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Hello, and welcome to this episode of ArtsAbly in Conversation.
My name is Diane Kolin.
This series presents artists, academics, and project leaders who dedicate their
time and energy to a better accessibility for people with disabilities in the arts.
You can find more of these conversations on our website, artsably.com,
which is spelled A-R-T-S-A-B-L-Y dot com.
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Today, ArtsAbly is in conversation with Gift Tshuma, who is a disability rights activist
and a musician, a singer- songwriter, and a producer
focusing on emerging music technology development and collaborative practice.
You can find the resources mentioned by Gift Tshuma during this episode
on ArtsAbly's website, in the blog section.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to this new episode of ArtsAbly in Conversation.
Today, I am with Gift Tshuma, who is a disability rights activist
and also a musician, a singer-songwriter,
and a producer, focusing on emerging music technology development,
and collaborative practices.
Gift, welcome.
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Thank you for being here today.
Okay so I am... We know each other
from other projects and other networks.
I know you're doing a fantastic work in trying to blur the boundaries,
for example, which is one of your project.
We're going to probably talk about that.
But before, knowing a little bit about you,
Can you first of all, present yourself
and also tell us a little bit more about your background,
where you come from, your story.
Absolutely.
I'm Gift Tshuma, and I am someone with a physical disability.
I'm a wheelchair user.
I use a power wheelchair, and I am
African, Black African, born in Zimbabwe.
I've been basically involved within the music art scene
ever since I was a kid, I would say ever since I was 10 years old,
I was involved within music group, choirs, bands.
And I just never stopped ever since.
So it's It's been quite a fun, exciting journey ever since.
Okay. And so, when did you arrive in Canada
and what happened from the moment you arrived in Canada and
music studies or other studies?
I arrived in Canada in 2001,
and I was 12 years old at the time.
I was pretty young and I had already been involved in gospel music
in my home country, in Zimbabwe.
And I immediately immersed myself
into the gospel scene in Montreal.
So I moved to Montreal when I moved to Canada.
And I was involved in quite a few music groups for about 10 years.
The first 10 years I was here.
And then I later decided to start my own choir, my own gospel choir,
called United Triburation Choir.
That choir existed for about 14 years.
It's included 10 musicians and 10 vocalists,
so it was a 20-member group.
Just loved gospel music because it's all about telling a story
and it's all about encouraging people where they are.
That's why I always gravitated towards singing gospel music because it just
was able to elevate me in a way I didn't experience singing other genres.
And then in terms of education,I never formally studied music or anything like that.
I grew up in a black church, and in those kinds of churches,
you learn as you go. You learn by ear.
There's no formal musical educational practice that you do.
You just watch and learn, and you basically imitate, you mimic.
[Laughs]
You mimic as you go.
Being part of the children's choir when I was young, I was taught
how to harmonize any part, whether it's tenor, alto, or bass.
You had to know everyone else's part in case someone else doesn't
show up for the concert.
[Laughs]
With that, my ear became really good.
I am not pitch perfect, but I'm pretty close.
My ear became really good.
My musical abilities just
increased and expanded over the years,
building on what I had.
Then I took formal vocal classes.
I was under a vocal coach.
His name is Cosimo Oppedisano.
He's a classical vocalist,
very well known in Montreal, and I was under his leadership
for some time vocally.
Then I was in another vocal coach for gospel
under the direction of Jennifer Meade.
Through that, I was able to - I was given the opportunity to meet Oliver Jones,
the jazz pianist who was world renowned,
and he was my mentor
for quite a bit throughout that time.
Did you play the harmonica, too?
I did. I always try to keep that a secret.
[Laughs.] Sorry!
Yes, I did play the harmonica for quite a long time.
I played it for 12 years.
So even when I moved to Canada, I would either be a vocalist in a band
or a harmonica player in the band.
I learned that by ear, actually.
I was very much inspired by Stevie Wonder because I just really liked the way
he played harmonica, how much soul was infused within harmonica.
Because it's a hard instrument
to play to make it sound soulful
because it's that instrument that you hear mostly
in blues or folk music,
you don'thear it within soul R&B as much.
So I was really intrigued by that, how he's able to get that sound
and that emotion out of the harmonica.
So my obsession, that's where it kind of started.
It started at seven years old.
My mother actually bought me this tiny harmonica that only had
the C scale on it, and I practiced that.
Then when I was a teenager, I was able
to raise a few piggy banks that I had
and was able to buy a chromatic
hamaica, which is my introduction
into the pro instrument.
When did you start touching digital instruments?
Oh, digital instruments, I started touching them,
I'll say I was 14, because at that time,
the way I was looking at musical creation
was within a very limited view.
So I thought, why not see what's out there within the digital world?
So that whenever I do start my own band, people can actually play my compositions
the way I want them to be played.
I was 14, and my first introduction was to FruityLoops.
I don't know if you know or remember FruityLoops
but that was my first introduction
to digital instruments of making beats through FruityLoops.
And then I was later introduced
to Ableton, and then I switched.
I moved away from Windows.
I became bougie and then started using software like Logic
and other fancy software like Melodyne and such and digital performer.
With that shift to more and more
digital, I would say improvements
in the digital world, I think at a certain point you were thinking
of creating your own instrument. Am I wrong about that?
Yeah. That started a little bit later.
I'd say that started in 2018 in terms of creating my own instrument.
But in terms of having my compositions played accurately the way I envisioned them,
what I did is I created music using MIDI,
and I would use Melodyne for pitch correction and basically sing the bass line,
sing the guitar line, Kind of like scat singing.
So I'd start my bass line, guitar line and piano.
I have it in a media form and have those who are sight readers
have it on Sibelius.
And I was able to have that presented to my musicians
so that does it my way of trying to get
my compositions to be played the way they should be played.
Then to create my own instrument
actually was inspired by a YouTube video
I came across of John Kelly.
John Kelly is a fantastic artist
based in the UK, and he had
his first edition of the Kellycaster, and I was just fascinated.
I was like, wow, he's actually able to play an instrument of his dreams
without any boundaries.
And this led to meeting my friend Charles Matthews,
who is a programmer, a software engineer,
and an artist as well.
We talked about John, and it so happened that he was the one
who developed the Kellycaster alongside John.
It was like, whoa, I'm meeting the guy
who was part of this amazing creation.
Then that's where "Blurring the Boundaries" was created, was birthed, is that
I was like, Why don't we start
an organization that works on creating
accessible digital instruments as well as physical instruments.
That's where "Blurring the Boundaries" began.
Here we are.
This was between the UK and Canada, and you were able to create these bridges
between several, not only countries, but several organizations or several artists?
Yes.
Yes, yes.
The Internet is a good thing. [Laughs.]
When I connected with Charles,
it happened that he was in Montreal visiting, and we were able to connect.
Then a year later, we launched Blurring the Boundaries.
We actually launched it in the UK and we invited quite a few artists
in the UK to come or not and to see what we have in mind and all that.
Then we all just stayed in contact and kept in touch with each other's projects.
Then I met colleagues here in Canada
like Adam Bell and Jason Nolan and Kurt [Thumlert].
Then basically, that's how the circle of life happened.
I think David Bobier was there, too, right?
David Bobier was there, too.
Charles is the one who introduced me to David Bobier.
Then the three of us, we were the ones who began
Blurring the Boundaries and to what it is right now.
Did you go to the UK to meet these people in person?
Yes, we did.
We had a jam, hackathon session
that spanned a week, going there,
tinkering in the lab, and playing with different things,
and blurring the boundaries of what's possible.
Because oftentimes, When it comes to -
to creativity, when it comes to innovation,
there's usually boundaries that are set.
There's usually limits that are imposed on you.
And the very basis of Blurring the Boundaries is that we push those limits.
And how do we do that?
Well, we make something with
the lens of universal design that nothing
can be off limits and everything can be configured to someone's specific needs.
That's how it came to be.
Was the Drake Music involved in that?
Drake Music was involved in inviting some of their community members
to our launch session.
We had our launch at Graeae Theatre at Drake Music in the UK.
We had quite a huge turnout.
Actually, Adam Bell was one of the audience people there who attended.
So lucky. I'm so envious right now!
I'm just seeing how, yeah. [Laughs.]
Yeah. Fantastic.
Now you're not in Montreal anymore?
Now I'm not in Montreal.
I'm in Mississauga. I am in Ontario now.
Are you creating new projects?
Yes, always.
Right now, I am in two projects.
One with CAMIN Project and with FARM Project, which is a collaboration with
York University and Western.
It's a grant that's basically focusing on amplifying
artists with disabilities, their creativeness,
and creating basically anti-ableist practice within the arts.
That's essentially where these projects are coming into play.
One of the things that I'm working on is a podcast called Rythms of Access,
which will be coming out in the next two months.
And this is where I'm going to be interviewing guests
across the globe, guests who are artists.
Primarily, I'm focusing on musicians and singers,
just to talk about their work,
to talk about their creative process,
what process do they take, how do they come to creating what they want,
and what barriers do they experience within
that creative process, and them sharing what things have worked
for them within that process and what hasn't.
So basically to create this space where people who are trying to get into the art scene,
whatever that may look like for them,
they could be encouraged and inspired to pursue their dreams
and to think beyond the boundaries that have already been set
by the art industry, the pop culture art industry
that's usually exclusive.
As a disability rights activist, it's not your first podcast, right?
You already had some podcast before.
You co-hosted. I have.
I've co-hosted quite a few.
I've never had one where it's just me, the host.
So this one is the first.
So I've co-hosted a few, and it's been largely due to the fact
that I was bored because COVID.
When COVID hit, a lot of my artistic
events stopped for quite a while.
And I was like, What better way than to have conversations
with people about different things?
So one of the podcast was focusing on racial issues and disability, and
the other one was focusing on ableism within the healthcare system
around during COVID time.
Those were the themes that
I was focusing on during that time.
So today, with all these projects that are here and also collaborations,
I guess you're really working in
what I call disability arts, which is really
connecting with other colleagues.
We met like that, actually.
We met through CAMIN.
I'm also at York University.
It's multiple connections, but all these connections coming together, this is
this community of artists that we build.
What does it mean for you to work in that environment?
It's empowering and it's humbling.
It's very humbling because
I am an activist first and then an artist second.
And I believe there's a lot of power in having lots of voices,
creating something beautiful.
And being able to be in spaces where you're surrounded by
extremely intelligent artist, extremely creative artists,
it's really something that many people don't get the opportunity to experience.
And what we experienced that weekend at the RE/Lab, Diane, was very special.
And I just want more communities
around the globe to exist the way we that weekend.
I want people to actually create those moments, to create those communities
within their respective environments
so that they can lift each other up,
encourage each other up, and support each other in projects.
Because when that happens, there's no competition.
There's a community, right?
I think that's something that people, as artists, we should remember that
when we lift someone else up, we are also lifting ourselves up,
and we are learning from that.
In England, because disability arts, but also activism
between people with disabilities in the social world
started really earlier than in Canada
or in the US, it was already here.
But I'm talking really about the arts.
The movements were really shaking the world and saying, We are artists.
We also happen to be disabled, but we are artists before.
In the UK, they are believing in that for a very long time and they give money.
This is a support of the idea that communities of artists can come.
I don't know how we can do that in Canada, but with all your experience of
working with these communities and also working with UK and working with Canada
to get some funding to do some projects,
How can we - do you have an idea of that?
How can we get more of these communities together?
Personally, in the foundation of humility, right?
Because I feel that there's always this intimidation.
Someone mentioned this during that weekend at the RE/Lab, that
if someone is not within the educational sector, within the arts,
they feel that they're not an artist.
And vice versa.
Those who are in the education sector, they feel that they're boxing themselves in
because the creative process
functions a different way.
I think what should be understood
is that creativity is creativity.
Expression of art is expression of art, regardless of what environment you're in.
And that art in education
and within outside education can coexist,
and creativity can happen, and it can happening in a beautiful way,
whether it's in a formal setting or an informal setting.
And that was evident in that CAMIN event
that we did, where we had artists
from all backgrounds coming together
and just creating beautiful music.
So I think the barrier needs to be broken between
that education-related artists and
folks who are not part of the educational system.
It's all about collaborative work anyway.
Exactly. Exactly.
That's where I would start.
And when we look at the CAMIN grant, for example, Blurring the Boundaries
is a standalone organization.
We were able to partner with Western University and York.
That's just to show you that it is possible to collaborate, even if you're
all from different schools of thought.
Very good. I really believe in what you say.
I'm an academic, but I'm also, before being an academic, I'm a musician, right?
I'm a singer. I'm a voice teacher for children.
Being an academic brought me something, gave me some extra things,
but it will never be more important than the other or something like that.
I believe also in the power of music education because by transmitting these
to younger generation, then in the way we are transmitting it,
they are becoming more open and they are becoming more...
They are developing this spirit of collaboration
that we try to transmit them.
Absolutely.
Speaking of collaboration, I wonder if you
have someone you could think of in terms
of inspiration or in terms of someone who was important for you in your career
in all your environments you worked in.
If you had one or two people or more to mention, who would it be and why?
Yeah, absolutely.
When I was a kid singing in choirs and such,
my inspiration was Stevie Wonder.
The reason why Stevie Wonder was my inspiration is because
I didn't have anyone else that looked like me.
That was - closely looked like me.
He was a black man, and he has a disability,
and I have a disability, and I'm a black man.
I'd never seen anyone else.
Ray Charles was a bit too old for me to know his music, but
Stevie Wonder was within my age of interest.
So he was the first inspiration that I was interested in because
I kind of like identified with his experiences,
I identified with his creative process.
So he was my number one fan person for me.
And then second, I'll say it's John Kelly.
He's going to kill me when I say this.
But John Kelly inspires me greatly.
Again, he looks like me, an artist with a disability
who has also a heart for advocacy.
If you look at Stevie Wonder and John Kelly, both of their music
talk about advocacy, activism.
Stevie Wonder at the time was talking about racism and war
that was going on around the world.
John Kelly is talking about issues that are happening within
the disability community in his music.
I'm an activist, and that really resonates with me a lot.
John Kelly's message is: be firm when you're doing advocacy work,
but do it out of love.
Do it out of love.
Don't be too harsh, but be firm and out of love.
That really speaks to me greatly.
I feel honored that he's my friend, and I'm able to just pick up your phone
and call him and be like, Hey, John, how would you handle this?
Those are my two.
Very nice.
It's funny. John Kelly came back several times in our conversations,
but also with other guests.
Yes. Oh, John Kelly.
Absolutely.
John Kelly, if you hear that,
we love you.
Absolutely. We're a fan.
Very fan.
Okay. Thank you so much for this conversation.
And I wish you all the best for your upcoming
podcast and all the other projects
that are coming that are very exciting.
Thank you so much.
Really appreciate. And see you around.
Thank you for having me and for thinking of me.
I'm looking forward to see what else is to come with ArtsAbly
and to assist in any way I can.
Thank you so much.
And yeah, me too.
I would love to assist in any way I can.
Absolutely.
Okay. Have a good day.
You too.
Bye.
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