CiTR

Kamilah Haywood aka K Woodz (She/Her/They/Them) is a Queer, Black, Canadian fiction Author of Jamaican heritage who depicts the unfiltered, authentic, and occasionally dark side of Toronto life. Her previous works include Concrete Jungle, Diamond in the Rough (Parts I and II). Their latest release is THE HIDDEN TRACK released in October of last year.
Through raw, intimate narratives, they capture issues from female incarceration, sex trafficking, relationships, coming of age, and spirituality through their intensely gripping novels.

In addition to their creative writing, Kamilah has co-founded a series of writing workshops and events in collaboration with Kya Publishing, encouraging cultural awareness, professional development, and international networking throughout the Black writing community, and creative industries at large.

Kamilah is also the host of the weekly Chuuch Live Show and is an active Toronto Prison Rights Advocate. To connect with K Woodz, visit their website at www.chuuchliveshow.com
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INTERVIEW TWO:
Fay Nass (they/she/he)



LOCAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST Fay Nass’s earliest memories go back to the Teatr-e Shahr, the Tehran City Theatre where her aunt worked as an actor and director. She would tag along to rehearsals and go behind the scenes from as young as age three right up until her family left Iran for Canada when she was 17. “It was magical,” Nass tells Stir.

Those experiences in the arts planted the seed for a career that sees the non-binary queer theatre director exploring race, sex, culture, and identity in her work. Now, the artistic director of the frank theatre company is mounting a queer musical-audio play that reflects the organization’s very purpose and heart. Its adaptation of I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me by ground-breaking author Catherine Hernandez, a queer woman of colour, premieres January 7 to 16 online and is being offered for free listening. The story features four women who gather around a campfire to swap stories and share in strength and healing.

So many things about the play appealed to Nass, who is also the founder and artistic director of Apothic Theatre, has a master’s in fine arts from Simon Fraser University, and is doing the artistic leadership residency at the National Theatre School of Canada. For one, it fits with the frank theatre company’s mandate to elevate the voices of queer and nonbinary women of colour. Consider that the percentage of female playwrights in Canada is small to begin with; “when you add queer and race on top of that, the number just keeps getting smaller,” Nass says.

Established in 1996, the frank is the oldest professional queer theatre company in Vancouver and one of few theatre organizations in the entire country to be led by a genderqueer, immigrant woman of colour. Collaborating with LGBTQ2SIA+ artists and arts workers, the frank aims to subvert Eurocentric styles of and approaches to storytelling.