Kelsey Adams

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, has an extensive collection of painter Edward Mitchell Bannister’s work, mostly oil paintings depicting pastoral life. Although Bannister was born in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, he is largely recognized in the United States, where he lived much of his adult life, as a pioneer of Black American art. His painting Under The Oaks, now lost, earned him a major American art prize at the Centennial Exposition, held in Philadelphia in 1876. But h...

Issue 5 | An Ethos of Caring
The concept of speaking things into existence is de rigueur right now. Countless memes about manifestation and intentions litter Instagram explore pages. But words really can be imbued with the meanings we envision and last year Toronto-based singer-songwriter Witch Prophet did just that when she tweeted about manifesting her way onto the Polaris Music Prize list in 2020.
Her second full-length, DNA Activation, made it onto the 10-album shortlist from a pool of ov...

Issue 5 | An Ethos of Caring
Othello Grey is methodical and pensive, his contemplative self-reflection is his secret weapon. A photographer known for teetering on the line between editorial, commercial and artistic photography, he has a style all his own. His portraits dissolve barriers between photographer and subject, like you’re being let in on a secret about the person in front of the camera. It’s almost like he’s always shooting his friends, regardless of whether he knows his subjects or...

Issue 5 | An Ethos of Caring

It would be easy to mistake Iman and Siham Hashi for twins. The sister-duo, who perform under the moniker FAARROW, get asked if they’re twins all the time. A testament, perhaps, to the close nature of their bond or their propensity to finish each other’s sentences.

The translation of both their names into English, Iman meaning “faith” and Siham meaning “arrow,” led to the joint name FAARROW. It’s a fitting name because their work, artistic and humanitarian, has be...

Casually perusing the Mixcloud archives of Montreal-based n10as radio is akin to stumbling on a hidden treasure trove. Scintillatingly alluring, you can get lost for hours listening to episodes devoted to niche genres like chopped and screwed hip-hop, future soul, and psych rock. Currently Canada’s longest running online radio station, a mighty crew has kept it going since February 2016.

The ubiquity of online radios stations like Dublab in Los Angeles, Berlin Community Radio, NTS in London, ...

I can’t imagine Toronto without the contributions of Black artists. It would be a city without a soul, without a beating heart, lifeless without the films of Charles Officer, the art of Michèle Pearson Clarke, the music of dvsn or the sculptures of Esmaa Mohamoud. But it isn’t easy for Black poets, musicians, filmmakers, artists and playwrights to stitch themselves permanently into the city’s cultural tapestry — systemic barriers work tirelessly to keep them marginalized.
Whiteness permeates ...

By: Kelsey Adams
Editor’s note: Chefs, restaurants and community food groups make up a big part of the Ontario Culture Days network. In light of COVID-19, we’ve seen food services rapidly adapt their approach. We asked writer Kelsey Adams to profile one such initiative: Family Meal TO. We’re tracking similar projects across the province. Want to share one from your region? Drop us a line here.
It was business as usual for Toronto’s food service industry when the Covid-19 pandemic hit hard and...

Online clubs like Club Quarantine are creating global communities and providing opportunities for DJs and drag performers to continue their work.
To say we’re living in unprecedented times may feel a tad hyperbolic but the Covid-19 Pandemic will likely change our lives in fundamental ways we have yet to foresee. Already, we’re seeing attempts by artists and creators of all kinds to move further into the virtual space of the Internet, where anything is possible—through a webcam.
Social gatheri...

The dance floor is one of the best community-building spaces we have. There’s a suspension of boundaries that draw us closer together, allow us to be free, support one another and experience joy without saying very much at all. But with the rise of social distancing and self-isolation following the rapid spread of COVID-19 across the world, we won’t be dancing together for quite some time.
In Toronto, these safety measures have immediately impacted the livelihoods of DJs, musicians and perfor...

NOTE: This story was prepared prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. Some information may have since changed.
This month, Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLM-TO) launched Wildseed: Centre for Activism and Art, a new kind of co-working space that prioritizes the city’s Black community. The centre, meant for community organizing, meeting, art making and healing, has been a dream of the organization since BLM-TO’s inception in 2014.
“For us, imagining the possibility of a future without anti-Black racis...

What sounds like a dream to many teenage Torontonians is Benjamin Bwamiki's reality. He just returned home from a few days out on tour with Tory Lanez — a quick trip to Los Angeles, New York and then back home to Toronto. You might guess that he joined the dates as a performer, but the 16-year-old Scarborough teen is actually a graphic designer.

Bwamiki, a.k.a. Certified Benji on Instagram, has spent the past three years hustling to build up his brand and is now reaping his fruits, one co-sig...

NOW’s Senior Film Writer Norm Wilner and contributor Kelsey Adams jump on the finale in our Oscars podcast series.
We discuss the difference between great directing and stunt directing, as exemplified by the Oscar race’s major contenders Parasite and 1917, respectively. We parse what’s to love and hate about other contenders like The Irishman and Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood (the latter may take a swipe at Forrest Gump, which beat Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction at the Oscars 25 years ago)...

Inclusion, diversity, visibility, representation. They’ve all started to feel like empty buzzwords, slowly stripped of meaning with each comatose panel or forum purporting to establish real change. Usually well-intentioned but lacking in concrete action, such circular discussions feel futile. Whether about the disparity between white art professionals and everyone else or the gendered career plateaus women face, we’re often left wanting. A number of factors are at play here, namely the rise o...

A figure stands between tall hedges, their shadows engulfing him on all sides. He
approaches an opening and starts his Sisyphean task. He comes to the maze every day, but has
yet to reach its centre, where he hopes to find the answers he seeks. Some days he follows the
path dutifully, hitting dead ends and starting anew. On other days, his frustration overcomes him
and he hacks through the bush, deconstructing and recreating his own path to understanding. The
maze always rebuilds itself.
This is his ritual, a daily practice of searching for that which evades him.

An urban agriculturist, a poet, a planner, a curator and a fashion designer explain how they're breaking down barriers to Black liberation