Song and Story: An evening with Tomson Highway

Presented in partnership with the Canadian Council of Muslim Women - Ottawa chapter<br> Hosted by CBC’s Adrian Harewood

In Person Poetry Fiction History Music

Thursday

Nov , 2017

7:30pm

Eastern

Centretown United Church

507 Bank St. • Ottawa

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Song and Story: An evening with Tomson Highway

Tomson Highway's prose is beautiful, lyrical... Emotionally complex, witty, symphonic and sad.

The Vancouver Sun

Join us for an unforgettable evening of song and story with playwright, novelist, and pianist/songwriter Tomson Highway, winner of the National Aboriginal Achievement Award and Member of the Order of Canada.

Tomson's musical performance with Patricia Cano will be followed by a conversation with CBC’s Adrian Harewood.

He speaks fluent Cree (his mother tongue), French, and English, though his Spanish is fast catching up. As well, having been trained by extraordinary teachers as a classical musician, he plays the piano "fluently." In fact, he enjoys, as often as he can, combining his many lectures and readings around the world with performances at the piano with songs that he himself has written–both music and lyrics. Many of these songs, in fact, are written with Cree lyrics -- Cree jazz? Cree cabaret? Cree Kurt Weill?

Tomson’s latest publication, From Oral to Written, is a study of Native literature published in Canada between 1980 and 2010, a catalogue of amazing books that sparked the embers of a dormant voice. In the early 1980s, that voice rose up to overcome the major obstacle Native people have as writers: they are not able to write in their own Native languages, but have to write in the languages of the colonizer, languages that simply cannot capture the magic of Native mythology, the wild insanity of Trickster thinking.

From Oral to Written is the story of the Native literary tradition, written - in multiple Aboriginal languages, in French, and in English - by a brave, committed, hard-working, and inspired community of exceptional individuals - from the Haida Nation on Haida Gwaii to the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island.

This special evening is presented in partnership with the Canadian Council of Muslim Women - Ottawa chapter as part of its long-running Books and Biryani salons. This annual series celebrates great literature and provocative ideas. This latest installment is the third in a theme of reconciliation which seeks to build stronger connections between cultural communities and a greater understanding of First Nations culture and history.

The Authors

Patricia Cano

Patricia Cano was born and raised in a Spanish speaking Peruvian household in Sudbury, ON. Upon graduating from U of T in Theatre and Spanish Literature, Patricia spent four years working in Paris, France with the world-renowned theatre company le Théâtre du Soleil. In 2009, she launched her music career here at home with her debut album THIS IS THE NEW WORLD, composed in collaboration - and in four languages - with her Brazilian musical partner, Carlos Bernardo. Since that time, Patricia's band has toured extensively in Ontario, Quebec, and parts of Western Canada, playing multiple jazz and folk festivals, as well as music venues, along the way. An exceptional musical influence in Patricia's artistic career is Tomson Highway, Canada's premiere Cree playwright, novelist and composer. Since 2001, Patricia has toured the world alongside Highway, performing Cree Cabaret, featuring songs in English, French, Spanish and Cree. In 2013 Patricia's voice was featured on Highway’s first studio album, PATRICIA CANO SINGS SONGS FROM THE (POST) MISTRESS, which was nominated for a 2015 JUNO award in the Aboriginal Album of the Year category. In January 2017, Patricia reprised her role in a Vancouver production of Highway's one-woman musical THE (POST) MISTRESS (Arts Club), and in the fall of 2016, she performed the role in a Toronto (TFT/Pleiades) production - in both French and English - for which she won the 2017 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She is a featured guest vocalist on Toronto multi-instrumentalist Louis Simão's album A LUZ - released in November 2016, and her songs have been featured on TVO's medical drama HARD ROCK MEDICAL. Patricia will be releasing her sophomore album MADRE AMIGA HERMANA on October 4th, 2017.

Tomson Highway

Tomson Highway was born in a snow bank on the Manitoba/Nunavut border to a family of nomadic caribou hunters. He had the great privilege of growing up in two languages, neither of which was French or English; they were Cree, his mother tongue, and Dene, the language of the neighbouring "nation," a people with whom they roamed and hunted.Today, he enjoys an international career as playwright, novelist, and pianist/songwriter. His best known works are the plays, "THE REZ SISTERS," "DRY LIPS OUGHTA MOVE TO KAPUSKASING," "ROSE," "ERNESTINE SHUSWAP GETS HER TROUT," and the best-selling novel, "KISS OF THE FUR QUEEN." For many years, he ran Canada's premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts (based in Toronto), out of which has emerged an entire generation of professional Native playwrights, actors and, more indirectly, the many other Native theatre companies that now dot the country.In 2013, he published his most recent play, "The (Post) Mistress; a One-Woman Musical" and released the accompanying Juno-nominated album, "Patricia Cano Sings Songs from 'The (Post) Mistress’.” As an accomplished jazz pianist, he recently played Koerner Hall and opened the 2017 Luminato Festival with his Cree Cabaret. He divides his time between his cottage in northern Ontario (near Sudbury, from whence comes his partner of 32 years) and Gatineau, Québec.