Meet the Storytellers:

Celia Lottridge is a teller of traditional and original stories to adults and children. She is a co-founder of Storytelling Toronto, co-founder and former director of the Parent-Child Mother Goose Program, and author of many award-winning children’s books including retellings of folktales and novels based on family stories. Her collection Ten Small Tales is considered by many storytellers to be the finest source of folktales for young children published in Canada.

Devan Sandiford is a published writer, award-winning storyteller, and founder of Unreeling Storytelling—a Brooklyn-based community that provides a space for repressed perspectives to be heard. Raised in the wake of his Uncle Ron being fatally shot by the police outside of their home, Devan spent his childhood and young adult years carrying all his sorrows in silence. Then, feeling a voice within him longing to be heard, Devan moved to Brooklyn to push himself out of his comfort zone and find the power of his authentic voice. Devan has now shared more than 50 personal stories to audiences in New York City, New Jersey, Toronto, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, and virtually all over the world.

Dwayne Morgan is a two-time Canadian National Poetry Slam Champion. He began his career as a spoken word artist in 1993. In 1994, he founded Up From The Roots entertainment to promote the positive artistic contributions of African Canadian and urban influenced artists. Morgan made the 2022 Shifter Magazine list of outstanding Black men in Canada, as well as winning the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Celebration of Cultural Life award, and the 2018 the Sheri-D Wilson Golden Beret Award for Career Achievement in the Spoken Word. Morgan was a 2016 finalist for the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, and in 2013, he was inducted into the Scarborough Walk of Fame.

January Rogers is a Mohawk/Tuscarora poet, media producer, performance, and sound artist. She lives on her home territory of Six Nations of the Grand River where she operates Ojistoh Publishing and Productions. She has seven published poetry titles and wrote and produced a comedy web series titled NDNs on the Airwaves (2022) and a stage play titled Blood Sport (2022) currently in development. Her video poem Ego of a Nation won Best Music Video at the American Indian Film Festival in 2020 and her sound piece The Battle Within won the Best Experimental Sound prize at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Festival in 2021. She is Western University’s Writer in Residence (2022/23).

Rico Rodriguez is a storyteller, drag performer, teacher, community activist, and Union leader. His tellings of folktales and his own creations of personal and fictional stories, such as his LatinQueermerican project are infused with themes of equity and social change. He is one of the founders of Queers in Your Ears, the oldest queer storytelling show. He regularly participates in storytelling festivals and conferences as a teller and panelist. He facilitates workshops on how to use storytelling in educational settings, community, and health promotion agencies. He received the Alice Kane and the Anne Smythe Travel Awards.

About Storytelling Toronto:

Storytelling Toronto was brought to life in 1979 as the Storytellers School of Toronto. It was founded by seven storytellers who wanted to encourage the renaissance of oral storytelling in modern society. From experienced, seasoned elders to young tellers experimenting with the nature of spoken narrative, Storytelling Toronto is a creative centre for story-lovers who share a passion for and a vision of storytelling as an transformative art in contemporary life. Learn more

About the Exhibition:

Enter a world at once familiar and uncanny. Montreal-based artist Karine Giboulo invites visitors into an immersive reimagining of her home. Brought to life by over 500 miniature polymer clay figures, this is no ordinary house. The colourful dioramas furnishing each room prompt reflection about the challenges we face as a society, including connectedness and isolation, aging and care, labour and consumerism, the climate crisis, food insecurity, and housing instability. Learn more