Nickeshia Garrick and Anthony Russell
The road to find
A conversation on making art today inspired by the past
Thursday, March 12 | 7 - 9 PM
Urban Space Gallery at 401 Richmond (ground floor)
Join us for an interactive gathering inspired by the creative practices of performing artist, Toronto’s Nickeshia Garrick and California-based multidisciplinary artist Anthony Russell. These thoughtful and compelling artists will offer a window into their processes of digging deep into historic narratives of Black oppression and resistance as well as movements for justice in order to create dynamic, multi-media performances that prompt questions about the moment we are living in and the direction we are heading in, as individuals and as a society. Together we will explore what it means for artists to respond to issues of their day, as well as the challenges and opportunities of engaging art and audiences to effect transformative change. Be prepared to share, listen, connect and even sing a little.
Presented by FENTSTER together with No Silence on Race
*“The road to find” is borrowed from the poem “I look at the world” by Langston Hughes
This event is free, kindly register in advance to secure your spot. Space is limited:
This conversation is presented in advance of Anthony Russell’s premiere presentation of Wild Burning Rage and Song: Replies to Scottsboro, a new performance engaging with the Scottsboro Trials of 1931—in which nine Black teenagers were falsely accused of sexually assaulting two white women—and the artistic responses to the trials from both the Harlem Renaissance and Yiddish intelligentsia of the day.
Monday, March 16, 6 PM, Al Green Theatre (750 Spadina) Free, no tickets required. Presented as part of the Mitchell J. Gerstein Distinguished Visiting Artist in Residence at the University of Toronto.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Nickeshia Garrick is a settler on the stolen land of Tsi Tkarón:to (Toronto) and has performed on this land for over 25 years. They are unapologetically a Black, Queer Performing Artist, who believes in the healing power of breath through raw emotion, movement and storytelling. Nickeshia received her dance training at the NYIDE (New York Institution of Dance and Education), National Ballet School of Canada (Tkarón:to), Toronto Dance Theatre (Tkarón:to), and Simon Fraser University (Vancouver). Her classical vocal and theatre training was achieved at Eastwood Collegiate Institute (Kitchener). Nickeshia has had the honour of training with Sean McLeod (New York) to achieve her certification in Sean McLeod’s Reinforced Motor Function Technique®, RMF®. Her extensive dance training includes Bakari E. Lindsay, Arsenio Andrade, Rob Kitsos, Peter Bingham, and Christopher House. Nickeshia has received the privilege of performing in pieces by TDT, Tara Butler, Kaeja d’ Dance, Serge Bennathan, James Kudelka, Ballet Jorgen, the Newton Moraes Dance Theatre and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre.
Nickeshia is an award-winning and multi-nominated artist who holds a BFA in Dance from Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), and is a Co-Founder of CinnaMoon Collective, a 2x Dora-nominated dance collective. Nickeshia is currently working on the next iteration of her solo work, the ties that Bind us, the ties that Bond us, which recently showed as part of Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT) Eyes on Beginnings Sharing Fall 2025 at the Winchester Street Theatre. Lastly, community connection and knowledge sharing are imperative parts of Nickeshia’s practice. They are currently working with the Jamii on the Esplanade community, offering free movement/creation workshops to older adults.
Anthony Russell is a multidisciplinary artist working in the medium of Yiddish language and culture. His work in Ashkenazi Jewish musical forms led to an exploration of his own ethnic roots through the research, arrangement and performance of a hundred years of African American music, resulting in the EP Convergence (2018), a collaboration with klezmer consort Veretski Pass exploring the sounds and themes of one hundred years of African American and Ashkenazi Jewish music. Inspired by an ethnographic trip to Belarus and Poland as a Wallis Annenberg Helix Fellow (2016-17), Anthony formed a duo, Tsvey Brider (“Two Brothers”), with accordionist and pianist Dmitri Gaskin for the composition and performance of original music set to Yiddish poetry. Their recent release, Kosmopolitn, features their settings of 20th century Yiddish modernist poetry for voice and string ensemble. A past Hadar Rising Song, AJU Public, Mandel Institute Cultural Leadership Fellow and present Mitchell J. Gerstein Distinguished Visiting Artist in Residence at the University of Toronto, Anthony has expanded his work into cultural activism through collaboration with the Workers Circle and as an essayist in a number of publications including The Forward, Tablet, Moment Magazine, JTA, PROTOCOLS, Ayin Press and Jewish Currents. Anthony lives in San Diego, CA with his husband of ten years, Rabbi Michael Rothbaum.