Amani is an award winning multi-disciplinary
artist. She is a womanist, arts
educator, producer, playwright, director creative consultant with roots
in London, England and Trinidad, who spent her formative years in Nova Scotia. She
received a Talent Trust scholarship in 1996 to attend a nine-month residency at
Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia in 1997, one of the oldest Black Theatres in
Pennsylvania. That residency changed her career path forever. Describing herself as a British Born Trini
with Scotian Overtones, Woods’ work and creativity always has
multi-disciplinary style storytelling with original penned songs and
compositions. She is also credited with introducing Spoken Word as an art form
to Nova Scotia in the mid 90’s.
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| Photo by Linda Marie Stella |
Anne-Marie Woods’ life and career have always challenged
boundaries and blended multiple genres or styles. In 2001, she held the honour
of being the first African Canadian to have a featured play Waiting to Explode at the National Black
Theatre Festival in North Carolina. Voted
as one of 100 Black Women in Canada to Watch and the 2013 winner of a BBPA
Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in Entertainment, she has performed and
presented in the UK, Trinidad, and the World-Famous Nuyorican Café in New York
City. Scotian Journey is the second of her plays to have a World Premiere
at Black Theatre Workshop in Montreal. The
first was her Theatrical Rhapsody She
Said/He Said in 2016, which had a very successful World Premiere at the
MAI. Her other play The Three Friends that focuses on African Canadian History and race
relations, was originally written for Black History Month Celebrations for the
City of Barrie in 2017.
Acclaim for Anne-Marie Woods’ plays:
“The Richmond Hill Centre for the
Performing Arts is honoured to present The
Three Friends as part of the 2018/2019 Education Series. The feedback from
the first presentation in February 2017 was so overwhelmingly positive, which
was the primary factor to present the show again next season. In addition,
Imani Enterprises has been a joy to work with to make these presentations
happen. The RHCPA will gladly work with Anne-Marie Woods of Imani Enterprises
on future projects, if invited to do so."
- RHCPA Theatre Manager, Michael Grit
“Anne-Marie Woods is a talented
writer. It was a wonderfully collaborative experience when we produced her play
She Said/He Said back in 2016, and we
are looking forward to touring local schools in Montreal with Scotian Journey a
beautiful piece on the history of Black Canadians in Nova Scotia.”
- BTW’s Artistic Director, Quincy Armorer
For the past five years Woods worked temporary full-time
positions for the City of Toronto. First as a Cultural Outreach Officer for the
Department of Economic Development and Culture, she now holds a permanent
position as an Educator for Outreach and Public Programming for the City of
Toronto Archives as part of the City Clerk’s Division. With full time work she realized she could not
do as much performing or producing, but she could still write. Still identifying as a self-made artpreneur,
she is familiar with the struggle of self-producing shows and events on her own
and of coming up with innovative ways of marketing her work. Her more-than 25 years in the industry and her
work ethic, tenacity and perseverance are finally paying off. Woods’ youth play Scotian Journey, written in 2001 was produced in 2019 by Black
Theatre workshop in Montreal where it toured over 30 schools in Quebec and
reached over 10,000 students.
Woods credits learning Black History and the performing arts
with changing her path as a troubled youth. “I will continue to write the
history that is not in the curriculum,” she says. “I can remember the day a
presenter, Robert Upshaw came to speak to us at Dartmouth High, his presentation
changed my life.” Woods has included the same part of his presentation in her
play The Three Friends and has seen
this section of the play have the same impact on the students in the audience. This
play was co-produced with her company Imani Enterprises and was presented for
over 1000 students at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts.
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Four the Moment at
NS Music Week |
It’s been a very busy season for Woods, who in December
shared her latest script in development Why
Black Women Whisper to a virtual audience that included Ce Ce Birt, a
Theatre and Music professional based in Philadelphia PA. Her singing group Four The Moment recently
received the Polaris Heritage Music Prize winning over such names as Kardinal
Official, Lillian Allen, and Leonard Cohen. And right after that recognition,
she was off to Cape Breton, to receive the Recognition of Excellence Award as
part of the Awards Gala at Nova Scotia Music Week. The award was accompanied by
a moving musical tribute that included daughters of Kim and Delvina Bernard,
original Four The Moment members. Anne-Marie Woods joined Four The Moment to go
on tour in1988 (the year they recorded We’re
Still Standing) and sang with them until they hung up their mics in 2000. They
have since then intermittently reunited for special commemorative events,
awards ceremonies, and Canadian Honours which included opening up for Maya
Angelou, a Burnley Rocky Jones Commemorative Concert and opening up for
American activist, Angela Davis in 2018 at her Alma Matter; Dalhousie
University.
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Photo by
Anne-Marie Woods |
In July of 2022, Woods embarked on a self-directed
fellowship that she entitled “Hot Writer Summer” where she travelled to places
that nurtured her creative spirit and she virtually worked with actors and
several youth production assistants on her new play Why Black Women Whisper. One of her first stops was to Nova Scotia
where she met with Andrea Urquhart, Executive Director of the Nova Scotia
Talent Trust to discuss the creation of a new Travel Scholarship for emerging
Creatives from the African Diaspora. The rest, as they say is HERstory because
the announcement was made during the Nova Scotian Talent Trust Virtual Awards
Ceremony in December 2022.
The Anne-Marie Woods/Imani Enterprises African DiasporaTravel Scholarship will award an African-Nova Scotian, Black, Caribbean or
youth of African Descent, based in Nova Scotia $1000 towards travel to present,
teach, perform or take part in professional development through a residency,
internship or working with a mentor; provincially, nationally or
internationally. The Award will be available in 2023 and 2024 for disadvantaged
Black youth between the ages of 18 – 35 who are working on an artistic career
in Spoken Word, or Theatre Arts. Eligible
emerging artists can express interest in applying via the online scholarship
application. Artists who have expressed interest will be contacted with further
instructions regarding how to apply for this special Travel Scholarship. For more information, please see the PressRelease.
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Virtual reading of
"Why Black Women Whisper" |
Woods is presently continuing the work on her new play Why Black Women Whisper. Working with
Dramaturg, Alison Sealy-Smith and Assistant Music Coordinator, Rudi Quammie
Williams, Woods will spend this year penning the original songs for the
soundtrack and finishing a final draft of the script made entirely of spoken
word. She is now in the process of
writing more grants and seeking the funding for stakeholders to support her work
for a staged public reading in 2024 and a World Premiere in 2025.
For more about Anne-Marie Woods, please visit her website.
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