Helah Cooper & Hannah Levin

Helah Cooper is an artist from Toronto and a recent graduate of NSCAD University currently living in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia as part of NSCAD’s Community Studio Residency Program. She creates miniature tactile sculptures and works collaboratively to facilitate play and performance as a way to bridge her interests in costume, drawing, sound and craft. She creates non-linear networks between objects and people to find unexpected points of connection and create queer narratives.

Hannah Levin is an interdisciplinary artist from Toronto, currently working in Berlin. Fueled by improvisation and play, Hannah’s work often starts from intuitive dancing and expands into collaborative and multi-media performances and projects. She sees collaborative making as a chance to be with others through processes of transformation, experiencing and witnessing  new possibilities. She has an Interdisciplinary Fine Arts degree from NSCAD University, and has recently completed Tanzfabrik’s Dance Intensive Program in Berlin.

Parker Dirks

Parker Dirks is a visual, ceramics and interdisciplinary artist, and a trans*, feminist, sustainable food activist. They attended Goshen College in Indiana, where they were active in the Queer Collective, and holds a degree in ceramics from NASCAD University, where they were active within the Feminist Collective. They are interested in combining art and activist practices to examine ways in which individuals and groups occupy spaces. Parker also currently works with Sketch and CUE.

Jamie-Lee Oshkabewisens

Aanii, Jamie-lee Oshkabewisens Dizhnikaaz, Wikwemkoong Doongibaa. Hello I’m Jamie–lee Oshkabewisens; I hail from Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, on Manitoulin Island. I’ve been in plays with Debajehmujig Theatre and Creation Centre, including “Nanabush Steals the Fire”, “12” (2014) & “Spirit of the North” (2013), and “Global Savages” (2015). I take part in an annual “Wilder Med Senarios” with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, have been in an Arts Educator Foundations workshop with the Royal Conservatory of Music & Debajehmujig, and part in Jumblies’ 2015 Train of Thought tour. I am now a freelance artist, working on my own projects as with Jumblies for a year, thanks to a grant from Miziwe Biik.

Ashley Riley

Ashley Riley is an Anishinaabe Indigenous woman and daughter of Cheryl and Kelly Riley of Seine River and Chippewas of the Thames First Nations. She studied Theatre Arts at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. Ashley enjoys all forms of art, including theatre, movement, singing, powwow dancing, sewing and beadwork. Ashley is an activist for First Nations rights and is passionate about how she may heal the intergenerational trauma that exists with her people through the arts. She performed in Jumblies’ “Talking Treaties Spectacle” with Ange Loft. She is grateful to be a recipient of the Miziwe Biik grant, allowing her to spend a year working and learning about community arts with Jumblies.