A founder of an arts centre for youth in the Greater Toronto Area got the shock of a lifetime after being gifted a JUNO award at this year’s event.
During the untelevised opening ceremony of the 52nd annual JUNO awards, Sanaaj Mirrie, founder and director of the Afiwi Groove Cultural Arts Centre was taken aback on stage as she was given an award by the original recipient, Kevin Drew.
Drew is the Canadian music producer and artist from the indie and baroque rock band Broken Social Scene. He was being honoured at the JUNOs for his long-time work with the MusiCounts musical education program, and their TD Community Music Program, but on Mar. 10, he flipped the script and paid tribute to a pillar in the Afro-Caribbean community.
The Afiwi Groove Cultural Arts Centre, established in 2013, was inspired by african drumming and dance that Mirrie credits for saving her life when she immigrated to Toronto from her birthplace, Jamaica, at 15 years old.
“When I came to Canada, I had a culture shock. I was living in the Jane and Finch community and dropped out of school and was introduced to African dancing and drumming,” she told Now Toronto on Wednesday.
The word “afiwi,” means community, unity, and connection. Three words that have fueled Mirrie’s mission and determination.
When her parents eventually left Jane and Finch for the Durham Region in the early 2000s, Mirrie was void of elements that made her feel at home and decided to embark on her journey of building a space for others yearning to connect to their roots.
She was a former member of Ngoma Dance and Drum Ensemble, and majored in Community Development at York University. She has also travelled to Ghana, Haiti, Trinidad and Tabago to learn about varying pan-African cultures and traditions, giving her valuable insight when she created her centre.
“Afiwi Groove uses dances and music of the African diaspora to empower and hire and educate our young people, especially our underserved and our higher needs young Black youth who really need instruments and music and art forms to help them with their identity.”
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This past Sunday, Mirrie was on stage with Drew to accept his MusiCounts Inspired Minds Ambassador Award, by the Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation, and to explain her efforts in creating a safe space for children and youth to learn music and dance from the African diaspora.
After thanking the program for awarding them the $25,000 grant last year to purchase more expensive African djembe drums that enabled more students to participate in the classes, Drew called Mirrie the true inspiration for the award, bestowing the honour on her and the Afiwi Groove not-for-profit school.
“I was shaking. Drew literally told me in like less than 24 hours that I was coming on stage with him to talk about the impact of your program and what the $25,000 to buy more African drums for our kids meant,” Mirrie said when discussing how quickly the moment came together.
“As a white man with privileged access, he’s like, ‘I want to really highlight the people who are doing the work. All I did was use my access to open up some doors’,” she continued.
Mirrie is thankful to Drew, as he acknowledged her journey building the cultural centre to where it is today. She’s been working in community development for over 10 years, while working a full-time job to fund the project on her own, unable to receive grants from the city and even has been kicked out of many spaces early on.
Mirrie wants the Canadian music and arts industry to acknowledge Black art as an essential element of its Afro-Caribbean residents’ well-being and livelihood.
“Just like how we value ballet and jazz and the Eurocentric art form, which is all great. But when it comes to the Black community, Black artists, Black instruments, Black cultural education, my drive is to put value on it and to have Canadians not just see it as something recreational or for fun,” she said.
“I want to be able to create a school where everybody, Black, white, wherever you’re from, can come and learn our art form, learn its history and learn how it’s connected to our people. I feel like that’s where change will come in the ways we view each other.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)