Speakers for this event

• Alten Wilmot

  Alten Wilmot

  Alten Wilmot is a writer, actor, singer, and multidisciplinary artist based in the Waterloo Region and Toronto. Their work centers stories and themes that bring wonder, joy, and release to complex experiences. Their work invites us to feel softer, lighter, and more like ourselves.Alten’s work has been seen on screens and stages across Canada, including CBC, Harbourfront Centre, NBCUniversal, Guelph Dance, and Theatre Passe Muraille. They founded Unwrap Theatre, leading over 25 original works bringing performances to underserved communities. Their work has been recognized with a Buddies in Bad Times Queer Emerging Artist Award, ArtworxTO Emerging Artist Award, and Waterloo Region Arts Award. They’ve held residencies with The National Ballet of Canada, Project Humanity, MT Space, Obsidian Theatre, and Diasporic Dialogues.Following their plays My Life in Colour (2025) and Click Here Now (2026) with Unwrap Theatre, Alten’s next play, mixed(er) – a comedy about the biracial experience ˆ opens October 1st, 2026 with MT Space. Alten wrote and recorded his first album in 2026, Losing; Love, bringing R&B and neo-soul influences with layered vocals and intimate songwriting to create a world where strength melts into ease and hearts live freely on our sleeves. Stay tuned @altenwilmot for song releases over the coming season.

• Bageshree Vaze

  Bageshree Vaze

  Bageshree Vaze is an Indo-Canadian writer, dance artist and musician. After graduating with Honours from Carleton University’s School of Journalism, Bageshree worked in the Canadian magazine industry, interning at Toronto Life and working as a researcher/reporter at Maclean’s. Her life took a turn, however, when she was awarded government grants to study in India with the top masters of classical dance and music (such as the late Pandit Birju Maharaj and Vidushi Veena Sahasrabuddhe). Bageshree comes from a family of classical music lovers and it was her father’s and grandfathers’ dream to be artists; therefore Bageshree spent the next decade fulfilling their dreams by working as a professional dance and music artist, winning accolades such as the 2010 K.M. Hunter Award in Dance (conferred by the Ontario Arts Council) and being named an MTV India ‘Ubbarta sitara’ (rising star). In 2015 Bageshree returned to a writing practice after a life-changing workshop at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Bageshree has been mentored by eminent writers such as Shyam Selvadurai, has attended various writing programs at the Banff Centre and through Humber College and through a Diaspora Dialogues mentoring program she is finishing the draft of her debut novel A Hidden Dance. Bageshree was a participant in BIPOC Film and TV’s 2022-23 Episodic Writers Lab and has written the pilot script for an original tv drama entitled Mythology. Bageshree strives to tell hidden and unique stories representing the Indo-Canadian experience. In 2022 her essay ‘Watching White Women’ was longlisted for The New Quarterly’s Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest. Bageshree is the Artistic Director of Pratibha Arts in Toronto, and was the 2022 inaugural Artist Researcher-in-Residence for Dance Collection Danse. Bageshree has 6 music albums to her credit as a composer and vocalist, and was the co-recipient of the 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Original Sound Composition in the Dance Division. 

  URL http://www.bageshree.com

• Kendelle Parks

  Kendelle Parks

  Kendelle Parks is an actor, playwright, and director, based in the GTA. She holds a BFA in acting from Toronto Metropolitan University, and loves theatre that uses stylized or heightened language, portrays morally grey characters, and subverts expectations. She approaches her writing through a lens of humour, often embracing the silly and absurd. Most recently, Kendelle was a Playwright in Factory Theatre’s Training Enhancement Program, where she workshopped her new play, Saving Jessica. Kendelle was also a 2025 participant of Diaspora Dialogues/TD’s Black Playwrights Mentoring Program for her play, HOW THE GREMLIN RUINED GAME NIGHT, where she received mentorship from Kanika Ambrose, and a workshop presentation with Theatre Passe Muraille. Other writing and directing credits include the Dora-nominated play, INSERT CLOWN HERE (Parlous Theatre), which was also a recipient of the 2023 Toronto Fringe’s Spirit of The Fringe award.

• Kryslyne-Mai Ancheta

  Kryslyne-Mai Ancheta

  Kryslyne-Mai Ancheta (she/her/siya) is Filipina-Canadian artist of many seasonings based in Tkaronto, Canada. From York University, she has obtained a degree in Classical Voice Performance. Kryslyne actively participates in the development of new Canadian plays and musicals. In the literary arts world, Kryslyne is a member of Salaysay, a Filipinx writing community in Tkaronto. Her poetry journey began at University of Toronto’s Continuing Studies under Therese Estacion’s Introduction to Poetry. Some poetic inspirations of hers include: Ariana Reines, Therese Estacion, Rilke, Richard Siken, Ocean Vuong, Margaret Atwood, Jaye Simspon. With the aid of Diaspora Dialogues, Kryslyne is currently crafting her debut poetry titled: PYG. She was a recent finalist for the Janice Colbert Poetry Prize presented at TIFA Fall 2025. Her poetry can be found in local magazines such as Petal Projections. 

• Lili Robinson

  Lili Robinson

  Lili Robinson (she/they) is a theatre artist, poet and facilitator born and raised on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. Heavily inspired by Afrofuturism, Black feminism, and queer theory, her work is rooted in theatre’s potential as an agent of collective healing and political transformation. Lili has worked with theatre companies across the country as a playwright, performer, dramaturg, curator, and community engagement producer. She has won multiple awards for her playwriting, including the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s John Palmer Award, which recognizes a new generation playwright dedicated to making art that agitates the status quo. As a poet, they have been featured at the Vancouver Writer’s Festival, the Queer Arts Festival, Brick Books’ Brickyard, and published in Room Magazine.

• Martin Gomes

  Martin Gomes

  Martin Gomes (he/they) is an Afro/Latino, queer writer & composer born & based in downtown Toronto. Their poetry has allowed them to work with organizations such as CBC, Sony, TOLive, DesignTO, The Meridian Arts Centre, Withrow Common Art Gallery, The Harbourfront Centre, and the TTC in partnership with Poems in Passage. As an artist facilitator, poetry has taken Martin all over the GTA as an Artist Facilitator with organizations like Thrive Youth, Unity Charity, VIBEArts, and JAYU. As a performer, he’s graced stages in Toronto like Bluma Appel Theatre, Soho House, and Nuit Blanche, as well as stages in Ottawa and Lisbon. With their art, he hopes to set an example of authenticity and empathy wherever possible in an attempt to spread messages of loving each other even through all the noise.