d’bi.young anitafrika is a Jamaican-Canadian feminist dub poet,

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

, and singer for the band D’bi and the 333. Their work includes theatrical performances, four published collections of poetry, twelve plays, and seven albums.

Early life and education

d’bi young anitafrika was born on December 23, 1977, in Kingston, Jamaica to dub poet, Anita Stewart, and community organizer, Winston Young. Young spent much of their childhood in Jamaica watching their mother perform dub poetry. In 1993, they moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada, to join their parents where they completed high school.

Career

Young's early career included the role of “Crystal” on the Frances-Anne Solomon produced sitcom '' Lord Have Mercy!'' (2003), theatre work with

Black Theatre Workshop Advert, date=July 2019 Black Theater Workshop (BTW) is a non-profit theater company headquartered in Montreal. It is one of the most enduring Black English-speaking professional theater companies in Canada. It was founded by Clarence Bayne and Art ...

and Theatre Passe Muraille, and artist residencies with

Soulpepper Theatre Soulpepper is a theatre company based in Toronto, Ontario.Keith Garebian"Soulpepper Theatre" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', November 4, 2010. History Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists aiming to produce lesser-known theatri ...

, CanadianStage, Obsidian Theatre, and

Banff Centre for the Arts Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (formerly Banff Centre) is an arts and culture educational institution in Banff, Alberta. It offers arts programs in the performing and fine arts, as well as leadership training. It was established in 193 ...

. In 2001, their breakout role as “Stacyanne” came through ''

Da Kink in My Hair ''Da Kink in My Hair'' is a play by Trey Anthony, which debuted at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 2001. The play's central character is Novelette, the Caribbean Canadian owner of Letty's, a Toronto hair salon. Novelette is forced to confront her ...

'', by Jamaican-Canadian writer

Trey Anthony Trey Anthony (born February 18, 1974) is a British-born Canadian playwright, actor, and producer, best known for her award-winning play and television series '' Da Kink in My Hair''. As a producer, she worked for the Women's Television Network an ...

, for which they were nominated for a

Dora Award The Dora Mavor Moore Awards (also known as the Dora Awards or the Doras) are awards presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), honouring theatre, Dance in Canada, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after ...

. Badilisha Poetry X-Change has ranked d'bi young anitafrika in the top ten poets. Young's early poetry, including their first dub poem entitled "once dere was a mxn" written in 1988, followed the foundational aesthetic of dub poetry's form, style, and content. In 2013, Young was one of the headline names for the 2013 Human Rights Concert in

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. There, they collaborated with Zimbabwean musician Victor Kunonga on a song called Ruvengo (Hate) off Kunonga's album Kwedu.

Key works

Young's works, ''The Sankofa Trilogy'', ''The Orisha Trilogy'' and ''The Ibeji Trilogy'', explore the psychological and ideological impacts of colonization to capitalism on people of African descent, from a

Black Feminist Black feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism. Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently va ...

perspective. They are triptych dramas. ''The Sankofa Trilogy'' are the stories of three Jamaican women, Mudgu Sankofa, their daughter Sekesu, and their granddaughter Benu. Each play uses the women's familial bond to tell of their respective journeys of revolutionary self-determination, and transformative self-expression. ''The Orisha Trilogy is a series about the experiences of women characters of the past, present, and future who survived the

transatlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...

. In each time period, the women grapple with power, gender, and sexuality through oppression and social unrest, under the help and protection of the Orishas. ''The Ibeji Trilogy'' are three biomyth dramas about Black love as it evolves in the midst of major life changes, from friendship to romance, between mother and son, and deep self-love.

Publishing and theatre

Young established the micro-press Spolrusie Publishing, a publishing house to support the work of emerging black writers, and BQTIPOC and feminist works. From 2008 to 2018, they also created and ran The Watah Theatre, the only black-focused performance art school in Canada. The Watah Theatre offered tuition-free professional development programs. Between The Watah Theatre and Yemoya Artist Residency, they mentored some of Canada's up and coming young black creatives and international artists of color including

Amanda Parris Amanda Parris is a Canadian broadcaster and writer. An arts reporter and producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, she hosts the CBC Television series '' The Filmmakers'' and has hosted the CBC Television series ''Exhibitionists'' and ...

, Kim Katrin Milan, Titilope Sonuga, and photographer, Che Kothari. Young's style of theatre practice developed draws from their upbringing in the performative and political environment of emerging Dub poetry in Jamaica of 1980s. They use Jamaican language and idiom as nation language, as opposed to colloquialism. They work extensively with

monodrama A monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character. In opera In opera, a monodrama was originally a melodrama with one role such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau's '' Pygmalion'', which w ...

and biomythography, or “biomyth monodrama.” They appeared on the 2021 '' FreeUp! The Emancipation Day Special''.

The Anitafrika Method

Young's work recognizes the connections between identity and community as both inextricable and sacred. The Anitafrika Method initiates self-recovery through a creative process of performance that grounds broader notions of identity, community, social constructs, and metaphysical concepts, and focuses them into an embodied performance experience. The Anitafrika Method stems from the Dub theory of their mother, Anita Stewart. They have applied the method in a variety of disciplines and with practitioners in health care, social justice, art, and leadership development. From January to June 2015, Young applied the method in a special collaboration with the

Women's College Hospital Women's College Hospital is a teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in downtown Toronto at the north end of Hospital Row, a section of University Avenue where several major hospitals are located. It currently functions ...

in Toronto, Ontario, Canada: The Black Womxn's Health Research Project. In 2018, Young began work in postgraduate studies in the Praxes, Politics and Pedagogies of Black Performance at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by ...

Personal life

Young is non-binary and genderqueer.

Selected works

Plays

Theatre (actor)

Film and Television (actor)

Notes

References

External links

d'bi.young anitafrika, official website
{{Authority control Living people 21st-century Canadian poets Canadian reggae musicians Canadian television actors Black Canadian dramatists and playwrights Canadian non-binary musicians Canadian non-binary writers Canadian non-binary actors Non-binary singers Non-binary poets Non-binary dramatists and playwrights Black Canadian actors 21st-century Black Canadian musicians Dora Mavor Moore Award winners Jamaican emigrants to Canada Jamaican dub poets Canadian stage actors Canadian LGBTQ singers Canadian LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Canadian LGBTQ poets 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian women writers Black Canadian LGBTQ people 1977 births 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Jamaican LGBTQ people 21st-century Jamaican poets 21st-century Jamaican singers Queer poets Queer dramatists and playwrights Jamaican non-binary people Jamaican LGBTQ singers Jamaican LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Jamaican LGBTQ poets Canadian queer actors People with lower case names and pseudonyms Black Canadian poets