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Episode 7 | Kama La Mackerel   Kama La Mackerel is a tio’tia:ke/Montreal-based performer, writer, poet, story-teller, curator and multi-disciplinary artist whose work explores aesthetic practices as forms of resistance and/or healing for marginalized communities. Using photography, film, textiles, prints, performance and digital arts, Kama’s work is both deeply personal and political, articulating an anti-colonial praxis through cultural production. Kama is the co-founder of Qouleur, an annual arts festival that brings together queer and trans artists of colour; the founder and hostess of GENDER B(L)ENDER, Montréal’s only queer open stage that takes place every last Friday of the month; and she curates the annual anti-Valentine’s day cabaret, “The Self-Love Cabaret: l’amour se conjugue à la première personne.” Kama is deeply implicated in grassroots social justice movements around anti-oppression, anti-racism, trans liberation and gender justice. On International Women’s Day 2016, Kama was featured by the CBC as one of 9 women artists in Canada whose work is making a difference. In the summer of 2016, Kama toured Europe with her “From Thick Skin to Femme Armour” tour, and she is presently an Artist in Residence of the P. Lantz Initiative for Excellence in Education & the Arts at the Faculty of Education at McGill University. Kama was born in Mauritius and first immigrated to India as a young adult, before moving to Turtle Island/Canada in 2008. Kama has been living in tio’tia:ke/Montreal, on traditional kanien’keh á:ka territory since September 2011. A femme supreme who is haunted by the ocean, Kama loves drinking tea, reading poetry, taking care of her plants & spending time with her loved ones. Photo Credit: Pascha Morrow lamackerel.net About the Podcast Every month, I interview someone about their creative work and process. The podcast is available on

Lateef Martin Lateef Martin is a graduate from the Illustration & Design program at Dawson College. He is a multi-disciplinary artist, from music production and cosplaying to graphic design. At the core of it, he is an illustrator with a taste for video games, comics, sci-fi and 80s Saturday morning cartoons. He founded his company Miscellaneum Studios in 2013. Its goal is to deliver great entertainment while representing people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, and other marginalized communities in a non-stereotypical manner. The first project is called Z’Isle, a comic book series set in Montreal 7 years after a zombie apocalypse. Presently on issue #5, a video game and soundtrack is under development. Z’Isle Kickstarter Campaign About the Podcast Every month, I interview someone about their creative work and process. The podcast is available on Stitcher and iTunes. Thank-you to Emily Campbell for teaching me some basic sound recording and interviewing skills, and to Athena Holmes for composing and recording the music you hear before and after each episode. Do you know someone who would be a perfect guest for the Quill podcast? Email me!   Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes

Episode 5 | Jennifer Kruidbos Hailed as a “yoga success story” by notable.ca, Jennifer Kruidbos is a writer, yoga teacher and sensitive soul who is passionate about using creative expression and movement to process life experiences. Her vocation was borne partly from watching her father, a social worker and songwriter, use a combination of therapy and music to rehabilitate heroine addicts. Today, she speaks and leads workshops and trainings in Canada as well as Central and South America on yoga for grief, yoga for disordered eating, workplace health, and entrepreneurship as “pro-activism”. She mentors a group of over 100 women monthly on how to improve their physical, emotional and financial health using dooTERRA essential oils. When she is not teaching, reading, writing, playing music or practising, she is biking around Montreal 12 months a year and practicing the art of radically chilling.   Jennifer’s Website About the Podcast Every month, I interview someone about their creative work and process. The podcast is available on Stitcher and iTunes. Thank-you to Emily Campbell for teaching me some basic sound recording and interviewing skills, and to Athena Holmes for composing and recording the music you hear before and after each episode. Do you know someone who would be a perfect guest for the Quill podcast? Email me!  

Episode 4 | Leona Woodmass “I have always believed that if I’m involved in something, that I should offer my creativity to it.” Leona offers her creativity to life through growing organic food in her beloved gardens, spending time with people that love conversation, travelling with her daughter (the creator of Quill!), finding great restaurants, exercise and her deep passion for her family. Leona is convinced that developing creativity is crucial to development of all individuals.  She believes that it adds beauty and intelligence to our senses, and is key to the way we seek to solve problems. This belief led her to include the arts in the education of her children.  She now teaches a weekly art class for the next generation, represented by her 3 oldest grandchildren. She is a feminist, and an advocate for marginalized people.  This last year has been filled with controversy in the heart of the Bible Belt of Manitoba, where she lives.  As a member of a group called Steinbach Neighbours for Community (SNC), she is working to open minds to LGBTTQI* people in her community.  She was thrilled to participate in the inaugural Pride Parade in Steinbach.  Along with her fellow members of SNC, she is working on a theatre/music presentation to air in fall.  The goal of the presentation is to give voice to the LGBTTQI* members of the community. Leona feels honoured to be part of the Quill project through this interview. About the Podcast Every month, I interview someone about their creative work and process. The podcast is available on Stitcher and iTunes. Thank-you to Emily Campbell for teaching me some basic sound recording and interviewing skills, and to Athena Holmes for composing and recording the music you hear before and after each episode. Do you know someone who would be a perfect guest for the Quill podcast? Email me!

Episode 3 | Kristin Norderval This episode comes with a content warning for discussion of sexual assault and violence. Kristin Norderval is a performer, composer and improviser whose career has been two-fold; split between vocal performance and composition. Her performance repertoire spans the renaissance to the avant-garde, and her credits as a soprano soloist include performances with the Oslo Sinfonietta, Philip Glass Ensemble, Pomerium, the Netherlands Dance Theater, and the San Francisco Symphony. She has improvised in a wide range of styles – from free improvisations with Pauline Oliveros to jazz improvisations with composer-vibraphonist Kevin Norton – and has recorded vocal works by numerous prominent American composers, among them Eve Beglarian, David Lang, Tania Leon and Annea Lockwood. Five chamber operas have been composed specifically for Norderval, including Pope Joan, a dance-opera by Anne LeBaron, recorded on New World Records, and She Lost Her Voice That’s How We Knew – a one-woman electro-acoustic opera by Frances White. As a composer, Norderval focuses primarily on exploring the nuances of the human voice. Combining her operatic lineage with electronic experimentation, Norderval places special emphasis on small-scale opera, cross-disciplinary work, and compositions utilizing interactive technology. A two-time recipient of the Norwegian Artist’s Stipend, and a 2005 recipient of the Henry Cowell Award from the American Music Center, Norderval has also received support from the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, Harvestworks, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Commissions include works for Den Anden Opera in Copenhagen, the Bucharest International Dance Festival in Romania, jill sigman/thinkdance in New York City, and the viol consort Parthenia. Her compositions are featured on Deep Listening, Koch International, and Everglade Records. Her latest CD – Aural Histories (post-ambient arias for voice and electronics) – made The New Yorker’s list of “Ten Notable Classical Music Recordings of 2012”. Kristin Norderval holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Manhattan School of Music, a Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Washington.

Episode 2 | Lenore Herrem Lenore Herrem is surrounded by so much love, talent, generosity, wisdom, and character. These surroundings quell hardships and creative blocks, if not assertively engaging with them. Some of the projects she is involved in include Taking What We Need (https://www.facebook.com/Taking-What-We-Need-952055111521717/), a community fundraising group for low income trans-feminine people in Montreal. She also runs a low-key couturiere service (https://www.facebook.com/couturierelenore/) out of her home, and organizes a few other events throughout the year, like “Chosen Family Feud” among others. Lenore loves creating in free environments, and can be inspired by anything as long it’s on the right day. She is a big fan of mediocrity- there should always be room for mediocrity. About the Podcast Every month, I interview someone about their creative work and process. The podcast is available on Stitcher and iTunes. Thank-you to Emily Campbell for teaching me some basic sound recording and interviewing skills, and to Athena Holmes for composing and recording the music you hear before and after each episode. Do you know someone who would be a perfect guest for the Quill podcast? Email me!   Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes

Episode 1 | Athena Holmes   Athena Holmes is an artist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and performer. They are a feminist and a queer person of colour. Their performances are energetic and sexy, and their music has been described as soulful. They currently make music under two different umbrellas – Ms. Holmes (msholmes.com) is their singer/songwriter persona, and BiG SiSSY (http://dabigsissy.wix.com/dabigsissy) makes queer dance pop.   About the Podcast Every month, I interview someone about their creative work and process. The podcast is available on Stitcher and iTunes. Thank-you to Emily Campbell for teaching me some basic sound recording and interviewing skills, and to Athena Holmes for composing and recording the music you hear before and after each episode. Do you know someone who would be a perfect guest for the Quill podcast? Email me!   Subscribe on Stitcher Subscribe on iTunes   Receive articles once a month in your inbox! Email Address