NAC Livestream
The National Arts Centre is celebrating International Women’s Day with free online events centered on women’s voices and experiences. This panel discussion begins the day with extraordinary Canadian women in the performing arts on how the pandemic has affected their lives and careers.
The English panel, at 12:30 p.m., will include artist and creator Nicole Brooks (Toronto); theatre artist Heidi Susanne MacDonald (Rosebud, AB); performer, musician, playwright, producer, director and motivational speaker Sylvia Cloutier (Kuujjuaq, Nunavik); and singer-songwriters Leela Gilday (Yellowknife) and Irish Mythen (Ireland/PEI). The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Jillian Horton (Winnipeg), an internist, musician, medical educator and author of the recently released book We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing, as well as host of the NAC speaker series Arts, Medicine and #Life.
Nicole Brooks (Toronto), a filmmaker, director, performer, singer, playwright, composer, curator, teacher and ‘art-ivist’ who has devoted more than 20 years producing innovative content for the stage and screen, with a focus on narratives that illuminate the peoples of the African Diaspora. She is the creator, composer and librettist of and actor in Obeah Opera.
Sylvia Cloutier (Kuujjuaq, Nunavik) a performer, actor, musician, playwright, television and theatre producer, director, motivational speaker and mother currently residing in Montreal. Over the course of her illustrious 25-year career as a singer, she has performed nationally and internationally both as a solo artist and in collaboration with many esteemed artists and ensembles, including Madeleine Allakariallak, Tafelmusik and the NAC Orchestra.
Leela Gilday (Yellowknife), a singer-songwriter born and raised in the Northwest Territories who writes about the people and the land that created her. She has toured festivals and concert halls with her four-piece band through every province and territory in Canada. She has played in the United States, Greenland, Australia, New Zealand and several countries in Europe.
Heidi Susanne MacDonald (Rosebud, AB), an actor, director, playwright, poet, and a nurse working at Drumheller Hospital in Drumheller, Alberta. As a queer Christian artist, she continually seeks out stories of intersectionality and inclusivity for all people.
Irish Mythen (Ireland/PEI), whose latest release, Little Bones, gained a 2020 JUNO nomination for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year, seven Music PEI 2020 nominations and two wins — Touring Artist of the Year and Roots Contemporary Recording of the Year, and a Canadian Folk Music Nomination for Solo Artist of the Year.
*This discussion will be in English only.*