Conversations Across Borders: Black Theatre in the US and Canada Symposium

Friday May 8th, 2026

Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto

Hosted by the Black Theatre Lab @UTM

Sponsored by: 

The Jackman Humanities Institute’s Program for the Arts

The Metcalf Foundation

Keynote Conversation brought to you by the University of Toronto Mississauga’s department of English & Drama

Keynote Conversation: 3:15 - 4:45 pm - Black Performance Now: Artistic Directors Reflect

Moderator: Matthew Molinaro

Matthew Molinaro (he/him) is a first-year PhD student in the Department of English and Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. His interdisciplinary research centres the literatures and histories of the African diaspora, Caribbean, and hemispheric Americas, in concert with feminist theory, social movements, and performance studies. Matthew’s current project traces the aesthetic and political revivals of internationalism across the Black Atlantic. With an extensive history of activism and journalism, Matthew regularly brings his intellectual passions to public fora and community mobilization. His work appears or is forthcoming in Cultural Critique Online, Canadian Women’s Studies, The Local, and Topia. An improviser and journalist by training, Matthew is dedicated to promoting and celebrating the radical creativity of artists and performers in Toronto and abroad.

Speaker: Dr. d’bi.young anitafrika

Dr. d’bi.young anitafrika is an internationally celebrated dub poet, biomythicist, theatre-maker, and decolonial pedagogue whose work spans performance, scholarship, and arts leadership across four continents. Laureate of Toronto’s 2026 Celebration of Cultural Life Award, they have shaped contemporary theatre and performance training through their pioneering methodology, the Anitafrika Dub Praxis—a system integrating the Anitafrika Method, Critical Dub Pedagogy, and the Biomyth Three R Process. Dr. anitafrika has authored twelve plays, released seven dub poetry albums, published four poetry collections, and headlined festivals and theatre seasons worldwide. Their contributions have been recognised with numerous honours, including three Dora Awards, the Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, the KM Hunter Theatre Award, the Canadian Poet of Honour Award, and a Global Leader in Theatre and Performance distinction from Arts Council England. Their PhD, Personhood, Practice & Pedagogy in Black Womxn Theatre, is a groundbreaking memoir-monograph that theorises Black womyn’s theatre-making and addresses critical research gaps in Canadian performance scholarship. An international educator, Dr. Anitafrika has taught at Addis Ababa University, Stanislavski Theatre School in Poland, London South Bank University, the Sandberg Institute in the Netherlands, and the University of Victoria, where they received the 2025 Innovative Course Design Award for their decolonial pedagogy. Founding Artistic Director of the Watah Black Theatre School and Spolrusie Press, and Principal Researcher of the Black Womyn in Theatre Archive, Canada’s first national archive dedicated to Black womyn theatre-makers, Dr. anitafrika is co-editor of Free To Be More: Creative Activism in the Era of Black Lives Matter (University of Regina Press) and is currently performing their biomyth monodrama she mami wata at the Watah Studio Theatre.

Speaker: Michael Sinclair

Michael is the General Manager of Obsidian Theatre. Before taking on this role, Michael stage managed Obsidian’s first show, Djanet Sears’ Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God plus several other shows for Obsidian over the years. Prior to a career in stage management, Michael worked as an accountant and so he brings a strong financial background to the job. He is well versed in theatre from one end of the country to the other. Michael looks forward to marrying the administrative and the production elements in the theatre community and all the challenges that they present. This is what Obsidian does best; we give our community the tools and craft to help people make those major career moves.

Original Speaker: Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu

Mumbi is an acclaimed Kenyan-Ugandan-Canadian Theatre Director. She is the Artistic Director of Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading creator for Black ART as well as Founder/Artistic Director for the experimental theatre company IFT (It’s A Freedom Thing) Theatre. Selected directing credits, How to Catch Creation, Three Sisters (Obsidian/Soulpepper, FLEX (Obsidian Theatre/Crows) , Is God Is (Obsidian/Canadian Stage/Necessary Angel), 21 Black Futures (Obsidian/CBC Arts), Trout Stanley (Factory Theatre), Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Brothers Size, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Soulpepper Theatre), a profoundly affectionate, Post Democracy (Tarragon Theatre), We Are Proud to Present… (UofT Scarborough) and Oraltorio: A Theatrical Mixtape (Obsidian Theatre/Soulpepper). Mumbi is also the recipient of many awards including a Canadian Screen Award, a Dora Award, a Toronto Theatre Critics Award, a Pauline McGibbon Award and a Mallory Gilbert Protege Award.