Joanne Gairy, better known by her stage name Jemeni, is a singer, actress, writer, activist, broadcaster and community worker. She was born in Grenada and grew up in St. Catharines,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and now lives in

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 ...

, Ontario, Canada. She studied Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University), Toronto. She is a hip-hop poet, and works in Canadian broadcasting. She was formerly a host on Flow 93.5 FM and volunteered for the Ryerson University campus radio station

CKLN-FM CKLN-FM was a community radio station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From 1983 to 2011, CKLN Radio Inc. was licensed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as a campus-community FM radio station affiliated with Ry ...

. She is a music critic on

Much Music Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31, ...

and is an influential young Caribbean-Canadian woman. The Literature Alive series about Caribbean-Canadian authors (broadcast on Bravo! Television October 6 to December 29, 2005), produced a documentary about Jemeni called ''Jemeni in the City''. Jemeni has won the Caribbean Women of Excellence Award, the Warning Award, the Tara Award, and the Canadian Urban Music award. She defended

Nalo Hopkinson Nalo Hopkinson (born 20 December 1960) is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels ('' Brown Girl in the Ring'', ''Midnight Robber'', '' The Salt Roads'', ''The New Moon's Arms'') and short stories such as thos ...

's novel '' Brown Girl in the Ring'' for the prestigious CBC

Canada Reads ''Canada Reads'' is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC. The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language ''Canada Reads'' on CBC Radio One, and the Frenc ...

book competition in February 2008. In January 2022, she and Mark Strong joined Toronto radio station CFPT-FM as cohosts of the morning show, three months after leaving CKFG-FM.Connie Thiessen
"Mark Strong and Jemeni resurface on Toronto’s 106.5 ELMNT FM"
''Broadcast Dialogue'', January 12, 2022.

References

External links

* 1976 births Living people Grenadian musicians Musicians from St. Catharines Musicians from Toronto Black Canadian broadcasters 21st-century Black Canadian women singers Canadian women poets Canadian television actresses Grenadian emigrants to Canada Actresses from Toronto Canadian hip hop singers {{Grenada-bio-stub