The Culture Shift

After a hiatus, I had the pleasure of speaking with author and journalist Sheima Benembarek. Sheima's new book, Halal Sex, was released this spring, and explores the lives of female and gender-expansive Muslims living in North America. We spoke about literary nonfiction, solidarity journalism and her experiences navigating the magazine publishing industry as a woman of colour.

Sheima Benembarek is a Moroccan Canadian writer and magazine publishing professional. She has worked as an arts and culture senior editor for Toronto Life, an events manager for The Walrus (where she focused on developing programming for The Walrus Talks series that featured underrepresented voices), a business development-brand communications lead at Corporate Knights, and as an associate editor at Broadview. Currently, she is the special reports + C-Suite editor at Strategy Magazine.

Sheima writes about social justice, immigrant narratives, and intersectional feminism. Her writing has appeared in print and online publications including the Literary Review of Canada, Maisonneuve, Corporate Knights, The Walrus, Quill & Quire, Chatelaine, Broadview, Reader’s Digest, This, and Vogue Arabia. She was named one of the five RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers in 2020.

This week the Minister of Heritage is hosting a National Summit on the Future of Arts, Culture and Heritage Sectors in Canada. The Culture Shift spoke with Shannon Litzenberger (she/her) an award-winning dance artist, embodiment facilitator and cultural leader working at the intersection of art, ideas and transformational change about her upcoming article in The Philanthropist, ’State of Emergence: Why We Need Artists Right Now’, what recovery may look like and how policy can incorporate learnings from the pandemic.

As a dancer and performance maker, Litzenberger's work explores our relationship to the politics of belonging, and the forgotten wisdom of the body. She has been an invited resident artist at Soulpepper, Toronto Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Atlantic Ballet Theatre, Banff Centre, the Remai Modern, and the Gros Morne Summer Music Festival. As a skilled freelance strategist, programmer, leadership developer, policy thinker and embodiment facilitator, she works with leading organizations in the arts, academia, and the corporate sector. She is currently a Program Associate with CPAMO; a guest facilitator at the Ivey Business School; a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Mentor; and a Chalmers Fellow, exploring the relationship between embodiment, leadership and social change. Her most recent work World After Dark was nominated for a 2019 Dora Mavor Moore Award. www.shannonlitzenberger.com

For this month's episode of The Culture Shift, I had the pleasure of speaking to Kimberley Rampersad, Associate Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival. A theatre artist, born and raised in Treaty 1 Territory, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Kimberley is also an actor and she has appeared in various theatres across Canada including Mirvish, RMTC, Stratford and Shaw. Her work as a choreographer has been recognized with two Dora nominations for Passing Strange (Musical Stage/Obsidian) and Seussical - the Musical (YPT), respectively and an Evie Award in 2019 for Matilda – The Musical (Royal MTC/ Citadel/ Arts Club). As a director, Kimberley was featured in the New York Times in July 2019 for directing a full- length production of Man and Superman at the Shaw Festival. Her production of How Black Mothers Say I Love You (GCTC) received a Prix Rideau Award for outstanding production, and her productions of The Color Purple (Neptune and Citadel/ Royal MTC) received Merritt and Sterling Award for outstanding direction and productions. She was the recipient of the 2017 Gina Wilkinson Prize for an emerging female director (Ontario Arts Foundation).

In the community she contributes to the work of the Philp Akin – Black Shoulders Legacy Award, Gina’s Prize, and sits on the board of AFC.

Kimberley completed her dance teacher certification through the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Political Science, from the University of Manitoba.

We spoke about the return of theatre in Ontario, Shaw's 60th anniversary season, her upcoming production of Chitra, and how Shaw have chosen the stories that come to their stage.

In Episode 4 I had the pleasure of speaking with writer, curator and cultural producer, Sirish Rao (he/him), co-founder and Artistic Director of Vancouver's Indian Summer Festival, one of the country's leading multi-arts festivals, curated through a South Asian lens. Sirish co-founded ISF in 2011 with his partner Laura Byspalko, and this past week they announced they were stepping down to make space for new leadership. Sirish has been responsible for introducing some of the world’s most exciting artists and thinkers to Vancouver audiences. He was born in Bangalore, India, and spent a decade as Director of Tara Books, one of India’s most respected publishing houses. ​​He was also on the Advisory Committee of Culture|Shift, Vancouver’s new Culture Plan for 2020-2029. We talked about transitions, programming and what it's like to let go of the organization you built.

The Culture Shift is a monthly series of conversations with intersectional artists and arts workers working at the forefront of their practice, and pushing systems change from both within and outside of our institutional spaces.

Many thanks to The Green Line for their support of this program. The Green Line is a new hyperlocal digital news outlet based in Toronto that investigates the way we live to help young Torontonians survive and thrive in a rapidly changing city. They focus on producing journalism that looks at community-driven solutions to problems facing the city, so Torontonians are empowered to take action on the issues that matter to them. Visit them at thegreenline.to or on Instagram and TikTok.

The Culture Shift is a monthly series of conversations with intersectional artists and arts workers working at the forefront of their practice, and pushing systems change from both within and outside of our institutional spaces.

Episode 3 is in conversation with artist and founding Artistic and Executive Director of Indigenous Fashion Week Toronto, Sage Paul. Sage is an urban Denesuliné tskwe based in Toronto and a member of English River First Nation. She is an award-winning artist & designer and a recognized leader of Indigenous fashion, craft and textiles. Her work centres family, sovereignty and resistance for balance. In this episode we talked about centering generosity while building an Indigenous-led organization from the ground up, fashion as art, and balancing personal practice with creating a platform for community.

The Culture Shift is a monthly series of conversations with intersectional artists and arts workers working at the forefront of their practice, and pushing systems change from both within and outside of our institutional spaces.

Episode 2 is in conversation with writer, journalist and newly appointed Director of UBC’s School of Journalism, Writing and Media, Kamal Al-Solaylee. Al-Solaylee is the author of the nationally bestselling memoir Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone), hailed as “brilliant” by the Walrus magazine and “essential reading” by the Globe and Mail and most recently, Return: Why We Go Back to Where We Come From. Kamal joins the show to discuss his new book, the ongoing search for a homeland and what it means to be the School of Journalism’s first BIPOC Director.

The Culture Shift is a monthly series of conversations with intersectional artists and arts workers working at the forefront of their practice, and pushing systems change from both within and outside of our institutional spaces.

Episode 1 launches in conversation with writer, playwright and director Jordan Tannahill. Jordan’s plays have been translated into ten languages, he has won several Dora Mavor Moore Awards and two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Drama and his work has been produced and presented at venues across the world. His debut novel Liminal, a work of autofiction, was named one of the best Canadian novels of 2018 by CBC Books. It’s been a big few weeks for Jordan. His second novel, The Listeners, was just released across North America, his new play, Is My Microphone On, opened as part of Canadian Stage’s Fall season, and he is long listed for the 2021 Giller Prize.