February 12 - 17, 2025

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LIVE MUSIC SERIES DAY 2 - JOSEPH CALLENDER (MUSIC) / AMOYA REE (SPOKEN WORD)

JOSEPH CALLENDER

Barbadian musician Joseph Callender has been entertaining crowds, producing, recording, and educating in music for 19 years. He has performed and recorded with many artists on the Caribbean scene. He shared stages with Grammy-winners Lalah Hathaway, Maurice Brown, and Arturo Tappin. He has been recording and playing music festivals across the province of Ontario with acclaimed entertainers. His musical contributions landed him a nomination for the Junos. Bajan to the bone, Joseph celebrates the culture of the diaspora, working towards raising the bar for black excellence.

IG: @b4saxx

AMOYA REÉ

amoyaree@gmail.com | www.amoyaree.com | Instagram: @amoyaree

Amoya Reé (she/her) is a Jamaican-Canadian performance poet and 2018 Canadian National Champion. Her writing is rooted in her lived experiences as an immigrant, mother, & community worker. Exploring the cultural significance of things like race, mothering and love, she often blends historical fact with present realities, making for a poetic experience that is both informational and inspirational. She began exploring performance poetry in 2008 & since then she has shared her stories in classrooms & boardrooms across Ontario. Affectionately known as Reé, she sat as captain of the 2018 Toronto Poetry Slam team who were semi-finalists at the National Poetry Slam in Chicago and went on to win the Canadian National Championship in Guelph, Ontario. She has had featured performances at the coveted When Sisters Speak (2019) and at Toronto Poetry Slam (2019). Reé was recently crowned the 2021 Toronto Grand Slam Champion and is currently working on her debut collection funded by the Ontario Arts Council and the coveted Canada Council for the Arts titled, “I Never Asked you to Love me”.