Spotlight: Black Queer Voices

Performer

For the past half century, Walter Borden has been an acclaimed actor, playwright, poet and teacher. Along the way, he has performed on stages across Canada. Importantly, Walter says the foundation for his career was laid in his home town of New Glasgow. That’s because it was when he was growing up in Pictou County that he began to grasp the potential he possessed. “By the time that I left New Glasgow in 1960,everything that I had been taught combined to make me ready to go and do whatever I want to do. I’ve lived by the maxim be a sower of seeds, a witness and a messenger.”

Walter graduated from Acadia University and the Nova Scotia Teachers’ College, then went to New York to study acting at the highest possible level. He came back to Nova Scotia, and the rest of Canada, as a fully developed performer and creator. In the late 1960s, he helped establish Kwaacha House – an interracial teen-oriented, drop-in and social education centre that inspired young Nova Scotians to seek full equality of citizenship and full equality of opportunity for African Nova Scotians. Walter was a mentor to many young Blacks at this time.

On the stage, Borden joined Halifax’s Neptune Theatre Company in 1972, and performed with them and other theatrical troupes many times since. He has also had numerous roles in films and on television. In each role, Walter Borden captivates audiences. One particularly note worthy work was the play he wrote and performed entitled Tightrope Time: Ain’t Nuthin’ More Than Some Itty Bitty Madness Between Twilight And Dawn. It was an autobiographical examination of the complex world of a central character who is Black and gay, who is raised in small town Nova Scotia but is living in a city facing challenges like racism, impoverishment and homophobia.

For his long and distinguished career in the arts, Walter Borden has received many awards and honours —including the Queen Elizabeth II Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals, the African Nova Scotian Music Association’s Music Heritage Award and the Portia White Prize and been made a member of the Order of Canada.

Performer

Amanda Cordner is a powerhouse multidisciplinary artist—actor, clown, dancer, singer, playwright, and filmmaker. A two-time Canadian Screen Award nominee and ACTRA Award nominee for their breakout role as 7ven in CBC/HBO Max’s Sort Of, Amanda also won a Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in Snow White (YPT). Their acclaimed play Body So Fluorescent made its Toronto mainstage premiere in April 2023 at Buddies in Bad Times, was published, and was nominated for the Dayne Ogilvie Prize from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Amanda’s screen work includes Station Eleven, The Expanse, and Baroness von Sketch Show, alongside performances in audiobooks and video games.

Host

Ryan is a theatre and cabaret artist, activist, and lover of all black and queer. Privileged to have worked with artists like Salome Bey, Gregory Hines, and Philip Akin, and mentored by artists like Eartha Kitt, Ryan’s work has appeared at Shaw, Stratford, Canadian Stage Company, Buddies in Bad Times, Montreal Art Institute, and elsewhere across Canada and the US.

Performer

A performance poet experimenting with public expression and activating  public space. Researching the art of living at the free university of earth. Embodying the beauty of the try hard( the attempt, the failure, maybe even the success?)

Opener of time and space. Dancer at street intersections.

Grand Painter of the metropolis. Former theatre it girl.

Experienced oddity. Lover of most things.

Director

Germaine Konji is a Kenyan-canadian director, actor, singer, writer, and educator. Kenyan by birth and canadian by paper, Germaine’s early love of storytelling was shaped by a vibrant community where art was a tool for survival and connection. Germaine holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Theatre Performance from Sheridan College, where they pushed institutional boundaries to explore the decolonial potential of the art form. Their work challenges colonial paradigms, blending Diasporic storytelling traditions with contemporary theatre. As a student, Germaine made their directorial debut with The Smearing of Silent Blood (2017) and premiered their first full-length play, Burning House. Smoking Gun, at Factory Theatre in 2019. A passionate educator and activist, their work has earned recognition, including multiple Dora nominations, the 2020 Syd and Shirley Banks Prize, and a mention as a Breakthrough Toronto Stage Artist of 2022 (Glenn Sumi).

Select credits (stage): Universal Child Care (Quote Unquote Collective/ Canadian Stage/ Nightwood Theatre) Grand Magic, Finally There’s Sun (Stratford Festival), Serving Elizabeth (Theatre Aquarius), Dixon Road (Obsidian/ Musical Stage Co), UnCovered, the Music of ABBA, Into the Woods (Talk is Free Theatre)

The core values of Germaine’s practice are disruption, joy, sustainability, and service.

Performer

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright and agitator. Her main body of work is the 54ology: The First Stone, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, Diggers, Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Dark Love, Roominhouse, Salome’s Clothes and Gas Girls.  She collaborated on the creation of The Only Good Indian and They Say He Fell (Pandemic Theatre), Forbidden and Oubliette (Tapestry Opera), The House You Build (Gordon Tootoosis Nekaniwin Theatre) and 501: Toronto in Transit (Theatre Passe Muraille). DM also contributes to the creative ecology as a director, dramaturge and administrator.