Biography
official website:
ww.nailakeletamae.com
Accomplished artist, educator and scholar who makes words come alive with challenging content and charismatic versatility. Naila Keleta Mae has worked in theatre, literature, music, film and/or journalism in Brazil, Canada, France, South Africa and the U.S.A.
Naila Keleta Mae's work raises thoughtful lines of inquiry into institutionalized cultures of domination. including implicit white supremacist and black nationalist censorship in art, education and scholarship.
"Find me on FaceBook!"
She is a Ph.D student, holds a Magisteriate of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Arts with distinction.
Naila Keleta Mae's work is grounded in the lived experiences, conflicts and frictions of the real world of a brown-skinned black female Canadian.
Her Canadian Urban Music Award-winning album "Free Dome: South Africa" is available at iTunes.
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*Select Highlights, Artistic Work:
Playwright: No Knowledge College (excerpt published in Canadian Theatre Review, spring 2007); stuck (excerpt published in T.Dot Griots: Toronto's Black Storytellers)
Spoken Word Artist: Nuyorican Poets Cafe (U.S.A.); When Sisters Speak(Canada); Cowansville Penitentiary (Canada); Radio Campus Toulouse (France); The Bassline (South Africa)
Film Credits: What Is INDIE? A Look Into the World of Independent Musicians; Space In Between; Frail (Official Selection, Montreal World Film Festival)
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*Select Highlights, Work as an Educator:
Lectures: Art/Life As Social Justice (York University); Academic Institutions: Subtly Unsafe Spaces (University of Toronto); Culture is the Weapon (University of Toronto); Taking Back Our Bodies (University of Toronto)
Course Designer & Instructor: Rencontre Litteraire (Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival); Teambuilding Through Storytelling (Kinark Child and Family Services); Beyond Silence: A Storytelling Series (One Tonne Toronto); Spoken Word A Cappella: Theory and Practice (Toronto Women's Bookstore)
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*Select Highlights, Scholarly Work:
Conference Papers: Contemporary Social Justice Theatre: Finding Sharing Healing (Canadian Women's Playmakers Conference); State-Critical Black Theatre: Lessons from Zimbabwe (AfriCanadian Playwrights Festival Conference)
Published Articles: Contemporary Social Justice Theatre: Finding, Sharing Healing (Canadian Theatre Review, Fall 2007); Spoken Word vis a vis Theatre (Canadian Theatre Review, Spring 2007)
Invited Chapter: Political Theatre in Zimbabwe: Raising Questions for Canadian Practitioners (AfriCanadian Theatre, forthcoming)
Instrumentation
A Cappella
Discography
"Free Dome" LP (Yah Ga Yah Productions) *Canadian Urban Music Award, Best Spoken Word Recording
"Imani" on Broken Pencil (Wired on Words)
"Gangsta Rap" on Below The Radar (CHRY 105.5 FM)
"A Dollar?" on Wordlife (RevWords)
"Free Dome: South Africa" LP (Yah Ga Yah Productions)