Collette Murray is a multi-award-winning artist-scholar, dance educator, cultural arts programmer, mentor, and arts consultant. Murray pursues a Ph.D. in Dance Studies at York University focusing on dance education and anti-racist dance pedagogies. She is the owner of Miss Coco Murray, her mobile dance education business and the Artistic Director of Coco Collective offering culturally responsive projects that connect participants to African and Caribbean arts. Murray’s publications focus on cultural education and are included in dance media, professional resources for the arts sector, and peer-reviewed academic journals.  Murray explores dance contexts of Caribbean folklore and West Africa in her art research.  Coco Collective is an intergenerational team of artists known for performances at arts organizations, universities, museums, Afrofest, Theatre Direct, the National Ballet School and the Canadian Opera Company.

Enas Satir is a Sudanese multidisciplinary artist living in Toronto. Her work includes ceramics, illustrations, video making, storytelling, and photography. Enas started her career as an architect after graduating from the University of Khartoum, Faculty of Architecture in 2007. Working in 3D as an architect for five years led her to an interest in graphic design. She obtained a Master’s degree in Graphic Design in Florence, Italy in 2013 and began to focus more on digital drawings, before moving into mixed media and ceramics. In 2018, a year after she moved to Toronto, Enas received the Toronto Mentorship Art Grant awarded by the Toronto Art Council. Working alongside Canadian artist Erin Candela, she fell in love with clay and has been dedicating more time to her ceramic practice.

Kobèna Aquaa-Harrison is a ground-breaking Ghanaian-Bermudian performer, producer, composer, and storyteller. He has garnered several Dora, Juno, Chalmers, Torchbearer, and other esteemed awards for his prolific work in music, media, film, television, dance, theatre, and most recently Canada’s historic Scott Joplin opera production, “Treemonisha” (Volcano/ CoC/ Soulpepper). Kobè performs internationally for presidents and preschoolers, wielding electric and acoustic instruments he designs and builds himself, including the “seperewa”, a rare 17th-century Akan harp-lute. He has performed across Canada, in Japan, Botswana, Bermuda, Bali, Costa Rica. “The sound when jazz, rock, reggae, hip hop come face to face with their ancestors” describes the eclectic rhythms of his trademark, “afrosonic jollof”. Kobè leads the all-star, Djungle Bouti Orchestra, with members hailing from Trinidad to Tanzania, and Algeria to South Africa.

Kwanza Msingwana is a versatile artist who has traveled widely as a musician, poet, and storyteller. He has performed for Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. He has also appeared in films, including “Heaven Before I Die,” “Bullet Proof Monk,” and “The Feast of All Saints.” Kwanza is co-author of the short story collection Only Mountains Never Meet. His poetry has been published in the Windsor Review, The Healing Story Alliance Journal, Caribbean Quilt, and elsewhere. He has a Master of Teaching degree.

Tura Cousins Wilson is an architect, educator, and cofounder of the Studio of Contemporary Architecture (SOCA), based in Toronto, Ontario. He is inspired by creating uplifting spaces of beauty and contends that architecture’s power lies in its ability to transform collective imaginations and narratives into reality. Tura holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Toronto Metropolitan University, a master’s degree in architecture, urbanism, and building sciences from Delft University of Technology.