Manitoba Live Music Event

Spur Winnipeg: Risk, Race & Afro-Canadian Cultural Production

Date
Friday, May 5, 2017 at 6:30pm
Performers
Alexa Potashnik
Alfa
Location
Albert Street Cocktail Company
Address
91 Albert Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba

About

Spur invites three Black Canadian artists – a filmmaker, a poet, and a musician – to explore the risk and responsibility of the arts to challenge singular visions of Canada and Canadianness. While artistic practice can build bridges between communities, it also risks exposing the fragility of Canadian identity. Co-presented by Black Space Winnipeg, this dialogue promises to push preconceptions about Canada's cultural mosaic, to foster a more pro-black perspective.

FEATURING:

Chimwemwe Undi is a poet and linguist. She has performed at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and had work published in CV2, Prairie Fire and Room Magazine, among others. She has just completed a MA in linguistics at York University, and will be starting a JD in law from the University of Manitoba in the fall.

Alexa Potashnik is a beatboxer-activist whose work has provided conversation for people of colour to have a safe space to heal, decolonize and create solidarity to strengthen marginalized communities. She has conducted and hosted events such as: Dear White People: Black History Month Film Screening, Sexualizing the Disposable Woman, One Month in our History: The Search for the Afro-Canadian Identity, Blacktivism and many others. Alexa remains a strong leader in her community, connecting her activism with her musicianship as a vocal-percussionist in the hip-hop community of Winnipeg.

Ismaila Alfa is the host of of Up To Speed on CBC Radio One. After touring Canada and the United States as a hip hop musician for eight years, family and responsibility brought Ismaila Alfa and his vocal pipes back to Winnipeg. In January 2008, he started with CBC Radio One freelancing for the weekday morning show with Terry MacLeod and Marcy Markusa. In April of that year, he found his way into the spotlight again as Information Radio’s audio technician, traffic reporter and jingle writer extraordinaire.

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