By Fazeela Jiwa
Grassroots Community is a series of interviews featuring the fascinating folks of Ottawa. In this issue, we speak with Brandon Wint, an Ontario-grown artist known for bringing folks together to celebrate the diverse arts.
Fazeela Jiwa: How do you describe yourself and what moves you?
Brandon Wint: I am a spoken-word poet, arts educator, writer, and facilitator. What moves me are stories – long, meaningful conversations where the story of a human being starts to emerge. I’m interested in the unfolding of truth; I love iterations of humanity. That is what orients things that I organize as an artistic curator, and the disposition that fuels the way I approach my own art. Through spoken word, I try to unfold myself, use poetry as a tool for self-exploration, invite people into my story, and connect to other people’s stories. I can appreciate any form of art that seems to have humanity still lingering within it. As a poet I am rather visually inclined, so whenever I see stark and beautiful images, I understand the chord.
FJ: What do you think Ottawa has to offer to the arts?
BW: I lived here for nine years and Ottawa is the city that taught me everything I think I know about creativity and artistic community. It is a special place insofar as it has the status of a big city as the capital of Canada, but the way it goes about projecting itself is more modest. Ottawa is a special place artistically because there is a lot of space for artists to create, a lot of room to leave an imprint or to become a guiding hand, particularly because Ottawa doesn’t project a lot of self-importance. If you come to the city and you want to contribute, you will probably find a receptive space, and in that way the creative community feels rather organic. It’s like, “bring your thing and we will find a place for it to exist happily and harmoniously here.” That sort of energy was very helpful to me when I entered the spoken-word community. It was a warm space that was receptive to articulations of powerful black maleness. I do see Ottawa putting on some new caps; there are new festivals like Megaphono or the Arboretum Festival that are emerging as meaningful cultural hubs. So I think Ottawa is starting to understand and embrace the special variety of culture that it brings to the national and international landscape. To create more of that infrastructure expands the possibilities for artists on all levels of the professional spectrum here. It’s a good time to be an artist in Ottawa.
FJ: What do you think the city could do to strengthen that momentum?
BW: Ottawa is a place that is full of nooks, rather than a place where you can walk down the main street and notice that it’s bustling with creativity. If you want to find culture here, you kind of have to know someone who is already connected. I think Ottawa could do a better job as a city of broadcasting, projecting, and investing financially in the spectrum of creativity that exists here, so that more people who need it can access
it. Artistic cultures are all here, but most of them exist quite rigidly as subcultures. I don’t think most people are aware of the vast subculture of spoken word, or the many open mics or poetry readings that exist all over the city. You can live in this city a long time before you find these things, but when you do you will find that they are substantial and worthy of your attention.
FJ: You are hosting an event on Thursday, and you are about to release a new album. Tell us more!
BW: The album is called The Long Walk Home. It was composed and recorded entirely in Ottawa by Alex Millaire, who approached me about working together. The idea of this album had been at the back and front and side of my brain for a long time, and it came to life in 2015. I suppose it tied a bow on my experiences as an Ottawa artist, now that I live in another city. The album is mostly voice and piano, but it also features a classical string quartet. It is, so far, the best thing I have ever done. The preorders will start on March 25 at brandonwint.bandcamp.com and the full release will be in the last week of April. I hope to promote it through a series of intimate house concerts all over the country.
I am hosting the Artistic Showcase on Thursday, March 24th at 7:30[pm] at Pressed Café, which is a series that I have been organizing in Ottawa for three years. I’m excited about the diverse array of artistry it will feature. Komi Olaf, a spoken word artist and one of the foremost visual artists in the country, will bring his brand of magic – he is known for performing poetry and live painting at the same time. Warm-hearted and energetic Rita Carter will also be performing, an Ottawa-born and bred folk artist in the tradition of Tracy Chapman and Lauryn Hill. Moe Clark, from Montreal, is a Metis artist who does things that nobody else in the country does, as far as integrating spoken word poetry with an incredible singing voice and a mastery of the loop pedal. The night will also feature a young writer named Kayal Vizhi, a student of the creative writing program at Carleton who was shortlisted in the annual CBC creative non-fiction contest. Her work brims with the gritty human tales, sights, sounds, and smells of all the places that she has been. So it’s going to be a great show, and I’m looking forward to it.
