn't on the streets of New York or Los Angeles or Detroit, he was on the other side of the world on the dusty streets of Mogadishu Somali. And although he was rappin' verses from Nas and Rakim and all the other great American MC's with an almost erie attention to detail and pronunciation, he could not speak English. K'NAAN is a child of the first generation of true hip-hop children who have grown out of a very foreign soil. With his unique voice but still truly authentic style, K'NAAN brings an enormous dose of realness and urgency to the hip-hop world in a time when people are desperate for it. From a personal and cultural history rooted in poetry (being the grandson of one of Somalia's most famous poets ), K'NAAN widens the traditional hip hop perspective, from ghetto's to slums, from drug dealers to war lords, from 9mm and eagle 440's to AK's and rocket propelled grenades. In 2001 after gaining notoriety as a skilled mc and spoken word poet, K'NAAN was invited to Geneva to perform a spoken word piece at the 2001 50th anniversary of the UN Commission for Refugee's. In front of some of the biggest suits in the world, K'NAAN brought the house down with his politically charged poem, K'NAAN explains, "I basically called out the UN for its failed relief mission in Somalia" The audience was so moved by the piece that they gave K'NAAN a standing ovation and African superstar Youssou N'Dour who was also in attendance loved the performance so much that he invited K'NAAN to Senegal to record with him. Similarly, in Toronto in 2002 while recording a verse for a War Child benefit track entitled "Keep the Beat K'NAAN’s unique flow caught the attention of artist/producer Jarvis Church, one half of the Grammy award winning production team Track and Field (Nelly Furtado). From there began a creative partnership that would lead to the creation of K'NAAN’s' first full length album "The Dusty Foot Philosopher."  With his unique voice and truly authentic style, K'naan brings an enormous dose of realness and urgency to the hip-hop world in a time when people are desperate for it. From a personal and cultural history rooted in poetry, K'naan widens the traditional hip hop perspective.

Darrell Lechman

Darrell created and founded Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming Inc. (SCYAP) in June 2001. His experience working as a personal development coach for Aboriginal youth, in combination with his admiration for the unbridled talent of graffiti artists, pushed him to answer his own questions: “How can we give these young, at-risk Aboriginal youth, and the underprivileged an opportunity to have equal access to arts training? How can we take these talented graffiti vandals and have them re-channel their talent to positive initiatives and mainstream galleries?” His answer was the creation of SCYAP. Saskatoon Community Youth Arts Programming Inc. (SCYAP) is a not-for-profit organization established to address the social, educational and economic needs of youth and "at-risk" youth. SCYAP offers street-level, youth-oriented solutions to prevent youth crime and youth unemployment and utilizes our youth's artistic interest and inclination as the basis for personal development and redirection towards a healthier, happier and more productive life.  Darrell has over 23 years experience in youth program development and small business management. Darrell also brings 14 years of front line work experience in Federal Corrections at Stony Mountain Penitentiary.

Judith Marcuse, LL.D

Artistic excellence combined with social relevance has been the hallmark of Judith Marcuse’s work as one of Canada’s honoured senior artist/producers. Her career spans over 40 years of professional work as a dancer, choreographer, director, producer, teacher, writer and lecturer in Canada and abroad. She has created over 100 original works for live performance by dance, theatre and opera companies; choreographed extensively for film and television; and has produced seven large-scale arts festivals. Much of this work has involved pioneering elements – including innovative programs with and for young people, community residencies, cross-disciplinary work, alliances with social service organizations and international collaborations. She has taught in university settings abroad, including India, Pakistan and Japan, and in Canada, recently co-creating and co-teaching a course called Art and Community for Simon Fraser University’s Program in Dialogue. Her repertory contemporary dance company toured extensively in Canada and abroad, while also producing community and youth programs. The five year, large-scale, issue-based ICE, FIRE and EARTH projects have each involved thousands of young and older people in Canada and overseas. Judith Marcuse has received many honours, including Canada’s two major choreographic awards and an honorary doctor of laws degree from Simon Fraser University.

Dwayne Morgan

With performances throughout Canada, the U.S., England, Germany, Scotland, Belgium, Barbados, France, Hungary, Jamaica, and Amsterdam under his belt, Dwayne Morgan is well on his way to becoming an internationally recognized artist. Morgan is the founder of Up From The Roots entertainment, which was established in 1994 to promote the positive artistic contributions of African Canadian and urban influenced artists. He received both the African Canadian Achievement Award for Youth Achievement, and the prestigious Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1998. Since his first release in 1995 (Straight From The Roots), Dwayne has self published two chapbooks, and three full volumes of his work. Dwayne’s live album The Evolution received the 2001 Inaugural Canadian Urban Music Award for Best Spoken Word Recording. In 2003 Dwayne released Soul Searching, which took home the 2003 Canadian Urban Music Award for Best Spoken Word Recording. Mother I Understand, one of the pieces on Morgan's  ten year anniversary album, A Decade in the Making received the 2005 Canadian Urban Music Award for Best Spoken Word Recording. Dwayne has shared the stage with many of Canada’s top artists including Glenn Lewis, Maestro, Kardinal Offishal, Choclair, Jully Black, K-OS, Nelly Furtado, and Saukrates, while also opening for international artist Alicia Keys, Mutabaruka, Ursula Rucker, Saul Williams, Les Nubians, Christian McBride, and author Colin Channer. As a producer, Dwayne has now produced over 100 events, the largest of which are the annual spoken word concerts, When Brothers Speak, and When Sisters Speak, in addition to the Toronto International Poetry Slam.Dwayne is a motivational speaker, who currently hosts Diasporic Music, a monthly spoken word show on CKLN 88.1 FM, while also serving as an advice columnist in the free daily paper, 24 Hours (Sun Media).

Hal Niedzviecki

Hal Niedzviecki is a writer, culture commentator and editor whose work challenges preconceptions and confronts readers with the offenses of everyday life. He is the author of seven books including the novel The Program and the nonfiction book Hello, I’m Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity. He is the current fiction editor and publisher of Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts (. He founded the magazine and edited it from 1995 to 2002. Hal’s writing has appeared in newspapers, periodicals and journals across North America including the Utne Reader, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Toronto Life, Walrus, Geist, Saturday Night and This Magazine. He was the recipient of the Alexander Ross Award for Best New Magazine Writer at the 1999 National Magazine Awards and has presented his work at gatherings across North America including the International Festival of Authors in Toronto. Once dubbed the “guru of independent/alternative action” by the Toronto Star, Niedzviecki is committed to exploring the human condition through provocative fiction and non-fiction that charts the media saturated terrain of ever shifting multiple identities at the heart of our fragmenting age.

Susan Serran

Director of Community Development, Artscape Susan has been involved with Toronto’s professional arts community for 30 years as a manager, producer, arts advocate and activist. She joined Artscape in 1999 and since then has worked in a number of different capacities with the organization. In addition to developing the vision and operational structure for the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts, she designed an International Artist Residency Program which welcomes artists from around the world to Toronto. Susan is also the lead programmer for Creative Places + Spaces a bi-annual conference series hosted by Artscape.  She was a founding co-chair of ArtsVote, a coalition that mobilized thousands of artists to vote in Toronto’s municipal elections.

Gavin Sheppard

Gavin Sheppard is the founder of I.C. Visions—North America’s first government-funded hip hop recreational centre. He is currently focusing the majority of his time on the "Re-Mix" project. Re-Mix continues to build on the I.C. Visions foundation, highlighting the impact of urban entertainment and culture as tools for engagement and empowerment, and introduces elements of hands-on training and mentorship into the mix. The project recently graduated its first group of participants. Gavin has been at the helm of countless other, diverse ventures throughout his young career, including an instrumental role in managing the careers of hip-hop recording artist Rochester aka Juice (Maple Music/Universal Music Canada) and music production collective Tone Mason Inc. (Talib Kweli, AZ, Sean Price, MuchMusic, etc.) Gavin is a founding member of the Grassroots Youth Collaborative, a collective of some of Toronto's top youth-led organizations serving their peers in the GTA, and is on the board of directors of the GYC member organization Schools Without Borders – an innovative non-profit that introduces young people to diverse cultural and life-skill-based learning opportunities around the world. A tireless advocate for young people, Gavin uniquely identifies the need for social programs that embody youth culture and the arts in Toronto’s most under-funded communities.

 Luisa Sotomayor

Rinaldo Walcott

Dr. Robin Wright is an Associate Professor at McGill University's School of Social Work, with a major interest in prevention of children's emotional and behavioural problems. Her teaching interests include research, prevention and intervention in children's services, management/ supervision of social service agencies and social policy administration. Dr. Wright’s research interests include evidence-based practice, prevention and intervention with children and youth at-risk for emotional and behavioural problems and youth in conflict with the law as well as the development of interventions focused on positive youth development. Dr. Wright is co-principal investigator of the National Arts and Youth Demonstration Project and the Tampa Arts and Youth Demonstration Project, exploring community-based arts programs as a strategy for enhancing the well-being of children and youth in lower income communities. Dr. Wright is also co-principal investigator of the Edmonton Arts & Youth Feasibility Study and the Toronto Arts & Youth Feasibility Study, assessing whether it is possible to engage youth in conflict with the law in a community-based arts program. Dr. Wright is also principal investigator of the Barriers to Participation for Visible Minority and Aboriginal Youth that explores 3 objectives (1) barriers to participation in after-school arts programs for visible minority and Aboriginal youth; (2) the impact of an inclusive and culturally-sensitive after-school arts program on the psychosocial functioning of visible minority and Aboriginal youth; (3) best practices for engaging visible minority and Aboriginal youth in after-school arts programs.

More to come as available...