Artist Bios
Brian Solomon, Dance, Choreography, Visual Art, Film
Multi-award nominated, winner and loser, creator Brian Solomon is of mixed Anishinaabe and Irish heritage, born in Shebahonaning on the North Channel of Lake Huron. His multidisciplinary work is raw, challenging and full of spirit. His commissions have been presented and toured across Turtle Island and abroad. With social advocacy at the core, he is passionate about helping people relearn the nature of their ancient bodies, and take back the space those bodies occupy. Artistic Statement: Our bodies come from the natural world, and there’s a lot to be unlocked from looking at the bodies we’re in as an ancient wilderness–one filled to the brim with learnt ancestral teachings, informed by 1,000,000 lives leading to our own. Solomon's community-rooted work attempts to re-awaken the body with an understanding of it's profound connection with all that is. Participants of large groups –often in urban or rural spaces that can benefit from positive artistic inquiry and attention– are asked to look to their body’s senses as a source of wisdom and as one the greatest teachers. As a creator, his work is still emerging. Solomon's performance and installation work subverts the body in it’s contemporary environment revealing to the audience this greater, inner ancestral world that’s always with us–haunting us at times with its deeper observations.
Christa Couture, Writer, Singer-Songwriter, Broadcaster, Cyborg
Christa Couture is an award-winning performing and recording artist, filmmaker, non-fiction writer and broadcaster. She is also proudly Indigenous (mixed Cree and Scandinavian), queer, disabled, and a mom. Her seventh album Safe Harbour was released on Coax Records in 2020. As a writer and storyteller, she has been published in Room, Shameless, and Augur magazines, and on cbc.ca. In 2018, her CBC article and photos on disability and pregnancy went viral. Couture is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio and is currently the weekday afternoon host on 106.5 ELMNT FM in Toronto. Her debut memoir How to Lose Everything is out now with Doulgas & McIntyre.
Christian Chapman, Visual Art, Film, Maker
Christian Chapman (b, 1975) is a of Anishinabe heritage from Fort William First Nation, Ontario. Christian uses storytelling as a main theme in his practice to create his images. The act of storytelling has been an important part of his life: it has informed him of his culture by shaping his identity, personal experiences, and worldview. Recent exhibits include "Ziibaaska'iganagoodayan-Jingledresses," Station Gallery, Whitby, ON (2019) and "Anishinaabeg: Art and Power," Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto ON (2017). He has received numerous awards, such as the Hnatyshyn Foundation Reveal Art National Award Prize (2017), the Ontario Premier's Award for Excellence in the Arts as Emerging Artist of the Year (2016), and the K.M. Hunter Artist Award of the Ontario Arts Foundation (2016). His work can be found in the art collections of the Library and Archives Canada, the Government of Ontario Art Collection, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, and the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, as well as several private collections.
Christine Friday, Dance, Choreography, Film
Christine is a proficient resilient Indigenous storyteller. She began her career with In the Land of Spirits in 1992 and has maintained a professional dance career for over 25 years, choreographing, solo work, commissioned work, youth creations and full scale productions. She is deeply connected to the cultural wellness of her people and works hard to maintain cultural traditions and gifts of her Anishnaabe people. She recently launched her company: Friday Creeations a film and stage Production Company, allowing her to transition her skills into filmmaking to broaden her audience while fulfilling her potential. She recently won the 2018 KM Hunter Award for dance through the Ontario arts council, this award is given to those who demonstrate an original artistic voice while encouraging the artist to propel to the next level. Her intention is to awaken people within themselves, creating a shift change in the world by reflecting reality and the human experience. She is currently building a Cultural Creation Centre in her community of Bear Island, Lake Temagami.
Greyson Gritt, Singer-Songwriter, Music Composer
G.R. Gritt is a Juno Award winning, Two-Spirit, Transgender, Francophone, Anishinaabe/Métis artist. After living many years in Yellowknife, they have recently moved back to Sudbury/Robinson Huron Treaty territory where they grew up. This homecoming coincides with a journey that they feel better represents them. With these changes has come a new voice both physically and in the growing magnetism of their songwriting. G.R. Gritt pulls effortlessly from the past to create soulful futurisms with their new sound that elegantly weaves the melodies using vocals, guitar and new electronic elements. They create both intimate and anthemic music that would fit in a folk club, a dance club and anywhere in between. The Northern cities where G.R. Gritt has lived has forced them every winter through snow and harsh temperatures to make a choice between isolation and seeking community as a source of warmth. Their music serves as one of these beacons of connection for all who come near it. Welcoming yet truthful, they reclaim space through songs that show that intersectional identity is expansive and not to be divided into parts. By exploring the emotional and cultural core of their heritage as a non-binary, queer, Indigenous artist they create new space and encourage others to do the same. G.R. Gritt is currently preparing for the release of a new full-length album titled, “Ancestors”, in early 2021 on Coax Records. They will be releasing their first single, “Quiet Years” in November, 2020.
Jessica Lea Fleming, Film, Theatre, Playwright
Jessica Lea Fleming is of Métis and Scottish ancestry from Penetanguishene, Ontario. Jessica is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, producer and performer. She has directed for TV Series AMPLIFY on APTN, directed the pilot episode of Couleurs du Nord for TFO, as well as music videos for multi-award winning artists Celeigh Cardinal and iskwē. Jessica’s work has been featured at festivals and events such as Native Earth Performing Arts’ Weesageechak Begins to Dance Festival (2014, 2018), Pan Am Games (2015), Buddies in Bad Times’ Building Reciprocity Cabaret (2017), the Indigenous Writers Gathering (2016), Skábmagovat Film Festival’s 20th Anniversary Spotlight on North America (2017), the National Screen Institute (2018), imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (2019) and the Santa Fe Film Festival where her debut short film “scales” won Best Native Narrative Short (2017). In 2015 she was a Featured Leader for the Ontario Ministry on the Status of Women and in 2017 she was one of twenty Invited Contributors to the 20th Canadian Arts Summit. This year Jessica is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Theatre Aquarius and was short-listed for Canada’s Prism Prize. She is currently creating commissioned works for New Harlem Productions and Signal Theatre.
Michaela Washburn, Actor, Spoken Word, Writer, Clown
Michaela Washburn hails from Alberta and is a proud Métis artist of Cree, Irish, French and English descent. Now based in North Bay, Ontario, her expertise spans theatre, film, television, hosting, writing, spoken word, clown, improvisation, workshop facilitation and stand-up. An award winning artist, Washburn also has multiple nominations. Most notably, for the Ontario Arts Council’s Indigenous Arts Award and the K. M. Hunter Artist Award for Theatre. She has performed internationally at festivals and theatres in Wales, Aruba and across Canada and the United States. Selections of Michaela’s writing have been published in three different anthologies..one in California entitled Great Poets of Today, a collection of work by queer artists entitled Queering the Way, and most recently in Theatre Passe Muraille: A Collective History. Her first play, Water Under the Bridge, which she co-wrote with Carrie Costello, toured with Carousel Players, and opened the 2013/2014 season for the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company (now known as Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre). Upcoming, Michaela is looking forward to the premiere of Frozen River, her latest co creation with Carrie Costello and Joelle Peters, at Manitoba Theatre For Young People.
Nick Sherman, Singer-Songwriter, Musician
Nick Sherman sings about life in Northwestern Ontario with a focus on finding strength and hope, even if the themes or topics can be heavy. “You have to go through these hardships to know what you’re made of,” Sherman says. But the Thunder Bay-based artist isn't afraid to confront issues that affect Indigenous youth in isolated communities, because they mirror those he faced growing up. “Winterdark”— a song about young Indigenous people facing insecurity, and even death, after being forced to relocate to larger urban centres for high school — was rerecorded for the new album because it’s sadly still relevant today: “There were a lot of issues with young Indigenous people dying in Thunder Bay, being found in the river here. It’s nine years later and that’s still happening,” Sherman says. “Every fall, plane loads of kids get flown into this city and they still come here with this threat, worrying about what could happen to them.” While he still calls his rural birthplace of Sioux Lookout home, Sherman spent much of his youth out on the land, moving between his hometown, the small First Nation community of Weagamow Lake, and his family’s trapline on North Caribou Lake. It was here in the depths of the Northern Ontario forest that his family members would play guitar as they tended their trapline, and Nick found himself soaking in songs and lyrics.
Syreeta Hector, Dance, Choreography
Syreeta Hector is a dance artist and educator in Toronto, Ontario. As a highly accomplished performer, Syreeta has worked for internationally recognized companies like Adelheid Dance Projects, Danny Grossman Dance Company, Political Movement, and Toronto Dance Theatre. She is a proud graduate of The National Ballet School’s Teacher Training Program, The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and has achieved her Master of Arts in Dance Studies from York University. Her work called “Black Ballerina” focuses on the dualities within ones identity, along with Syreeta’s blackness and indigeneity in relationship to classical ballet. This short work in progress solo gained recognition at the SummerWorks Festival in 2019. Here, the piece won the Stratford Festival Lab Award for Research and Creation. The condensed version of the piece was also performed at the Citadel Dance Mix 2019. Here, the performance was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award. The development of the full length version of “Black Ballerina” is taking place through the support of the Citadel+ Compagnie, Canadian Stage, workspacebrussels, and the Kaaitheatre.
Taqralik Partridge, Spoken Word, Poet
Taqralik Partridge is an Inuk artist, writer and curator. Originally from Kuujjuaq in Nunavik, she now lives in Ottawa. Partridge’s writing focuses on both life in the North and on the experiences of Inuit living in the South. Her performance work has been featured on CBC Radio One, and she has toured with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. In 2018, she was named a finalist for the CBC Short Story Prize. She has previously worked as Communications Director for Avataq Cultural Institute and Editor-at-Large for the Inuit Art Quarterly. She is a member of the Inuit Leadership Group for Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq/Pijariuqsarniq Project. Her work is currently included in the touring exhibition Among All These Tundras and this year showed at NIRIN the 22nd Biennale of Sydney, in Australia.
Selection Committee
Cohort leader Denise Bolduc worked with Associate Artistic Director Dian Marie Bridge, Curatorial Associate Rosina Kazi and key advisor Jani Lauzon in the selection of the participants. Bolduc wishes to acknowledge Keith Barker, Ange Loft, Bushra Junaid, Erika Iserhoff, Lisa Myers and Patti Shaughnessy for their support in the selection process.
Artists in Residence Summer 2020 Cohort
The inaugural cohort was made up of 10 established Black artists from the GTHA, and was curated by Creative Producer Dian Marie Bridge.