Artivationally Speaking
By Miriam Maayan
As a beautiful link between Black History
Month, International Women's week and the week against racism,
Anne-Marie Woods came to Vanier College to share her point of
view about diversity in Canadian society.
On March 10, at Universal Break, in
front of a full auditorium, she gave her show "Artivationally
Speaking". Singing, acting and story telling, she used Arts
media to pass on her message. "The Arts give me the motivation,"
she says, and that is why she speaks Artivationally.
Woods was born in London, England, spent
several years in Trinidad, and then came to Canada.
As an immigrant with a different culture
and skin color, she had to face discrimination. She chose to
defend herself, fighting aggressively with the other kids. Later,
she dropped out of high- School, but found herself in theatre
school where she learned to express her rage in words, shows
and dance.
She works with many school boards, performing
in front of all age groups, raising many issues of cultural diversities.
On stage she feels comfortable. She
sings rap to her own poems, she acts as a TV show hostess, interviewing
mother and her teen-age daughter who look for easy solutions
for heavy problems like self esteem and racism.
Woods communicates easily and gives
the audience a place to express themselves.
Latifa, a Vanier student, shared her
experience as a Muslim woman and an immigrant.
For Woods, it is important to share
those kinds of experiences.
"As a multi- cultural society,
we need to be open to the diversity of cultures", she says.
"It is important to identify with your own culture, but
know of others'".
She sets the example for us to be open
to differences. Her goal is to have an impact on the audience
and if at least one person will open- up to those issues, she
reaches her goal.
Woods created an open atmosphere as
she shared her own experience in life with us. She presented
herself with qualities and defaults.
For the closing song, she chose a new
song that she just wrote, and had never performed before. She
missed the tune and started all over again. That demands courage
from a performer. She has it. That is the quality that enables
her to perform in front of such diverse audiences and to create
the open communication with them. |
