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CreativeMornings Ottawa, May 2021: Resilient

 How did you celebrate YOUR ninth birthday?

Maybe there was a pony ride, bouncy castle or even – eep! – a clown.

We can’t promise the CreativeMornings Ottawa ninth birthday celebration will include all (or really, any) of these things. But what we can promise you is a slew of birthday surprises and a theme that’s appropriate for a chapter that’s stuck around for nine years: Resilient.

That’s right – CreativeMornings Ottawa will mark its ninth birthday in May 2021. So shine up those dancing shoes and prepare that confetti gun because we’ll all be coming together to celebrate (virtually) on May 28, 2021.

To mark the occasion, we’ll welcome Nigerian-Canadian visual artist Kosisochukwu Nnebe to the virtual stage so she can share her exploration of the concept of resiliency.

But that’s not all.

To mark the birthday occasion, the CreativeMornings team has planned nine special birthday surprises. Three of these surprises – a highlight of those contributing creative work under the #OttawaIsCreative hashtag, a special meditation session with registered social worker Jessica Lemieux, a special colouring contest and a Dominion City Brewing Co. sampling pack giveaway – have already been announced.

What’s next? You’ll need to stay tuned to the CreativeMornings Ottawa Instagram feed to see!

CreativeMornings Ottawa has its own relationship with the theme of resiliency, having stuck around Ottawa for so long after kicking off in 2012.

“To be resilient is to be adaptable. It’s a way of being that’s flexible and alive, bouncing with the stuff of survival: learning, evolving and intertwining our roots to share resources and to create a strong anchor of collective care. Like trees in a storm, it means swaying instead of snapping.”

So reads this month’s theme note from CreativeMornings HQ.

But it could just as easily apply to this month’s speaker, Kosisochukwu Nnebe.

Interrogating the common trope of resiliency so often associated with the resistance, success, or mere survival of marginalized groups against all odds, Kosisochukwu will unpack her own relationship with the word, from her recovery from burnout to the ways in which she has seen the term be used to not only hide but also perpetuate structural and systemic inequities. Drawing on her work as both a visual artist and a policy analyst, she will explore alternative readings of what it means to be resilient, including, potentially, moving towards a focus on that which is regenerative instead. 

An economist by training and a policy analyst by profession, Kosisochukwu’s art practice aims to engage viewers on issues both personal and structural in ways that bring awareness to their own complicity. Through her interactive and installation-based pieces, audiences are made hyperaware of their positionality within the physical space of a room, as in society, and how this shapes what is seen and unseen, what is understood and what remains undecipherable. 

Kosisochukwu’s work has been exhibited at AXENEO7, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Place des Arts, the Art Gallery of Guelph, the Nia Centre, Studio Sixty Six, Z-Art Space, Station 16, and the Mohr Gallery in Mountain View, California. She has given presentations on her artistic practice and research at universities across Quebec, including Laval, McGill and Concordia, and has facilitated workshops at the National Gallery of Canada, the Ottawa Art Gallery, and Redwood City High School in California.

Registration is open!

CreativeMornings Ottawa, April 2021: Procrastinate, with Dr. Tim Pychyl

Hands up: Who wants to procrastinate less?

We thought so. And for those who didn’t raise their hands, well – we know you were just putting it off.

Dr. Tim Pychyl has spent a career studying why people choose to put things off rather than get them done now.

But the conclusions he’s arrived at in explaining why we procrastinate are somewhat surprising. Turns out, the reasons we put things off is not because we collectively have a time management problem.

In the April 2021 talk for CreativeMornings Ottawa, taking place virtually on April 30 at 8:30 a.m., Dr. Tim Pychyl draws on decades of research to explain why we procrastinate and what we can do if we’d like to procrastinate less.

Tim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University. He has garnered an international reputation for his research on the breakdown in volitional action commonly called procrastination.

In addition to his scholarly publications as well as books such as Solving the Procrastination Puzzle and Procrastination and Health and Well-Being (co-authored and edited with Fuschia Sirois), Tim has produced the iProcrastinate podcast and the Don’t Delay blog for Psychology Today.

April’s event is the Ottawa variation on the global CreativeMornings theme, which is examining the ways that procrastination works in our lives – as creatives and as human beings.
The things that we perpetually push to tomorrow’s to-do list can become a mental weight. Even though we know the welcome relief that will wash over us when that thing we’re avoiding is complete, still, we delay, just a little while longer.

Procrastination can be a sort of art form: the art of deferred action. It’s a technique that’s got a bad reputation, one often tinged with shame. But it can also be a way to claim the ways you wish to spend your time. It harbors creative possibilities, too.

In that game of waiting-waiting-waiting until it’s almost too late but not quite, a coiled spring of potential energy hides, ready to leap into action at a moment’s notice. Narrowing a timeline can be a fruitful creative constraint, an exercise in trusting the unknown. When a window of opportunity shrinks, improvisation and spontaneity might unfurl like a flower in a time-lapse video blooming at super speed, a confetti cannon of petals bursting in full color.

Registration for April’s event opens on Friday, April 23 at 11 a.m.

CreativeMornings Ottawa is excited to partner with CBC Ottawa and the National Arts Centre for a keynote talk and panel discussion on how transformative change can extend from the ripple of simple, small actions.

The event, taking place virtually on March 26, 2021 at 11:30 a.m., celebrates the CreativeMornings for the month: ripple.

The event will feature a keynote talk from Wendy Knight Agard, who will share insight into the less obvious ways we can have a profound ripple effect and understand the dance between intellect, emotions and igniting our personal power.

Then CBC Ottawa’s Robyn Bresnahan will lead a conversation with four women who are raising their voices as leaders in business, community and activism.

Guests Pearly Pouponneau, Veronica Roy, Sisi Akhigbe and Jace Meyer will share with us how they are each harnessing the power of their own ripple effect to shape a new way forward and create actionable solutions to drive meaningful progress for the next generation.

The event will also feature a musical performance from Angelique Francis, who is known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including Blues, Soul, Folk, Jazz, Gospel and Rock.

(See below for more information on our speakers).

This event is part of CBC Ottawa’s In Her Words series that was launched on International Women’s Day 2021.

Why ripple?

Because everything you do has the power to create its own ripple effect. Like an object breaking the water’s surface, our actions can cause a series of ever-expanding waves of impact stretching far beyond our individual reach.

Whether we theorize it with dominos, snowballs, or butterflies – it’s about momentum, and as momentum builds, even the smallest actions can end up having a profound impact.

One voice can inspire a movement, a single act of kindness can save a life. No matter how minuscule it may seem in the moment, what you do matters.

This month, we invite you to pay attention to your personal ripple effect. To examine how your impact expands beyond your inner circle and find ways to pay positivity forward. If you’re feeling brave, this month can be a time to explore the depths of your world. Dare to plunge below the surface and invite deeper connection in.

Looking to register for this event?

Free registration opened on Friday, March 19 at 11 a.m. Click here to get your free tickets!

Keynote speaker: Wendy Knight Agard

Wendy Knight Agard is an Everyday Genius and Doctor of Heilkunst Medicine who enjoys helping others develop as leaders from the inside out.

Panel moderator: Robyn Bresnahan

Robyn Bresnahan is the host of Ottawa’s most-listened to radio program, Ottawa Morning on CBC Radio One 91.5FM.

Panelist: Veronica Roy

Executive Director at House of PainT, festival coordinator at the Digi60 Filmmaker’s Festival, burlesque performer and storyteller, non-binary woman.

Panelist: Pearly Pouponneau

Pearly is host of the incredibly tenacious “The Diatribe Podcast”, a space carefully crafted by Pearly that is full of raw, unfiltered conversations. Pearly is also the founder of community resource “Colours of Mama”, a safe, inclusive space for BIPOC parents to connect and find local resources.

Panelist: Jace Meyer

Jace Meyer is a Métis mother, social entrepreneurship educator, speaker coach, and artist currently living on the territory of the Lekwungen speaking peoples.

Panelist: Sisi Akhigbe

Sisi Akhigbe is a passionate, young black woman, and the founder of Impact Black Global, a non-profit organization that works to connect Black youth to resources and support.

Performer: Angelique Francis

Angelique Francis is a versatile and exceptionally gifted musician with talent that is way beyond her years.

Creative Mornings Ottawa, February 2021: Divergent with Sarah Gelbard

Anarchist. Punk rocker. Architect?

If our February 2021 speaker has anything to say about it, some day all three of these subjects will be some day be analogous.

Sarah Gelbard is part anarchitect, part punk planner, and a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Planning at McGill University. Her research looks at community placemaking and place-based storytelling. 

She studies conflicts between mainstream planning and the marginalized alternative urban groups who diverge from the normative public interests that shape city plans.

To speak to the global CreativeMornings theme of “Divergent,” Sarah will deliver a talk called “Divergent City” on February 26, 2021. It will examine how elite architects, inaccessible technocrats and profit-driven planning has . the cosmopolitan ideal of cities “bringing people together” is more myth than reality 

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She’ll instead present a different vision for how we build (and build up) cities, one in which design is democratized, “punk bathrooms” and “impromptu playgrounds” are ever-present and cities are built for people – not cars.

Oh yeah, and one in which capitalism is destroyed.

More than anything, Sarah will present a vision for the future in which people are at the centre of how we build, create and connect.

Sarah is known for her Brutalist architecture walking tours, is the Ottawa editor of Spacing Magazine, and a former regular contributor to Centretown Buzz. Sarah is also the lead singer, songwriter, and bass player in local Ottawa punk band Bad Missionary.

Get to know Sarah better by checking out her content on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Get your free tickets here!

CreativeMornings Ottawa, January 2021: Biophilia with Alexis Williams

The environments we live in are dotted with connections to nature. Even a tiny one-bedroom apartment in the most urban of downtowns can teem with life, from a plant growing in the corner to the mold sprouting inside the refrigerator.

As creatives, there are a few important lessons here: That nature – like our creativity – can bud anywhere. That living things can always break through, regardless of the environment they live in. That communing with nature can help us break through the day-to-day monotony and find new approaches to old problems.

Coined in the 1960s by Erich Fromm, “biophilia” refers to a beautiful idea: Whether it’s a human, an animal, a plant, or in the wild, humans have an innate desire and instinct to want to connect with nature and other living systems.

To speak to the theme of biophilia we’re excited to welcome Alexis Williams to the CreativeMornings Ottawa stage.

Alexis is an artist, writer, amateur mycologist and director of the Ayatana Artists’ Research Program.

To demonstrate this month’s theme biophilia, Alexis will be presenting work by contemporary artists made in affiliation with living non-human organisms and opportunities for you to connect with ambient wildlife.

The virtual event will take place on Friday, January 29, 2021 starting at 8:20 a.m. It will also feature a musical performance from Aspects.

The January event kicks off our 2021 schedule and will feature a celebration of our amazing CreativeMornings Ottawa community for sticking with us through the first year of virtual events.

We’re looking forward to continuing to be creative together in 2021 as we wait for a time when we can return to in-person meetups!

Every day, we have the opportunity to grow into relentless stewards and protectors of our living environments, and not just lovers and beneficiaries of it all.

Together, we exist.

Free tickets to January’s event will be available on Friday, January 22 right here! 

CreativeMornings Ottawa November 2020: Radical, with Waubgeshig Rice

Any number of words can spring to mind when you hear the word radical.

Radical politics. Radical thinking. Radical candor.

What you don’t hear very often, though? Radical creativity.

But that’s what the speaker for CreativeMornings Ottawa’s November 2020 event embodies – a radical way of thinking about how we combine ideas, disciplines and cultures.

Waubgeshig Rice is a journalist and novelist from Wasauksing First Nation on Georgian Bay. He has written three fiction titles, and his short stories and essays have been published in numerous anthologies.

In his talk for CreativeMornings Waubgeshig will discuss an idea that, for 2020, seems pretty radical: How to quiet your mind and think about a few areas you’re willing to shake things up.

In the process, he’ll also introduce a few more phrases into our vocabulary – like radically kind, radically welcoming and radically profound.

Waubgeshig will pull a few key themes from his most recent novel to illustrate his talk. Moon of the Crusted Snow, a post-apocalyptic novel about a small northern Anishinaabe community.

Waubgeshig graduated from Ryerson University’s journalism program in 2002, and spent most of his journalism career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a video journalist, web writer, producer, and radio host. He left CBC in 2020 to focus on his literary career. He lives in Sudbury, Ontario with his wife and two sons.

The event takes place November 20, 2020 starting at 8:30 a.m.

Tickets for the virtual event are available here on Friday, November 13, 2020.

CreativeMornings Ottawa September 2020: Spectrum, with Tara Connolly and Christine Jenkins

Creativity is all about facing down the unknown – surveying the jumble of experiences we experience on a daily basis for previously unexplored pathways to problem-solving, entertainment and enlightenment.

There is much to be learned, then, from embracing the full spectrum of ways to do, act and think. By examining (and championing) the diverse realities from which others view the world, we not only make ourselves more creative – we make the world a better place.

In September 2020 CreativeMornings Ottawa will use the lens of neurodiversity, including both neurodivergent and neurotypial thinkers, to look at the way the energy of creativity can be leveraged to increase accessibility, connection and capacity in our community.

Tara Connolly and Christine Jenkins, each of whom have personal experiences with neurodiverse thinking, will explore with the audience how neurodiverse people crack open unseen spaces to tackle creative challenges and see the previously unseen.

The talk is designed, in part, to be a challenge to neurotypical thinkers to push out of their comfort zones to embrace other ways of thinking. How can we examine the unwritten social rules that exist around us and to begin a creative engagement with neurodiverse friendly spaces and interactions?

Tara (she/her), M.A., RP, is a Transitions Specialist with over 20 years experience consulting on the use of inclusive practices to support accessibility in a variety of settings. Currently an Assistant Director with the READ Initiative (Research Education Accessibility Design) at Carleton University, Tara is involved with a number of projects that seek to improve accessibility in workplace settings.

Christine (she/her) is a very late-diagnosed autistic woman from Ottawa. She has written extensively and presented often in the decade since her assessment at age 48.

The event will take place online on Friday, September 25, 2020 with tickets going on sale here on September 18 at 11 a.m.

The Ottawa talk is part of a global CreativeMornings series on the theme of “spectrum”.

“As individuals committed to artfully living, we can paint refreshing possibilities that are not just for ourselves but also for others,” reads the September 2020 theme note from CreativeMornings.

“Assemble your tools: Listen, look within, embrace the weird, and take the prism and flip it on its head — you’ll likely find a breathtaking blend of opportunities to make a difference.”

August 2020: Nathan Hall on stress

Stress is a response. Something happens – a looming deadline, an unexpected setback, an argument with a friend – and we respond with stress.

Sometimes this response is good. We get the adrenaline we need to push through to achieve goals that we might previously thought impossible.

More often than not, though, this response is less than favourable. We lose sleep, start to eat worse and just generally feel a sense of dread with which most everyone associates with stress.

But within that gap – between stimulus and response – there is considerable opportunity to create.

The August 2020 CreativeMornings Ottawa event will feature a talk from someone who is no stranger to the world of stress and creativity.

Nathan Hall is the CEO of Simple Story, an award-winning, video marketing agency. In his role, he works with many brands and corporations of all sizes from around the world - helping them realize the power that video and storytelling has on their business.

On August 28, he will explore this month’s global CreativeMornings theme of stress and discuss the role stress plays in creativity as well as oppression and racism in the business and creative worlds in Canada.

This month, we’re also excited to welcome a performance from Ottawa singer-songwriter Nambi (formerly known as Rita Carter).

Tenacious, and achingly pure, Nambi is a powerhouse of acoustic soul. A beloved fixture in her hometown of Ottawa, she balances her music career leading workshops, organizing community events and being a mom to two young boys. At the heart of Nambi’s music lies an inextinguishable belief in compassion, and a tireless quest for peace.

As has been the case for the past several months, August’s event will be hosted online.

To register, click here! Tickets will be available starting on August 21 at 11 a.m.

CreativeMornings Ottawa, July 2020: Underdog with Sheena Brady of Tease Tea

Who doesn’t love a good underdog story? The times when we’ve felt down and out, running against the tides and generally had the odds stacked against us.

This month, CreativeMornings will be celebrating the long shots, dark horses and the sleepers with our focus on this month’s theme, underdog.

To mark the occasion, CreativeMornings Ottawa will be welcoming Sheena Brady for a virtual session on July 24, 2020 to explore her experience as an underdog.

Sheena is the founder and CEO of Tease Tea, an all-natural and sustainably sourced loose-leaf tea company based in Ottawa (and a CreativeMornings partner).

“Growing up in a single parent household, if you translated my family history into data points, statistically I should have never gone to college or even graduated high school (fun fact: I did grade 9 math three times),” says Sheena. “However, I not only became the first to do both, I carried an audacity and decided to live by ‘why not me?’ ever since.”

After becoming a certified Tea Sommelier, Sheena fell in love with tea and decided to launch her own tea company. Tease Tea started in 2013 as a side hustle and creative outlet from her demanding career in hospitality.

After realizing a career in hospitality would prevent her from building a successful e-commerce business, Sheena decided to work for Canada’s own e-commerce software, Shopify. From there, she blended teas out of her home while working full-time.

Today, she still works at Shopify in leadership. As a Merchant Success Lead for Shopify Plus. At the same time, she has grown her side hustle into a million-dollar award-winning company that serves customers in over 30 countries around the world.

“I’ve developed a deeply rooted passion for supporting and investing in women from diverse and intersectional backgrounds,” says Sheena. “I want to help you realize your potential. To be audacious. Because, why not you?”

Combining her passion for tea with her desire to empower women and young girls around the world, a portion of the proceeds of every purchase supports programs that are dedicated to empowering women and young girls. From shelters to startups, Tease Tea has contributed over $150,000 in product and financial support to date including what was at first a small program that has since grown into a company of its own, The Founders Fund.

Sheena’s success is the embodiment of the notion of the underdog set out in this month’s CreativeMornings Global theme note.

“When others expect them to lose, underdogs must lean on their self-trust and hard won experiences to envision and fiercely assert new realities,” the note says. “They do not dwell on what’s expected of them, but instead focus on what’s not expected of them.”

You can register for this month’s event on July 17 right here.

Over 8 years, CreativeMornings Ottawa has grown significantly and this is because of you—our community.

We have grown through feedback – we know you want CreativeMornings Ottawa to be a platform for diverse voices. We want that too. That’s why we’ve decided to shift our programming for this month to help amplify some of these voices.

We consciously try to ensure that those who take our stage reflect the many unique perspectives and backgrounds that help creativity in Ottawa to thrive. Earlier this year, we made a commitment to supporting BIPOC creatives and speakers. We’ve been in the process of building broader partnerships and platforms so that we can be a part of a sustainable change. Yet there is more to be done.

Why didn’t we shift the conversation earlier? We wanted to continue to focus our efforts on building long-term solutions. We felt that the movement was greater than the moment and thought that it deserved a more thoughtful response than we could develop on short notice. However, it was brought to our attention that reactionary or not, the conversation needed to shift.

We acknowledge this is a small step. But we also want it to act as a promise: That together we will make CreativeMornings Ottawa into a truly creative, inclusive and welcoming space.

We know that there is a lot more to learn as we try to turn CreativeMornings Ottawa into a place that welcomes and amplifies our diversity of voices. Thank you for pushing us to be better.

Your friends,

Maxine, Marwan & the CM Ottawa Team