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danjelani

@danjelani

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me come here carried in story
from akan yard to maroon yard
🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀🌀
@groundwork.redux

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jonkunoo spirits @thetheatrecentre 10 for 10 party

- belly woman and her date (he’s shy, don’t mind the side-eye) in the photo booth
- belly woman without her date (oh dear) on the dance floor
- pitchy-patchy dancing with toronto’s 66th mayor, olivia chow
- jonkunoo kween was also present but naturally eluded all photos

photo-booth images by Dennis Chow
party images by Jae Yang

#queer #performance #newmoon #ancestry #liberation #decolonial #history #future #qtbipoc #survival #resilience #solo #masquerade #parade #jonkunoo #afrocaribbean #sankofa #remix #groundwork #redux taken in The Theatre Centre by @danjelani

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2 years ago

SPEAKING OF SNEAKING
production photos by @mimnagh.ca
story-weaving with these specialists was everything and more🫶🏿🕸️💥

direction: d'bi.young anitafrika
choreography: Fairy J
set + costume design: Rachel Forbes
lighting design: Andre du Toit
sound design: Stephon Smith
stage management: Lexi Sproule
head of wardrobe: Chanti Laliberte
production manager: Rebecca Vandevelde
technical director: Conrad Mclaren
head techs: Darren Shaen, Kit Norman, Van Ward taken in Buddies In Bad Times Theatre by @danjelani

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3 years ago

grade 11 drama class field trip with mr simms, boarded the bus in malvern heading downtown for the princess of wales theatre to see trey anthony’s da kink in my hair. stunned by the familiarity in the stories and storytelling and transported by the powerful devastating hysterical force of @dbiyounganitafrika that moment lifted and plummeted and appointed me to possibility and inspiration and aspirations. it was a wednesday morning in march of 2005 and i had been living in scarborough as of september the year before - just one winter down and entering very first canadian spring. in my chair after the show i stayed sat eyes closed and wished to the dark theatre. every moment i am gifted with d’bi is indeed a “miracle that keeps miracle-ing” by @danjelani

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3 years ago

i started making jonkunno masks in winter 2017 to fill in an everlasting chasm of longing for home. by 2018 i was performing as pitchy-patchy, belly woman, jonkonnu queen, and horse head in a solo jonkonnu masquerade parade.

over the years i’ve continued to learn jonkonnu’s history and journeys throughout the diaspora, expanded the mask-making and regalia fabrication, and deepened my exploration and embodied research.

paramount learnings came from scholars like orlando paterson, sylvia wynter, cheryl ryman, whose research argue that jamaican jonkonnu has roots in west african spiritual traditions and not simply christmas-time baccahnal for the enslaved africans as i was taught as a child.

my exploration has always been skewed because can this be considered jonkonnu? and what is jamaican jonkonnu doing in toronto? and isn’t jonkonnu only supposed to be at chistmas? i embrace the distortions and will continue to lean further off-center in my explorations.

one particularly fun and playful element of it all has been devising the mythology of jamaican jonkonnu arriving in toronto, canada. though it’s all fun and playful. and reverent and serious. jonkonnu is one of jamaica’s oldest traditions, supposedly diluting diminishing soon dead and gone.

i’m sharing with y’all today, on jamaica’s 64th anniversary of independence, my latest jonkonnu project. pitchy-patchy irl: inserting pitchy patchy in our contemporary content-creation context, from mundane to extraordinary we see pitchy patchy inna real(reel) life.

there are still cracks and some quakes (winter😭) and i haven’t been back to jamaica since 2012, but this work brings me peace with the chasm of longing for home. when i play jonkonnu i’m dancing for the repossession of territory…dancing to possess myself again in the spirit of my ancestors*

gwan guh follow @pitchypatchy.irl mi ah beg yuh please❤️‍🔥 by @danjelani

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2 months ago

unforgettable experience celebrating emancipation day playing ole mas on de road with @bluedevilmokojumbiemas

the afro-caribbean practice of carnival emerges from ole mas traditions of transgression towards emancipation. the blue devil tradition is unique to trinidad, coming out of the mountain village of paramin where scarce molasses inspired the jab molassie to use blue laundry power and water to blue their bodies.

i brought jamaican ole mas jonkunno spirit pitchy-patchy into the mas for a transcendent first jump😈🎆💙 by @danjelani

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2 months ago

mambo bado: things are still the same, there is more to come // portraits by @sk.dossier + self-portrait for good measure🫦 by @danjelani

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3 months ago

…to enjoy peace of mind and to be present to the unfolding mystery of your life…

thank youuu @sk.dossier + @virgiliagriffith 💝 by @danjelani

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4 months ago

three weeks into my thirtyeighth cycle round the sun and it’s always a sweet salty sweaty silly micromoment glimmering thru🫦🎇💖 by @danjelani

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4 months ago

“…relinquish being an adored bud clasping its future, and dare to open wide, to let the layers of its petals go flat, show the cluster of stamens dead center for all to see.” jazz, toni morrison by @danjelani

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7 months ago

i have never in my life seen afro-cherubs until 2023 when i came across the work of the divinely talented jalen @fuzzywuzzums whose cherubs are so v black, adorable, and life-affirming. i immediately reached out and we began a conversation spanning hairstyle, mood, symbolism, placement and more. of course i wanted afro, joy+mischief, jonkunno masquerade, and a cowrie shell or two. yow people, look at what they designed!

navigated the mtl/to long distance, covid disruptions, life-turmoil obstructions until finally linking up 2 years later. now the lil sweetie with their soft belly and cheeky pout is forever connected to me🥹i love them so very much. i cant wait for our bodies to age together while our spirits stay growing young🌀💛 by @danjelani

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9 months ago

working full time as a producer affords me the privilege of close proximity to a variety of artistic processes but it has been a couple years since i've been one of the storytellers on stage. full time theatre actors have all my love and respect, bwoy. one good friend was working full time from may to december and i stay in awe. this storytelling work requires such significant mental/emotional/spiritual/physical output and plenty plenty of all of that to be really proficient. i'm just about done recovering from the seven week swirl of moonlight schooner. my afrocaribbean heart stays soooo full of love and gratitude. i stay in this storytelling work because of how my young artistic spirit was nurtured by the poets, actors, artists, educators who raised me in jamaica. carrying their legacy forward through this work was a terrifying, deeply fulfilling, challenging, joyous, expansive endeavour, tremendous honour, and life highlight. big up and bless up each and every heart and soul who contributed and witnessed moonlight schooner. by @danjelani

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10 months ago

#winter #solstice #kensingtonmarket
@redpepperspectacle @kensingtonmarketbia
@augustaandbaldwin by @danjelani

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10 months ago