I’m just a prairie kid living in the city making art and friends along the way. Abb ‘Original was created during the pandemic and has pushed the boundaries of my art. I’m here to show indigenous art is diverse, creative and GAY.

Dae Shields is the founder and Executive Director of Afro Van Connect Society, Community Advocate, Designer and Curator. She is dedicated to spreading awareness about the injustice that African communities face and to show the impact that people of African descent have on Canadian culture, and cultures around the world.

Dae began Afro Van Connect April 2019 to create a platform for young creatives to come and express themselves. These BLACK SPACES allow young creatives to come and express themselves, share ideas and connect. They are established to create opportunities for people of African Descent to access equipment, education, training, networks, and opportunities, empowering them to creatively and economically flourish, building on their unique gifts and perspectives from their heritage and diaspora cultural experiences.

Buni Kor aka Kor Kase is an actor, artist, activist, writer, designer, event coordinator, and cofounder of Afro Van Connect. Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kor began his acting and music career in the 2010’s releasing music independently on online platforms and playing local shows in the Vancouver community. As an actor he has appeared on shows like Man in the High in the Castle, iZombie, and See. 

In 2019 Kor co-founded an artist collective called Afro Van Connect. As an organization focused on creating Black Spaces and platforms for African descent people to connect and express themselves. The intention of Afro Van Connect is to build a strong community through creating safe spaces for healing, rooted conversations, and the arts. 

As an Artist Kor is currently releasing new music which is available on all online platforms. 

It is my goal to promote messages of empowerment, love, unity and equality. As an artist it is my responsibility to be a voice for my community. I believe it is important to use my platform to highlight injustices and inequities in the hopes of creating awareness and meaningful change. As an artist of African Descent sharing the experiences of people of African descent authentically is what I seek to do. Reflecting the injustices our communities face to this day and showing the impact that people of African Descent have had on Canadian culture, and cultures around the world.

Coming soon!

All Bodies Dance Project is an inclusive dance company located on unceded Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) territories. Our work brings together people of all abilities, genders, sizes and backgrounds to explore the endless creative possibilities in difference and aims to dismantle assumptions, biases and default notions around contemporary dance, the theatre, and the dancing body. We offer free accessible and inclusive dance classes in addition to creating opportunities for diverse artists to practice, research and create innovative, inclusive dance. ABDP seeks to make opportunities for every body to discover dance and for under-represented artists to access dance training and mentorship. We want to widen the spectrum of who dances and what dance can be.

Alyssa Favero is a dance artist and educator based on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples. Alyssa is interested in bringing contemporary dance to public spaces as well as sharing knowledge with the next generation. They also have the privilege of working with young and passionate artists on a regular basis. Alyssa is a recent graduate of Modus Operandi where she worked closely with the directors Tiffany Tregarthen, David Raymond and Kate Franklin. Other professional experiences include choreographing for The Source Dance Company, dancing with OURO Collective, and performing at Vancouver International Dance Festival.

Jamie Ranney is a dancer and choreographer based on the ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Squamish First Nations. Jamie’s practice was highly influenced after being selected to join the Koumaria residency in Greece where she created performance installations and films with fellow residents. Her other choreography and performance has included the Toronto Choreographer’s Ball, the Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival, and music video Stopping By the Woods. Jamie is training with the Modus Operandi contemporary dance program and is simultaneously pursuing a degree in conservation from UBC to create cross-disciplinary work focused on environmental storytelling and activism.

Under the artistic umbrella of Realwheels Theatre, Amy has performed in Arun Lakra’s “Sequence” (2017), Comedy on Wheels (2016), Wheel Voices Tune In (2021). Amy is also a media and radio personality for Accessible Media Inc and produces/hosts one of their original podcast, “Accessing Art with Amy”.

Working in her capacity as the Community Outreach Coordinator for VocalEye Descriptive Arts Society and the Accessibility Coordinator for the Arts Club Theatre Company have furthered access for arts lovers that identify with disability in our local community and a far. Participating in the Vines festival, in two pieces, has been a joy and an opportunity to continue developing as a creative artist.

An Ana Bon-Bon performance can transport you to the rollicking music hall stages of the 1900s or a country juke joint on a sultry summer afternoon. Bon-Bon is naturally cabaret with a raw blues constitution.

Chanteuse, accordionist, songwriter, and musical hostess Ana Bon-Bon delivers an intoxicating dose of jump blues, western swing, cabaret, spirituals, and double-entendre lyrics all wrapped up in one big wood-choppin’ gal with seasoned vocals and a bump’n’grind squeezy-box.

Siobhan (Sio/They/She) is of a stolen people located on the traditional and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleigh Watuth nations. Sio grew up on the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of the Ojibwa, Odawa, and the Potawatomie Nations in Windsor Ontario. Siobhan is an Unlearning Dramaturgy, S.E.A.R.A., Start the Wave, and Bankability Awards recipient. Sio is a Black presenting person of mixed racial ancestry that lives with disability. Siobhan is a published writer and Nationally recognized bilingual performer, broadcaster, and spokesperson sought as a JEDI Consultant, and Community Organiser. Their community and artistic work, explores relational justice in many forms.

Anya Saugstad is a dancer and choreographer based in Vancouver BC, living and working on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh’ (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səlílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam) First Nations.
Anya trained at ArtsUmbrella, and holds a BFA with honours in Dance from Simon Fraser University. Recently she has danced and toured with ‘Action at a Distance’ with Vanessa Goodman. Anya and her collaborators create live, site adaptive, and digital performance works that tell stories through movement and sound. She has been able to grow her choreographic work through the Performance Research Program, The San Fransisco Conservatory of Dance, and Made in BC Dance on Tour. Anya has choreographed works for Simon Fraser University, The Rotary Centre for the Arts, SplitScreen (Boombox), and F-O-R-M.

Arlo is a disconnected multidisciplinary sound/performance artist and former organizer who’s main body of work exists in the liminal space between the years 2006-2018.  They were forcibly displaced from treaty 3 territory in 1993, grew up in Stó:lō territory and have spent the majority of their life on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Səl̓ílwəta land, searching for any semblance of home/community. Their work is deeply rooted in homesickness, diaspora, love, death and fear. It’s unlikely they will continue to make work once this project comes to an end. Miigwetch Vines.

“Catch-22” is a work-in-progress performance piece directed by Filipina interdisciplinary artist Sophia Sosa. This work-in-progress is a comedic satire that confronts the lessons that we were exposed to growing up. How does one become prepared to enter society as a young adult? Relationships, confidence, aspirations…taxes, capitalism, sexism, patriarchy; Have we been taught everything we need to succeed in this world? How has the evolution of society created a predestined future for the generations to come? This specific number is performed to the songs “I Wanna Be Evil” by Eartha Kitt and Disney’s “Tangled” soundtrack “Mother Knows Best” performed by Donna Murphy. This performance is a super fun take on real life lessons utilizing improvisational dance and choreographed movements inspired from real life experiences.

Featuring Erin Lum, Yoni Yu and Juan Imperial

Batty Banks is giving you life for ya head tops. She is here to give y’all a higher energy performance that’ll leave you wanting more. Are y’all ready? Welcome Vancouver’s premier Jamaican Brazilian Drag performer, BATTY B BANKS

Cathee started writing when she was a little girl. She made books and bound them together with yarn. Cathee learned about Spoken Word poetry in 2006, while in prison. A book club/library group introduced the art to her and it’s been a feeling and compulsion in her life ever since. Sometimes emotion can be conveyed through prose in itself and other times, spoken word id the only way. Foe Cathee’s performance at Vines, she needs to speak it.

My name is Cru Alexander timi, i am from Nigerian and i grow up in Winnipeg. I grow up singing in church with my mom and ever since then i never stop singing. My mom is my inspiration today and i am greatful i get to use my music to make people happy and change the world. 

Poet D Fretter’s mother likes to say he’s had a way with words since before he could talk. He began his writing journey at a very young age, coming up with his own lyrics to songs from old vinyl records. At age 17, D stole his older sister’s guitar and began writing his own songs. Throughout his music career he made a name for himself for his wordplay and lyricism. In 2020 D put down his guitar and held onto his pen and discovered some truths sound more beautiful without a melody. Since then, he’s stepped into the poetry scene and reinvented himself as an artist. A self-reflective, deeply emotional writer and a charismatic performer D Fretter writes from an optimistic point of view with the intention to encourage and empower his audience.

Darius Kian is a proud queer Persian-Canadian artist residing on the stolen land of the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Kwikwetlem, Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Their current practice concerns themes of masculinity, queerness, and the intersections of identity and culture. Primarily working in oil paint; Darius is also concerned with the relationship that this chosen medium has with representation, sexualization, and historical grandeur. Darius is driven by a need to represent queer bodies, fat bodies, hairy bodies, and colorful bodies into the canon of contemporary figurative painting.

Leah Katz is a multidisciplinary food and product designer, small business owner, and textile artist, living and working on the unceded, ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Watuth), and Qw’?ntl’en (Kwantlen) peoples, near Vancouver, BC, Canada. Leah is actively working to learn from indigenous teachings, bringing traditional ways of knowing into their practices through their core principles of Conscious Design. Holding a Diploma in Culinary Arts from the Culinary Institute at Vancouver Island University, and a B.Des in Product Design from the Wilson School of Design at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Leah blends their culinary and design knowledge with 20+ years of art experience to create innovative, beautiful, (and often delicious) solutions to human-centred questions.

Coming soon!

Kota is a trans/2s Kanyen’kehá:ka DJ and event coordinator currently living in so-called Vancouver. They’ve been co-producing events and DJing since 2018, with a focus on creating safer night life spaces for QTBIPOC event goers. Driven by their passion for music and community, they hope to contribute to the production of nightlife events that centres and gives platform to Indigiqueer brilliance and joy.

Grounded by her Barbadian heritage and influenced by UK underground dance culture, DJ Nea brings a unique blend of Caribbean vibes mixing Soca, Dancehall, Afrobeat, House, Hip-Hop/R&B and Grime.

Teaming up with the Vancouver Pride Society and a collective of local artists and entrepreneurs DJ Nea hosts Afroqueer, an annual kickback celebrating black queer love. Nea is also the host of GUSH Radio, streaming every 2nd Sunday from the BSideRadio.

Coming soon!

Dongganisa (they/them) is a drag ghost back from the dead to bring creativity, dramatics, and unhinged emotions to every stage. Dong is inspired by theatre, fashion, anime, and their Filipinx culture. In their spare time, you can find them turning tablecloths into dresses and making wigs out of garbage bags.

Eddy van Wyk is an international artist currently working as an unsettled settler in so-called Canada. They are native to Namibia with a performance history in South Africa. Eddy has more than 16 years of training in performance through the crafts of acting, dance, film, clown and theatrical creation.

Step into the lush and heart wrenching sounds of Edzi’u, an innovative sound and performance artist who paints stories of the past, present and future with textures, community voices and words, and her ethereal voice. Being rich in culture, full of passion and spirit, the power behind their use of sound goes deep within the listener, inspiring them to be bold and genuine, while living fully within their hearts. Edzi’u has a style and sound like no other, a quiet icon in the landscape of Indigenous music on Turtle Island.

Emily Grace Brook is a Writer/Actor/Producer, trained in The Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program, who has written two short films: Work Bites (2013) and The Specials (2015). Her work on The Specials has been screened internationally in Austin, Texas. It was also awarded “Best North American Comedy Short” at the 2016 Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival. She made her theatre debut as “Jess” in the 2019 Real Wheels production of, “Act of Faith”. Vines Festival will be her first live performance since 2021’s “#Whatnow”.

They are a 2-spirited Nehiyaw (Cree) trickster shapeshifter and a Land Defender with LANDBACK who likes to help out around the fire. She is currently stationed as a matriarch at the “Vigil” (a shoe display commemorating residential school) on unceded MST. You may happen upon their radical art or hear of her stories as you wander throughout the city.

Eva Ojeda F. is a multidisciplinary emerging artist currently based in the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, colloquially called “Vancouver”. She holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art+Design. She was born and raised in Mexico City and her background as a queer WOC sets her practice as an artist. Eva’s work varies from performance art to sculpture and painting, exploring the themes of the body, race, identity and feminism.

Storyteller • Poet • Radical • Mental Health Advocate • Truth Seeker • Elevator of Youth • Slayer of Mountains • The Dream of a Slave

In an act of courageous rebellion, Fanny walked away from nearly a decade as a social worker and headed west to pursue lifelong dreams of being a poet and disrupting the system to be more diverse, inclusive and equitable.  Fanny fuses her experience as a social worker and lived experiences as a justice seeking human to express her artivism through means of poetry and storytelling. More creating, more healing, more JOY!

Currently dwelling in so-called Vancouver, Faune Ybarra is a diasporic artists working through performance, photo-based objects, and diasporic gestures.

Aakansha Ghosh is a visual artist who works across mediums and forms, using
found everyday objects and building materials. Originally from India, Ghosh currently lives and works as a guest on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

Celestial, sincere, youthful, and banging. Vancouver-raised singer-songwriter/producer and multi-instrumentalist ​​Haleluya Hailu has become a local musical staple in the indie scene. Hailu has managed to turn the stress and angst of growing up and not recognizing yourself into music that anyone could see themself in.

Beginning their musical journey in talent shows and theater productions, performing has always been a strong suit. Hailu’s involvement in the local Vancouver scene began when performing with the Icecream Truck collective, a group bringing local musicians to parks and beaches across all of Vancouver. Their theatricality on stage helped them begin to create a name and face to go with her strong voice and ability to write and deliver pop hooks with ease.

Hampton (they/them) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and multidisciplinary artist who has been making music their entire life. Their voice has been described as a cross between Moses Sumney and Brittney Howard and their music is predominantly composed on a Loop pedal using whatever instruments (or objects!) they can find.

Their art is informed by their experiences living as a mixed, Black, trans, neurodivergent, disabled person and speaks to the oppressive violence enacted in our current colonial and capitalist social systems. The work is based in a constant critique of themselves, their community, and society at large.

A Moroccan emerging Visual and Performance Artist who naturalized Canadian in late 2018. Hasnaa is working her way towards a bold practice starting from a genuine yearn for integrity and social justice.

Formerly trained as a theoretical biologist, currently pursuing a Fine Arts Certificate at Emily Carr University of Art+Design, she uses her social location to give voice to silence and acknowledge the invisible.

There is no aesthetic ambition to her experiments, other than what arises from improvisation dance teachings (over 6 years) and pre-written text.

Hasnaa took an unplanned 2 years break in Taiwan where she performed at ArTrend 2020 and Lipaf 2021. She returned to Canada in January 2022, and has since been learning to be here, again.

Hasnaa’s secret mission is to rewrite your imagination of Muslim women.

Hoodie Browns (she/her) is the alter ego of Haddas Asfaw who is a settler of Amhara, Tigray and Oromo descent living on traditional & unceded territories of the šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxʷ (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh-ulh Temíx̱w (Squamish) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

She’s been compared to Corinne Bailey Rae meets 1960s Motown & Soul with a dash of hip hop. With fluid sounds and soft beats, her music is gently disarming. She offers us a moment to hold ourselves and see what movement comes up in stillness, to reclaim our connection to our humanity that was stolen from us all, but especially for multiply marginalized folks.

House of Rice lead Artist Skim – Skim is an interdisciplinary drag artist currently living on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Their practice and performances often revolve around sharing affects with viewers and creating vulnerability and a sense of togetherness. They are an active member of the House of Rice and currently an MFA grad student at UBC. Skim has performed on various stages in South Korea, Vietnam, Canada and online. They have been a part of producing and performing in various theatre shows such as The Transform Festival’s Opening Bash, The ReVolver Festival, and The Array. They led a series of performances with the House of Rice at the Polygon gallery as part of the Interior Infinite Exhibition in 2021.

Janelle Reid is a singer, actor, song writer and mover. She has a Bfa double major in music composition and theatre and has a second bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. She enjoys singing in a variety of genres and collaborating with other vocal artists. She is always excited to take the opportunities given to share her passion of singing as a means to bring people together.

Jhoely Triana, born in Colombia, is a Vancouver based flamenco dancer and choreographer. Jhoely trained at the Goh Ballet Academy, completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance at Simon Fraser University, and now continues her artistic development with the mentorship of Kasandra “La China” and Oscar Nieto at Al Mozaico Flamenco as well as Rosario Ancer at Rosario Flamenco. She has presented work at the Victoria Flamenco Festival, Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, the Dance Centre’s 12 Min Max and Open Stage, Vines Festival, New Works Summer Series, Kitsilano Showboat as well as at the Kino Cafe and East is East Restaurant. Jhoely’s love of Flamenco has lead her to train with acclaimed artists such as Rapico Jose Carmona, El Farru, Emilio Ochando, Ivan Vargas, Adela Campallo, Alicia Marquez and Claudia Cruz among others. Jhoely’s work emphasizes connection to audience through authenticity of emotion and vulnerability.

Photo credit: Yvonne Chew

Juan Imperial (He/She/They) is an emerging Filipinx Queer, Non Binary Femme artist with roots in Vogue and Waacking. Juan has been spreading the joy of vogue to QTBIPOC for 6 years through Van Vogue Jam Arts Society. They see its powerful potential to be a vessel for liberation, protest, joy, and family and dedicates most of their time and energy to building up these communities. Currently, Juan is in the process of threading their ancestral and spiritual practices with dance and is discovering how these practices can help forge pathways to liberation in the body and in the community. They are also currently working on their debut dance film, “The Meeting Place” premiering at FORM film festival in November 2022.

Reiko Inouye (they/she) and Josh Ongcol (he/him) are both queer dancers and artists of the asian diaspora both exploring themes of ancestry, queerness and liberation through their own artistic practices. Reiko and Josh are also a part of Vancouvers vogue scene, rediscovering what power and community mean through ballroom.

KEALOHA
{ kay – ah – loh – hah }
Through her gifts as a singer, songwriter, drummer, and dancer, KeAloha invites us into the moments of liberation that we find when we hold ourselves, eachother, and our complex intersections with tenderness, solidarity, and pride. KeAloha is a mixed race femme with chronic illness disability, whose blood carries legacies of Polynesian navigators and dancers, Lheidli trappers and medicine people, Irish farmer-settlers, and Chinese immigrants. KeAloha identifies her music as IndigiPop – embracing her love for getting people moving to a clever hook, with decolonizing pop culture at heart. Her music is a vessel for her to build relationships and understanding with the many identities she holds. KeAloha is committed to shaping her career and building community through reciprocity for the people and music-cultures who inspire her.

Keenan Marchand is a Syilx, Secwépemc and Mixed European multimedia artist, gardener and writer currently based in so-called vancouver as an uninvited guest on the traditional, ancestral and stolen lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) & səĺilwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Their visual art work tends to explore Syilx Okanagan culture and spirituality, indigenous cultural revival and resistance, imagination, darkness, storytelling, the land, the supernatural and identity. Their music explores folk, indie alternative, spoken word genres. They wish to thank Vines Festival for having them and especially Edzi’u for their help in helping them grow as an artist. Lim limpt slaxts!

Balam Santos a.k.a. Kin Balam is from the Indigenous lands of Cuxkatan, Nekepio, El Salvador. He was born in the heart of a people’s revolution, raised in the Northern lands of Turtle Island. Burying his heart in pain and urban warfare as a youth, with a soul hungry for meaning and connection, Kin Balam learned years later to die to a lifestyle that has shattered the foundation of his community and country with blood and fire. Kin in Lenca Poton and Balam in Maya, translates to “The path of the jaguar,” is an artist who, in having the courage to live based off what the elders call the ‘Nahual’ or destiny, has also come to originate a new style of music.

Kin Balam studied under the renowned Flamenco guitar master Jeronimo Maya in Madrid, Spain at the age of 22. He has been producing Hip Hop music since the age of 11, playing guitar since the age of 8, and has focused on Afro Cuban percussion since the age of 2 years. Among his peers in any genre of music at the professional level, Kin Balam is held with deep respect and appreciation for not only his level of musicianship, but also the originality and quality of his music and soul.

Coming soon!

Originally from the traditional territories of the Ktunaxa (tu-na-ha) Nation. King Fisher is the man of your dreams. Co-producing a King/Thing Drag brunch at GoodDogsPlantFoods – he’s ready to entertain with chaotically funny and moderately sexy dance moves. Vancouver’s bird king is soaring into your heart and wallets.

Born and raised in Japan, Kisyuu started learning calligraphy when she was seven and was given a calligraphy master name “Kisyuu” from her master Kosyuu Kobayashi at the age of 18. She earned numerous awards from calligraphy competitions both in Japan and Canada. Since moving to Canada in 2007, she has been working on her calligraphy installations, workshops, lessons, exhibitions, live performances and commissioned art works. She has been performing in collaboration with various types of artists. She has also worked on projects with different companies such as Microsoft, Shiseido, 20th Century Fox, Toyota and Netflix.

Kisyuu writes both traditional and modern freestyle calligraphy – a brush and sumi-ink are her tools to express her true self. Through her calligraphy art, she wishes to create peace, both inner and outer.

Kitty Guerin is a xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) mixed artist/artist-of-sorts. She works with a broad range of material including graphite, coloured pencil and acrylic paint. Her art is used as a form of self expression and reflection and she plans to expand her career as an artist by both inspiring and being inspired.

Kung Jaadee (Roberta Kennedy) is a professional storyteller, educator and published author belonging to the X̱aayda (Haida),  xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nations. Her Haida name, Kung Jaadee, means ‘Moon Woman’ and was presented to her at her great uncle’s memorial feast by her cousin Crystal Robinson. Over the past 28 years, Kung Jaadee has performed traditional Haida legends, while also sharing vivid personal stories about her clan’s survival of the smallpox epidemic, and  the history and culture of her people. She has performed at hundreds of festivals, schools and Aboriginal celebrations across Canada. She is the author of  the popular children’s books, Raven’s Feast and Gifts from Raven (selected as a Local BC Book to Read), as well as curriculum textbooks, Haida Nation: Indigenous Communities in Canada and We Are Home. Her stories have also been published in several anthologies, magazines and online publications. Most recently, Kung Jaadee worked as the Vancouver Public Library’s Indigenous Storyteller in Residence.

Coming soon!

Kwúsen is the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh snichim word for star. Drawing inspiration from the night sky, Kwúsen is a synth pop duo consisting of Kwiigay iiwaans and Kimit Sekhon. They collaborate to create a unique combination of deep and dreamy synthesizer lines with haunting yet beautiful vocals in Sḵwx̱wú7mesh snichim and X̱aad kíl. Beyond music, Kwúsen creates unique digital art combining traditional formline and 3D graphics in VJ loops and Augmented Reality (AR).

Ladan Sahraei (Pronouns: She, Her) an Iranian-Canadian deaf female film maker. She completed her Associate Degree in Physical Education, but later pivoted to studying graphics design before coming to Canada in July 2014. She is the first deaf filmmaker in Iran, where she has made several short films, as well, two feature documentaries made in Canada. She has received awards and honours for her work. Filmmaking is her passion and is an avid supporter of the visual and performing arts, painting, and film in disability.

Laurel Scott (she/her) was born and raised in Mohkinstsis on Treaty 7 lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Art Studio at the University of Lethbridge in Sikokotoki. During her Bachelor’s Degree, her artistic practice focused on responding to issues of feminism, environmentalism, and healing. Laurel is currently based within the unceded territories of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaʔt Nations. She has completed the Documentary Filmmaking program at Capilano University and is working on developing new artistic projects.

Lilex and the Apocalips is a creative sound expression project, built through time, care, connection, and the boundlessness of life in the multiverse, where collapse and regeneration exist simultaneously. Each song performed is written by multi-disciplinary artist Lexi Mellish Mingo, co-produced by Isaiah Terrell Dobbs and Pasang Galay, with supporting vocals by the amazing Em Gem.

Founded in the depths of an existential dumpster dive, Lilex and the Apocalips alchemizes trash into treasure, fears into art, and tension into love.

Coming soon!

Pablo – aka MagniFuego’s range of music experiences started when he was 9 years of age, and since then, he has been involved in various musical projects and has been the director of his two bands. One of his band projects plays his original songs from his Album called Planting Visions, by MagniFuego. MagniFuego-Planting Visions, álbum is on Spotify and all other streaming apps. His passion lies in playing a Latin + Rock fusion, and is well versed in percussive, string, and some pre-Spaniard South American indigenous wind (flutes) instruments.

Makeda Martin comes from a musical family. Sang in her younger years in a Gospel Group called S.O.S singers out of Brantford Ontario. I’m looking forward to sharing some improve, original and covers with those in attendance. Joining me will be Ethan Rivas my middle son and special guests who I’ll introduce on the day. Luke Huska and a few other local artists have been invited. See you soon and blessings to all. We are bringing some jazz, funk, rock and roots.

Makenzie is a fresh spoken word and zine artist residing on unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. Her work focuses on social injustices as well as economic and racial inequalities within society. She is thrilled to debut her work at the 2022 VINES art festival.

Manuel Axel Strain is a non-binary 2-Spirit artist with Musqueam/Simpcw/Inkumupulux ancestry, based in stolen, sacred and ancestral homelands and waters of the Katzie/Kwantlen peoples. Although they have attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design they prioritize Indigenous epistemologies through the embodied knowledge of their mother, father, siblings, cousins, aunties, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, and ancestors. Creating artwork in dialogue, collaboration, and reference with their kin/relatives, their lived experience becomes a source of agency that resonates through their work with performance, space, painting, sculpture, photography, video, sound and installation. Their artworks display a strong autobiographical brace, tackling such subjects as ancestral and community ties, Indigeneity, labour, resource extraction, gender, Indigenous medicine, and land. Their work has been seen in the Capture Photography Festival, the Richmond Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, and other places across Turtle Island. Recent works confront and undermine realities and imaginaries of colonialism to offer a space that exists beyond that matrix of power.

They have guest lectured at the Vancouver Community College, where they actively participated in the Indigenous Art Symposium “Indigenizing Higher Education.” Some of their most meaningful community projects include “My Blood Can’t Feel the Land” with Gallery Gachet “Resistance and Resurgence,” a 2-Spirit exhibition at Interurban Art Gallery, “Destigmatization and Harm Reduction” at the Musqueam Cultural Pavilion, “The Land Can’t Hear Your Voices,” created during a residency as the Maple Ridge Artist in Residence. Working in programming at Gallery Gachet they helped co-curate the Annual Oppenheimer Park Show through which they centered the artists of Camp KT and DTES residents, while partnering with Vines Art festival to create a publication. Through Gachet in collaboration with The Capilano Review, they are currently coordinating a community-led art project centering the creative processes of two-spirit, trans, and gender non-conforming artists as well as workshops for residents of supportive housing in the Downtown Eastside. They also currently serve as a board member at VIVO Media Arts.

 Coming soon!

A voice birthed by her multifaceted identity as a biracial woman, young mother & artist Michelle Heyóka (pronounced hey-oh-kah) embodies the quote “pressure creates diamonds”. Having an unconventional upbringing growing up in public housing facing poverty, loss & trauma pushed her to want more for herself & dream big. Finding the natural alignment between music & healing Heyóka used her voice as a vessel to channel her pain into power. Pulling inspiration from artist’s like Amy Winehouse, Etta James, Jessie Reyes & Kiana Lede, Heyóka’s music proves to be a smooth treat for listeners as she combines catchy melodies with her soulful raw voice. Releasing her first body of work “For You”, a 5 song E.P on January 2021 quickly launched her into the spotlight getting played on radio stations Canada wide. Heyóka’s now focusing all her energy on creating her first album “For The Soul” set to be released 2023.

Mildred Grace German is a Vancouver-based Filipino-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, writer, as well as a chef, residing on the unceded homelands of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations of the Coast Salish Territory. In order to learn and understand the space that she is situated in, German practices with a variant in forms of creations.

łapḥsp̓at̓unakʔi łim̓aqsti: ‘a mind with wings’, mitcholos s. touchie (they/them/theirs) is disabled autistic queer and a poet, is yuułuʔiłʔatḥ x nuučaan̓uɫatḥ x a born indian & maa-nulth treaty (2011), and is indigenous; now living in unceded coast salish territorys: xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (CKA Vancouver)

Morning Star Trickey is a Vancouver-based vocal artist best known for her powerful and moving solo performances with City Soul Choir. Steeped in her southern US civil-rights roots, she embraces music as a bridge between cultures and generations. Admiring many genres including folk, soul, r & b and gospel, she believes music is a pathway towards understanding and an expression of love and community.

Photo credit: Lystra Sam

Naomi Grace (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist and medicine maker of Afro-Caribbean and European ancestry born and currently residing on the unceded ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations. With a professional creative practice spanning 2 decades, Naomi’s work is centered around reclaiming sacred medicine in its many forms, which she expresses through painting, mixed media, music, text, culinary arts and sculpture. Naomi’s work is a form of sensory storytelling and reflects her identity as a woman of the African diaspora, exploring creativity as our birthright. Creativity is not exceptional; creativity is being.

No. 1 Special is a Wet’suwet’en, 2Spirit musician and songwriter. After working on various music projects over the years and being a part of several performing bands, No. 1 Special has decided to take their music inward, focusing on creating their own personal sound; personifying high energy melancholy, through a vibrant folk/punk sound.

Vancouver based R&B group bridging the divide between Melodious escapades and silky smooth soulful grooves.

Phoenix is a harm reduction worker, musician, and home cook. They were born on unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, and spent their formative years on Okanagan and K’omoks territories before returning to so called ‘Vancouver’ over a decade ago. Phoenix has been organising, playing, and attending events at various DIY venues throughout the city since they were 15, and is a former director of the Red Gate Arts Society, and former Co-Organiser at Music Waste Festival. They are of mixed Danish, Irish, Métis, French, and Scottish ancestry.

Born in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded territory of the Musqueam,  Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations peoples. Of Metis (Ukrainian  and indigenous) decent, her mom hails from the North End of Winnipeg  – Point Douglas. Meanwhile her father immigrated from Buenaventura,  Colombia to Vancouver in the early 90s. 

Prado Monroe was gifted her first guitar and quickly started self producing and releasing music on Soundcloud under the moniker of  “Alienkanye” at a prolific pace. The singer-songwriter, multi instrumentalist and producer began leading pen to various artists; she  was the contagious melodies behind various NY-based male internet  rappers – further unearthing her love and disposition to wordplay and pop music, PM learned to lead without fear using her unique sound and  no-bullshit delivery. 

Each cover was shot at “THOTFUL” – A photography, dance and recording studio located in Vancouver, British Columbia. The studio is  founded with her sister “Zuleyyma” with a shared mission/vision to create  incubator programs for disadvantaged minorities and uplift promising  LGBTQ2S+ and BIPOC artists in Canada.

Randall Bear Barnetson is a multidisciplinary artist of Indigenous heritage. Randall Bear Barnetson is from the village of Nadleh Whut’en, the Dakelh nation, and of the Duntem’yoo Bear clan. Bear’s artistic practice interprets matters of modernity such as mental health and wellbeing, identity, culture, and spirituality, through the framework of Northwest Coast Indigenous art forms. Bear’s art and traditional storytelling has aided in reconciliation and decolonization efforts with settler organizations in discussing Indigenous culture and heritage. Bear was born and raised in the urban Indigenous community of Commercial drive in Vancouver BC. Bear spent years serving alongside his parents who founded a thriving mission on the 100 block of Hastings that provided essential services to over two million members of the Downtown Eastside Community. Bear’s practice is currently based on the Unceded Territories of the Musqueam Coast Salish peoples as a guest. On this territory is Vancouver’s YVR international airport, from which Bear received the Emerging Indigeous Artist Scholarship award in 2022. Bear is enrolled in his Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Bear has completed the Foundation Program thus far.

Dallas was born in Vancouver BC. She is Cowichan First Nation. She became interested in the arts early in life. Dallas is now active in her community in the Downtown Eastside Vancouver. Dallas is a proud Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother. Dallas first studied performance art at Spirit Song a Native theatre school. Dallas earned a scholarship and attended Native Earth Theater school in Toronto Ontario. Dallas worked with Full cCrcle theatre based in Vancouver. While at Full Circle she discovered the En’owken International School of Creative Writing and Fine Arts in Penticton B.C. Dallas attended two years and obtained a certificate while at the En’owken, Dallas created a portfolio and sent it to Emily Carr. Dallas studied at Emily Carr for four years and received a Bachelor’s degree. Dallas received a British Columbia Arts Council grant and a Canada Council for the Arts grant for her installation Ceremony, a media based installation which showed at the Gallery Gachet in 2011. Dallas is Vancouver based and is excited to be working with Indigenous Women Artists and the Downtown Eastside Center for the Arts.

Sam Chimes is a multi-talented Afro Canadian musician. With his jazzy, soulful vibes, he uses a looper and a microkorg synthesizer to create instrumentals on the spot, layers his voice, and effectively engages his audience.

Born in New Westminster, Sam Darkoh has moved around quite a lot in his life. From his early years of growing up in Wisconsin State to graduating from North Vancouver’s Capilano University from their Acting for Stage & Screen program, Sam has seen and experienced many of the different facets of life throughout North America. Being a working Actor (Riverdale, DC Legends of Tomorrow, Snowpiercer) alongside being an Active Voice Actor & Musician based in Vancouver, Sam Darkoh uses Hip-Hop to tell stories synonymous with the Black experience and details the struggles of being raised around people who don’t look like you. With genre-fusing beats, sharp lyrics, and sticky hooks; You’re sure to move, dance and be inspired.

Coming soon!

Sarah and Ileanna are dance artists based in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Their practices find a home in writing, producing, installation, crafting, and performing. Since 2019 they have been working together on projects that prioritize experiences of rest, care, and resistance. Sarah’s work emerges from her lived experience as a queer, second-generation Chinese-Canadian woman, focusing on archival processes and accessing embodied generational knowledge. Ileanna, a queer white woman, explores practices of somatic justice within dance techniques and communities, looking at how they account for and tend to limits of exhaustion, mutual aid, and political action. Sarah and Ileanna come together with slowness at the forefront to remain critical of taken for granted currents of the production and consumption of art, labour, and identities.

Seema Mehra lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. Her creative work spans painting, drawing, sculpture, photo collage, textiles, and her public art platform ‘Sharing -Salt’ that involves participants in the creation of the collaborative artwork that is shared on public platforms.

Seema earned her BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2011. She was raised in Mumbai, India where she earned her PGD Textiles at the J.J. School of Arts after which she worked in the ready wear industry till she migrated to Vancouver, BC, Canada after living in Iran for several years. She continued working in ready to wear in Canada while she completed her professional training in couture design with the Helene Lefeaux School of Fashion design.

Her work has been shown internationally including: Franc Gallery (Vancouver), the Art Gallery of Calgary, the BMB Gallery (Mumbai). Mehra’s work is in collections across Canada, USA, and India, she also holds residencies that offer opportunities to make collaborative public art Interventions, with local festivals and institutions here in Canada and India.

semillites hernández velasco is a trans and brown visual artist and printmaker based in “vancouver”, on the unceded territory of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations. semillites was born in mexico city in 1995, at the age of nineteen he immigrated north. semillites comes from a family of campesinos (peasants) in central méxico and he tries to put his ancestors’ teachings in his artworks. semillites’ artwork aims to be imperfect, brown, trans, sincere, with a deep love for colors and collective work. semillites’ mediums range from drawing to textile art, games and animated gifs. his artworks are love letters to himself, his ancestors and every person, flower and grasshopper that has ever crossed his path.

Senaqwila Wyss is from the Squamish Nation, Tsimshian, Sto:lo Hawaiian and Swiss. She is completing her Bachelors in Communications and First Nations studies at SFU. She is an ethnobotanist and warrior entrepreneur. She co-owns Raven and Hummingbird Tea Co. With mother T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss using Indigenous plant teachings to share with people of all ages. She is also sharing her knowledge to the next generation with daughter Kamaya. Senaqwila facilitates indigenous plant knowledge workshops and has experience in professional communications and coordination and event planning.

Coming soon!

Shemedelyne, a survivor of sexual assault, has used her pain to give power to her voice, which she uses to express herself through songwriting, singing, rapping and deejaying. Through the healing component of songwriting, Shemedelyne has leaned into vulnerability, encouraging those around her to also live as their truest selves. By walking in her power and tapping into the dreams of her ancestors, Shemdelyne is laying the groundwork for more folks to take up space.

Shion Skye Carter is a dance artist originally from Tajimi, Japan, who lives and dedicates time to her artistic practice in Vancouver, Canada. Through choreography hybridized with heritage art forms that interact with digital and sculptural objects, Shion’s work looks inward to the facets of her intersectional identity as a lens to process the world around her. As co-founder of the interdisciplinary duo olive theory with musician Stefan Nazarevich, she collaborates to experiment at the intersection between embodied performance, installation, and live sound. Shion has performed across Canada, and worked as artist-in-residence at What Lab, Left of Main, LEÑA Artist Residency, and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto (Fall 2022). The short dance films Shion has produced have been screened at festivals globally, including Dancing on the Edge (Canada), CAPSULE by the National Arts Centre (Canada), Hibrido Brazilian Videodance Festival (Brazil), and Dance Days Chania (Greece).

As a performer, she has interpreted the work of artists such as Vanessa Goodman (Action at a Distance), Wen Wei Dance, and Ziyian Kwan (Dumb Instrument Dance). She holds a BFA in Dance and Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University, and is the 2021/2022 recipient of the Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award.

Coming soon!

Coming soon!

SoyJoy started off in 2019 as Juniper Lee (they/them)‘s musical and lyrical parallel universe. They are a settler of mixed Korean and European descent, living and creating on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh peoples (“vancouver, bc”). Writing and recording angsty and melancholic songs in their bedroom, the singer-songwriter project has been expanding to have further collaborations with other local QTBIPOC musicians and artists.

Tamami Maitland is a singer-songwriter/Jazz pianist based in Vancouver BC. In 2021, She was selected to perform with her own vocal/piano trio for DTES Artist Showcase in Vancouver BC. So far she has released 20 singles and more to come this year. Growing up in Japan, she was influenced by Japanese culture and poetry. The lyrics of her original songs are often related to nature, the seasons and love, just like the traditional Japanese poetry. With an extensive Jazz education received from Berklee College of Music and Capilano University, she developed her own style of music which is interspersed across several genres of jazz, pop, R&B and soul. The sound of her music can be described as soothing, groovy, melodic, and rich in harmony.

Tamami has a clear goal of writing /performing music. It is to encourage and help people to stay positive. She believes that Imagination helps both our self healing process and developing our creative mind. She believes that Art exists and plays a big role in developing our brain, expressing ourselves, sending messages, and connecting with people. And that’s exactly what she wants to do with her music.

Terrance Littletent is from the Kawacatoose Cree Nation and born in Regina, Saskatchewan. Much of his traditional teachings were inherited through his family and elders, singers and dancers, storytellers and academics. Terrance is an accomplished Grass and Hoop Dancer who has traveled across Canada, the United States, and overseas, sharing his gift of song, dance, and narrative, in humble way. At the age of 6, Terrance had already been introduced to the traditional techniques and movement skills used to create his own dance choreography. By the age of 8, Terrance’s uncle; Kirby Littletent, presented him with the gift of the hoop, which inspired Terrance to continue his uncle’s legacy of sharing the ways of their people. 11 years later, Terrance became recognized as a World-Renowned Hoop Dancer. As an educator, producer, and performer, Terrance continues to find ways to bridge traditional and contemporary dance and music styles.

Terreane Derrick came into the arts both by accident and design. At an early age, Terreane’s first foray into the performing arts was puppetry. Terreane’s interests in the arts expanded first into drawing and painting, then into video production. In addition, Terreane is also an accomplished emcee, public speaker, facilitator, and has sat on government boards as a special needs / disability adviser. Terreane appreciates the medicine of art in its entirety and is currently focused on personal governance.

Theo Francon AKA Ravenous Randy is an independent professional wrestler of over 20 years, trained in the acclaimed Hart family dungeon in Calgary, Alberta who has taken their talent from the cage to the stage.

Mike Kovac is a Certified Fight Director and Instructor with Fight Directors Canada, and works in film/television/theatre in and around Vancouver. A graduate from Capilano University’s Acting for the Stage and Screen Program (where he is also now an Instructor of Stage Combat), he has worked on Noises Off, The Shoplifters, Kim’s Convenience, Beauty and the Beast, Misery, and Mustard (Arts Club), as well as Coriolanus, The Crucible and She Kills Monsters (UBC), among others. Mike has also appeared in various film and television projects, including Arrow, Supernatural, The 100, Tin Star, Valley of the Boom, Deadly Class, and Batwoman. He regularly works as a stunt performer and stunt actor. If you see him on the screen somewhere, he’s probably about to die.

TJ Felix is a Secwepemc two-spirit multimedia artist, musician, colonial law breaker, and english language unlerner. They are currently missing home and paying rent on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people.

Tonye Aganaba (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, multidisciplinary artist, musician, and performer residing on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. They were born in London, England to parents of Nigerian and Zimbabwean heritage and raised on Treaty 8 and Treaty 6 territory.

Aganaba’s style is fluid, weaving playful threads of soulful neo-folk, funk, hip hop and R&B. They are a steadfast fixture in their local arts community and a passionate and political being. When they’re not making music or art,  they’re actively unlearning, relearning and having conversations. Photo credit: Celine Pinget.

Tzo’kam means “chickadee” and “visitors are coming” in the Stl’atl’imx language. Flora Wallace and her family have sung together at family occasions and community events for more than 50 years.

After elder Flora Wallace participated in the Aboriginal Women’s Voices gathering (1997) at Banff, Alberta, the family decided to expand their efforts to share the culture. It did not take long for Tzo’kam to hit the stage and start recording. The first major concert by Tzo’kam was at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in the summer of 1997 opening a stage that featured Buffy Saint Marie and Keith Secola.

Tzo’kam recorded for the Smithsonian Institution, for Silverwave Records and released three CD’s on their own. Since 1997 Tzo’kam has performed at many festivals and concerts including Folklife in Washington D.C., Full Circle Concert in Calgary, Alberta, Harrison Arts Festival in Harrison Hot Springs, B.C., Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver, B.C., and many conferences and gatherings.

Tzo’kam, under the direction of Russell Wallace, continues to work within the Aboriginal communities and educational communities to teach, share and maintain a tradition that has been kept alive by dedicated elders.

Coming soon!

VANDU is a group of users and former users who work to improve the lives of people who use drugs through user-based peer support and education. VANDU is committed to increasing the capacity of people who use drugs to live healthy, productive lives. VANDU is also committed to ensuring that drug users have a real voice in their community and in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them.

Venus Noirre is a writer and artist whose cultural identity and traumas have led them to share their words with the world. With no formal art or writing education, they have published zines, essays and poetry on queer identity, sex work and blackness. The continuous genocide of Black, Brown and Indigenous bodies in the Americas has forced them re-examine what they share of themselves with their audience. Blackness and autonomy as a black woman is at the center of their work and they know that it is essential that they continue telling these stories.

Born in North Benin, Africa and chief’s son of the Waama people, this multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter learned the art of storytelling and drumming from his family as they traveled the region sharing their cultural traditions. Now in Canada, Yoro is in great demand as a performer, having mastered the donga (talking drum), kokomba (congas), and djembe. On stage, both solo and with his band, he is a dynamic and mesmerizing performer, drawing you in to the sights, sounds, and rhythms of West Africa.