ASAP presenting at ON THE EDGE Fringe 2024

The poster for the ALL MY R(el)ATIONS presentation for the ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival's 2024 Duality Program.

ALL MY R(EL)ATIONS
Presented by ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival
August 13th @ 8 pm
181 Oak St. W

Aanmitaagzi is extremely excited to be invited by the ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival to once again participate in their 2024 Duality program.

For this year’s program, we will be presenting a live multi-arts performance from our current multi-year project ALL MY R(el)ATIONS. The presentation will include dancing, storytelling/spoken word, singing, drumming, and art installations, and will take place on the green space beside the Dionne Quints Museum (181 Oak St. W). The performance is about 40 minutes long and will begin around 8 pm. There is no admission fee and all are welcome. This is an outdoor performance so be sure to dress appropriately for the weather and to bring a chair or blanket to sit on.

Artist Statement

The artists and participants of this year’s Summer Arts Program have been working hard over the last six weeks to prepare for this presentation. The collaboratively created and performed work is an investigation and expression of indigenous dance and our myths. We have spent weeks singing, dancing, regalia making, story-telling, and travelling to pow wows. This performance has grown out of these activities and what lies in our hearts and minds.

The Aanmitaagzi Summer Arts Program (ASAP) is an 8-week intensive in indigenous performing and visual arts. Now in its seventeenth year, the program faculty is led by award winning and renowned professional indigenous artists and educators. Participants learn, share, express and create alongside our professional multi-arts team.

ALL MY R(el)ATIONS, our latest work-in-progress, explores our historic abundance in opposition to systemic oppression and poverty. How much of what we have now, is a ration; a small shadow of what we once had? What are we entitled to? What dances, stories, songs and language is our birthright?

ALL MY R(el)ATIONS explores historically rooted ways in which we make a return to abundance by connecting to ourselves and all of Creation.

This work is co-created and performed by:

Albany Benson, Sid Bobb, Penny Couchie, Ouske Couchie-Bobb, Niganii Dokis, Sherry Guppy, Autumn Hookimaw, Skyler Hookimaw, Mya Katt, Waseskwan Linklater, Malia Mathias-Mizzi, William McGrath, Darren Nakogee, Finn Rice, and Shania Splane.

With Special Guests:

Blair Beaucage, Katie Couchie, Brennan Govender, Olivia Shortt, Cody Sutherland, Ronnie Turner, and more!


Aanmitaagzi wishes to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Canada’s Canada Summer Jobs Program, Mushkegowuk Employment & Training Services, the North Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre’s Apatisiwin Program, and the ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival for generously supporting this project and the 2024 Summer Arts Program.

ASAP 2023 Culminating Presentation

Poster for "Lies, Second Tries, and Butterflies" for August 25th

Please join us on August 25th @ 7 pm for the culmination of this year’s Summer Arts Program with a remounted presentation of Lies, Second Tries, and Butterflies. The original work was developed through a 3-week intensive collaboration with the participants in our 2023 Summer Arts Program, with invited guests from the Centre for Indigenous Theatre (CIT), and Aanmitaagzi’s company artists. The stories and dance pieces developed by our youth participants and artists for the first performance on August 3rd have been further developed and expanded over the last three weeks for this culminating performance.

The performance is free to attend, and all are welcome. For more information, please contact us at (705) 474-2227 or aanmitaagzi@gmail.com.

Aanmitaagzi wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the Government of Canada, through the Canada Summer Jobs Program and the Young Canada Works Program, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council for this year’s Summer Arts Program.

Lies, Second Tries, and Butterflies – Aug 3rd @7 pm

Please join us on August 3rd @ 7 pm for Lies, Second Tries, and Butterflies, a series of stories and dance performance collaboratively created and performed by the participants in our 2023 Summer Arts Program, with invited guests from the Centre for Indigenous Theatre (CIT), and Aanmitaagzi’s company artists. The work was developed through a 3-week intensive collaboration with CIT at Big Medicine Studio.

The performance is free to attend, and all are welcome. For more information, please contact us (705) 474-2227 or aanmitaagzi@gmail.com.

Aanmitaagzi wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the Government of Canada, through the Canada Summer Jobs Program and the Young Canada Works Program, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council for this year’s Summer Arts Program.

2023 Summer Employment Opportunity

Documentation from our 2022 ASAP presentation at the Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film.

2023 SUMMER EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Aanmitaagzi is currently seeking applicants aged 15 – 30 for it’s 2023 Summer Arts Program. The deadline to apply is June 16, 2023. Full details can be found below.

Job title: Youth Arts Intern
Number of positions: 16
Length of contract: 8 weeks
Hours per week: 35
Hourly wage: $16.00
Start date: July 4, 2023
Location: Big Medicine Studio – 161 Couchie Memorial Dr., North Bay, ON

Deadline to apply: June 16, 2023

Background:

Aanmitaagzi is an Indigenous multi-disciplinary artist-run company based in Nipissing First Nation. Linked to provincial, national, and international networks, we are committed to fostering a vibrant arts community through community-engaged projects that promote well-being, strengthen relationships with the land, and incorporate intergenerational approaches and methodologies. We combine art making, education, professional development & social activism through contemporary and customary arts, nurturing historic Indigenous arts practices and exploring how these practices can be carried forward in a meaningful contemporary context.

Every year, we run an annual summer arts program that gives Indigenous youth the opportunity to learn from and work with respected Indigenous arts professionals and Elders. This year’s Summer Arts Program (ASAP) will take place from July 4 – August 25, 2023. Over the eight weeks of the program, our lead artists and invited guest artists will work with the youth participants, providing training in areas such as storytelling and creation, acting, dancing, movement, voice, singing, drumming, visual and installation art, as well as customary Indigenous arts practices and cultural teachings. Through art making and ensemble building, the youth and artists will collaboratively create a performance work that incorporates elements of dance/theatre as well as arts installations for public presentation, and engages with our most recent arts initiative, All My R(el)ations. The public presentation will take place on August 11, 2023.

Tasks and responsibilities:

The Youth Arts Interns will receive on the job training in a variety of artistic disciplines such as traditional and non-traditional storytelling, acting, theatre, dance, voice, puppetry, visual art, installation art, and customary Indigenous arts practices. They will further develop their communications and interpersonal skills and learn the fundamental aspects of event planning and delivery, production management, and outreach and marketing. They will also participate in the creation and delivery of workshops, events, activities, and presentations that will be open to the public.

Specific duties will include:

  • Working with Aanmitaagzi staff, guest artists, and community members under the supervision of the Co-Artistic Directors
  • Working with and receiving mentorship from arts professionals, Elders, and cultural knowledge keepers in a variety of disciplines
  • Working collaboratively to create work for public presentation
  • Participating in other arts events, festivals, and community engagement activities the organization engages in
  • Communicating with community members, elders, and peers for the purposes of coordination and outreach
  • Supporting services to community members and facilitating engagement between youth and Elders
  • Promoting, supporting, and helping to coordinate the organization’s events and activities

In addition, the youth will be responsible for helping to maintain a safe and organized workspace, following established schedules, and completing assigned tasks in a timely fashion, and fostering a positive, creative, and respectful work environment.

Eligibility:

These positions are funded through federal employment programs. To be eligible for employment, youth must:

  • be between 15 and 30 years of age at the start of the employment
  • be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person to whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for the duration of the employment
  • have a valid Social Insurance Number at the start of employment and be legally entitled to work in Canada in accordance with relevant provincial or territorial legislation and regulations
  • be fluent in English

Ideal candidates:

The ideal candidates for this job position are full-time secondary or post-secondary Indigenous youth pursuing a career in the arts (e.g. dance, theatre, fine arts, etc.) or Indigenous studies, however candidates no longer in school or pursuing careers in related fields (e.g. arts administration, health & wellness programs, social work, etc.) will also be considered.

Application Process:

Interested applicants are asked to send their resumes and a brief cover letter explaining why they are interested in participating in our summer arts program to aanmitaagzi@gmail.com by June 16, 2023. Only applicants selected for interview will be contacted.

For more information, please contact Sid Bobb, Co-Artistic Director, by phone at (705) 474-2227 or by email at aanmitaagzi@gmail.com.

This year’s Summer Arts Program is generously supported by the Government of Canada (Canada Summer Jobs & Young Canada Works), the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council.

Aanmitaagzi participating in ON THE EDGE Fringe’s 2022 Duality program

The Light in Us All
ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival – North Bay, ON

Thursday, August 11th @ 7 pm
Big Medicine Studio – 161 Couchie Memorial Dr.

As part of the ON THE EDGE Fringe Festival‘s 2022 Duality program, Aanmitaagzi and the participants of this year’s Summer Arts Program will present a reworked performance of The Light in Us All, which was first presented in Durham, ON last month as part of the Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film.

The performance is free to attend, and all are welcome. For more information, please contact Sid Bobb or Penny Couchie at (705) 474-2227.