Black Writers Out Loud

Diane Roberts, Tali Taliwah (aka Nantali Indongo), and Nigel Thomas in conversation with Deborah Forde.

This extraordinary group of artists sits down with guest host Deborah Forde for a conversation about their arts practice, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the current pandemic. This is the first in a series of four online events in 2020 celebrating Black literary arts in Quebec. Presented by the QWF.

The conversation will take place on July 30, 2020 at 7 p.m. EDT via Zoom.

Please CLICK HERE to RSVP and receive the Zoom link via email.

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Diane Roberts is an accomplished director, dramaturge, writer and cultural animator who has collaborated with innovative theatre visionaries and interdisciplinary artists for the past 30 years. Her directorial and dramaturgical work has been seen on stages across Canada and her reputation as a mentor, teacher and community collaborator is nationally and internationally recognized. Diane is a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholar and current PhD Candidate in the Fine Arts Interdisciplinary HUMA program. Diane’s celebrated Arrivals Legacy Project has birthed new Interdisciplinary works across Canada, throughout the Americas, in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. This work has allowed her to articulate, cultivate and realize a vision for theatre that encourages Indigenous ways of knowing as a stepping-stone to creative expression. 

 

Tali Taliwah (aka Nantali Indongo) is an emcee and vocalist in the Montreal Hip Hop supergroup, Nomadic Massive. For the past 15 years, be it at internationally renowned festivals or local community concerts, the band has toured the world to connect with people. Part of her personal objective as a member of the group is to celebrate the depth of Afro-Caribbean-Canadian identity, far from any Club Med image. In addition to recording and performing music, Tali has also devoted 10 years demonstrating the educational potential of Hip Hop culture, bringing a non-formal educational workshop series about the non-violent origins of Hip Hop culture into classrooms and communities across Quebec, Canada and the world.

 

H. Nigel Thomas is a retired professor of United States literature. He has published dozens of essays in literary journals and anthologies as well as eleven books that include five novels and three collections of short stories. His novel Spirits in the Dark was nominated for the QSPELL Hugh MacLennan Fiction Award; and No Safeguards, another novel, was nominated for QWF’s Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. His novel Easily Fooled will be published in 2021. He is the founder and English-language coordinator of Lectures Logos Readings. 

 

Deborah Forde, host – In 1999, after over 20 years in community development, Deborah’s work led her to the practice of professional community-engaged arts through the study of Theatre for Development at Concordia. Emerging first as a director, with Bryan James’s Terminal Terminal and Rahul Varma’s State of Denial, Deborah went on to spend two years supporting other emerging artists through Black Theatre Workshop’s YouthWorks, and three years serving the English-speaking theatre community as Executive Director for the Quebec Drama Federation. She then went on to serve as Fireworks Development Program Coordinator for Teesri Duniya Theatre. She recently directed The Domestic Crusaders, the inaugural production of Canada’s first Muslim theatre company, Silk Road Institute.  Currently, Deborah is Administrative Manager for ELAN-Quebec, while she continues to freelance with the Teesri Duniya Theatre family.