Shayna Jones x TELL! Open Mic & Potluck

Name: Shayna Jones x TELL! Open Mic & Potluck
Start: 2024-09-24T19:00:00-0400
End: 2024-09-24T22:00:00-0400
Location: First United Church

Tue, 24 Sep, 7pm - 10pm EDT

First United Church

waterloo, canada

MT Space

84 followers · Contact host

Event description

This month’s TELL! featuring Shayna Jones

Shayna Jones, Afro-centric Folklorist, Spoken Word Artist, and Performance Storyteller invites you to dance with the "Old Stories". We invite you to bring your folktales, fairy tales, myths and legends (and stories of what they mean to you) this upcoming TELL!. No matter their shape or size -- battered, torn, brilliantly rendered or barely remembered -- bring 'em. It's how they hit your heart that counts.

Shayna Jones guides our open mic this month and shares with us her unique storytelling methods. Whether you’re a community member, practicing artist or just starting out, TELL! is a community platform to connect with others and celebrate our work, focusing this month on folklore and storytelling.

About TELL!

TELL! is MT Space's coffeehouse open-mic style event offering the community an artistic platform to share their works in a casual setting. These sharings can be performances, stories, lectures, poetry, drag, fine art displays -- any type of creation.

We know that art and food bring people together like nothing else. Join us for a potluck meal and bring a food offering* to share if you're able to. We'll provide plates, cutlery, and beverages (coffee, tea, and water). Help us reduce waste by bringing in your own reusable cups, bottles, and mugs for water and coffee!

*Please include an ingredients list for any dishes you bring.

Doors open at 7:00pm. Event starts at 7:30pm.

TELL! is a free event. Families with small children are also welcomed.

This event is low/no tech. Bring anything you may need for your performance/presentation, including amps for instruments. There will be music stands available, mic, an acoustic guitar, an ukulele, and an electronic keyboard.

Shayna Jones, Photo by Sarah Race — A woman, Shayna Jones, sits on the floor smiling as ropes hang down from the ceiling. Photo by Sarah Race

About Shayna Jones
Shayna Jones is an award-winning actor, a multi-disciplinary spoken word artist, and an applied folklorist. She combines her passion for live, theatrical performance with the study of traditional African and Afro-Diasporic folklore and contemporary Black experience to create dynamically soulful, nuanced, and visceral performances. She has had the privilege of spending the last decade performing her work for theatre companies, festivals and schools across Canada. For this she is continually awed and deeply grateful. Learn more about Shayna and her work at: www.wearestoryfolk.com

About the Venue

TELL! will be hosted uptown Waterloo in Hilliard Hall at First United Church (16 William St W, Waterloo, ON N2L 1J3). Enter the building through the side door connected to the parking lot marked WEEKDAY ENTRANCE (access via Caroline St and William St, around the corner from Valentina Bridal & Couture dress shop).

Parking is available for free on-site (accessible from Caroline St), and next door at the Waterloo Town Square South Parking lot (35 Alexandra Ave, Waterloo).

GRT via the iON (route 301) or by bus (routes 5, 7, 16).

Accessibility information

First United Church is wheelchair accessible on the main level of the building where TELL! is taking place, along with automatic entrance doors.

Three washrooms are available onsite, including one universal accessible washroom with changing station.

Notice of Photography:

Our event might involve snapping photos, recording audio, and shooting videos. By joining us, you're giving us the green light to share, publish, display, or make copies of these recordings. If you have any worries, just let our friendly photographer know – they're here to help!

TELL! Photo by Phi Doan — Two people at TELL!, with one adjusting the mic. Photo by Phi Doan

Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity

Hostinformation

MT Space

84 followers

Contact host

View profile

MT Space brings different communities together to create a community of difference

MT Space was created to centralize marginalized and racialized artists and stories, to fill what seems to be a great void in a community of many different peoples.

MT Space (Multicultural Theatre Space) was founded in 2004 by Lebanese-Canadian Majdi Bou-Matar, who was a trained director, actor, and dancer. Majdi relocated to Canada when his wife was accepted to University of Waterloo to pursue a PhD. Thinking that Majdi would continue his career in Canada as a multi-talented artist, he auditioned with various theatre companies in Southern Ontario. After receiving the same criticism over and over, hearing that his accent was too thick or that he “didn’t look the part”, Majdi decided to create a company that would become a platform for all artists that felt marginalized, racialized, and displaced. This is how MT Space was born.

For the past 20 years, MT Space has been fulfilling its mandate by creating, producing, touring, and presenting artistic work that reflects Canada’s cultural diversity. Since 2004, MT Space has become a conduit for internationally trained immigrants and newcomer professionals across all disciplines. In July 2016, Pam Patel – who had been an artistic associate with MT Space since 2008 and mentored with Majdi – stepped into the role of Artistic Director and looks forward to ushering the organization into its next decade of powerful artistic work, bringing with her a South Asian background and Canadian upbringing.

MT Space has grown from being a company that produces one show every year to an organization that brings culturally and socially relevant work from across the country and around the world to our community of Kitchener-Waterloo. We have challenged the preconceptions of theatre to create, produce, and present work that is accessible and affordable to low-income families while creating a space for Indigenous, immigrant, refugee, and marginalized voices to be heard.

MT Space challenges the definition of theatre to include all disciplines such as dance, music, multimedia, and circus performing arts. As such, MT Space is becoming a presenter of artists and arts organizations across many disciplines.

This event has passed