4CO Films Actor Clint Butler steps behind the camera for socially responsible storytelling WORDS BY ALLISON CHOW | TORONTO | PERFORMING ARTS HUBS & HUDDLES FEB 27, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Clint Butler by Fabian Di Corcia ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 There is often a powerful correspondence between crisis and creativity. During the pandemic, many homebound people fought back stagnation with new hobbies like sourdough baking, but for Clint Butler — a Toronto-based stage, screen, and voice-over actor — the uncertainty of the pandemic yielded new ways to entwine creativity, innovation, and community. Turning his attention back onto filmmaking, Butler launched his independent production company, 4CO Films, in 2021, with an emphasis on socially responsible storytelling and creating art as a means of healing. With several projects in development, Butler has been exploring a return to the boundless simplicity of youth. Crafting stories from tender, intimate narratives around care, heritage, and isolation, his latest film, Mudder’s Hands , turns his lens on his own mother and her baking skills. Through 4CO, Butler seeks to share the kind of magic with the world that transforms words into force fields and reveals the sublime in the mundane. sM | The name "4CO Films” has its origins in your childhood. How does this inspiration relate to your company's mandate? ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Lucas Debargue A Virtuoso Challenges the Status Quo Caption WORDS BY ARLAN VRIENS | PARIS | MUSIC THE smART Ensemble NOV 15, 2022 | ISSUE 8 Lucas Debargue by Olga Nabatova ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Lucas Debargue by Kalya Ramu ​ Lucas Debargue has all the glittering hallmarks of a star on the rise. After high-profile success at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, the French pianist has produced no less than four solo albums on Sony Classical, in tandem with a globetrotting tour schedule. After this kind of success, Debargue could be forgiven if he had chosen to settle into a rhythm of crowd-pleasing recital favourites like Chopin, Liszt, or Bach. But, instead, he remains fiercely committed to his core values, advocating for works and experiences that surprise and entice his audiences. Joining smART Magazine , Debargue outlines a vision for a musical world in which creativity and conviction trump boilerplate virtuosity. He discusses his newest album, Zal - The Music of Miłosz Magin (Sony Classical), and what Magin’s music has meant to him and his friends. He is deliberate in his aspirations to introduce audiences to lesser-known musical territories and describes the complex relationships he sees between contemporary composers, audiences, and performers. Debargue also discusses his own burgeoning work as a composer and his interests in writing tonal music in dialogue with past composers. sM | What magic does Magin have in store for the unfamiliar listener, and how does this album reveal that? LD — I find Magin’s music very interesting because of its power over listeners. I’ve seen this, for example, in how my closest friends react to his music. These are my long-time friends from school days, and they aren’t very involved in classical music or art in general. But when I play for them, it isn’t the music of Beethoven and Bach that speaks to them. Instead, it’s Magin’s music that really touches them. They can’t quite explain it, but there is something about his music that reaches straight to their heart. Seeing that kind of reaction makes me want to create more space for this music. Even though it’s from the 20th century, it’s not avant-garde at all. I think that it has immediate appeal for audiences, with its simple melodies accompanied by magical harmonies and colours. Much of Magin’s music is strongly connected to his Polish heritage, and Polish folk music. I also notice many influences from Chopin, the Polish master of piano composing and piano technique in general. This album is really my declaration of love for all the wonderful connections that make up Magin’s music. I wanted this project to surprise the core classical music audience, and welcome new listeners to the genre. I know that some people are not really moved by classical music, sometimes because they are intimidated by its complexity. There are so many things that make it difficult for people to approach classical music directly. But when I show audiences the music of Magin and share the story of his life, they are really touched, just like my friends. sM | What do you look for when choosing unfamiliar works, and how does the revival of lesser-known composers revitalize the genre? LD — I never choose repertoire for the sake of novelty alone. There are plenty—thousands!—of unknown composers. Some of them are really worth playing, but they have to connect with my heart. Those ones become my beloved composers for whom I am ready to fight, like Szymanowski and Medtner. Once I have connected with a lesser-known piece, I truly love to work on them and share them with audiences because they bring an element of freedom. I don’t tend to feel this freedom in the main repertoire like Chopin or Liszt. I love to play their music every day, but recording or performing it is different. There are already so many strong interpretations out there. When I’m on stage playing Chopin, there is a physical feeling that the audience knows the music and already has an idea of how it should sound. That isn’t always a pleasant feeling. Instead, I want the audience to feel confident enough in my playing to take my hand and follow me into lesser-known territories. Of course, when pieces aren’t played by thousands of interpreters, the one or two interpretations out there need to be very strong in order to be convincing. Achieving that is almost like a separate job compared to playing the mainstream repertoire. But I like to multiply the options I have available, rather than just playing the traditional repertoire in the way it has been for decades already. By giving space to these atypical works in my recital programs and recordings, I can explore freer territory and musically create something new. I also enjoy putting my own little stamp on things by connecting some lesser-known works to a more famous repertoire. For example, I like to pair Scriabin and Fauré on concert programs. Scriabin is very famous in the piano repertoire, but Fauré is much less so, yet they were producing music at almost the same time and had many common musical traits. When I put them together on a program, the audience can feel involved in the process of identifying differences and commonalities between the two. They are no longer just passively listening or comparing my performance with their memory of someone else’s interpretation. They are really joining a process of discovery. sM | How did you arrive at the realization of pursuing a simultaneous career as a composer? In the past, composition and performance were more intertwined, do you now see a trend back towards that dynamic? LD — As a performer, when I sit at the piano and work on my interpretation, I have many tools at my disposal. I have a vision of what I want to hear, and more and more, I’m able to do it with my fingers. I definitely haven’t yet reached the same point in my composition career. I’m still working through many questions about composition. There is a big difference, for example, between the music I have in my soul and the trends in contemporary art music. I find that there are a lot of divisions today between composers, performers, and audiences. Many contemporary composers create their own personal language. The audience has to make an effort to understand that language—they have to be really concentrated in their listening and then re-listen over and over to have any chance of getting something out of it. This is a big difference from, say, audiences attending a 19th-century opera. They already knew the harmonies they would hear, and the novelty came from the ways those harmonies were combined. As a performer, many contemporary solo piano works can also be quite frustrating. Most of the time they are very impressionistic, or very experimental, or rely on special effects. I would not really enjoy practicing these pieces. Furthermore, for me, realizing the wishes of a contemporary composer is a very large effort. I don’t like the implicit idea that the composer is a kind of god, to whom the performer has to submit in order to deliver the piece to a submissive audience—who, in turn, will not understand the piece because it is so idiosyncratic to the composer. Instead, the music I compose is a kind of dialogue with the composers that I love. If they could hear my music, I would want them to be able to understand it—and I would want them to feel that I had understood their music too. So as a composer, I arrived quite quickly to the practice of tonal harmony in my music. Even though tonal music always uses the same building blocks of harmonies, it does so in a multitude of variations. I am passionate about these variations, and I'm convinced that there are still many things left to find in them. That being said, it is still a real challenge to not do something which has already been done. For now, this is the challenge of my life as a composer. I am trying to stay patient, and I'm writing a bit of music every day. It’s a process of research, and I think it will take time until I really find my own territory inside this huge tonal universe. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Rufus Wainwright’s Folkocracy Returning to his folk roots, the Canadian songmaster finds a new musical family WORDS BY RACHEL WINDSOR | LOS ANGELES | HOMEGROWN HOMEGROWN JUN 21, 2023 | ISSUE 12 Rufus Wainwright by Tony Hauser “The horizon has started to show itself a little bit and you do start to recap a little bit of your experience and you realize there are people who are no longer with us and or in your life. And there we are, you do end up alone in the end.” Rufus Wainwright Rufus Wainwright is no stranger to experimentation: over his twenty-five-year career, he has dabbled in pop, opera, and live theatre. Wainwright released his first studio album in 1998 to critical acclaim and followed it with eleven more. His newest release, Folkocracy , marks a turn to (as the name suggests) the folk genre. While traditional folk music in Canada dates back to the 16th century for settlers — and much longer for Indigenous peoples — its history is a bit nebulous, with no precise definition or characteristics. Contemporary folk rose to popularity in the 20th century, blending the traditional with other genres (such as rock or pop) and often including a political or counter-cultural slant. The 1960s and 70s in particular saw a rise of influential Canadian folk musicians (including Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Wainwright’s mother and aunt, respectively), a legacy that Wainwright attempts to uphold with Folkocracy . The album’s release thus marks both a new chapter and a return for Wainwright (whose father, Loudon Wainwright III, is also a well-known American folk musician). In putting together the album, Wainwright drew from his childhood — spent primarily in Montreal, Quebec — where he sang folk songs and attended folk festivals with his mother and his sister, Martha Wainwright (herself a critically acclaimed artist). If the album is a homecoming, though, it is necessarily an exercise in nostalgia, as Wainwright contemplates his youth from the vantage point of his upcoming fiftieth birthday. The saving grace is that repetition, tradition, and reflection are part and parcel to folk music. Hiding behind the veil of a studio album, Folkocracy might really just be a pretext for an artist with an illustrious career to gather together all the friends he’s made along the way. Recording appearances are made by the likes of Brandi Carlile, John Legend, David Byrne, Sheryl Crow, Nicole Scherzinger, Chaka Khan, Andrew Bird, ANOHNI, Susanna Hoffs, Van Dyke Parks, and Madison Cunningham, as well as his sisters Martha and Lucy Wainwright Roche, aunt Anna, cousin Lily Lanken, and close family friend Chaim Tannenbaum. Indeed, it’s a bit of a fancy get together. The star-studded lineup again reflects the core tenants of folk music, which is by definition a communal genre. Traditional folk music was transmitted via oral tradition, rather than throughin written words and lyrics, and the word “folk” derives from the Old English “folc” meaning “the people”. Keeping with his experimental and spontaneous creative spirit, Wainwright recently staged Wainwright Does Weill , a five-night residency at Café Carlyle in New York performing the songs of German-born composer Kurt Weill. He followed these shows with his Folkocracy tour, kicking off June 2 — the album’s release date — at the very low-key Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. As an album, Folkocracy demonstrates Wainwright’s knowledge of, and respect for, folk music’s history and ethics, which he remains committed to throughout the record—even at the risk of alienating mainstream audiences. smART Magazine sat down with Wainwright to discover the “why” behind Wainwright’s dedication to folk and its principles. Folkocracy Cover Art ISSUE 12 Varsity Jacket Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ Rufus Wainwright - By Kalya Ramu FOLKOCRACY sM | Was there a rhyme and reason to assembling this cast of collaborators or were you more so listening to who each song was asking for? RW ── I mean, it was a combination of many things. I think if anything it's a testament to LA not only having great weather. But if you live here there are certain perks and one of them is that it's not hard to get in touch with a lot of different types of musicians who call LA their home. I wanted to do a lot of duets on this record, I do feel like with folk music, one of the main tenants is that it's about group singing. It's about harmonizing, and it's about sharing songs with friends and so forth. We had a limited amount of time and so we just kind of sent out the call with some wishlists and that's who came in. "ALONE" sM | The album opens with “Alone” (Feat. Madison Cunningham), where was it along your journey that you discovered this song, and why did it resonate with you? RW ── What's interesting is, it's about age really. The song, I mean. When your body starts to really leave you, and I'm not in that bracket yet, I'm turning 50, so it's not that bad. But the horizon has started to show itself a little bit and you do start to recap a little bit of your experience and you realize there are people who are no longer with us and or in your life. And there we are, you do end up alone in the end. Ewan MacColl, in my opinion, is probably the greatest known Scottish songwriter, there's a lot of great Scottish folk songs, but we don't always know who wrote them. But Ewen wrote the song "Alone". He also wrote, "The first time ever I saw your Face", and, "Dirty Old Town". So he is arguably kind of a hit songwriter, but he was very rooted in the folk tradition. Madison Cunningham, who sings one of the verses and is also playing guitar, really is one of the big new forces in music right now in California, she's having her own success. I think she won a Grammy this year actually for her records. So it's great to have new talent as well. SCHUBERT sM | Franz Schubert’s “Nacht und Träume” (Night and Dreams) makes an appearance on this record; what do you appreciate most about Schubert? RW ── The thing about Schubert that has always stayed with me and I always reference in my compositions is that someone once said, I think it was opera singer Brigitte Fassbaender who once said in an interview, there are two second moments in Schubert songs that are more profound than six hour long operas. And I think that's always been a real guiding principle for me, to really focus on the minutia and just try to catch that musical moment. I wanted it to be more of a dreamscape, something that you hear that could be a lullaby or something that would haunt you in your dreams. Rufus Wainwright by Miranda Penn Turin CHAKA KHAN sM | You recorded your rendition of “Cotton Eyed Joe” with Chaka Khan, how did this collaboration come about? RW ── I first met her and Earnest during the Joni Tributes here in Los Angeles that we did for Joni's 75th birthday and we've remained in touch. The song Cotton Eye Joe, it's interesting, it's directly from a Nina Simone version, but not the one that she's most well known for. On most of her albums she sings Cotton Eye Joe in a certain way. But there's this one live version of her doing it that is unlike all the others and that is my favorite. It's a recording that affected me very deeply when I was very young. As much as I love the song, it's also very much a kind of ode to Nina Simone as well and you need a pretty great singer to do that with, and Chaka is right up there. Rufus Wainwright by Miranda Penn Turin FAMILY BUSINESS sM | This record is in many ways a family affair. What is the “folkocracy” and how did growing up in this very musical family cultivate that for you? RW ── A lot of it has to do with the fact that the last album I put out, Unfollow the Rules, was a kind of examination of my early years here in LA, and of the first records I made, which were mostly done in studios out in California. So this recording was this return to Laurel Canyon, but somehow that sparked a desire to go even further back into my psyche and go back to the real roots of my upbringing, which was folk music. Also to be honest, there is a kind of resurgence in that field, when you look at Brandy Carlisle for instance, or Mumford and Sons, and then when you watch the Grammys, there's a lot of categories that use folk music. So I think I felt a desire to reclaim some of my heritage. I'd been so long out in the opera realm, which is very much the antithesis of folk music, though they are related at times, so I wanted to reclaim that inheritance and reclaim some of my childhood, and some of these innocent memories that I had around the banjo and the piano. Now I can move forward again, I had to go all the way. Rufus Wainwright by Miranda Penn Turin KATE MCGARRIGLE sM | Your mom’s banjo can be heard in the recording of “Wild Mountain Thyme”. How did the memory of her - and her legacy as perhaps the matriarch or your folkocracy - inform the arrangement of this song in particular? RW ── Well, I made a beautiful recording of it when I was around 14 with my mother, my aunt, Dick Gotham, and Emmylou Harris. It's actually on YouTube. We did it for the Trans-Atlantic session. So that was a pretty profound memory and experience to have at that age, with that caliber of musicians. If you go back and look at that, you can see me turn, grow during that 3 minute song. And so it's very important to me. I think we all, both her and I and others really accepted the fact that the saddest songs are Scottish and there's a kind of romantic longing that those songs engender. And so I think she would approve. Rufus Wainwright by Miranda Penn Turin THE PEOPLE sM | How do you define folk music? RW ── Well, folk is really music that has risen from the bottom up, in the sense that it's not composed to serve any kind of court or industry. It comes from the boiling pot of humanity. And you can write folk songs, but I think the goal should be that it has a purpose, I think it has to have a utilitarian quality to it that sort of serves the masses, whether it's to help them work or to explain some sort of political situation or to rally a cause. It is about the proletariat, shall we say? So yeah, I think that's what makes folk music. Rufus Wainwright by Miranda Penn Turin BARDAMU 1 | When have you felt the most isolated and how did you get out of it? RW ── Probably when I was at the low end of my high end, meaning when I was really struggling with addiction in a very, intense way, in my late twenties. I got out of it with treatment, with professional help, and going to rehab. That was an example where art won't save you, your friends won't save you, your family won't save you. Sometimes you just gotta go to the doctor and that'll do it. 2 | Who was your anchor through the pandemic RW ── Oh, definitely my husband. We thankfully had a very positive experience during the pandemic, and I was worried, when it started out that we were at each other's throats and you know, and that our marriage would perhaps be in jeopardy. But the opposite ended up happening. We ended up discovering new parts of each other. TEAM | There’s the family you’re born into and the one you create. What is that gut feeling you get when you know you’ve found a new family member? RW ── Time becomes more and more precious as you get older and there's less of it to waste. When you share a really wonderful moment with somebody you really get that sense that it's time well spent and it's adding something to your life. And the opposite could be said, if somebody you're with is really taxing, I can't afford this, you know? I think just being more aware of time as you get older. ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

That Girl: Performing an Aesthetic How TikTok commodifies girlhood and renders selfhood as consumerism WORDS BY RACHEL WINDSOR | ARTS & LETTERS FEB 28, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Illustration By Alicia Jungwirth ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 To be a girl on TikTok is to align oneself with a recognizable aesthetic: are you “dark academia,” a “coquette,” or a “downtown girl”? Or perhaps you’re “That Girl,” capitalization and all: she’s easily recognizable by her 5am alarm clock, morning green juice, 12-step skincare routine, and faithful five-minute journal practice. We know this about That Girl because she shows us, capturing and uploading the most aesthetically pleasing moments of her ultra-productive routine. It’s no wonder that the associated hashtag has over 7.7 billion views at the time of writing─her performance of selfhood is compelling, but perhaps it’s troubling too. Any video uploaded to TikTok is, to some extent, a performance, as social media relies upon representation rather than “real” (i.e. tangible) presence. The concept isn’t restricted to online interactions either: as far back as 1956, Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman suggested that any social interaction “marked by [an individual’s] continuous presence before a particular set of... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Art for Environmental Consciousness Three Artists Activating Art in the Fight Against Climate Change WORDS BY LEILA REFAHI NOV 07, 2022 | ISSUE 10 ​ ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 10 As an artist focusing on endangered animals, I travelled to Malax, Finland in the fall of 2017 to join the Malakta Art Factory’s residency program. I was invited to the Merenkurkku School in Vaasa to perform an art project during my stay, and I designed one that aimed to teach students about fur farms and how the leather industry violates animal rights. We gave students materials to create artworks on this theme, and they created origami birds using paper that was printed with animal fur patterns. Afterwards, we configured these paper birds into an installation that was showcased in the school hall. I travelled to Germany and Iran in the following years where I led the same art projects, and each time I found myself continually amazed by the engagement of the students, their interaction with the process, their eagerness to create art, and also their conversations about animal rights. These experiences raised new ideas for me, and they also made me reconsider the relationship between art and environmental justice. Throughout art history, nature has long served as the source of inspiration for artists. This influence... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Jonathan Justo Avila LAS VEGAS — AiR TOUR — Issue 9 Art by Jonathan Justo Avila Jonathan Justo Avila sM | How do you think this Artist-in-Residence program fits into the artist community in Las Vegas? JJA ── The exhibit and program helped to elevate our artist community. The program itself is enriching and a great opportunity to build momentum in your career. I encourage everyone to visit and immerse themselves in our gallery to connect to Vincent and his art. Most artists I know operate downtown, so I was nervous to operate on the [Las Vegas] Strip. Most locals stay away from the Strip unless it’s for work, but it was so fun to have connected with so many people from all over the world at our venue. Continue the AiR tour in print: ISSUE 9 | ISSUE 10 Sign Up to K eep Up! Our newsletter brings you the best in the visual and performing arts. Exclusive interviews. Global coverage. Local perspectves. sM | What inspiration do you get from artists around you? JJA ── I am inspired by a lot of local artists; too many to mention, notably, Juan Quetzal, also known as Quetzal Visions. I love how he represents and supports the local indigenous community. I am fortunate enough to call him my friend and I love his art. He inspires me to look within and express myself authentically. Juan’s art speaks to my soul, a feat I aspire to achieve in my work. He, as well as many other local artists I’ve met, have encouraged me to not give up. Never give up! You can find Juan on Instagram @quetzal.visions. sM | How has the pandemic transformed the priorities of Las Vegas’s artist community? JJA ── The most exciting thing to me about the current atmosphere in the artist community in Las Vegas is the growing inclusivity. I have met so many wonderful artists and musicians seeking opportunities to be seen and heard. Fortunately, there are plenty of events now that encourage creatives to network and share their gifts. My personal favorite is the Love Yourself Expression event hosted by the Love Yourself Foundation. You can find me there supporting my friends, live painting and singing at the open mic. I am very proud to represent our growing art community and am excited to see our art and growth. PREVIOUS NEXT

Ashley Wheater Artistic Director of the Joffrey Ballet WORDS BY EMILY TRACE | CHICAGO | DANCE IN MOTION MAR 21, 2023 | ISSUE 3 Ashley Wheater by Kalya Ramu ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Ashley Wheater may be the only member of the Order of the British Empire to also be named Chicagoan of the Year. Popularity like that stems from creating fully-funded access to dance education for children across Chicago through the historically diverse Joffrey Ballet—known for daring original works that resonate with contemporary audiences. sM | What do you find unique about Chicago as an artistic destination? AW — The thing I love about Chicago is that it’s a big city, yet there’s a very tight community here. There is so much happening in Chicago on so many different levels–theatre, music, opera, dance. You can bring everyone together and the collaborative spirit is really quite unique. We all want to work together to make this city the best possible place to live, and I think we know that art and culture plays such a huge role. So there’s a mission, and many of the arts leaders here are very mission-focused about enriching their city. I’m an American citizen now, so it was really wonderful to be honoured as Chicagoan of the Year [in 2013]. I guess it’s because of my commitment to not only The Joffrey but to Chicago. Of all the places that I’ve lived in the world—New York, San Francisco, Melbourne, London—Chicago for me has a soul that is gentle, and it’s a place where we can all come together and have a conversation. I think that’s quite unique, actually. What is Joffrey Ballet’s mission with community engagements, and how has this mission been changed by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020? AW — I’m going to backtrack a little here; when the company moved to Chicago in ’95, there were no Academy or Community Engagement programs. I didn’t want to build a school based on what you might see at the National Ballet of Canada or the San Francisco Ballet; I wanted a school that had many, many avenues. So if you wanted to be a pre-professional trainee, you could go into that program. But if you didn’t want to be a ballet dancer, or loved other forms of dance, then go to the Youth Program. We have a program that engages kids in the community, seven to eight years old, where they all get to dance, and after three years they figure out where they want to go. It’s fully funded for them—whether they’re in Pre-Professional or Open Youth, Open Adult—until they go to university. There’s a social, emotional development there that kids really need. And we felt so committed to continuing those programs during this pandemic because people need them more than ever. I think that as we move forward in the future, we need to build a financial model that’s going to independently cover that access and opportunity. sM | What other ways do you see the ballet as a proponent of racial diversity and equity going forward? AW — I believe that you build pipelines, and those pipelines are a feeder for everything. I don’t think it’s about filling a quota, but that pipeline that’ll benefit everybody. We started Winning Work, a platform for BIPOC choreographers that’s been going for ten years. We’ve also partnered with Enrich Chicago, focused on undoing racism and white supremacy, and we’ve all done the training. During this pandemic, we mandated that every single person in the organization had to do the training. It gives you a space to come to which is thoughtful, safe, where you can have conversation. Because it is collectively: “What are we all doing together?” You can’t just look at one person and say, “you’re not doing it.” We all have a role to play as we move forward. Robert Joffrey was Muslim whose parents came from Afghanistan and moved to Seattle. He grew up in a very different way and he was a passionate man that wanted to dance. And so the company doesn’t have the stringent blueprint of a European model—we’re very democratic; we have no rankings. We’re a company of 43 and there is opportunity all through. And when he started the company, it was pretty diverse from the get-go, with Black and brown dancers all throughout the history of the Joffrey Ballet. What we consider to be traditional classical ballet comes with a lot of stigma. If we’re going to tell stories, then what are those stories? We can still do Swan Lake , but I don’t think we want the hierarchy and the privilege associated with it. There are ways to tell a story in a different way that has a relative impact for an audience today. When we did Christopher Wheeldon’s Swan Lake , it was about a young boy learning a role in a ballet studio. So you bring it down to a level that we relate to. And we’ve seen our audience grow over the years—very young people, because we have many programs to give them access. sM | Why is Chicago’s arts scene so robust in terms of the capabilities of its arts organizations? AW — I think it’s a bit of both but, predominantly, the driving force is the cultural community. There is wealth in Chicago at different levels, but people feel a responsibility to reinvest in their city. People that subscribe to The Joffrey are probably also members of the Museum of Mexican Art—everybody’s involved in everything. There is a pioneering spirit in the cultural arts in Chicago; we’re not looking for a Broadway blockbuster every single time. If you take the 200 theatre companies that are here, and the many art organizations, and the many different kinds of music—there’s a huge amount of jazz here—there is an appreciation for asking “Can we do more here? Absolutely.” We feel a responsibility to make sure that there’s equity in our city. There have been so many conversations, especially over the last year, about the programs that we want to present, giving free access to everybody, making sure the performances happen on the South Side and the western suburbs; not only downtown or on the North Shore. I think it’s really about pulling apart your city, looking at it and saying “Why haven’t we ever done that? We need to make an effort to do that.” ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Norris Yim: Nameless Hiding in plain (and colourful) sight WORDS BY FLYNN DAUNT | CHICAGO | STUDIO SESSIONS STUDIO SESSIONS NOV 28, 2022 | ISSUE 7 Nameless 0522 (2022) by Norris Yim ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Nameless 01 (2019) by Norris Yim Nameless 2620 (2020) by Norris Yim On either side of my work desk as I write this, hangs a print from a unique series by Hong Kong artist Norris Yim: Nameless No.1 and Nameless No.19 . The Nameless series is essentially a vast collection of faceless portraits, and while that might sound like a contradiction, these paintings invite the viewer to unpeel their ambiguous brushstrokes. Long before N95 masks became the ubiquitous uniform of the pandemic-era, Yim has been exploring the figurative masks that we don in order to navigate the social and political spaces we occupy. What is remarkable about these portraits is how completely married the mask and the face behind it appears to be, and yet, the real face remains enticingly concealed and recognizable. Yim joins smART Magazine to discuss on a series that is pivotal to his artistry and reflects the turmoil of his city’s political sphere. sM | How did the Nameless series evolve into what it is now? NY ── In the beginning, I was looking for a pure abstraction, something like Willem de Kooning’s style, who inspired me to be free and confident while painting with intuition. Then, I think I found the most unique thing in the world of self-representation in self-portraiture, which is inspired by van Gogh’s sketchbook, wherein he created a set of self-portraits evoking lonely and forlorn emotions. Those paintings gave me motivation to create portraits expressing similar personal feelings. So, I created a set of paintings in the Nameless series that uses different styles to express the same concept of oneness and connectedness with each other. Nameless is always changing in style, colour, and emotion. Nameless No.1 arrived very suddenly into the world, the painting is full of freedom and ambition. But recently, Hong Kong has been in a dangerous moment of political crisis, and no one helped us. The latest paintings in the Nameless series explores the need to stay positive in the face of this problem. I’ve also been experimenting with finding different textures in the use of colours and materials. The colour blocks started with a lot of fluidity, and I now mostly use overlaps of rough and thick colour blocks to create anthropomorphic and figurative abstractions. Over the last year, I’ve been adding different powders to the paintings to reveal the textures of colour, and this subtle difference has become my new creative passion. It’s still “in the process” of evolution, so I don’t know how it will change in the future, but I do love painting at the moment. sM | How has the political climate in Hong Kong informed your mission as an artist? NY ── It was early in my career when this political crisis started, particularly the first White Ribbon protests, so I began using black and white as the main colour scheme to represent these violent protests. It was after this that the government took over and controlled the city. We had no way out, and that scar was buried deep in our hearts, yet people were still able to force a smile to confront the ridiculous problems happening in our city daily. Nameless is my way of reflecting on this situation of people without a soul, without truth, without a dream, living in an empty body. But I try to stay positive as a way to face these things, and though the paintings were born from darkness, the more I look at them, the more happiness I see. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Dragonette Returns Twennies Serves up Doses of Nostalgia and Futuristic Danceability WORDS BY MILES FORRESTER | TORONTO | MUSIC HOMEGROWN MAR 16, 2023 | ISSUE 10 "Twennies" Cover Art ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE "New Suit" Cover Art "Twennies" Cover Art Juno and SOCAN award winner Martina Sorbara has been making dance-floor focussed indie-pop through her music project, Dragonette, since a self-titled EP in 2005. Following 2007’s debut album, Galore, and a tour with Basement-Jaxx, Dragonette has released three more albums and a surfeit of body-moving singles and collaborations. Twennies , her latest album, produced by Dan Farber, takes the long view of her prolific career . Explaining the title, Sorbara says, “It’s like the diminutive of ‘twenties,’ as if me and ‘twenties’ are super close. So I call it Twennies ”—dropping the T like a true Torontonian. Its euphoric first single, “New Suit”, is an anthem for navigating a present moment that’s simultaneously nostalgic and accelerated. Sorbara joins smART Magazine to introduce the album’s sonic palette, and what charges her batteries, and how she’s seen the music industry change. sM | How does Twennies balance the past and future for you? MS ─ It’s got retro vibes in it. I’ve been feeling very nostalgic for the “blog era,” early 2000s—I don’t wanna give away anything, but that’s around when I was in my twenties. Back then it was just me, writing a song with vocals, guitar, and piano. At a certain point, it felt really confining. I started listening to music more broadly and discovering all the different things that pop music meant. I went really far in that direction. Because this album is a mashup of digital and acoustic sounds, I think I’m gonna be more reliant on live instruments than before. I’ve dubbed a new term for my genre, which is “electroacoustic.” Prior tours were very track-driven, almost a mashup of a DJ set and a live set. So I’m going back to my early twenties, and we’re in the 2020s, which is where the futuristic element comes in. I feel like I’ve taken all of my musical experience and passions, and I’ve thrown it all into this album, and voilà . sM | Nostalgia gets a bad rap—what’s the power in looking back to the past with a bit of a romantic hue? MS ─ Are you talking about content? Nostalgic lyrics? Pining? If so, then I think that, in music, nostalgia is important and beautiful. There’s a difference between nostalgia and being “derivative.” You don’t wanna hear the past too loudly in a song you’re making now. But to be nostalgic about certain sensibilities, I think that is how we make new genres. You bounce the new stuff off the old stuff, and it becomes its own thing. sM | What do you think was the biggest false advertising about your twenties? MS ─ For me, there was this idea of having to put on a show, that I was supposed to be a larger-than-life entity, an extra hue of flamboyance. I don’t know if it’s because I’m older now and I’m out of it, or I’m just in a different place in my life. Maybe everyone in their twenties feels like that, but that was what the “false advertising” felt like for me. It took me a long time to discover and internalize that the main thing that matters for an artist is authenticity. The killer of a great song is a lack of authenticity. If you can’t feel the real texture and fabric of where that person’s coming from, it can’t penetrate. It’s so freeing to recognize that the product is me and my real feelings. sM | How have you seen the industry change, for better or worse? MS ─ Obviously, social media. It’s really great for some people. We don’t have to have somebody else show the world— I can show the world who I am constantly. But it’s so much work. Instead of a few days of press here and there, it’s an everyday job. It’s a lot to ask of artists. I have to be a humourist and an editor—all these things. I used to just be a songwriter and a performer, and that is a lot of work. That’s where my creative energy should be. Now I have to diffuse it in all these other directions. Jesus . It’s a lot. I’m supposed to show my floppy, messy, boring life. Is that exciting to show people on a daily basis? I try to find artists I love who don’t participate—or, at least, don’t as much as they could. It’s doable. I remember when I was working with this graphic designer. He was like, “Hey, you should check this out. It’s like Twitter for photos.” That was Instagram. I imagine it was probably so enjoyable then. Now it just sucks your time. I still have a MySpace sweatshirt that was given to me at South by Southwest. I hold onto it like, “Oh, those days.” Speaking of nostalgia, God! Such an innocent time. sM | What other ways have you been exploring your artistry since 2016’s Royal Blues ? MS ─ I’ve allowed myself to consider myself a visual artist. The more years I’m alive and living in this body, operating my creative mind, the more I realize that’s what I’m alive for. That’s what keeps my batteries charging: making things. I got really into sculptural ceramics, and I currently have a bunch of stuff at the framers. My gallerist friend is going to have a show with me if I can get past my complete self-consciousness. To me, framing art is the ultimate ego vulnerability. I kept thinking, “How dare you frame that art?” I had to live with that feeling for a while. Then, slowly, I would look at the piece and say, “No, that’s a nice thing.” I used to beat myself up about working on visual art because if I’m working on visual art, that means I’m not working on music, “and that’s not your career.” These days, I’m aware that those things are interwoven. They feed each other. I can’t survive without both. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Samara Joy Ascending to a new height in her artistry, jazz music’s premiere savant is ready to learn new things WORDS BY NAT LAZZAROTTO | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MEREDITH TRUAX | THE BRONX ELLINGTON AUG 08 | ISSUE 12 | ELLINGTON Samara Joy Still reeling from a double Grammy win for her 2022 album Linger Awhile , 23-year-old Samara Joy has seen remarkable success in these early years of her professional career. With a voice already dripping with the tones, history, and artistry of great jazz singers like Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Nancy Wilson, it is no wonder her accolades now include the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album─ an award first given to Ella herself in 1977, the Grammy Award for Best New Artist─a big win for a jazz artist competing with more mainstream artists in a general category, on top of winning the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. As the self-proclaimed “first Gen Z jazz-singing star,” she grapples with the external pressure of her musical heritage and influences, while challenging herself to make mistakes, learn, and find her own way. Linger Awhile , Joy’s major label debut under Verve, is her second album and follow-up to her self-titled album from the year prior for Whirlwind. It comprises some of the most classic jazz repertoire, some well known, and others more obscure. The feat of receiving the Grammy for Best New Artist with an album of songs many times older than the artist themself is something to be praised in its own right, especially given the instrumentation found on the album, a rotating cast that’s as small as two and, in the case of Thelonius Monk’s “‘Round Midnight”, as large as seven. Joy’s voice soars above the band, coupled with time-tested lyrics that at once evoke nostalgia and are immediately relatable to all who have experienced the trials (and errors) of romance. Joy’s influences are like a walk through the Jazz Hall of Fame: from the legendary vocalists listed above, to Fats Navarro and Lester Young, to the late Barry Harris─a dear mentor to whom Linger Awhile is dedicated. Of note is the depth in which Joy has plunged into the history of jazz. Her exposure to the genre is relatively recent, beginning in earnest during her time in school at the State University of New York’s Purchase College. Her use of vocalese — a technique ubiquitous in the bebop era where one puts lyrics to instrumental solos or melodies — highlights her passion for the history of jazz, just as her artistic vision highlights a desire to build upon that history. "Linger Awhile" Album Cover Varsity Series - Samara Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ Samara Joy SEEING DOUBLE sM | Congrats on winning your first two Grammys. Has it sunk in yet? SJ ─ No, and I don’t know if it ever really will because it’s just so unbelievable. Going into it, I was like, “Okay, I’m really excited. This is a new experience. I’m going to ‘Music’s Greatest Night’ and I’m just gonna have fun.” Yeah ... it hasn’t sunk in yet. SAVANT sM | One of the things that so many people find impressive about you, in the background of the music that you make, is that you’re a bit of a savant of jazz history. Owing to the influence of your grandparents, your parents, and growing up in the Bronx, in many ways you were made by the music you make. You’ve said, “I’m still very much a student, even though I’ve graduated,”─what did you mean by that? SJ ─ I meant that I’ve now entered into the real school of what it takes to be an artist and a singer and a performer. In school, you get the foundation of things that you need to know – rules, history, background – making sure that you’re prepared to go into the world of music. The classroom is a safe space, so when you get to the classroom of the stage, that’s when all of the truth starts to show and you really get to sharpen your craft. You’ve learned the language of the music, you’ve learned its history, but now it’s time to follow your own creative voice in the midst of all that. VOCALESE sM | One of the recurrent stylistic devices in Linger Awhile is the use of vocalese. But you of course have to first find these instrumental classics. What is your process of discovery, and how far back have you gone? SJ ─ I think specifically the ones that I recorded happened because of being in school, being in class, and hearing about musicians that I didn’t know of: Lester Young, Fats Navarro. I was like, “Who are these musicians? I wanna know.” I’m not expected to know everybody’s entire catalogue, but I wanted to research a little bit more. And through researching people – researching their songs, looking up albums, and just listening – I don’t wanna say they found me, but I knew exactly which ones I wanted to write lyrics for the moment I heard them. I think that’s what happens anyway when I’m listening to music because when I try to seek out a certain song or try to ... I guess, look for it, it seems farther and farther away. ( Laughs ) My process really is just to listen, enjoy, and absorb. Then from that, that’s when the ideas flow and the songs eventually show themselves. ​ RETRO JAZZ sM | As a Gen-Z artist singing “music of her parent’s childhoods” – which is incredibly sincere music that connects with other young listeners – why do you think this revival of that retro vocal jazz aesthetic is connecting with a younger generation? SJ ─ I think that there’s definitely an aspect of society, or maybe of this generation in particular, that craves nostalgia. I hear the term “90s R&B” being thrown around constantly . It’s interesting because as connected as I feel to my generation, I’ve always felt like I liked different music. I didn’t really listen to much rap (I wasn’t allowed to), but I was quote-unquote “old school” because I liked classic love songs – whether they were from the ‘90s, the ‘70s, or the ‘60s – so I can’t deny that’s part of my musical identity. When I was 10 years old I was singing along to breakup songs and songs that maybe I shouldn’t have been listening to. And although the songs I work with now may be older than those I was singing when I was 10, I think that the message remained. Whether it’s love, or love lost, or heartbreak, or (with “Guess Who I Saw Today”) infidelity and betrayal─all those feelings, they connect people no matter what era the song is from. Samara Joy by Kalya Ramu VERVE LEGENDS sM | Linger Awhile is released on Verve Records; your face is ubiquitous on their website and placed prominently next to Ella Fitzgerald: how surreal has it been for you to be in the same conversation as Verve legends such as Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday that we know on a first-name basis? SJ ─ I feel grateful because they have become my main inspirations over the past couple of years since I got into jazz. I can’t feel any other way than grateful and honoured, and I hope that people will recognize I am influenced by their artistry. And at the same time, through being influenced by them, I’m still coming out in my own voice and I’m working on my own style. ​ “GUESS WHO I SAW TODAY" sM | The deluxe version Linger Awhile features new songs, but also reimagines alternative instrumentation for a couple of songs from the original release, one which is “Guess Who I Saw Today”. And in the style of a true savant, you sort of present a comprehensive study of the song. Starting with the Nancy Wilson version (1960), do you remember when you first heard it? SJ ─ I remember seeing a video on YouTube of Nancy Wilson live at Newport─that song came up and everybody went insane. It was from later on in her career, but it seemed like it stopped everybody in their tracks. I was like, “This must be the hit─this must be number one,” so that’s when I started looking it up and actually listened to her sing it. I looked up the words, I looked up her album versions of it, but a live performance was my first introduction to the song. sM | You recorded a duo version of it with Gerald Clayton that introduces a more private atmosphere to the original. What did you enjoy the most about the angle that he provided? SJ ─ Because it was our first time playing it together, there was an amplified sense of awareness: “Okay, we’re listening to each other. We know the background of this song. This is our first time playing it together.” He really brought a certain sensitivity and feeling. Especially it being in a duo setting, it’s even more intimate without the band. It’s just the voice and the piano so I really appreciated his ear, not only for listening to me and following me, but also for interacting with me and giving me ideas to bounce off of. ​ GUESS WHO I SAW AT THE GRAMMYS? sM | One of the people in the audience the night you won the Grammys was Adele, and of course your cover of her “Someone Like You” is the same beast, but a completely different animal. How did that feel seeing her cheer you on in the audience like that? SJ ─ I could not look at anybody’s face. I could not make eye contact. I was like, “I can’t look at y’all, because if I do, I’m not even gonna be able to say any words at all. It’s gonna be gibberish.” But I saw the video afterwards and was like, “Oh my gosh, Adele is standing up! Beyoncé is standing up! Lizzo is standing up!” I [had] to remember that they’re human because when I was looking at them they did not look human. They looked completely different, like they were in the air and I was down here looking up at them. The whole purpose of Spotify Singles was to do a cover of another artist’s song, so I did that Adele song and I wanted to do a reimagining. One of my contemporary influences is Lalah Hathaway, and so for the ending — thanks to Shedrick Mitchell, who played organ and piano on those respective singles — I was like, “I wanna do something a little different and expanded.” I wanted to milk it a little bit more, and also draw inspiration from Lalah. INNER HYPEMAN sM | In your acceptance speech at the Grammys, you thanked some of the folks in the audience for being who they are because you were there because of who you are. One of the many takeaways from that is how easy it is for the industry to tell you who you are, especially in a music industry where Black singers have historically had their careers co-opted by gatekeepers. How challenging do you find it to be yourself in this context, and what is the motto of your inner voice whenever you doubt that commitment? SJ ─ Sometimes I do find it challenging to stick to what I wanna do or what I’m aiming for, because I see an audience that’s a lot older than I am most times. They're focused on preservation and keeping things perfect and safe, so I definitely feel that pressure. Whenever I feel like I’m not totally exercising who I am on stage, I just go for something. I’m like, “You know what? I’m not gonna try to hide from any sort of mistakes on stage. You know what y’all, let’s play a different song. You don’t know it? Okay, let’s do it anyway. Let’s spruce it up. Let’s keep it alive.” Because when I think, “Okay, if I play this character, then people will love it and the show and me,” I’m like, no . I wanna be able to make mistakes because that’s the only way that I can grow into who I will eventually become as an artist. I don’t want that to be stifled by an image that I feel like I have to preserve for people to feel comfortable just because that’s how they were introduced to me. I know that I’m gonna keep changing and growing as I listen to music, and I will grow as a musician as I practise and engage with musical knowledge. ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Oseredok Preserving Ukraine's collective memory since 1944 WORDS BY ISABELLA ELIAS | WINNIPEG | IMAGES FROM THE COLLECTIONS OF NATIONAL MUSEUM OF TARAS SHEVCHENKO | VISUAL ARTS SPACES FEB 26, 2023 | ISSUE 11 From "The Immersive World of Ukrainian Art" ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 Intersecting the historical and contemporary, the Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre has had its roots in Winnipeg since 1944. Serving as an archive of collective cultural memory, the non-profit documents and cultivates the art, music, literature, and ethnography of Ukrainians worldwide. Here, the collective consciousness captured in Ukrainian art is preserved for posterity. From October 31, 2022 to April 30, 2023, Oseredok is hosting a unique double-feature immersive exhibition experience: The Immersive World of Ukrainian Art , and Ukraine: Land of the Brave . Working in the same creative space as Toronto’s Soul of Ukraine: Immersive Shevchenko (2022), The Immersive World of Ukrainian Art presents a family-friendly celebration of the work of renowned Ukrainian artists Taras Shevchenko (1814—1861) and Maria Prymachenko (1909—1997). Ensconced in Shevchenko’s work is the tremendous breadth and depth of Ukrainian national identity, and Prymachenko’s artistry likewise exhibits the dazzling colours of Ukrainian cultural character. Simultaneously, Ukraine: Land of the Brave confronts the nation’s current struggles with wrenching footage from the Russian invasion of 2022 through the lens of journalists and photographers such as Sergey... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Is Ballet Racist? Throughout the years, ballet has evolved—but how much exactly? WORDS BY NICHOLAS ROSE | BERLIN | DANCE IN MOTION MAR 21, 2023 | ISSUE 9 Nicholas Rose by Bastian Bochinski ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Illustration by Alicia Jungwirth Nicholas Rose by Justin Reid.jpg I wouldn’t go as far as saying that ballet itself is racist: a plie or a tendu doesn’t discriminate against someone for their colour. Nor would I say that only selected individuals can partake in these very easy-to-do steps. I do believe white people, throughout history, have had a huge pull within ballet politics, and most certainly discriminated against the individuals who have wanted to be a part of this very artistic but divided world of ballet, primarily on the basis of aesthetics. This art form was built and continues to thrive off of Eurocentric standards of beauty. These standards include having a tiny waist, a long neck, skinny legs and arms, arched feet, straight hair—and most definitely white skin. Without these attributes, one can only assume that the dancer will not be successful. To be more concerned about how someone looked in a tutu, versus the way the dancer was actually dancing in the tutu, says a lot. Ballet capitalises off of this narrow demographic, and so it’s no secret that these standards and “aesthetic,” direct where the money goes. Not everything is “beautiful at the ballet,” especially for those who don’t meet these Eurocentric aesthetics. I’ve been living abroad for the past two years, based in Berlin for 15 months. I’ve had much time to reflect on my own past experiences of exclusion, and discrimination, at the National Ballet of Canada. I knew from the beginning that Black performers wouldn’t get anywhere collectively if we only shared trauma and festered in our emotions due to the actions, or inactions, of any company. How do we find solutions to this very dark system that breeds beautiful dancers, yet conditions them into believing in something that should no longer hold up in today’s dance society? I call this “Dismantling the Toxic White Male Gaze in Classical Ballet.” You see, in ballet, everything that we see is mostly seen through the eyes of a white male. And this isn’t just ballet. This is also on our TV, in our history books, in the fashion magazines that we read, and in the movies we watch. I call it a “gaze” because it’s not necessarily based in reality, but it’s a perception that results from living in a white supremacist delusion that is not only present and in motion, but is actually romanticized in almost all ballet companies worldwide. This perception causes us to glorify the white dancer, and downplay and overlook the incredible efforts of Black dancers. This includes holding Black dancers to an impossible standard that their white counterparts would never be held to. This includes body shaming of the Black body. This gaze is so lethal that it’s not only perpetuated by white men, but also white women, and people of all colours who have been conditioned to believe that this is the only way ballet can be preserved. All this in the name of “tradition.” I think that tradition is nothing more than peer pressure from the dead. You can keep a particular technique alive, but that doesn’t mean the mentality surrounding the technique should stay. It’s gotten to a point where ballet is used as a vehicle to perpetuate this abuse and mistreatment in the performing arts. How will we get better and move past this? I think that it’s important to begin with acknowledgments. We first need to see what the problem is and accept that we all have certain ways of thinking in the ballet world that makes it too toxic to wholeheartedly enjoy. The next thing is understanding who the leaders are. For the reasons I’ve outlined above, there needs to be a dismantling of the staff in most companies. There’s no other way to put it. There needs to be multi-ethnic staff and mental health specialists that truly understand the reality operating outside of the dance studios, in the real world, for each ballet company. There needs to be more Black people at the front of the room. If there are only white rehearsal directors in every rehearsal, it’ll be challenging for people who don’t reflect what the rehearsal director looks like, dances like, or stands for. If you have more individuals of colour who are hired because of their qualifications, you can have a completely different outcome. There isn’t enough cultural sensitivity given to those who don’t fit that “traditional ballet aesthetic.” When I was training, I was constantly told I was arching my back, even when I would be tucking my hips under. Turns out that wasn’t the issue. It wasn’t until years later that I realised it was the size of my bum some teachers were concerned with, and not actually my pelvic alignment. Black dance leaders will be able to quickly spot if a dancer — of any colour — is in the back too long, or given less roles or rehearsal time, since they, too, experienced exclusion at some point. Most white people who are making casting decisions don’t even realise they are creating a mostly all-white first cast, a slightly mixed, but still predominantly white second cast; with the third — and least used cast — being dancers of colour. Keep in mind that, depending on how many shows there are and how rehearsal time is used, the third cast barely gets any shows. This is one of the most in-your-face forms of exclusion. Hiring a director of diversity won’t necessarily fix this huge race issue we have in ballet today. Hiring a singular person who’s not a part of the artistic staff to correct an organisation’s conscious or subconscious prejudices in the dance studio and beyond, won’t create significant changes. This is nothing more than virtue signalling and will only benefit the people perpetuating white supremacy in ballet companies rather than those who are on the receiving end of it. Nicholas Rose is a dancer, choreographer, and ballet dancer based in Germany. Follow him on Instagram: @nickrosechoreo. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Ilene Sova A Toronto Artist Traces Family and Memory in Latest Exhibit WORDS BY EMILY PITTMAN | TORONTO | VISUAL ARTS STUDIO SESSIONS MAR 03, 2023 | ISSUE 10 Alphonso by Ilene Sova ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE "Hugh and George" by Ilene Sova Ilene Sova Between founding the Feminist Art Conference , chairing the Drawing & Painting Department at Toronto’s OCAD University, and starting a creative-arts program for elementary school students , it’s hard to believe that Ilene Sova had time to work on a solo exhibition. Yet, Unknown Relative was put on this summer at the John B. Aird Gallery. Sova shares her artistic and personal inspirations, from her whimsical childhood daydreams to her interdisciplinary professional life. sM | The title of your recent solo exhibition, Unknown Relative, came from the back of a photo in your grandfather’s album. How is your creative process augmented by intimate subjects? IS ── I think when dealing with family, everything in the collage collection is connected with deep memories of my childhood and the connection to my own aesthetic memories of the Bahamas. My dad’s 1970s Afrofuture record collection was one of my most inspiring influences. Afrofuturism is reimagining a future filled with arts, science, and technology seen through a black lens. The aesthetics of this movement include space, the universe, glitter, metallic, elaborate costumes, and innovative technologies. As a child, I vividly remember looking at these album covers like Boney M.’s Night Flight to Venus . I would sit by the record player staring at the glitter and imagining myself dancing in these shiny silver, beautifully coloured costumes. The second influence is my grandfather’s cousin, Eric Minns, who was a famous calypso singer and author. His iconic calypso music was playing in the exhibition as people explored the show. In his book, Island Boy , he wrote about the diasporic travel of Bahamian migrants to Toronto. This novel and his records were always at arm’s reach in my house, where I would stare at the images and imagine a false tropical paradise far away. I think this diasporic visual lens is a thread throughout the work. Lastly, my grandfather wrote copious amounts of letters back and would carefully save the stamps and bring them on my visits as small souvenirs of the island. I would carefully arrange them in my childhood scrapbooks. Later, after he left my house, I would stare at these tiny iconographic images of flamingos, palm trees, pineapples, coconuts, fish, and shells, and transport myself to this imagined hot and beautiful island. These symbolic icons came up again in my compositional choices as I worked through the studio research. "Grace" by Ilene Sova sM | You are also the Chair of the Drawing & Painting department at OCAD University, the largest art school in Canada. How does your teaching experience interact and inform your artistic practice? IS ── I see my teaching and work in community arts as an integral aspect of my studio practice. Teaching and working in leadership at OCAD U is a pleasure because of all the inspiration and dialogue it brings into my life as an artist. As you can imagine, when you are learning about art with your community of students, discussing contemporary practices with your colleagues and programming engagements within the city of Toronto, you are constantly stimulated and pushed creatively. Teaching always presents creative challenges and problem-solving, and that stimulation comes into the studio research in a myriad of ways. This year in particular, I had the exciting opportunity as a faculty member to work directly with young emerging artists from the Bahamas through my work at the university. ​ I planned a residency supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council called Decolonizing Art from Turtle Island to the Islands of the Bahamas with co-researcher Nadia McLaren. For this work, I travelled to Nassau, Bahamas and engaged in historical and creative research with OCAD U students and students from a community arts studio called Project ICE and the University of the Bahamas. Those students then came to Toronto for two weeks this summer for the other half of the exchange. I brought those students from Nassau through the exhibition and did a walking artist talk. Their responses to the collection were significant. This work and the conversations it created were incredibly inspiring for thinking through the installation, the aesthetics, and the concepts within Unknown Relative . ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Kate O’Donnell MINNEAPOLIS — AiR TOUR — Issue 10 Art by Kate O’Donnell Kate O’Donnell sM | How do you maintain a fresh and artistic perspective when creating works with social or political relevance? KO ── When I attempt to create something that acknowledges political events, I have a focus or a message I am trying to get across. Finding your own explicit focus for your work can help maintain a “fresh” perspective because it stems completely from your own take on a current social issue. In the past, I have created socially relevant works in which the focus derived from my emotional response to a current event. For example, in an artwork of mine entitled Thank You , I was filled with gratitude for healthcare workers who were working non-stop during the pandemic. Continue the AiR tour in print: ISSUE 9 | ISSUE 10 Sign Up to K eep Up! Our newsletter brings you the best in the visual and performing arts. Exclusive interviews. Global coverage. Local perspectves. sM | What did you learn from the process of live painting during your time as the Artist in Residence at the Lighthouse ArtSpace Minneapolis? KO ── Firstly, I learned how to balance socializing and focusing. I talked to the guests but remembered not to get too distracted from my artwork. Eventually, I learned how to effectively paint and talk with people. It seemed the guests enjoyed watching me paint as I chatted too, which was a relief. Beyond this, I learned how to create many pieces in one day. Basically, I worked on at least five different projects at once. I had two big paintings, a flower pot, and multiple earrings that I constantly rotated through during the day. Adding to this, I also learned so much about the guests and which of my pieces were the most popular among them. I was so interested to hear everyone’s takes on my artwork, what it reminded them of, and how it made them feel. One woman cried looking at a painting! sM | What is one social issue that your art speaks to the most? KO ── I believe my art speaks to the issue of disconnection the most. I have quite a few paintings that I created in March 2020. I felt extremely disheartened by the forced separation at this time. I remember feeling a huge sense of hope when I saw imagery from Italy of people playing music, dancing, and singing from their balconies. They were all safely separated but still enjoying a sense of togetherness. From this image, I was inspired to create a painting called Connected from a Distance . It was inspiring to see that there were so many people doing their part to be safe, quarantine, and respect health guidelines in order to keep everyone safe. PREVIOUS NEXT