1 00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:06,139 ♪ Opening theme music ♪ 2 00:00:13,813 --> 00:00:17,984 Hello and welcome to this episode of ArtsAbly in Conversation. 3 00:00:18,018 --> 00:00:20,286 My name is Diane Kolin. 4 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:25,725 This series presents artists, academics, and project leaders who dedicate their 5 00:00:25,759 --> 00:00:31,765 time and energy to a better accessibility for people with disabilities in the arts. 6 00:00:31,798 --> 00:00:37,170 You can find more of these conversations on our website, artsably.com, 7 00:00:37,170 --> 00:00:42,442 which is spelled A-R-T-S-A-B-L-Y dot com. 8 00:00:43,576 --> 00:00:48,715 ♪ Theme music ♪ 9 00:00:56,022 --> 00:01:00,560 Today, ArtsAbly is in conversation with Kristine Maitland, who is 10 00:01:00,593 --> 00:01:06,633 a storyteller, a singer, a dancer, a photographer, and a public speaker. 11 00:01:06,666 --> 00:01:11,004 You can find the resources mentioned by Kristine Maitland during this episode 12 00:01:11,037 --> 00:01:14,607 on ArtsAbly's website in the blog section. 13 00:01:15,108 --> 00:01:17,277 ♪ Kristine sings ♪ 14 00:01:17,277 --> 00:01:23,383 Your tongue was kissed by sea and mist tenderly. 15 00:01:23,383 --> 00:01:31,124 I can't forget how two hearts met breathlessly. 16 00:01:31,157 --> 00:01:38,364 Your arms opened wide and closed me inside. 17 00:01:38,398 --> 00:01:45,505 You took my lips, you took my love so tenderly. 18 00:01:45,638 --> 00:01:47,540 You took my lips, 19 00:01:47,574 --> 00:01:54,514 you took my love so tenderly. 20 00:01:57,851 --> 00:02:00,019 ♪ Audience claps. ♪ 21 00:02:01,654 --> 00:02:04,824 Welcome to this new episode of ArtsAbly in conversation. 22 00:02:04,858 --> 00:02:11,731 Today I am with Kristine Maitland, who is a storyteller, a singer, a dancer, 23 00:02:11,764 --> 00:02:14,367 a photographer, and also a public speaker. 24 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:16,970 Welcome Kristine. 25 00:02:17,003 --> 00:02:19,939 Thank you. I do appreciate that. 26 00:02:19,973 --> 00:02:25,011 So you have a rich artistic life, but 27 00:02:25,044 --> 00:02:27,113 I think it started with the storytelling. 28 00:02:27,113 --> 00:02:30,250 Can you tell us a little bit more about your background? 29 00:02:30,783 --> 00:02:33,453 Okay. So, my name is Kristine Maitland. 30 00:02:33,453 --> 00:02:35,555 My pronouns are she her. 31 00:02:35,555 --> 00:02:41,261 In terms of a little bit more about me I was originally diagnosed as a child 32 00:02:41,294 --> 00:02:47,567 as autistic and then diagnosed in my twenties as having ADHD 33 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:52,205 before receiving my most recent diagnosis as being bipolar. 34 00:02:52,238 --> 00:02:57,710 Personally, I view myself as being on the spectrum of the first two. 35 00:02:57,710 --> 00:03:01,014 A little bit about my sort of artistic practice. 36 00:03:01,047 --> 00:03:07,253 I am a singer performer of jazz, soul, R&B, as well as folk, Americana, 37 00:03:07,287 --> 00:03:09,822 medieval, and Renaissance music. 38 00:03:09,856 --> 00:03:15,161 I am also a dancer with a background in ballroom, Latin, and swing, 39 00:03:15,194 --> 00:03:18,431 with training in ballet as a child and some knowledge of 40 00:03:18,464 --> 00:03:21,301 belly dance and renaissance dance. 41 00:03:21,334 --> 00:03:25,805 I teach rhythm and motion and movement. 42 00:03:25,838 --> 00:03:30,076 I am also - I've been a writer since the nineties 43 00:03:30,076 --> 00:03:33,279 and a researcher mainly of black history. 44 00:03:33,313 --> 00:03:39,652 I am known for making TV and radio appearances, mainly because 45 00:03:39,686 --> 00:03:44,991 I'm a media ho and I'm a photographer. 46 00:03:44,991 --> 00:03:49,929 Lastly, I live in Tkaronto in the traditional territory of the many nations, 47 00:03:49,963 --> 00:03:54,601 including Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, 48 00:03:54,634 --> 00:03:59,739 the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples 49 00:03:59,739 --> 00:04:03,343 and live in a city that's now 50 00:04:03,376 --> 00:04:10,383 home to diverse nations, including the First Nations, Inuit and Metis people. 51 00:04:10,416 --> 00:04:16,656 But while I am a Canadian, I recognize my heritage as being Guyanese and honor 52 00:04:16,689 --> 00:04:21,427 my mother and my female ancestors, including my grandmother Carmen, 53 00:04:21,427 --> 00:04:25,665 my aunt Margaret and my great great aunts. 54 00:04:25,665 --> 00:04:30,203 How did it start, all this attraction to the arts in your family? 55 00:04:30,236 --> 00:04:34,540 My mother, definitely my mother. 56 00:04:34,574 --> 00:04:41,447 She was the one who took advantage of being in Toronto. 57 00:04:41,481 --> 00:04:47,620 My parents separated when I was three and my mother made the decision 58 00:04:47,654 --> 00:04:49,822 to stay in this country. 59 00:04:49,856 --> 00:04:55,962 She had come with my father from the West Indies and then that didn't work out. 60 00:04:55,995 --> 00:05:01,167 And instead of going to the United States to live with my grandmother, my mother 61 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:07,774 decided to stay here because she knew there were more options and 62 00:05:07,807 --> 00:05:11,711 opportunities, especially in the arts. 63 00:05:11,711 --> 00:05:15,248 So I went to the library regularly. 64 00:05:15,281 --> 00:05:23,222 I went to events at the U of T. 65 00:05:23,256 --> 00:05:29,162 My first introduction to Poculi Ludique Societas, which is a medieval theater 66 00:05:29,195 --> 00:05:32,799 company, was when I was five. 67 00:05:32,832 --> 00:05:35,802 I took ballet starting at the age of four. 68 00:05:35,835 --> 00:05:40,640 Did that till I was twelve with a ballet instructor 69 00:05:40,673 --> 00:05:43,710 who was trained at the Bolshoi. 70 00:05:43,710 --> 00:05:47,447 So. And I did storytelling. 71 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:51,350 My mother did storytelling with me when I was very little. 72 00:05:51,350 --> 00:05:56,923 So, like, I know my own family history, like, to the nth degree. 73 00:05:56,956 --> 00:06:03,062 And she also collected children's books, so she would read to me. 74 00:06:03,096 --> 00:06:05,565 I mean, my mother is 50 now, not 50. 75 00:06:05,598 --> 00:06:07,200 I'm 50 plus. 76 00:06:07,233 --> 00:06:12,205 My mother is 80 and still reads children's books to me. 77 00:06:12,238 --> 00:06:14,574 So it's very much part of the culture. 78 00:06:14,607 --> 00:06:19,312 And even, like, when you look at my teens 79 00:06:19,312 --> 00:06:21,881 and in my twenties, my mother 80 00:06:21,914 --> 00:06:25,852 would take storytelling classes with me. 81 00:06:25,885 --> 00:06:33,259 I wasn't the type of kid who was like, oh, mom, why are you with me, Ma? 82 00:06:33,292 --> 00:06:35,361 That wasn't my, my style. 83 00:06:35,394 --> 00:06:39,665 I, you know, I did things with my mother all the time and still do. 84 00:06:39,665 --> 00:06:44,570 And so from storytelling because her storytelling was for children. 85 00:06:44,604 --> 00:06:48,374 But if I understand correctly, you were more attracted in storytelling 86 00:06:48,408 --> 00:06:52,512 about lived experience or adulthood or things like that. 87 00:06:52,512 --> 00:06:55,748 Well, actually, that's not totally accurate. 88 00:06:55,748 --> 00:07:00,653 My mother told the stories of our family 89 00:07:00,686 --> 00:07:03,923 and then as I got older, I would find out 90 00:07:03,956 --> 00:07:07,460 more personal stories about the family. 91 00:07:07,493 --> 00:07:12,031 And you know how my, I found out about 92 00:07:12,031 --> 00:07:15,067 my grandmother's participation 93 00:07:15,067 --> 00:07:20,339 in the war, World War Two, I mean. 94 00:07:20,339 --> 00:07:24,310 You know. Then stories would be, 95 00:07:24,310 --> 00:07:29,582 for example, I lost my great aunt to 9/11 96 00:07:29,582 --> 00:07:38,024 because she was a nurse and she died from the toxic dust, 97 00:07:38,024 --> 00:07:41,427 from the, from the two towers. 98 00:07:41,427 --> 00:07:46,332 So, like, these are all stories that play a part in our lives. 99 00:07:46,365 --> 00:07:48,100 And. 100 00:07:48,434 --> 00:07:49,068 And then. 101 00:07:49,068 --> 00:07:55,708 So when it comes to my own storytelling, it depends on the venue. 102 00:07:55,708 --> 00:08:02,081 So I'm very active in the LGBTQ2S community. 103 00:08:02,114 --> 00:08:06,419 So those stories tend to be a little more - 104 00:08:06,552 --> 00:08:11,190 They can be a bit more erotic, they can be a little more explicit. 105 00:08:11,224 --> 00:08:17,330 Whereas if I'm telling stories of history, especially the black history 106 00:08:17,363 --> 00:08:21,801 I do, then it will be. 107 00:08:22,368 --> 00:08:25,404 It won't be as much so, you know, so that. 108 00:08:25,438 --> 00:08:27,173 So it gages. 109 00:08:27,206 --> 00:08:31,344 What I don't do is storytelling for children. 110 00:08:31,344 --> 00:08:32,812 I'm trained to do it. 111 00:08:32,845 --> 00:08:40,419 I worked for Toronto Public Libraries from 1988 to 1999. 112 00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:41,454 I even. 113 00:08:41,487 --> 00:08:45,091 I built two puppet shows for Toronto Public Library. 114 00:08:45,124 --> 00:08:46,092 But. 115 00:08:46,125 --> 00:08:51,230 So I'm trained to do it, but it's not a favorite thing for me to do. 116 00:08:51,430 --> 00:08:56,602 And this must have evolved into your black history research. 117 00:08:56,636 --> 00:08:59,205 Black history has always played a part in my life because my mother 118 00:08:59,238 --> 00:09:06,178 would tell me stories of black history, but particularly black history 119 00:09:06,212 --> 00:09:10,182 in the Caribbean, mainly because people don't talk about it much. 120 00:09:10,216 --> 00:09:12,985 So this is something I retain. 121 00:09:12,985 --> 00:09:17,723 But when I started university, 122 00:09:17,890 --> 00:09:20,126 I got involved with 123 00:09:20,126 --> 00:09:23,663 the Society for Creative Anachronism, which is 124 00:09:23,696 --> 00:09:29,268 a medieval / renaissance reenactment group 125 00:09:29,268 --> 00:09:32,204 that started in the sixties. 126 00:09:32,238 --> 00:09:36,809 My easy explanation of the SCA is it's a bunch of white guys who put on armor and 127 00:09:36,842 --> 00:09:39,645 bash each other's brain in with stick. 128 00:09:39,645 --> 00:09:41,647 (Laughs) 129 00:09:41,714 --> 00:09:43,215 That's simplistic. 130 00:09:43,249 --> 00:09:50,022 And I think I defend my friends in the SCA, but basically that's what it is. 131 00:09:50,056 --> 00:09:55,294 But when I joined the SCA, the Ontario chapter 132 00:09:55,294 --> 00:09:58,798 had one black, two black people in it, 133 00:09:58,798 --> 00:10:01,100 and I was one of them. 134 00:10:01,133 --> 00:10:04,670 And I had a friend, a musician, 135 00:10:04,670 --> 00:10:09,609 who was doing collecting black history 136 00:10:09,642 --> 00:10:15,181 research, but he's a musician 137 00:10:15,214 --> 00:10:18,451 and tends to be a bit flighty. 138 00:10:18,484 --> 00:10:25,191 So I took the project away from him and I started collecting the data. 139 00:10:25,191 --> 00:10:31,230 And I still do, mainly, but I specifically 140 00:10:31,230 --> 00:10:34,133 about medieval and renaissance history. 141 00:10:34,166 --> 00:10:40,539 That's my field, because in the nineties, 142 00:10:40,673 --> 00:10:43,542 it was hard to find. 143 00:10:43,843 --> 00:10:49,448 You know, it's gotten easier now because, like, in the nineties, 144 00:10:49,482 --> 00:10:52,685 we didn't have Google. 145 00:10:53,686 --> 00:10:58,524 And even in the early aughts, with Google, 146 00:10:58,557 --> 00:11:01,560 doing research still wasn't easy because 147 00:11:01,594 --> 00:11:08,367 we didn't have the keyword searches to be able to do that kind of work 148 00:11:08,401 --> 00:11:09,802 that has since changed. 149 00:11:09,835 --> 00:11:15,007 But in those days, literally, I was doing the work by hand. 150 00:11:15,041 --> 00:11:18,744 In terms of history, you spend your whole life in Toronto, so you 151 00:11:18,778 --> 00:11:24,350 must have seen periods of evolution, of 152 00:11:24,350 --> 00:11:27,186 how your research was perceived and how 153 00:11:27,186 --> 00:11:30,423 black history evolved in the city. 154 00:11:30,423 --> 00:11:39,365 It's still. I'll be honest, it's still problematic because, like, in the nineties, 155 00:11:41,701 --> 00:11:45,771 I tried to sort of communicate with school boards and so on. 156 00:11:45,805 --> 00:11:52,311 I was ignored because I'm dealing with basically white academics. 157 00:11:52,311 --> 00:12:00,019 And then even in the SCA, it was a bit tenuous. 158 00:12:00,352 --> 00:12:04,256 People would question why I felt the need to do it. 159 00:12:04,290 --> 00:12:07,960 So that that was an issue 160 00:12:09,528 --> 00:12:14,734 and, you know, so it was a battle. 161 00:12:14,767 --> 00:12:18,971 These days, my issue is 162 00:12:18,971 --> 00:12:23,209 when dealing with academia, 163 00:12:24,310 --> 00:12:27,179 I have people who basically will lie to me 164 00:12:27,179 --> 00:12:31,917 and tell me that they're not doing the research that they're actually doing. 165 00:12:31,951 --> 00:12:35,187 I've had that happen a couple of times because everybody's, like, 166 00:12:35,187 --> 00:12:36,889 holding on to their research. 167 00:12:36,922 --> 00:12:40,126 Like, you know, you've dealt with academics. You know what it's like. 168 00:12:40,126 --> 00:12:42,695 Yep. 169 00:12:42,728 --> 00:12:44,163 You know, and when they're not. 170 00:12:44,196 --> 00:12:48,167 And especially when you're speaking to somebody who doesn't have three letters 171 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:53,105 behind their name, you know, I have a BA, you know, 172 00:12:53,105 --> 00:12:58,043 you know, I don't have a PhD, and therefore I don't have the credential, 173 00:12:58,077 --> 00:13:02,782 the street cred when dealing with these people, even though 174 00:13:02,782 --> 00:13:06,285 three quarters of the time I know more than they do. 175 00:13:06,318 --> 00:13:07,520 Yeah, but we have. 176 00:13:07,553 --> 00:13:11,323 We have this discussion about, okay, it's great to have a PhD. 177 00:13:11,357 --> 00:13:17,129 It shows that you did a lot of studies and spent a lot of time with academics. 178 00:13:17,163 --> 00:13:23,002 But okay, it's fine to have none, and it's fine to have a Master. 179 00:13:23,035 --> 00:13:23,669 It's fine. 180 00:13:23,669 --> 00:13:28,140 It's all about what your motivation in life is and what. 181 00:13:28,340 --> 00:13:29,708 What you like to do. 182 00:13:29,708 --> 00:13:31,043 It's not about. 183 00:13:31,076 --> 00:13:34,380 It's important to have three letters. 184 00:13:34,413 --> 00:13:38,484 And I think it's funny because I also feel 185 00:13:38,517 --> 00:13:42,688 because the research is so accessible. 186 00:13:43,222 --> 00:13:50,496 The days of being able to keep things locked away in a library, 187 00:13:50,529 --> 00:13:52,364 like an academic library. 188 00:13:52,398 --> 00:13:53,899 Forget public. 189 00:13:53,933 --> 00:13:57,403 An academic library who, unless you happen 190 00:13:57,436 --> 00:14:01,841 to have the library card, you know, 191 00:14:01,874 --> 00:14:06,312 because you're a PhD and you can get in, 192 00:14:06,312 --> 00:14:10,149 you know, in the nineties, because I was 193 00:14:10,182 --> 00:14:17,656 a U of T grad and an alumna, I was able to get a library card. 194 00:14:17,690 --> 00:14:23,028 And then after a certain point, I had to pay for that privilege. 195 00:14:23,028 --> 00:14:28,934 Yeah. These days, Toronto Public Library 196 00:14:28,968 --> 00:14:31,604 has access to JSTOR. 197 00:14:31,637 --> 00:14:38,744 It has access to, like, the major academic journals online. 198 00:14:38,744 --> 00:14:45,684 So I don't, you know, I can just go online and look this stuff up, 199 00:14:45,884 --> 00:14:48,287 you know, I mean, here's classic. 200 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,457 When Toronto Public Library got hacked 201 00:14:51,490 --> 00:14:55,761 and the system went down, I happened to 202 00:14:55,794 --> 00:15:02,468 be speaking to a journalist from CTV and told them that I was flipping out 203 00:15:02,468 --> 00:15:06,071 because I couldn't access the JSTOR. 204 00:15:06,071 --> 00:15:12,845 JSTOR got a touch with me and gave me access directly, 205 00:15:12,878 --> 00:15:18,851 you know, so it's just like they recognize the importance of this stuff. 206 00:15:19,084 --> 00:15:24,790 Speaking of that, speaking of journalists, you're also a writer, right? 207 00:15:24,790 --> 00:15:26,025 You're writing these. 208 00:15:26,025 --> 00:15:29,361 So what do you write? 209 00:15:29,395 --> 00:15:36,101 Okay. So I started writing in my - well, actually 210 00:15:36,135 --> 00:15:38,904 first started writing in high school. 211 00:15:38,904 --> 00:15:45,978 I would do exposes, you know, and then when I was in, when I was in university 212 00:15:46,011 --> 00:15:50,582 and more to the point, when I was just finishing it, I started writing 213 00:15:50,616 --> 00:15:55,220 for the varsity, which is the school 214 00:15:55,254 --> 00:15:59,224 paper, the main paper for U of T. 215 00:15:59,224 --> 00:16:02,061 You may know the name Naomi Klein. 216 00:16:02,094 --> 00:16:05,798 Naomi Klein was the editor at the time. 217 00:16:07,366 --> 00:16:12,538 And so I would write, you know, opinion pieces and so on. 218 00:16:12,571 --> 00:16:17,743 I also, that was the point where I started doing interviews. 219 00:16:17,776 --> 00:16:23,015 So I would interview over, I interviewed like a whole bunch 220 00:16:23,048 --> 00:16:27,619 of Canadian writers who were just starting their careers. 221 00:16:27,653 --> 00:16:30,956 Like people like Guy Gavriel Kay, for example. 222 00:16:30,990 --> 00:16:38,297 And, you know, and now, like, they're like Governor, you know, 223 00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:43,402 Governor General Awards winners, you know, but I knew them at the beginning, 224 00:16:43,435 --> 00:16:48,807 so I, but my first, like, paid piece was thanks 225 00:16:48,841 --> 00:16:54,179 to Michele Landsberg, who I met through my mother, 226 00:16:54,213 --> 00:16:55,514 through storytelling. 227 00:16:55,547 --> 00:16:57,883 That's how I got the gig. 228 00:16:57,916 --> 00:17:01,954 And she was the one who got me an in with the Toronto Star. 229 00:17:01,987 --> 00:17:05,657 So my first piece was published there. 230 00:17:05,691 --> 00:17:08,994 Then I wrote for the Toronto Star. 231 00:17:09,028 --> 00:17:13,365 Toronto Star had a Afro canadian magazine 232 00:17:13,399 --> 00:17:16,535 that it had for a couple of years. 233 00:17:16,568 --> 00:17:18,170 And I wrote for them. 234 00:17:18,203 --> 00:17:22,107 And essentially my relationship with them was they would call me up and say, 235 00:17:22,107 --> 00:17:25,010 can you write an article on x? 236 00:17:25,044 --> 00:17:31,683 And I would meet the individual, interview them, write the piece, get paid. 237 00:17:31,717 --> 00:17:34,953 I mean, that was pretty much it. 238 00:17:34,987 --> 00:17:38,791 So that was the sort of stuff I was doing as a writer. 239 00:17:38,824 --> 00:17:43,128 The last, I must admit, because of COVID and everything else, 240 00:17:43,162 --> 00:17:45,497 I haven't really been writing much. 241 00:17:45,531 --> 00:17:48,167 I'm hoping to get back into the scene. 242 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:53,705 Last piece I did was for Huffington Post, 243 00:17:53,705 --> 00:17:59,344 and it was an article on the first cousin 244 00:17:59,344 --> 00:18:05,551 of Queen Elizabeth II, who used to live next door to me. 245 00:18:06,051 --> 00:18:12,658 So I, you know, and so it was sort of a conversation about the royal family 246 00:18:12,691 --> 00:18:20,299 and of the time versus Meghan Markle, 247 00:18:20,299 --> 00:18:25,037 who my mother met by the way! You know, 248 00:18:25,037 --> 00:18:33,245 my family, you know, these people come into our lives and in, in very weird ways. 249 00:18:33,278 --> 00:18:35,347 I want to go back to singing. 250 00:18:35,347 --> 00:18:37,182 I know you're a jazz singer. 251 00:18:37,216 --> 00:18:38,884 You have a beautiful voice. 252 00:18:38,917 --> 00:18:40,419 Yeah, among other things. 253 00:18:40,452 --> 00:18:46,191 But I heard some excerpt of jazz, so I was very, very happy. 254 00:18:46,425 --> 00:18:47,960 When did it start? 255 00:18:47,993 --> 00:18:49,495 When did you start singing? 256 00:18:49,528 --> 00:18:54,900 Well, I sang in church because I was raised as a Roman Catholic. 257 00:18:54,933 --> 00:19:00,339 More specifically, I was raised as an Irish Roman Catholic. 258 00:19:00,372 --> 00:19:04,143 The church was mainly Irish, go figure. 259 00:19:04,176 --> 00:19:10,949 But so I sang in church, but when I was my. 260 00:19:10,949 --> 00:19:14,052 The church was actually St. Cecilia's, 261 00:19:14,052 --> 00:19:16,688 which is the patron saint of music. 262 00:19:16,722 --> 00:19:20,292 And singing was very much 263 00:19:20,325 --> 00:19:24,096 a part of my early education, 264 00:19:24,129 --> 00:19:27,699 elementary school education. 265 00:19:27,733 --> 00:19:34,439 But one of the standouts during that time was there was 266 00:19:34,473 --> 00:19:39,912 a Canadian singer named Bobby Gimby. 267 00:19:39,912 --> 00:19:47,452 He sang part of Expo in Montreal in, 268 00:19:47,486 --> 00:19:49,721 what was it, 67. 269 00:19:49,755 --> 00:19:53,892 And there's a song called Canada. 270 00:19:53,926 --> 00:20:03,001 You know, "Canada, notre pays." 271 00:20:03,035 --> 00:20:04,770 So on, so forth. 272 00:20:04,803 --> 00:20:06,038 So we. 273 00:20:06,071 --> 00:20:12,244 My school did a gig with him at Ontario Place, 274 00:20:12,244 --> 00:20:21,353 when Ontario Place was Ontario place, in 1976. 275 00:20:22,354 --> 00:20:26,124 So, like, that was my first, like, 276 00:20:26,158 --> 00:20:30,362 big show thing, because it was like, 277 00:20:30,395 --> 00:20:35,334 I don't know, 200 kids singing with him, you know? 278 00:20:35,367 --> 00:20:41,240 And we also appeared on television a couple of times and sang with him then. 279 00:20:41,273 --> 00:20:45,944 I didn't sing again actively 280 00:20:45,944 --> 00:20:50,515 until high school because 281 00:20:50,515 --> 00:20:58,423 I went to Humberside Collegiate, which is also a very music oriented school. 282 00:21:00,025 --> 00:21:03,662 And so I sang in girls choir. 283 00:21:04,129 --> 00:21:07,165 And then after that. 284 00:21:07,799 --> 00:21:11,903 After that, I was doing the Medieval Renaissance stuff. 285 00:21:11,937 --> 00:21:13,038 I also did. 286 00:21:13,071 --> 00:21:19,244 I sang Sephardic music because it was easier than singing 287 00:21:19,278 --> 00:21:22,648 in Portuguese, as I discovered. 288 00:21:23,148 --> 00:21:25,984 And so I did a lot of that. I did a lot of. 289 00:21:25,984 --> 00:21:31,289 So we're talking 14th, 15th, 16th century material. 290 00:21:31,590 --> 00:21:34,326 I have a knack for learning 291 00:21:34,359 --> 00:21:39,631 to sing phonetically, so I sing in 292 00:21:39,631 --> 00:21:43,301 about eight different languages. 293 00:21:43,502 --> 00:21:46,972 There's only. There's certain languages I won't touch. 294 00:21:47,005 --> 00:21:51,109 Polish is one, Turkish is the other. 295 00:21:51,109 --> 00:21:52,811 Phonetically, it's just like. 296 00:21:52,844 --> 00:21:57,049 It's easier to sing in Mandarin. 297 00:21:57,282 --> 00:22:03,088 So, you know, so I did that, and then I started doing gigs 298 00:22:03,121 --> 00:22:05,357 where I'd be singing and doing jazz. 299 00:22:05,390 --> 00:22:09,394 So a lot of times it would be for 300 00:22:10,429 --> 00:22:15,267 festivals, concerts, that sort of thing. 301 00:22:15,267 --> 00:22:19,471 Particularly in the LGBTQ community. 302 00:22:19,471 --> 00:22:23,508 That's where I would sort of appear, sing, leave. 303 00:22:24,142 --> 00:22:25,510 You sing with someone, right? 304 00:22:25,510 --> 00:22:28,680 You sing with a double bassist. 305 00:22:28,714 --> 00:22:30,182 I. 306 00:22:30,215 --> 00:22:32,751 Funny story with that. 307 00:22:32,784 --> 00:22:34,720 I have. I talk to people. 308 00:22:34,753 --> 00:22:35,754 I have no problem. 309 00:22:35,787 --> 00:22:39,858 People say the Torontonians are sort of closed. 310 00:22:39,891 --> 00:22:41,126 Not true. 311 00:22:41,159 --> 00:22:44,329 They're just afraid of either. 312 00:22:44,363 --> 00:22:45,897 If they don't want to deal with you, they're gonna 313 00:22:45,931 --> 00:22:49,000 have their headset on anyway. 314 00:22:49,034 --> 00:22:55,807 So I talk to people all the time, and I saw him with his double bass going 315 00:22:55,841 --> 00:23:02,781 up the stairs, and I raced up after him, and I asked him, do you play Jazz? 316 00:23:02,781 --> 00:23:05,217 Because some of them do classical, right? 317 00:23:05,250 --> 00:23:06,685 And he says, no, I do jazz. 318 00:23:06,718 --> 00:23:09,921 I said, would you be willing to partner with me? 319 00:23:09,955 --> 00:23:11,890 He said, sure. 320 00:23:11,923 --> 00:23:14,926 Man did not know me from Adam. 321 00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:19,631 Did not know if I could sing new squad. 322 00:23:20,031 --> 00:23:23,001 Turns out he was my next door neighbor. 323 00:23:23,034 --> 00:23:25,137 He literally lived around me. 324 00:23:25,170 --> 00:23:28,106 He doesn't anymore, but at the time he was literally living around 325 00:23:28,106 --> 00:23:31,009 the corner from my house. 326 00:23:31,076 --> 00:23:32,778 So we started doing stuff. 327 00:23:32,811 --> 00:23:39,584 Well, we started doing stuff together and then Covid hit. 328 00:23:39,584 --> 00:23:44,189 We literally had done our first bookings 329 00:23:44,189 --> 00:23:47,759 and then that was the end of that. 330 00:23:47,793 --> 00:23:55,333 So I've only performed with him once since, and that was last year. 331 00:23:55,367 --> 00:23:56,968 What's his name? 332 00:23:57,002 --> 00:23:59,738 Oh, Steven Falk. 333 00:23:59,771 --> 00:24:01,940 F-A-L-K. 334 00:24:01,973 --> 00:24:05,010 What are your performing spaces in Toronto? 335 00:24:05,043 --> 00:24:11,149 I just recently, literally, like a week ago, did a gig 336 00:24:11,149 --> 00:24:15,887 at The Painted Lady, which is sort of 337 00:24:15,921 --> 00:24:20,325 a club mainly for burlesque performers. 338 00:24:20,358 --> 00:24:24,429 So I joined up with them. 339 00:24:25,630 --> 00:24:28,166 I think it was "Good Morning, Goodbye," something like that. 340 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:35,607 It was - it's specifically for performers who identify as bisexual 341 00:24:36,408 --> 00:24:37,943 or within that spectrum. 342 00:24:37,976 --> 00:24:43,248 So we did that show and that went really well. 343 00:24:43,281 --> 00:24:48,186 Like, the performers were, ah, amazing. 344 00:24:48,186 --> 00:24:51,490 Absolutely amazing. 345 00:24:51,523 --> 00:24:54,459 So it was fun doing that and I think it was fun having me there 346 00:24:54,492 --> 00:24:59,231 because a lot of time with those, with burlesque shows, it's. 347 00:24:59,231 --> 00:25:03,468 It's a lot of strip, strip, strip, strip, strip. 348 00:25:03,468 --> 00:25:08,340 With luck, you might get a drag king, which we did, actually. 349 00:25:08,373 --> 00:25:10,208 He was amazing. But. 350 00:25:10,242 --> 00:25:15,480 But with me as a singer, it sort of broke things up. 351 00:25:15,513 --> 00:25:19,484 And in fact, that was the cool thing about the show, is that they had, 352 00:25:19,518 --> 00:25:23,088 we had somebody who was a gymnast, 353 00:25:23,121 --> 00:25:27,626 we had strippers, we had, like, 354 00:25:27,626 --> 00:25:29,561 we had everything and we had me, so. 355 00:25:29,594 --> 00:25:32,030 Which broke it up quite nicely. 356 00:25:32,063 --> 00:25:35,700 I like variety shows. 357 00:25:35,734 --> 00:25:42,040 If you're going to be spending that kind of money to come to a show, good to get, 358 00:25:42,073 --> 00:25:44,442 you know, your bang for your buck. 359 00:25:44,476 --> 00:25:50,949 You also added an extra artistic practice, which is photography. 360 00:25:50,949 --> 00:25:55,854 Yes. That started with the cell phone. 361 00:25:55,887 --> 00:25:57,122 I actually had enough. 362 00:25:57,155 --> 00:26:00,859 I have another camera, but, you know, but the cell phone's great 363 00:26:00,892 --> 00:26:04,029 because I can just take pictures. 364 00:26:04,062 --> 00:26:11,503 And I, I like, like, I take a lot of flora 365 00:26:11,536 --> 00:26:17,008 and fauna, but I also like to take, 366 00:26:17,409 --> 00:26:23,782 I don't take pictures of people because that's personal space. 367 00:26:23,782 --> 00:26:28,453 And, you know, then there's the legalities of, you know, getting permission 368 00:26:28,486 --> 00:26:33,525 to take the picture of them and I don't want to be bothered by that. 369 00:26:33,558 --> 00:26:35,927 So. And I have friends who are photographers. 370 00:26:35,961 --> 00:26:39,631 I'll let them do that, but I'll take 371 00:26:39,631 --> 00:26:45,837 sort of more whimsical photographs. 372 00:26:46,871 --> 00:26:50,442 Like, there was a picture I took in 373 00:26:50,475 --> 00:26:55,113 when I was in London of - 374 00:26:55,113 --> 00:26:57,649 they were doing this weird project and 375 00:26:57,649 --> 00:27:05,690 they were making a paper chain across a bridge 376 00:27:05,991 --> 00:27:09,327 and there was a sign, you know, 377 00:27:09,361 --> 00:27:14,566 saying, you know, please donate Stapler. 378 00:27:14,599 --> 00:27:21,606 I mean, it was so ridiculous, you know, because their stapler had died, you know? 379 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:27,145 You know, so it's those sort of pictures I like to take, you know, sometimes 380 00:27:27,145 --> 00:27:32,384 you know, graffiti, stuff that people 381 00:27:32,384 --> 00:27:36,121 have taped on walls, that sort of thing. 382 00:27:36,154 --> 00:27:40,659 sort of whimsy, those are the sort of photos I like to take. 383 00:27:40,692 --> 00:27:44,095 And it goes back to your storytelling, right? 384 00:27:44,129 --> 00:27:46,931 It always tells a story in that. 385 00:27:46,965 --> 00:27:50,702 It's a photo story, basically. 386 00:27:50,735 --> 00:27:54,973 The other thing I like to take are pictures of architecture. 387 00:27:55,006 --> 00:27:59,244 I like the forms of things. 388 00:27:59,277 --> 00:28:04,682 And Toronto has some great features 389 00:28:04,716 --> 00:28:07,218 that people don't really look at, 390 00:28:07,218 --> 00:28:12,123 mainly because they're either very high or. 391 00:28:12,757 --> 00:28:16,895 I think we take them for granted. 392 00:28:16,928 --> 00:28:21,199 We've got stuff we tend to have. 393 00:28:21,232 --> 00:28:25,036 A lot of our architecture tends to be a bit brutalist, 394 00:28:25,070 --> 00:28:29,908 but at the same time, we've got sort of, you know, if you look at some of the old 395 00:28:29,908 --> 00:28:35,213 banks and so on, some of the, you know, the carvings and so on are amazing, 396 00:28:35,246 --> 00:28:38,183 but we take them for granted. 397 00:28:38,216 --> 00:28:43,621 It's interesting how they, in Toronto, particularly how they mix architecture. 398 00:28:43,655 --> 00:28:48,760 So they would have this old building in the middle of gigantic towers. 399 00:28:49,060 --> 00:28:52,530 Do not get me started on that. 400 00:28:52,564 --> 00:28:53,765 It's the. 401 00:28:53,798 --> 00:29:03,942 The whole glass building thing is boring. 402 00:29:04,008 --> 00:29:10,515 Yeah. You know, it's not creative at all. 403 00:29:10,548 --> 00:29:11,750 And. And I. 404 00:29:11,750 --> 00:29:17,889 And I think, and especially, one of the things that I keep on poking my 405 00:29:17,922 --> 00:29:23,995 politicians about is housing in the city. 406 00:29:24,028 --> 00:29:30,568 When I was about six or seven, they built. 407 00:29:30,602 --> 00:29:35,039 They were going to build an Ontario housing complex 408 00:29:35,607 --> 00:29:37,976 apartment in my neighborhood. 409 00:29:38,009 --> 00:29:39,978 I live in High Park. 410 00:29:40,011 --> 00:29:44,949 And everybody was freaking out because it was just like, 411 00:29:44,949 --> 00:29:46,684 you know, it was a lot of NIMBY. 412 00:29:46,718 --> 00:29:50,188 They didn't want any of these poor people here and so on. 413 00:29:50,188 --> 00:29:55,727 And my mother, on the other hand, was like, look, you can build it. 414 00:29:55,760 --> 00:30:00,798 Just make sure it looks like all the other buildings in the neighborhood. 415 00:30:00,832 --> 00:30:06,905 The point being is that you are where you live. 416 00:30:06,905 --> 00:30:10,275 And if you build a house or apartment 417 00:30:10,308 --> 00:30:16,281 or whatever that is not to standard, 418 00:30:16,314 --> 00:30:21,586 then the people who live there will feel like they're not to standard. 419 00:30:21,586 --> 00:30:22,487 You know. 420 00:30:22,520 --> 00:30:27,892 So it's these things, you know, I take into account and I. 421 00:30:27,926 --> 00:30:30,295 If I was going to get into yet 422 00:30:30,328 --> 00:30:37,268 another thing, architecture's of interest 423 00:30:37,268 --> 00:30:44,943 to me, you know, I'll hook up with Brad Pitt and we'll talk shop. 424 00:30:45,243 --> 00:30:48,079 Oh, he's a big architecture junkie. 425 00:30:48,112 --> 00:30:50,348 Who'da knew? 426 00:30:51,983 --> 00:30:54,819 So what's the next step for you? What do you have? 427 00:30:54,819 --> 00:30:58,456 Do you have some projects in mind that you want to accomplish? 428 00:30:58,489 --> 00:31:03,328 Actually doing choreography would be cool. 429 00:31:03,361 --> 00:31:07,932 And the reason why I say that is because I've been watching a lot of dance 430 00:31:07,966 --> 00:31:13,438 on YouTube and Instagram and so on. 431 00:31:13,571 --> 00:31:19,410 Variety of styles, whether we're talking, you know, that sort of hip hop freestyle 432 00:31:19,444 --> 00:31:22,247 that they seem to be doing now. 433 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:29,053 West coast swing, tango, ballroom, like, variety. 434 00:31:29,087 --> 00:31:35,994 And what really drives me nuts is this feeling of necessity 435 00:31:36,027 --> 00:31:42,267 to do tricks instead of just dancing. 436 00:31:42,267 --> 00:31:45,036 The only person who seems to not be doing 437 00:31:45,069 --> 00:31:49,907 this whole tricks thing is Debbie Allen. 438 00:31:49,907 --> 00:31:54,679 Debbie Allen opened up a dance academy in California. 439 00:31:54,712 --> 00:31:56,147 I think it's California. 440 00:31:56,147 --> 00:32:03,221 And I've been watching her kids, and it's none of that stupid trick thing. 441 00:32:03,254 --> 00:32:09,294 And also her kids aren't, you know, these skinny minis. 442 00:32:09,327 --> 00:32:15,366 The variety in terms of size of the children who are dancing. 443 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,135 Race is not a factor. 444 00:32:17,168 --> 00:32:23,474 Is mainly black kids, but not necessarily, you know, I'd like to see, you know, 445 00:32:23,474 --> 00:32:27,845 in terms of the dance world, a wider scope. 446 00:32:27,879 --> 00:32:34,686 And, you know, so I'm sort of been thinking about how, you know, 447 00:32:34,719 --> 00:32:40,858 what I would put together, how I would, 448 00:32:40,892 --> 00:32:45,530 you know, attract people to do the 449 00:32:45,563 --> 00:32:50,668 dancing with me or do it individually. 450 00:32:50,668 --> 00:32:52,937 I'm still sort of up near. 451 00:32:52,971 --> 00:32:54,772 I see. 452 00:32:54,806 --> 00:32:56,774 That's a lot of things. Yeah. 453 00:32:57,275 --> 00:32:59,277 That's a lot. 454 00:32:59,277 --> 00:33:03,514 I have a question about working in environments where we 455 00:33:03,548 --> 00:33:06,684 promote accessibility in the arts. 456 00:33:06,718 --> 00:33:08,586 Do you think about that a lot? 457 00:33:08,586 --> 00:33:10,455 How is your process about that? 458 00:33:10,488 --> 00:33:13,624 I'll tell you, I. 459 00:33:13,624 --> 00:33:16,260 And I've been doing this, actually, since I started working, 460 00:33:16,294 --> 00:33:23,301 doing stuff in the SCA because I used to run events in the SCA, and that is, 461 00:33:23,301 --> 00:33:27,772 is that I scope venues, 462 00:33:27,805 --> 00:33:31,209 and it's amazing how many of them suck 463 00:33:31,242 --> 00:33:37,849 in terms of - especially you don't want to deal with the churches 464 00:33:37,882 --> 00:33:40,752 because you can't get in them. 465 00:33:40,752 --> 00:33:43,721 You know, they're not accessible. 466 00:33:43,755 --> 00:33:46,891 And also, I have to sort of. 467 00:33:46,924 --> 00:33:51,929 I think there are other things we have to take into account, 468 00:33:51,963 --> 00:33:57,802 like noise level, lighting, 469 00:33:57,835 --> 00:34:01,205 you know. I've gotten older and I've 470 00:34:01,239 --> 00:34:06,677 met people who have issues, especially 471 00:34:06,677 --> 00:34:12,550 my friends with children who are autistic, 472 00:34:12,784 --> 00:34:15,186 I've been sort of noting that there are 473 00:34:15,186 --> 00:34:20,324 all these sort of issues with sensory. 474 00:34:20,358 --> 00:34:25,563 And, you know, and it's a question of how do we work with that. 475 00:34:25,596 --> 00:34:32,203 You know, these are all the things, you know, how do we. 476 00:34:33,171 --> 00:34:41,546 I've seen, you know, efforts with doing, say, visual art with the blind 477 00:34:41,746 --> 00:34:51,022 and how do we, like, how do we 478 00:34:51,022 --> 00:34:54,926 be on the ball with dealing with disabilities 479 00:34:54,959 --> 00:34:57,295 when you come across them? 480 00:34:57,328 --> 00:35:01,799 But people aren't educated in this stuff. 481 00:35:01,833 --> 00:35:07,538 You know, they have a vague notion, like they might know things 482 00:35:07,572 --> 00:35:10,108 like sign language here. Sign language. 483 00:35:10,108 --> 00:35:18,015 I had a - I was at a Mayworks event this year, 484 00:35:18,049 --> 00:35:22,386 and they had 485 00:35:22,386 --> 00:35:30,194 sign language interpretation available, except they had two interpreters. 486 00:35:30,228 --> 00:35:31,896 No, no, they didn't have two interpreters. 487 00:35:31,929 --> 00:35:33,931 They had three. 488 00:35:34,132 --> 00:35:35,766 And this confused everybody. 489 00:35:35,766 --> 00:35:42,807 They couldn't understand why the deaf person needed three interpreters. 490 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:49,146 Two is normal because you, you know, the interpreters need to have a break. 491 00:35:49,247 --> 00:35:51,916 But having three, why? 492 00:35:51,949 --> 00:35:58,356 It's because in sign language, or 493 00:35:58,389 --> 00:36:02,026 when you have interpreters, 494 00:36:02,026 --> 00:36:09,800 a lot of the time the interpreters are hearing, 495 00:36:10,067 --> 00:36:13,971 so they can't sign in dialect. 496 00:36:14,572 --> 00:36:19,877 That's how come they have the other interpreter who happens to be deaf. 497 00:36:20,111 --> 00:36:24,849 I happen to learn this watching a TV show. 498 00:36:25,683 --> 00:36:28,886 But, you know, this is shit that most people don't know. 499 00:36:28,920 --> 00:36:31,589 And more the point, they don't understand. 500 00:36:31,589 --> 00:36:36,627 They don't understand that sign language is done in different languages. 501 00:36:36,627 --> 00:36:41,232 Sign language in America and Canada is different from 502 00:36:41,232 --> 00:36:46,804 sign language in Australia or in UK. 503 00:36:47,171 --> 00:36:52,143 You know, so it's like most people are totally unaware, and then 504 00:36:52,176 --> 00:36:55,580 you have African Americans, they do their 505 00:36:55,613 --> 00:36:59,483 sign language differently, you know, 506 00:36:59,517 --> 00:37:02,720 but most people don't know that. 507 00:37:02,753 --> 00:37:04,422 I never met. 508 00:37:04,422 --> 00:37:09,527 I never met an ASL african american interpreter. 509 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:12,763 So how different is it from ASL? 510 00:37:12,763 --> 00:37:14,765 They. 511 00:37:15,866 --> 00:37:18,269 It's a dialect. 512 00:37:18,269 --> 00:37:20,805 It's an american dialect. 513 00:37:20,838 --> 00:37:27,345 I can't speak for black ASL interpreters here, 514 00:37:27,345 --> 00:37:30,815 but from what I understand, in the United States, especially with the southerners, 515 00:37:30,848 --> 00:37:33,751 they have their own sign dialect. 516 00:37:33,751 --> 00:37:36,320 Because I've seen this with comedians 517 00:37:36,354 --> 00:37:43,527 in Australia and in the UK, 518 00:37:44,462 --> 00:37:49,667 there's a chick named Catherine who does signing for Adam Hills. Brilliant! 519 00:37:49,667 --> 00:37:53,604 In fact, she's more fun to watch than the comedian. 520 00:37:53,638 --> 00:37:57,675 But I gather with. 521 00:37:59,043 --> 00:38:03,614 With the African American sign they have, 522 00:38:03,648 --> 00:38:06,083 it has its own - 523 00:38:06,117 --> 00:38:07,551 It's not ASL, I forgot. 524 00:38:07,551 --> 00:38:09,720 I think it's called BSL. 525 00:38:09,754 --> 00:38:12,056 BSL is British sign language. 526 00:38:12,056 --> 00:38:14,291 Right. But BASL. 527 00:38:14,325 --> 00:38:17,361 I see, huh, interesting. 528 00:38:17,395 --> 00:38:19,864 Well, I learned something. I didn't know that. 529 00:38:19,864 --> 00:38:27,004 so I came across it watching a Rap concert. 530 00:38:28,673 --> 00:38:33,978 But again, how it works in performance 531 00:38:34,011 --> 00:38:38,916 versus how it works in general speech 532 00:38:38,916 --> 00:38:41,218 could be two different things. 533 00:38:41,252 --> 00:38:46,724 Not totally up with that, but I did come across it, and it was just like, 534 00:38:46,757 --> 00:38:50,661 as I say, there's so many variants. 535 00:38:50,728 --> 00:38:52,163 Accessibility in the arts. 536 00:38:52,196 --> 00:38:57,902 It's really something that fascinates me because there are so many aspects of it. 537 00:38:57,902 --> 00:39:04,608 And when you start really paying attention of the details of the ASL or the sign 538 00:39:04,642 --> 00:39:11,282 language interpreters, and then the ramps for wheelchair users to access 539 00:39:11,315 --> 00:39:17,054 stages, because most of the accessibility, when we talk accessibility with a theater, 540 00:39:17,088 --> 00:39:20,791 for example, they say, oh, yeah, no problem, we're accessible. 541 00:39:20,791 --> 00:39:23,294 We can host wheelchairs in the audience. 542 00:39:23,327 --> 00:39:25,763 Yeah, that's not what I meant. 543 00:39:25,796 --> 00:39:27,965 Are you accessible to the performers? 544 00:39:27,998 --> 00:39:32,103 Yeah, this sort of not thinking 545 00:39:32,103 --> 00:39:37,942 with theaters 546 00:39:38,109 --> 00:39:43,247 and so on just drives me up the wall. 547 00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:47,918 Or simple things like, 548 00:39:47,918 --> 00:39:51,088 there's a new 549 00:39:51,088 --> 00:39:57,261 Nia, which is an arts venue for - 550 00:39:57,294 --> 00:40:01,799 geared towards the black community. 551 00:40:01,999 --> 00:40:03,968 It's lovely. 552 00:40:04,001 --> 00:40:07,004 It even has an elevator. 553 00:40:07,037 --> 00:40:09,907 It's too small. 554 00:40:10,274 --> 00:40:13,310 Like, I'm conscious of the fact that 555 00:40:13,310 --> 00:40:19,250 if you have a person in one of those bigger 556 00:40:19,283 --> 00:40:23,954 driving wheelchairs, 557 00:40:23,954 --> 00:40:27,858 there is no way in hell it's gonna get in here. 558 00:40:27,892 --> 00:40:29,393 I am not a small person. 559 00:40:29,427 --> 00:40:34,398 I can barely fit in this space, you know? So it's. 560 00:40:34,431 --> 00:40:44,675 It's a. Like, I find myself, you know, this sort of haphazard. 561 00:40:44,675 --> 00:40:51,982 Let's put in an elevator, but they don't think about the type of elevator, and, you know, 562 00:40:52,016 --> 00:40:57,488 or they don't, you know - thought isn't put into 563 00:40:58,088 --> 00:41:01,525 washrooms. 564 00:41:01,559 --> 00:41:08,499 Because the thing I've noticed is that, okay, now we have the call to have 565 00:41:09,433 --> 00:41:12,736 gender accessible washrooms, you know, 566 00:41:12,770 --> 00:41:17,408 so we have parity, but then they don't 567 00:41:17,441 --> 00:41:20,878 put in the wheelchair access. 568 00:41:21,512 --> 00:41:23,280 It's like I. 569 00:41:23,314 --> 00:41:29,320 You know, because I I've been using, you know, non gendered washrooms 570 00:41:29,353 --> 00:41:32,189 because I go to gay bars. 571 00:41:32,189 --> 00:41:35,392 You know, I remember one gay bar. 572 00:41:35,426 --> 00:41:41,899 They used to write Us and Them, you know, but 573 00:41:41,899 --> 00:41:49,440 in terms of the accessibility, there isn't thought with that. 574 00:41:49,673 --> 00:41:51,809 Well, thank you for that. 575 00:41:51,842 --> 00:41:56,247 Well, I have a last question for you, and it's about people who might have 576 00:41:56,280 --> 00:42:01,652 inspired you or motivated you in your career, in your life as a performer. 577 00:42:01,685 --> 00:42:05,823 If you had to think of one or two people who really 578 00:42:05,823 --> 00:42:08,559 counted in your career, who would it be and why? 579 00:42:08,559 --> 00:42:09,760 Two. 580 00:42:09,793 --> 00:42:13,564 One, Nina Simone. 581 00:42:13,931 --> 00:42:17,534 Because, a, she was a genius 582 00:42:17,568 --> 00:42:21,605 and totally mad! 583 00:42:21,605 --> 00:42:25,509 As a representative of somebody who had mental health issues, 584 00:42:25,509 --> 00:42:28,545 it was patently obvious. 585 00:42:28,545 --> 00:42:35,686 But at the same time, it wasn't like she was wrong. 586 00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:40,858 Like, I mean, she just didn't have the patience to put up nonsense, 587 00:42:40,891 --> 00:42:45,229 so she had her moments when she would be a bit glitchy. 588 00:42:45,229 --> 00:42:50,734 But, you know, for me, she. 589 00:42:50,768 --> 00:42:52,436 She is tantamount to, like. 590 00:42:52,469 --> 00:42:57,174 I mean, she was also living in a, 591 00:42:57,207 --> 00:43:02,346 living in a time of political strife, 592 00:43:02,346 --> 00:43:06,750 and, you know, chose to speak up. 593 00:43:06,750 --> 00:43:09,420 So definitely Nina Simone. 594 00:43:09,453 --> 00:43:16,293 The other one is a little more personal, and that would be Odetta, because 595 00:43:16,327 --> 00:43:20,331 I met Odetta a year before she died. 596 00:43:20,364 --> 00:43:27,071 She did a concert at Hugh's Room, and I just happened to snag a dick at. 597 00:43:27,071 --> 00:43:30,641 And I went to Hugh's Room, and she did her performance, 598 00:43:30,674 --> 00:43:34,144 and she was ace, her last song. 599 00:43:34,144 --> 00:43:36,080 I don't remember what it was. 600 00:43:36,113 --> 00:43:41,852 She had the entire audience singing along with her. 601 00:43:41,885 --> 00:43:47,891 And, of course, me being me, I had to sing with gusto. 602 00:43:47,958 --> 00:43:50,060 And then we all applauded. Yay. 603 00:43:50,094 --> 00:43:55,766 You know, and so on, and then everybody went on their way, and me being a bit 604 00:43:55,799 --> 00:44:00,704 ballsy, I went up to her and I said, thank you very much for the performance. 605 00:44:00,704 --> 00:44:06,643 And she looked at me and she said, are you a professional? 606 00:44:06,677 --> 00:44:10,047 And I said, no. 607 00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:14,318 She looked at me dead in the eye and said, why? 608 00:44:15,552 --> 00:44:17,054 You know, and it was just like. 609 00:44:17,087 --> 00:44:22,826 And that, that was like, that was the point where, like, I mean, 610 00:44:22,826 --> 00:44:30,668 I had always seen myself as an amateur singer, but, I mean, we had, 611 00:44:31,835 --> 00:44:37,941 this is a woman who performed with all the greats, you know, this is a woman 612 00:44:37,941 --> 00:44:40,744 who was on a show with Johnny Cash. 613 00:44:40,744 --> 00:44:47,284 I mean, she, she worked with all the big ones, and she took the time 614 00:44:47,317 --> 00:44:51,722 to sort of point to me and say, you should be singing professionally. 615 00:44:51,755 --> 00:44:54,858 Who am I to argue? 616 00:44:54,858 --> 00:44:56,994 She detected you in the audience, right? 617 00:44:56,994 --> 00:44:58,629 Yeah. 618 00:44:58,629 --> 00:45:01,365 So, yeah, those are the two. 619 00:45:01,398 --> 00:45:04,334 Well, thank you again for this conversation. 620 00:45:04,368 --> 00:45:05,569 Thank you. 621 00:45:05,602 --> 00:45:09,306 Yeah, I wish you all the best for all your projects, and, yeah, 622 00:45:09,306 --> 00:45:12,376 see you around in the artistic scene. Okay. 623 00:45:12,409 --> 00:45:14,411 Thank you. Thank you. 624 00:45:14,445 --> 00:45:14,745 Bye. 625 00:45:16,013 --> 00:45:21,151 ♪ Closing theme music ♪