Desiree Mckenzie is a youth spoken word poet from Canada whose been involved in community arts empowerment for many years. She does commissioned spoken word projects for businesses, as well as having worked with organizations like Unity Charity, JAYU, CBC Arts, Poetry in Voice to help deliver arts programming to youth and schools all across Canada.  On this episode, we chat with Desiree about all her work in the arts industry. She discusses what drew her to spoken word and the professional creative industry (note: 6th grade rejections from boys are the perfect start to a career). We chat about her drive towards social activism through her work, gaining confidence as an artist, and her experience networking to help her gain the opportunities she’s had. She also gives us an inside look into the creation of her EP “Wet Hair”, her work with CBC Arts in “The Original Pandemic”, and of course her work in promoting arts education to youth everywhere. We hope you enjoy!!

Guest:

Desiree Mckenzie (@desireemckenzie)

Check out her website: desireemckenziepoetry.com

desireemckenziepoetry.com/shop for her merch for her EP - portion of purchase proceeds will be going to the VIBE Arts Program!

Stream Wet Hair on wherever you listen to music!

Hosted by:

Amber Dhall (@amber_dhall, @beyond.the.film on Instagram)

Jasma Zhou (@jasma_fusion_cuisine on Youtube and Instagram)

Contact information:

Email - [email protected]

Instagram - @offthecharts_podcast