Our transformative theatre outreach program for new immigrant and refugee artists returns with a stirring artistic exploration of belonging, erasure and reclamation.

Culture is a story. Culture is made through storytelling. To change the culture is to tell a different story.

Storytellers are historians. Values, morals, ethics and politics are often passed down through the stories we are told and share with others.  

Our cultures/stories are inherently linked to the ancestral lands we come from, as well as the lands that we are on. When we are displaced and dispossessed, we are robbed of our rich histories and our abilities to recognize our connections to the land. The history of Canada and the history of Indigenous peoples is a history of violence. 

We are interested in helping participants have dialogue about their new realities without losing their connections to their homelands.

Participants will be exploring:

- Their relationship to land and Indigenous histories. 

- The politics of translation and building an understanding of new political speech 

- Recognizing how displacement and dispossession show up in our bodies and our languages 

- Conversations to help articulate the complications of race and class

- Storytelling through embodied cultural practices 

Guided by dynamic artistic facilitators Yolanda Bonnell and Shaista Latif, 10 new immigrant and refugee artists will come together for 16 weeks for a stirring artistic exploration via zoom.

We are accepting submissions from new immigrant and refugee artists currently in Ontario 16-29. If you are over the age of 29 years of age and are interested in applying, please do so and we will still consider your application.

Crossing Gibraltar was originally corrected as a youth program, but due to the impact of COVID-19 we are expanding our age limits to include individuals outside the original age bracket.  

NOTES:
Submissions will close on December 6, 2020 at 12PM EST (NOON).

We will let everyone who submitted know on December 22 if they will be receiving an interview, to be held during the week of January 4.

The 16-week program will run every Tuesday from April 20, 2021, to August 17, 2021. No session will be held on May 25 and July 6. In addition to the 45 hours of session work, there may be a need for additional hours for independent work.
Each participant in Crossing Gibraltar will receive $900 for the participation in the program

Visit www.cahoots.ca.

If you need any help with your application, please email sehar@cahoots.ca.