Feb 22, 2024
Louise Pitre on performing in The Inheritance
In conversation with Louise Pitre on returning to the Bluma stage, performing in The Inheritance, and more.
I was thrilled to sit down with Isorine Marc, the Founder, Artistic & Executive Director of our community partner, Jamii. We were joined by Jamii team members Maysam Abu Khreibeh and Ana Higuera to discuss the organization’s journey from its incidental start, flourishing through a pandemic, to its re-envisioning as it moves forward.
What began as a neighbourhood event in the courtyard of Isorine Marc’s co-op has blossomed into an arts organization that has created over 200 events and 400 workshops. After moving to Toronto’s Esplanade community in 2006, Isorine discovered that residents of the co-op needed to complete monthly volunteer hours. In fulfilling this requirement, she decided to apply her background in arts management and organize an arts festival. The event brought together the artistic talents of her neighbhours, who included a musician, a martial arts instructor, and an indigenous storyteller. Isorine witnessed an overnight transformation where the co-op residents went from individuals living next to each other to living together. The combination of the shared experience and the shared space fostered a sense of connection and belonging, as if an invisible thread was tying them together.
The organization quickly outgrew the courtyard, extending to include street theatre and movie nights in the park. In a partnership with CORPUS Dance Projects, the dance company began putting on local performances before going on tour. Since 2011, Jamii has worked with hundreds of artists and engaged over 1000 project participants and 30,000 viewers. Jamii organizes performances, projects, workshops, and exhibitions in a wide variety of disciplines, refusing to be restricted by certain forms of expression. With all of their programming, they seek to enhance social cohesion through the arts.
In selecting a name for the growing organization, Isorine asked her Kenyan partner for the Swahili translation of “community.” Isorine, who grew up in France, wanted to avoid using either of Canada’s two official languages in order to transcend the country’s boundaries. Just as Swahili has been influenced by various tongues - including Arabic, German and Hindi - due to its role in trade, the name Jamii reflects the diverse community of the Esplanade, where people from five continents all share a single street.
For 23-year-old Maysam Abu Khreibeh, Jamii’s former Youth Coordinator and its first-ever Enhancer, the organization has provided a sense of community and belonging. Maysam notes that home can be a difficult place for some of the individuals who grow up in the neighbourhood, many of whom face economic precarity. Jamii provides the young residents with access to the arts by offering theatre performances and workshops among other opportunities. It also creates a comfortable space for youth to produce art and express themselves. As a spoken word performer, Maysam states that Jamii “gave me the mic and the opportunity to share with my own community.” Maysam has seen Jamii’s support extend to both the artists and the audience members. “There’s care for the people who come out,” Maysam says, adding that the personal and professional relationships built through Jamii are the key to why people come back.
As Jamii continued to grow, adding a workshop on inner beauty and a children’s festival to their expansive list of programs, the Covid-19 pandemic brought on new challenges. In 2021, Jamii sought to provide an outlet for musicians and artists impacted by the lockdown. As part of the season-long theme "How do we mix?", Jamii asked: How do we celebrate intercultural mixing? How can we bring our cultures together while retaining our cultural traditions, sense of identity and uniqueness? In exploring these questions, Jamii created a series of 10 filmed performances entitled “DUETS.” For each performance, a musician and a dancer working in different genres were paired together. They were then given four hours in which to create a three to five-minute performance. The collaborations were filmed in a single shot by Ana Higuera, who had to enmesh herself in the choreography of the work to seamlessly capture it. Small audiences came out to watch the outdoor production of DUETS, bringing people together during such an isolating time.
While weathering the pandemic by finding new ways of creating, Jamii began to ask what its legacy should be. The answer lies beyond the organization itself; in nourishing the next generation that can continue the work. This starts with instilling leadership skills to create new creativity leaders. While filming DUETS, Ana discovered a love of videography and credits Jamii with her self-discovery. After organizing an outdoor festival, Maysam acquired the flexibility required to work with various competing schedules. Maysam notes that the skills she has learned through Jamii she now applies to every facet of her life. Whether or not participants continue with the organization, Jamii provides a foundation that people can carry with them. With the assistance of the Metcalf Foundation, Jamii is now exploring a new structural model that shares leadership through a non-hierarchical approach. They have moved from task-based jobs to mission-based positions, replacing titles such as Project Coordinator with Enhancer, Connector, and Amplifier.
This structural re-envisioning continues to centre community at its heart. Unlike a formalized program that has a discrete ending, those who partake in Jamii can always return to continue their growth. Isorine notes that people are attached to places, such as recreational centres and theatres. By being community-based, Jamii continues to be a home for people to progress in their journey.
From the beginning, Jamii has sought to invite in whoever they can connect with. But with time, they have become more intentional about creating programming that addresses gaps. While the organization has always had a multi-generational approach, they have become clearer in their intent to engage senior participants after witnessing the effects of the pandemic on older adults. In 2022, Jamii has been offering a series of movement workshops to help seniors improve mobility and memory. This will continue in the spring in an outdoor program called ApHeart, in partnership with the MOonhORse Dance Theatre. In April 2022, Jamii will also unveil “Seeing Evergreen”, a photo exhibition that features the stories of older adults in the community. Stay tuned to the CS Grid for a feature article on the exhibit.
Jamii also aims to nurture young women in leadership, including cis women and trans women, and to create a safe space for people to explore their identity across the gender spectrum. Isorine notes that the focus on young women and girls began organically as they were the ones in the community who the organizers of Jamii related to as women themselves. Since its inception, Jamii has seen its youth develop as they engage in various projects and take on new responsibilities. After witnessing the impact of their journeys in the long-term, this goal to nurture has become more defined. Isorine acknowledges that everyone requires support and care but believes Jamii can make a more meaningful impact by focusing their resources where they can make a difference.
Just as Jamii seeks to nurture the younger generations, they are in turn supported by their relationship with us here at Canadian Stage. Jamii is entering into the third year of this partnership, one Isorine describes as “unique and pioneering.” Our Artistic Director, Brendan Healy, first connected with Jamii after observing the organization’s outdoor events and level of community engagement. According to Maysam, Canadian Stage recognized that to bring audiences into the theatre, you have to meet people where they’re at. In this case, that meeting space happened to be David Crombie Park, around the corner from Canadian Stage’s theatre on Berkeley St. In addition to sharing a neighbourhood, our two organizations share the intention to care for community and to offer memorable experiences. As an established institution, Canadian Stage has provided its support to Jamii’s programs by providing physical space, storage, and financial support. As Isorine puts it, “They give us the funding and tell us to do our magic. And if we fall, they’ll catch us.”
As an organization with such deep ties to the neighbhourhood, Isorine doesn’t see Jamii’s role as building community. “The community is already here,” she notes. Instead, Jamii is focused on creating memories. Whether it’s transforming public spaces, acting as an arts incubator, or bringing people together, each of Jamii’s programs has the shared goal of producing lasting experiences that people can carry with them wherever they go and whoever they become.
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