Garden 8 – Energetic

Yvonne Kushe is a Ugandan-Canadian multidimensional creative and artrepreneur who manifests her talents as a singer, songwriter, educator, curator and comic. She is also the founder of PolliNATION, an arts collective that seeks to elevate the wellbeing of artists through collaborative workshops and holistic artful experiences.

Argel Monte de Ramos also known as Argel MDR is a Filipino-Canadian singer/songwriter from Surrey, Canada. He was one of the Top 10 finalists of CBC’s Toyota Searchlight 2021 and the Music Category winner of Surrey Board of Trade’s 2022 Surrey Art and Business Awards. When he was 15 years old, he moved to Canada from the Philippines with his family to seek a better life and opportunities. With Sam Smith, One Republic, and Original Pinoy Music (OPM) as his music influences, Argel wants to use the power of storytelling to inspire Filipino youth and other immigrants through his music and theatrical performances. In addition, he is an advocate of representation, anti-racism work, and inclusion. Argel’s most recent single, ‘Sail Away’ was featured in Spotify editorial playlists, including Fresh Finds Philippines. Argel recently received a Pop Artist of the Year Nomination and an Excellence Award by a BIPOC artist from Fraser Valley Music Awards 2021 by CIVL radio 101.7 FM.

Yvonne Kushe is a Ugandan-Canadian multidimensional creative and artrepreneur who manifests her talents as a singer, songwriter, educator, curator and comic. She is also the founder of PolliNATION, an arts collective that seeks to elevate the wellbeing of artists through collaborative workshops and holistic artful experiences.

Argel Monte de Ramos also known as Argel MDR is a Filipino-Canadian singer/songwriter from Surrey, Canada. He was one of the Top 10 finalists of CBC’s Toyota Searchlight 2021 and the Music Category winner of Surrey Board of Trade’s 2022 Surrey Art and Business Awards. When he was 15 years old, he moved to Canada from the Philippines with his family to seek a better life and opportunities. With Sam Smith, One Republic, and Original Pinoy Music (OPM) as his music influences, Argel wants to use the power of storytelling to inspire Filipino youth and other immigrants through his music and theatrical performances. In addition, he is an advocate of representation, anti-racism work, and inclusion. Argel’s most recent single, ‘Sail Away’ was featured in Spotify editorial playlists, including Fresh Finds Philippines. Argel recently received a Pop Artist of the Year Nomination and an Excellence Award by a BIPOC artist from Fraser Valley Music Awards 2021 by CIVL radio 101.7 FM.

Queer Soul Poets is a new collective currently made up of 6 multidisciplinary artists. Sarvin Esmaeili, Angelic Goldsky, Rae Grant Duff , Chantal Dobles Gering, Anjalica Soloman and Tanaz Roudgar. We all have backgrounds in performing arts including theatre, poetry, dance, music, and clown. Most of us recently graduated from Theatre Schools such as Studio 58, UBC & VFS. We have been in the real theatre industry for 2-3 years now. We are all femme queer non-binary folks in our mid 20’s with cultural backgrounds from Iran, Israel, Costa Rica, England & Germany. Some of us are white settlers and some of us are brown immigrants. We are queer muslims and queer jewish spoken word artists dreaming of collecting our poetry into a digital archive, creating our prose into experimental storytelling performances and reaching the hearts of diverse communities . We are all about queering the theatre and inviting exploration into our non-linear and decolonized narrative. Our collective aim is to create a place of belonging weekly for queers to listen and tell their own stories. A space for deep healing and wellness of the artists. Our performances feel like sitting around a bonfire are cozy and on stage transmute into shapes and shadows of trans spiritual jam cyphers. We have so many visions as young emerging artists for the future of theater and we are in need of resources such as free rehearsal spaces to cultivate that.

Franz Seachel is a South-Asian settler residing on unceded Coast-Salish lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxʷ (Musqueam) nations. She is a multidisciplinary artist, organizer, and workshop facilitator. Franz has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She is the Founder/ Executive Director of Enable: Arts Society, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting community-based and collaborative art projects by emerging and/or marginalized voices. Her work has been featured at Word Vancouver, Voices of Today in Toronto, Vancouver Poetry Slam, Richmond World Festival, Ode to Surrey, and Surrey Muses, amongst others. Franz is a creator of space. She believes in the connection of art. She believes art makes living bearable and does her best to put more colour into the world. She means this both in the sense of brightening up the mundane with creation, as well as in her mission to uplift the truths of marginalized bodies. She teaches writing workshops on embodying the writing practice by combining her knowledge as a Yoga teacher and parts of her own artistic practice. Franz hopes you dream often, and breathe deeply; she hopes you find reasons to stay. You can follow her on Instagram, @franz_seachel

Bryn Davies is a settler residing on unceded Coast-Salish lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxʷ (Musqueam) nations. He has a BFA in Music from SFU and is emerging into his production career. Though the piano is his first love, he enjoys drumming, and dabbling with other instruments and sounds in his electronic music. If he’s not playing music, he’s hanging out with his cats.

Queer Soul Poets is a new collective currently made up of 6 multidisciplinary artists. Sarvin Esmaeili, Angelic Goldsky, Rae Grant Duff , Chantal Dobles Gering, Anjalica Soloman and Tanaz Roudgar. We all have backgrounds in performing arts including theatre, poetry, dance, music, and clown. Most of us recently graduated from Theatre Schools such as Studio 58, UBC & VFS. We have been in the real theatre industry for 2-3 years now. We are all femme queer non-binary folks in our mid 20’s with cultural backgrounds from Iran, Israel, Costa Rica, England & Germany. Some of us are white settlers and some of us are brown immigrants. We are queer muslims and queer jewish spoken word artists dreaming of collecting our poetry into a digital archive, creating our prose into experimental storytelling performances and reaching the hearts of diverse communities . We are all about queering the theatre and inviting exploration into our non-linear and decolonized narrative. Our collective aim is to create a place of belonging weekly for queers to listen and tell their own stories. A space for deep healing and wellness of the artists. Our performances feel like sitting around a bonfire are cozy and on stage transmute into shapes and shadows of trans spiritual jam cyphers. We have so many visions as young emerging artists for the future of theater and we are in need of resources such as free rehearsal spaces to cultivate that.

Franz Seachel is a South-Asian settler residing on unceded Coast-Salish lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxʷ (Musqueam) nations. She is a multidisciplinary artist, organizer, and workshop facilitator. Franz has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She is the Founder/ Executive Director of Enable: Arts Society, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting community-based and collaborative art projects by emerging and/or marginalized voices. Her work has been featured at Word Vancouver, Voices of Today in Toronto, Vancouver Poetry Slam, Richmond World Festival, Ode to Surrey, and Surrey Muses, amongst others. Franz is a creator of space. She believes in the connection of art. She believes art makes living bearable and does her best to put more colour into the world. She means this both in the sense of brightening up the mundane with creation, as well as in her mission to uplift the truths of marginalized bodies. She teaches writing workshops on embodying the writing practice by combining her knowledge as a Yoga teacher and parts of her own artistic practice. Franz hopes you dream often, and breathe deeply; she hopes you find reasons to stay. You can follow her on Instagram, @franz_seachel

Bryn Davies is a settler residing on unceded Coast-Salish lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and šxʷməθkʷəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxʷ (Musqueam) nations. He has a BFA in Music from SFU and is emerging into his production career. Though the piano is his first love, he enjoys drumming, and dabbling with other instruments and sounds in his electronic music. If he’s not playing music, he’s hanging out with his cats.