Joan Crate was born in the Northwest Territories at Soo`mbak'è on Chief Drygeese territory, traditional land of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. After finding homes in various places, she now lives in Calgary - Mohkinstsis - and the rural Okanagan on the unceded territory of sqilx?/syilx (Okanagan) peoples. She writes both poetry and fiction and has won several writing awards over the years, including the W.
O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Award for Black Apple, which was also shortlisted for the Frank Hegyi Award. The band U2, of whom she's a big fan, featured her poem "I am a Prophet" on screen in their last Canadian tour. She lost her partner of almost four decades at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, she has had work appear in five anthologies and on CBC Radio. She continues to explore writing in all its forms, visual art and is even dabbling in acting. Cheryl Foggo is a multiple award-winning playwright, author and filmmaker, whose work over the last thirty years has focused on the lives of Western Canadians of African descent.
Recent works include the release of her NFB feature documentary John Ware Reclaimed, available on nfb.ca, as well as the thirtieth anniversary edition of her book Pourin' Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West. Her plays Heaven and John Ware Reclaimed have received multiple productions, including at The Citadel in Edmonton, Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary, at the Blyth Theatre Festival and in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre.
Cheryl is the recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Outstanding Artist Award, the Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award and the Arts, Media and Entertainment Award from the Calgary Black Chambers, all in 2021. She is a 2022 inductee into the Alberta Order of Excellence. Tchitala Nyota Kamba is a Calgary-based writer, actor, poet, drummer and educator, as well as the founder of Miabiwood Film Production (MFP) Ltd.
(formerly Apapi Film & Theatre). Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she has a PhD in French Studies from the Université de Montréal and has published poetry collections, written for the theatre, most recently for the 2021 Ethnik Festival for the Arts, and acted in and directed performances for Calgary's Alliance Française, among others. Her next book, Kayowa wa Bayombo, will be published by France's Éditions Amalthée in 2023.
O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Award for Black Apple, which was also shortlisted for the Frank Hegyi Award. The band U2, of whom she's a big fan, featured her poem "I am a Prophet" on screen in their last Canadian tour. She lost her partner of almost four decades at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, she has had work appear in five anthologies and on CBC Radio. She continues to explore writing in all its forms, visual art and is even dabbling in acting. Cheryl Foggo is a multiple award-winning playwright, author and filmmaker, whose work over the last thirty years has focused on the lives of Western Canadians of African descent.
Recent works include the release of her NFB feature documentary John Ware Reclaimed, available on nfb.ca, as well as the thirtieth anniversary edition of her book Pourin' Down Rain: A Black Woman Claims Her Place in the Canadian West. Her plays Heaven and John Ware Reclaimed have received multiple productions, including at The Citadel in Edmonton, Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary, at the Blyth Theatre Festival and in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre.
Cheryl is the recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Outstanding Artist Award, the Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award and the Arts, Media and Entertainment Award from the Calgary Black Chambers, all in 2021. She is a 2022 inductee into the Alberta Order of Excellence. Tchitala Nyota Kamba is a Calgary-based writer, actor, poet, drummer and educator, as well as the founder of Miabiwood Film Production (MFP) Ltd.
(formerly Apapi Film & Theatre). Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she has a PhD in French Studies from the Université de Montréal and has published poetry collections, written for the theatre, most recently for the 2021 Ethnik Festival for the Arts, and acted in and directed performances for Calgary's Alliance Française, among others. Her next book, Kayowa wa Bayombo, will be published by France's Éditions Amalthée in 2023.
