Four Lands of Kenora

with the Arts Hub of Kenora Association of Community Living (KACL)

Jumblies Artists: Ruth Howard, Nikki Shaffeeullah, Adrienne Marcus Raja, Darla Contois

Kenora Artists and Contributors: Esme Boone, Lillian Penner, Cathy Lindsay, Cuyler Cotton, Braiden Murray, Shonna Muckle, Patrick Madison, Jacob McDonald, Tyler Monkman, Dylan Mallet, Jasmine Hunter, Tyson Cedarwall, Sean Belair, Laura Cotton, Reilly Scott, Tersoo Tsevende, Kristin Bailey, Jeff Rasmussen, and many others

Public Activities

Tuesday 27th
Drawing & Design Intro, 1-4 pm at Rhizome [240 Veterans Drive, room 004]
Project Launch, 6:30-8:30 pm at Rhizome

Wednesday 28th
Miniature-making, 9-2 pm at Farmers Market
& 6:30-8:30 pm at Arts Hub [528 3rd Ave. South.]

Thursday 29th
Miniature Photography, 1-4 pm at Lake of the Woods Museum [300 Main St. South]
Performance Explorations, 6:30-8:30 pm at Rhizome

Friday 30th
Mini Technology, 1-3 pm at Rhizome
Performance & Making, 6:30-8:30 pm at Rhizome

Saturday 1st
Project Finale, 4-6 pm at Rhizome.

Media Coverage

Kenora Daily Miner and News

Artist Profiles

	Ruth Howard Ruth Howard is the founding Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre. She and Jumblies have created multi-year residencies resulting in large scale performances, in a series of Toronto neighbourhoods, resulting in large-scale productions and lasting Offshoot organizations. She has worked across Canada and in England as a theatre designer, has taught at many universities, colleges and schools, amentored many emerging artists and organizations, and won many awards for her work. In 2015 Ruth and Jumblies produced the west-to-east-coast Train of Thought tour with partners across the country. Her most recent projects with Jumblies include the May/June 2017 Touching Ground Festival of new works in Toronto and the Four Lands tour.
	Adrienne Marcus Raja Adrienne explores a range of practices which blends in painting, puppetry, audio, installation, moving images, and photography. As a Malaysian with a Kelabit and Hainan ancestory, she is a multi-disciplinary artist currently living in Toronto. Her works has been presented nationally and internationally. She is an MFA graduate of Ryerson University in Documentary Media. She also holds a BA degree in Mass Communication and Television Production from Curtin University. She is the first recipient of Jumblies’ Al Levitt Memorial Award. She enjoys travelling as well as learning alongside people from different backgrounds and communities. She is currently the Tour Coordinator for Jumblies’ most recent collaborative touring project, The Four Lands. She is also Jumblies’ Arts Management Intern (thanks to an Ontario Arts Council Compass grant).
	Nikki Shaffeeullah Nikki Shaffeeullah is a Toronto-based facilitator, director, performer and community-engaged artist who supports people in telling their own stories and facilitates the development of creative communities. Her current roles include serving as artistic director of The AMY Project, a theatre devising and arts mentorship program for young women and non-binary youth; assistant artistic director of the community arts company Jumblies Theatre, and half of the community-engaged puppetry and music duo Sea Lettuce. Nikki founded the Edmonton-based artist-activist collective Undercurrent Theatre, which produced community-engaged performance projects such as Escape Velocity and Other Works, a week-long arts festival that explored how gender-based violence intersects with race, culture, and media. She is an accomplished improviser who has been a cast member with companies across Canada, including Edmonton’s Canadian Comedy Award-winning troupe Rapid Fire Theatre. For four years she was editor-in-chief of alt.theatre magazine, Canada’s only professional journal dedicated to the intersections of politics, cultural plurality, social activism, and the stage. Nikki holds an MFA in Community-Engaged Theatre from the University of Alberta and her thesis Staging Diversity: A Decolonial Praxis of Intercultural Feminist Theatre Creation won the 2013 Canadian Association for Theatre Research in Intercultural Theatre. She trained in puppetry at Humber College, and has studied various politically-engaged theatre creation forms with the Belarus Free Theatre, the Makhampom Foundation in Thailand, and Teatro Yuyachkani in Peru. Nikki believes art should disrupt the status quo; centre the margins; engage with the ancient; dream of the future; and be for everyone. Her artistic and facilitation work is informed by 15+ years of anti-racist organizing, 10+ years of feminist and queer organizing; a family who loves music, food, and justice; and an inherited love of puns.
	DARLA CONTOIS DARLA CONTOIS IS A CREE/SALTEAUX PERFORMER, PLAYWRIGHT, POET AND TEACHER. SHE GRADUATED FROM THE CENTRE FOR INDIGENOUS THEATRE’S PROFESSIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM IN 2014, ATTENDED DAVID SMUKLER’S NATIONAL VOICE INTENSIVE AND PREMIERED HER SOLO SHOW WHITE MAN’S INDIAN AT SUMMERWORKS 2017 IN TORONTO. SHE WAS AWARDED THE EMERGING ARTIST AWARD FOR HER WORK AT THE FESTIVAL. ALONG WITH PERFORMING SHE HAS ALSO BEEN TEACHING STORYTELLING AND DRAMA WORKSHOPS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

Ruth Howard

Ruth Howard is the founding Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre. She and Jumblies have created multi-year residencies resulting in large scale performances, in a series of Toronto neighbourhoods, resulting in large-scale productions and lasting Offshoot organizations. She has worked across Canada and in England as a theatre designer, has taught at many universities, colleges and schools, amentored many emerging artists and organizations, and won many awards for her work. In 2015 Ruth and Jumblies produced the west-to-east-coast Train of Thought tour with partners across the country. Her most recent projects with Jumblies include the May/June 2017 Touching Ground Festival of new works in Toronto and the Four Lands tour.

Adrienne Marcus Raja

Adrienne explores a range of practices which blends in painting, puppetry, audio, installation, moving images, and photography. As a Malaysian with a Kelabit and Hainan ancestory, she is a multi-disciplinary artist currently living in Toronto. Her works has been presented nationally and internationally. She is an MFA graduate of Ryerson University in Documentary Media. She also holds a BA degree in Mass Communication and Television Production from Curtin University. She is the first recipient of Jumblies’ Al Levitt Memorial Award. She enjoys travelling as well as learning alongside people from different backgrounds and communities. She is currently the Tour Coordinator for Jumblies’ most recent collaborative touring project, The Four Lands. She is also Jumblies’ Arts Management Intern (thanks to an Ontario Arts Council Compass grant).

Nikki Shaffeeullah

Nikki Shaffeeullah is a Toronto-based facilitator, director, performer and community-engaged artist who supports people in telling their own stories and facilitates the development of creative communities. Her current roles include serving as artistic director of The AMY Project, a theatre devising and arts mentorship program for young women and non-binary youth; assistant artistic director of the community arts company Jumblies Theatre, and half of the community-engaged puppetry and music duo Sea Lettuce. Nikki founded the Edmonton-based artist-activist collective Undercurrent Theatre, which produced community-engaged performance projects such as Escape Velocity and Other Works, a week-long arts festival that explored how gender-based violence intersects with race, culture, and media. She is an accomplished improviser who has been a cast member with companies across Canada, including Edmonton’s Canadian Comedy Award-winning troupe Rapid Fire Theatre. For four years she was editor-in-chief of alt.theatre magazine, Canada’s only professional journal dedicated to the intersections of politics, cultural plurality, social activism, and the stage. Nikki holds an MFA in Community-Engaged Theatre from the University of Alberta and her thesis Staging Diversity: A Decolonial Praxis of Intercultural Feminist Theatre Creation won the 2013 Canadian Association for Theatre Research in Intercultural Theatre. She trained in puppetry at Humber College, and has studied various politically-engaged theatre creation forms with the Belarus Free Theatre, the Makhampom Foundation in Thailand, and Teatro Yuyachkani in Peru. Nikki believes art should disrupt the status quo; centre the margins; engage with the ancient; dream of the future; and be for everyone. Her artistic and facilitation work is informed by 15+ years of anti-racist organizing, 10+ years of feminist and queer organizing; a family who loves music, food, and justice; and an inherited love of puns.

DARLA CONTOIS

DARLA CONTOIS IS A CREE/SALTEAUX PERFORMER, PLAYWRIGHT, POET AND TEACHER. SHE GRADUATED FROM THE CENTRE FOR INDIGENOUS THEATRE’S PROFESSIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM IN 2014, ATTENDED DAVID SMUKLER’S NATIONAL VOICE INTENSIVE AND PREMIERED HER SOLO SHOW WHITE MAN’S INDIAN AT SUMMERWORKS 2017 IN TORONTO. SHE WAS AWARDED THE EMERGING ARTIST AWARD FOR HER WORK AT THE FESTIVAL. ALONG WITH PERFORMING SHE HAS ALSO BEEN TEACHING STORYTELLING AND DRAMA WORKSHOPS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

Everyone is Welcome!

Jumblies makes art in everyday and extraordinary places with, for and about the people and stories found there, creating transient utopias and far-reaching ripples.

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