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

dub poet Dub poetry is a form of performance poetry of West Indian origin, which evolved out of dub music in Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1970s,

activist Activism (or Advocacy) 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 greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

, 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 ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, 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 Frances-Anne Solomon (born 28 June 1966) is an English-Caribbean-Canadian filmmaker, writer, producer, and distributor. She has lived in Britain, Barbados and Toronto, Canada. Biography Born in England of Trinidadian parents, who had gone to Br ...

produced sitcom ''

Lord Have Mercy! ''Lord Have Mercy!'' is a Canadian television sitcom, produced by Leda Serene Films, first shown on Vision TV in 2003. It received further showings in Canada on Toronto One, APTN and Showcase later the same year. The series, one of the first t ...

'' (2003), theatre work with

Black Theatre Workshop Black Theatre Workshop (BTW) is a non-profit theater company based in Montreal and is one of the oldest Black English-speaking professional theatre companies in the Canada. It was established by Clarence Bayne and Arthur Goddard, who previously al ...

and Theatre Passe Muraille, and artist residencies with

Soulpepper Theatre Soulpepper is a theater company based in Toronto, Ontario. It is the largest non-profit theater in the city. History Soulpepper was founded in 1998 by twelve Toronto artists aiming to produce lesser-known theatrical classics. Soulpepper has sinc ...

, CanadianStage,

Obsidian Theatre Obsidian Theatre Company is a Canadian professional theatre company that specializes in works by Black Canadian artists. The company is located in Toronto, Ontario. The declared mandate of the company is a threefold mission: to produce plays, to ...

, and

Banff Centre for the Arts Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, formerly known as The Banff Centre (and previously The Banff Centre for Continuing Education), located in Banff, Alberta, was established in 1933 as the Banff School of Drama. It was granted full autonomy as ...

. 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 g ...

'', by Jamaican-Canadian writer

Trey Anthony Trey Anthony (born 1983) is a British-born Canadian playwright, actor, and producer, best known for her award-winning play and television series ''Da Kink in My Hair (TV series), Da Kink in My Hair''. As a producer, she worked for the Women's Tele ...

, for which they were nominated for a Dora Award.

Badilisha Poetry X-Change Badilisha Poetry X-Change is a platform dedicated to showcasing poetry from Africa and the African Diaspora. The project came out of recognising the lack of documentation of African poets, on the African continent and in the rest of the world. ...

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 and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. There, they collaborated with Zimbabwean musician

Victor Kunonga Victor Kunonga (born October 25, 1974) is a Zimbabwean award-winning Afro-jazz singer and songwriter. Though having come to light in 2004, Victor quickly rose to fame with his first two albums and was a household name by 2007. Biography Victor K ...

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 philosophy that centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that lack women'sliberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because our need as human persons for autonomy." Race, gen ...

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. 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 '' Exhibitionists'', '' The Filmmakers'' and '' From the Vaults'', and the CBC Mus ...

Kim Katrin Milan Kim Katrin (born March 9, 1984) is a Canadian American writer, multidisciplinary artist, activist, consultant, and educator. She was formerly credited as Kim Crosby and Kim Katrin Milan. She speaks on panels and keynotes conferences nationally,M ...

Titilope Sonuga Titilope Sonuga, also known as Titi Sonuga, is a Nigerian poet, civil engineer, and actress who spends her time between Lagos and Edmonton, Canada. Early years Titilope Sonuga, who was born in Lagos, Nigeria, relocated to Edmonton, Canada, when ...

, 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 wa ...

and biomythography, or “biomyth monodrama.” They appeared on the 2021 ''

FreeUp! The Emancipation Day Special ''FreeUp! The Emancipation Day Special'' is an annual Canadian television special, which was broadcast for the first time by CBC Gem on August 1, 2020. 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 downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the north end of Hospital Row, a section of University Avenue where several major hospitals are located. It currently functions as an independe ...

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

Personal life

Young is non-binary.

Selected works

Plays

Theatre (actor)

Television (actor)

Compilations

Books

Essays

Poetry

Notes

References

External links

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