Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Anne-Marie Woods Reads from her New Play on May 10, 7pm at the Black Cultural Centre

Anne-Marie Woods /Amani returns home to share excerpts from her new play, Scotian Journey, a story about a young Black woman’s relationship to Africville. 

May 10, 7pm
Black Cultural Centre
10 Cherry Brook Road
Cherry Brook, NS
Free Admission 

Anne-Marie/Amani is an actor, dancer, singer, poet, producer, arts educator, playwright project manager, creativity career coach and creative consultant. Born in London England of Trinidadian heritage, her family left Trinidad in the early 70’s and she spent her formative years in Dartmouth, and later Halifax, Nova Scotia. She laid down her roots as an artist in Nova Scotia for many years, and is now based in Toronto but, she continues to make waves in the arts scene both nationally and internationally.

Anne-Marie/Amani is a graduate of the Dalhousie Professional Actor Training Program and she has a Small Business Certificate from the HRDC Self-Employment Business Program. After earning her theatre degree, she worked in the not for profit sector as Program Coordinator for The Cultural Awareness Youth Group of Nova Scotia. In the 90’s she founded her young company The Imani Women’s Artistic Project, and she was the director of countless youth and arts-oriented community projects. She has been a part of the spoken word scene since the spring of 1996 and is credited with bringing Spoken Word to the Nova Scotia Community.

Ms. Woods was a member Acapella singing sensation Four the Moment from 1988 until 2000. Four the Moment is credited with receiving the first African Canadian Artist of the Year Award at the East Coast Music Awards in 1998. They also performed at many festivals including: the Germany Women in E Motion Festival, the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival, Lincoln Centre in New York City and they were the opening act for Dr. Maya Angelou at Roy Thompson Hall and then at the Sky Dome Theatre. Most recently Four the Moment held the distinct privilege of opening up for Dr. Angela Davis in October 2018 as part of the Belong Speaker series at Dalhousie University. They will be honoured in October of 2019 at the Adsum House 30th Anniversary of the Annual Successful Canadian Women’s Dinner.

Anne-Marie/Amani was the first African Canadian to perform at the prestigious National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina in 2001. Her one woman show “Waiting To Explode” which encompassed comedy, song, monologues, and spoken word received rave reviews and got a mention from Jeanette Toomer in the New York theatre paper Backstage as one of the acts from abroad that stood out. She worked at CBC and was a featured voice on CBC radio’s Metro Morning for years, where she took news and current affairs and turned them into song, poems, comedic commentaries and rants. This year Meres Weche founder of Afrotoronto.com interviewed her about her career in the arts. Podcast Interview 2019 How Black History Saved My Life

Her debut spoken word CD “Amani the Words, the Rhythm, the Music was sponsored by Canada Council for the Arts and was released with a live concert on September 22nd, 2007 in Toronto, Ontario. She has been the opening act for The Harry Jerome Awards, performed for The Honorable Lincoln Alexander, and she hosted a documentary called “Hand Made Hand Held” for CBC TV. Her radio documentary “Flat Belly Blues” was produced for CBC national radio and it also aired on BBC radio in the UK. Her poetry has been featured at Theatre Passe Muraille, Harbourfront Centre, the Jazz By Genre Series, CBC TV, City TV and countless other radio shows, conferences, galas, festivals, or Imani Enterprises productions. She has performed in the Nationally Acclaimed show When Sisters Speak, produced by Dwayne Morgan of Up from The Roots several times. She has performed her unique blend of spoken word nationally and internationally. She has been the headline act at the world-famous Nuyorican CafĂ© in New York City, she was the featured poet at The Drum in Birmingham, England as part of the Nu Century Arts Live Box Series.

Full bio available on Anne-Marie/Amani’s website.

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