Dr. d’bi.young anitafrika is an internationally celebrated dub poet, biomythicist, theatre-maker, and liberatory pedagogue whose work spans performance, scholarship, and arts leadership across four continents. Laureate of the 2026 Mayor’s Celebration of Cultural Life Award, the 2025 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, and the 2023 Siminovitch Finalist Prize in Theatre, they continue to shape contemporary theatre and performance training through their pioneering methodology, the Anitafrika Dub Praxis. Dr. anitafrika has authored twelve plays, released seven dub poetry albums, published four poetry collections, and headlined festivals and theatre seasons worldwide. Their contributions have been recognised with numerous honours, including three Dora Awards, the Canadian Poet of Honour Award, and a Global Leader in Theatre and Performance distinction from Arts Council England. Their groundbreaking PhD, Personhood, Practice & Pedagogy in Black Womxn Theatre, theorises Black womyn’s theatre-making and addresses critical research gaps in Canadian performance scholarship. A visionary practitioner-scholar, Dr. anitafrika has lectured at Addis Ababa University, London South Bank University, Stanislavski Theatre School in Poland, and the Sandberg Institute in the Netherlands. Founding Artistic Director of the Watah Black Theatre School and Spolrusie Press, and Principal Researcher of the Black Womyn in Theatre Archive, Dr. anitafrika is also co-editor of Free To Be More: Creative Activism in the Era of Black Lives Matter and is currently embarking upon a global tour of their critically acclaimed biomyth monodrama shx mami wata & the pxssywitch hunt.

www.dbiyounganitafrika.com

Djennie Laguerre is an actress, writer, and storyteller. She is a graduate of the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in NYC and has a BA from the University of Ottawa. Her theatre credits as a performer include The Imaginary Invalid, Les Zinspirés I & III (Théâtre français de Toronto), Seventeen (Anonymous), and Women (Infintheatre). She is the writer, performer, and translator of Rendez-vous with home ⁄ Lakay and Manman la mer/Mother Sea. Manman la mer (Catapulte Theatre, Ottawa), which premiered in Ottawa before being presented at the MASA Festival in the Ivory Coast in March 2020, and toured New Brunswick, Saskatoon, Montreal, and Quebec City from 2022 to 2024. The show won the Prix Rideau Awards in 2020 for Production of the Year and Best Actress. The English version, Mother Sea, had its premiere this past February ’26’ at the Undercurrent Festival. Her latest TYA play, Taking Care of Maman, a Roseneath Theatre and Black Theatre Workshop production, has been translated by the author into French and Haitian Creole; Prendre soin de mom will be touring schools, in French and English, in the fall of 2026 and winter 2027, from Montreal and Toronto to Saskatoon. TCM has been touring a school near you since fall 2024 and has gotten the author nominated for Best New TYA Work 2042. For 20 years, Djennie has been a bilingual educational artist for the Ontario Arts Council, YPT, and Theatre Direct.

Born in Montreal to Haitian parents, Lorrie Jean-Louis holds a bachelor’s degree in History, Culture, and Society with a minor in Philosophy; she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in literature on “The Black Body and Intersubjectivity” and is completing her studies with a second master’s degree in library science.
She has a wide range of professional experience, all of which has focused on literature and the French language. She has won three awards for her first poetry collection, *La femme cent couleurs*, published by Mémoire d’encrier. Among these awards is the CALQ Emerging Artist Award.  Recently, she has been working with MAYDAY on the adaptation of bell hooks’ text “All About Love” towards “L’amour ou rien”, which will be performed at ESPACE GO and the Grand Théâtre de Québec.  She writes.

Maryline Chery is an actor, playwright, and improviser of Haitian descent. She studied performing arts at Concordia University. In 2021, she presented her first solo show, AFRODISIAQUE, at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, before bringing it to the Zoofest festival (OFF Just for Laughs) at the Monument National, where the production won the Show of the Year award in 2022. The following season, she embarked on a Montreal tour of cultural centers as part of the Montreal Arts Council’s CAM on Tour program, drawing sold-out crowds throughout the 2022–2023 season.

Maryline is commitment to international engagement, notably participating in the 17th Francophonie Summit in Yerevan, Armenia, in 2018, where she led writing and performance workshops. Her mentoring continued the Black Theatre Workshop’s artistic cohort in 2018–2019. Alongside her work as an actor, she co-directed projects such as the second edition of Projet Racines at Théâtre Espace Libre in 2021. On television, she has appeared in notable series such as Doute raisonnable (2023) and District 31 (2020).

She is the recipient of the Gloria Mitchell Aleong Award (Black Theatre Workshop, 2022),for excellence, community engagement, and artistic initiative. In 2024, Maryline received the Theater Actress of the Year award at the Dynastie Gala and published her first play, *AFRODISIAQUE*, with Hurlantes Éditrices. The English translation was published with Playwright Canada Press in 2026.

Driven by a desire to showcase the richness of Creole culture, Maryline Chery continues to create vibrant, diverse, and socially engaged works. Her work reflects her identity while contributing to the development of a powerful and unique form of artistic expression.